US President Donald Trump is taking shots at Canada again after claiming the country is “very difficult for us on trade.”
At a briefing in Asheville, North Carolina, the first stop of the president’s second term on Friday, Trump said he asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau what would happen if the United States “didn’t subsidize Canada.”
The president made those comments shortly after being asked about dealings with the United States.
He claimed that in a conversation with the prime minister, Trudeau responded that Canada would be a “failed country” without the United States.
Trudeau visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in November, shortly after Trump threatened 25% tariffs on all goods from Canada that first entered the United States.
On Inauguration Day, Trump indicated that these tariffs could be rolled out as early as February 1st.
In North Carolina, Trump reiterated that the United States “doesn’t need Canada’s cars or wood or food.
He also said Canadians would have “much better” health insurance if they joined the U.S.
“I think Canadians want that,” the president said.
US President Donald Trump continued his threat to impose tariffs on Canada while speaking to reporters in North Carolina on Friday.
Trudeau said Tuesday that Canada is ready to slap dollar-matching tariffs on American goods if the United States enacts its promised tariff scheme.
“I don’t think he wants that,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa of the measure.
CBC News has contacted the prime minister’s office for comment on whether Trump is talking about the exchange.
But this wouldn’t be the first time a president has shared a misleading account of a conversation with a prime minister.
between a recent interviews MSNBC and with Jen PsakiTrudeau noted that Trump left out the prime minister’s answer when he publicly recounted their conversation at Mar-a-Lago.
Trudeau said that in response to Trump floating the idea of making Canada the “51st nation,” he suggested that “maybe there might be some Vermont or California trade for certain parts.”
That response “made Trump decide it wasn’t that funny anymore and we moved on to another conversation,” Trudeau told host Jen Psaki.
