Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and an Exchange With Reporters in Kananaskis, Canada

Prime Minister Carney. Mr. President, welcome to Canada.

President Trump. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Prime Minister Carney. It's a great honor. Happy birthday.

President Trump. Thank you.

Prime Minister Carney. A few days short.

President Trump. A little bit, but that's all right.

Prime Minister Carney. A few days short, but didn't have a chance to see you on the—on the day. Happy birthday to the U.S. military as well——

President Trump. Yes.

Prime Minister Carney. ——250th. And this is the 50th birthday, if you will, of the G–7. This marks the 50th birthday of the G–7, and the G–7 is nothing without U.S. leadership. And so—and your personal leadership, leadership of the United States. Many issues: geopolitics, economic——

President Trump. Right.

Prime Minister Carney. ——technology, and working hand in hand with the United States—Canada and the United States and the other G–7 partners, with your leadership. We're very much looking forward to the meeting and grateful to have you.

President Trump. Well, thank you very much, Mark. I appreciate it, and we've developed a very good relationship. And we're going to be talking about trade and many other things.

And we have a whole group of people, some traders and some other people. [Laughter] I see my top economy people. But we have a very talented group of people, and you do too, and I know they work together very well. I look forward to that.

The G–7 used to be the G–8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in. And I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in. And you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were President 4 years ago, but it didn't work out that way.

But it used to be the G–8, and now it's, I guess—what's that, 9 years ago?—8 years ago?——

Prime Minister Carney. Something like that. Yes.

President Trump. ——it switched over. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake. Even though I wasn't in politics then, I was very loud about it. It was a mistake in that you spend so much time talking about Russia, and he's no longer at the table. So, it makes life more complicated. But you wouldn't have had the war.

And other than that, I think we're going to accomplish a lot, and I expect to. And I think our primary focus will be trade and trade with Canada, and I'm sure we can work something out.

Prime Minister Carney. Yes. Very good.

President Trump. Thank you very much.

Prime Minister Carney. Yes. So am I. Thank you very much.

[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Canada-U.S. Trade

Q. Mr. President, what is holding up a deal with Canada?

Q. How close are you to a deal?

President Trump. Say it.

Q. What is holding up a deal with Canada, from your perspective?

President Trump. It's not so much holding up. I think we have different concepts. I have a tariff concept, and Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like. But we're going to see if we can get to the bottom of it today. I'm a tariff person. I've always been a tariff—it's simple, it's easy, it's precise, and it just goes very quickly.

And I think Mark has a—a more complex idea, but also very good. So we're going to look at both, and we're going to see what we'll—we're going to come out with something, hopefully.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Trade Negotiations

Q. Mr. President, do you think a deal—do you think a deal is achievable within days, within weeks? Is there that kind of runway?

President Trump. Yes, it's achievable. Both parties have to agree. Yes, sure.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Iran/Israel

Q. Mr. President, on Israel and Iran——

Q. On Iran, sir? Mr. President?

Q. ——have you seen a—have you heard any signals or seen any messages from intermediaries that Iran wishes to deescalate the conflict?

President Trump. Yes.

Q. What have they—what have you heard? What have you heard from the Iranians?

President Trump. They'd like to talk.

But they should have done that before. I had 60 days, and they had 60 days. And, on the 61st day, I said: "We don't have a deal. They have to make a deal." And it's painful for both parties, but I'd say Iran is not winning this war. And they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it's too late.

Iran/Potential U.S. Military Involvement

Q. And what would you say—in your opinion, what would it take for the U.S. to get involved in this conflict militarily?

President Trump. I don't want to talk about that. We'll see.

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia/Group of Seven (G–7) Nations

Q. And you mentioned Putin. Do you think that he should have a seat at the G–7 today, that it should be the G–8?

President Trump. I'm not saying he should at this point, because too much water has gone over the dam, maybe, but it was a big mistake. Obama didn't want him, and the head of your country—the proud head of your country didn't want him. This was a big mistake. You wouldn't have that war.

You know, you have your enemy at the table. Even—I don't even consider him—he wasn't an enemy—really an enemy at that time. There was no concept.

If I were President, this war would have never happened. But likewise, if he were a member of the—what was called the G–8 at that time—it was always the G–8—you wouldn't have a war right now.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Why not let China in the G–8?

Israel

Q. What material support and what intelligence support are you providing Israel?

President Trump. We've always supported Israel. We have for a long period of time, strongly, and Israel is doing very well right now.

Q. Why not have China at the G–8?

Q. Mr. President, what do you make of Canada's defense spending?

China/Group of Seven (G–7) Nations/President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Why not have China here—the biggest economy in the world, after the United States?

President Trump. Well, it's not a bad idea. I don't mind that. If somebody wants to suggest China coming in, I think we suggest—but you want to have people that you can talk to. You know, they don't talk to—Putin speaks to me. He doesn't speak to anybody else. He doesn't want to talk, because he was very insulted when he got thrown out of the G–8. As I would be, as you would be, as anybody would be, he was very insulted.

And, I mean, he was thrown out by Trudeau, who convinced one or two people, along with Obama. He was thrown out, and he's not a happy person about it. I can tell you that. He's—he——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

He basically doesn't even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. On Golden Dome, sir—on Golden Dome, sir——

President Trump. Go ahead. What?

Immigration Enforcement Actions

Q. On immigration. Why are you ordering ICE to target Democratic inner cities? What's behind that?

President Trump. I don't know what you're saying.

Q. You did a post last night where you said you want ICE to really target Democratic cities——

President Trump. Yes, I want them to focus on the cities, because the cities are where you really have what's called "sanctuary cities," and that's where the people are.

I look at New York. I look at Chicago. I mean, you got a really bad Governor in Chicago and a bad mayor, but the Governor is probably the worst in the country, Pritzker. But I look at how that city has been overrun by criminals.

And, you know, New York and L.A.—look at L.A. L.A.—those people weren't from LA. They weren't from California, most of those people—many of those people. And yes, I—that's the focus.

Biden allowed 21 million people to come into our country. Of that, vast numbers of those people were murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails. They emptied their jails out into the U.S. Most of those people are in the cities—all blue cities, all Democrat-run cities—and they think they're going to use them to vote. It's not going to happen.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Prime Minister Carney. I think—all right. No, I'm going to—[inaudible].

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President, you said it would take 2 weeks to decide if——

If you don't mind, just—I'm going to exercise my role, if you will, as G–7 chair, since we have a few more minutes with the President and his team, and then we actually have to start the meeting to address some of these big issues. So merci beaucoup.

[Prime Minister Carney spoke in French; no translation was provided. Several reporters then spoke at once.]

Q. Will you put—will you sanctions on Russia? Sanctions on Russia?

[Prime Minister Carney spoke in French; no translation was provided.]

Russia

Q. Will you put sanctions on Russia? Do you think that would be—[inaudible]?

President Trump. It could happen.

Q. Say that again?

President Trump. It could happen.