Trump denies White House tried to interfere with French language in Quebec

Full text

President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning denied that the White House had sought to interfere with the French language spoken in Quebec, as the two countries trade jabs over who is at fault for the trade war.

The president celebrated last week that the U.S. and Canada had reached a “DEAL” following months of negotiations to forestall American tariffs. But it fell apart on Friday , with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledging to match the U.S. levies “dollar for dollar.”

Carney on Saturday lamented what he called “threats to the French language” and “the Quebec culture,” telling reporters in French that they were “unacceptable” and helped spell “the end of this phase of the negotiations.”

But the president rejected those claims, posting on Truth Social: “I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French!”

“In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,” he posted.

With elections in Quebec taking place in October, White House officials say Carney is exaggerating the French language issue. Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, called the accusations “a funny, fake story,” in a televised CNBC interview on Monday . Greer said that the conflict is over a rule that forces “American tech companies to take their earnings and give a percentage to their competitors in Canada.”

“This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec,” Trump wrote. “I love French Canadians!”

Trump has attacked the national identity of Canada before. He repeated his 51st state jibe against the country so many times shortly after returning to the White House that former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it “a real thing” last February. And the White House mocked its northern neighbor after Team USA took down the Canadian men’s and women’s hockey teams in the finals at the Olympic Games this February in Milan.