THE WASHINGTON POST: How Canada’s new leader Mark Carney charmed Donald Trump and rejected marriage proposal

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used a mixture of flattery and firmness in his first meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday, trying to deliver a principled resistance to Washington after a come-from-behind election victory a week ago.

Trump never hid his contempt for Carney’s predecessor and has vowed to turn Canada into the “51st state.”

So the Oval Office encounter had ample room to turn into a shouting match. But the two leaders offered a respectful repartee, easing Canadian concerns that they could be overrun by their southern neighbour and buying some breathing space for Carney as he sought to manage tariffs, sovereignty and his nation’s most important relationship at a moment he has declared a once-in-a-generation crisis.

In the Oval Office, Carney kept a poker face as he sat in front of news cameras, shifting his weight in his seat as Trump declared what a “wonderful marriage” it would be for Canada to be annexed to the United States as the “51st state.”

When Trump finished his thought, the newly elected Canadian prime minister asked to respond - taking an approach that at once seemed to charm the president and signal to Carney’s base of liberal supporters that he was up for the job of standing up to Trump.

“If I may, as you know from real estate,” Carney said, “there are some places that are never for sale.”

“That’s true,” Trump said quietly, nodding.

“We’re sitting in one right now,” Carney continued, pointing to the presidential portrait-lined walls. “Buckingham Palace, which you’ve visited as well,” Carney added, appealing to the president’s well-known respect for the British royals.

“That’s true,” Trump said again, with a laugh.

“Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign the last several months, it’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale, ever,” Carney said. Trump fired back, with a smile: “Never say never.”

Carney, smiling to the cameras, mouthed back his response: “Never. Never.”

Carney’s encounter could serve as a model for other leaders as they manage Trump’s trade demands - including counterparts, such as Australia’s Anthony Albanese, who have also recently prevailed at the ballot box on the promise of standing up to the U.S. president. Instead of taking a heated approach to dismissing Trump’s ideas, the prime minister largely employed flattery, a strategy that appeared to persuade Trump that Carney will be a better partner than his predecessor, Justin Trudeau.

Carney stood to lose a lot from an Oval Office encounter, had either man taken a different approach. Had he been as tough in person with the U.S. leader as he was on the campaign trail, Carney probably would have provoked Trump into a snarling response. If Trump had hit him with mockery, Carney could have faced domestic consequences from constituents.

Despite clearly pushing back against Trump on the issue of Canadian sovereignty, Carney also held his tongue through Trump’s claims about trade and foreign policy.

There was a noticeable tone shift from his campaign in recent months, when Carney ran on an explicitly anti-Trump platform, declaring that the American president “is trying to break us,” among other criticisms. It stood in stark contrast to some of the flattery on display Tuesday.

“Thank you for your hospitality and, above all, for your leadership,” Carney said at the outset of the meeting. “You’re a transformational president.”

But Trump was also reticent to back down on his desire to annex Canada, saying he wouldn’t do anything against Canadian wishes but holding open the possibility he could change Canadians’ minds. Carney eventually delivered a blunt message: “Respectfully, Canadians’ view on [the annexation issue] is not going to change.”

Trump was unusually frank about his distaste for Carney’s predecessor, Trudeau, with whom he repeatedly clashed in his first term and in the opening months of his second.

“I won’t say this about Mark, but I didn’t like his predecessor,” Trump said. “We had a bad relationship having to do with the fact that we disagreed with the way they viewed” the trade deal that Trump negotiated in his first term with Canada and Mexico.

Trump had frequently mocked Trudeau, calling him “Governor Trudeau,” a reference to Trump’s stated desire to annex the country and turn it into a state. Carney has escaped the bluster, and Trump on Tuesday again avoided referring to him as “governor.” As members of the news media were ushered out of the Oval Office, a U.S.-based Canadian reporter asked Trump whether he believed Carney would be easier to work with than Trudeau.

“I like him better,” Trump said, pointing his thumb at Carney. The prime minister laughed.

