Justin Trudeau Shares How He Got Trump To Pivot Away From '51st State' Threat

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had social media users cackling with his latest public statements since President-elect Donald Trump made headlines for jabbing him with remarks about Canadian statehood, noting how he'd gotten Trump to drop the empty threat during a recent conversation.

Trump, who first brought up the idea during a November meeting with Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago over Trump's threat to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, has since inflamed tensions by referring to Trudeau as the governor of the “great state of Canada." He has also discussed the possibility of using "economic force" instead of "military force" to annex the country.

But in an interview on former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki's MSNBC program, he explained how he got Trump to take his mind off the idea—at least during their initial Mar-a-Lago meeting:

“It actually sort of came up at one point. And then we started musing back and forth about this.”

“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."

"This isn't out of the blue that he's doing this but my focus has to be not on something 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 cost of just about everything for American citizens, then on top of that we're going to have to have a robust response to that."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

Trudeau added:

"The 51st state? That's not going to happen. That's just a non-starter. Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian but people are now talking about that instead of, for example, what the impact of 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum coming into the United States, on energy, whether it's oil, or gas, or electricity."

"No American wants to pay 25% more for electricity or oil or gas coming in from Canada and that's something people I believe need to pay a little more attention to."

"Perhaps the idea of a 51st state is distracting a little bit from a very real question that will increase the cost of living for Americans and harm a trading relationship that works extremely well."

You can hear what he said in the video below.

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Many loved how Trudeau so easily manipulated the president-elect.

Canadian officials have warned that if Trump enacts his proposed punitive tariffs, Canada may retaliate with tariffs on U.S. products, including orange juice, toilets, and certain steel goods.

Despite Trump’s recent claim that the U.S. does not rely on Canadian oil or other imports, data tells a different story. Canada supplies nearly a quarter of the oil consumed in the U.S. daily.

For example, Alberta, a resource-rich province, exports approximately 4.3 million barrels of oil to the U.S. each day, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the United States Energy Information Administration reports that the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels daily but only produces about 13.2 million barrels.

Canada also plays a crucial role in U.S. trade. It is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states, with nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services exchanged across the border each day.