Dan Friedkin has golden opportunity at Everton - but Donald Trump could complicate matters
Dan Friedkin may have found himself in an awkward situation at Everton.
The Toffees chairman and owner has come under fire over the last few months, having been largely accused of being disinterested in the Merseyside club.
Since The Friedkin Group bought Everton in December 2024, Friedkin has never attended an Everton game, nor has he publicly appeared in the city of Liverpool.
David Moyes hasn't even been given the courtesy of a phonecall from the US billionaire, but now he might find himself under pressure to start being more influential on Merseyside.
Now, this is admittedly a bit speculative, but Everton could genuinely find themselves in the middle of some kind of political tug of war soon enough.
Especially after Andy Burnham's latest appearance at Hill Dickinson Stadium.
How Andy Burnham's meeting with Mark Carney causes headache for Dan Friedkin
Some of you will be thinking, 'keep politics out of football', but when the Prime Ministers of the UK and Canada are both meeting at Everton, there's no getting away from it.
Evertonian PM Burnham met with Canadian leader Mark Carney at Hill Dickinson on Wednesday
Blues finance expert Paul Quinn, also known as The Esk, dubbed the meeting as having the potential for "huge" global exposure if Friedkin leverages it correctly.
However, Friedkin's personal politics and past record could put paid to any chance of Everton utilising Burnham and Carney's meeting for any good.
That's because Friedkin is a known donor to the Republican Party in the USA.
The Times reported in 2024, prior to the US presidential election that saw Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris to secure a second term in the White House, that Friedkin has "previously backed the Republicans, often at $20-30,000 at a time".
It was then reported by the Houston Chronicle in January 2026 that Friedkin donated almost $1million to the Trump 47 Committee during the 2024 election cycle, suggesting that he is a supporter of the sitting US president.
As a result, Friedkin may have some serious questions to answer.
How does Donald Trump fit into this?
If you don't keep up with the news too much, or show little interest in politics, you may have missed that Trump is currently in a trade war with Canada.
Trump has essentially slapped huge tariffs on Canadian exports to the USA because he believes the US (the world's biggest economy) is being economically exploited by their polite northern neighbours.
He's also accused Canada of not doing enough to stop drugs being smuggled into the US and illegal immigration south of the border.
The former Home Alone 2 actor has also spoken about making Canada a new state of the USA and even decided a lake should be renamed, for some reason.
Basically, Trump has a problem with Canada, and Canadian PM Carney is digging his heels in and standing up to the US president.
As a result, Carney is trying to strengthen Canada's ties with European nations, which is likely a major reason behind meeting with Burnham.
And that leaves Friedkin with an awkward question to answer: how does an American owner who donated almost $1million to Trump's 2024 campaign respond when his own football club becomes the backdrop for closer British-Canadian relations at a time when Trump is sending threats to both?