President Trump says the US will respond if Canada enacts a trade deal with China
President Trump said the United States would take a significant response if Canada enacted the trade deal it negotiated with China.
President Donald Trump said he won’t allow the bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, to open until the U.S. “compensates everything in full,” further expressed displeasure about a potential Canada-China trade deal, and made an unsubstantiated prediction that China would “stop all ice hockey being played in Canada.”
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a $4.6 billion, 1.5-mile infrastructure project that was approved in 2014, connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The six-lane bridge is scheduled to open in early 2026 and will be one of North America’s largest ports of entry, designed to improve traffic flow and border security.
“Canada is building a huge bridge between Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canadian and American sides, and of course they built it with virtually no American content,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday, February 9, “Barack Husse… President Obama foolishly gave them a waiver so they could circumvent the Buy American Goods Act and not use any American products, including steel. Now the Canadian government expects me, as President of the United States, to just allow them to ‘take advantage of America’! ”
President Trump also sought 50% ownership of the bridge.
“We will begin negotiations immediately. With everything we gave them, we should probably own at least half of this asset,” he wrote.
The president then expressed continued dissatisfaction with a potential trade deal between Canada and China. Following a series of insults against the neighboring country during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Trump last month threatened to impose 100% tariffs on imports from Canada if it went ahead with a trade deal with China.
Referring to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as “Governor Carney” and citing his oft-stated desire to annex Canada and absorb it as the 51st U.S. state, Trump wrote that if Carney “thinks Canada is going to be a ‘drop-off port’ for China to send goods and products to the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
Canada has not yet reached a trade agreement with the United States, and the 2020 Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement is subject to review this year.
“Prime Minister Carney wants a deal with China. China will eat Canada alive and we’ll just get the leftovers! I don’t think so,” President Trump said on February 9. “The first thing China will do is cancel all ice hockey in Canada and eliminate the Stanley Cup forever.”
President Trump continued: “The tariffs that Canada has imposed on our dairy products have been unacceptable for years and are exposing our farmers to significant economic risk.” “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States fully compensates us for everything we have given, and importantly, until Canada treats us with the fairness and respect that we deserve.”
“Great powers have begun to use economic integration as a weapon.”
The president has been furious with Carney since he spoke at Davos of a “rupture” in the world order, and has made it clear that Canada opposes tariffs imposed by the United States to further Trump’s claims for Greenland and firmly supports Denmark regarding sovereignty over the island.
“We are in the midst of a discontinuity, not a transition,” Carney said on January 20. “Great powers are starting to use economic integration as a weapon.”
Carney added: “The question for middle powers like Canada is not whether we will adapt to this new reality; we must.” “The middle powers have to work together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
President Trump quipped that Canada should be “thankful” to the United States.
Trump announced on Truth Social that Carney would be removed from the peace commission he created to help rebuild Gaza, but the commission has since expanded to include other conflicts.
