Trudeau travels to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Trump amid tensions over immigration and tariffs

Donald Trump met with Justin Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago. As initially reported from Bloomberg, the president-elect and the Canadian prime minister met on Friday night, despite the foreign leader's public itinerary not including a stop in Florida.

Trump and Trudeau are expected to have dinner together and mainly discuss the northern border and the tariffs that the Republican threatened. In effect, he promised tariffs of up to 25% on any product coming from Mexico or Canada, if these countries do not help the United States stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs entering through the northern and southern borders.

As recently reported by AP, a senior Canadian official stated that they are already evaluating which U.S. products could be taxed in case Trump makes good on his threat.

As for the discussion over tariffs and the border, Trudeau recently stated that he hoped to dialogue with Trump to reach a deal that works for both sides. "We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns. But ultimately it is through lots of real constructive conversations with President Trump that I am going to have, that will keep us moving forward on the right track for all Canadians," he said.

CBC reported that the Canadian PM's plane landed this afternoon at Palm Beach International Airport, the same one used by Trump when he travels to Mar-a-Lago. Canada's Public Safety Minister, Dominic LeBlanc, accompanied Trudeau on the trip.

Canada's prime minister congratulated Trump on winning the November presidential election, highlighting that "the friendship between Canada and the United States is the envy of the world." "I know President Trump and I will work together to create more opportunity, prosperity, and security for both of our nations," he added.

Mélanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs, assured on Tuesday that they had been preparing for an eventual Trump victory.

"We’ve been preparing for this for months through our diplomatic network across the U.S., but also around the world. We’ve dealt with the Obama administration, we’ve dealt with the Trump administration, and we’ve dealt with the Biden administration," she told reporters late Tuesday.