Trump-Trudeau Live Stream: Watch The Press Conference With Canada's Prime Minister And The US President
President Donald Trump will meet Monday with the progressive leader of the United States' northern neighbor at the White House. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will join the newly sworn-in Republican for a day of discussion and working meals in Washington, D.C., and the pair will conclude their talks with a joint news conference at 2 p.m. EST.
Curious viewers can watch the presser live on C-SPAN here.
Experts have said they expect the meeting to be a somewhat awkward one, given the stark contrast in the two leaders’ political leanings. The Associated Press, for example, advised Trudeau to “focus on the jobs,” “steer clear” of any discussion related to climate change, “don’t preach on values” and “go easy on the substance, for now.”
Following the issuing of Trump’s executive order barring entry into the U.S. by Syrian refugees and citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, and his suggestion that Christians’ asylum applications would be prioritized over those of Muslims, Trudeau tweeted that Canadians welcomed people “fleeing persecution… regardless of your faith.”
Also, the day before an Axios report cited Trump as demanding that women who work for him need “to dress like women,” vocal feminist Trudeau pushed for passage of Bill C-309. The bill established a national Gender Equality Week.
Uncomfortable social interactions aside, Canadians worried ahead of the meeting Trump’s pledge to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by former President George H. W. Bush in 1992 and all but eliminated trade barriers between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Trump’s relationship with the leader of NAFTA’s other major signatory, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, has already soured following Trump's demands that Nieto’s government cover the costs of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — the construction of which the new U.S. president mandated in a Jan. 25 executive order. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., pegged that bill at between $12 billion and $15 billion — a cost Nieto told his constituents they would not be covering.
Trudeau and Trump were expected to focus on women in business and launch a task force called the United States Canada Council for the Advancement of Women Business Leaders-Female Entrepreneurs, an unnamed White House official told ABC News. The talk will involve a roundtable of female executives recruited by the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, the source said, and would reassure Trudeau his country won't be hurt by Trump’s protectionist trade objectives.
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