When the new Canadian prime minister arrived at the Oval Office on Tuesday morning to meet with the American president, he appeared to be walking into a lion’s den. But it turned out to be a house cat he found there.

“Canada is a very special place to me,” President Trump purred at the top of the meeting. “I know so many people that live in Canada. My parents had relatives that lived in Canada, my mother in particular.”

This was somewhat surprising, since he had just spent months growling about how he would like to gobble up Canada and turn it into the 51st state.

“I love Canada,” Mr. Trump added.

It was a decidedly different tone from the one he had used just moments earlier in a post on Truth Social, when he blasted Canadians as a bunch of freeloaders who couldn’t survive without the United States. He posted this just as the new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, was arriving at the White House.

But now the man leading the nation that Mr. Trump had been picking on was sitting right beside him — inches away!

“Canada loves us and we love Canada,” Mr. Trump said now.