Justin Trudeau confirms Donald Trump broached annexation

Justin Trudeau says U.S. president-elect Donald Trump kicked the tires on the potential annexation of Canada during their recent meeting in Florida, but the topic was quickly dropped when the prime minister countered with a request for two states.

Trudeau, in a soon-to-be aired interview on MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki, said it “was nice to reconnect” with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate last year despite the president-elect’s expressed desire, however legitimate it may be, to make Canada the 51st state.

“(Annexation) actually sort of came up at one point and then we started musing back-and-forth about this,” Trudeau told Psaki. “And I started to suggest, ‘Well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts,’ and he immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore and we moved onto a different conversation.

“So this isn’t out of the blue that he’s doing this but my focus has to be not on something that he’s talking about that will not ever happen, but more on something that might well happen.”

In the interview, Trudeau maintained Canada’s commitment to securing its border to thwart the movement of illegal migrants and fentanyl into the U.S. Trump has proposed a 25 per cent tariff on goods entering the U.S. from Canada to prompt action from Canada on those issues.

Trudeau says the tariffs will not only raise the price of nearly everything for American citizens, but Canada will “have a robust response.”

“We’re ready to respond with tariffs as necessary. You may remember when Donald Trump put tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, which did nothing but raise the cost of steel and aluminum for American consumers. We responded by putting tariffs on things like bourbon, Harley Davidson (motorcycles), orange juice, playing cards, these sorts of things that Canadians can find replacements for so they wouldn’t have to pay more for those.

“And it ended up causing a lot of loss in American businesses for whom Canada is the number one export. We are the number one export partner for about 35 different U.S. states. And anything that thickens the border between us ends up costing American citizens and American jobs. That’s not what President Trump got elected to do.”

The full interview will air Sunday, Jan. 12, at noon ET on MSNBC