Donald Trump says chat with Mark Carney went well: 'We agree on many things'

Trump said on Truth Social he had a constructive conversation with “Prime Minister Mark Carney.” Later, speaking at the White House, the president called him “Mark” and previewed a “Casablanca”-like beginning of a beautiful friendship.

“We had a very good talk, the prime minister and myself, and I think things are going to work out very well between Canada and the United States,” Trump said.

Their call also saw Carney serve notice to Trump that Canada will respond to U.S.-imposed auto tariffs and any other trade actions with more retaliatory tariffs, despite Trump’s warnings of escalating his penalties on Canada.

The tone change — on both sides — is striking.

Carney later refrained from using his oft-repeated lines since becoming Liberal leader that usually slam Trump’s desire to weaken Canada in order “to own us.”

Whether there will be any substantive change in Trump’s strategy towards Canada — or in the Liberal government’s ability, mid-campaign, to reset the relationship on a respectful and mutually beneficial basis remains to be seen.

On Truth Social, Trump wrote it had been “an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada.” 

At the White House, Trump said he still intends to proceed with global reciprocal tariffs next week, and “absolutely” would follow through on his threat to escalate the pain on Canada if it responds with more retaliatory tariffs.

So far he’s hit Canada with 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, 25 per cent tariffs on autos to take effect Wednesday, a 25 per cent tariff related to border concerns on all Canadian goods, a 10 per cent surtax on oil, gas and potash that is delayed to next week, and other unspecified “reciprocal” tariffs on dairy, lumber, pharmaceutical and other sectors.

However, after speaking to Carney, Trump did not single Canada out for particular disdain, as he has for four months whenever he talked about wielding tariffs as a weapon to fight what he deems “unfair” trade practices.

Instead, on Friday Trump told reporters, “I’m not referring to Canada, but many countries have taken advantage of us.

“That has to stop. We’re going to end up with a very good relationship with Canada and a lot of the other countries. Some we probably won’t, it won’t be so pleasant,” he said. 

“I’ve always loved Canada,” he later told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida at the end of the day. “We had a very good conversation, the prime minister, and they’ve got an election going on so we’re going to meet after the election.”

In Montreal, Carney said Trump had publicly and privately respected Canada’s sovereignty, without offering details. He described their conversation as a “very cordial substantive call … between two leaders of their respective governments, between two sovereign nations.”

Of Trump’s changed tone, however, Carney said there is “always a strategy” when it comes to negotiations.

Carney also softened his language on the Canada-U.S. relationship. A day before the call, Carney told Canadians the “old relationship” with the U.S. was “over.” On Friday, after their conversation, he said, “What’s clear is that relations between Canada and the U.S. have changed. It’s not us who changed.”

The prime minister confirmed Trump did not say he would withdraw any tariffs on Canada next week, saying only that “we made progress” in the first conversation and it was just “the beginning of negotiations.”

“We’ll see what the United States does on the second of April,” he said. Trump, he said, wants to “transform the global economy, including Canada’s economy” and to dominate sectors like steel and aluminum manufacturing, not to work more closely together in an integrated market.

Back on the campaign trail at the Montreal port, Carney promised a new $5-billion fund dedicated to building up trade and transport infrastructure in order to wean Canada off its reliance on the Americans.

Earlier, the Prime Minister’s Office had issued a businesslike summary of the phone call in a formal readout that said the two leaders had “agreed” on a substantive path ahead for the bilateral relationship.

“The leaders agreed to begin comprehensive negotiations about a new economic and security relationship immediately following the election,” said the PMO statement. It underlined Carney told Trump he would “be working hard for the next month to earn the right to represent Canada in those discussions.”

“In the interim, the leaders agreed that conversations between the Minister of International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs and President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, Dominic LeBlanc, and the United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, will intensify to address immediate concerns.”

Meanwhile, the PMO said, Carney “informed the president that his government will implement retaliatory tariffs to protect Canadian workers and our economy, following the announcement of additional U.S. trade actions on April 2, 2025.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, speaking in Nanaimo, said he welcomed a “change in tone” over the “chaos” of tariff threats, and said Trump clearly would prefer a Liberal prime minister over him.

“It’s clear that the president would like to keep the Liberals in power. They’ve been very good for his agenda,” Poilievre said.

“He wants to take our money and our jobs, and Liberals have helped him do it. They have blocked pipelines, LNG plants. They have raised taxes. Mr. Carney wants a massive tax on our Canadian industry that will drive jobs south of the border,” he said.

“Mark Carney and Donald Trump have one thing in common: They both favour taxing Canadian industry, Trump with tariffs and Carney with carbon taxes, and obviously, that will send hundreds of thousands more jobs south of the border into the arms of the Americans.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said Carney was presumptuous in committing to a free trade negotiation with the U.S. after an election he hasn’t yet won.

Carney met virtually with Canadian premiers Friday to update them on the call and consult on how Ottawa would respond next week.

Quebec Premier François Legault, in a statement on X after the meeting, welcomed any start of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations after the federal election, saying it’s important to end the uncertainty now hurting both economies, and calling for Canada to increase exports of critical minerals to Europe.