NEW: Trump says Trudeau called him to talk tariffs, accuses PM of not holding new elections to 'stay in power'

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to mock Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accusing him of leveraging recent trade discussions as a political maneuver to stay in office.

“Justin Trudeau, of Canada, called me to ask what could be done about Tariffs. I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl that came through the Borders of Canada and Mexico, and nothing has convinced me that it has stopped. He said that it’s gotten better, but I said, ‘That’s not good enough.’ The call ended in a ‘somewhat’ friendly manner! He was unable to tell me when the Canadian Election is taking place, which made me curious, like, what’s going on here? I then realized he is trying to use this issue to stay in power. Good luck Justin!” Trump posted.

In a follow-up post, Trump once again mockingly referred to Trudeau as a governor. “For anyone who is interested, I also told Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada that he largely caused the problems we have with them because of his Weak Border Policies, which allowed tremendous amounts of Fentanyl, and Illegal Aliens, to pour into the United States. These Policies are responsible for the death of many people!”

During Wednesday’s White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked in reference to the post, "Less than 1% of the fentanyl seized last year was in the northern border. What else does Canada need to do?"

Leavitt said that the USA’s neighbors to the north and south "have allowed America to be a dumping ground, not just for illegal aliens, but for illegal, poisonous, deadly fentanyl, which is now the number one killer of young people in this country aged 18 to 34."

The comments come as Trudeau condemned Trump’s recent decision to impose new tariffs on Canadian goods, calling it “a very dumb thing to do.” In response, Trudeau announced that Canada would retaliate with tariffs on over $100 billion of American goods over 21 days.

“Today, the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense,” Trudeau claimed on Tuesday. 

Trump has defended the tariffs as a response to weak border security from Canada and Mexico. During his address to Congress Tuesday night, Trump said, “Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it.”