Trudeau Discusses Trump Comments, Resignation, Wildfires in CNN Interview

U.S. President Joe Biden chats with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as he departs the State Funeral Service for former U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington on Jan. 9, 2025. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told CNN that despite incoming President Donald Trump’s repeated talk of Canada becoming the 51st state, it is “not going to happen” and the comments are part of a strategy to distract from 25 percent tariffs that would also harm Americans.

“Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian,” Trudeau said in the Jan. 9 interview where he also spoke about U.S. tariffs, his plan to resign, and the California wildfires.

“One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we’re not American. There is such a depth of pride, that that’s not actually an issue.”

A few days earlier, Trump said during a press conference that he would use “economic force” to merge Canada with the United States, as a combination of the two countries would be “really be something.”

Trump also said on Jan. 7 that the United States loses hundreds of millions per year having to “subsidize” Canada and doesn’t need to rely on Canadian products like lumber, dairy, and automotive vehicles.

In response, Trudeau said on X that there is not a “snowball’s chance in hell” that Canada would become part of the United States,” adding that both our countries benefit from being each other’s largest trading and security partner.

Trudeau told CNN anchor Jake Tapper that Canada would “definitely respond” to U.S. tariffs by imposing tariffs of its own, pointing out that Canada did the same in 2018 when Trump put tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum in 2018. “But we don’t want to do that because it drives up prices for Canadians and it harms our closest trading partner,” he said.

Trudeau said he believes Trump is trying to distract people from the 25 percent tariffs he has threatened to impose on Canada. The prime minister said while Trump is a “very skillful negotiator,” the tariffs on Canadian goods like oil, gas, steel, aluminum, and lumber would make the items “a lot more expensive” for American consumers.

“That’s something that I think we need to be focusing on a little bit more,” Trudeau said.

The prime minister called for the two countries to work together on supplying the U.S. with resources like lithium, titanium, and germanium instead of relying on less friendly countries like Russia and China. “We can be a strong supplier of things that the U.S. needs to compete around the world, because we can do it together. That’s the argument that I’m making,” Trudeau said.

Trump has said he is imposing the promised tariffs on Canada unless it takes action to stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States through its border. So far, he has shown no indication that he will not go through with the 25 percent tariffs, while Canada has said it’s allocating $1.3 billion to boost border security.

While in Washington, D.C., for former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, Trudeau also held meetings with U.S. business leaders. He told Tapper that he did not speak with Trump while at the funeral.

Trudeau also touched on the wildfires currently ravaging the city of Los Angeles in California, saying Canada has offered a “tremendous amount of equipment” and expertise to help in the battle. He said as a result of climate change extreme weather events are going to “get worse and worse and worse over the coming decades” and that countries need to get “serious about reducing our emissions.”

Planning to Resign

On Jan. 6, Trudeau announced that he will resign as prime minister after the Liberal Party chooses a replacement. Trump said on Truth Social the same day that Trudeau resigned because he knew the U.S. “can no longer suffer the massive trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat.”

Trudeau rejected that explanation, telling Tapper that the Liberal government was able to work with the first Trump administration on “very challenging” free trade renegotiations. “Working together concretely is something that we’ve been able to do in the past, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him for the next two months, while I’m still in office,” he said.

When asked about the issues that led to his low approval ratings, Trudeau told Tapper while inflation had come down and the economy had “bounced back faster” after the COVID-19 pandemic, “when someone’s paying $8 for a head of lettuce, it doesn’t matter that you’re doing better than they are in Spain or somewhere else.”

“That’s where incumbents are in trouble, everywhere around the world, not just in our two countries,” he added.