Doug Ford: Anti-Tariff Reagan Ad Did Its Job

Ontario's premier bragged Monday about the impact of his anti-tariff ad that prompted President Trump to end trade talks with Canada. Premier Doug Ford said the ad had over a "billion impressions around the world" and "generated a conversation that wasn't happening in the US," the AP reports.

• "You know why President Trump is so upset right now? It was because it was effective. It was working. It woke up the whole country," Ford said.
• "We achieved our goal. As we say, 'mission accomplished,'" Ford said, per Politico. "They're talking about it in the US, and they weren't talking about it before I put the ad on. I'm glad that Ronald Reagan was a free trader."
• Ontario's television advertisement criticizes Trump's tariffs by citing a 1987 speech from Reagan. The ad infuriated Trump, who said he plans to hike tariffs on imports of Canadian goods by an extra 10%.

• Trump also said Monday he won't be meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for some time. "They shouldn't have done it. And they've apologized," Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Tokyo. "And they said we're going to take the ad down. Well, they did it, but they did it very late. They let it play for another two nights."
• Ford pulled the ad Monday but allowed it to be shown in the first two games of the baseball World Series over the weekend. Ford said Carney and Carney's chief of staff watched the ad before it was released. Trump said he didn't care that the ad was not released by Canada's federal government. "Whether it's provincial or Canada itself—they all knew exactly what the ad was. The prime minister knew," Trump said.
• Trump said the ad misrepresented the position of Reagan, a two-term president and a beloved figure in the Republican Party. But Reagan was wary of tariffs and used much of the 1987 address featured in Ontario's ad spelling out the case against tariffs.

• Ford, a populist Conservative who doesn't belong to the same party as Carney, a Liberal, said Trump hasn't put the extra 10% tariff on yet and noted Trump had threatened a lot before. Ford called it the "best ad I ever ran" and said he's achieved his goals with it. He said he's "not going to roll over" and his job is to protect auto jobs.
• "My intention was never to poke the president in the eye," Ford said. "My intention was to inform the American people this is serious. And it is going to cost jobs if we don't get a fair-trade deal with your closest friend and ally."
• Ford said Republicans are too afraid to speak up against Trump. "They are too scared of President Trump. When was the last a time a Republican governor was scared of a Republican president? They are scared of ramifications which is really sad," Ford said.
• The Wall Street Journal editorial board weighed in over the weekend, accusing Trump of "taking Reagan's trade beliefs in vain." "Anyone who reads the whole speech can see the Gipper favored free trade, with rare exceptions for political pragmatism and national security," the board wrote. That couldn't be more different than Mr. Trump, who wants tariffs as a policy rule, not the exception. Reagan knew that tariffs are taxes, while Mr. Trump pretends they are paid by foreigners. Reagan knew protectionist barriers over time breed complacency and lack of innovation. Mr. Trump thinks he's making American manufacturing great again, when he is really hurting US manufacturers by burdening them with higher costs."