Justin Trudeau Reveals How He Got Trump To 'Immediately' Change The Subject On Canada
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about Trump’s talk of turning the northern nation into America’s “51st state” when the two met at Mar-a-Lago in November.
“It actually sort of came up at one point,” Trudeau told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki in an interview that aired Sunday. “And then we started musing back and forth about this.”
But according to the prime minister, the exchange came to a quick halt after Trudeau jokingly made Trump an offer.
“When I started to suggest, ‘Well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts,’ he immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation,” he told Psaki.
Trudeau said he had to take seriously Trump’s calls for Canada to become a state. At the same time, though, he dismissed the idea as “a nonstarter.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he said. “It’s just a nonstarter. Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian.”
Trudeau said Trump is trying to create a distraction from real issues such as his threat to place tariffs on Canadian goods.
Trump has called Canada the “51st state,” referred to Trudeau as the nation’s “governor,” and suggested that NHL legend Wayne Gretzky run for prime minister, all while he threatens a trade war with the country.
See Trudeau’s full conversation with Psaki below: