US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was ending trade talks with Canada over an anti-tariff advertising campaign, a sudden about-face soon after a cordial White House meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
On his Truth Social network, Trump vented fury at what he called a “fake” ad that he said misquoted former President Ronald Reagan discussing tariff policy.
Trump said the campaign — produced by the Canadian province of Ontario to be aired on US television channels — was designed to “interfere with the decision of the US Supreme Court,” which is due to rule 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.