Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney doesn’t think a trade deal with the US is a lost cause, but he suggested the Trump administration needed to shape up first. “When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions—we can have those discussions,” Carney told reporters on Tuesday, reports Politico. He said any such talks must respect Canadian sovereignty, including the French language and Quebec culture.
The comments come after President Trump has moved to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America and has repeatedly slammed Canada in social media posts amid the stalled trade talks. But defense chief Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also have gotten in shots:
Hegseth: On Monday, he posted a photo of two women in uniform at the Cadet Training Centre in Vernon, British Columbia. “This is real,” he wrote alongside a Canadian flag, per the CBC, a line widely seen as mocking the size of one of the women. Bessent: In an interview with CNBC, Bessent scoffed at a question suggesting the US was in a “tit-for-tat war” with Canada. “I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” he said, adding: “I mean, we’re not at war with Canada. How are we going to be at war with Canada? What, they’re going to take their two submarines from the Edmonton Mall and sic them on us?”
When asked about the digs on Tuesday, Carney said it was “beneath their office.” A Pentagon spokesman, when asked about the Hegseth post, said it “speaks for itself.” In the meantime, trade talks remain at an impasse. With Trump imposing 50% tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian goods, Ottawa plans to launch counter-tariffs on Sept. 8. Washington is already threatening to hit back again.