A meeting between the President of the United States and Prime Minister of Canada is rarely newsworthy. But, with tension between the two nations at the highest levels since the 1800’s, President Trump’s meeting with newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney was worth watching.
Put another way, a meeting that should have been routine, even anodyne, has become important, in large part only because the two leaders did not fight in the Oval Office.
Indeed, amidst the backdrop of a trade war, talk of annexing Canada, and the “anti-Trump” campaign Carney ran, an Oval Office blow up was very much a possibility.
And yet, for all of the concerns, the meeting was, by most metrics, extremely cordial.
Carney served up the necessary platitudes to satisfy Trump – calling him a “transformational president” – and Trump remarked that “Canada is a very special place” as well as noting that the only concession he’s looking for is “friendship.”
That being said, while the Trump-Carney meeting lacked the fireworks of the disastrous one between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, the overarching question remains: Was Trump’s friendly tone a turning point in his relations with world leaders, or were the niceties a head fake?
For those looking for signs that the administration may be turning a new corner, the past week has provided some hope.
Thursday brought the first trade deal since tariffs were announced, signed by an ebullient Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Further, the administration announced that they’d be sending Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Rep. Jameison Greer to meet with senior Chinese officials in Switzerland to discuss the ongoing trade war between the two countries.
While those developments should be kept in perspective, they do suggest that the White House recognizes that they need to focus on opportunities to make deals, rather than continually provoking every country.
Additionally, Trump himself seemed to allude to the fact that his meeting with Carney was of a different sort than previous Oval Office meetings.
Shortly after, he told reporters, “We had a little blow up with someone else” referring to Zelenskyy, “that was much different. This is…a very friendly conversation.”
However, there were a few bumps that could also suggest Trump’s gentler demeanor may have been fleeting, or more for show, rather than a genuine change.
When Trump repeatedly brought up making Canada the 51st state, Carney gently, but firmly and consistently, reminded him that Canada was “not for sale.”
Similarly, before the meeting, Trump posted that the U.S. needs nothing from Canada, disparaging them in the process.
Writing on Truth Social, the President said, “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…”
To be sure, in 2024, U.S.-Canada trade reached roughly $762 billion, and Canada remains the biggest destination for American exports, Trump’s proclamations notwithstanding.
And during follow up questions from the British press on the U.S-U.K. deal, Trump took a noticeably hostile tone when pressed on his characterization of the trade deal.
Asked why the White House described the deal as “comprehensive” or whether Trump was “overstating” the deal “as a president who needs a result in a difficult time” Trump rambled before slamming the reporter.
Taken together, there was both cause for tepid optimism as well as concern following the meeting.
On one hand, Trump displayed at least some willingness to soften his stance vis-à-vis trade and foreign relations.
While refusing to budge on the steel, aluminum, energy, and auto parts tariffs, Trump did signal an openness to renegotiate some details of the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement.
Carney had come into the meeting publicly seeking a way to de-escalate the current trade war, and while he may not have left totally satisfied, at least an off-ramp appears within reach.
In that same vein, the generally friendly tone Trump used with Carney and Starmer suggests that the administration understands there is a limit to how much they can bully world leaders.
As Sharn McCreesh put it in the New York Times, Vance and Lutnick sat there in the Carney meeting “ready to jump in if needed. But they never did. The unspoken directive from the president seemed clear: Everybody be cool.”
On the other hand, the Carney meeting underscored the dangers inherent in Trump’s excessively transactional approach to foreign relations and economic policy.
By continuing to insist that the United States does not need Canada – or any other country – Trump is thumbing his nose at our biggest trade partners and allies.
Pushing relations with traditional allies to the breaking point is an obviously misguided policy that harms America’s “brand” on the world stage.
It’s already done so in Canada, where a boycott of American goods has been underway for months.
In that same vein, Trump’s obsession with turning Canada into the 51st state – erasing the “artificial line” between countries as he put it – is an unnecessary provocation and distraction at a time when the president’s attention should be on serious matters.
Moreover, it’s also deeply unpopular.
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There are a few signs that it may be the latter – particularly Trump’s approach to the UK trade deal and an openness to serious negotiations with China – but it is far too early to know for certain, given Trump’s tendency to change direction on a whim.
Ultimately, for the sake of maintaining America’s enduring alliances around the world, we can only hope the cordiality was not a façade but will be continued in future negotiations.
Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.
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