Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday there is no question President Donald Trump's Twitter habit puts a "new wrinkle in international diplomacy."
"If I get woken up at night for something, it better be something more important than a tweet," Trudeau joked in a live interview with the New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and Toronto Bureau Chief Catherine Porter, Politico reported.
"I think modern means of communications have led to adjustments in how we function," he then added, The Hill reported.
"There's no question that the way the president chooses to speak directly to people through social media is a new wrinkle in international diplomacy."
And Trudeau acknowledged Trump's tweets matter.
"Anything that the president of the United States says in any forum is worthy of noting, of placing into context," Trudeau said, per Politico. "I understand the power of a genuine, authentic voice, where people in this society appreciate being able to directly hear and see and learn what someone thinks in a less filtered way."
Trudeau also praised Trump for his ability to hear differing views.
"One of the things that I've learned is he actually does listen," Trudeau said, The Hill reported. "There's a lot of politicians who have a deep-vested interest in being right all the time, and therefore close themselves off sometimes to facts or evidence or differing opinions."
"What I've found from this president is he will listen to arguments made, he will look at the ensemble of facts, of proposals, of impacts you put together, and he will be open to shifting his position," he said. "That's something we can definitely work with."
Politico noted since his inauguration, Trump has tweeted about Canada four times, first about meeting Trudeau on Feb. 13, and then mentioning Canada while describing a book.
His third tweet was more combative, saying Canada made business difficult for dairy farmers. Another tweet followed two days later, when Trump posted he had had calls from Trudeau and the president of Mexico asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than scrapping the deal.