When the new Canadian Prime Minister arrived at the oval office to meet the US president on Tuesday morning, he appeared to be walking into a lion's den. However, it turns out to be a cat in the house he found there.
“Canada is a very special place for me,” President Trump was kicked out at the top of the meeting. “I know a lot of people who live in Canada. My parents had relatives who lived in Canada, especially my mother.”
This was somewhat surprising as he spent months groaning about how he wanted to eat Canada and turn it into 51st.
“I love Canada,” Trump added.
That was a distinctly different to what he used the first half of his post on True Society when he blasted the Canadians as a bunch of freeloaders who couldn't survive without the US. He posted this as if Canada's new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, arrived at the White House.
But now the man leading the country Trump was picking up was sitting right next to him – a few inches away!
“Canada loves us, we love Canada,” Trump just said.
The reporter asked him what the top “concessions” he wanted from his neighbor to the north.
“Concession?” Trump said. “Um, friendship.”
As the meeting slammed, Mr. Carney stuck a worried smile on his face and messed with his hands. He never dropped the guards. Meanwhile, Trump was showing that the man came face to face with the consequences of his actions and didn't want to deal with them.
He and those working for him at the White House have gained great entertainment in the last few months as they called Canada a “nation” and addressed Mr. Carney's predecessor, Justin Trudeau, as “governor.” Trump erased the maps and memes of both countries, even though he claimed in Time Magazine last month that he “I'm not really trolling.”
It all brought about this meeting with his Canadian counterpart. It should have been quite anodine, as under other regimes, but now it was freighted with scrims of anger, nasty and thin accusation. Trump appears to have been in the mood to deal with the complications his “not trolling” created.
He mainly tried to skate around them, abandoning his Tete and other topics with Canadians that were not touching Tete. Topics such as the construction schedule for Barack Obama's Presidential Library in Chicago. Gavin Newsom of California's government. High-speed rail line in California. The weapons left in Afghanistan. “A very big announcement,” Trump claimed he would make soon, but for now he couldn't say what it was, as it was about keeping the secret. Diplomacy with the Houtis of Yemen. And, as always, former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Mr. Carney made it clear that he hasn't made it seem more nonsense about the 51st state. “There are a few places that aren't for sale,” he said firmly. Trump sometimes tries to enter his final words (“Never ever!”), but his heart doesn't seem to be there. “Well, I still believe it,” he said of this idea of his that caused so many trouble. “But you know,” he continued.
Some of the regular characters who play minor roles in these oval offices were sitting on the couch to the left of Mr. Trump. Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Rutnick were ready to jump in if needed.
But they never did.
The unspoken order from the president was clear: Everyone is cool.
“This is very friendly,” Trump told the room. “This isn't the case. We had another small explosion with someone else. It was a very different story. This is a very friendly conversation,” Couch laughed, reassuring.
“No matter what,” Trump declared at one point, “We'll be friends with Canada.”
