Carney in Washington for 1st meeting with Trump to discuss tariffs, Canada-U.S. relations

Repeat after us: it’s just 1 meeting

Despite the wall-to-wall media scrutiny of Carney’s trip to Washington, it’s worth remembering what this is: one meeting.

His interlocutor, Trump, is a famously transactional figure whose interactions will turn on a dime.

Case in point? Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader was the victim of perhaps the most catastrophic photo op in the history of the Oval Office. Every world leader visiting Washington now fears getting “Zelenskyed.”

But guess what? Zelenskyy and Trump are now on better terms. They just had an encounter at the Vatican that Zelenskyy called their best interaction yet.

They’ve got a new minerals deal that analysts are calling a win-win. The New York Times just ran a piece headlined, “How Zelensky Maneuvered Himself Out of the Doghouse With Trump.”

You know who had a good first meeting with Trump after the Nov. 5 U.S. election? Justin Trudeau. By initial accounts, his trip to Mar-a-Lago was friendly.

Then a few days later, Trump started belittling Canada’s sovereignty, in a campaign of cross-border denigration without parallel in modern history.

So bottom line: it’s a lunch meeting. Chill.