President-elect Donald Trump says a surprise meeting with Justin Trudeau at his Florida home was “very productive,” after the prime minister flew in to discuss the growing threat of U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, the border and defense national.
On Friday night, Trudeau landed in Florida and traveled to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club for a hastily arranged dinner and discussion with the incoming US president that a senior Canadian government source said was a success.
In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said the meeting between the two had gone well.
“I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important issues that will require both countries to work together to address,” Trump wrote.
He said the two had discussed illegal fentanyl and the toxic drug overdose crisis, as well as what Trump called “the enormous trade deficit” between the United States and Canada.
“I have made it very clear that the United States will no longer stand by while our citizens become victims of the scourge of this drug epidemic, caused primarily by drug cartels and fentanyl coming from China,” Trump wrote. “Too much death and hardship!”
A senior Canadian government source told Global News that the meeting, which took place between 7:45 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., went well. The source said the atmosphere was positive, with Trump playing songs from his iPad during the conversation.
The source said that while no agreement had been reached, the two discussed tariffs, the border, Ukraine and defense issues, including NATO and the G7.
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The meeting came at the end of a week that began with Trump promising to impose 25 percent tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico to the United States. He said those tariffs would only be removed if both countries made changes to their borders, which he said were responsible for the flow of illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants.
The threat of tariffs led Trudeau, along with the country’s prime ministers, to look for solutions. The country’s political leaders spent the week demonstrating that they were willing to make changes at the Canadian border.
On Friday, the RCMP said it was considering deploying a quarter of its workforce to the east in priority operational areas, including the border. Several premiers have called on the Trudeau government to improve its police spending and make a greater commitment to combating fentanyl.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he wanted to see more funding and offered resources to the Ontario Provincial Police to help respond to Trump’s border demand.
“We need action, including more permanent funding for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency,” Ford said Wednesday.
Also among the voices was Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who says she is considering creating a provincial border patrol.
The government source also told Global News that Trudeau was willing to bolster border security by purchasing new helicopters to patrol the skies, something the source said the RCMP has sought for years. That, the prime minister reportedly told Trump on Friday, was a done deal and a meeting will be held next week to put the plan into action, according to national security sources.
As he left his West Palm Beach hotel, Trudeau stopped briefly to answer a reporter’s question about the dinner, saying it was “a great conversation.” Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions about what the leaders had discussed.
Trump, during his first term as president, once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest,” but the prime minister was the first G7 leader to visit Trump since the Nov. 5 election.
Trudeau had said earlier Friday that he would resolve the tariff issue by talking to Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said a day earlier, after speaking with Trump, that she is confident that a tariff war with the United States will be avoided.
The meeting, the government source said, came after Canada began quietly asking Trump’s team for a meeting after the US presidential election. The prime minister’s office was initially told that no meetings would take place before the inauguration, but the source said they kept pushing.
Then on Monday night, Trudeau and Trump connected and the prime minister suggested meeting in person. The president-elect invited Trudeau to travel to Florida for dinner on Friday, the source said.
– with files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
