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In a sudden and seemingly contradictory move, President Donald Trump announced Thursday he was ending trade talks with Canada, reversing course shortly after a cordial White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. The stated reason was an anti-tariff advertising campaign that Trump, in a post on his Truth Social network, deemed "fake." Trump claimed the ad, produced by the Canadian province of Ontario, misquoted former President Ronald Reagan and was designed to influence the Supreme Court's upcoming decision on his sweeping global tariffs.
"Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED," Trump posted. There was no immediate comment from officials in Canada, where Carney said in a budget speech on Wednesday that Washington's "fundamentally changed" trade policy required a revamp of Ottawa's economic strategy.
Trump said "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 foundation wrote on X that the Ontario government had used "selective audio and video" from a radio address on trade that Reagan had delivered in 1987. It said the ad "misrepresents" what the former Republican president said, adding 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.
The latest twist in relations between the United States and Canada came just over two weeks after Carney visited Trump at the White House to seek a relaxation of stiff US tariffs. At that meeting, Trump described Carney as a "world-class leader" and said the Canadian would "walk away very happy" from their discussion.
Trump's global sectoral tariffs -- particularly on steel, aluminum, and autos -- have hit Canada hard, forcing job losses and squeezing businesses.
For now, the United States and Canada continue to adhere to an existing North American trade deal called the USMCA, which ensures that roughly 85 percent of cross-border trade in both directions remains tariff-free.
