Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with MAGA Republican President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday.
While it wasn't as uncomfortable and awkward as Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it also wasn't full of the fawning admiration shown for El Salvador's authoritarian President Nayib Bukele.
According to CNN, Trump spoke 95% of the time about a litany of topics completely unrelated to U.S.-Canadian relations.
At one point, Trump told the gathered press:
"We don’t do much business with Canada from our standpoint. They do a lot of business with us. We’re at like 4%."
But PM Carney interjected:
"We are the largest client of the United States in the totality of all goods."
You can see a clip of the moment here:
It's unclear if Trump was referring to trade from the United States to Canada or from Canada to the United States. But on Truth Social prior to the sit down, Trump claimed—in a post full of false claims and made-up numbers—Canada needs the U.S. but the U.S. doesn't need Canada.
He wrote:
"I look forward to meeting the new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. I very much want to work with him, but cannot understand one simple TRUTH—Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things?"
"We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us!"
"The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence."
@realDonaldTrump/Truth Social
Regardless of what Trump was referring to during the Oval Office meeting, his version of reality was inaccurate.
According to figures published by the United States government, Canada was the largest importer of American goods in 2024. On the flip side, Canada joined Mexico and China as a top three exporter of goods to the United States.
People felt Prime Minister Carney handled his first official visit well, but were less impressed by Trump.
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And several people had critiques of Trump's new Oval Office decor.
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Prime Minister Carney also made clear to Trump that Canada has no interest in becoming part of the United States.
He stated:
"Respectfully, Canadians’ view on this is not going to change on the 51st state. As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale."
Providing examples to help Trump understand, PM Carney referred to the White House and Buckingham Palace as places that will never be for sale.
Although the White House might require an asterisk and footnote to cover the reported sales of access via Trump's memecoin and other grifts.
"We’re sitting in one right now. You know, Buckingham Palace that you visited as well."
"And having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale ever."
With his usual diplomacy, Trump responded:
"Never say never. I’ve had many, many things that were not doable, and they ended up being doable, and only doable in a very friendly way.
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Prime Minister Carney told the press after the meeting:
"I’m glad that you couldn’t tell what was going through my mind."
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