I guarantee you that this conversation that Trump just spoke about with Justin Trudeau never really happened.
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) January 13, 2025
Can you confirm @JustinTrudeau ? pic.twitter.com/Ripqs2EdCv
It's a safe bet because
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about Trump’s talk of turning the northern nation into America’s “51st state” when the two met at Mar-a-Lago in November.
“It actually sort of came up at one point,” Trudeau told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki in an interview that aired Sunday. “And then we started musing back and forth about this.”
But according to the prime minister, the exchange came to a quick halt after Trudeau jokingly made Trump an offer.
“When I started to suggest, ‘Well, maybe there could be a
trade for Vermont or California for certain parts,’ he immediately decided that
it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation,” he
told Psaki.
Take Trump seriously and literally and make him an offer he must refuse. Also
Trudeau said he had to take seriously Trump’s calls for Canada to become a state. At the same time, though, he dismissed the idea as “a nonstarter.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he said. “It’s just a nonstarter. Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian.”
It's conceivable that the felonius President-elect doesn't understand the concept of being proud of one's country. Speaking to supporters in Miami last June, Trump maintained "we have a rigged country. We have a country that's corrupt." Advocating return of the electric chair ("bring it back, and FAST!") on October 31, 2023,, he had tweeted (Truth Socialed?) in part "Our Country is Rigged, Crooked, and Evil." Patrotism and national pride are foreign to him.
Even if Trump fully comprehended "Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian," it would have meant nothing to him. However, The Art of the Deal guy was likely taken aback by Trudeau's counteroffer, that Vermont and California would instead be transferred to Canada.
The ex-President understands completely the Ovrton Window and is accustomed to moving the goalposts. Here, his preposterous suggestion that Canada become part of the USA was met with an equally preposterous suggestion. (Let alone that California does not share a border with Canada.)
That is the way to handle the President-elect, Trudeau realizing he must "go big or go home." "I'll see you and raise you" seems to have worked on the incoming President better than anything tried by the latter's domestic critics. Democrats, terrified of uttering "President Musk" and throwing Trump off his game, should take note.
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