A telling sign of how Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to the Oval Office was going was that JD Vance kept his mouth shut, except when required to provide the odd sycophantic guffaw.
At one point, President Donald Trump characterized the meeting with Carney as “very friendly,” unlike the “little blow up with somebody else” (Volodymyr Zelenskyy). Vance, who led the attack on the Ukrainian president in February, this time chortled away on the next couch, like a loyal attack dog on a short leash.
The tone was set: Carney was not to be Zelenskied.
After dismissing a U.S.
military invasion of Canada as “highly unlikely”
in a recent NBC interview, Trump’s vision of the relationship has apparently been transformed to, in the words of Winston Churchill, a frontier guarded only by “neighbourly respect and honourable obligations.”
A Trump press conference in the Oval Office is a surreal event, as I saw
firsthand with Justin Trudeau in June 2019
.
Carney’s visit was similarly bizarre. Minutes before he arrived at the White House,
Trump posted a rambling missive on social media
, airing the usual grievances about the alleged US$200 billion in American subsidies to Canada.
Yet once installed on the set — Carney acknowledged the theatricality of the event by winking at the camera — Trump layered on the flattery with a trowel. He said he had great respect for “a very talented person, a very good person,” who had pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, “maybe even greater than mine.”
Trump said he has watched the leaders’ debates in Canada and said Carney “was excellent.”
Presumably, he missed the part where the Liberal leader accused the U.S. president of “betraying” Canada.
As with Trudeau’s last visit, an audience with Trump is a stream of consciousness rumination on the president’s recent experiences and conversations. His unique brand of infotainment is characterized by half-formed announcements and policy on the hoof.
Having introduced the Canadian prime minister, he announced that the U.S. will stop bombing the Houthis in Yemen because “they assured us they don’t want to fight anymore.”
He then veered off to talk about an imminent and “very big announcement … one of the most important announcements in many years on an important subject.”
A bemused Carney raised a laugh by interjecting: “I’m on the edge of my seat.”
The prime minister may be new to politics, but he used his brief interventions in the Oval Office to maximum effect, buttering up Trump shamelessly by calling him a “transformational president” and talking about common interests on border security, defence and securing the Arctic. “The history of Canada and the United States is stronger when we work together,” he said, visualizing what a win would look like from Trump’s perspective.
The president was asked about his 51st state comments and said he still believes in the concept. “But it takes two to tango,” he said, pledging not to raise the issue.
Carney’s manners were impeccable, preceding every statement with his signature: “If I may.”
But his rejection of the misguided 51st state concept was unequivocal (he later revealed he asked the president to stop using the term).
“As you know from real estate development, some places are never for sale. We’re in one right now (the White House),” he said. “I’ve been talking to the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign over the last several months, and it’s not for sale and won’t be for sale ever.”
Shrewdly, the prime minister moved on before Trump was able to disagree, and talked about his plan to step up military spending, praising the president for “revitalizing international security and NATO.”
In 2019, I remember thinking that for all his colour and confidence, Trudeau seemed to blanche and shrivel in Trump’s presence. To be fair, the president made his lack of respect obvious in 2017, such as when he used the “comedy finger point” to put Trudeau down during his visit in October 2017. (Trump confirmed his antipathy toward Trudeau on Tuesday, saying he “didn’t like” Carney’s predecessor, or “the terrible person” who worked for him, presumably Chrystia Freeland).
Carney, on the other hand, exited the most intense experience of his brief political career with his dignity intact. During the election he said that if America no longer wants to lead, Canada will, and his standing around the world will have soared as others watched how he handled Trump.
Carney learned Tuesday, along with the rest of us, that Trump considers the USMCA/CUSMA trade deal to be “very effective” — so effective that it may not even be necessary to renegotiate it.
Regardless, as Carney pointed out in his press conference later in the day, the president has indicated his willingness to build a new economic and security relationship with Canada.
But Trump’s prejudices are ingrained, and he rejects evidence that contradicts them.
He is wedded to tariffs on Canadian cars, steel or aluminium and said that he intends to keep them in place until “at a certain point, it won’t make economic sense for Canada to build (autos).”
Carney said discussions with the president over lunch focused on the strategic position of the North American auto industry versus foreign competition, especially from Asia, and the industry’s perspective that continental integration enhances competitiveness.
But that case has not proven persuasive to the president so far.
“Canada is a place that will have to take care of itself economically… It’s hard to justify subsidizing Canada to the tune of US$200 billion, or whatever the number might be,” Trump said.
If you accept Trump’s Looney Tunes version of economics, and equate a trade deficit to a subsidy, that number is US$35.7 billion, from a US$762 billion trade relationship.
Carney was wise not to engage the president in his own lair about such deeply held, if bonkers, beliefs.
But on trade and defence, Canada can’t just wish America away.
Carney had said he didn’t expect white smoke to appear after Tuesday’s meeting, and none did.
But the new prime minister has established a personal rapport and built the foundations of a constructive working relationship with the president.
Carney won the election on the question of which leader voters wanted to negotiate with Trump. Not many Canadians will have buyer’s remorse based on Tuesday’s events in the Oval Office.
National Post
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