Donald Trump left his Canadian guests at Mar-a-Lago with a clear impression that fentanyl is his top priority for now in the Canada-U.S. relationship, according to Canadian officials familiar with the details of Friday’s surprise dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The incoming U.S. president gave the sense he wants to declare he’s already saved American lives even before taking office on Jan. 20, 2025, said two sources whom CBC News agreed not to identify.
The intensity of the focus on fentanyl caught some of the Canadians at the dinner by surprise, the sources said, as the Canadian side had previously assumed Trump was focused more on human migration than on opioids at the border.
What’s still not clear, the sources said, is what specifically Trump wants from Canada in exchange for removing his threat of a debilitating 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods coming into the United States.
When Trump issued his threat on Monday, he said in a social media post that this tariff will remain in effect until his country stops being flooded with undocumented migrants and drugs, especially fentanyl.
Does Trump want more patrols at the border, more police crackdowns on drug labs, or tougher laws to fight money laundering and organized crime? That’s not yet clear, both sources said. There were no such specifics from Trump at the dinner.
Trudeau flew to Florida with Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc and his chief of staff, Katie Telford.
LeBlanc said the Canadians told Trump’s team they’re going to look at procuring “for example, additional drones [and] additional police helicopters. We’re going to redeploy personnel.”
“We talked about the challenge that fentanyl represents in Canada, and these are shared objectives,” LeBlanc said on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday.
The sources said the dinner was intended primarily as a social event. The plans came together unbeknown to almost anyone in the federal government during a series of interactions between Trudeau and Trump.
The few who were aware of it were instructed to keep quiet until Trudeau was already in Florida.
Trudeau’s plan, the sources said, was to set a positive tone with a good meeting, share some personal interactions, get to know people on Trump’s team and not spoil this dinner encounter with a hard sell on tariffs.
One source said the event concluded with Trump personally walking Trudeau toward the exit of his Mar-a-Lago estate after a pleasant evening.
When asked if Trump likes the prime minister, LeBlanc said, “Very much so.”
“I saw very much the mutual respect and warmth between the two leaders,” he said. “I thought it was very positive.”
‘A position of weakness,’ Poilievre says
During a news conference on Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said that “while I’m a critic of Mr. Trudeau, I did feel badly that he went in with such a position of weakness.”
“Normally when a prime minister goes to the United States to meet a president, they’re looking to make gains,” Poilievre said. “What gains did we hear from Mr. Trudeau? None. He’s just trying to limit losses.”
The Conservative leader also said that Canada needs “a strong prime minister who has the brains and backbone to put Canada first and fight for our workers and our security.”
When asked by reporters if he or anyone in his party has been in touch with Trump’s transition team since the U.S. election on Nov. 5, Poilievre said he’s “not the prime minister.”
Trump values relationships, says former adviser
Everett Eissenstat was deputy director of Trump’s National Economic Council during his first term. In an interview on Rosemary Barton Live, he said one thing that is unique about Trump is “how much he values personal relationships.”
“I think the willingness of Prime Minister Trudeau to fly down to Mar-a-Lago and meet with him personally is a very significant move and one that I think was appreciated,” he said.
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with former Trump administration economic adviser Everett Eissenstat about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s meeting with the U.S. president-elect, Trump’s strategy on tariffs and how Canada should respond.
According to Eissenstat, Trump has “found that tariffs can be a very significant motivator to get economies to move in a direction that he thinks is beneficial to the United States.”
When Trump issued his threat on Monday, he said in a social media post that “this Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
When asked what he thinks Trump is trying to get out of his tariff threat, Eissenstat said the president-elect is “trying to solve some of the long-standing problems we’ve seen globally.”
“I think this is part of a bigger picture that he’s trying to empower the United States to reorient [and] chase some things that he believes are very important,” he said.
The lesson for the Canadian government, Eissenstat said, is that “personal relationships matter. And being dismissive or condescending about these concerns isn’t going to work.
“It was a very interesting weekend for sure,” he said. “And I think a relationship that I’ll be watching very, very closely.”