Live updates: N.Y. AG Letitia James pleads not guilty to bank fraud charges; Trump backs off Canada tariff talks
Statement
The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.
Donald Trump, Truth Social
Verdict
The Ontario ad is an edited, heavily condensed version of a Ronald Reagan speech, but the sentiment is unchanged and is an accurate reflection of the former president’s views on protectionism.
Analysis
Trump said late last night that he was canceling trade talks with Canada after the province of Ontario ran an ad attacking his trade war and the negative effects it anticipates from higher trade tariffs.
The ad used an edited speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 in which he said, among other things: “High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries, and the triggering of fierce trade wars.”
Trump dismissed the ad as “FAKE,” implying it misrepresented or distorted the former president’s words.
The Ontario ad changes the order of Reagan’s words, quotes only part of some sentences and removes some of the very specific original context on how he had — very reluctantly and contrary to his economic philosophy — just imposed tariffs on Japan in a dispute over semiconductors.
But the sentiment expressed in the ad is unchanged: Reagan’s speech was anti-protectionist and he did say, referring to his own tariffs, that “over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”
Trump has doubled down on his criticism this morning, posting on Truth Social that Canada “fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.”
The Reagan Foundation said it was considering its legal options regarding the ad, which it said misrepresents the remarks and used the speech without permission. But that legality issue aside, it’s not clear in what way Reagan’s words were misrepresented.
