Carney and Trump: A collision avoided, save for a nasty comment or two

President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)

By IAN AUSTEN and DAVID E. SANGER

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived at the White House on Tuesday with a few clear objectives: to take heat out of his early encounters with President Donald Trump, to avoid references to Canada becoming a 51st state, and to begin talks on steel and aluminum tariffs.

In other words, to revert to the old days, when Canada and the United States were the tightest of defense and intelligence allies, and somehow managed to keep their disputes over everything from dairy products to softwood lumber to automobiles on a separate track.

He partly succeeded. Trump did not muse again about how Canada would be much better off as part of the United States, though he alluded to the thought when he discussed how to eliminate auto tariffs. Trump did muse about how the two countries were in “natural conflict,” and described Carney, a former central bank chief for England and Canada, as a “nice man” who could be “very nasty.”

Nonetheless, even Trump appeared to recognize that he had a lot of repair work to do. Seeming to acknowledge that his reputation north of the border is toxic, he told reporters that “the people of Canada will love us again,” even if some American-imposed tariffs remained in place — which he insisted they would.

At the end of a meeting and a working lunch, Canadian officials insisted they were happy with the changed tenor of the meeting, and said they now expected to make progress on steel, aluminum and energy levies, which range up to 50%. While they left with nothing concrete, beyond a commitment to negotiate, it was the change in tone, rather than tariff rates, that they had most sought.

“I’ve seen substantial progress today,” Dominic LeBlanc, Canada’s minister in charge of relations with the United States, told reporters after the meetings, speaking in French. “I think that we have a momentum that we didn’t have when we woke up this morning.”

He added that the two leaders had ordered their officials to come to a deal on aluminum and steel tariffs “as soon as possible.” He declined, however, to offer a time estimate. Trump repeatedly referred to steel and aluminum, but gave no hint of his flexibility in reducing the rate — or what he would demand in return.

Carney came to office in April following a campaign in which he portrayed himself as a hard-liner, the best and toughest candidate to take on Trump. He has since talked about beginning to reduce Canada’s tight reliance on the United States.

Unlike many other nations, Canada has not been able to strike a trade deal with Trump, and that had put pressure on Carney to try to win at least some tariff relief during the meeting.

Trump told reporters before the meeting started that Canada’s inability to make a deal was a consequence of proximity of the two markets.

“We have natural conflict,” Trump said. “We also have mutual love.”

He added: “We’re competing for the same businesses, that’s the problem.”

Trump has imposed a general 35% tariff on Canadian exports based on his claim, which is refuted by data, that Canada is a significant source of migrants and fentanyl for the United States.

That broad tariff does have a significant exemption. It excludes products that qualify as North American under the free trade agreement signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico during Trump’s first term, which make up a majority of Canadian exports.

But Trump has imposed tariffs on several key exports from Canada — automobiles, steel, aluminum and, most recently, softwood lumber — calling the measures a matter of national security.

Those tariffs have already had significant effects. General Motors is planning to cut a shift at its pickup-truck factory in Oshawa, Ontario, jeopardizing about 2,000 jobs. In the same province, Stellantis suspended the overhauling of a factory in Brampton to produce a new Jeep model, leaving the plant idle.

Canada has set aside 10 billion Canadian dollars, or $7.1 billion, in loans for large steel and aluminum companies affected by the U.S. tariffs.

LeBlanc said that the prime minister reminded Trump that Canada imported about as many cars made in the United States as it sent there, and brought up the two-way flow in steel.

The change in tone by a president who previously dismissed Canada’s viability as a nation may have come in part because of recent concessions from Carney.

He lifted most of the reciprocal tariffs Canada had put on goods from the United States, except those applied to the same products covered by Trump’s national security tariffs.

Carney also canceled a tax on American tech companies he had inherited from the previous government. Trump had called off negotiations with Canada because of the tax.

One of Carney’s chief objectives is maintaining and improving the free trade arrangement known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It comes up for a scheduled review next year.

Before the meeting, Trump was uncertain about its future form, saying that he did not care whether it was renegotiated or whether the United States struck separate deals with its two neighbors.

While Trump’s calls for Canada’s annexation and his tariffs angered many Canadians and prompted boycotts of American products and travel to the United States, Carney praised his host before the meeting and called him “a transformative president.”