The White House says further trade negotiations with Ottawa are “futile” if Canadians “can’t be serious,” after U.S. President Donald Trump terminated the talks.
Trump announced Thursday night he was ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of an Ontario government television ad opposing U.S. tariffs that he called “egregious.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday that the ad would be pulled from American television airwaves on Monday — after airing during the first two games of the World Series over the weekend — in an effort to restart the talks.
It was not immediately clear if the move had changed Trump’s thinking or those of his advisors, who criticized Canada for being “difficult.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Ford pulling the ad, and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said he would defer to Trump.
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“The president has been very clear about his extreme displeasure with what took place, and I will leave it to the president to provide an update on that,” Miller told reporters late Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Global News that the “misleadingly edited” ad “is the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the Administration.”
“The Trump Administration has repeatedly sought to address Canada’s longstanding, unfair trade barriers,” Desai said in a statement. “These good-faith efforts with Canadian officials have not led to any constructive progress.
“As President Trump made clear on Truth Social, further talks are a futile effort if Canada can’t be serious.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters before leaving for a trade summit in Asia — where he was set to meet with Trump — that Canada and the U.S. had been making “great progress” in trade talks before they were halted.
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‘We stand ready’ to talk trade when U.S. is, Carney says
But U.S. National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett told reporters at the White House that Trump’s post “reveals his frustrations” with Canada’s “actions and postures” throughout the negotiations.
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“I think the frustration has built up over time,” Hassett said. “I’ve been involved in some of these negotiations, and the Canadians have been very difficult to negotiate with.
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“If you look at all the countries around the world that we’ve made deals with, and the fact that we’re now negotiating with Mexico separately, it reveals that it’s not just about one ad, that there’s frustration that’s built up.”
Hassett said he had no information on whether Trump still plans to meet with Carney at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea next week.
Global News has asked the office of the U.S. Trade Representative if Trump’s announcement, as well as Hassett’s comment about separate negotiations with Mexico, means next year’s review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on free trade (CUSMA) is also impacted.
A spokesperson for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who has been leading the Canadian negotiating team, deferred to Carney’s comments Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been travelling in the Middle East and will join Trump in Asia, told reporters in Israel he had not spoken to Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand since Trump’s announcement.
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Doug Ford reacts to Trump ending trade talks with Canada after Ontario anti-tariff ad
Asked what has been so challenging about the negotiations, Hassett said there was a “lack of flexibility” on Canada’s part.
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“I would guess leftover behaviours from the Trudeau folks that can be very frustrating for people who are negotiating,” he added.
The Liberals under former prime minister Justin Trudeau caught Trump’s ire during his first term while renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, which led to CUSMA.
In an interview later Friday on Fox Business, Hassett referred to the termination of talks as “a break” rather than an indefinite suspension.
“Sometimes when you’re frustrated a timeout is the right call,” he said.
“I would guess that sometime between now and the end of his term he’ll talk to Canada again.”
Carney said Canada is ready to restart talks “when the Americans are ready to have those discussions.”
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The White House “rapid response” social media channels on Friday highlighted the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s statement that said the Ontario ad, which used quotes from a 1987 address by then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan on free trade, “misrepresents” what Reagan said about tariffs.
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Desai emphasized on the social media platform X that Reagan said in the speech that America’s commitment to free trade was “also a commitment to fair trade.”
Yet California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a post on X, pointed to one of the quotes from Reagan’s speech that the Ontario ad used, calling them “the words Trump doesn’t want you to see.”
“When someone says, let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports, it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products… Markets shrink and collapse, businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs,” Newsom’s post quoted Reagan as saying.
The post further edited down a section of the speech used in the Ontario ad, which itself spliced clips together from the longer Reagan speech — roughly five minutes in length — into a one-minute ad.
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The Ontario anti-tariff ad which lead Trump to end trade talks with Canada
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, meanwhile, focused on the economic impact Trump’s Canadian tariffs are having in his state.
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“Canada is Pennsylvania’s largest trading partner,” Shapiro posted on X. “PA companies export $14B to Canada every year, and Canadian companies employ over 30,000 people here in PA.
“But the President’s policies are hurting our economy, jacking up prices for Pennsylvanians, and closing markets for our businesses.”
Other American politicians highlighted Carney’s comments Friday that underscored Canada’s efforts to diversify trade with Asian and other partners to reduce economic reliance on the U.S.
U.S. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont said on X that Trump was throwing a “temper tantrum” that has “boxed out” the U.S. from trading with an important ally.
“Pure ego and incompetence are going to economically devastate working families,” she said.
Former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a fierce Trump critic, posted a meme calling Trump a “snowflake” and said cancelling trade talks with Canada “because he can’t handle the words of Reagan … makes him look like a buffoon.”
Anthony Scaramucci, who turned on Trump after briefly serving as his communications director during the first administration, said the “mistakes we are making with our friends will be long discussed.”
—with files from Global’s Reggie Cecchini
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