Liberal leader Mark Carney on Thursday depicted his predecessor, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as an unserious figure who invited ridicule. Relations with the United States are not a photo op or “a visit to Mar-a-Lago,” said Carney, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. President Donald Trump “treated me as the prime minister, not as something else,” Carney, who became the de facto prime minister after a March 9 vote, told reporters.

“I am not even going to say the word he used to use about my predecessor. He treated me as the prime minister.” Trump repeatedly referred to Trudeau as governor of America’s 51st state. Carney said the personal putdown was not repeated in his March 28 phone call with the president — though Trump did again raise the prospect of statehood, which Carney lied about following their March 28 call.