Ontario premier said he pulled the ad after a conversation with Mark Carney.
The Ronald Reagan ad that riled President Donald Trump to the point of terminating trade talks with Canada is coming down — after it gets a few more plays during the World Series.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a statement Friday. “We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.”
Trump told reporters as he left for Asia in the evening that he heard the ad was going to be pulled, but didn’t know the “crooked” commercial would continue playing until Monday.
“They could have pulled it tonight,” Trump said outside the White House, calling the move a “dirty” play. “But I can play dirtier than they can.”
Trump terminated trade talks in a late-night Thursday post on Truth Social, claiming offense over an ad campaign produced by the province of Ontario that used a radio address by the former president to warn about the perils of a trade war.
“The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs,” Trump posted.
Ford, whose provincial government bankrolled the 60-second spot that launched on major U.S. networks last week, said the decision to pull the ad this upcoming Monday came about after a discussion with Prime Minister Mark Carney “so that trade talks can resume.”
“I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games,” Ford said.
The World Series starts Friday evening, with the Toronto Blue Jays hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers for Game 1.
A chorus of American Democratic lawmakers have since spoken out about Trump’s decision to halt trade talks over an ad, calling his actions a flippant disregard for a bilateral relationship valued at C$1.3 trillion in trade, annually.
“President Trump’s senseless trade war and constant insults against Canada are destroying that relationship, weakening our economy, and hurting Americans across the country,” said Rep. Tim Kennedy (D-N.Y.), co-chair of the Northern Border Caucus, in a statement.
Kennedy said the move shows the administration is “unserious” about fixing America’s economy.
Reagan’s words used in the C$75-million campaign, targeting Republican-held districts, are authentic. The Reagan Foundation told POLITICO they have issues with the edit.
“It is the words he used, but out of order and out of context,” said spokesperson Melissa Giller. The Foundation took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the ad on Thursday, adding it was “reviewing its legal options” in a statement.
The foundation did not respond to a question about its position on the Chinese Embassy in Washington using the same clip in the spring to troll Trump’s trade policies.
Trade negotiations between American and Canadian negotiators have been at an “intensive” point, Carney said this week. One of the outcomes from Trump’s meeting with Carney this month was a focus to make quick breakthroughs on steel, aluminum and energy.
Trump continued railing against Canada on Friday morning, accusing the country of trying to “illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country.”
Carney projected calm as he boarded his plane on Friday to attend the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur, where Trump is expected to join the leaders’ dinner on Sunday.
“A lot of progress has been made, and we stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions,” Carney said, adding continuing negotiations will be for the benefit of workers on both sides of the border.