President Donald Trump interrupted Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s glowing Oval Office tribute to him with a joke announcement about the United States and Canada becoming one country.
Carney had been praising Trump as “a transformative president,” pointing to his securing of “unprecedented commitments of NATO partners to defense spending” and more. But as Carney began to hint at what he called “in many respects, the most important” of Trump’s achievements, Trump jumped in and said: “The merger of Canada and the United States.”
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Laughter broke out in the room.
“No,” Carney said, with a smile.
Trump added, “I’m only kidding.”
“That wasn’t where I was going,” Carney then added, before continuing: “On this solemn day of commemoration of the horrific attacks of Oct. 7, for the first time in decades, hundreds, thousands of years, there is a real prospect of peace [in the Middle East] that you’ve made possible. Canada stands foursquare behind those efforts and will do whatever we can to support them.”
Trump thanked Carney for his remarks.
Although Trump claimed he was “kidding,” the idea of somehow merging the United States with Canada was a focus in the early days of his second term.
Trump repeatedly taunted former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the title “governor” and even shared mock maps online showing what a merged U.S.-Canada may look like.
Carney has said Canada is “not for sale” and a majority of Canadians agree with his position.
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