Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited President Donald Trump Tuesday and sought to make clear that Canada will never become the 51st U.S. state. "As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” Carney told Trump. “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. But the opportunity is in the partnership and what we can build together.”
“Never say never,” Trump replied.
“Never, never, never, never, never,” Carney mouthed to reporters, smiling.
Tensions between the two traditional allies have been ratcheted up by Trump’s tariffs, his talk of Canada becoming the 51st state and his repeated insistence that the United States doesn’t need Canadian goods. “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!” Trump wrote on social media shortly before Carney arrived for their meeting. The president also repeated a debunked claim that the U.S. is “subsidizing” Canada to the tune of $200 billion a year.
Still, Tuesday’s discussion between the two leaders was amicable, in stark contrast to Trump’s recent jabs at Canada and his Oval Office blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Canadians may be furious at Trump, but Carney praised him as a “transformational president.” For his part, Trump said he has a lot of respect for Carney and praised Canada for stepping up its defense spending. “We’re going to be friends with Canada. Regardless of anything, we’re going to be friends with Canada,” Trump said.
Many of Trump’s remarks were unrelated to Canada or Carney, but the president also made clear he’s thinking about trade deals largely as a one-way street and he pushed back on questions about when new deals might be announced. “Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods,” he said. “You're going to come and you're going to pay a price and we're going to give you a very good price.”
When asked if there was anything Carney could say that would make him lift the tariffs he’d imposed, Trump simply said, “No.”