In a white house that hosts the power of the images, the images he shared after a first meeting with Mark Carney volumes.
It was all smiles, blows, legends of friendly photos and warm videos on the social media flows of American president Donald Trump after his initial meeting with the Prime Minister.
“The new Prime Minister is a great guy,” Trump told journalists later during the day, at an independent press conference.
“It went very well. We had a very good meeting.”
This is in accordance with the tone he adopted at the start of their oval office meeting, which took place, according to his custom, to an unusual degree for television cameras.
Trump said he had a lot of respect for Carney. He complimented his electoral race, which he called one of the greatest feedback in political history. He called him special Canada, said he would defend him militarily and wanted a friendly relationship.
At a meeting at the Oval Office, Prime Minister Mark Carney told American President Donald Trump that Canada would never be for sale, continuing to say that the opportunity between the two nations “is in partnership and what we can build together”, including around security. Trump, who has repeatedly raised the concept of Canada as a 51st state, added “never to say”.
The meeting started so congenially that the title of Associated Press referred to Trump “radiant heat” for the Canadian chief.
However, as the camera has dragged 33 minutes, the reminders began to accumulate the upcoming funds.
To start, there is no guarantee that the American prices will stand out. There is even no indication at this stage, at least not publicly, of How the negotiation process will work.
Under smiles and handles, old ambitions have taken a look. It is now very clear that Trump was not joking in the annex to Canada. It is really a long time.
That said, it’s a distant dream. He seemed to concede that Canadians are not interested and said it was not in his meeting program. Maybe one day, he said. “Never say.”
US President Donald Trump, sitting next to Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House on Tuesday, returned to his concept of Canada as a 51st state after a question of a journalist, calling the artificial border and saying that it would be “really a wonderful marriage”. Carney rejected the idea, once again, saying that Canada will never be – never – for sale.
It prompted the best time of Carney day. He forced Trump to nod, smile and recognize, as real estate tycoon, that certain properties are not for sale.
Then the president took a few excavations to Justin Trudeau. He referred, once again, to the former Prime Minister as “governor” and, given Carney, said: “I did not like his predecessor”.
Two take -out assemblies
After the meeting, there were two dishes to remember from the people who look at Canadian-American relations.
First, given the state of the rock -back relationship, this easily cleared a low bar.
“It is a start as good that we could have hoped,” said Louise Blais, the former Canada Consul in Atlanta who, in 2016, was among the first Canadian diplomats to establish links with the original Trump campaign team.
Brian Clow, who managed American relations in the office of Trudeau, summed it up as “the best of cases”.
The second point to remember? Prepare for a long winding road. It will not be quick or easy to reach the full trade and security agreement, as proposed by Carney.
“We are going to hit raw patches before going to the finish line,” Blais told CBC News. Clow called the meeting the first of many steps.
Spoiler alert: Carney knows it too. Speaking later on the roof of the Canada Embassy, he described the meeting to be just a step.
“Today has marked the end of the start of a process,” said Carney. “The question is: how will we cooperate in the future?”
He was a little made on a key detail, perhaps because it is not resolved: these negotiations will occur quickly, or under the already planned examination of the Canada-American-Mexico agreement, which cannot officially start, under American law, before next year?
Trump seems open to different approaches. Carney too. One possibility is that the talks could take place in steps – some now, some next year.
A strong index that Carney abandoned relates to a well-known Trump objective: to strengthen the rules for North American automotive trade.
With Trump’s team wishing to reduce automobile imports from Asia, Carney told Trump that Canadian parts, steel and aluminum could be part of the solution.
This explains why Carney proposed to link trade and security in a single negotiation; To plead in favor of Canadian imports, as benefiting from American security.
But he did not offer any other details of their closed -door talks. When a journalist asked more, Carney said: “This is why they are at the door closed.”
Trumpland roller coaster
Carney therefore left Washington without undergoing the spell of Volodymy Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian President was perhaps the most catastrophic photo in the history of the Oval Office, with world leaders who are now afraid of obtaining “Zelenskyy-Ed”.
But it should be noted what happened next to Zelenskyy as an example of the twists and turns in the management of the notoriously transactional asset.
They have been better in recent times. They just had a meeting at the Vatican that Zelenskyy called to date.
They obtained a new mineral agreement that analysts call a win-win. The New York Times has just made the head, “How Zelensky missed out of the niche with Trump.”
But do you know who else had a decent first meeting with Trump after the American elections on November 5? Justin Trudeau. By initial accounts, his trip to Mar-A-Lago was sympathetic. In a first statement later this month, Trump called it “very productive”.
However, in a few days, Trump began to lower Canada’s sovereignty, in a cross -border denigration campaign without parallel in modern history.
It is a reminder that, in Trumpland, the vibrations are delivered with a day warranty. But that day, Trump was very smiling when a journalist asked if he would find easier to work with the current PM of Canada than the last.
“Yes,” replied Trump. “I like this guy.”
