president Donald Trump He announced he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada over a television ad sponsored by one of its provinces that used former President Ronald Reagan’s words to criticize US tariffs — prompting the provincial leader to later withdraw the ad.
The post went viral on Trump’s social media site on Thursday night Tensions with the northern neighbor of the United States After Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that he intends to double his country’s income Exports to countries outside the United States Because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. White House officials said Trump’s response was the culmination of the administration’s long-pent-up frustration over Canada’s strategy in trade talks.
Later Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province sponsored the ad, said it would be removed.
After speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Ford said he decided to pause the ad campaign starting Monday until trade talks can resume. Ford said they achieved their goal, reaching American audiences at the highest levels.
“Our intention has always been to start a conversation about the kind of economy Americans want to build and the impact that tariffs will have on workers and businesses,” Ford said. “We achieved our goal, reaching American audiences at the highest levels.”
The US president claimed the ad misrepresented the position of Reagan, a two-term president who remains a popular figure in the Republican Party, and was aimed at influencing the US Supreme Court ahead of a hearing scheduled next month that could decide whether Trump has the authority to impose his sweeping tariffs, a key part of his economic strategy. Trump is so interested in the case that he said he would like to attend the oral arguments.
“You cheated Canada and got caught!!!” Trump wrote on his social media site on Friday morning. “They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying Ronald Reagan doesn’t like tariffs, when in fact he likes tariffs for our country and its national security. Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in our country’s history.”
Canadian Prime Minister intervenes after Trump ends talks
The advertising was paid for by the Ontario government, not the Canadian federal government. FordThe Prime Minister did not back down at first. Posted Friday Canada and the United States were allies, “and Reagan knew that they were stronger together.” Ford then provided a link to a Reagan speech in which the late president expressed his opposition to tariffs.
The province plans to pay $54 million (about $75 million Canadian) for ads to air across multiple U.S. television stations using audio and video of Reagan speaking about the tariffs in 1987, Ford said.
Although the ad will eventually be removed, it will continue to run this weekend, including Game 1 of the World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
Ford is a populist conservative who does not belong to the same party as the liberal Carney.
For his part, Carney said that his government remains ready to continue talks to reduce customs duties in certain sectors.
“We cannot control U.S. trade policy,” he said Friday morning before boarding a plane to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia. “We recognize that this policy has fundamentally changed from what it was in the 1980s.” Trump is scheduled to travel to the same summit on Friday evening.
The Reagan Foundation speaks out against the ad
Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on the
The institution in Simi Valley, California is perhaps best known for maintaining the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Its board includes longtime GOP figures such as former Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who resigned after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose free-market philosophy often clashed with Trump’s protectionist tendencies.
Another board member is Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s son, who is the CEO and executive director of Fox. The board of directors is chaired by Fred Ryan, former publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation just announced that Canada fraudulently used an ad, which is fake, showing Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs,” Trump wrote Thursday night. He added: “Tariffs are very important to the national security and economy of the United States of America, and based on their egregious behavior, all trade negotiations with Canada are terminated under this law.”
In fact, Reagan didn’t like tariffs. He frequently criticized government policies—including protectionist measures such as tariffs—that interfered with free trade, and spent most of his 1987 radio address making the case against tariffs.
Administration officials point out that the explosion had been expected for a long time
White House spokesman Khush Desai said the announcement was “the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than deal with the administration.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House on Friday that Canada had shown a “lack of resilience” and also cited “lingering behaviors from Trudeau’s people,” referring to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had a frosty relationship with the Trump administration.
“If you look at all the countries around the world that we have deals with, the fact that we are now negotiating with Mexico separately reveals that it is not just about one announcement,” Hassett said.
Carney He met with Trump earlier this month To try to ease trade tensions, the two countries and Mexico prepare to review the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal that Trump negotiated in his first term but has since faltered.
More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the United States, and nearly C$3.6 billion (US$2.7 billion) in goods and services cross the border daily.
Trump initially seemed unfazed by the announcement
Trump said earlier in the week that he saw the ad on television and did not seem bothered by it. “If I were Canada, I would accept the same declaration, too,” he said Tuesday during a lunch with Republican senators.
Ontario bought more than $275,000 in ad bookings for streaming in 198 of the country’s 210 media markets this month, according to data from nonpartisan media tracking firm AdImpact. It aired most frequently in the New York market, with over 530 broadcasts, followed by Washington, D.C., with about 280 broadcasts. The only other markets with more than 100 broadcasts were those around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and West Palm Beach, Florida.
Ford previously caught Trump’s attention by imposing additional fees on electricity in the US states. Trump responded by doubling tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The president moved to impose hefty US tariffs on many goods coming from Canada. In April, the Canadian government imposed retaliatory tariffs on some US goods, but granted exceptions to some automakers to bring specific numbers of vehicles into the country, known as exemption quotas.
Trump’s tariffs have particularly hurt Canada’s auto sector, much of which is based in Ontario. This month, Stellantis said he would do just that Production line transportation From Ontario to Illinois.
___
Associated Press writers Maya Swidler and Paul Weissman in Washington contributed to this report.
The post Ontario quickly caves to Trump and promises to pull the offending Reagan ad that killed Canada trade talks first appeared on Investorempires.com.
