Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney offered rare praise for President Donald Trump on Friday, applauding Trump’s nomination of former Federal Reserve board member Kevin Warsh to serve as the next chair of the central bank.
In a post on the social media platform X, Carney called Warsh “a fantastic choice to lead the world’s most important central bank at this crucial time.” The endorsement stood out given the growing tensions between Washington and Ottawa in recent weeks, making Carney’s public support for Trump’s pick all the more notable.
Carney brings his own deep experience with central banking to the discussion. Before entering politics, he served as governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, positions comparable to the role of Federal Reserve chair in the United States. His professional history overlaps directly with Warsh’s time at the Federal Reserve.
Warsh served as a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011, a period that included the global financial crisis. That tenure coincided with Carney’s leadership of Canada’s central bank from 2008 to 2013. Later, during Carney’s time as head of the Bank of England, Warsh was brought in to review the transparency of the bank’s policy meetings, giving the two men an additional professional connection.
Carney’s endorsement comes at a delicate moment in U.S.-Canada relations. Just last week, the Canadian prime minister delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he publicly pushed back against Trump’s tariff agenda and voiced support for Greenland’s sovereignty. Carney later reaffirmed those views in comments to reporters, referencing a phone call he had with Trump earlier in the week.
“To be absolutely clear, and I said this to the president, I meant what I said in Davos,” Carney said, underscoring that his disagreements with Trump’s policies were intentional and unresolved.
Trump responded by withdrawing an invitation for Canada to join the Board of Peace, a body he formed to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza. Carney had previously expressed skepticism about the scope and terms of that board. Since Carney’s Davos remarks, Trump has also warned of steep new tariffs on Canada if it were to enter a new trade agreement with China, something Carney said Canada has no intention of doing. On Thursday night, Trump also threatened to restrict Canadian airplane imports.
Adding to the friction, Trump administration officials reportedly met with a far-right separatist group from Alberta, Canada’s oil-rich western province. British Columbia Premier David Eby condemned the meeting in blunt terms, saying that seeking foreign assistance to break up Canada amounted to “treason.”
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that,” Eby said. “And that word is treason.”
The White House did not deny that the meetings occurred but said no support or commitments were offered.
Despite the disputes, Carney’s praise of Warsh suggests a willingness to separate economic leadership from political disagreements. Trump, for his part, has continued to needle Ottawa by repeatedly suggesting Canada should become the “51st state,” an idea Carney has flatly rejected. Against that backdrop, Carney’s endorsement of Trump’s Fed nominee stands as a notable moment of cross-border agreement during an otherwise tense chapter in U.S.-Canada relations.
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