Trade negotiations between the US and Canada were halted this week after President Donald Trump reacted strongly to an advertisement sponsored by Ontario, Canada.
The minute-long advert used excerpts from a 1987 Reagan address on foreign trade. In the ad, Reagan is quoted as saying tariffs “hurt every American.”
President Trump immediately called the advert “FAKE.” The Ronald Reagan Foundation also stated that the ad “misrepresents” the former president’s speech. To allow trade talks to restart, Ontario quickly agreed to stop running the advertisement.
The ad, however, opens with Reagan’s most powerful anti-tariff statement: “When someone says, ‘let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing… but only for a short time.”
By rearranging the quotes, the ad removed the context. In the original speech, the statement that “Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American, worker and consumer,” was separated from the other anti-tariff comments by over a minute.
