Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met some very fervent admirers Thursday, during a lunch run at a deli in New York City. Or perhaps they were some merry pranksters — who nevertheless are really speaking for a lot of Americans.
The two young men approached Trudeau, who led the Liberal Party of Canada to victory this past October, and has since attracted international attention for both his optimistic progressivism and his dashing good looks. They asked him: "Could you run for president here?"
Trudeau gently explained that he can't actually do it: "It's very simple, I'm not American-born."
"Ted Cruz can do it," one of them quickly pointed out.
"He was born as an American," Trudeau replied. (Cruz was born in Canada, to an American citizen mother.)
This just happened to @JustinTrudeau in a NYC cafe: @cnn @ABC @HuffingtonPost @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/BuceWMnGge
— Stephen Ward (@_stephenward) March 17, 2016
"All our guys are so bad, you've gotta believe us," one replied. "We've met 'em all — they're so terrible. Please." (Keep a close attention to him saying he and his friend have met them all — more on this later.) "They're boring, weird. We have to settle for them," says the other man. "Please." "You know what," Trudeau said, "I have tremendous confidence in the American people." "We'll do anything. We're begging you." "We're literally begging you," the other said, as they dropped to their knees. But as a laughing Trudeau told them: "I don't know if you noticed, but I actually have a job, and it's a pretty good one."
Justin Trudeau dans un resto de Manhattan. Ces 2 Américains le supplient de se lancer dans la course présidentielle! pic.twitter.com/QgrrEdVaIj
— Marie-Joëlle Parent (@mariejoelle) March 17, 2016
As CBC News points out, though: Posts on social media, however, speculate that the men may in fact be pranksters. The two men bear close resemblance to a duo who have caused scenes at recent U.S. presidential campaign events," including showing up at a Trump event with armbands evocative of the Nazis (but with a pro-Trump logo on them instead); one man getting up at a Marco Rubio rally to claim that the Florida senator stole his girlfriend; and sitting behind Hillary Clinton at a rally with a "Settle for Hillary" slogan.
But hey, sometimes true insights can come out of comedy.
