Donald Trump disparaged the leaders of Canada and Mexico, America’s closest neighbors, at a Fox Awards ceremony meant to honor his role as America’s greatest “patriot.”
Two weeks after threatening to impose 25% tariffs on imports from both countries for failing to stop drugs and immigrants from crossing the border, the president-elect revealed to a chorus of derisive audience members that Canada is the 51st U.S. state. I felt joy.
Chants of “51” were heard Thursday night at Fox Nation’s Patriot of the Year awards ceremony in New York. Trump was presented with the top award by Sean Hannity, one of the network’s star hosts.
This is an allusion to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last week, where he warned the president-elect that carrying out his tariff threat would destroy the country’s economy. He said he would. In response, President Trump reportedly responded, “Maybe Canada should become the 51st state.”
Canadian officials portrayed the comment as a joke, but Trump made no such qualifier in Thursday’s speech.
“We talked to Canada and they were talking about 25% tariffs, so Justin came right in and that’s just the beginning,” he said.
As the audience broke out into chants of “51,” President Trump said: I like this. This is a good crowd. That’s an interesting statement. thank you very much. I am grateful for that pent up anger and love. That’s all at once. ”
President Trump went on to describe a phone conversation he had with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum after the tariff threat.
President Trump said, “I spoke to the new president of Mexico the other day. She’s a very nice woman.” “And we had a really nice conversation. But she said, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ I said: “That’s not true.” I’m just putting in huge tariffs because you’re allowing criminals to come into our country, and I can’t tolerate any more. ” And it stopped. It was very fast. ”
Sheinbaum described the Nov. 28 meeting in a different light, calling it “very friendly” and saying “there will be no possibility of a tariff war” as a result of the meeting. He also said Mexico would not close its border with the United States.
Trump’s speech was one of his few television appearances since his Nov. 5 election victory. Since then, he has spent most of his time at Mar-a-Lago nominating members of his administration.
It also meant a kind of rapprochement with Fox News, which President Trump sometimes criticized as “loose” during the campaign. Fox Nation consists of a combination of programming from Fox News’ streaming service and Fox’s primetime programming.
In a 10-minute speech, he called immigration into the United States an “invasion” and praised Tom Homan, a hardline former police officer whom he named “border czar,” as a “main figure.”
“We don’t have to do this, we have no other choice. But we will stop them,” Trump said.
Canadian officials said relatively few immigrants come to the United States through Canada, and even fewer for fentanyl, the synthetic opioid drug at the center of America’s addiction crisis.
The president-elect has vowed to carry out mass deportations of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Homan, who served as deputy commissioner of Immigration, Customs and Enforcement in the first administration, was selected to lead the effort.
Several Democratic mayors and governors have pledged to block large-scale roundups of immigrants deemed illegal or violating jurisdiction. Homan in turn threatened Denver Mayor Mike Johnston with jail if he interfered.
