Carney and Trump meet at White House | See the full Q&A with reporters

Thank you very much everybody. Uh it's a great honor to have Prime Minister Mark Carney with us. As you know just a few days ago he won a very big election in Canada and uh I think I was probably the greatest thing that happened to him but I can't take full credit.

They were his party was losing by a lot and uh he ended up winning. So I really want to congratulate him. Was one of probably one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics maybe even greater than mine.

But I want to just uh congratulate you. That was a great election actually. We were watching it with interest and I think uh candidate Joe is a very talented person, a very good person because we spoke before the election quite a few times and it's an honor to have you at the White House and the Oval Office and you see the new and improved Oval Office as it uh becomes more and more beautiful with love.

You know, we handle it with great love and 24 karat gold. That always helps too. But it's uh it's been uh a lot of fun going over some of the beautiful pictures that were stored in the vaults that were for many many years in some cases over a hundred years.

They were stored in vaults of the uh great presidents who are almost great presidents all all having a reason for being up every one of them. So it's very interesting. But I just want to congratulate you and uh ran a really great race.

I watched the debate. I thought you were excellent and I think we have a lot of things in common. We have some tough tough points to go over and that'll be fine.

But we're going to also be discussing Ukraine, Russia, the war because uh Mark wants it ended as quickly as I do. I think it has to end. We had some very good news last night.

The Houthis have announced that they are not or they've announced to us at least that they don't want to fight anymore. They just don't want to fight. And uh we will honor that and we will uh we will stop the bombings and uh they have capitulated but more importantly they uh we will take their word.

They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore and that's what the purpose of what we were doing. So that's just news. We just found out about that.

So uh I think that's very very positive. They were they were knocking out a lot of ships going as you know sailing beautifully down the various seas. It uh it wasn't just the canal it was a lot of other places and I will accept their word and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis effective immediately and Marco you'll let everybody know that.

Okay. Uh do you have something to say about that by the way? It's pretty big announcement.

Yeah, this was always a freedom of navigation issue, you know, band of individuals with advanced weaponry that were threatening global shipping and the job was to get that to stop and uh if it's going to stop then we can stop and uh so I think it's an important development and we'll have maybe before we want to as you know the Middle East Saudi Arabia, we're going to uh UAE and Qatar and that'll be I guess Monday night. Some of you are coming with us. I think before then we're going to have a very very big announcement to make like as big as it gets and I won't tell you on what but it's going to and it's very positive.

I'd also I'd tell you if it was negative or positive. I can't keep that out. It is really really positive and that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave but it'll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject.

very important subject. So, you'll all be here. Uh Mark, would you like to say a few words?

Um well, thank you, Mr President. I'm I'm on the edge of my seat, actually. Um but uh thank you for your hospitality and a and above all for for your leadership.

You're a you're a transformational president, uh the focus on the economy with a relentless focus on the American worker. uh securing your borders um providing ending the scourge of fentanyl and other opioids and u and securing the world and I've been elected uh with uh with my colleagues here with the help of my colleagues here. I'm going to spread spread the uh the credit uh to transform Canada um with a similar focus on the economy, securing our borders uh again on fentanyl uh much greater focus on defense and security, securing the Arctic and developing the Arctic.

Um, and you know, the history of Canada and the US is we're stronger when we work together and there's many opportunities to work together and I look forward to, you know, addressing some of those issues that we have, but also uh finding those areas of mutual cooperation so we can move forward. That's correct. Very nice.

Thank you very much. Very nice statement, Mr President. Anybody is is USMCA dead?

No. uh it was actually very effective and it's still very effective but uh people have to follow it. So you know that's been a problem but people haven't followed it but it's a it was a transitional step a little bit and uh as you know it it terminates fairly shortly.

It it gets renegotiated very shortly but I thought it was a very positive uh step from NAFTA. NAFTA was the worst trade deal in the history of our country, probably in the history of the world. And uh this was a transitional uh deal and we'll see what happens.

You know, we'll we're going to be start starting to possibly renegotiate that if it's even necessary. I don't know that it's necessary anymore, but it served a very good purpose. And the biggest purpose it served is we got rid of NAFTA.

NAFTA was a very unfair deal for the United States. Very, very terrible deal. Should have never been made.

