Donald Trump and Pierre Trudeau: The real story
In a surprise start to the first meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his new U.S. counterpart, President Donald Trump revealed to reporters that he met Trudeau’s father in 1981.
“I’m honoured to be here with Prime Minister Trudeau, whose father I knew and respected greatly,” said Trump at the opening of a joint lunch with Trudeau.
Trump only appears to have met Pierre Trudeau once. The meeting occurred in November 1981 at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The elder Trudeau, who was in his 12th non-consecutive year of being prime minister, had come to New York to accept the Family of Man award.
Presented by a society affiliated with the Council of Churches of the City of New York, the award was given to anyone showing “an outstanding example of excellence in society,” noted a press account from the time.
As a child, Justin Trudeau was often hauled along on his father’s international trips. As a result, the past 16 months have seen a number of international meetings begin with Trudeau reminiscing about his pre-pubescent encounters with a country’s leaders.
An eight-year-old Justin met the Queen, for instance, and also shook hands with then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
However, any link between Trump and Trudeau was not widely known before Monday.
The prime minister jogged Trump’s memory with a framed photo of the pair. The black and white image shows a 35-year-old Trump at the Waldorf’s lectern while a tuxedoed Trudeau sits to his right.
“What a great picture, I will keep that in a very special place,” Trump told reporters.
Pierre Trudeau’s own address that night in 1981 included a comment about U.S.-Canadian relations.
“We are able to stand, for extended periods without strain, simultaneously eyeball-to-eyeball and shoulder-to-shoulder,” he told the assemblage.
The Nov. 5 photo was snapped five months before Trudeau successfully patriated the Constitution. Nevertheless, it also captures the Canadian leader just as his popularity began a prolonged decline that would end with the Liberal party’s massive defeat in 1984.
Trump, meanwhile, was not yet registered as a member of any political party and was a year away from seeing the completion of Trump Tower.