Donald Trump and Barack Obama (Image via Wikimedia Commons)
On Thursday, a seemingly innocuous social media post by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touched off an unexpected MAGA meltdown. “Welcome back to Canada, President [Barack Obama]” Carney tweeted along with a video showing the former president’s arrival in Toronto. While Obama was visiting Canada to deliver a keynote speech to a think tank, the followers of President Donald Trump decided there was something more nefarious going on, accusing him of breaking federal laws.
“Why is Barack Hussein Obama meeting with world leaders while President Trump is in office?” posted far-right influencer and prominent Trump ally Laura Loomer. “This is a coup.”
She and others, like conservative influencer Nick Sortor, proceeded to suggest that Obama should face consequences for allegedly violating the Logan Act, which, as the Daily Beast reports, “prohibits private citizens from engaging in unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments.”
“Obama needs to sit down and figure out his freaking place before his a-ss ends up in prison for violating the Logan Act,” Sortor declared. “Trump is our President. You’ve been sidelined, Hussein.”
Numerous comments on and re-shares of Carney’s original post expressed similarly accusatory sentiments, with more than a few bringing back Trump’s old tagline, “Lock him up!”
Others took issue with Carney referring to Obama as the “president.”
“It’s FORMER President zero,” said one commenter. “If he’s claiming to act on behalf of the American people in your ‘talks,’ he’s in violation of the Logan Act.”
“[Mark Carney] so do you mean Barack Obama is still president since you just called him President Barack Obama?” said another. “This should worry the U.S. a little.”
There are several problems with all this MAGA outrage. First, it is common practice for former commanders-in-chief to be referred to as “president.” Second, Obama wasn’t in Canada to negotiate anything, and former presidents frequently deliver keynote speeches and other addresses to organizations around the world.
But third, these angry MAGA followers ignore the fact that Trump himself met with foreign leaders during the Biden administration. In July 2024, he met with then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Then that October, it was revealed that Trump had held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Later that month, Trump held a similar phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.