Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gently rebuffed President Donald Trump’s desire to annex Canada on Tuesday in a White House meeting aimed at easing tensions between the two countries.
“Well, if I may, 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 the last several months, it’s not for sale.”
“Never say never,” Trump replied.
Their remarks before reporters in the Oval Office demonstrated a warmer early relationship with Trump compared to Carney’s predecessor, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but simultaneously exposed tension points that include Trump’s efforts to renegotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Carney said his country was “not for sale” after Trump insisted Canadians would receive a tax cut and free military support in what would be “a wonderful marriage” with the U.S.
Trump opened the public comments, held before a private meeting and lunch, by mentioning Canada’s recent federal election. In January, the Conservative Party held a more than 20-point lead over the Liberal Party, but increasing anti-Trump sentiment helped carry Carney to victory in April after he replaced Trudeau as party leader in March.
“As you know, just a few days ago, he won a very big election in Canada,” Trump said. “I think I was probably the greatest thing that happened to him, but I can’t take full credit.”
Though Canada was exempted from Trump’s “Liberation Day” round of tariff announcements, the country is still facing a slate of stiff trade barriers, including a 25% duty on non-USMCA compliant goods, 10% tariffs on energy and potash, and sectoral tariffs on products including steel, aluminum, and lumber.
In return, Canada retaliated with a 25% tariff on non-USMCA-compliant U.S. vehicles and duties on American orange juice, whiskey, peanut butter, and motorcycles, among other products.
The White House has remained adamant that Trump’s announcement of Canada and Mexico tariffs in the early weeks of his second term is a reaction to border security and the flow of fentanyl in North America. But Trump himself suggested that he might soon sign a trade deal with Carney in exchange for other concessions.
“We’re going to be friends with Canada, regardless of anything,” Trump said when asked to elaborate on possible concessions. “We’re going to be friends with Canada. Canada is a very special place to me.”
In addition to rebuffing Trump’s threats to take over Canada, Carney also underscored Canada’s position regarding the USMCA, accusing the president of taking advantage of the deal amid his tariff war.
Both Trump and Carney tried to ease tensions while also tempering expectations for an immediate breakthrough ahead of Tuesday’s meeting at the White House.
On Monday, Trump told reporters he was not sure what Carney was hoping to achieve from their Oval Office sitdown, a little more than a week after Carney was elected.
“I guess he wants to make a deal,” Trump told reporters. “Everybody does. They all want to make a deal because we have something that they all want.”
Beth Burke, the CEO of the Canadian American Business Council, said businesses on both sides of the border are showing “cautious optimism” that Carney is better suited to negotiating a path forward with Trump.
“I think we have to be measured in what our expectations are of this first interaction, but my hope is that this is a fresh start,” Burke told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
“Having two leaders in Ottawa and D.C. who are businesspeople is a great thing from a business perspective,” Burke continued. “They’re tough negotiators, and I think that they’re going to bring that to the table when they meet today.”
“There is an expectation from Canadians that Prime Minister Carney will be tough and strong and stand up for Canada, and I think that’s a good thing because we know that President Trump will do the same for the United States,” she added. “My hope is that they can use today’s meeting as an opportunity to turn the page and maybe dial down some of the rhetoric on both sides.”
Notably, Trump has not called Carney “governor,” as he did with Trudeau, referring to his desire to turn Canada into the 51st U.S. state.
It was that sort of language that helped Carney’s Liberal Party last week win 168 seats in Canada’s House of Commons, short of the 172 needed for an outright majority, though Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh lost their respective seats in the Canadian Parliament.
A plurality of voters also appeared to agree with Carney’s argument that he is uniquely positioned to respond to Trump as a former central banker who reportedly told the president his country would sell Canadian U.S. bond holdings if they were not shown more respect. To that end, Trump repeated Tuesday that he “respected” Carney and Canada.
“I go there with the expectation of difficult but constructive discussions, and that is the spirit of the conversations that the president and I had,” Carney said last week during his postelection press conference. “Do not expect white smoke out of that meeting. There will be white smoke later somewhere else in the world this month, but do not expect that.”
From the U.S.’s perspective, at least expressed Monday night by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Fox News, Trump was also going into the meeting expecting negotiations to be “really complex.”
“They have their socialist regime, and it’s basically feeding off of America,” Lutnick told the network. “Why do we make cars in Canada? Why do we do our films in Canada? Come on.”
Lutnick deprioritized the renegotiation of the USMCA in his remarks, contending that “a lot of things are going to be put into that” but that “next year is coming.”
“I think, for now, it’s OK, but I think what you should expect to see is a real revisiting of USMCA in a year,” he said.
Carney’s strategy was grounded in the knowledge that “there are a set of complex economic and security and defense discussions ahead which will take time to iron out,” said Chris Hernandez-Roy, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“A win would be a clear change of tone from the White House that the two countries will embark on a process to constructively address the irritants in the bilateral relationship and end the unrealistic and confrontational narrative of the annexation of Canada,” Hernandez-Roy told the Washington Examiner.
To achieve that, Carney may have to provide an inducement, from a plan to quickly meet Canada’s 2% of GDP defense spending target to cooperation in the Arctic, Hernandez-Roy added.
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Burke agreed that Carney has a “tight window” to make progress with Trump but said that after months of heightened tension, “there is a huge appetite for wins.”
“Canada’s diligence and attention and responsiveness to both the border and fentanyl issues can really create an opportunity for them to agree on,” she said. “I really am hopeful that we can move to the next page, which is with legitimate commerce, because managing goods, services, and people that are facilitating the business, which is the backbone of both of our economies, is extremely important.”
