Rubio: Trump’s 51st State Comments Began With Trudeau Saying Canada Would ‘Cease to Exist’ With High Tariffs

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the State Department in Washington on Jan. 21, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the American president’s repeated comments about Canada becoming the “51st state” began when the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a meeting that the country would “cease to exist” with high American tariffs on its goods.

Trudeau has said in his recollection of the meeting that the conversation was quickly dropped after he jokingly said there could be a “trade for Vermont or California for certain parts.”

In an interview with American journalist Catherine Herridge posted to social media on Feb. 21, Rubio said during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first meeting with Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 29, 2024, the prime minister said Canada’s existence would be in question if 25 percent tariffs were imposed on it.

“At which point the president responded, very logically, and that is, ‘well, if you can’t exist without cheating in trade, then you should become a state.’ That was his observation there,” Rubio said.

“That’s how it started?” Herridge asked.

“It is how it started,” Rubio responded.

Rubio added that while Canada remains a “friend,” “neighbour,” and “partner” of the United States, the country is no longer allowing “uneven trade imbalances” with other countries.

“Whether it’s Canada, Mexico, China—anybody else, when it comes to economics and trade there has to be reciprocity, there has to be fairness,” he said.

Rubio characterized the U.S. approach to trade economics as “whatever they charge us, we should charge them.” He also said “if they don’t allow our American companies to do it, we should not allow their companies to do it here,” citing the example of how American banks operate in Canada. While U.S. banks have a presence in Canada on the commercial and investment side, personal banking is dominated by the “big six” Canadian banks.

Trump had threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian imports and 10 percent on energy imports, which was set to take effect on Feb. 4, but he and Trudeau were able to work out a last-minute agreement to pause the tariffs until March 4. Trudeau promised additional border security measures to stop fentanyl and illegal immigrants from crossing the border, such as the appointment of a “fentanyl czar,” and the listing of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.

The U.S. president said the tariffs would be paused while the United States and Canada worked out what he called a “final economic deal.” Trump has said that the United States “subsidizes” Canada, giving figures ranging from US $100 billion to $250 billion.

The United States had a $67.9 billion deficit in the trade of goods with Canada in 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Canadian leaders have pointed out that the deficit is due to the fact that the United States is buying Canadian oil at a discount, and with that removed, the United States in fact enjoys a trade surplus with Canada.

Trump-Trudeau Meeting

In Trump’s retelling of the November meeting with Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago, when he asked Trudeau what would happen if the U.S. did not “subsidize” Canada, Trudeau responded, “Canada would dissolve, Canada wouldn’t be able to function.”

“So I said to him, ‘why are we doing it?’ and he said ‘I don’t really know,’” Trump told reporters at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Jan 7.

“But I can answer it. We’re doing it because of habit, and we’re doing it because we like our neighbours—and we’ve been good neighbours—but we can’t do it forever.”

The Epoch Times contacted the Prime Minister’s Office for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Trudeau has said that during the meeting, after Trump suggested Canada should become the 51st state and Trudeau should be its “governor,” Trudeau jested that there could be a trade for states like Vermont or California.

“He immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore and we moved onto a different conversation,” Trudeau said during an MSNBC interview on Jan. 9.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was also present at the meeting, had taken Trump’s comments as a “light-hearted” joke. But after Trump continued making the suggestion and said he would use “economic force” to merge Canada with the United States, Dominic said on Jan. 8 that he had “gone much further than the idea of a joke.”

The Trump administration recently announced 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which will apply to all countries. Trump previously put 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent on aluminum during his first term in office in 2018.

Once the United States Trade Representative and Commerce Department complete their study into how the United States could use tariffs to reduce its trade deficits with other countries or address unfair trade practices by April, the country could implement further tariffs on its trade partners.