President-elect Trump says he had a “very productive assembly” with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago membership in West Palm Seashore, Florida, on Friday.
Trudeau jetted into Mar-a-Lago unannounced on Friday simply days after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian merchandise. Trump is threatening to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over failures by each nations to curb the movement of unlawful immigrants and illicit medication from these nations into the U.S.
“We mentioned many vital matters that may require each nations to work collectively to handle, just like the fentanyl and drug disaster that has decimated so many lives on account of unlawful immigration, honest commerce offers that don’t jeopardize American employees and the huge commerce deficit the U.S. has with Canada,” Trump wrote on Fact Social Saturday.
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“I made it very clear that the US will now not sit idly by as our residents change into victims to the scourge of this drug epidemic, induced primarily by the drug cartels, and fentanyl pouring in from China. An excessive amount of demise and hardship!”
Trump wrote that Trudeau, who has been serving as prime minister of Canada since 2015, made a dedication to work with the U.S. to “finish this horrible devastation of U.S. households.”
U.S. customs brokers seized 43 kilos of fentanyl on the Canadian border final fiscal yr, in contrast with 21,100 kilos on the Mexican border. On immigration, Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests on the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests on the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Canadian officers say they’re able to make new investments in border safety.
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Trump mentioned the pair additionally spoke about many different vital matters, together with vitality, commerce and the Arctic, though he didn’t go into additional element.
“All are very important points that I shall be addressing on my first days again in workplace, and earlier than,” Trump concluded, with out saying whether or not tariffs had been nonetheless on or off the desk.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, after talking with Trump on the phone, mentioned Thursday she was assured a tariff war with Washington can be averted.
Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, R-Pa., posted an image to X late Friday exhibiting him at a Mar-a-Lago dinner desk together with President-elect Trump, Trudeau, and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, amongst others. The ritzy membership has been a hive of exercise since President-elect Trump’s historic election win over Vice President Harris earlier this month because the forty fifth president co-ordinates his transition again to the Oval Workplace.
Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have additionally met Trump on the well-known location, together with lots of these nominated for high roles within the incoming administration. Trump chosen Musk to steer an outdoor advisory panel often called the “Division of Authorities Effectivity” to slash waste within the federal authorities.
As he was leaving his West Palm Seashore resort, Trudeau stopped briefly to reply a reporter’s query concerning the dinner assembly, saying it had been “a wonderful dialog.”
An official who was not licensed to debate the matter publicly and spoke to the Related Press on situation of anonymity, mentioned it had been a “constructive, wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.”
The official mentioned different matters included protection, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Center East and pipelines, in addition to the Group of Seven assembly in Canada subsequent yr.
Fox Information’ Louis Casiano and The Related Press contributed to this report.