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‘It’s not easy, let’s be clear’: Carney speaks frankly about dealing with Trump at an event in Australia
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Prime Minister Mark Carney pulled back the curtain on his relationship with his American counterpart Wednesday evening in Australia saying it’s not easy dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump and he must choose his words carefully to avoid any blowback.
Speaking at a think tank question-and-answer session in Sydney, Carney said Trump is also somewhat different in private than he is in public and there’s room for a free flow of ideas when you sit down with him face-to-face.
Asked how he has navigated the relationship with the sometimes erratic Trump so far, Carney said: “Respect but not obsequiousness.”
Carney said he has to recognize that Trump was duly elected and he’s become “a very successful politician.”
“Elected twice, he would say elected three times. He does.”
Carney also said you can’t speak about Trump off the cuff.
“I’m going to say something very honest but it’s important: You don’t want to say anything in public that you can’t back up.
“You’ve got to choose your words—one chooses language for the audience, that’s true in any circumstance, and so careful in terms of the language you use with him,” Carney said.
Carney said Trump is open to hearing ideas and solicits opinions from those he speaks with.
“It’s quite different in private,” Carney said.
“And that creates an ability to work through things but it’s not easy, let’s be clear.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney called for a de-escalation of the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran on Tuesday, adding that Canada supports efforts to end the Iranian nuclear program. Carney said that while Canada wasn’t asked to participate in the strikes on Iran, ‘it appears that these actions are inconsistent with international law.’
When the moderator of the Q&A mentioned Carney’s standing ovation at this year’s World Economic Forum, the prime minister playfully said Trump’s “was bigger,” a nod to the president’s fixation on crowd size and reaction.
Carney’s comments come days after he backed the U.S. airstrikes on Iran to wipe out the country’s nuclear weapons program — a position he nuanced slightly when speaking to reporters earlier Wednesday. Carney said Canada wants a diplomatic resolution to that conflict.
When asked about Trump’s reaction to Canada’s agreement with the initial barrage of airstrikes on the Islamic Republic, Carney said he hadn’t spoken to the president since the war effort began.