It was made many years ago, but it should have never been made. Canada and the United States. Would you like to see your first trade deal be with our neighbors?

I would I would love that. Look, I have a lot of respect for this man and I watched him uh come up in a sense through the ranks uh when he wasn't given much of a chance and he did he ran a really great campaign. He did a really great debate.

I think that debate was very helpful. Uh I was going to raise my hand, you know. I don't know if that's good or bad.

I shouldn't say that. It might that might hurt you, but uh No, he ran a really great election, I thought. And yeah, something could happen.

Something could happen. Yeah, please. What's the top concession you want out of Canada?

The top concession you want out of Canada? Concession? Yes.

Uh friendship. That's not a concession. No, just I just We're going to be friends with Canada regardless of anything.

We're going to be friends with Canada. Canada is a very special place uh to meet. I know so many people that live in Canada.

My parents had relatives that lived in Canada. My mother in particular and uh No, I I love Canada. A lot of I have a lot of respect for the Canadians, Wayne Gretzky.

I mean, how good the great one uh you happen to have a very very good hockey player right here on the Capitals who I have a lot of reason. He is a big tough cookie, too. Just broke the record and he's a great guy.

And uh you know we had the uh we had the team here and I got to know a lot of the players but uh now Canada is a very special place. Yeah. Mr President, Mr Prime Minister, I'd like to get your response to this too.

Mr President, you have said that Canada should become the 51st state. No. No.

Well, I still believe that. But but you know, takes two to tango, right? But no, I do.

I mean, I believe it would be a massive tax cut for the Canadian citizens. Uh, you get free military, you get tremendous uh medical cares and other things. There would be a lot of uh advantages, but it would be it would be a massive tax cut.

And it's also a beautiful, you know, as a real estate developer, you know, I'm a real estate developer at heart. When you get rid of that artificially drawn line, somebody drew that line many years ago with like a ruler, just a straight line right across the top of the country. When you look at that beautiful formation when it's together, I'm a very artistic person.

But when I looked at that beautiful, I said that's the way it was meant to be. But, you know, it uh I just I do feel it's much better for Canada. But we're not going to be discussing that unless somebody wants to discuss it.

I think that um there are tremendous benefits to the Canadian citizens, tremendously lower taxes, free military, which honestly we give you essentially anyway because we're protecting Canada if you ever had a problem. But uh I think it, you know, it's uh it would really be a wonderful marriage because it's it's two places. They get along very well.

They like each other a lot. Well, if if if I may, um, as you know from real estate, there are some places that uh are never for sale. That's true.

Uh, we're sitting in one right now, you know, Buckingham Palace that you visited as well. True. Uh, and um, having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign uh, last several months.

Uh, it it it's not for sale, won't be for sale uh, ever. Uh, but the opportunity is in the partnership and, uh, and what we can build together. And we have done that in the past.

And part of that, as the president just said, is with respect to our own security. Uh, and my government is committed for a step change in our investment in Canadian security and our partnership. And I'll say this as well, uh, that the president has uh, revitalized uh, international security, revitalized NATO, and us playing our full weight uh, in NATO.

And that will be part of they have they have I must say Canada is stepping up the military uh participation because uh Mark knew you know they were low and now they're stepping it up and that's a very important thing but never say never never say never take to get terrorists off of Canada. Well, we'll be talking about different things like, you know, we want to protect our automobile business and so does Mark, but we want to protect we want to make the automobiles and we want to, you know, we have a tremendous abundance of energy more than any country. We have uh just in Alaska alone, Anoir has been reopened now.

Anoir is one probably the largest find anywhere in the world. They say it's larger than Saudi Arabia. I don't know, but it's a lot.

But we have uh tremendous amounts of energy. Other countries don't. We're both lucky in that way.

They have energy. We have energy. We have more than we can ever use and more than we could ever sell actually.

And you have the same thing. So we're two countries that are very lucky. If you look at China, they don't have that.

You know, it's a big disadvantage. Other countries, most countries don't have, you know, most countries don't have that. So, uh, Canada and US, we have a lot of, uh, a lot of advantages over other places.

Mr When you consider when you consider what Mr Carney just said that Canada is not for sale, does this make the discussion a little more difficult to start on? No, not at all. No, not at all.

