What Trudeau told Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Posted on 12/01/2024
When Justin Trudeau was challenged on Friday morning to explain how he planned to deal with Donald Trump, Canada’s prime minister made no mention of his dinner plans that evening. But he may have hinted at it.
“Ultimately, it is through lots of constructive, real conversations with President Trump that I’m going to have that will keep us moving forward,” he told reporters during an unrelated media event on Prince Edward Island.
Trudeau touched down in Florida later that day and made his way to Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club for a dinner meeting with the president-elect. It was an unexpected end to a week that started with a Truth Social salvo — “a 25% Tariff on ALL products” from Canada and Mexico, Trump announced, just as soon as he gets back to the White House.
Between Monday’s meltdown and a serving of meatloaf at Mar-a-Lago, the pending tariffs were the focus of emergency debate in Ottawa, a special Cabinet meeting, an evening teleconference between Trudeau and his provincial counterparts and a presser at which Ontario Premier Doug Ford likened the threat to “a family member stabbing you in the heart.”
Trudeau’s team offered little officially about the almost three-hour bilat. “The Prime Minister and U.S. President Donald Trump shared a productive wide-ranging discussion over dinner last night, centered on collaboration and strengthening our relationship,” they reported in a statement on Saturday.
Privately, a senior government official described the encounter as “very friendly, very positive” and noted that — along with trade and border security — pipelines, defense spending and the G7 came up.
The president-elect was more forthcoming about the “very productive meeting” and noted it included talk of energy, trade and the Arctic.
“We discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Too much death and hardship!” he added. “Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families.”
As of Nov. 6, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 19.5 kilograms of fentanyl at its northern border in 2024. The U.S. goods trade deficit with Canada is expected to total about $55 billion in 2024, from about $78 billion in 2022.
“There’s no question President-elect Donald Trump plans to slap Canada with 25 percent tariffs,” the prime minister said on Friday morning. “When he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out.”
Trudeau and his team are eager to demonstrate to Canadians that they are best equipped to handle Trump 2.0. Their three-term minority Liberal government is way down in the polls and an election is expected in the fall of 2025 — if not before.
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is more than 20 points ahead. He’s been repeating for years that “Canada is broken” and recently started to tout “Canada first.”
Trump’s border beefs inspired a Poilievre pile-on. “Justin Trudeau broke the border,” he said last week. “We didn’t have these problems before Justin Trudeau.”
During an emergency debate in parliament, Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman reprimanded the Liberals for lacking access to Trump.
“Has anybody on that side of the House, anybody in the Prime Minister’s Office or anybody anywhere else thought to continue the relationships with the president-elect’s team since 2020?” she asked. “Has anybody thought to build relationships with members of the U.S. House or the U.S. Senate, or with anybody of importance in Washington?”
Canada’s envoy to D.C., Kirsten Hillman, was part of the delegation at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. She has spent the past year traveling the U.S. to remind anyone who’d take a meeting that the U.S. needs Canada.
It’s a point Trudeau planned to make with Trump directly.
On Friday morning, the prime minister told reporters that in the face of Trump’s tariff threat, Canada was obliged to point out that “he would be actually not just harming Canadians who work so well with the United States. He [would] actually be raising prices for American citizens as well, and hurting American industry and businesses.”
The senior government official said dinner was only a starter.
“The trading relationship between Canada and the U.S. is one of the most important trading relationships in the world and it can’t get resolved in one dinner,” the person said Saturday. “Obviously there’s still more work to be done.”
“Ultimately, it is through lots of constructive, real conversations with President Trump that I’m going to have that will keep us moving forward,” he told reporters during an unrelated media event on Prince Edward Island.
Trudeau touched down in Florida later that day and made his way to Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club for a dinner meeting with the president-elect. It was an unexpected end to a week that started with a Truth Social salvo — “a 25% Tariff on ALL products” from Canada and Mexico, Trump announced, just as soon as he gets back to the White House.
Between Monday’s meltdown and a serving of meatloaf at Mar-a-Lago, the pending tariffs were the focus of emergency debate in Ottawa, a special Cabinet meeting, an evening teleconference between Trudeau and his provincial counterparts and a presser at which Ontario Premier Doug Ford likened the threat to “a family member stabbing you in the heart.”
Trudeau’s team offered little officially about the almost three-hour bilat. “The Prime Minister and U.S. President Donald Trump shared a productive wide-ranging discussion over dinner last night, centered on collaboration and strengthening our relationship,” they reported in a statement on Saturday.
Privately, a senior government official described the encounter as “very friendly, very positive” and noted that — along with trade and border security — pipelines, defense spending and the G7 came up.
The president-elect was more forthcoming about the “very productive meeting” and noted it included talk of energy, trade and the Arctic.
“We discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Too much death and hardship!” he added. “Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families.”
As of Nov. 6, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 19.5 kilograms of fentanyl at its northern border in 2024. The U.S. goods trade deficit with Canada is expected to total about $55 billion in 2024, from about $78 billion in 2022.
“There’s no question President-elect Donald Trump plans to slap Canada with 25 percent tariffs,” the prime minister said on Friday morning. “When he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out.”
Trudeau and his team are eager to demonstrate to Canadians that they are best equipped to handle Trump 2.0. Their three-term minority Liberal government is way down in the polls and an election is expected in the fall of 2025 — if not before.
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is more than 20 points ahead. He’s been repeating for years that “Canada is broken” and recently started to tout “Canada first.”
Trump’s border beefs inspired a Poilievre pile-on. “Justin Trudeau broke the border,” he said last week. “We didn’t have these problems before Justin Trudeau.”
During an emergency debate in parliament, Deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman reprimanded the Liberals for lacking access to Trump.
“Has anybody on that side of the House, anybody in the Prime Minister’s Office or anybody anywhere else thought to continue the relationships with the president-elect’s team since 2020?” she asked. “Has anybody thought to build relationships with members of the U.S. House or the U.S. Senate, or with anybody of importance in Washington?”
Canada’s envoy to D.C., Kirsten Hillman, was part of the delegation at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. She has spent the past year traveling the U.S. to remind anyone who’d take a meeting that the U.S. needs Canada.
It’s a point Trudeau planned to make with Trump directly.
On Friday morning, the prime minister told reporters that in the face of Trump’s tariff threat, Canada was obliged to point out that “he would be actually not just harming Canadians who work so well with the United States. He [would] actually be raising prices for American citizens as well, and hurting American industry and businesses.”
The senior government official said dinner was only a starter.
“The trading relationship between Canada and the U.S. is one of the most important trading relationships in the world and it can’t get resolved in one dinner,” the person said Saturday. “Obviously there’s still more work to be done.”
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