Carney jabs Trump after teleprompter failure: 'I do not view this as a conspiracy'

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday mocked President Trump for attacking the United Nations over a teleprompter malfunction last year.

“I would like to inform you that the teleprompter has ceased to function,” Carney said during a speech, smiling and chuckling. 

“Unlike a certain world leader, I do not view this as a conspiracy,” the Canadian leader added, to laughter from the crowd. 

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment on Carney’s remarks.

Last September, Trump blamed the U.N. for the teleprompter not working during a speech he gave to world leaders at the international body’s New York City headquarters.

“I don’t mind making this speech without a teleprompter, because the teleprompter is not working,” the president said at the time. He also claimed the teleprompter operator was “in big trouble,” remarks met with laughter by attendees.

But the day after his speech, Trump said the combination of the teleprompter malfunction, the escalator he and first Lady Melania Trump were on abruptly stopping and the sound going out during his speech amounted to “three very sinister events” at the U.N. meeting.

“This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN,” the president wrote on Truth Social last year. “They ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

Trump also said he was sending a copy of his social media post to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and demanded “an immediate investigation” into the incidents.

Wednesday was not the first time Carney mocked Trump for his remarks about the teleprompter. During a speech at a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade event in May, the Canadian prime minister noted the prompter was down.

“Happens, it happens,” he quipped. “I’m not going to go into the … there’s a teleprompter joke I could tell about a conspiracy theory.”

Carney and Trump have traded blows since the former took office in March 2025. Last month, the U.S. leader imposed an additional 50 percent tariff on certain Canadian goods in response to what his administration called “discriminatory” trade measures from America’s northern neighbor. 

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said last month the Trump administration will not renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which Trump negotiated during his first term and once called the “best agreement we’ve ever made.”

While the treaty will not expire until 2036, the decision by the administration will prompt yearly reviews of it.