Elon Musk calls Trudeau ‘insufferable’ after remark on Kamala Harris defeat

By Nick Murray, The Canadian Press on December 11, 2024.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a question from the opposition during Question Period, Dec. 11, 2024 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA – Billionaire Elon Musk called Canada’s prime minister an “insufferable tool” on his social media platform today.

Musk’s comments were in response to Justin Trudeau likening Kamala Harris’s defeat in the U.S. presidential election to an attack on women’s rights and progress.

This afternoon, Trudeau met with provincial and territorial premiers to discuss Canada’s approach to negotiations with the U.S.

Canada is facing a threat of a 25 per cent tariff hike from incoming president Donald Trump, who defeated Harris in the November election.

Earlier this week, Trump taunted Trudeau on social media, referring to the prime minister as the governor of what he called the “Great State of Canada.”

The post was an apparent reference to a joke Trump cracked at his dinner with Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago estate nearly two weeks ago, where the president-elect teased that Canada could join the U.S. as its 51st state.

Speaking on Tuesday night at an event hosted by the Equal Voice Foundation – an organization dedicated to improving gender representation in Canadian politics – Trudeau said there are regressive forces fighting against women’s progress.

“It shouldn’t be that way. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult sometimes, march towards progress,” Trudeau said, adding he is a proud feminist and will always be an ally.

“And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president. Everywhere, women’s rights and women’s progress is under attack. Overtly, and subtly.”

In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk responded to a clip of Trudeau’s remarks, saying, “He’s such an insufferable tool. Won’t be in power for much longer.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024.