Trudeau Broaches His Dinner With Trump, Retaliatory Tariffs, Anti-Incumbency Trend in MSNBC Interview

“[Annexation] actually sort of came up at one point, and then we started musing back and forth about this,” Trudeau told Jen Psaki.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media after a meeting with Jay Timmons, president and CEO of The National Association of Manufacturers, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, 2025. The Associated Press/Jose Luis Magana

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the conversation about making Canada the “51st state” was quickly dropped after he proposed trading two U.S. states in exchange during his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump in Florida last November.

Trudeau spoke about the discussion during a Jan. 9 interview with MSNBC. He was referring to his visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Nov. 29, where the incoming U.S. president first floated the idea of annexing Canada.