No time. Time will tell. It's only time.

But I say never say never. I've had many, many things that were not doable and they ended up being doable and only doable in a very friendly way. But if it if it's to everybody's benefit, you know, Canada loves us and we love Canada.

Uh that's I think the number one thing that's important, but we'll see. I mean over time we'll see what happens. Mr President, I was hoping you can clarify something.

Earlier this morning on Capital Hill, Secretary Bess said that there had been no negotiations yet with China. You said something different. Uh they want to meet and they're doing no business right now.

And those ships are turning around in the Pacific Ocean. Big turn. Those are big ships.

Those ships take about 10 miles to turn. And uh you know we lost a trillion dollars to China on trade because of an incompetent president that we had who preceded me. Grossly incompetent.

You you're finding it out more and more now. And by not trading, we're losing nothing. So we're saving a trillion dollars.

It's a lot. But they want to negotiate and they want to have a meeting and we'll we'll we'll be meeting with them at the right time. But you haven't met with them yet?

I have not met with them. Of course, you would know if I met I'd tell you they want to meet, but you know, we are right now, look, they're suffering greatly. Their their economy is suffering greatly because they're not doing trade with the US.

And and they made most of their money off the US. Don't don't kid yourself. They don't make the money off other countries like this.

And uh they were making we had a trade imbalance. We had a a deficit or they had a surplus, another way of saying it, of more than a trillion dollars. Think of it more than a trillion dollars and because of 145% that's the only reason but because of they have now 145% tariff uh there's no trading you can't trade with 145%.

Uh we are therefore uh making in a certain way I guess $1. 1 trillion. In other words we're not losing $1.

1 trillion. Our deficit is much better. When I uh started, I say we were losing billions of dollars a day on trade.

That's rapidly turning away around. We looked at numbers this morning. So, we were losing the United States during Biden was losing more than I I won't even give you numbers because they're so embarrassing, but billions of dollars a day on trade.

Those numbers are rapidly turning between the tariffs. Don't forget we're now getting 25% on cars, 25% on aluminum, 25% on steel, and maybe more importantly, uh, massive numbers of companies are moving into the United States. Honda, we have tremendous the car companies that are moving in at levels we've never seen before.

Uh, the biggest investment ever made in the United States is being made right now. Trillions of dollars. Uh, I would say we could be at nine $9 trillion.

You could go back to other presidents. They haven't had $1 trillion for their entire term. Look at Biden.

He had bad numbers. People were leaving. They weren't coming in.

They were leaving with Biden. And he didn't know the difference. The only thing he knew is people coming in.

You know who they were? Illegal immigrants. Okay.

from prisons, from mental institutions, from uh all sorts of places that weren't good, from gangs from Venezuela. Uh they were coming in and there were criminals and murderers. 11,888 people that murdered and at least half of them murdered more than one person.

This is what Biden led into our country. I'm bringing in big companies. We have Apple is investing$500 billion dollars.

We have uh Jensen as you know is going to be 500 big chip maker or chip thinker I call him he's really a thinker more than a maker but we also have the maker Mr way. I got to know them all in the last it was a cramm course, but uh they're all moving into America because of the tariffs and the the I don't think people have appreciated it. Some people do.

Some of the smart people do. So, we have more money uh coming in. It's truly an amazing thing.

We have more money being invested in the United States now than at any time ever before in our history. And it's not even close. And I think the real number could be nine or 10 trillion.

We don't know everybody that's doing it. We have many I just heard about a plant that's being built right now, a very very top-of-the-line company and they didn't come to the White House. They're just doing it because they're making it because if they build here, there are no tariffs and this is the big market.

This is the market that sets us apart from it. This is the market where everyone wants to be. Now, if I didn't come here and do this, all of a sudden, we wouldn't be the market where everyone wants to be.

So, we're able to do it in time, but we're going to have a great announcement, and I'm not necessarily saying it's on trade. Uh, going to the beginning, we're going to have a great announcement over the next few days. An announcement that will be uh so so incredible, so positive.

And I'm not saying I don't want you to think it's necessarily on trade. Uh, just to finish, we also have a situation because everyone says, "When when when are you going to sign deals? " We don't have to sign deals.

