It is perhaps fitting that President Donald Trump refers to the annexation of Canada as a marriage, because at times Trump sounds like a desperate suitor who can’t take no for an answer.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who rode to power on a wave of anti-Trump nationalism, was having none of it last week, letting Trump down easy in a sometimes tense Oval Office meeting. The whole display was embarrassing for Trump, who has set his sights on Canada, and it was a disservice to Americans who have benefited from a respectful relationship with their Northern neighbors.

"When you get rid of that artificially drawn line ... somebody drew that line many years ago with like a ruler, just a straight line right across the top of the country,” Trump said, speaking of the 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border, the world’s longest land border. "When you look at that beautiful formation, when it’s together... I’m a very artistic person. But when I looked at that beauty, I said, that’s the way it was meant to be.”