Ontario Premier, Trump Face Off Over Anti-Tariff Ad

President Trump announced late Thursday that he was ending trade talks with Canada over an ad the government of Ontario has been airing in the US—and he continued attacking the ad Friday morning. In a Truth Social post, he claimed Canada was "illegally" trying to influence the Supreme Court's decision on tariffs, and that Ronald Reagan, whose anti-tariff remarks featured in the ad, actually loved tariffs. The ad can be seen here.

• His post. "CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY," Trump wrote. "Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country."

• Carney was blindsided. Sources tell the CBC that the move took Prime Minister Mark Carney by surprise. The ad was placed by the Ontario provincial government, not the federal one, and the sources say the Liberal prime minister might pressure Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a Progressive Conservative, to pull the ad.
• The "cheating" claim. The ad used remarks taken from a 1987 Reagan radio address, though the order of a couple of sentences was changed, the BBC reports. Ford's team "appears to have patched together different sections of Reagan's speech to make their argument stronger and make it flow better," Al Jazeera notes.
• Reagan Foundation speaks out. The Ronald Reagan Foundation said the ad misrepresented Reagan's remarks and urged people to watch the unedited video. A transcript can be seen here. In the address, Reagan spoke of his opposition to tariffs and support for free trade, explaining that he was reluctantly making an exception in a dispute involving Japanese semiconductors. The foundation said it was "reviewing legal options," though a Ford spokesperson said the ad "uses an unedited excerpt from one of President Reagan's public addresses, which is available through public domain," Axios reports.

• Ford responds. In a post on X Friday morning, the premier shared a video of Reagan's full remarks. "Canada and the United States are friends, neighbors and allies," Ford said. "President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together. God bless Canada and God bless the United States."
• The context for Reagan's remarks. CNN has more on Reagan's April 1987 address, which it calls a "full-throated expression of support for free and fair trade." He said he was "loath" to impose tariffs but "the Japanese semiconductors were a special case," with clear evidence that a trade agreement had been violated. "For those of us who lived through the Great Depression, the memory of the suffering it caused is deep and searing," he said, explaining that historians and economists believe the tariffs deepened the Depression and prevented economic recovery.
• More from Trump. In all-caps Truth Social posts Friday morning, Trump said the stock market is "stronger than ever before" and the US is "wealthy, powerful, and nationally secure again, all because of tariffs!"