President-elect Donald Trump publicly embraced his gag of making Canada the “51st state” on Tuesday, posting a photo of himself standing next to a Canadian flag overlooking a mountain range with the caption “Oh Canada!”
Fox News reported this on Monday evening that Trump had submitted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during their Friday meeting that Canada would become the “51st state” if the country could not afford the Republican’s proposed 25 percent tariffs.
Trudeau reportedly told Trump he cannot impose such a large import tax on the US’s northern neighbor because it would completely kill the Canadian economy.
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.
On Tuesday, Dominic LeBlanc, a Canadian minister, clarified that Trump’s comment was a “joke” and was taken as such at the dinner table. according to the Toronto Star.
LeBlanc attended the dinner in Florida. When asked by reporters if Trump thought Canada was a joke, LeBlanc replied: “Not at all, not at all.”
“That wasn’t the context at all,” he said. “During a three-hour social evening at the president’s Florida residence over the long American Thanksgiving weekend, the conversation would be light-hearted.”
“The president told jokes,” the minister continued. “The president teased us. Obviously it was about this issue, and it was in no way a serious comment that we had.”
The joke could be about Trump, with the Star pointing out that the mountain range in the Truth Social image is actually the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
President-elect Donald Trump publicly embraced a joke he told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: to make Canada the “51st state” if the country could not survive the Republican’s proposed 25 percent tariffs. The mountains in the image are actually in Switzerland
During Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Mar-a-Lago dinner on Friday evening with newly elected President Donald Trump, Trump claimed that Canada would become the 51st state. Canadian Minister Dominic LeBlanc (far left) assured reporters it was a “joke.”
Fox’s sources said Trudeau laughed nervously when Trump initially made the “51st state” joke.
Trump said 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.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is photographed at his West Palm Beach hotel on Saturday after taking a surprise trip to Mar-a-Lago to meet President-elect Donald Trump. Last Monday, Trump threatened a 25 percent import tax on Canadian goods due to immigration
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 from 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.