President Donald Trump announced late Thursday the “termination” of all trade negotiations with Canada, escalating tensions over an anti-tariff advertisement aired in the United States by the Ontario provincial government.
The President claimed on Truth Social that Canada “CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” by running a $75 million ad campaign that selectively quoted former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Trump accused Canada of fraudulently trying to “illegally influence” the U.S. Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing the legality of many of the President’s tariffs.
The ad, launched by Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a self-proclaimed “big Ronald Reagan fan,” features Reagan’s voice from an April 1987 radio address, stating that while tariffs “look like they’re doing the patriotic thing,” over the “long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”
The Ontario government, which plans to run the ad in Republican districts across the U.S., spent an estimated $75 million on the campaign to make a case against U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute publicly stated that the ad “misrepresents” Reagan’s radio address by using “selective audio and video” and that Ontario did not receive permission to use or edit the remarks.
The foundation encouraged people to listen to the unedited address and said it was “reviewing its legal options.”
However, a review of the full address shows that the quotes used in the ad are authentic to Reagan’s speech, in which he warns that high tariffs “inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars.”
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts.”
He concluded: “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”
This is the second time since June that the President has announced the termination of trade talks with Canada, having previously done so in response to Ottawa’s since-rescinded digital services tax on American tech firms. The move heightens trade uncertainty just as the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in November on a critical case challenging the President’s broad authority to impose tariffs.
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