After their Oval Office encounter under the glare of the TV lights, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his U.S. counterpart retreated to the Roosevelt Room for a working lunch on Tuesday. Much of the mealtime chatter was about foreign policy issues, according to a senior Canadian official.
The two leaders got along quite well, the official said, and the president stressed at the start and end of the luncheon that it was an honour to host the new prime minister at the White House.
Trump said at the time he regarded the day’s discussions as “great” — matching comments he later told the White House press pool.
“He’s a nice man. We get along very well. We had a great meeting today — really. I think the relationship’s going to be very strong,” Trump said of Carney.
While there were niceties, Carney was clear with Trump in private, as he was in his public statements before the press, that Canada and the U.S. coming together as one country is a non-starter, according to the official, who spoke to CBC News and other reporters travelling with the prime minister on background and with the condition that they not be named.
Carney told reporters he personally asked Trump to stop with the annexationist talk.
Carney says he ‘pressed the case’ for tariffs to be lifted in meeting with Trump
But the Canadian delegation left the meeting with a clearer understanding that the president really thinks it would be a good idea for Canada to become the 51st state — these are not just comments designed to provoke, the official said.
Trump, however, conceded it “takes two to tango” and it’s not likely to happen with the vast majority of people in this country steadfastly opposed.
The prime minister also relayed to the president over lunch that his tariffs on Canadian goods need to be dismantled if there’s going to be a new trading arrangement between the two countries, as both leaders discussed there should be, the official said. Any trade “deal” for Canada must include the U.S. lifting its tariffs.
While Carney, his team and most Canadians at home were seized with the 51st state taunts and Trump’s punishing tariffs, the president himself was eager to break bread with Carney and discuss global issues that are unfolding on his watch, namely the Russia-Ukraine war, hostility with China and the situation in Iran, the official said.
The official said Trump wanted to get Carney’s perspective on issues that the president is preoccupied with as he tries to fulfil his campaign promise to swiftly bring the war on Ukraine to an end and tamp down Iran’s nuclear ambitions — two issues that are proving to be particularly challenging for the administration.
Trump also asked Carney to weigh in on Israel and Gaza — although there was relatively little talk about that issue, the official said — and the Houthis in Yemen, which the president spoke about at some length in front of the White House cameras in the public portion of their get-together.
The fact that the president sought input from Carney on these files was seen, the official said, as an “encouraging sign” that Trump respects Canada’s new leader and regards him as a worthy equal.
It’s normal for world leaders to discuss foreign policy issues and bounce ideas off one another, and Trump’s willingness to do that with Carney at their first meeting was another proof point that the day was a relative success, the official said.
Trump did not have a specific ask from Canada on these foreign files, the official said.
Carney calls Trump meeting ‘constructive,’ but U.S. tariffs remain
While global affairs took up a large part of the luncheon, Carney and Trump also spoke about issues closer to home, including fentanyl — the apparent reason why the U.S. slapped big tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China earlier this year.
The official said Trump is personally very “conversant” on the issue and the two leaders had a fairly detailed discussion about cartels and the supply chains that are fuelling the drug crisis. In Canada alone there have been 50,928 apparent opioid toxicity deaths since 2016.
One of Trump’s senior advisers, Stephen Miller, was on hand for the lunch and spoke about the drug issue as well, the official said.