We could sign 25 deals right now, Howard, if we wanted. We don't have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us.

They want a piece of our market. We don't want a piece of their market. We don't care about their market.

They want a piece of our market. So, we can just sit down and I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks. And I'll sit with Howard and Scott and with with our great vice president who has done a really good job.

We have some good news to report on a lot of fronts, but JD will be there and Marco and we're going to sit down and we're gonna put very fair numbers down and we're going to say here's what this country what we want and congratulations we have a deal and they'll either say great and they'll start shopping or they'll say not good we're not going to do it. I said that's okay you don't have to shop. Now, we may think, well, they have a right, you know, that maybe we're a little bit wrong, so we'll adjust it.

And then you people will say, "Oh, it's so chaotic. " No, we're flexible. But we'll sit down and we'll at some point, some, in some cases, we'll sign some deals.

It's much less important than what I'm talking about. For the most part, we're just going to put down a number and say, "This is what you're going to pay to shop. " And it's going to be a very fair number.

It'll be a low number. We're not looking to hurt countries. We want to help countries.

We want to be friendly with countries. But you keep writing about deals, deals. When are we going to sign?

When it's very simple. We're going to say uh in some cases we want you to open up your country. In some cases, we want you to drop your tariffs.

I mean, India, as an example, has one of the highest tariffs in the world. Uh we're not going to put up with that. And they've agreed already to drop it.

They'll drop it to nothing. They've already agreed. They would have never done that for anybody else but me.

So, uh, we're going to put down some numbers and we're going to say our country is open for business and they're going to come in and they're going to pay for the privilege of being able to uh, shop in the United States of America. It's very simple. It's very simple.

So, I wish they'd keep, you know, stop asking how many deals are you signing this week because one day we'll come and we'll give you a hundred deals and they don't have to sign. All they have to do is say, "Oh, we'll start sending our ships right now to pick up whatever we want or to bring whatever we want. " It's very, very simple.

And I think my people haven't made it clear. We will sign some deals. But much bigger than that is we're going to put down the price that people are going to have to pay to shop in the United States.

Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods. you're going to come and you're going to pay a price and we're going to give you a very good price. We're going to make very good deals and in some cases we'll adjust.

But that's where it is. And uh we've been ripped off by everybody for 50 years. For 50 years and we're just not going to do that anymore.

We can't do that. And we can't let any country do that to us. We're just not going to do it anymore.

on the Houthies. Can you tell us a bit more about the the deal that you've reached with the Houthies that you It's not a deal. They've said, "Uh, please don't bomb us anymore and we're not going to attack your ships.

" And where did you hear about that? Uh, it doesn't matter where I hear the very good source. I could tell very, very good source.

Would you say, Marco? I would say pretty good, right JD? A very good source.

No, they don't want to be they don't want to be they don't want to be bombed anymore. You know, sort of thought that would happen. Behind you.

Clarifying something you said on USMCA. Is the US prepared to walk away from that pact? But what?

USMCA. No, not No, no. It's fine.

It's there. It's good. We use it for certain things.

It's there. We have the USMCA is a good deal for everybody. Uh, I won't say this about Mark, but I didn't like his predecessor.

I didn't like a person that worked for She was terrible, actually. She was a terrible person, and she really hurt that deal very badly because she tried to take advantage of the deal, and she didn't get away with it. You know what I'm talking about.

But uh so you know I had a we had a bad we had a bad relationship having to do with the fact that we disagreed with the way they viewed the deal and we ended it. You know we ended that uh that that relationship pretty much the uh USMCA is great for all countries. It's good for all countries.

We do have a negotiation coming up over the next year or so to adjust it or terminate it. Mr I'll just say I'll say a word on USMT if I may. Mr President uh it is a basis for a broader negotiation.

Some things about it are going to have to change. Um and part of the way you've conducted these tariffs has taken advantage of existing aspects of USMCA. So it's going to have to change.

There's other elements that have come and that's part of what we're going to discuss. During the campaign, Prime Minister Carney talked about the American betrayal. How do you react if the Canada decided not to shop in the American store as much as before and decided to partner with other countries?

Well, we don't do much business with Canada from our standpoint. They do a lot of business with us. We're at like 4% and usually those things don't last very long.

