In a late-night rant, Donald Trump announced that he is terminating all trade negotiations with Canada and virtually guaranteed that millions of Americans will now learn that his own views on tariffs are deeply at odds with those of former GOP icon Ronald Reagan.
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Even though the government of Ontario spent roughly $50 million on a campaign using the words of Ronald Reagan to convince Americans that Donald Trump’s tariffs would end up hurting them, chances are that most people had not seen nor heard of the ad until the US president threw a hissy fit on Thursday night that virtually guaranteed that the clip will now be shared by millions of people.
For example, by us.
It’s official: Ontario’s new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched.
Using every tool we have, we’ll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together.
Watch our new ad. pic.twitter.com/SgIVC1cqMJ
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) October 16, 2025
Well played, Mr. President!
If Trump wanted to draw attention to the clip, he could not have done a better job than announcing in a late-night social media rant that he was ending trade talks with Canada.
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” he wrote.
Unsurprisingly, very little of that is factually correct.
It is true that the former president’s foundation released a (somewhat curious) statement regarding the ad, in which it lamented that the creators of the video used “selective audio and video” from an address to the nation on free and fair trade, which Reagan had delivered in 1987.
“The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address, and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks,” the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute stated, adding that it was reviewing its legal options.
What’s so puzzling about that statement is not only that Reagan’s address is in the public domain, but also that the quotes are accurate and reflect the former president’s views that, over the long run, tariffs “hurt every American worker and consumer.”
The Foundation did not explain how the ad “misrepresents” Reagan’s views.
Our readers can make up their own minds about it. Here is the transcript of that radio address from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
In any case, there is nothing “fraudulent” or “fake” about the ad, as the notoriously truth-challenged Trump claims.
In his post, the president suggested that the video is an effort to interfere with an upcoming Supreme Court decision on whether he was allowed to impose tariffs on most countries in the world. As we reported, a federal appeals court had ruled in August that Trump had overstepped his authority and that most of these levies were unconstitutional.
The president, of course, has a different view… and one that is quite the opposite of Reagan’s.
“TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE USA,” he ranted before declaring that he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada.
While this kind of announcement would roil markets in other circumstances, Trump is changing his mind on trade so often and makes so many threats that it seems likely that this latest outburst won’t have much of an impact on stocks.
Of course, the short-term effect of his diatribe is that millions of people will now watch the video. And, if there are still Republicans left who viewed Reagan as a great president, maybe they will look into what he had to say about tariffs and realize that what Trump is doing will hurt them in the end.
