Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared to reference President Donald Trump, whose teleprompter malfunctioned during his speech at the United Nations last fall, in a speech Wednesday.
Speaking at a conference for the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, Carney’s own teleprompter went down. At that moment, he decided to crack a joke.
“A $6 billion nationwide effort that works through the unions, it works through the technical colleges to do a variety of things, including the technical ability to run a teleprompter in real time,” he said while laughing in front of the crowd. “It happens, it happens.”
Carney then appeared to take a shot at his U.S. counterpart without mentioning his name.
“I’m not going to go into the — I’m not going to say who I — you know what, there’s a teleprompter joke I could tell about a conspiracy theory,” he continued.
The prime minister’s remarks appear to reference Trump’s speech mishap at the U.N. General Assembly in September when the teleprompter cut out as he began to speak. He humorously addressed the problem in the moment, saying the teleprompter operator “is in big trouble.”
Trump said he didn’t “mind making the speech without a teleprompter,” so that he could speak “more from the heart.” The teleprompter eventually featured his speech.
The president criticized the U.N. for the glitch and two other mishaps involving an escalator and audio in what he called a “triple sabotage.” Carney seemingly referenced this accusation with his “conspiracy theory” comment.
US PAUSES PARTICIPATION IN LONG-STANDING DEFENSE BOARD WITH CANADA
The White House and Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., called for investigations into the incidents at the time. The Secret Service led a separate investigation from the U.N., whose officials promised to cooperate.
The U.N. ultimately blamed Trump’s team for the technical mishaps, concluding that teleprompters for the president at the intergovernmental organization’s New York City headquarters are solely operated by the White House Communications Agency.