You know, we have great things, great product. The kind of product we sell, nobody else can sell. Uh including military.

Look, we make the best military equipment in the world. And Canada buys our military equipment, which we appreciate. But we make the best military equipment in the world by far.

The missiles, the the submarines, everything. Everything we have is really topnotch. I rebuilt our military during our last term.

Stupidly, we gave some away to Afghanistan, which shouldn't have happened, but that was uh I think it was the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. Uh it was just a very incompetent people. But if you look the man that's now the head of our joint chiefs he led the attack on ISIS for me that's why he's the head of the joint chiefs and uh raisin Ka he's the he was unbelievable and as you know we defeated ISIS in three weeks it was supposed to take five years we did it in three weeks and he ran the campaign I said I like him but I knew him before I went I went to Iraq and we agreed to a plan and that was the plan and as you know we did in record time.

Uh so we have, you know, we have the best we have the best equipment in the world. We have the best a lot of things and uh but Canada does a lot more business with us than we do with Canada. Yeah.

Mr President, your investments, Mr President, um when do you think the investments that you've announced the trillions will finally hit the economic data this year? Uh when you're saying about the tariffs? No, no, about the investments that you've announced.

you. Oh, it's hitting right now. Look, they're already starting AI plants.

These are not people that look for financing. That's a good thing. You know, in real estate, you get a site, then you have to look for financing.

You have to get your zoning. You know, five years later, you start building, you get a bank, then the bank's no good. These people have a massive amounts of cash.

The Chips Act was a ridiculous thing because that doesn't get them to build. All we did is hand very wealthy companies money. The Chips Act that was done by Biden.

uh billions. We give them billions of dollars. They don't even have to do anything with it.

And then if you weren't uh if you if you didn't have and I won't I don't want to be a wise guy, but if you didn't go with the DEI, if you didn't go with all of the different things, woke, if you weren't woke, you couldn't even use the money. You had to have a certain percentage of this and that and that and that. It's impossible impossible to have.

The people, the companies actually complained to me. They said, "They gave me all this money, but nobody can get these people to do anything. " I mean, look, uh, President Obama, and if he if I if he wanted help, I'd give him help because I'm a really good builder and I build on time, on budget.

He's building his library in Chicago. It's a disaster. And he said something to the effect, "I only want DEI.

I only want woke. " He wants woke people to build it. Well, he got woke people and they have massive cost overruns.

the job is stopped. Uh I don't know. It's a disaster and I don't like that happening because it's I think it's bad for the presidency that a thing like that should happen.

He's got a a library that's a disaster and he wanted to be very politically correct and he didn't use good, hard, tough, mean construction workers that I love, Marco. I love those construction workers. But he didn't want construction workers.

He wanted people that like never did it before. And he's got a disaster in his hands. like millions of dollars, many many I mean really many millions of dollars over budget and I would love to help him with it but or somebody else I could recommend professionals but it was not built in a professional manner by the way nor was nor was in California a little train going from San Francisco to Los Angeles that's being run by Gavin Nuskcom the Governor of California.

Did you ever hear of Gavin Nuskum? He has got that train is the worst cost overrun I've ever seen. It's like totally out of control.

So then they said, "All right, we won't go into San Francisco. We'll stop 25 miles short and we won't go into Los Angeles. We'll stop 25 miles short.

It's hundreds of billions of dollars for this stupid project that should have never been built. " And then they realized that it would have been a lot less costly if we just gave limousine service back and forth and gave it free. They would have saved hundreds of millions of dollars.

They have airplanes that go there for one 1/100th the cost. And they have cars. They have a thing called the highway that goes back and forth.

It's not fully utilized. And they got involved with this project. And Gavin, unfor, you know, I always like Gavin.

I had a good relationship with him. I just got him a lot of water. you know, I I sent in people to open up that water because he refused to do it and uh we just got him a lot of water.

If they would have had that water and if they would have done what I said to do, they wouldn't had the fires in Los Angeles. Those fires would have been put out very quickly. But if you think about it and you got to take a look at this pro, it's the worst cost overrun I've ever seen.

