Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has stared down Donald Trump’s threat of all-out economic war with the European Union.
Carney, 61, offered a thinly veiled takedown of the U.S. president during a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, a day after the bloc proposed deepening its ties with Ottawa.
Trump, 80, has said making Canada an associate member of the EU could be taken as a “hostile act.”
“We are not fair-weather allies. We do not pursue zero-sum deals. We hold common values for which we have always fought, and in whose defense we must always remain vigilant,” Carney told European lawmakers on Thursday. “Canada and Europe are each strong,” he added. “Europe and Canada are stronger together.”
European President Ursula Von der Leyen, 67, suggested on Wednesday that Canada should become an associate member of the EU to secure its relationship with the bloc at “the highest level possible.”
That status does not yet exist under EU law, and the terms of the new relationship remain under discussion.
Trump responded to the news from the tarmac ahead of speaking at a GOP rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. He said the U.S. response would depend on how those talks shake out, telling reporters: “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe.”
“Canada’s been a terrible trade partner,” he said. “If I think it’s at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things.”
The clash unfolds against a backdrop of rapidly worsening ties between Ottawa and Washington, driven by Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and his recurring calls for the country to join the U.S. as its 51st state.
Trump invoked an obscure and largely unused portion of the 1930 Tariff Act to slap 50 percent duties on more than $20 billion’s worth of Canadian goods after trade talks broke down in August. Carney retaliated by raising existing levies on U.S. steel and aluminum and imposed new tariffs on a range of other goods.
Relations between Washington and Brussels have fared little better. Trump has repeatedly used tariffs and threats of economic retaliation against the EU, even after the two sides struck a trade agreement in July 2025 to avoid the worst of his proposed levies—which in some cases ran as high as 200 percent.
The president has also repeatedly questioned D.C.’s commitment to NATO allies. He has pressured members to increase spending on U.S. defense contractors and threatened retaliation for a perceived lack of support for his war in Iran, even warning that Washington would not honor the alliance’s mutual-defense agreement in the event another of its members came under attack.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
