Canadian Prime Minister flies to Washington for trade talks; leaves with no deal and no press conference.

The Prime Minister of Canada flew down to Washington on Tuesday to talk about tariffs. The two of them sat in the Oval Office. They posed for the cameras. They had lunch. The President called the Prime Minister a “world-class leader” and a “tough negotiator.” He also said, on camera, that Canadians “will love us again.” This was unprompted.

Buddy. Pause on that. The President of the United States is sitting next to the head of state of Canada, the country that literally shares the longest peaceful border in human history with us, and the President of the United States is announcing that Canadians are going to love us again. The implication being that Canadians, at this moment, in October 2025, do not love us. The implication being correct. The cause of which is sitting across the desk explaining how the love will be restored after a deal that he is currently choosing not to sign.

The meeting ended. There is no deal. The Prime Minister got back on the plane. The Prime Minister did not hold a press conference. Instead, the Canadian trade minister came out alone and gave a brief statement to the cameras. He said the talks were “successful, positive, substantive.” He gave no specifics. He took no questions on tariffs. He took no questions on USMCA. He politely walked off camera. The Prime Minister, who is also the head of state of Canada, did not appear in front of any microphone in Washington that afternoon.

Now. I have run a casino floor. I have made deals. The deals you do not announce are the deals that did not happen. When two heads of state walk into a room and you can hear all about how world-class and tough everybody is, but the only thing you cannot hear about is the actual deal, it is because there is no actual deal. There is goodwill. There is a friendly handshake. There is a working lunch.

There is also a tariff schedule, unchanged from Monday, hitting Canadian aluminum, Canadian steel, Canadian softwood, Canadian autos, Canadian dairy. Eighteen days from now the President will go on his social network and raise the rate on Canada by another ten percent because of an Ontario television ad about Ronald Reagan. So.

So.

I’m arguing with the television. Carney is on his plane.