How Trump’s ‘51st State’ Canada Discuss Got here to Be Seen as Lethal Severe

After President Trump imposed tariffs on Canada on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a rare assertion that was largely misplaced within the fray of the second.

“The excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs right this moment of fentanyl is totally bogus, utterly unjustified, utterly false,” Mr. Trudeau informed the information media in Ottawa.

“What he needs is to see a complete collapse of the Canadian economic system, as a result of that’ll make it simpler to annex us,” he added.

That is the story of how Mr. Trudeau went from pondering Mr. Trump was joking when he referred to him as “governor” and Canada as “the 51st state” in early December to publicly stating that Canada’s closest ally and neighbor was implementing a technique of crushing the nation with a view to take it over.

The February Calls

Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau spoke twice on Feb. 3, as soon as within the morning and once more within the afternoon, as a part of discussions to stave off tariffs on Canadian exports.

However these early February calls weren’t nearly tariffs.

The main points of the conversations between the 2 leaders, and subsequent discussions amongst prime U.S. and Canadian officers, haven’t been beforehand totally reported, and had been shared with The New York Instances on situation of anonymity by 4 folks with firsthand information of their content material. They didn’t need to be publicly recognized discussing a delicate matter.