Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made his second trip to the White House on Tuesday, enjoying a jocular press conference and a working lunch with President Donald Trump but coming away with no concessions on trade or tariffs.
Some Carney supporters and ardent left-wing activists thought the meeting was a bit too jocular, as Carney – who has a “non-binary” child – remained silent while Trump made fun of the woke and transsexual agenda.
A horrified UK Daily Mail compared Carney to a “shrieking teen at a Taylor Swift concert” as he heaped praise upon Trump in a desperate effort to “butter him up.”
“Carney actually manages to blow so much smoke at Trump here that even the ego-rich president can’t listen anymore, which has to be a first, and interrupts him with a joke about a merger of the U.S. and Canada with a bashful smile,” huffed body language expert Judi James.
James was referring to the laugh-out-loud moment from the Trump-Carney press conference when Carney was in the midst of listing the most momentous achievements from Trump’s second term in office, including “the transformation in the economy, unprecedented commitments of NATO partners to defense spending, peace from India, Pakistan, through to Azerbaijan, Armenia,” and “dismantling Iran as a force of terror.”
Carney was about to name what he saw as the “most important” item on Trump’s agenda when the president interjected: “The merger of Canada and the United States!”
“That wasn’t where I was going!” Carney responded, joining the round of laughter that filled the room. Where he was going was Trump’s effort to work out a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Trump was quite complimentary of Carney in return, praising him as a “world-class leader” and a “good man” doing a “great job” for his country. Asked by a reporter why he found it so difficult to reach a bilateral trade agreement with such a good man, Trump lobbed back another zinger: “Because I want to be a great man, too.”
Trump made an interesting point about his trade dispute with Canada by noting that its close proximity to the United States, and the long history of economic ties between the two countries, made it crucial for them to see eye-to-eye on major issues, like the steel and automotive industries.
“The problem we have is that they want a car company and I want a car company. They want steel and we want steel,” Trump said.
Carney countered by arguing that competition does not have to mean conflict, although those concepts tend to run together when discussing the intersection of government trade policies and massive industries.
“There are areas where we compete and it is in those areas where we have to come to an agreement that works. But there are more areas where we are stronger together,” the Canadian prime minister contended.
Trump was generally upbeat about the progress of trade talks and mending fences with Canada, at one point grabbing Carney in a metaphorical bear hug by announcing Canada has agreed to collaborate with the United States on its Golden Dome defense initiative – a collaboration Ottawa does not quite see as a done deal.
“Signing on − you’re using a technical term of contract law. Nobody put the contract in front of us,” Canadian trade minister Dominic LeBlanc hastened to explain after the press conference. “We told the Americans we want to be a security and defense partner and the Golden Dome is absolutely part of that conversation.”
Royal Canadian Air Force Major-General J.D. Smyth, Canada’s top commander in the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), told the Globe and Mail that Ottawa is very much interested in teaming up with Washington for enhanced defenses against the growing threat of polar attacks, especially the new generation of hypersonic missiles. He said Canada has already committed almost $40 billion to modernize its radars, sensors, and weapons to prepare for the creation of a system like Golden Dome.
“The likely threat to Canada is a missile coming from over the horizon, the likely threat to the United States is the same thing. We can’t separate the ability to defend from the geography. So, we have to work together with them,” he said.
Trump has previously linked Canadian participation in Golden Dome to the completion of a bilateral trade agreement – or to Canada becoming the 51st American state, whichever it prefers – so his sudden enthusiasm about Canada signing on to the defense project could be taken as a sign of his optimism that a solution to the trade issue is in sight.
CBC News noted on Tuesday that Trump “spoke more positively about Canada during today’s meeting than he has at any time since winning the election last November,” but Carney still went home without the relief on tariffs that he was looking for. Carney and LeBlanc are still in Washington with their trade team, however, so progress could be made this week.
CBC said:
While no one is predicting the outcome with any certainty, it’s the first sign Trump has been willing to move on steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada since he doubled them to 50 per cent in June. So the Canadians are not walking away with a win yet, but the negotiating isn’t over. Stay tuned.
Some Carney supporters will be rankled by the difference between the prime minister’s tough-talking, take-no-prisoners campaign, in which he postured as the fiercest Trump fighter in all of the Great White North, and his jovial meeting with the American president. Carney’s opponent in the last election, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, saw him off to Washington on Monday with a letter that essentially called him a wimp and told him not to come home without a trade deal in his pocket.
“U.S. tariffs on Canada are twice as high as when you were elected saying you would get rid of them. You promised ‘elbows up,’ but then caved on dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs, the digital services tax and more while winning nothing in return for Canada,” Poilievre hectored Carney.
“No more losing. It is time for you to deliver the promised wins,” Poilievre said.
Left-wing activists on both sides of the border were furious with Carney for sitting quietly while Trump mocked wokeness and criticized the transsexual agenda on Tuesday, especially since Carney himself has a “non-binary” adult child. Some of Carney’s Canadian detractors seemed to enjoy what they saw as Trump deliberately humiliating Carney.
“I think we have great leadership, but we also have great policy. We have strong borders. We have no men in women’s sports. We’re not going to take your child away and change the sex of your child. We have a country that’s based on common sense, and strength, and intelligence,” Trump said.
Trump added that his Democrat predecessor Joe Biden left America as a “dead country,” with “men playing in women’s sports, and transgender for everybody, and windmills all over the place.”
“Carney, sitting beside him, did not respond publicly. The contrast was striking: Trump dominated the moment with bluster and provocation, while Carney, having been elected on the promise that he could handle Trump better than his predecessors, remained silent,” fumed gay-rights publication The Advocate.
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