Canadians pull tariff ad after furious Trump scraps trade talks

The Canadian province of Ontario said on Friday (October 24, 2025) it would pull an anti-tariff ad featuring former U.S. president Ronald Reagan that prompted current leader Donald Trump to scrap trade talks.

Mr. Trump announced on his Truth Social network on Thursday that he had “terminated” all negotiations with Canada over what he called the “fake” ad campaign that he said misrepresented fellow Republican Reagan.

Less than 24 hours later, Ontario premier Doug Ford said he was suspending the ads after talking to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney about the spiraling row with Washington.

“In speaking with Prime Minister Carney, Ontario will pause its U.S. advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume,” Mr. Ford said in a post on X.

Mr. Ford added however that he had told his team to keep airing the ad during the first two games this weekend of baseball’s World Series — in which a Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, face the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Canadian ad used quotes from a radio address on trade that Reagan delivered in 1987, in which he warned against ramifications that he said high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the U.S. economy.

It cited Reagan as saying that “high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” a quote that matches a transcript of his speech on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library’s website.

The Ronald Reagan foundation wrote on X on Thursday that the Ontario government had used “selective audio and video” and that it was reviewing its legal options.

Mr. Trump did not immediately react to the Ontario premier’s decision to pull the ad.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told reporters that Mr. Trump had made his “extreme displeasure” known and was expected to respond later.

A senior U.S. official said that Mr. Trump would probably encounter Mr. Carney at a dinner on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in South Korea on Wednesday.

“They will likely see each other,” the official told AFP.