Prime Minister Mark Carney met with U.S. President Donald Trump in a highly anticipated face-off at the White House. It was their first in-person meeting since Canada’s election amid a tense trade war between the two countries. Here’s a recap of what happened: 6:05 p.m. EDT: ‘New relationship between Canada, U.S.’Carney thanked Trump in a post on X. The prime minister said the “meeting today marks the beginning of a new relationship between Canada and the United States — based on respect, built on common interests, and to the transformational benefit of both our nations,” Carney wrote. 5:20 p.m. EDT: Cordial tone between the two leadersSpeaking on background to reporters, a senior government official said the cordial tone between the president and prime minister continued during the post-meeting lunch. The official said they found it “encouraging and interesting” that Trump sought out Carney’s perspective on certain foreign policy issues during that lunch, and that the two discussed several other topics, including the Arctic, defence, and the trade war.
3:50 p.m. EDT: ‘No need to repeat’ 51st state commentsCarney was asked if he told Trump to stop suggesting Canada should become a state. “I told him there is no need to repeat that idea,” he said in French. “But the president is going to say whatever he wants. “He understands that we are having a negotiation between sovereign nations.” 3:42 p.m. EDT: No ‘white smoke’ todayCarney was asked if he is heading back to Ottawa with any tangible progress on ending the trade war. “I wasn’t expecting that we would be sending out white smoke from here,” he said in French, in a nod to the conclave beginning in the Vatican tomorrow, where white smoke is used to signal a new pope has been chosen. “We had very comprehensive and tangible discussions. … We did make progress.” 3:35 p.m. EDT: What was going through Carney’s mind?A reporter asked Carney what was going through his mind when Trump suggested Canada should become a U.S. state. “I’m glad that you couldn’t tell what was going through my mind,” he said. “The president has made known his wish” to annex Canada, Carney said, adding he was clear with Trump that Canada is not for sale. 3:30 p.m. EDT: Trump to attend G7 in AlbertaCarney is giving a post-meeting news conference in Washington right now. He and Trump “agreed to have further conversations in the coming weeks,” and to meet again at the upcoming G7 meeting in Alberta in June. 3:12 p.m. EDT: Trump showed ‘respect’: Body language expertFrom the first handshake outside the White House, a body language expert says Trump clearly showed “a certain level of respect” for Carney during their meeting today. “Obviously, the risk always with a handshake with Trump is he’s going to pull you off balance, we see that happening time and time again,” Mark Bowden told CTVNews.ca. “In this particular situation, he didn’t try and pull Carney off balance, which… would suggest that Trump sees Carney as quite a strong person, as somebody who should be respected.” Bowden is a best-selling author and the founder and president of Truthplane, a training company that specializes in verbal and nonverbal communication. With the Canadian delegation likely looking to avoid a confrontation like the February clash between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Bowden says its notable that Carney was able to politely deflect the most contentious comments about Trump’s desire to turn Canada into the 51st state. “I think Carney’s tactic there was to stay as deadpan and still as possible,” Bowden said. “He’ll often do lip purses, which is he’s kind of sucking his cheeks in a little bit… That we often associate with withheld opinion.” If Carney could be criticized for one thing, Bowden says he could have done more to jump into the conversation. As Trump dominated the dialogue in the Oval Office, Carney was often left silently holding a finger in the air when he wanted to make a point. “Now, probably in the boardrooms that he’s been used to, where he is the biggest person in charge, him just raising a finger causes everybody to look and they’ll stop and they will give him space,” Bowden said. “We saw at the debate, the English-speaking debate, his raising of the finger doesn’t get anybody to stop. His raising of a finger doesn’t get Trump to stop, so he’s got to create bigger regulator gestures so that he can get a word in.”
|