A phone call to President Donald Trump shortly before he posted a furious rant against Canada and the Gordie Howe International Bridge on Monday has raised eyebrows over its timing.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke to the president after a meeting with billionaire Matthew Moroun, a Detroit trucking magnate whose family owns the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, according to two sources who spoke to the New York Times.
The Moroun family has claimed that the Gordie Howe Bridge, which is set to open in a few months and connects Detroit to Windsor, would infringe on their exclusive right to collect tolls. The family, which has an estimated $1.5 billion fortune, had previously asked Trump to prevent the construction of the bridge during his first term.
Between 2019 and 2020, they also donated more than $605,000 to Trump’s re-election campaign and the Trump Victory fundraising committee for the GOP, according to the Detroit Free Press. Those contributions reportedly accompanied hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to other politicians and political committees known to oppose the construction of the new bridge.
Shortly after speaking to Lutnick, Trump complained on Truth Social about the bridge and, by extension, the Canadian government, which is navigating an ongoing trade war with the U.S. due to Trump’s tariffs.
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” Trump wrote, arguing that “with all that we have given them,” the U.S. is owed at least one half of the bridge.
The 79-year-old also incorrectly claimed that the bridge was being built with “virtually no U.S. content” and that Canada had sole ownership of the bridge. The bridge was paid for entirely by the Canadian government, but will be jointly owned by Canada and Michigan.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Department of Commerce for comment.
“This project has been a tremendous example of bipartisan and international cooperation,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer told Reuters. “It’s going to open one way or another, and the governor looks forward to attending the ribbon cutting.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Tuesday that he had spoken with Trump, clarifying the matter of the bridge’s ownership and assuring residents that the bridge was still on track to open later in the year.
“We discussed the bridge, I explained that Canada paid for the construction of the bridge—over $4 billion—that the ownership is shared between the state of Michigan and the government of Canada, and that in the construction of the bridge, obviously there’s Canadian steel and Canadian workers but also U.S. steel and U.S. workers that were involved,” Carney said.
“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries, [I] look forward to it opening.”
President Trump had previously endorsed the construction of the bridge, which will be the third crossing between Detroit and Windsor, as a priority project during his first term, joining then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in calling it a “vital economic link between our two countries.”
The president’s latest attack on Canada, which included complaints about Canadian tariffs on dairy products, Ontario’s ban on U.S. alcohol, and Canada’s new trade agreement with China, came after months of back-and-forth between the neighboring countries as a result of Trump’s trade war.
Relations soured further after Trump threatened to annex Canada and turn it into the 51st U.S. state, leading to a steep drop in Canadian tourism to the U.S.
Carney made waves after he responded to his American counterpart’s continued aggression with a powerful speech at the World Economic Forum last month.
“Every day we’re reminded that we live in an era of great-power rivalry,” Carney told attendees at the meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “That the rules-based order is fading, that the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.”
“Middle powers must act together because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”
