‘Idiot’: ‘Shark Tank’ star Kevin O’Leary blasts Trudeau over Trump jab

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Once branded as Canada’s Donald Trump, investor-turned-reality-television-star Kevin O’Leary is hitting out at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the Liberal leader said a second Trump presidency “won’t be easy” for Canada.

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Following Trump’s triumph at last week’s Iowa Republican caucuses, where he won 51% of the vote, Trudeau lamented about the possibility of a Season 2 of the controversial businessman back in the White House.

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“It wasn’t easy the first time and if there’s a second time, it won’t be easy either,” Trudeau told business leaders last week at an event organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.

“We should not imagine that it will ever be easy with the Americans. The primary responsibility of any prime minister is to defend Canada’s interests against American interests. We were able to do that well. And we’ll be ready for the decision Americans make in November.”

Trudeau then posed a question to the crowd that was a direct shot at Trump’s divisive leadership tactics. “Do they want to be a nation that is optimistic and committed to the future? Or will they choose a step backwards, nostalgia for a time that never existed, a populism that reflects a lot the anxiety and fury that people are going through without necessarily offering solutions?” he asked.

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During his appearance on Fox Business alongside Pennsylvania Republican Representative Dan Meuser to break down the economic impact of a potential U.S. government shutdown, O’Leary — a longtime critic of Trudeau —  was asked about the Canadian leader’s remarks on Trump and the businessman didn’t hold back.

“I say these words with no disrespect: Canada — and I’m an investor, I look at it from that perspective; I’m a Canadian citizen, I’m an Irish citizen, I’m an Emirati citizen — has one of the best natural resource spaces on Earth. It’s one of the richest countries on Earth from its natural resources. It’s managed by idiots. Trudeau is the worst prime minister ever put in power. He’s a very successful politician, [but he has] no executional skills,” the O’Leary Ventures chairman told host Neil Cavuto.

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“Hopefully, we will thank him for his service within the next 18 months. It’s so important to Canada that he move on. I mean no disrespect; [he’s an] incredible politician, but a weak manager. … I wouldn’t let him manage a candy store.”

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O’Leary’s assessment generated over 7,000 likes on YouTube and more than 1,800 comments — the vast majority of which sided with the investor’s damning assessment of Trudeau.

“Kevin just spoke out loud what every sensible person thinks about Trudeau,” one person wrote, while another one added, “It just confirms all our feelings here.”

“He isn’t wrong, Canada should be the richest country in the world, poor management, cold weather, and an irresponsible prime minster, is holding back Canada!” a third person agreed.

His recent comments echo remarks he made last summer when O’Leary branded Trudeau as a “horrible manager.”

“He perhaps is the worst manager Canada has ever been under. The absolute worst. It can’t get worse. Absolutely a negative 10,” O’Leary said summarizing Trudeau’s run as prime minister.

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O’Leary launched a bid to lead the Conservative Party of Canada in 2016 pledging to apply his business acumen to running the country, but the investor ended his campaign in 2017 over concerns he wouldn’t be able to defeat Trudeau in a general election.

“The Liberals politically own Quebec. Without growing the Conservative base in Quebec, beating Trudeau in 2019 would be a huge challenge,” O’Leary said at a press conference with reporters in Toronto.

“It’s for the sake of the party that I do this, and the country,” O’Leary told The Globe and Mail after dropping out of the race. “Because I can’t deliver Quebec.”

With Trump having the Republican nomination pretty much locked up, Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s White House aide with the shortest tenure, weighed in on the tensions that exist between the two, saying Trump is “very jealous of Prime Minister Trudeau.”

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“He’s younger, and way better looking than the president,” Scaramucci said during an appearance on CTV News over the weekend. “And I know the (former) president very well, that superficial sort of stuff really bothers him, so he will be an antagonist to your leadership.”

Battered and bruised, Trudeau, who was booed mercilessly by a crowd in Toronto at UFC 297 on Saturday night, is trailing Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in recent polls. But the beleaguered Liberal is also less popular than Trump is with Canadians.

A recent Spark Advocacy poll capturing Canadian feelings on 2024 presidential election found that Trump has the support of 33% of the country. That’s higher than the current approval rating for Trudeau, which the Angus Reid Institute last pegged at 31%.

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But to try and shore up support, Trudeau has tried to paint Poilievre as representing “Trump North.”

“What we’re seeing from these MAGA conservatives is an approach on going back on fundamental rights in ways we shouldn’t be seeing,” he said in a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, floating an unfounded worry that Canadian Conservatives could follow suit.

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X: @markhdaniell

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