President Donald Trump said overnight that he was abruptly ending all trade negotiations with Canada because of an advertisement from Ontario’s government that criticized U.S. tariffs using former President Ronald Reagan’s words.
Trump, in a Truth Social post announcing the termination of the talks, cited a statement from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute claiming that Ontario’s ad “misrepresents” what Reagan said in a 1987 address on tariffs.
“They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court,” wrote Trump, referring to a major pending case that threatens to cancel some of his biggest tariffs.
The Reagan foundation’s reaction has drawn criticism from some who say that the organization is itself twisting the former president’s clearly tariff-critical message.
“Incredible cynicism and betrayal of Reagan by his own foundation,” Dartmouth economics professor Paul Novosad said in an X post. “If anyone actually clicked through to listen to the real address, they would see he says exactly what the Ontario ad claims!”
