President-elect Donald Trump publicly embraced his joke to make Canada the '51st state' Tuesday by posting a picture of himself standing next to a Canadian flag overlooking a mountain range captioning it, 'Oh Canada!' 

Fox News reported Monday night that Trump had floated to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during their Friday meeting that Canada become the '51st state' if the country couldn't afford the Republican's proposed 25 percent tariffs.    

Trudeau reportedly told Trump he cannot levy that large of an import tax on the U.S.'s northern neighbor because it would completely kill the Canadian economy. 

The president-elect then suggested to Trudeau that Canada become the 51st state, which caused the prime minister and others at the table to laugh nervously, Fox's sources said. 

On Tuesday, Dominic LeBlanc, a Canadian cabinet minister clarified that Trump's comment was a 'joke' and was taken that way at the dinner table, according to the Toronto Star. 

LeBlanc was on hand at the Florida dinner. When asked by reporters if Trump thought Canada was a joke LeBlanc replied, 'Not at all, not at all.' 

'That was not the context at all,' he said. 'In a three-hour social evening at the president's residence in Florida on a long weekend of American Thanksgiving, the conversation was going to be lighthearted.' 

'The president was telling jokes,' the cabinet minister continued. 'The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment we had.' 

The joke may be on Trump, with the Star pointing out that the mountain range in the Truth Social image is actually the Matterhorn in Switzerland.  

Fox's sources said Trudeau nervously laughed when Trump initially made the '51st state' jest.  

Trump said that while prime minister is a better title, Trudeau could still be a governor. 

The sources said that someone at the table suggested Canada would be a really liberal state, which cued laughter. 

Trump then suggested that Canada could be divided into two states - a conservative and a liberal state. 

He then told Trudeau if he didn't stop people from flowing over the northern border, Canada could become one or two U.S. states, the sources said. 

While the exchange prompted laughs, sources also told Fox that Trump gave a serious message to Trudeau about immigration enforcement. 

Illegal crossing from Canada represent a much smaller number than the illegal foot traffic into the U.S. from Mexico - but Trump threatened both Canada and Mexico with 25 percent tariffs if actions weren't taken. 

In the same Truth Social post, he threatened an additional 10 percent in import taxes on China - due to the government not imposing a death penalty on drug dealers as was promised. 

Part of Trump's hardline policies are to stop the flow of the deadly Chinese-produced drug fentanyl into the United States. 

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report from last week found that the U.S. Border Patrol had intercepted more than 21,000 migrants crossing into the U.S. from Canada during the first 10 months of the year.

In October alone, however, border agents apprehended more than 56,000 migrants coming over the southern border. 

A majority of the illegal crossings from Canada - around 18,000 for the first 10 months of the year - are via the so-called Swanton Sector, which has seen a dramatic rise in illegal crossings over the past two years. 

It's the area east of the Great Lakes in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. 

Trump's incoming 'border czar,' Tom Homan, is from this region - and will no doubt pay it some attention - and it's part of Rep. Elise Stefanik's district. 

She's been a top Trump ally on Capitol Hill and is due to become is ambassador to the United Nations.