Trump’s threat to make Canada the 51st state a distraction from tariff fallout, Trudeau says

Washington (CNN) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about turning Canada into the United States’ 51st state are just a distraction from the consequences of Trump’s tariff threats.

Trudeau, who announced earlier this week he would resign as prime minister once his party had chosen his successor, told Tapper that Canada becoming another US state was “not going to happen.”

“President Trump, who is a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that, by that conversation, to take away from the conversation around 25% tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and lumber and concrete,” Trudeau told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” in an interview from Washington.

Trump in November promised massive hikes in tariffs on goods coming from Mexico, Canada and China starting on the first day of his administration.

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”

That policy that could sharply increase costs for American businesses and consumers, a fact Trudeau was quick to point out Thursday. Canada, Mexico and China are the US’s biggest trade partners.

“Everything the American consumers buy from Canada is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau stressed that Canadians “are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we’re not American.”

Trudeau weighs in on Los Angeles wildfires

Trudeau told CNN on Thursday he had been in touch with California Gov. Gavin Newsom about sending aid to battle deadly and destructive wildfires and warned that climate change is making such fires worse.

Trudeau said his country offered California state officials “a tremendous amount of equipment that they’re already accepting.”

Apocalyptic scenes have emerged across Los Angeles County, where deadly wildfires remain mostly uncontained. Evacuation orders are impacting nearly 180,000 people.

Canada has experienced its own series of wildfires in recent months. Last year Canada witnessed dangerous wildfires that scorched tens of thousands of acres, forcing thousands of evacuations, damaging property and degrading air quality.

Trudeau attributed the intensity and frequency of such wildfires that affected Canada and California to the changing climate.

“Unfortunately, over the past years, we’ve seen it get far worse, and we’ve seen wildfires increasingly encroaching on urban areas, and that’s a … fire where we have to train up more local municipal firefighters to deal with wildfires in a way that we never had before,” Trudeau told CNN on Thursday.

“What we see now is going to just get worse and worse and worse over the coming decades, if we’re not serious about reducing our emissions and looking for ways to protect our future generations,” Trudeau added.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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