U.S. President Donald Trump has announced on social media he will be increasing “the Tariff on Canada” by 10 per cent “over and above what they are paying now” because of an advertisement by the Ontario government.
“Canada was caught, red handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan’s Speech on Tariffs,” Trump wrote on his platform Truth Social on Saturday afternoon.
“Their Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing it was a FRAUD,” the U.S. president added.
It’s unclear at the moment which tariff, or tariffs, the U.S. president is referring to. CBC News has reached out to the White House, the Prime Minister’s Office and Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office for details.
Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association and member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, said on social media “to be clear, a TV commercial is about to cost American consumers about $50B because [Trump’s] mad.”
Trump’s announcement is the latest escalation over an Ontario government advertisement that uses the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s own words to send an anti-tariff message to American audiences.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government paid around $75 million to air this ad, featuring remarks from former president Ronald Reagan, on U.S. television stations — a move that has angered President Donald Trump.
On Thursday night, Trump said he was terminating all trade discussions with Canada over the advertisement, which he described then as fraudulent and fake.
He continued that criticism in his Saturday afternoon post, arguing that Reagan “LOVED” tariffs for national security purposes and the economy.
Just before Trump cut off trade talks, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute said it took issue with the ad and claimed the Ontario government “did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remark.”
In an interview with CBC’s The House that aired Saturday morning, Derek Burney, former chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney, said it was Mulroney and Reagan’s commitment to free trade that helped the two men land an agreement between Canada and the United States.
“The thing that drove it home was the commitment from the president and prime minister. Nobody in America is in any doubt about Ronald Reagan’s views on tariffs,” Burney said.
In a late-night post on Truth Social, U.S. President Donald Trump called off all trade negotiations with Canada. The problem, he said: An Ontario government anti-tariff advertisement made ‘fraudulent’ use of the late U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s speech. But was it actually fake? Andrew Chang takes a closer look at the editing of the ad and breaks down why Trump might have reacted the way he did.
Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
Ford said on Friday his government will pull the advertisement from U.S. screens after this weekend, but millions more Americans are still expected to view it during the World Series game tonight.
Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said “tariffs at any level remain a tax on America first, then North American competitiveness as a whole.”
“We hope this threat of escalation can be resolved through diplomatic channels and further negotiation…. A successful free trade zone is fundamental for both our countries,” Laing said in a statement to CBC News.
Trump’s tariffs and the U.S. Supreme Court
In his post, Trump also claimed the sole purpose of Canada’s “FRAUD” was hoping the United States Supreme Court will come to the country’s rescue.
The Trump administration has requested the Supreme Court overturn a ruling by the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals that the president’s move to impose broad-based tariffs on Canada, Mexico and dozens of other countries was unconstitutional.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters in Washington on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media posts cutting off trade talks with Canada reveal ‘his frustration with the actions and postures of the Canadians through months of negotiations.’
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in November. If Trump loses, the tariffs he slapped on Canada and Mexico over fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration would be quashed, along with what he likes to call his “Liberation Day” tariffs.
On Thursday, Trump made a similar statement and claimed the Ontario ad was designed to “interfere” with what he called “THE MOST IMPORTANT CASE EVER.”
Carney in Malaysia to attend summit
Prime Minister Mark Carney is currently in Malaysia in search of trade opportunities with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Trump is expected to arrive on Sunday.
The prime minister has not yet publicly commented on Trump’s latest announcement. However, after the U.S. president announced he was terminating trade talks with Canada, Carney gave a brief response to reporters in Ottawa.
Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke Friday after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. was cutting off trade talks with Canada. He said Ottawa ‘can’t control’ the trade policy of the United States, but stressed that his government is ready to talk — and ready to address issues within Canada that are within Ottawa’s control.
“We stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions because it will be for the benefit of workers in the United States, workers in Canada and families in both our countries,” the prime minister said.
Carney also said discussions had been moving forward in specific sectors on tariff relief, such as steel, aluminum and energy.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Carney in a social media post on Saturday evening, saying if the prime minister had achieved a trade deal by the July 21 deadline he imposed on himself earlier this summer, Canada would not be facing Trump’s latest tariff hike.
“The cost of the Prime Minister’s broken promises is higher U.S. tariffs and lost jobs,” Poilievre said.
