French President Emmanuel Macron, from left, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, U.S. President Donald Trump, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during the G7 summit on Monday.Suzanne Plunkett/The Associated Press
Donald Trump seemed to be in a good mood.
“It’s beautiful. It’s so beautiful,” Mr. Trump said Monday as he walked through Kananaskis greenery to shake Prime Minister Mark Carney’s hand for the official welcome to the G7 summit. He was wearing a Canada-U.S. pin that, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, didn’t come from the Canadian hosts.
It sounded like he was making an effort. Even when he decided to leave a day early to deal with the Middle East, he said he had a “great relationship” with everybody.
But in this group, he still stuck out like a brightly-coloured cartoon character in a black-and-white photo.
President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday and said that a trade deal with Canada is 'achievable.'
Reuters
Many of the other leaders came into this summit with diplomatic phrases about addressing the U.S.’s economic concerns, talking about “imbalances,” for example – but stressing the need to keep open trade going. Mr. Trump said, “I’m a tariff person.”
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy are adamant about backing Ukraine, seeing it as the key to their security since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion brought war back to Europe. Mr. Trump showed up complaining that they’d kicked Mr. Putin out of the then-G8 in 2014, that Mr. Putin was insulted by it, and that if he hadn’t been excluded, there never would have been a war.
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It’s hard to overstate just how out of whack Mr. Trump’s talk about Mr. Putin is with the zeitgeist of the other six – seven, really, because European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has an uncounted permanent seat at the G7. On Sunday, Ms. Von der Leyen had said Mr. Putin should never have been in the group.
Certainly, in 2025, it’s hard to be surprised that Mr. Trump has differences with Western allies. But it’s still jarring when they are side-by-side. He has seemed upbeat at the G7 summit in Alberta, but he just approaches everything in a completely different way.
That made the agreement between Mr. Carney and Mr. Trump to try to complete a potential, undefined deal on trade in the next 30 days sound like smashing a square peg into a round hole.
“I think we have different concepts. I have a tariff concept. Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he met Mr. Carney for a one-on-one meeting on Monday. “I’m a tariff person. I’ve always been a tariff person. It’s easy. It’s precise.”
“And I think Mark has a more complex idea but also a very good one.”
There are indeed different concepts. Mr. Trump is for tariffs. Mr. Carney is against them.
Donald Trump with Mark Carney at the G7 summit.Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press
Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told reporters Monday that having the tariffs lifted is still the Canadian goal in all these talks.
Mr. Carney’s complex idea hasn’t been shared with the public, but it is not going to be getting Mr. Trump to suddenly agree tariffs are a bad idea. It will have to give Mr. Trump something he wants.
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Former prime minister Justin Trudeau developed a border-policing package when Mr. Trump invoked fentanyl smuggling to impose one set of tariffs. Mr. Carney just increased defence spending and has raised a number of other issues, such as developing critical minerals, that might be points of negotiation. The U.S. wants to see Canada scrap its digital service tax.
But those things won’t be the basis of a comprehensive trade agreement. They’re more likely to be elements of a slim framework agreement that Mr. Carney might offer in return for a suspension of current tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos – a first-phase truce until a broader agreement is negotiated.
Deals are, after all, what Mr. Trump wants now. He promised countries around the world would be begging to make a deal to get relief from his tariffs. So far, he has struck a limited deal with Britain – finalized Monday – that lifts tariffs on British steel but retains a 10-per-cent tariff on many other British goods.
Perhaps Mr. Carney’s complex concept will be enough to get Mr. Trump to make a first-phase deal soon. But Mr. Trump is still a tariff person. When it comes time to negotiate broader trade agreements, he will want some level of tariffs to apply to Canada.
“The new definition of free trade is a free-trade agreement with a tariff,” said Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada.
That’s still the nature of dealing with Mr. Trump. He approaches things in an entirely different way from the other leaders of the Western world – even when he’s smiling.