President Donald Trump brought his old joke back to life as he met Canadian PM Mark Carney in the Oval Office Tuesday. The cruel joke was one of the reasons that Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau had to leave, and Carney put his foot down as the 51st state joke made a sudden comeback. Trump introduced the meeting and said he and Carney will speak and make some deals for the good of both countries before making space for Carney to speak. “Thank you very much, Mr. President. If I may, you kindly hosted me and some of my colleagues a few months ago, and I said at the time, you are a transformative president. And since then, the transformation in the economy, unprecedented commitments of NATO partners to defense spending, peace from India, Pakistan, through to Azerbaijan, Armenia, disabling Iran as a force of terror. And now—and I’m running out of time, but this is, in many respects, the most important...” Carney showered praises on Trump.But Trump did not miss the opportunity and said “the merger of Canada and the United States” as the most important thing. “That wasn’t where I was going,” Carney said.Carney also got some good words from Trump as Trump called him “a world-class leader” and a tough negotiator. “We have great love for each other,” Trump told Carney after the prime minister lauded Trump’s peace efforts around the world, including the Middle East. But the president added: “We have a natural conflict.”Asked by reporters what was holding up a trade agreement, given that Trump thinks Carney is such a “good man” who is doing “a great job”, the president responded, to laughter: “Because I want to be a great man, too.”
