CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale says President Donald Trump did “better than usual” Tuesday — and advised solely two lies about America’s commerce relationship with Canada — throughout his Oval Workplace assembly earlier that day with newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“President Trump did not repeat a lot of the lies about Canada that I’ve been fact-checking for months,” Dale confirmed on the air Tuesday. “I counted at least 11 false claims from the president about Canada in 2025; he told two of them, by my count, during this meeting.”
“So, better than usual,” he continued. “But it’s worth fact-checking those two.”
The falsehoods in query: Trump claimed throughout his televised assembly with Carney that the U.S. subsidizes Canada “to the tune of maybe $200 billion a year” — and that America doesn’t “do much business” with the continental ally.
“This $200 billion figure he uses to describe the trade deficit with Canada … it’s imaginary,” Dale defined Tuesday. “The trade deficit with Canada is not even close to that high. It was about $36 billion, not $200 billion, last year.”
“Even if you only count goods trade, ignore the services trade at which the U.S. excels, [it’s] about $71 billion,” he continued. “So, just wrong.”
Trump introduced steep worldwide tariffs final month on all U.S. imports, affecting longstanding commerce relationships with allies all over the world, together with Canada, which he has overtly thought of annexing as America’s 51st state a number of instances in current weeks.
His declare that the U.S. does solely “like 4%” of annual enterprise with Canada was the second-biggest level of rivalry for Dale, who’s Canadian, and introduced some proverbial receipts with him.
Evan Vucci/Related Press
“So that 4% figure is wildly inaccurate,” Dale advised CNN host Brianna Keilar.
“Again, about 17% of U.S. exports go to Canada,” he mentioned. “I can’t definitively fact-check this claim that we ‘don’t do much business with Canada,’ but Canada was the No. 1 buyer of U.S. exports in 2024, [and] again through March this year, the No. 3 source of U.S. imports.”
Dale argued that these figures make Canada “a major” enterprise and buying and selling associate “by any reasonable standard.” He even expounded on the main points in a CNN article, with information displaying Canada purchased about $440 billion in U.S. items and companies final 12 months.
Then, he concluded in writing, this was “more than any other country” on the earth.
Watch Dale’s full evaluation under:
