Carney says he told Trump 'I meant what I said in Davos,' despite U.S. claims

Prime Minister Mark Carney is dismissing reports he walked back the remarks he made in Davos last week during a conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday. 

"To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos," Carney said Tuesday on his way into a meeting with his cabinet.  

Asked directly if he walked his comments back, Carney said "no."

The prime minister said Trump called Carney on Monday and the pair had "a very good conversation" discussing everything from Arctic security to the situation in Ukraine and Venezuela.

Carney said he told the U.S. president that Canada was the first country to recognize the new direction Trump was taking with American trade policy and that Canada was "responding positively" to Trump's moves. 

"I explained to him our arrangement with China, I explained to him what we're doing: 12 new deals on four continents in six months — he was impressed — and what we intend to do going forward."

The prime minister said part of that conversation focused on the upcoming review of CUSMA and how Canada was prepared to use that review to build new relationships in the U.S. 

During an appearance on Fox News' Hannity program on Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was there when Trump spoke with Carney, saying the prime minister used the opportunity to recant what he said during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

"I was in the Oval (Office) with the president today. He spoke to Prime Minister Carney, who was very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos," Bessent said.

Carney's speech in Switzerland to the world's business and political elite argued that the U.S.-led, rules-based international order is over and that middle powers like Canada need to band together or risk being eaten alive by great powers.

"Great powers can afford to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity, the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what is offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating. This is not sovereignty. It is the performance of sovereignty while accepting subordination," Carney said.

"In a world of great power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: to compete with each other for favour, or to combine to create a third path with impact."

Without invoking Trump by name, Carney's speech referenced "American hegemony" and said that "great powers" are using economic integration as "weapons."

"Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumption that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security is no longer valid," Carney said.