U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s not a fan of what Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been saying about him, criticizing him for not being a “MAGA guy.”
The U.S. president shared his thoughts about Poilievre for the first time publicly on Friday during an interview with the Spectator after being asked about how his presidency has affected the official opposition in the polls.
The Conservatives have seen a drop in polling since both Trump’s has taken office and Mark Carney’s bid to become the next Liberal leader.
The U.S. president was asked if he thought the Conservatives were “still going to be able to pull it out up there?”
Trump responded by saying that he thought Poilievere’s “biggest problem is he’s not a MAGA guy, you know?”
“I mean, he’s really not he’s not a Trump guy at all,” he said.
The interviewer then asked if Trump viewed Poilievre as “more of a throwback Republican?”
“He’s… different. Make it a big mistake. They all make that mistake. You know. They think they’re going to be the tough guy and they’re going to knock out Trump, and they end up getting the hell beat out of ’em,” answered Trump.
“So I don’t know. I mean, I can’t tell you, Pierre. I just don’t know. I don’t like what he’s saying about me. It’s just not positive about me. And we’ve done a great job. We got elected when I would say the odds were pretty much against.”
Trump was asked several weeks ago about Poilievre in the wake of his comments about annexing Canada and Greenland and he responded by saying he didn’t know who he was.
Poilievre has been outspoken on how he would handle the Trump administration regarding there tariff threats, pledging to impose dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs that would “maximize the effect on Americans, while minimizing the effect on ourselves,”
In his Canada First speech in Ottawa earlier this month, Poilievre quoted Winston Churchill, saying, “you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after exhausting all other possibilities.”He then laid out the possibilities, addressing Americans directly: “You can carry out an unprovoked attack on our economy, your consumers will pay more and your workers will make less.”
“Gas prices will skyrocket. You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbour, forced to match tariff with tariff and to seek friends everywhere else. Both our economies will weaken, leaving less money for defence and security and our enemies will grow stronger,” he said.
Poilievre went on to say that despite Canadians’ reputation for being ‘slow to anger and quick to forgive’ that the U.S. should “never mistake our kindness for weakness.”
Ironically, critics of Poilievre have repeatedly lambasted him as a puppet of the U.S. president, giving him nicknames like “Trump-light,” “Trump from Temu” and “baby Trump.”
Conservative MP Michael Barrett was asked by reporters to respond to Trump’s recent assessment of Poilievre during a press conference in Ottawa Friday.
According to Barrett, his party “is laser-focused on what’s best for Canadians,” saying that he’s not concerned about what other leaders have to say.
Barrett was then pressed again on the matter, asked to answer how Trump’s comments about Poilievre made him “feel.”
“Do you think that the objective of the official opposition should be to gain the praise of foreign leaders instead of to put Canadians first? Because that’s what we’re doing,” said Barrett.
