Trudeau secretly jets off to Florida to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago amid looming tariff war: Report

Amid the looming trade war between the United States and Canada, reports are emerging that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has flown to Florida to meet US President-elect Donald Trump. According to Canadian news outlet Global News, the two leaders will be holding a meeting at Trump’s famous Mar-a-Lago estate.

The secret trip by Trudeau came days after Trump threatened to impose a whopping 25 per cent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico unless the two countries deal with the migration issue and the illegal smuggling of drugs at the border crossing. Earlier this week, Trump held a phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum from which both leaders gave positive takeaways.

According to Global News, flight data showed that the plane which is often used by the Canadian premier landed in West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday evening. This is the closest airport to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Trudeau to stay overnight

As per the report, the Canadian Prime Minister will be staying in Florida overnight and will be returning to Canada on Saturday morning. However, he is unlikely to stay in Mar-a-Lago. Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc is also in attendance with Trudeau.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s office did not publicly confirm the visit and the meeting with Trump. It also did not appear on Trudeau’s itinerary for Friday and his itinerary for Saturday has not yet been released.

On Monday, both the leaders spoke on the phone just hours after the president-elect made the tariff threat on social media. Following this, Trudeau convened an emergency meeting with the country’s top officials at their request on Wednesday to talk about the issue at hand.

While speaking to the reporters after the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the Trudeau administration has agreed on a “unified” approach to addressing the issue, including economic risks and the border security concerns Trump raised.

Freeland and LeBlanc, who co-chair the cabinet committee on US-Canada relations that was revived after Trump’s electoral victory, said there were opportunities to work with the US on border security and concerns about China.

While addressing a press conference on Prince Edward Island on Friday, Trudeau emphasized that Trump’s tariff threats should be taken seriously. “One of the things that is really important to understand is that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out,” Trudeau told reporters in Mount Stewart, Prince Edward Island. “There’s no question about it.”

“Our responsibility is to point out that, in this way, he would be actually not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, he’d actually be raising prices for American citizens as well and hurting American industry and businesses,” he added.