President-elect Donald Trump said a surprise meeting with Justin Trudeau at his home in Florida was “very productive,” after the prime minister traveled there to discuss the growing threat of US tariffs on Canadian goods, the border and national defence.
On Friday evening, Trudeau arrived in Florida and traveled to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club to attend a hastily arranged dinner and discussion with the incoming US president, which a senior Canadian government source said was a success.
Trump said in a post on the social networking site Truth Social that the meeting between the two went well.
“I just had a very productive meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where we discussed many important topics that will require our two countries to work together to address them,” Trump wrote.
He said the two discussed the illegal fentanyl crisis and the toxic drug overdose crisis, as well as what Trump described as the “massive trade deficit” between the United States and Canada.
“I have made it abundantly clear that the United States will no longer stand idly by while our citizens become victims of the scourge of this drug epidemic, caused mainly by drug cartels and fentanyl flowing from China,” Trump wrote. “So much death and hardship!”
A senior Canadian government source told Global News that the meeting, which lasted from about 7:45 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., went well. The mood was positive, the source said, with Trump playing songs from his iPad during the conversation.
Although no agreements were reached, the two leaders discussed tariffs, borders, Ukraine and defense issues, including NATO and the G7, the source said.
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The meeting came at the end of a week that began with Trump’s promise to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico to the United States. He said these tariffs would only be removed if the two countries made changes to their borders, which he claimed were responsible for the flow of illicit drugs and illegal immigrants.
The threat of tariffs has Trudeau, along with the country’s prime ministers, scrambling for solutions. The country’s political leaders spent the week showing their willingness to make changes to the Canadian border.
The RCMP said Friday it was considering deploying a quarter of its eastern workforce to operational priority areas, including the border. Several premiers have called on the Trudeau government to boost police spending and commit more to tackling fentanyl.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he wants to see more funding and offer resources to the Ontario Provincial Police to help respond to Trump’s border request.
“We need to take action, including more permanent funding for the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency,” Ford said Wednesday.
Also among the voices is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who has said she is considering creating a provincial border patrol.
The government source also told Global News that Trudeau is ready to beef up border security by purchasing new helicopters to patrol the skies, something the source said the RCMP has been seeking for years. The prime minister reportedly told Trump on Friday that this is 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 hotel in West Palm Beach, Trudeau paused briefly to answer a reporter’s question about the dinner meeting, saying it was an “excellent conversation.” Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions about what the leaders discussed.
During his first term as president, Trump once called Trudeau “weak” and “dishonest,” but the prime minister is the first G7 leader to visit with Trump since the Nov. 5 election.
Trudeau had said earlier Friday that he would resolve the tariff issue by talking with Trump. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the day before after speaking with Trump that she was confident a tariff war with the United States could be avoided.
The government source said that the meeting came after Canada began quietly asking the Trump team to hold a meeting after the US presidential elections. Initially, the Prime Minister’s Office was told that no meetings would be held before the inauguration, but the source said they are continuing to press.
Then, on Monday night, Trudeau and Trump reached out and the prime minister suggested meeting in person. The source said that the president-elect invited Trudeau to travel to Florida for dinner on Friday.
—With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
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