Trudeau flies to Mar-a-Lago to see Trump amid tariff concerns

TORONTO — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada went to Florida on Friday night to see President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, two officials with direct knowledge of the visit said, after a threat by Trump to impose across-the-board tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico on Day 1 of his second term.

The visit makes Trudeau the first head of government from the Group of 7, a key forum of global coordination consisting of the world’s wealthiest democracies, to visit the president-elect.

Trudeau and Trump dined together Friday evening, one official said, along with a delegation of senior Trump allies poised for top trade and security positions in his new administration.

Trudeau was accompanied on his visit by Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister of public safety. The Canadian prime minister was staying in the area overnight, but not at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and home in Palm Beach, Florida.

The Trump transition team did not respond to requests for comment, and there was no information released about Trump’s schedule Friday. Trudeau, on returning to his hotel after spending about three hours at Mar-a-Lago, did not respond to questions about what was discussed over dinner.

Trudeau has been scrambling to formulate a plan to respond to the threat made this week by Trump to impose a 25% tariff unless Mexico and Canada take action to curb the arrival of migrants without legal permission to be in the U.S. and drugs across their borders into the United States.

Trump said he would sign such a measure on his first day in office, a move that could potentially cripple trade across the continent.

The threat was also seen as an opening salvo in what would most likely be a long renegotiation of the trade agreement among the three North American nations, known as the USMCA — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trudeau has tried to project calm and confidence, saying he believed Trump would see that tariffs would harm both countries, which are each other’s biggest trading partners. About 80% of Canada’s oil and 40% of its gas are exported to the United States, and the two countries are deeply intertwined through the joint manufacturing of cars, as well as in multiple other industries.

The Mar-a-Lago visit Friday is intended as a direct effort by Trudeau to show that he has a plan to address Trump’s border concerns, and that tariffs should be avoided for the sake of both nations’ economies.

LeBlanc was given the task of drafting tougher border measures. He said this week that he was preparing to deploy additional staff, as well as drones and helicopters if needed, to better manage the border between the two countries.

The security and trade issues at the heart of the Friday meeting were also reflected on the Trump side of the table: The dinner, an official said, was attended by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, whom Trump picked to be interior secretary; Howard Lutnick, who is Trump’s selection for commerce secretary; and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice for national security adviser.

Trudeau’s response to Trump’s tariff threats contrasts sharply with that of Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Trudeau and other senior Canadian officials have sought to distinguish Canada’s position from Mexico’s, highlighting that Canada is better aligned with the United States and Trump’s agenda on three key issues: the borders, restrictions on China and bringing well-paying jobs back home.

Sheinbaum has been firmer, threatening retaliatory tariffs if Trump made good on his threat.

The split has driven a wedge between two allies, Canada and Mexico, that were able to leverage their relationship to negotiate a favorable agreement during Trump’s first presidency. The trade pact is officially up for renegotiation in 2026, but analysts say they believe Trump’s decision to put tariffs against the two U.S. neighbors on the table even before he takes office indicates that a renegotiation of that agreement could come sooner than planned.

Trudeau is facing considerable pressure over how to handle this difficult moment. The imposition of tariffs on Canada would throw the country into recession, economists believe, as doing business with the United States is the lifeblood of the economies of several Canadian provinces.

But Trudeau is in a precarious political moment, too, after nine years in power.

He faces elections in the coming months, and polls show his party, the Liberal Party, is set to lose badly to the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre.

And as Trudeau has been trying to define a negotiating position to counter Trump’s unilateral tariff threat, leaders of some provinces have charged ahead. Most prominently, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, has said that Canada should ditch Mexico and directly negotiate a new deal with Trump.

“To compare us to Mexico is the most insulting thing I’ve ever heard from our friends and closest allies, the United States of America,” Ford said this week.

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