Canada’s Carney: I Meant What I Said About the US
Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at the beginning of a Cabinet Planning Forum at the Citadelle in Quebec City, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he is standing by his widely discussed speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, rejecting claims from Washington that he has backed away from its message. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Carney said he made his position clear directly to President Trump.
“To be absolutely clear—and I said this to the president—I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney said, according to Politico. He added that Canada was the first country to recognize a shift in U.S. trade policy initiated by Trump and has been responding accordingly.
In his Davos address last week, Carney urged the world’s “middle powers” to push back against American “hegemony,” comments that spread quickly online and drew sharp criticism from U.S. officials. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday on Fox News that Trump had spoken with Carney and that the prime minister was “very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.”
Carney disputed that characterization. He said his conversation with Trump focused largely on Canada’s recent trade agreement with China, which prompted Trump to threaten a 100% tariff. Carney emphasized that the agreement is not a comprehensive trade pact. “I explained to him what we’re doing—12 new deals, four continents, in six months,” Carney said, according to the Associated Press. “He was impressed.”
As both sides continue to clash over the meaning and intent of Carney’s remarks—Bessent accused the prime minister of advancing a “globalist agenda” at Canada’s expense—the Davos speech continues to draw international attention. A New York Times headline accompanying the transcript of a recent Ezra Klein podcast called it “the most important foreign policy speech in years.”
The speech centers on what Klein describes as “weaponized interdependence,” a concept popularized by his guest, Henry Farrell of Johns Hopkins University. Klein explained that as globalization deepened, U.S. dominance in technology and financial systems gave Washington significant leverage. While that leverage once benefited allies, its increasing use as a tool of pressure or coercion has altered the underlying bargain, reshaping global relationships.
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