U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of the April 28 election may reflect a dynamic where ideological rivals are able to engage more openly, one of America’s best-known historians and conservative commentators says.
Trump’s preference for another Liberal prime minister in Canada, along with his public praise for Carney on multiple occasions, could stem from a common dynamic among ideological opponents where interactions can be more blunt and direct, said Victor Davis Hanson in a recent interview with Jan Jekielek, host of The Epoch Times’ program “American Thought Leaders.”
He said that when two parties are “diametrically opposed” in their ideology, they tend to be more candid and “more clear about their opposition.” Hanson argued that if Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had become prime minister, Trump wouldn’t be so blunt, as dealing with a “kindred” conservative would require a more “careful” approach.
“But when you do it to someone who’s antithetical [like a Liberal], you can be more honest,” he said. “I think that’s what Trump is thinking.”
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) meets with Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office at the White House on May 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Praise for Carney
Ahead of Canada’s election, Trump said he would prefer to deal with a Liberal prime minister than a Conservative one, adding that Poilievre had said “negative things” about him and was “stupidly, no friend of mine.”“I think it’s easier to deal actually, with a Liberal, and maybe they’re going to win, but I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to me at all,” he said during a March 18 interview with Fox News, prior to Canada’s election on April 28.
Trump had previously said he was not a fan of Poilievre, because he’s “not a MAGA guy,” something the Tory leader later confirmed, saying he was “Canada first.”
“I am only for Canada, and I am fighting for the interest of this people and this country, and if that upsets foreign leaders, including the American president, I am fine with that,” Poilievre said during a March 4 press conference.
Carney, for his part, made opposition to Trump a central theme of his election campaign, repeatedly saying, “Trump is trying to break us, so that America can own us.”
Meanwhile, in the March 18 Fox News interview, Trump once again spoke negatively about his experiences with former Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada,” he said, adding that Trudeau and “his people were nasty.”
Following the April 28 election, Trump praised Carney, calling him a “very nice gentleman” while announcing that Carney would visit the White House in the coming days.
The praise continued during their first in-person meeting as leaders at the White House on May 6, where the president called Carney “a very talented person, a very good person,” and described his victory as “probably one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, maybe even greater than mine.”
After Carney’s elected victory on April 28, Trump said that both Carney and Poilievre “hated Trump” but that “it was the one that hated Trump, I think the least, that won.”
“I actually think the Conservative hated me much more than the so-called Liberal–he’s a pretty liberal guy,” Trump added.
Hanson contrasted how a Liberal and a Conservative might respond to Trump’s demands, using the need to increase defence spending as an example.
If a “fellow conservative” is told he’s not meeting his commitments, he said, it would be “embarrassing” for that conservative. But “if you tell a Liberal or a man of the left that, then you have real pressure on him,” he said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre makes a point as he participates in the French-language federal leaders' debate, in Montreal, on April 16, 2025. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
A ‘Deal Maker’ Strategy
Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a Canadian think tank, views Trump’s positive comments toward Carney not as genuine praise but as the president’s way of getting what he wants.He argues that Carney’s profile does not align with the type of figure Trump typically admires.
“When he looks at Mark Carney, he’s going to see a bunch of things,” Crowley told Jekielek in a recent interview. “He is going to see a guy with a big degree from a fancy university, he is an international technocrat, he has been a central bank governor in both Canada and the United Kingdom–he is the quintessential Davos man,” he added referring to the World Economic Forum annual meetings held in Davos, Switzerland.
“I don’t think he’s the kind of person that Donald Trump respects,” Crowley said.
He said Carney’s apparent “close” ties to China—which Crowley called America’s “great rival”—and what he describes as the Liberal Party’s efforts to promote China as an “important” partner for Canada over many years, would make Carney seem less helpful to U.S. interests. However, he argues the prime minister “doesn’t have much alternative” but to cooperate with Washington, given Canada’s reliance on the United States.
Carney has previously come under scrutiny from the Conservatives, who pointed to a US$276 million dollar loan from the state-owned Bank of China that Brookfield Asset Management secured in late 2024, during Carney’s tenure as board chair of the investment firm.
The Conservatives have also noted that Carney met with the mayor of Beijing in October 2024, with Beijing’s readout of the meeting saying Carney had highlighted the firm’s interests in expanding its business in the city and “deepening cooperation with relevant partners,” among other issues.
Asked during the election campaign if he is beholden to China, Carney said he is “beholden to absolutely no one except to the Canadian people.” He has also said that the “biggest security threat” facing Canada is China, and that China is not among the trading partners who share “Canada’s values.”
“There’s certain activity that we could have with China. We obviously do have a large amount of trade with them, but we have to be very careful, very deliberate, and they need to meet Canadian standards,” Carney said on March 26.
Crowley said Trump sees Carney “as the kind of negotiating partner he can get the better of,” adding that whether Carney will be able to stand up to Trump remains to be seen.
“I don’t think he’s got a lot of cards in his hand, and I think Donald Trump likes it just fine that way,” he said.
The flags of Canada and the United States fly outside a hotel in downtown Ottawa, on Feb. 1, 2025. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
Canada Less ‘Responsive’
Hanson also said that Canada, under the Trudeau government, appeared to be less “responsive” to U.S. concerns than other U.S. allies like Mexico, noting that Washington has greater leverage on its southern neighbour.“There’s been this tension with Canada, and maybe part of that tension is expressed in a less serious effort on their part to address this new surge of people that have ill intent toward the United States,” he added, in an apparent reference to Trump’s concerns over the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States across the border.
In response to Trump’s concerns, Ottawa last year earmarked $1.3 billion to boost border security. It also took additional measures, such as appointing a “fentanyl czar,” listing a number of transnational criminal organizations as terrorist entities, and allocating another $200 million to boost security operations this year.
The Prime Minister’s Office said in January that the Canada-U.S. border accounts for less than 0.2 percent of fentanyl seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
FBI Director Kash Patel said last week that flow of fentanyl into the United States is coming from Canada, and that hostile regimes like China, Russia, and Iran are working with cartels to smuggle the drug via Vancouver.
“They’re sailing around to Vancouver and coming in by air,” Patel said during an interview with Fox News that aired on May 18.
Noé Chartier and Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.
