The White House posted the meeting with no preamble and no closer, so the video is only 33 minutes long. Trump started out bringing attention to Carney’s election, subtly pointing out what a comeback surprise it was, of course expressing his appreciation for same.
Next up was the announcement that the Houthis have represented that they are choosing to leave shipping alone, as they aren’t loving being bombed very much.
At around 3 minutes in, the President comes out with an intriguing statement:
Click the image above to watch…
“…before then we’re going to have a very very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets. I won’t tell you on what, but it’s very positive. 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.”
I have to say that the shrieking press pool does take away from the experience of watching this meeting / presser. It reminds me of when Georgia Meloni was in that chair, and the face she made when the floor was first opened to the media. I find it to be shocking as well, actually.
Both Trump and Carney came across as wanting to be friendly neighbors. Any other posture would be kind of ridiculous, but there were certainly undercurrents of “that’s not happening” on the part of Carney, while Trump’s position was consistently “we’ll see…never say never.”
The President made it clear that the US military protects Canada, and that it always will.
Carney: “Mr. President, you have said that Canada should become the 51st state.”
Trump: “I believe it would be a massive tax cut for the Canadian citizens. You get free military, you get tremendous medical care and other things. There would be a lot of advantages, but it would be a massive tax cut. But I just do feel it’s much better for Canada, but we’re not going to be discussing that unless somebody wants to discuss it. Time will tell.”
Carney: “…there are some places that are never for sale. Canada is not for sale, won’t be for sale ever.”
Click the image above to watch…
Just after sixteen minutes or so, Trump mentions his announcement again:
“We’re going to have a great announcement, and I’m not necessarily saying it’s on trade. We’re going to have a great announcement over the next few days. An announcement that will be so so incredible, so positive. I’m not saying I don’t want you to think it’s necessarily on trade.
We also have a situation, because everyone says, “When when are you going to sign deals?” We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now 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.
We have some good news to report on a lot of fronts.”
“We’re going to put down the price that people are going to have to pay to shop in the United States (tariffs). Think of us as a super luxury store that has the goods…”
Other things are discussed, and measured answers are given to the press. There was an especially delightful part towards the end when the President was speaking of the sketchy high-speed rail project from LA to San Fransisco in California, referring to the corrupt governor of California as “Newscum,” and not just once.