United States President Donald Trump has threatened to block the opening of the bridge being built to connect Canada to the United States. According to him, the blockade would be maintained until Canada “fully compensates” the United States “for everything we have granted them and [até] that Canada treats the United States with the fairness and respect we deserve,” said Trump.
“Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades,” wrote the president on his social network Truth Social on Monday night (9), without exemplifying the supposed imbalance in the relationship between the two countries.
Construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge was funded by the Canadian government, but will be owned by both governments, according to the 2012 agreement that established the project. Trump, however, claims that Canada benefited from an exemption that allowed Canadians not to be forced to use American products in the work.
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This Tuesday (10), Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had a “positive” conversation with Trump and said he reminded him that Canada covered the costs of the bridge. He would also have highlighted to the American president that workers from both countries worked on the construction and that steel from both sides was used.
“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries and I look forward to its opening,” Carney told reporters. The bridge will connect the Canadian province of Ontario to the US state of Michigan.
Canada-China Agreement
Behind Trump’s outrage over the bridge is the recent rapprochement between Canada and China. In his Truth Social post, the president wrote that China “will eat Canada alive.” “We’re just going to keep the leftovers! I don’t think so,” he added, making clear his dissatisfaction with the conversations between the leaders of the two countries.
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He also warned about what he believes to be the impact of Chinese influence, going so far as to say that the Asian country could even ban hockey championships — the most popular sport in Canada —, even though there is no concrete evidence to that effect.
In January, Mark Carney met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and the two signed a strategic partnership for the commercialization of Chinese electric vehicles in Canada, providing for tariff reductions and authorization for the entry of a large volume of cars per year into the country.
Dissatisfied with the rapprochement and with China’s possible influence on the neighboring country, Trump has already threatened to apply 100% tariffs to Canadian products if Canada and China sign an agreement.
This is not the first time that Trump has attacked his northern neighbor. Since the beginning of his second term in January 2025, the president of the United States has talked about annexing Canada and even said that he would transform the country into the 51st American state. The Canadian Prime Minister categorically rejected the threats and stated that the country is “not for sale”.
