Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his upcoming resignation to the media outside Rideau Cottage on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Ottawa. (AP/Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
"From my very first conversations with him back in 2016, he told me how much he admires Canada, how much he appreciates and likes us, so there is a certain amount of flattery in this that he thinks that we are as great as we are," Trudeau said of Trump on Sunday. "He’s right, we are great. We’re also very, very proud of being Canadian. If you talk to any Canadian, you ask them to define what it is to be Canadian, they’ll talk about all sorts of different things, but one of the things we will point out is, ‘and we’re not Americans.’"
On Trudeau’s trip to Mar-a-Lago in November, the Canadian prime minister said the topic of the U.S. annexing Canada did come up, but Trudeau said once he joked that Canada could annex Vermont or California as a sort of trade, Trump "immediately decided it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation."
"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, that if he does choose to go forward with tariffs that raise the costs of just about everything for American citizens, that on top of that, we’re going to have a robust response to that," Trudeau said.
"We are ready to respond with tariffs as necessary," Trudeau said.
Canadian officials say that if Trump follows through with his threat of punishing tariffs, Canada would consider slapping retaliatory tariffs on American orange juice, toilets and some steel products.
Justin Trudeau during the funeral service of late former President Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump said last week that the U.S. does not need oil – or anything else – from Canada, but almost a quarter of the oil that the U.S. consumes each day comes from Canada. The energy-rich western province of Alberta exports 4.3 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S., according to the Associated Press. Data from the United States Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels a day, and produces about 13.2 million barrels a day.
Canada, a founding partner of NATO and home to more than 40 million people, is also the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
Trump has said that he would reconsider his tariff threat if Canada made improvements in managing security at the Canada-U.S. border, which he and his advisers see as a potential entry point for illegal immigrants.
Trudeau has said that less than 1% of illegal immigrants and fentanyl cross into the U.S. from Canada.
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Nevertheless, after his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Trudeau announced an increase in spending on border security, expressing willingness to address Trump’s concerns in hopes that he would reconsider his tariff threat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trudeau-says-51st-state-distraction-from-trump-tariff-threat-acknowledges-facing-successful-negotiator