“As far as calling him ‘Governor Carney,’ no, I haven’t done that yet - and maybe I won’t,” Trump said later in the day. “I did have a lot of fun with Trudeau, but I think this is a big step up. It’s a good step up for Canada.”

For all the effort to play nice, Trump gave no ground on trade, at one point answering with a flat “no” when asked whether there was anything Carney could do to get Trump to lift tariffs. “Just the way it is,” Trump said.

Carney, an Oxford-educated economist who ran the central banks of both Canada and England, strained to bring some textbook economics to the discussion, and Trump acknowledged the potential for tension.

“This is very friendly,” Trump said. “This is not going to be like we had another little blowup with somebody else,” seemingly referring to an argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during that leader’s visit to the White House in February.

But, he said, “we don’t really want cars from Canada,” nor steel, nor aluminum.

Canada, meanwhile, is the biggest foreign market for U.S. cars.

Before the Oval Office meeting, Trump and Carney had spoken twice since his election as prime minister, but did not have a deep relationship, said a senior White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s thinking.

Trump has lashed out at Canada’s low defense spending, which is projected to reach 1.37 percent of its gross domestic product this year, well short of NATO pledges. But Carney on Tuesday reiterated Canada’s commitment to increasing that figure - and acknowledged that Trump “has revitalized international security, revitalized NATO.”

“It’s true,” Trump replied again. “I must say, Canada is stepping up their military participation.”

The meeting also served as a test for U.S. allies more generally who have struggled to manage the president’s upending of relationships around the world. Canada, for generations, has staked its economy on integration with the United States. But against the backdrop of Trump’s threats of annexation and import tariffs, Carney rose to power by declaring that era “over” and vowing to lead his country in a new direction.

Foreign leaders have struggled to handle their meetings with Trump, with whom a good relationship can be beneficial. Being too unyielding, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in February as he sought a fresh commitment of U.S. military aid, risks getting kicked out of the White House. But too soft an approach can be ineffective or prompt blowback from constituents who bristle at Trump’s approach to the world. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried wooing Trump with flattery and a letter from King Charles III in February but was still hit with tariffs weeks later.

The result of Carney’s meeting was, at first glance, positive. White House officials afterward remarked that they were pleased with how the meeting went.

The two leaders were scheduled to share a lunch at the White House after the meeting. On the menu Tuesday was a Manchego candied walnut salad with sherry dressing, fondant potatoes and wild mushroom fricassee with lemon mustard sauce, according to a White House official. For dessert, cider ice cream with caramelized pecans and cranberry sauce.

Carney will host leaders of the Group of Seven major world economies in a mountain resort outside Calgary in mid-June, which would be a moment for the economic discussion to continue. Trump has not confirmed whether he will attend.

“He certainly presented himself in the election campaign as the Marvel comic hero Captain Canada, and so there are high expectations that he’s going to defend Canadians’ interests,” said Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.

But White House advisers had downplayed the prospect of the type of fireworks that came from the February visit with Zelensky, when Vice President JD Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of being disrespectful to Trump. On Tuesday, Vance mostly sat quietly at Trump’s side, at times quietly laughing at Trump’s jokes along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Carney later told reporters that he told Trump to stop the talk of Canada becoming the 51st state and that such rhetoric was “not useful,” but he declined to detail the president’s response.

“He’s the president; he’s his own person,” Carney told reporters, adding that it is necessary to distinguish between “a wish and a reality.”

Carney said he feels “better” about bilateral ties after the talks, but he admitted there was no timeline for when the U.S. might lift its tariffs on Canadian goods.

Trump’s threats to use “economic force” to annex Canada have infuriated Canadian and spurred boycotts of U.S. travel and goods. In calls with Canadian officials, Trump has complained about a 1908 treaty that sets out the U.S.-Canada border as well as another treaty that governs the management of the Columbia River.

Asked what he thought as Trump proposed redrawing the “artificial” border and criticized Trudeau and former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland in the Oval Office, Carney said, “I’m glad that you couldn’t tell what was going through my mind.”