President Donald Trump on Friday night criticized the Ontario provincial government in Canada for waiting until after the first two games of the World Series to suspend a television ad in which former President Ronald Reagan criticized the tariffs.
“They could have done it tonight,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he headed to fly to Asia.
“Well, that’s foul play,” he said. “But I can play dirtier than them, you know?”
Trump had cited the announcement in his decision Thursday night to begin trade negotiations with Canada.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday afternoon he would pause the announcement on Monday so trade negotiations could resume.
But Ford also said, “I have directed my team to continue delivering our message to Americans over the weekend so we can air our commercial during the first two games of the World Series.”
Trump said Friday night that he had heard Ontario was pulling the ad.
But he also said he didn’t know the government would leave it that way until Monday.
The ad was shown Friday night during a broadcast to millions of Americans of the first game of the World Series.
That game was won 11-4 by the Toronto Blue Jays of Canada over the Los Angeles Dodgers of the United States.
Toronto is in Ontario and is Ford’s hometown.
Ford, in a tweet early Friday announcing the ad break, said: “Our intention was always to start a conversation about the type of economy Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses.
“We have achieved our goal, having reached American audiences at the highest levels,” Ford said, apparently referring to Trump.
“When speaking to the Prime Minister [Mark] “Carney, Ontario will pause its advertising campaign in the United States starting Monday so that trade negotiations can resume,” he said.
Trump held trade talks with Canada after the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute claimed that the ad misrepresents Reagan’s April 25, 1987, radio speech and that his comments were edited without permission.
The foundation posted a YouTube video of the speech on its site and urged people to watch it in its entirety.
Ford responded to that criticism early Friday by tweeting a link to the same video.
In it, Reagan discusses his recent imposition of new tariffs “on some Japanese products in response to Japan’s failure to enforce its trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors.”
That context is missing from Ontario’s announcement. But the ad accurately captures Reagan’s words: “In the long run, those trade barriers hurt all American workers and consumers.”
The ad also features Reagan, in the same speech, saying: “When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing something patriotic by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short time, it works, but only for a short time.”
“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the unleashing of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said in the speech and announcement.
Ford, who calls himself a “big fan of Ronald Reagan,” first ran the ad on X on Oct. 16, days after saying the Ontario government would spend $75 million to run the ad in the United States.
“We’re going to repeat that message in every Republican district there is, across the country,” Ford said.
Trump fumed about the announcement in a Truth Social post on Friday morning.
“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently accepted a huge procurement ad saying that Ronald Reagan didn’t like tariffs, when in reality he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote.
“Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in our country’s history. Canada has long cheated on tariffs, charging our farmers up to 400%. Now they, and other countries, can no longer take advantage of the United States. Thank you to the Ronald Reagan Foundation for exposing this FRAUD.”
In early November, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that will determine whether Trump had the power under the law to impose sweeping tariffs against dozens of countries, including Canada, without the consent of Congress.