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US president says Ontario government’s anti-tariff ad featuring Ronald Reagan needed to be taken down ‘immediately’.
Published On 25 Oct 2025
Donald Trump has announced an additional 10-percent tariff on Canada, as the United States president continues to slam his country’s northern neighbour over a contentious anti-tariff advertisement featuring former President Ronald Reagan.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said the ad “was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but [Canada] let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD”.
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“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” he said.
The advertisement, produced by the Canadian province of Ontario, features a 1980s speech by Reagan in which the former Republican leader had warned against the ramifications that high tariffs on foreign imports could have on the US economy.
Al Jazeera reviewed the text of the original speech and found that it contained all the statements used in the Ontario commercial. However, they appeared to be in a different order.
Washington suspended trade talks with Ottawa this week over the ad, accusing the Ontario provincial government of misrepresenting Reagan’s position and seeking to influence a looming US Supreme Court ruling on Trump’s tariffs policy.
On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that, after consulting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the province would “pause its US advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume”.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses. We’ve achieved our goal, having reached US audiences at the highest levels,” Ford wrote on X.
“I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”
The Canadian government did not immediately comment on Trump’s announcement of additional tariffs on Saturday.
It is unclear whether the ad will run again as planned during the second World Series game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, set to begin at 8pm local time in Toronto on Saturday (00:00 GMT Sunday).
Since taking office in January, Trump has unveiled sweeping tariffs against a number of countries including Canada, straining relations with the US’s longtime ally.
Carney, Canada’s prime minister, said this week that his government aims to double non-US exports over the next decade in response to Trump’s trade policies. More than three-quarters of Canadian exports currently go to the US.
