Former President Barack Obama’s trip to Canada to meet with their government could become a permanent trip.
Critics say that when Obama returns, he could be prosecuted for violating the Logan Act and faces up to three years in jail.
Will the 44th president opt to stay north to avoid prosecution?
Obama traveled to Toronto Friday for a paid appearance at a Canadian think tank, where Prime Minister Mark Carney greeted him and posted a video of the meeting to X.
Welcome back to Canada, President @BarackObama.
Thank you for joining us in Toronto for important conversations on how we can build a better and more just future — and empower more people to build with us. pic.twitter.com/S2lrJLL5Td
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) May 9, 2026
The phrasing Carney used lit up conservative social media immediately.
“Important conversations” and building “a better and more just future” with a foreign head of government as a private American citizen raised immediate questions about the Logan Act.
The Logan Act, passed in 1799, prohibits private U.S. citizens from communicating with foreign governments on matters involving a dispute with the United States, when the purpose is to influence that government’s position.
The penalty is up to three years in federal prison.
Three conditions must all be met for a violation to occur: the person must be acting without U.S. government authorization, they must be communicating with a foreign government, and they must be attempting to influence that government on an active dispute with the United States.
Obama, as a private citizen, meets the first condition. His meeting with Carney, the head of the Canadian government, satisfies the second.
The third is where the legal case gets complicated.
No transcript of their private discussions has been released. The U.S. and Canada are not formally at war. But they are engaged in a bitter, ongoing trade dispute with the Trump administration… one in which Carney himself took a shot at Trump’s foreign policy approach on the world stage as recently as January at Davos.
Critics on the right aren’t waiting for the transcript.
“Obama sneaking into Canada for private meetings with globalist Carney?” posted prominent MAGA commentator Gunther Eagleman. “Bro thinks he’s still running the show. Sit down, Barack, Trump’s President.”
Attorney Mike Davis, a former Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked, “What’s Obama, a subversive Marxist, cooking up in Canada?”
Obama wasn’t the only prominent Democratic leader that made the trip north this weekend. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who are both potential 2028 presidential contenders, also traveled to Canada Saturday for a separate summit organized by the Center for American Progress titled “Global Progress Action” on how to “fight the authoritarian right.”
The Logan Act has never produced a single successful prosecution in its 227 years as law. Only two people have ever been charged, one in 1803 and one in 1852. Neither case went anywhere. Former presidents routinely meet with foreign leaders during private travel, speaking engagements, and nonprofit work. Without evidence from the transcripts, legal experts say a prosecution of Obama would be nearly impossible.
But a private meeting with a foreign leader who has publicly criticized Trump, with access and no official agenda except promises of building a new future, is exactly the kind of thing the Logan Act was written to prevent.