On the eve of a highly anticipated bilateral meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump admitted he’s “not sure” what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to discuss during their scheduled talks at the White House on Tuesday.
“I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, just as Carney was seen boarding a flight from Ottawa to Washington. The meeting marks the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders since Canada’s recent federal election.
According to sources cited by CTV News, several senior Canadian officials will accompany Carney, including Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, International Trade and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, and Public Safety Minister David McGuinty. Carney has emphasized that repairing Canada’s fractured relationship with the U.S. is an “immediate” priority for his government.
The two nations remain locked in a deepening trade war that has impacted tens of billions of dollars in goods and disrupted key industries on both sides of the border. Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs, including a 25% levy on most Canadian imports, a 10% tariff on energy and potash not covered under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), and additional duties on Canadian steel, aluminum, and non-CUSMA automobile exports. In response, Canada retaliated with its own tariffs on $60 billion worth of American goods ranging from metals to cosmetics and beverages.
Speaking at his first post-election press conference last week, Carney declared that the previous era of ever-deepening economic integration with the United States was over. “Our old relationship, based on steadily increasing integration, is over,” he said, adding that Tuesday’s meeting would focus on immediate trade pressures and a broader redefinition of the economic and security relationship between “our two sovereign nations.”
Despite the economic stakes, Trump has continued to stir controversy with repeated claims suggesting that Canada should become a U.S. state—remarks that have drawn criticism and added to diplomatic tensions.
Beyond trade, the president sparked fresh outrage over the weekend with a surprising new target: the global film industry. In a Truth Social post, Trump called for a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, citing them as a “national security threat.” He claimed international incentives were luring U.S. filmmakers overseas and damaging the American entertainment industry.
“Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated,” Trump wrote.
The proposal could have serious consequences for Canada, whose film sector is closely intertwined with Hollywood. Major American productions often choose Toronto or Vancouver due to generous tax incentives. Films like The Shape of Water, Suicide Squad, and Shazam! were all shot in Canada, though the potential impact of the proposed tariff remains unclear since many production companies are U.S.-based.
As Carney prepares to meet Trump in Washington, the stakes are high not just for the future of Canada-U.S. trade, but for industries and workers whose livelihoods hang in the balance amid rising economic nationalism and tariff brinkmanship.
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