(Update) In first face-to-face meeting, Carney tells Trump Canada will 'never' be for sale

Prime Minister Mark Carney told U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House that Canada will "never" be for sale, taking a swipe at antagonizing comments Trump has made about annexing Canada in recent months.

The two world leaders met Tuesday in their first face-to-face meeting to discuss U.S.-Canada relations in the midst of a trade war initiated by Trump shortly after he assumed office at the outset of the year.

When reporters questioned Trump in the Oval Office about his past comments about making Canada the next U.S. state, Trump adopted a starkly different tone and downplayed the suggestion.

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Trump said “it takes two to tango,” but added it would be a "wonderful marriage if it could happen."

Carney jumped in and put it in black-and-white terms to the president, saying Canada is not for sale and will never be.

"As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale," he said, pointing to the White House as an example.

Trump still wouldn't close the door on annexation after Carney's remarks, adding he would "never say never," prompting Carney to look around the room and say, "never" multiple times.

“I’ve had many, many things that were not doable and they ended up being doable,” Trump said. “If it’s to everybody’s benefit. You know, Canada loves us and we love Canada. That’s, I think, the number 1 thing that’s important. But we’ll see. Over time we’ll see what happens.”

Carney later chimed in again on this, saying, “Respectfully, Canadians’ view on this is not going to change."

While Trump and his surrogates had signalled in advance that Carney might face a confrontational meeting, what transpired was a stunning reversal from how Trump had addressed his predecessor former prime minister Justin Trudeau just months ago, constantly needling him as the "governor" of what could become the 51st state.

The public portion of the high-stakes meeting was largely cordial, if tense. Trump leaned in at one point and, referencing a combative Oval Office meeting in February where he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the meeting with Carney would remain "very friendly."

"We had another little blow up with somebody else," Trump said. "That was a much different — This is a very friendly conversation.”

Trump said that regardless of what happens, the United States is always going to be friends with Canada. Yet at the same time, he said there was nothing Carney could say to him Tuesday that would convince him to immediately drop tariffs on Canada.

At the outset, Carney called Trump a "transformational" president focused on the economy and tackling illegal opioids, and then said he hoped to adopt a "similar focus" on the economy, border security and place a "much greater focus on defence and security." 

Carney also said Canada will be "playing our full weight in NATO."

Trump said Canada chose a “very talented person” in its recent election and described the Liberal win as one of the greatest political comebacks of all time, since the party was on track to lose badly back in January. Trump even agreed that Canada is "stepping it up" on its military spending and noted "that's a very important thing."

Just ahead of Carney's arrival at the White House, Trump had repeated his criticisms of Canada on social media and insisted the U.S. does not need Canadian cars, energy and lumber.

Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that his "only question of consequence" for Carney would be about why America is propping up the Canadian economy and providing "free" military protection. 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick went on Fox News the day before and accused Canada of being "socialist" freeloaders riding on America's coattails.

Before arriving in Washington, Carney framed the meeting as the beginning of talks on a larger economic and security agreement between Canada and the United States. He is set to hold a news conference in Washington Tuesday afternoon.

The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade, referred to as CUSMA in Canada, was negotiated during the first Trump administration.

Trump went ahead with economywide tariffs against Canada in March, only to partially walk back the duties a few days later on imports compliant with CUSMA rules. Canada was also hit by steel, aluminum and automobile tariffs.

Trump's team and his recent actions, however, suggest he recognizes the importance of trade with Canada to the U.S. The president left Canada and Mexico out of his global tariff agenda and provided further CUSMA carveouts for the North American automobile industry.

Since his return to the White House, Trump has repeated a long list of complaints about Canada while hitting it with tariffs and claiming it would be better off as a U.S. state. But he has struck a different tone with Carney, even referring to him as a "very nice man."

The mercurial president made passing references to Trudeau when talking about CUSMA and trade on Tuesday.

"I won't say this about Mark, but I didn't like his predecessor," Trump said, referring to Carney by his first name.

Trump also took an apparent swipe at Trudeau's former trade minister Chrystia Freeland, who spearheaded the renegotiation of NAFTA with the first Trump White House, by calling her "terrible."

"We had a bad relationship having to do with the fact that we disagreed with the way they viewed the deal," Trump said.

— Written by Kelly Geraldine Malone in Washington, D.C., and Kyle Duggan in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.