President Donald Trump mocked transgender people in front of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose child identifies as nonbinary, during an Oval Office meeting in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that was intended to focus on trade relations but instead became a showcase of Trump’s familiar culture war politics.
The meeting, held in the presence of reporters, aimed to emphasize renewed cooperation between the two countries, which remain deeply economically intertwined. But as The Independent reported, it “devolved into a political rally disguised as a routine press availability.” Trump repeatedly veered off topic to attack Democrats, the media, and transgender people, boasting that under his leadership, “We have strong borders. We have no men in women’s sports. We’re not going to take your child away and change the sex of your child.”
Carney has already proven that he is incapable of actually standing up to Trump, so this doesn’t surprise me. If he isn’t willing to stick up for his own kid, how can we expect him to stick up for the rest of us?
I’m certain the basic ability to do so isn’t the problem. More like, they have us at a disadvantage and he thinks tolerating Trump is the smartest play. Time will tell if that works out at all.
I disagree with this assessment.
I think that Carney was there for trade talks and refused to be side tracked from that and engage in discussions that were unrelated to the goal of improving trade relations between the USA and Canada.
He just sat there, and let Donny boy run his fat mouth, and when they got back on topic he suddenly had something to say.
Honestly, when I’m trying to have a productive conversation about something with someone and they veer off into insanity mid conversation, I usually just let them talk themselves out, then redirect them to the topic when they seem like they’re done, so we can have productive discussions on the matter at hand.
Bluntly, there’s no point arguing with the senile about their insane positions on anything, even if you get them to agree or change their viewpoint, in 15 minutes they’ll forget and go back to their original bullshit.
How is that a disagreement?
You made an assertion about his motivations, and I think his motivations are different.
Did that not come across?
You said he was just letting him be crazy in peace because arguing is pointless, I said he’s tolerating him. I think we both agree it’s for the sake of trying to achieve an acceptable deal for Canada, right?
I’m disappointed in Carney but admittedly don’t have enough info to fully justify feeling that yet. There’s a lot of nuance at that level and it does seem like Carney is shifting our interests to other markets.
My hope is he’s stringing the US along while he makes changes, basically like setting up a place to live and work before ending an abusive relationship. I understand that cutting ties completely would cripple our economy so that’s not an option, just gonna wait for the end of his first year before I really make my opinion.
I was shown this link in another post that clearly shows the trade changes Carney has been working on. It’s well put together: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2025/canada-international-trade/
Thanks for the link.
I heard a nice line on CBC Power & Politics today - that what we’re feeling right now is the powerlessness Latin American countries have been feling for a long time while being in the US’es crosshair.
Alliance time :>
we’re gonna need to get rid of the open-air mines before doing any alliance
canada always firmly stood with the american imperialists for our own gain, i doubt south america would trust us just now that the US is starting to show us it’s back
South America isn’t a continent of primitivist environmentalists, either.
Typical neolib capitulation- ahem I mean tolerance. That’s worked great for the Americans, I’m sure it’ll work for the Canadians /s
As much as Canadians would like to say fuck off to all things American, cutting ties like that would cripple us economically and potentially result in the destruction of our country. Tanking our economy to spite the States would not only destroy lives, but it would give Danielle Smith more fodder for AB separation, which in turn would result in a broken Canada, and eventually no Canada at all.
At the very least, Carney still needs to “play nice” for the moment, and I’m really hoping once things are in place with other markets he publically tells Trump to pound sand. I’m saving my judgement for the end of his first year. He’s arguably got the hardest road of any PM in decades. That said, I really wish he’d put his elbows back up.
Antagonizing the US has worked great for Cuba after all.
Cuba actually had another friend willing to protect them for decades, even. We don’t have a partner that would definitely always choose us over them.
Appeasement, if you’re nasty
Did America have some sort of 10x larger neighbor I’m not aware of?
They tolerated the bullshit trump did. At least that’s how I read it.
Yeah, but that has nothing to do with my initial comment.
I basically said he’s letting the foreign moron talk until he goes away. Unfortunately, I used the word “tolerate”, and that triggered people’s pre-programmed scripts about authorities allowing the domestic spread of genocide denial or whatever.
Tolerating Nazis has historically never worked.
Domestically? Yes.
Internationally, we’re not Britain letting the Nazis build up, we’re fucking Czechoslovakia just praying they don’t decide to take the Sudetenland. The EU is probably Britain in this analogy, and the Soviets are, like, China.
Right we should piss him off so he can fuck over the rest of our economy before we can transition our supply chains elsewhere. Brilliant.
Or just straight up invade to “save us” from our evil communist government.
I’m convinced they are planning some sort of annexation/invasion anyway. They’ll just find a reason at some point. It can be anything. We have water and plenty of natural resources that would be good for American billionaires to own.
Just look at what Trump requires of Ukraine in order to help them. They’re gonna make some bullshit up, like our resources are critical to their national security, or something like that. It’s good to delay this as much as possible and not antagonize them - maybe they’ll be busy invading Venezuela or Mexico first - but it’s probably going to happen regardless.
It’s not impossible, but I don’t think this government plans all that much in general. And, they’d need to massage the public discourse for a bit first.
I’m pretty sure the UK GDP was comparable to Germanies pre WW2 if that’s what you are referring to. I agree with your point though. If I was Carney I wouldn’t take it head on, but instead work behind the scenes to better position Canada.
Pre-WWI maybe. Wiemar Germany isn’t know for it’s awesome economy.
