This talk has been portrayed very differently in Ottawa and Washington, with Carney suggesting he “dug in” and reinforced his message to Trump, while Bessent contends the Canadian leader “walked back” what he said onstage in Davos. “I was on the call,” Bessent said, before launching into an unusually personal critique of Carney’s political pivot from technocrat to elected leader. “That’s not a great place to be when you’re negotiating with an economy that is multiple [times] larger than you are and your big, biggest trading partner. Bessent’s comments underscore Washington’s view that Ottawa has far more to lose if political theater around Trump overshadows the hard math of cross-border commerce. Against that backdrop, his message to Ottawa was blunt: The Davos drama may be good politics at home, but in the coming trade talks, the U.S. intends to remember who picked the fight.​