Shortly after a friendly White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, US President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course on Thursday, announcing that he was terminating trade negotiations with Canada due to an anti-tariff advertising campaign.
Trump blasted what he described as a “fake” advertisement on his Truth Social network, claiming it misquoted former President Ronald Reagan on tariff policy.
The Canadian province of Ontario produced the campaign, which Trump said was intended to “interfere with the decision of the US Supreme Court,” which is expected to rule on his broad global tariffs. The commercial was broadcast on US television channels.
“Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump posted.
Canadian authorities did not immediately respond to Carney’s statement in a budget address on Wednesday that Ottawa’s economic plan needed to be redesigned in light of Washington’s “fundamentally changed” trade policies.
Donald Trump stated “the Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.”
The Ontario government exploited “selective audio and video” from a 1987 Reagan radio talk on trade, the foundation claimed on X.
It claimed that the advertisement “misrepresents” the former Republican president’s remarks and stated that it was “reviewing its legal options.”
The ad used quotes from Reagan’s speech, in which he warned against some of the ramifications that high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.
It cited Reagan as saying that “high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” a quote that matches a transcript of his speech on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s website.
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