As democrats Prepare to be forced to vote In the US House this week on Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, the president posted a lengthy diatribe on his social media platform in which he threatened to block the bridge connecting the US and Canada and made the wildly false claim that increased trade between Canada and China would ban Canadians from playing ice hockey.
Trump started his work Fresh screed Against the US’s second-largest trading partner, claiming that “as everyone knows, Canada has been treated very unfairly by the United States for decades.”
The president has threatened to block the scheduled start of the $4.6bn Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario and Detroit. Michiganwas built in a binational partnership approved under the Obama administration, but began construction in 2018 while Trump was president.
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States fully compensates them for everything we have given them, and most importantly, Canada will treat the United States with the fairness and respect we deserve,” Trump wrote Monday.
Trump blamed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for “stupidly” approving the bridge project, but did not mention that he had approved it in 2017. A joint statement With then Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau. “In particular, we look forward to the speedy completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries,” Trump and Trudeau said.
In 2012, Michigan’s then-governor Rick Snyder accepted a Canadian government offer to fund most of the new bridge’s costs and took the unusual step of using executive power to bypass the legislature. Construction began in 2018 and the bridge is nearing completion. The US Department of Homeland Security published a rule on January 30 declaring the bridge an official port of entry.
The Canadian Embassy in Washington, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office and the Bridge Authority did not immediately comment.
A closer trade relationship with China, negotiated by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after Trump raised tariffs on Canadian imports, sparked Trump’s ire. “China… will eat Canada alive,” Trump wrote.
To illustrate his point, Trump added a particularly wild claim with no factual basis: “The first thing China will do is end all ice hockey played in Canada and eliminate the Stanley Cup forever.”
Trump’s outlandish claim that China would force Canada to give up its national pastime as part of a trade deal surprised many observers Monday when they saw it in black and white, but Canadians have heard it before.
“Canada is not good, they are very poor,” Trump said last month at the launch of his wife’s documentary about him. Broadcast by Canada’s CTV. “You can’t see China as the answer,” Trump said.
Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “Cancelling this project would have serious consequences. Higher costs for Michigan businesses, less secure supply chains and, ultimately, fewer jobs.”
Trump is “punishing Michiganders for the trade war he started. The only reason Canada is on the brink of a trade deal with China is because President Trump has been kicking them in the teeth for a year.”
Trump has made several threats against Canada during his second term and sharply increased tariffs on the US’s northern neighbor. Last month he said he would impose 100% tariffs on Canada if it followed through on a trade deal with China.
