Politics

‘Not concerned’: Republicans dismiss Canada’s rejection of Trump

Published

1 year ago

April 29, 2025

It was a wholesale rebuke of Donald Trump. But Republicans are shrugging off the Canadian election results — a race that favored conservatives until it became a referendum on the president — as a warning sign for their party.

The cementing of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party into power on Monday served as an expression of Canadians’ deeply-felt anger about the president’s tariffs and annexation taunts. It was evidence of an electorate turning against conservatives in a neighboring country — one Trump has suggested should be the 51st state — when Trump became involved. But on this side of the border, GOP strategists, pollsters and party leaders said they were unbothered by the outcome and dismissed any trouble that may lie ahead for Republicans in the midterms.

“Not concerned. Change takes time,” said Alex Stroman, former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party.

Or as Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), put it on Tuesday, “I wouldn’t look at it so much as a backlash.”

Trump’s allies in the GOP have a long history of discounting reasons for concern about Trump’s political standing – sometimes accurately, as during legal proceedings that many observers predicted could derail him in the 2024 presidential primary, and sometimes inaccurately, as in the run-up to his loss in 2020.

Even as Republicans remain publicly confident, there are real signs of vulnerability for Trump today. Recent polling showed that the president has record low approval ratings 100 days after his second inauguration. And Trump’s tariffs — which have wreaked havoc on both financial markets and business’ ability to plan for the future — have angered other longtime allies as he pursues an isolationist trade agenda, like the European Union.

Yet in Republican circles in Washington, the collective response was more akin to: “Eh?”

A GOP consultant, granted anonymity in order to speak freely, said the outcome was a “pretty specific result based on the tariffs and 51st state trolling.” But when it comes to the midterms, “other factors will come into play domestically,” like the potential for empty grocery shelves or a recession as a result of retaliatory tariffs imposed by U.S. trading partners.

When it comes to the Canadian election, Republicans dismissed it as a foreign country’s result. Or they minimized Trump’s involvement. Or they took comfort in the fact that the midterms are still more than a year off.

“I don’t think you can draw any broad conclusions to the 2026 midterms other than that for Republicans to win a majority, they need to deliver on their promises,” said Adam Kincaid, who heads the National Republican Redistricting Trust.

He brushed off concerns about Trump’s perceived unforced errors, like the trolling of the former prime minister by referring to him as “Governor Trudeau” or repeatedly blaming fentanyl crossing the Canadian border as the impetus for imposing heavy tariffs, as minimal effects on domestic elections next year.

“My only concern with the midterms is Republicans not being motivated to turn out,” Kincaid said. “Passing President Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ is the best thing Republicans can do to deliver on the president’s promises and motivate our voters to vote in 2026.”

Some Republicans even speculated that Carney and Trump’s relationship may not end up being as hostile as anticipated, despite Carney declaring on election night that Canada will “fight back with everything we have” in negotiating economic and security deals with Trump.

For Republican strategist Alex Conant, there was just one takeaway from the election: “It’s a pretty good reminder of how bad it would be for Republicans if Canada was a state.”

Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.

Politics

Wes Moore lays out his vision for America

Published

2 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is on an Independence Day collision course with President Donald Trump.

Moore is planning to deliver a sweeping speech on patriotism on July Fourth from the Maryland State House in Annapolis — with the aim of counterprogramming what Trump promised would be the “most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA.’”

In an interview with Blue Light News, Moore said he thinks Trump is going to spend the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding talking about himself — but that America deserves something more.

“The president is incapable of meeting the moment,” Moore said.

In his split-screen remarks, called “The Work of Patriotism,” the former Army captain and Afghanistan veteran is expected to “make the case that Democrats cannot cede patriotism to Donald Trump — and that love of country is not about loyalty to one man, one party, or one political spectacle,” according to Ammar Moussa, Moore’s press secretary.

Moore will “draw a contrast between patriotism and nationalism, making the case that nationalism is about allegiance to a person or a movement, while patriotism is about allegiance to the country and the people who make it worth fighting for,” Moussa said.

“We are a nation of strength because we are a nation of sacrifice,” Moore will say, according to a draft of his remarks.

But Moore insisted he’s not trying to be a foil to the president.

“I’m trying to be a foil to darkness,” Moore said. “I think I’m trying to be a foil to fatalism. I think I’m trying to be a foil to self-serving ideologies. What I want people to know in all this is that I believe strongly that we need a future-facing vision for this nation.”

That’s exactly what someone who’s “not running” for president would say, right? Standard Maryland gubernatorial reelection fare.

The speech follows a pattern of growing visibility for Moore. He’s been on numerous podcasts and in new media. The day after his speech, he’s expected to appear on an episode of Jubilee’s “Surrounded,” a booking that’s becoming routine for prominent Democratic figures such as Pete Buttigieg, Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

On Saturday, Moore is heading to battleground Michigan, a potential early 2028 primary state, where he’ll stump for gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson in Detroit, Saginaw and Flint — all pivotal locales to win reelection in Maryland, of course.

Moore has said he’s “laser-focused” on his 2026 reelection campaign. Or, as he explained in an interview with POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin: “I’m hungry, but I’m not thirsty.”

The Maryland governor also had his own thoughts about what the progressive victories in New York’s primaries mean, and how that insurgent energy could be harnessed by 2028 Democrats.

“I think harnessing the energy means driving for the results that people are aspiring to,” Moore said, citing primary wins in his own backyard too: “I created an entire slate, the Leave No One Behind slate in Maryland that was wildly successful, and if you look at the candidates that I endorsed and supported, you can’t find an ideological thread in them. We endorsed the progressive legislator from Montgomery County, and we supported the prosecutor in Baltimore County.”

In fact, Moore endorsed some 200 candidates across the state, and his advisers say 93 percent have either won or are in the lead.

“What connects them is a belief that the status quo has got to be disrupted,” Moore said.

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