Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks out of the Delta Hotel on his way to meet U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 29.JAMIE KELTER DAVIS/The New York Times News Service
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an undisclosed trip to Palm Beach, Fla., Friday for a dinner meeting with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
Three sources said Mr. Trudeau landed at Palm Beach International Airport late Friday en route to a tête-à-tête with Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The Globe is not identifying the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include the Canada Border Services Agency and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, accompanied Mr. Trudeau on the trip, one of the sources said, as did Katie Telford, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.
The official said the conversation between the leaders was wide-ranging, including trade, border security, fentanyl, NATO, Ukraine, icebreakers, China, several oil and gas pipelines, liquid natural gas and next year’s G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. The trip was also meant as a social occasion – an opportunity for Mr. Trudeau and his circle to build rapport and open up channels of communication with the incoming administration, the source said.
Joining them on the U.S. side were three of Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks: Howard Lutnick, Mike Waltz and Doug Bergum.
Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, and Ms. Telford’s deputy, Brian Clow, also made the trip to Mar-a-Lago, but were not expected to join the two leaders at the dinner table, said the source.
Pennsylvania senator-elect Dave McCormick and his wife, former White House advisor Dina Powell, were also in attendance.
The dinner lasted around two hours and 45 minutes, the source said, with the two leaders sitting down at 7.45 p.m. and finishing at about 10.30 p.m.
Mr. Trump posted a photo late Friday evening to social media showing him, Mr. Trudeau and the other guests sitting around a round table. “With an interesting special guest at the Trump head table at Mar-A-Lago,” the president-elect wrote.
Mr. Trump said on Monday that upon taking office in January, he would impose 25-per-cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico until both countries stopped the flow of illegal migrants and smuggled drugs into the United States. Such levies would hit the Canadian economy hard because the United States is Canada’s biggest trading partner. In 2023, Canada exported $592.7-billion in goods to the United States – more than 77 per cent of this country’s total exports that year.
The federal government did not announce the trip and the first indication of it came when a CC-144C Challenger broadcasting the call sign CFC01 was spotted by flight trackers Friday en route from Ottawa to Palm Beach International. Steffan Watkins, an Ottawa-based consultant who tracks aircraft and ships, said a flight carrying that call sign typically means the Prime Minster or VIPs are aboard.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about whether Mr. Trudeau and other cabinet ministers were on the flight.
Mr. Trudeau is expected to head home Saturday morning, one of the sources said.
Mr. Lutnick, a Wall Street CEO and Trump campaign donor, has been tapped by the president-elect to oversee trade policy as commerce secretary. On the campaign trail, he enthusiastically advocated for tariffs.
Mr. Waltz, a Florida member of Congress, is the pick for national-security adviser. He has previously expressed his dislike of the prime minister on X this past spring. In one post, he encouraged people to watch a clip of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre making fun of Mr. Trudeau during Question Period.
His wife, Julia Nesheiwat, who also attended the dinner on Friday, is a vice-president at Calgary-based pipeline company TCE. The source said the two sides at the dinner were aligned on all the oil and gas topics that came up.
Mr. Bergum, meanwhile, is the governor of North Dakota who ran against Mr. Trump for the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year. He is Mr. Trump’s nominee for interior secretary and will lead an energy council with a mandate to expand U.S. oil and gas production.
Ms. Powell, who served as a deputy national security adviser during Mr. Trump’s first term, was one of the Trudeau government’s key contacts in that administration. She was one of the few close to Mr. Trump who advocated for a less protectionist trade agenda.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada’s “first preference” would be to remain in a three-way trade deal that includes Mexico.
She was responding to comments by Mexico’s lead trade negotiator Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez Romano in an interview with The Globe and Mail who said Mr. Trudeau’s willingness to cut a trade deal with the United States alone came as a betrayal. He said this has also proven to be a mistake.
Any desire by Canada to divert blame toward Mexico for U.S. problems with illegal immigration and imported narcotics was “erroneous,” the Mexican official said.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is up for review in 2026, at which time all three countries must decide whether to extend it for 16 years. This also presents Mr. Trump with the opportunity to demand terms that are better for the United States.
Last week, Ms. Freeland made comments that suggested Canada was not ruling out sidelining Mexico in future trade talks with the United States.
But on Friday she said Canada wants to remain in a three-way agreement.
“Canada today has a North American trade deal that works for all three of our countries, and it is a trade deal that was negotiated by president-elect Donald Trump,” Ms. Freeland said at a news conference in Toronto. “Canada’s first preference and the best outcome for Canada is to maintain that foundational trade agreement.”
However, she flagged what she called “challenges with Mexico’s position when it comes to China.” She said Canadian business leaders and union leaders have approached her with concerns that “Mexico can be a back door for Chinese investment, for Chinese goods that are produced through an intentional policy of Chinese overcapacity.”
Canada this past summer imposed 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles on this very premise: that Beijing is overproducing goods, including these vehicles, in order to dominate overseas markets and destroy competition. “China dumping excess capacity in other countries hurts our workers,” Ms. Freeland said.
Asked to provide evidence that China is using Mexico’s auto industry as a way to avoid USMCA tariffs, she did not answer the question directly.
Instead, Ms. Freeland said Canada wants to make sure that Mexico, Canada and the United States together “take a clear and aligned position when it comes to China.”
The federal government said earlier this week it will pump more money into Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP in an apparent attempt to placate U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.
Ottawa’s pledge to spend more on border security followed an emergency first ministers’ meeting Wednesday evening between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial and territorial leaders to address Mr. Trump’s tariff promise
The border-security investments are expected in the weeks ahead, either through the fall economic statement or separately if parliamentary gridlock continues.