Lawrence O’Donnell, the MSNBC host, broke down a moment from Donald Trump’s meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney—and it wasn’t a good look for the former president. O’Donnell argued that Trump was completely outplayed in their Oval Office conversation, to the point where he didn’t even realize he was being schooled on live television.
The clip showed Carney handling Trump with a mix of diplomacy and quiet defiance, shutting down one of Trump’s more outlandish ideas—the suggestion that Canada could someday become part of the United States. Carney responded with a firm, polite refusal, looking Trump right in the eye and saying, in so many words, “Absolutely not.” But what made the moment even more striking, according to O’Donnell, was that Trump didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that he was being shut down. Instead, he just nodded along, oblivious to the fact that he was being made to look foolish.
O’Donnell pointed out that this wasn’t an isolated incident. Over the years, multiple foreign leaders have managed to outmaneuver Trump in similar ways—using flattery and careful wording to keep him from realizing he was losing the exchange. French President Emmanuel Macron did it during his visit in early 2024, and so did British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shortly after. But this time, O’Donnell said, the humiliation was especially obvious.
What made Carney’s approach so effective was how he framed his rejection in terms Trump could understand—appealing to his ego while still standing firm. He didn’t yell or argue; he just calmly made it clear that Canada would never be “for sale” and would never be absorbed into the U.S. And Trump, instead of pushing back or even recognizing the dismissal, just sat there nodding, seemingly pleased with the conversation.
O’Donnell couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it. Here was a world leader politely but definitively telling Trump “no” to his face, and Trump was so out of his depth that he thought it was going well. In just 90 seconds, O’Donnell said, Trump had managed to lose more ground in a diplomatic exchange than any other president in history—without even realizing it.
The whole thing played out like a masterclass in handling Trump: stay calm, don’t engage in his usual combative style, and let him walk himself into a defeat he won’t even notice until it’s too late. And in this case, the whole world got to watch it happen.