| As fresh starts go, it could have gone worse for Mark Carney. Canada’s prime minister, fresh off an election victory, stepped right into the lion’s den today — that is, an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump. It’s been something of a rite of passage for leaders jockeying for Trump’s favor amid some sort of clash, whether over trade or aid. This particular meeting was a test of Trump’s intent to plow ahead with his tariffs plans. The bilateral sessions have been testy in the past — the visit by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy most famously — but today’s was far from explosive. Trump jumped from topic to topic and generally heaped praise on Carney, steering clear of the “governor” insults he’d regularly tossed at Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau. “Look, I have a lot of respect for this man,” Trump said after opening the meeting by flaunting the new gold trim he’d installed throughout the Oval Office.  Canada’s Carney meets with Trump Carney looked to thread a needle — insisting at one point that Canada is not for sale, likening it to selling the White House. It was a rebuke of Trump’s musings about statehood that have enraged Canadians and fueled Carney’s campaign, a dynamic Trump noted gleefully. Still, Trump pressed ahead. “Never say never,” he said about the idea of the US absorbing Canada. That prompted Carney to flip his head forward to cameras and silently mouth: “never, never, never.” Carney later bit his tongue as Trump berated Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister, and repeated his intent to wean the US off of Canadian goods. The two snapped a photo smiling and giving a thumbs-up. Carney had downplayed expectations, saying afterwards he wasn’t expecting a puff of “white smoke” to appear after the meeting. “I think we established a good basis today,” he said. Still, the US president wasn’t giving any ground. Trump said flatly there was nothing Canada could do to convince him to lift the tariffs. Carney called for a more comprehensive discussion about bilateral cooperation, and both pledged to change the USMCA trade deal during its upcoming renegotiation window, with Trump even musing about whether he even wants it continued. The governor talk is gone. But the trade fight remains. — Josh Wingrove Key reading: | 