Which is why Britain never lost much ground despite letting them build up and prepare for a decade or whatever. And then the Nazis opened another front and got owned.
So the PM should let his personal life dictate state actions?
I think it should definitely impact what he’s willing to tolerate. Or do you think he should betray his own convictions, just to appease a political bully? So much for “elbows up”, then? Now, it’s just, “Whatever you say, Mr. Trump”?
The trump answer is complex and will invariably end in bloodshed no matter the choices. Whether sooner or later is the question.
Appeasement is never the solution.
Delaying while preparing could be a strategy.
Unfortunately, I agree with you. If history is any indicator, this is not going to end well…for any of us. We need to prepare that inevitability.
I live near Niagara falls, I’m in the nuclear splash zone if it gets nuked, and if a war breaks out, the power plants will definitely become targets.
Good luck everyone. I probably won’t be alive to see the outcomes if war breaks out.
(Everythimg said is meant to be taken in a general.context and not specific to you - except the part about creeping your profile. I speak like that sometimes, and I don’t mean to say anything about you specifically)
I may not agree with everything you say or think, (I don’t know, I haven’t creeped your profile), but the ability for us to disagree (as long as it doesn’t harm anyone - except those who seek to destroy us) is the basis for civil society, and as of now, whatever differences you and I may or may not have regarding our current life choice or lifestyles is immaterial in the face of a literal apocalyptic threat coming from south of our border.
We all need to suck it up and put our truly petty differences aside in order to essentially save our nation, and our humanity, and humanity as a whole, for that matter.
I’m all about do whatever the fuck you want to do. As long as you don’t hurt myself or others,cool. I don’t give one fuck.
What I do care about is stopping a psychopath and his neonazi evangelizers destroy any hope for any future that isn’t pure hell.
Can we do that?
Can we just relax our tribalism that people like trump has allowed the powers to foment this artificial hatred so many of us have let take hold of us?
Can we work as one for the common good?
I fucking hope so.
Or we all die in our smug righteousness.
Nazis’ whole deal is crushing those who can’t or won’t crush back. Calls to not oppose them are fundamentally calls to enable their conquest and terror
I have been calling for much more than merely opposing - for a very long time.
What I am asking for is for us to set aside our personal differences to do the crushing as one.
When that’s done, we can debate our petty grievances and parliamentary theatrics once again.
Better sooner than later. Trump is a traitor to humanity. Hang him.
I think you’ll be hard pressed to find disagreement on this around here…
Though, I have been wrong before.
Agreed.
If you are the head of a state you don’t get the luxury of personal convictions. You should always be acting in the interest of the state.
Realpolitik says the best interests of Canada are to try to get Trump to walk back steel and aluminium tariffs buying time while to diversify exports and institute “Buy Canadian”
And, again…is it “in the interest of the state” to capitulate to economic extortion? We’re just giving him what he wants, and getting nothing in return? And our leader is sitting there while he insults us all…including his own kid. What the actual fuck does that say about us? It says we’re weak, and Trump can say and do whatever the hell he wants, without consequences.
And for the record, Trump is not going to “walk back” those tariffs. He’s not only using them to fund his domestic agenda, but also to pursue his foreign policy agenda. They are his leverage over us.
Why would anyone assume he’s going to just let that leverage go, especially when it’s working? That’s just ridiculous.
Or a nation could try not selling its soul for a buck.
King Charles is the head of state.
On paper. We don’t need his assent for anything. And if we did we have the Gov. Gen.
What do you want him to do? Insult him and call him a bully so that you feel better? We live in the real world, where actions have real consequences.
The US is still our largest partner, and every action we take has real repercussions, such as job loss. In my opinion, he’s doing a good job handling him because Trump is unpredictable.
A savvy leader doesn’t need to insult anyone, in order to make their position clear.
As an American, YES. Trump is going to fuck you no matter what, so stand up for yourself.
Unfortunately, that clown is going to be in office for a few more years, unless your people throw him out (unlikely), or he dies of a stroke/heart failure (more likely).
Just because we are going to get fucked, doesn’t mean you want to provoke anything either - you don’t want to get fucked repeatedly and from different angles if you can help it.
Take your own advice and do something about your president. He’s your mess after all, we didn’t vote for the orange fuck.
The key take away is that we’ve been divided into groups and a lot of Canadians already don’t think our current government is sticking up for them.
I support quite a few Liberal policies but at the same time absolutely despise certain others, I make that very clear on Lemmy, the same goes with Conservatives I support a few of their policies but despise certain others. There is no winning with the two party system.
My biggest problem with what Carney has been doing, is that I voted for him this time. I voted for him because I didn’t want Conservative domestic policies to be implemented in response to Trump’s tariffs…and I didn’t want a Conservative strategy for dealing with Trump himself.
Now, we’re watching Carney doing literally everything that I explicitly didn’t vote for. It’s like we voted for Carney…but what we got, was Pierre Poilievre wearing a Carney suit. This has been the biggest bait and switch in Canadian politics, that I’ve got very seen. It feels like fraud.
Imagine being this dense thinking that Canada has any leverage.
Lol! Canada can shut off the power to the entire North Eastern seaboard. We can also coordinate with our European allies and start selling off all our US bonds, effectively tanking the value of the US dollar.
That’s leverage.
Against a reasonable politician it would be. Wouldn’t they just use that as an excuse to declare war and annex us. Using that same war to cancel elections and stay in power?