Donald Trump allegedly joked about adding Canada as the 51st state when he met with the nation’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, according to a new report.
Two sources that heard the Canadian prime minister’s conversation with the president-elect told Fox News that Trump made the remark during a “very productive” conversation about tariffs, the Canada-U.S. border, and the trade deficit between the two countries.
According to the Fox report, Trump accused Canada of allowing drugs and migrants to flow over the northern border into the country, and took issue with the U.S.’s trade deficit with its northern neighbor.
ADVERTISEMENT
Trudeau reportedly complained about Trump’s proposed 25-percent tariff on Canadian goods and estimated it would “kill” the Canadian economy, according to the Fox sources. That’s when Trump joked that Canada could join the U.S. instead—with Trudeau as a hypothetical Canadian state’s governor.
The claims were later repeated on Jesse Watters' program Monday night, where the Fox host revealed Trudeau “apparently wasn’t thrilled.”
The Associated Press also reported that Trump discussed the trade deficit with Trudeau, citing Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S. Hillman did not mention anything about Trump’s annexation jokes.
Canada and the U.S. had a trade deficit of about $75 billion in 2023, according to the Canadian ambassador, which was partially the result of high energy prices. About 60 percent of all crude oil imports into the US come from Canada, according to the Department of Energy.
“We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us,” Hillman added. “If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that.”
Hillman also took issue with Trump’s characterization of the U.S.-Canadian border, noting that the situation is much different than that on the southern border.
Customs and Border Patrol only seized 43 pounds of fentanyl on the northern border in 2024—compared to over 21,000 pounds seized on the southern border, according to the agency’s data.
CBP also reported a fairly significant disparity between migrant encounters on the borders. The agency recorded a total of 2.1 million migrant encounters on the southern border for FY2024, compared to just under 199,000 on the northern border the same year.
However, Hillman also told the Associated Press that Trump and Trudeau “get along well.” She also mentioned the president-elect told his Canadian counterpart that he loved Canadian singer Celine Dion.
