Donald Trump was thanked by some unlikely figures after Canada voted to keep its Liberal Party leader, Mark Carney, in power Monday.
In a matter of weeks, Carney reversed negative opinion polls to make a huge comeback and win Canada’s federal election, thanks in part to his stand against President Trump’s relentless campaign to annex Canada as the 51st state. The former central banker, who replaced Justin Trudeau as prime minister last month, focused his campaign around his pushback to Trump and keeping “Canada Strong.”
The reaction online was immediate, with many citing Trump’s trade war and annexation threats as reasons Carney defied the odds to win.
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Also at play was Trump’s Truth Social post earlier Monday calling on Canadians to vote for him instead.
“A remarkable turnaround for Canada’s liberal party, driven in no small part by reaction to Trump’s tariffs and 51st state jibes,” CNN anchor Jim Sciutto wrote on X Monday night shortly after Carney’s victory was called.
“The Liberals went from a twenty point deficit in January to a win tonight because Canadians are *furious* at Donald Trump,” Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, also wrote on X. “That’s not American provincialism: it’s palpable on the ground here in Canada, and what every expert I spoke with told me.”
President Trump’s shortest-serving former spokesman, Anthony Scaramucci, wrote: “The best that Trump did in 100 days: Mark Carney.”
Former senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, Mike Nellis, added: “Trump couldn’t shut up long enough to land himself a potential ally in Canada. What an incredible jacka--. Turning a foreign election into a referendum on yourself is some next-level stupid politics. Congrats to the Liberal Party for winning an election they should’ve lost—thanks to Trump.”
Meanwhile, acclaimed novelist Don Winslow thanked Trump “for all of your help,” adding, “We couldn’t have done it without your insanity.”
Several interviews with Canadian voters at the polls Monday showed how badly Trump’s comments had soured relations between the two longtime allies, with one voter going so far as to describe the president as a “madman.”
“Individual Canadians are doing what they can by shopping non-American and showing how ridiculous these policies and his language has been about Canada,” one voter told Reuters about the United States’ influence in Canada’s election. “This madman will hopefully be gone in four years.”
“Who I voted for would be the best to take care of Trump,” another voter told CNN. “Because Trump is, I’m sorry to say, an a--hole and he shouldn’t even be president of the United States. But because he is, we need a strong person so that we can stand strong.”
Another voter echoed similar sentiments and told NDTV: “The main issue is pretty obvious and it’s obvious the reason the polls have shifted so much over the past few months—and it’s what’s happening just on the other side of the lake there, south of the border.”
Canada’s Liberal Party seemed doomed after Trudeau stepped down as the country’s prime minister in January.
Under Canada’s election system, voters in each of the country’s 343 electoral districts select a member to represent them in the House of Commons, or the lower chamber of Parliament.
If a party wins the majority of seats, 172 or more, it forms the government outright and its leader becomes the prime minister.
In this upcoming election, Carney and conservative Pierre Poilievre, known derisively by liberals as “Maple MAGA,” were frontrunners for the role.
Though votes were still being counted Monday night, it appeared that Carney had secured enough votes to form a minority government.
Trump’s trade war and annexation threats quickly became a central theme on the campaign trail. In one debate, party leaders were even asked which American products they were boycotting as part of a national “Buy Canadian” movement, according to The Washington Post.
“We have a lot of pressure from our former friends to the south of us,” a voter told DW News. “And I want a strong leader in that regard—someone who can really stand up for Canada.”
