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When Carney danced, long after midnight after winning the first real election of his life, he looked like what he was: an unabashed Boomer dork just having a blast.

(There has been some debate as to whether Carney, who was born in 1965, qualifies as a Baby Boomer or a member of generation X. Having watched him in person, I can assure you, he’s Boomer all the way.)

Earlier this week, Carney brought all of that earnest, if sometimes sardonic, detachment to Washington, D.C. He was there to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump, a man who has upended the global economy, threatened to annex Canada, torn up American norms of decency and human rights��— and also seems to like Mark Carney quite a lot.��

The Canadian prime minister ran his election campaign standing up to Trump. But on Tuesday, it became clear his actual plan for dealing with the U.S. president relies more on flattery than tough talk.

It is largely to Carney’s credit that he didn’t feel the need to out-macho Trump in their first in-person meeting. He is, again, a guy who doesn’t seem to care that much about looking cool. There were no performative handshakes or stern speeches. Trump was waiting at the White House when Carney arrived in a black SUV. They shook hands quickly and patted each other on the arm. When Trump turned Carney toward the waiting cameras, and did a little raised-fist salute, Carney copied him, lifting his fist and grinning as if to say “oh, we’re doing this, too?”

Whatever Carney said to the president in private before the two met the media later, in the Oval Office, it seems to have done a job on Trump. Carney spent most of the last three months campaigning against the U.S. president. On election night he thundered (to the extent Carney ever thunders; he’s really more an Excel spreadsheet than a high dudgeon kind of guy) about the existential threat Trump poses to this country.

“President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us,” he told the audience at Liberal HQ, in Ottawa. “That will never, ever happen.”

If Trump took any offence to any of that, he certainly didn’t show it Tuesday. “I think Canada chose a very talented person, a very good person,” Trump said, in his opening remarks. He said it was “an honour” to have Carney in the White House. He praised Carney’s victory, calling it “probably one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics. Maybe even greater than mine.” (A high compliment coming from a man whose myopic narcissism stands out even in the crowded field of American presidential politics.)

The two seemed, from the outside, to be genuinely enjoying each other’s company. “I think I was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to him,” Trump said at one point. Carney responded with something like an eyeroll, raising his brows and grinning and looking out toward the cameras like he was in on the joke — even if it wasn’t a joke at all. Later, after Trump teased a “very, very big announcement, like as a big as it gets,” Carney told him he was “on the edge of (his) seat” and Trump physically shook with laughter, leaning forward and slapping Carney on the leg.

Carney has made it clear that his first priority as prime minister is to get Trump to lift his tariffs on Canadian goods. During the campaign, he made it seem like he would do that through steely opposition alone. But on Tuesday, in the Oval Office, it was elbows down and thumbs way up from the Canadian prime minister. (Literally. The White House pushed out a photo after the meeting of Carney and Trump side-by-side, grinning, with their thumbs up.)

Carney thanked Trump for his “leadership.” He called him a “transformational president” who was “securing the world.”

“Thank you very much,” Trump said when Carney was done. “That was a very nice statement.” He looked truly pleased as he shook the prime minister’s hand.

The generous interpretation would be that Carney was gentle parenting Trump. He was treating him like a toddler who needs boundaries but also plenty of love. He established firm lines that he wouldn’t let Trump cross without objection. When the president said Canadians would have to make their decision about joining the United States “over a period of time,” Carney interjected: “Respectfully, Canadians’ view on this is not going to change, on the 51st state.” When Trump asserted that the United States “doesn’t do much business with Canada,” Carney responded that Canada is, in fact, America’s largest client.

The harsher read, the one Conservatives will no doubt embrace, is that Carney is a cynical phoney. He won an election by wrapping himself in the Canadian flag only to fly to Washington on the first available flight to kiss the U.S. president’s ring. His every objection in the Oval Office was laced, at some point, with flattery or a call back to one of Trump’s pet issues: fentanyl, the border, military spending. And often, when Trump went on one of his rambles, Carney didn’t say anything at all. When the president said he didn’t like Carney’s predecessor (Trudeau) or a “person that worked for him, she was terrible, a terrible person” (presumably Chrystia Freeland), Carney just squeezed his fingers together in his lap. He looked over at Trump. He looked down. He opened his mouth, then physically, visibly he closed his lips again and kept them sealed.

Freeland, it’s worth remembering, is still in Carney’s caucus. It’s very possible he will name her in his cabinet next week. He is also the godfather of her son.

In either case, it remains to be seen whether any of what Carney did Tuesday — the boyish joshing, the gentle flattery — will make a difference. Trump is not a rational actor. He still doesn’t seem to fully understand what a tariff actually is. He spent parts of the White House summit Tuesday marvelling at all the new 24-karat gold accents in the Oval Office. Later, he monologued about how Barack Obama’s presidential library is failing because of wokeness and DEI.

Carney clearly believes he can coax a better deal out of Trump by ignoring all of that and playing nice. He may be right. Trump did end the press conference Tuesday by doubling down on the notion that the U.S. subsidizes Canada “to the tune of maybe $200 billion a year,” which isn’t great. But he also suggested he’ll only annex Canada if Canadians want him to, which is better. And when asked “What’s the top concession you want out of Canada,” Trump replied, both confusingly and somewhat endearingly, “friendship.”

(“That’s not a concession,” the reporter replied.)

At the same time, I think there was likely��something else going on in the Oval Office Tuesday. Carney did not win a majority government last week. He has a relatively comfortable minority, yes, but his government could still fall at any point. When it does, I think Carney is smart enough to know he won’t be able to run against Trump a second time.

Whenever the next election comes, Carney will be judged on his own record, not on his resume. The seats that prevented a Liberal sweep, in places like York Region, the Vancouver suburbs, and northeast Calgary, are the ones where Pierre Poilievre’s laser-focus on housing, the cost of living and crime resonated most. Carney needs to start showing actual progress on all of those issues, fast, if he wants to earn a second term. And as Justin Trudeau learned in 2017, it’s hard to focus anything else when you’re fighting a trade war with the U.S.A.

Carney battled��Trump on the campaign trail. To govern effectively, he has clearly calculated he needs some kind of peace. Conservatives will be apoplectic at the tonal flip. But I doubt that bothers Carney much. He doesn’t care if he looks silly dancing.��After all, you don’t dance unless you’ve won.