President Donald Trump reportedly issued a stark warning to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, predicting severe political consequences for the Canadian leader if he continues portraying Trump as an enemy while the two countries remain locked in a bitter trade war.
Trump delivered the message in a Truth Social post, arguing that Canadian politicians may initially benefit from attacking him but will eventually suffer if Canada’s economy collapses.
“It is very good for Canadian Politicians like Prime Minister Carney to make President Donald J. Trump ‘the enemy,’ until their Economy collapses, then it will prove to be very bad for Politics — Worse than anything that has ever happened to a Canadian Politician,” Trump wrote. “Just watch!”
The ominous message was one of several combative Truth Social posts published by Trump on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the president ripped news organizations as “treasonous SCUM” over reporting about strains on American ammunition stockpiles.
Trump’s warning to Carney also came as the Canadian prime minister fired back at U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over his account of the collapse of trade negotiations between the United States and Canada.
Lutnick claimed one week earlier that the two governments had reached a handshake agreement before Canada chose to abandon the proposed deal for political reasons.
“Canada had the best trade deal in the world before we started,” Lutnick said following the breakdown of the talks.
The commerce secretary maintained that the negotiations had positioned Canada to continue receiving extraordinarily favorable trade terms.
“We negotiated and Canada was going to have the best trade deal in the world,” Lutnick said.
According to Lutnick, the two sides had reached an agreement, shaken hands and publicly presented the development in a positive light before Canada changed course.
“And what happened was that Canada walked away — we had a deal, we shook hands, the president announced it, right?” Lutnick said. “And everybody was positive.”
Lutnick argued that Carney’s government made the decision to withdraw from the agreement because of domestic political considerations rather than a dispute over the substance of the deal.
“Canada made the decision for political purposes,” he said. “They wanted to walk away. This is politics only.”
Carney was asked Thursday to respond to Lutnick’s version of events and dismissed the Trump administration official’s assessment of Canadian political motivations.
“I don’t think, with all respect, appointed unelected cabinet members in the United States are experts on Canadian politics,” Carney said.
The Canadian leader’s swipe at Lutnick came the same day Trump escalated his own rhetoric against Carney, accusing Canadian politicians of trying to turn the American president into a political enemy.
Trump predicted that the strategy would backfire if Canada’s economy falters, warning that the resulting political fallout for Carney could be historically damaging.
The exchange marked the latest burst of heated rhetoric between officials in Washington and Ottawa following the collapse of their trade discussions. Trump urged observers to wait and see what happens next, ending his warning to Carney with two words: “Just watch!”
[READ MORE: Feminist Icon Gloria Steinem Dead at 92 After Decades of Political Activism]
