Progressive U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed called Trump an asshole while condemning his “disastrous” trade dispute with Canada.

“Over the last couple of weeks, Michiganders have been struck by yet another disastrous Trump policy: the expansion of a trade war with Canada,” El-Sayed said Monday at a press conference in Detroit. “We all know Canadians. Canadians are, like, the only people in the world who are going to preemptively apologize for something they didn’t even do. So if you’re starting a trade war with Canada, it’s because you’re the asshole.”

“There’s a smart use of tariffs. This ain’t it,” the Democrat added. “This is a vanity war, and I want to be clear: This vanity war is not a war with Canada. It’s a war on Michigan, because we have to pay the price, and we pay it every single day for goods that should not cost as much as they do.”

El-Sayed also called out his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, saying, “He has no choice but to rubber-stamp” Trump’s trade war.

Rogers responded on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Monday, comparing El-Sayed and himself: “You can send somebody back who gets up every day and tries to gouge the president’s eyes out, or you can send somebody back who’s going to walk in and say, ‘Hey, can we work on this part of the trade deal?’”

The White House deflected in a statement to HuffPost, calling El-Sayed “a complete and total extremist.”

“Of course he thinks Canadians are superior to his fellow Americans,” spokesperson Davis R. Ingle said in an email.

Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic nominee in Michigan for the U.S. Senate, speaks at the Michgan Democratic Nominating Convention in Lansing on Aug. 29, 2026.

Katie McTiernan/Anadolu via Getty Images

Trump has been unabashedly anti-Canada throughout the entire dispute. In a rant on Truth Social over the weekend, he said, “I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything.”

In a Truth Social post on Aug. 24, Trump referred to Ontario Premier Doug Ford as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s flunky, “who is better known as the less charismatic, intelligent and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great Rob Ford.” (Rob Ford was a conservative, problematic former Toronto mayor.)

“I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters last week before backpedaling a bit during an episode of ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

“I think we got heated,” Ford said. “But, no, you got to eventually stand up to someone that just continuously attacks our country and insults our country. We believe in Canadian sovereignty. And I know Americans believe in having a sovereign Canada as well.”

Carney has also called out Trump’s disposition during the dispute.

“An attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the U.S., that Canadian industry is going to be disadvantaged relative to American industry – that’s not something we’re going to accept,” Carney said last week. “There is a mutually beneficial deal possible here, but it has to be one that respects Canada’s sovereignty and independence, that uses our complementary strengths to build something better, not tear apart for short-term gain.”