Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney halted a media Q&A session with President Donald Trump ahead of the G7 summit’s official start, taking back control of the agenda just as Trump was fielding pointed questions on immigration, Russia, and global conflicts.
During the brief but charged session, Trump made a series of direct claims, particularly targeting the former Biden administration’s immigration record. “Biden allowed 21 million people to come into our country,” he said. “The vast numbers of those people are murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails… They emptied their jails out into the U.S.”
Trump accused Democrats of deliberately concentrating illegal immigrants in blue cities to manipulate voting outcomes. “They think they’re going to use them to vote. It’s not going to happen,” he warned.
The comments followed Trump’s recent social media post calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to escalate deportation efforts in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
As Trump wrapped up remarks, Carney, acting as G7 chair, ended the Q&A. “If you don’t mind,” he told the press, “I’m going to exercise my role… 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 the big issues.”
The interruption came just after Trump discussed the G7’s evolution from the G8 — a change he squarely blamed on former President Obama and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for pushing out Russia following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
“That was a mistake,” Trump said. “You wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia, and you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago.”
He also expressed regret that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been excluded from negotiations. “Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else,” Trump claimed, acknowledging it may now be “too late” to reintroduce Russia due to its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Shifting to trade, Trump described himself as “a tariff person” when asked about obstacles in U.S.-Canada negotiations. He indicated that Carney had “a more complex idea, but also very good.”
On the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, Trump said he had received signs that Iran was seeking de-escalation. “They’d like to talk, but they should have done that before,” Trump said. “I’d say Iran is not winning this war. And they should talk… before it’s too late.”
When pressed on whether the U.S. would commit military forces, Trump declined to specify, saying only, “I don’t want to talk about that.”