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WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit was not a big story in Washington on Tuesday as the cheer of a drama-free day was swiftly overshadowed by an incoming storm of palace intrigue, back-stabbing, leaks, international incidents and a spying scandal that rocked Donald Trump’s White House.

Although, there were some guffaws when Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer tripped on the prime minister’s name. He saluted the “incredibly productive,” meeting with, “Prime Minister Joe Trudeau of Canada.”

Trudeau left town with a document directing the national governments to continue co-operating — on trade, faster movement at the border, labour mobility reforms, and joint infrastructure projects.

Normal, comparably boring bilateral stuff and not very newsworthy in Trump’s Washington.

Trudeau had assured his U.S. counterpart over the phone that there might be 10,000 problems that land on his White House desk — and Canada won’t be among them.

How true that promise rang Tuesday.

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On Monday, Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn wandered in to watch the Trudeau-Trump news conference. It made for an awkward scene, as, just a few feet away, a U.S. journalist was chatting on air about whether Flynn might be fired.

He was, hours later.

American journalists fumed that the White House prevented them from asking Trump at that news conference about intercepted phone calls between Flynn and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. — Trump’s team picked which U.S. media got questions.