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President-elect Donald Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday that Canada should perhaps become the “51st state.” Fox News reported Monday evening on new details of the impromptu meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s first meeting with a world leader since he was re-elected on November 5.
Trudeau made a surprise trip to Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday after Trump threatened last Monday to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada, blaming the U.S.’s northern neighbor for some of the illegal immigrants who had poured in. During their sit-down, Trudeau told Trump he cannot impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada because it would completely kill the Canadian economy.
Trump responded: So your country can’t survive unless it rips off the US to the tune of $100 billion? The president-elect then suggested to Trudeau that Canada become the 51st state, prompting nervous laughter from the prime minister and others at the table, Fox’s sources said. Trump added that while prime minister is a better title, Trudeau could still be governor.
The sources said someone at the table suggested Canada would be a truly liberal state, which led to laughter. Trump then suggested that Canada could be divided into two states: a conservative state and a liberal state. He then told Trudeau that if he didn’t stop people from flooding across the northern border, Canada could become one or two U.S. states, the sources said.
While the exchange led to laughter, sources also told Fox that Trump was sending a serious message to Trudeau about immigration enforcement. Illegal crossings from Canada represent a much smaller number than illegal foot traffic into the US from Mexico – but Trump threatened both Canada and Mexico with 25 percent tariffs if no action was taken.
In the same Truth Social post, he threatened to impose another 10 percent in import taxes on China – because the government would not impose the death penalty on drug dealers as promised. Part of Trump’s hardline policy is to stem the flow of the deadly Chinese-made drug fentanyl into the United States.
A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report last week found that U.S. Border Patrol intercepted more than 21,000 migrants entering the U.S. from Canada in the first 10 months of the year. However, in October alone, border agents arrested more than 56,000 migrants crossing the southern border.
The majority of illegal crossings from Canada – around 18,000 in the first ten months of the year – take place through the so-called Swanton Sector, which has seen a dramatic increase in illegal crossings over the past two years. It is the area east of the Great Lakes in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Trump’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, is from this region – and will undoubtedly pay some attention to it – and is part of Representative Elise Stefanik’s district. She was a key ally of Trump on Capitol Hill and will soon become ambassador to the United Nations.
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