Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared in the White House Tuesday that Canada would not submit to U.S. ownership. Donald Trump, however, wouldn’t back down.

“As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” Carney said. “Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign, it’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale ever.”

“Never say never,” Trump said, telling reporters that only time would tell, while seated inches away from the Canadian leader. “I had many things that people said were not doable but ended up being doable.”

Carney won Canada’s top leadership post in April in large part due to his staunch position against Trump’s growing threats to annex the country.

In the months leading up to the election, Canada’s Liberal Party was believed to be on its deathbed. But that all changed with Trump’s tariff talk, which radically ramped up anti-American sentiment amongst Canadian voters, alongside Trump’s bizarre and public ambitions to occupy Canada.

Trump has actively aggressed U.S. relations with Canada since his first term. Recent rhetoric about annexing Canada to become America’s “fifty-first state” has not played well with the Canadian people or its leaders, causing some residents of the country to candidly dub Trump an “asshole.”

Responding to reporters Tuesday, Trump said there was nothing that Carney could say or do to lift his tariffs on Canada. “It’s just the way it is,” Trump said, when asked why he wouldn’t budge.

Carney appeared disturbed by the admission, interjecting to respond to several of Trump’s prior points.

“Respectfully, Canadians’ view on this is not going to change, on the fifty-first state,” Carney said as Trump grimaced beside him. “Secondly, we are the largest client of the United States. In the totality of all the goods, we are the largest state. We have a tremendous auto sector between the two of us.

“You know, 50 percent of the cars that come from Canada is American, that’s unlike anywhere else in the world,” the prime minister continued, gesturing to the reporter who inquired about tariffs. “This will take some time and some discussions, and that’s why we’re here, to have those discussions, and that’s represented by who’s sitting around the table.”

Trump was quick to respond. “See, the conflict this—and this is very friendly; this is not going to be like, ‘We had another little blow up with somebody else,’ that was a much different—this is a very friendly conversation,” he said. “We want to make our own cars, we don’t really want cars from Canada.

“At some point, it won’t make economic sense for Canada to make those cars,” Trump continued, claiming that the U.S. would make its own steel. “We really don’t want Canadian steel, and we don’t want Canadian aluminium and various other things because we want to be able to do it ourself.”

Trump then continued to lie about the two country’s trade situation, equating Canada’s trade deficits with the U.S. with “subsidies.” Trade deficits are indicators that America’s neighbors are purchasing more of its goods than they sell in return. In 2023, that differential—or deficit—was nearly $41 billion with Canada, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Shortly afterward, Trump abruptly ended the meeting, refusing to allow Carney another opportunity to respond to the American press.

This story has been updated.

Donald Trump made a wild post Tuesday slamming Canada, just moments before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived at the White House for a tense meeting to discuss tariffs.

“I look forward to meeting the new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. I very much want to work with him, but cannot understand one simple TRUTH—Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars [sic] a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things?” Trump wrote in a post at 11:23 a.m. on Truth Social.

“We don’t need their Cars, we don’t need their Energy, we don’t need their Lumber, we don’t need ANYTHING they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us! The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence.”

Carney arrived at the White House at noon, according to NBC News.

Trump’s meeting with Carney will be their first in-person interaction since Trump announced he would impose 25 percent tariffs on U.S. exports to Canada. The U.S. president has facilitated a rapid breakdown in relations between the neighboring countries, continually criticizing Canada’s dependence on the U.S. and repeatedly joking that it should become the fifty-first state.

Carney responded to Trump’s aggression in April, proclaiming that Canada’s old relationship with the U.S. was “over” and that the country would begin seeking new trading partners.

After Carney’s Liberal Party won Canada’s national election late last month, he started out his new term by dissing Trump.

“As I have been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. But these are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,” Carney said. “That will never ever happen.”

President Donald Trump may have thought he was getting a legal war chest by threatening several major law firms—but it seems the famed dealmaker didn’t know exactly what he was signing on to.

In a series of letters to Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Richard Blumenthal obtained by The Bulwark, several major law firms that cut deals with the Trump administration provided details on the terms of their agreements—and it’s looking like the president may have gotten the short end of the stick.

While the firms had reportedly agreed to provide millions of dollars of pro bono work for specific causes, many asserted that........

© New Republic