Trump reportedly hinted Canada could be ’51st US state’ in meeting with Justin Trudeau

Donald Trump has allegedly offered Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau a new job and suggested his nation could become America’s “51st state”.

Trudeau joined Trump for dinner at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday (29 November), an event which marked the incoming commander-in-chief’s first meeting with a world leader since winning the US election on 5 November.

The dinner came just days after Trump courted controversy for threatening to impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, as well as an additional 10 per cent levy on goods from China.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that he would sign “all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25 per cent tariff on all products coming into the United States” in the wake of a supposed “caravan coming from Mexico, composed of thousands of people” which would bring “crime and drugs at levels never seen before”.

The tariffs would “remain in effect until such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country,” Trump added.

Canada, Mexico and China represent the US’s biggest trading partners.

According to sources cited by Fox News on Monday (2 December), Trump suggested Canada could get around the tariffs by becoming the 51st state and he would even make Trudeau “governor”.

When Trudeau warned that such a tariff would “kill” Canada’s economy, Trump is alleged to have replied: “So, your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the US to the tune of $100 billion (£79 billion)?”

Prior to the meeting, Trudeau criticised the threat of tariffs on Canadian products, claiming it would also damage American industry and business. “It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” he told reporters.

“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well.”

In a letter to the president-elect, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, also hit out at Trump, describing his threat as “unacceptable”

Sheinbaum, the leader of the left-wing Morena Party, wrote: “It is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours. Migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs. What is needed is co-operation and mutual understanding to tackle these significant challenges.”

She warned of “a response in kind… one tariff will follow another until we put at risk our shared enterprises”, adding: “Yes, shared. For instance, among Mexico’s main exporters to the United States are [car manufacturers] General Motors, Stellantis and Ford, which arrived in Mexico 80 years ago.

“Why impose a tariff that would jeopardise them? Such a measure would be unacceptable and would lead to inflation and job losses in both the United States and Mexico.”

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