A newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch tore into Donald Trump over his handling of a major construction project aimed at boosting trade between the U.S. and Canada.
“President Trump likes to cut deals as a demonstration of power, even if the results end up costing the taxpayer,” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote Monday. “That’s the story behind his coercion against Canada to open the long-awaited Gordie Howe International Bridge.”
Work on the project began in 2012 under a deal with Canada struck by former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder. Canada has funded $4.7 billion in construction costs for the bridge, and the revenue will be split between the state and the country.
The project is designed to help ease traffic on the Ambassador Bridge between Michigan and its northern neighbor. The Ambassador Bridge, according to the Journal, already handles around 8,000 trucks every day, worth $390 million in annual trade.
Studies have shown that the new bridge will likely force the old one to lower its tolls to compete for traffic. The Journal notes that Trump, 80, threatened on Truth Social in February to block the Gordie Howe Bridge from opening until Canada “fully compensated” the U.S. “for everything we have given them.”
“The threat curiously came after the Ambassador Bridge owner, Matthew Moroun, met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick,” the newspaper’s editors wrote. “Mr. Moroun had opposed construction of the competing bridge, which would undercut his monopoly,” they continued, noting that Moroun “donated $1 million to a Trump-aligned Super PAC in January.”
Democrats have weaponized the furor surrounding Trump’s intervention earlier this year in attacks against Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s open Senate seat. Rogers claimed to have called Lutnick about the bridge last week, and Canada announced Friday that the opening would go ahead later this month.
The Journal describes details of the arrangement as “fuzzy.” White House aides have been boasting that the agreement requires the U.S. to sign off on any toll increases of more than 10 percent, while Canadian officials have quietly warned that the U.S. will also need to approve any reductions below the level already charged by Moroun’s Ambassador Bridge.
“That will help protect Mr. Moroun from competition and could result in higher tolls on both bridges,” the paper warns. “This is another story of Mr. Trump using trade as a lever for more political control over the private economy.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