I've watched a lot of stupid people build a lot of stupid things, but that's the worst cost overrun I've ever seen. What's happening between San Francisco and Los Angeles? And you want to ask about that because this government is not going to pay.

I told our very great new secretary of transportation is doing a good job, Sean Duffy. I said, uh, we're not going to pay for that thing. They are just, it's out of control.

This is something that you don't have things like this. It It's not even conceivable. Like 30 times over budget.

30 times. It's the craziest thing I've And now it's hundreds of It was supposed to be a simple train. Uh, and I think the media should take a look at it.

And I'd love him to run for president on the other side. You know, I'd love to see that, but I don't think he's going to be running because that one project alone, well, that and the fires and a lot of other things pretty much put him out of the ring. Mr President, what changes would you like to see to the USMCA or what changes would you like to make?

We're going to work on some subtle changes. Maybe I don't even know if we're going to be dealing with USMCA. We're just we're dealing more with concepts right now.

Look, right now we're doing trade. We have trade. They're they're paying a tariff on cars and steel and aluminum.

And I think we have a baseline of 10% or something like that for the tariffs. But we're we're getting along very well right now going no further. But we have uh we have an agreement.

We did something with even parts. You want to discuss that, Howard? With respect to Canada, which helps Canada out?

Sure. So we've uh we've made an arrangement with car companies that 15% of their a USMCA parts are included and then 15% of foreign parts from the uh the manufactured suggested retail price are not tariff to help domestic manufacturing really thrive. So, it gave them a chance to be able to build their car parts, uh, factories if they're going to.

A lot of these companies already have factories and what they have to do is just fill them out, but they're able to build them in the United States, so we gave them a pretty substantial period of time. Clarify, Mr President, is there anything the prime minister can say to you today to change your mind on tariffing Canada? Tariffing cars, tariffing Canada.

Is there anything he could say to you in the course of your meetings with him today that could get you to lift tariffs on Canada? No. Why not?

Just the way it is. First thing, if Canadians don't want it, would you respect that? Sure, I would.

But this is not necessarily a one-day deal. This is over a period of time they have to make that decision. Yes.

Go ahead. Yeah, if I may. Um well I if respectfully Canadians view on this and is not going to change on the 51st date.

Secondly we are the largest client of the United States in in the totality all the goods. So we are the largest client of the United States. We have a tremendous auto sector between the two of us and the changes they've made have been helpful.

U you know 50% of a car that comes from Canada is American. That's not like anywhere else in the world. Um and to your question about is there one thing no this is a bigger discussion there are much bigger forces involved um and and this will take some time and some discussions and that's why we're here to have those discussions and that's that is represented by who's sitting around the table.

See the conflict is and and this is very friendly. We're we're not this is not going to be like we had another little blow up with somebody else that was a much different this is this is a very friendly conversation but uh we want to make our own cars we don't really want cars from Canada and we put tariffs on cars from Canada and at a certain point it won't make economic sense for Canada to build those cars and we don't want steel from Canada because we're making our own steel and we're having massive steel plants being built right now as we speak. We really don't want Canadian steel and we don't want Canadian aluminum and various other things because we want to be able to do it oursself and we because of you know past thinking of people we have a tremendous deficit with Canada.

In other words, they have a surplus with us and there's no reason for us to be subsidizing Canada. Canada's a place that will have to be able to take care of itself economically. Uh, I assumed they can.

I will tell you that uh Trudeau, when I spoke to him, I used to call him Governor Trudeau. I think that probably didn't help his election, but when I spoke to him, I said, "So why are we why are we taking your cars? Why are we taking your we want to make them oursel?

" I mean, I said, "And if the price of your cars went up or if we put a tariff, if we put a tariff on your cars of 25%. What would that mean to you? " He said that would mean the end of Canada.

He actually said that to me and I said that's a strange answer but I understand his answer but uh no I mean it's it's hard to justify subsidizing Canada to the tune of maybe $200 billion a year. Uh we protect Canada militarily and we always will. We're going to you know that's not a money thing.

That's but we always will. But you know it's not fair. But why are we subsidizing Canada $200 billion a year or whatever the number might be?

It's a very substantial number and it's hard for the American taxpayer to say, "Gee whiz, we love doing that. " Uh, thank you very much. We're going to have a very Thank you very much.