Northern Exposure: Carney Meets Trump

As Canada’s new prime minister presses for unity, Trump toys with skipping the G7 altogether.

Hey Small Biters,

Sometimes diplomacy is a dance. Other times it’s a staredown across a very cold room. This week, it’s the latter.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made his first trip to Washington this week, meeting with President Trump in what Canadian officials privately describe as a high-stakes test of the entire US-Canada relationship. At the center of the tension? Whether Trump will attend next month’s G7 summit in Alberta’s Kananaskis region.

For Carney, the G7 is a critical moment—an attempt to reassert Canada’s leadership on the global stage while coordinating responses to global crises, including Russia’s war in Ukraine. But for Trump, international summits have always been a performance he’s only sometimes willing to stage-manage.

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Trump has not yet decided if he’ll go. His aides have sent an advance team to scout the venue, but officials say his focus is increasingly inward. He’s eager to ramp up domestic travel before the summer, while his upcoming visits to Saudi Arabia and the UAE offer more comfortable optics.