Carney tells Trump Canada is not for sale, president praises PM as a 'very good person'
Canada's new prime minister met face-to-face with Trump at the White House
Prime Minister Mark Carney stepped into the lion's den Tuesday for his first face-to-face with his U.S. counterpart — a high-stakes meeting that seemed to go well with compliments exchanged on both sides as President Donald Trump conceded his dream of annexing Canada is likely off the table.
Carney's goal for this first meeting of his premiership was to turn the page on a fractious few months with Canada-U.S. relations at their lowest point in decades.
Speaking to reporters at the Canadian Embassy after his half-day of talks with Trump, Carney said he feels better about where things stand now than when he arrived in Washington — even if the U.S. president did not yet agree to dismantle the punishing tariff regime on Canadian goods.
What he did secure from Trump was a commitment to negotiate some sort of new Canada-U.S. trade deal, Carney said. He also asked Trump to stop with the 51st state taunts during their private luncheon, he said.
"It was a very constructive meeting. We have a lot more work to do. I'm not trying to suggest we can have one meeting and everything's changed but now we are engaged — very fully engaged," he said. "I feel better about the relations."
Trump himself said Canada-U.S. relations are on better trajectory after Tuesday's talks.
Speaking briefly to the press after the Canadian delegation left, the president said he was happy to see Justin Trudeau gone, saying the former prime minister and his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, were antagonistic and fostered a "bad relationship" between the two countries.
"I think this is a big step up. It's a good step up for Canada," Trump said of Carney.
While he called Trudeau "the governor," in a show of disrespect, Trump said he hasn't done that with Carney and he may not in the future.
The day started with Trump warmly welcoming Carney to the Oval Office, saying there were some "tough points" to discuss while also praising the former central banker as "a very talented, very good person" who deserved to win the recent federal election.
Trump signalled from the start he wasn't going to give Carney a rough ride like he did with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year when a similar meeting descended into chaos — a scenario Canadian officials were dreading.
"We had another little blow-up with somebody else," Trump joked as Canadian and American reporters looked on. "That was much different — this is a very friendly conversation."
Asked by reporters if he's still serious about Canada becoming part of the U.S., Trump said he was but acknowledged it's likely a non-starter.
"It takes two to tango," the president said, adding "as a real estate developer at heart" he would love to see the U.S. span from the Gulf Coast to the Arctic Circle.
"I do feel it's much better for Canada," he said, claiming taxes would be lower and defence would be better if the two countries came together as one.
Carney diplomatically shot down Trump's talk, saying that as a property developer he should know "there are some places that are never for sale."
"Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign the last several months, it's not for sale and it won't be for sale ever," Carney said.
Still, the president held out hope it might happen one day. He said "never say never," about uniting the two countries.
In response, Carney said: "Never, never, never, never, never," as reporters shouted questions at the president.
While respectful of Carney, Trump suggested he is not willing to budge on tariffs that have already prompted job losses in Canada and a drop in southbound exports.
Asked why he won't change course, the protectionist president said: "Just the way it is."
The president has imposed fentanyl-related tariffs on goods that are not compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) to punish Canada for supposedly lax border security. The country is also grappling with Trump's "Section 232" tariffs on Canadian-made steel, aluminum and autos, with some exceptions.
Carney pushed back at Trump's assertion the tariffs are here to stay, saying the levies are a violation of CUSMA. "Some things are going to have to change," Carney said.
Trump signalled he's willing to renegotiate CUSMA, saying "it's good for all countries," but there needs to be some unspecified tweaks — or they may have to do away with it altogether.
"We're going to work on some subtle changes, maybe," Trump said, while acknowledging there's nothing concrete on the table at this stage. "We're dealing more with concepts right now."
Carney agreed that the existing trilateral trade deal will "be the basis for a broader negotiation," and those talks will start today.
A senior Canadian official, speaking to reporters on background, said Carney was clear with Trump over lunch that the fentanyl tariffs are bogus — Canada is just not a major source of the drug and its billion-dollar border plan has resulted in a meaningful decline in the flow of illegal narcotics and migrants.
The latest figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show five kilograms of fentanyl have been seized at the northern U.S. border so far this year — compared 3,040 kilograms at the southwestern one.
"The prime minister put the facts on the table but not in a confrontational way," the official said.
Canada's position is that a new trade deal must include lifting the tariffs, the official said.
Despite some of Trump's past heated rhetoric about Canada, the U.S. president was complimentary of the country throughout the Oval Office event as he sat side-by-side with Carney.
"We're going to be friends with Canada. Canada is a very special place. I love Canada, I have a lot of respect for the Canadians," he said, touting his friendship with hockey great Wayne Gretzky as a sign that he means what he says about the northern neighbour.
Trump praised Carney's election victory and seemed to take credit for it in part, saying the Liberal Party's turnaround after being down in the polls for the better part of two years was "one of greatest comebacks in the history of politics."
While the meeting started out on friendly ground, the president drifted into denigrating the Canadian economy with his threats to somehow do away with the country's auto industry.
Trump also repeated his oft-cited falsehood that the U.S. somehow "subsidizes" this country by $200 billion a year.
The U.S. trade deficit with Canada — which is largely driven by cheap oil imports — is much smaller than that. A trade deficit is not a subsidy. It just means the U.S. buys more goods from Canada than this country does from them.
And despite trade data that shows the U.S. relies on Canadian goods — notably importing some four million barrels of oil a day — Trump said that he doesn't need "anything" from Canada.
At times, it appeared Carney was struggling to interject and he raised his hand to talk as Trump spoke at length about unrelated topics, touching on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Washington Capitals, Trudeau and teasing some sort of "great" upcoming announcement that's "not necessarily on trade."
After that Oval Office encounter, the two leaders met in the storied Roosevelt Room in the West Wing.
Both were accompanied by a cadre of high-level officials.
Beside Trump was Vice-President JD Vance, a critic of Canada like his boss, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — who blasted Canada yesterday as a "socialist regime" — and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, among others.
Carney had International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, with him along with top bureaucrats.
The prime minister declined to share what was discussed in the closed-door meeting, saying that there were "wide-ranging and constructive conversations."
Beyond a brief discussion on the 51st state rhetoric and then talk about the border, fentanyl and tariffs, a Canadian official said Trump discussed the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the situation in Iran with Carney.
"The president was very interested in getting the prime minister's perspective — which was encouraging," the official said. "This has been a great discussion."
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