Update: President-elect Donald Trump has put out a Truth Social post on his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Trump-Vance transition team also sent out an email including the post.
Not only did Trump laud the meeting as a "very productive" one, he also pointed to how Trudeau appears to be falling in line. "I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship! Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families," the Truth Social post went on to read.
There was also a preview for how else the United States and Canada may be working together, and before Trump even takes office on January 20. "We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before," his post concluded.
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) November 30, 2024
Original: Earlier this week, as we covered at the time, President-elect Donald announced tariffs on Canada and Mexico, citing concerns with fentanyl and "Open Borders." Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum were quick to scramble to address such matters, with Trudeau stressing to reporters on Tuesday morning that he had had "a good call" with Trump. Just days after that, on Friday, it was revealed that Trudeau traveled to Mar-a-Lago.
🚨 #BREAKING: Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has just arrived at Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with President Trump
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) November 29, 2024
Trump isn’t even in office yet, and world leaders are ALREADY lining up to kiss the ring 🤣
AMERICA IS BACK BABY! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/a54ExBesdv
As Fox News reported on Friday night:
A person familiar with the matter said Trudeau will have dinner with Trump. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc accompanied Trudeau on the trip. Trudeau is the first G-7 leader to visit Trump since the U.S. election.
A report from The New York Times had similar information:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Friday night landed in Florida to see President-elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, two officials with direct knowledge of the visit said, after a threat by Mr. Trump to impose across-the-board tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on Day 1.
The visit makes Mr. Trudeau the first head of government from the Group of 7, a key forum of global coordination consisting of the world’s wealthiest democracies, to visit the president-elect.
One official said that Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Trump would dine together Friday evening, and that Mr. Trudeau was expected to stay in the area overnight, but not at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and home in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mr. Trudeau was accompanied on his visit by Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister of public safety.
...
Mr. Trudeau has tried to project calm and confidence, saying that he believed that Mr. Trump would see that tariffs would harm both countries, which are each other’s biggest trading partners. About 80 percent of Canada’s oil and 40 percent of its gas are exported to the United States, and the two countries are deeply intertwined through the joint manufacturing of cars, as well as in multiple other industries.
The Mar-a-Lago visit on Friday, which was initially reported by The Globe and Mail newspaper on the basis of tracking Mr. Trudeau’s plane, is intended as a direct effort by Mr. Trudeau to show that he has a plan to address Mr. Trump’s border concerns, and that tariffs should be avoided for the sake of both nations’ economies.
...
Mr. Trudeau is facing considerable pressure over how to handle this difficult moment. The imposition of tariffs on Canada would throw the country into recession, economists believe, as doing business with the United States is the lifeblood of the economies of several Canadian provinces.
But Mr. Trudeau is in a precarious political moment, too, after nine years in power. He faces elections in the coming months, and polls show his party, the Liberal Party, is set to lose badly to the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre.
The Fox News report also mentioned how Canada claims to be taking their border security concerns seriously. "Shortly after Trump's tariff promises, Canadian officials said the country places the 'highest priority' on border security," it read.
Canada, a particularly liberal country, has had rather lax immigration laws. As Madeline reported early last week, Trudeau finally admitted in a video message posted in English and French that his country made a mistake, and will be doing something "major" by "reducing the numbers of immigrants that will come to Canada for the next three years."
Trump has spoken about tariffs at length, and it looks like he's back on his way to making sure that America is feared and respected once again, before he's even officially taken office. The tariffs Trump announced earlier this week are set for day one of his administration, on January 20.
Even if Trudeau does hold on for the next election, and it's doubtful that he will, as even The New York Times admits, it looks quite hopeful that Trump will have the right kind of relationship with our neighbor to the north.
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