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eppur_se_muova

(41,786 posts)
Tue Mar 17, 2026, 09:58 AM 5 hrs ago

Did this happen or not ? I remember reading about it at DU, but can't find a trace of it now.

Back during his first campaign (2016 or so) someone pranked Trmp by calling up, pretending to be "Prime Minister Poutine of Canada", and offering his endorsement in the election, which Trmp happily accepted.

There was a certain amount of discussion about this, as it was a fake phone call, and Trmp got fooled; Canadian PMs do not endorse US pols; no US candidate should have accepted such an endorsement had it been offered; and of course, poutine is a high-calorie snack, not a political leader.

Now, I swear I read all this on DU, but I can find no trace of a clue that it ever happened, not with DuckDuckGo, and not with Google. First search attempts led only to current news involving mostly Canada's current PM, or sometimes Trudeau. Adding -carney to the search terms helped, but eventually all I could find was a couple of articles about Trmp getting pranked by two radio hosts claiming to be Clint Eastwood and some Canadian MMA fighter -- something which I don't even vaguely remember happening.

Does anyone else remember this the way I do ? This was one of the first times I ever heard the word "poutine" and had it defined for me. There are just too many links in my memory for me to believe I got it all wrong, but the whole incident seems to have been scrubbed from the Web, which feels a little creepy.

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Did this happen or not ? I remember reading about it at DU, but can't find a trace of it now. (Original Post) eppur_se_muova 5 hrs ago OP
Try a Google search for the quoted phrase MineralMan 5 hrs ago #1
Thanks! I tried several variations but always included 'Trump', so I got all kinds of unrelated stuff. Forgot it was ... eppur_se_muova 5 hrs ago #3
Searching on Google is both an art and a science. MineralMan 5 hrs ago #4
Did not happen Fiendish Thingy 5 hrs ago #2
The prank did happen but it was to George Bush and not trump... Spazito 5 hrs ago #5
Thanks ! nt eppur_se_muova 5 hrs ago #6

MineralMan

(151,142 posts)
1. Try a Google search for the quoted phrase
Tue Mar 17, 2026, 10:10 AM
5 hrs ago

"Prime Minister Poutine of Canada"

the result will demonstrate that it did not happen regarding trump and dates back the the GW Bush days. It wasn't true then, either.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Prime+Minister+Poutine+of+Canada%22

eppur_se_muova

(41,786 posts)
3. Thanks! I tried several variations but always included 'Trump', so I got all kinds of unrelated stuff. Forgot it was ...
Tue Mar 17, 2026, 10:30 AM
5 hrs ago

Bu**sh** who was involved !

Sort of weird that I searched for both "President Poutine" and "Prime Minister Poutine" but never got any hit on that. Searches seem to decide for themselves which terms are most relevant, and crank out thousands of false hits on those while ignoring other terms -- sometimes even when you put what you feel is the most important term in quotes, you can't find what you're looking for !



ETA: found this gem, from a very young DU ! No idea who "Art Bushwald" (not Buchwald) is. So the "Poutine" thing has been around a while.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/04/010428_school.html

MineralMan

(151,142 posts)
4. Searching on Google is both an art and a science.
Tue Mar 17, 2026, 10:33 AM
5 hrs ago

I'm not sure how someone learns to search efficiently, but the exact phrasing, etc. is crucial, for sure. In this case, I just copied the quoted phrase from your post and got the result immediately. So, you know how to do it, apparently.

Spazito

(55,369 posts)
5. The prank did happen but it was to George Bush and not trump...
Tue Mar 17, 2026, 10:38 AM
5 hrs ago

22 Minutes star pulls prank on George W. Bush

The American media have become fixated on a prank pulled by This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Rick Mercer that showed U.S. presidential candidate George W. Bush doesn't know the name of Canada's prime minister.

In one of the show's regular segments, Talking to Americans, Mercer delights in asking Americans pointed political questions about Canada to reveal how little they know about their northern neighbour.

In keeping with the show's guerrilla tactics, Mercer ambushed Bush at a campaign rally in Michigan. Bush was swamped by reporters and people asking for autographs as Mercer popped out of the crowd.

snip

First Mercer approached Michigan state governor John Engler: "Prime Minister Jean Poutine said he wouldn't endorse any candidate in this election, now he says he believes George W. Bush is the man to lead the free world into the 21st century," Mercer said.

Mercer moved on to George W. Bush and asked for a response to the same comment.

more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/22-minutes-star-pulls-prank-on-george-w-bush-1.212339

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