Newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney warned President Donald Trump on Tuesday that Canada is “not for sale” in a cordial but tense White House meeting over the trade war and Trump’s push to annex the northern neighbor as a 51st state.

Carney, who won election last week on a platform of confronting Trump’s threats, sought to strike a cordial tone, and the two leaders showered praise on one another in the Oval Office before a closed-door meeting that stretched for 90 minutes.

But Carney squirmed a bit as Trump riffed on his contentious plan for the U.S. to gobble up Canada.

“There are some places that are never for sale. Having met with the owners of Canada ... it’s not for sale and it will never be for sale,” Carney said.

“Never say never,” Trump retorted with a smile. “Time will tell.”

Sitting next to Trump, Carney silently mouthed the word “never” over and over again as Trump spoke.

There was no immediate word of any progress on negotiations to ease the tit-for-tat trade war that began when Trump imposed broad import taxes on Canadian products.

In fact, Trump repeated his claim that the U.S. is “subsidizing” Canada because it runs a trade deficit with the northern neighbor and the U.S. doesn’t need or want Canadian steel, aluminum, timber and other products.

“We don’t do much business with Canada,” Trump remarked flippantly.

Trump regularly falsely claims Canada runs a huge annual trade surplus of $200 billion with the U.S.

In fact, the U.S. had a trade deficit with Canada in physical goods of about $63 billion last year. But that was offset by a surplus in American services to Canada of about $33 billion.

Carney has stressed that he was elected to “stand up” to the mercurial U.S. president and that Canada is “in a once-in-a-lifetime crisis.” The former central banker said he expected “difficult” but “constructive” conversations.

Minutes before Carney’s arrival, Trump set a contentious tone by accusing Canada of freeloading on trade and the nations’ geopolitical alliance.

“We don’t need anything they have, other than their friendship, which hopefully we will always maintain. They, on the other hand, need everything from us,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

Trump has frayed a decades-old alliance by saying he wants to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and levying steep tariffs against an essential partner in the manufacturing of autos and the supply of oil, electricity and other goods.

The widespread north-of-the-border outrage provoked by Trump’s bellicose rhetoric powered Carney’s Liberal Party to a stunning comeback victory over the right-wing opposition party.

Trump has repeatedly threatened that he intends to make Canada the “51st state” and says he is deadly serious. Just Sunday, Trump called the border an “artificial line” that prevents the two nations from forming a “beautiful country.”

Trump’s openly adversarial approach with allies and rivals alike has raised big questions for Carney and other world leaders on how to manage relations with Trump.

Some world leaders, such as the United Kingdom’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, engaged in a charm offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the other hand, wound up getting into a shouting match with Trump after challenging his stance on the Russian invasion.

Trump says the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada even though corporations have worked for decades to integrate supply chains between the two nations.

Nearly 25% of the oil the U.S. consumes comes from the province of Alberta. Almost every state along the northern border, including upstate New York, relies heavily on trade with Canada.

Trump has also disparaged Canada’s military commitments despite a hand-in-glove partnership that stretched from from the beaches of Normandy in World War II to the fight against al-Qaida in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

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