TORONTO — President Donald Trump said late Thursday that he had rescinded his invitation to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to join his Board of Peace, an entity that the American leader has promoted as a tool to resolve global conflicts with a scope rivaling the United Nations but that has been met with skepticism from erstwhile U.S. allies.
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”
The president did not provide a reason for withdrawing Canada’s invitation. It came several days after Carney delivered a stark and widely lauded address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he said the U.S.-led international order was “over” and urged fellow “middle powers” to band together and form new alliances to adapt.
“Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited,” the prime minister said. “You cannot ‘live within the lie’ of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
The address, which drew a rare standing ovation at Davos, was widely viewed as a veiled broadside against the United States and Trump, though Carney mentioned neither by name.
On Wednesday, Trump used his own address at the World Economic Forum to jab Carney and Canada, which he said “gets a lot of freebies” from the U.S.
“Canada lives because of the United States,” he said. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
In an address Thursday before a cabinet meeting in Quebec City, Carney said Canada should be a “beacon to a world at sea.” While it could not solve all the world’s problems, it could show “that another way is possible: that the arc of history isn’t destined to be warped toward authoritarianism and exclusion — it can still bend towards progress and justice.”
“Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security and in a rich cultural exchange,” the prime minister said. “But Canada doesn’t ‘live because of the United States.’ Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
The White House declined to elaborate on Trump’s post. Carney’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump’s decision to revoke Canada’s invitation was one in a long series of hits to traditionally chummy U.S.-Canada ties since the president’s return to the White House. He has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods that are hitting the country’s auto and steel industries hard and has threatened to use economic coercion to make the country the 51st state — opening the largest rift in bilateral relations in generations.
More than 70 percent of Canadian exports have traditionally gone to the U.S A review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement begins this year, and Canadian officials have feared Trump could rip the deal up — putting the future of free trade in North America in doubt. Carney, who won a federal election last year by casting himself as the best person to manage the rupture in U.S.-Canada ties, is seeking to diversify Canada’s export markets.
The president’s assaults on Canadian sovereignty have infuriated Canadians, who have boycotted American products and travel. His baseless assertion this week that NATO troops “stayed a little back” from the front lines in Afghanistan have also drawn outrage here. More than 160 Canadian Armed Forces members and civilians were killed in Afghanistan. Canadian troops were on the front lines in Kandahar, where some of the war’s fiercest and deadliest fighting occurred.
“How would Trump behave differently if he was legitimately losing his mind?” a Globe and Mail columnist asked in an op-ed this week.
The White House has sent invitations to at least 50 countries to join the Board of Peace. In Davos on Thursday, Trump was joined by representatives from 19 countries at a signing ceremony. While more than two dozen nations have accepted, several traditional allies including European nations have declined or equivocated, citing the need to study the proposal further.
Carney said last week that he intended to accept Trump’s invitation, but he also expressed concerns about the body’s structure and decision-making processes. He said Canada’s participation would require the resumption of a “full flow” of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and Canadian officials have said Canada would not pay $1 billion to became a permanent member of the board.
Several political analysts in Canada said Trump did Carney a favor by revoking his invitation.
“This is a blessing,” Roland Paris, a professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa and a former foreign policy adviser to Carney’s predecessor and fellow Liberal, Justin Trudeau, said in a post on X. “Now Carney won’t be in the awkward position of having to say no.”
Scott Reid, former director of communications to Prime Minister Paul Martin, likened Canada’s snub to being kicked out of the “League of Super Villains.”
“Being spurned allows Carney to dodge the savage choice of saying no or, even worse, having to say yes,” he said in a post on X. “Exile from this shady farce as penalty for Davos is probably the best of all possible outcomes.”
Carney’s frank speech Tuesday drew wide praise as a defining moment of the gathering of the world’s political and economic elite and one of the most consequential foreign policy addresses of a Canadian prime minister in the country’s history.
“Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu,” Carney warned. “In a world of great-power rivalry, the countries in between have a choice: compete with each other for favor or to combine to create a third path with impact.”
Kelly Kasulis Cho contributed to this report.
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