Trump Is Threatening to Block the Michigan-Canada Bridge. He Used to Cheer It.
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
It’s taken more than 2,000 days of construction, $6.4 billion Canadian dollars and seemingly endless studies and permits to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Stretching 1.5 miles between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the towering cable-stayed span will offer an alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge at one of the busiest land borders in North America, providing a boost to international traffic and trade. And it wasn’t so long ago that President Donald Trump cheered it on.
Shortly after a meeting in 2017, the man who styled himself as “the builder president” issued a joint statement with Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrating their shared focus on infrastructure. “In particular,” they said, “we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”
A list of 50 priority projects for emergency and national security, developed as Trump embarked on his first term in office, included the toll bridge. When the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge aired a commercial aimed at Trump in 2018, in hopes that he’d torpedo the project competing with it for tolls, the president didn’t act. His Canadian ambassador lifted a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking.
And in 2019, Trump signed the spending bill that allotted the first U.S. funding for the project: $15 million for inspection and screening systems. (Canada paid for the bridge project in full. The tolls will go toward recouping that investment.)
But Trump’s second term has busted all sorts of presidential norms — including his own. He now takes a more antagonistic stance toward Canada, and his ambassador in Ottawa has followed his lead. No longer does Trump speak of “the opportunity to build even more bridges” with Canadians. Instead, he used an emergency declaration to hit the country with aggressive tariffs and repeatedly said it should become the “51st state.”
This week, without warning, Trump targeted the Gordie Howe bridge that’s named after a Canadian hockey player who is beloved in Detroit.
“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 in a lengthy Truth Social post.
How the bridge battle ends is unclear, but it once again puts Michigan — a swing state and co-owner of the bridge — at the center of Trump tactics that could hurt the state’s economy.
“Michigan is an automotive state,” said Brent Pilarski, business manager of the Michigan Laborers District Council, which oversees unions representing people who worked on the bridge and who work in auto facilities. Parts cross the border constantly, he said, and they “need to get there on time, or cars can’t be built.”
So far, support for Trump by top Republicans has shown no sign of cracking.
Asked at a press conference about the bridge, Mike Rogers — the Trump-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate — said, “Obviously, we’d like to see it open.” But, he said, commerce is still happening without it, and “I would …
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
It’s taken more than 2,000 days of construction, $6.4 billion Canadian dollars and seemingly endless studies and permits to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Stretching 1.5 miles between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the towering cable-stayed span will offer an alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge at one of the busiest land borders in North America, providing a boost to international traffic and trade. And it wasn’t so long ago that President Donald Trump cheered it on.
Shortly after a meeting in 2017, the man who styled himself as “the builder president” issued a joint statement with Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrating their shared focus on infrastructure. “In particular,” they said, “we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”
A list of 50 priority projects for emergency and national security, developed as Trump embarked on his first term in office, included the toll bridge. When the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge aired a commercial aimed at Trump in 2018, in hopes that he’d torpedo the project competing with it for tolls, the president didn’t act. His Canadian ambassador lifted a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking.
And in 2019, Trump signed the spending bill that allotted the first U.S. funding for the project: $15 million for inspection and screening systems. (Canada paid for the bridge project in full. The tolls will go toward recouping that investment.)
But Trump’s second term has busted all sorts of presidential norms — including his own. He now takes a more antagonistic stance toward Canada, and his ambassador in Ottawa has followed his lead. No longer does Trump speak of “the opportunity to build even more bridges” with Canadians. Instead, he used an emergency declaration to hit the country with aggressive tariffs and repeatedly said it should become the “51st state.”
This week, without warning, Trump targeted the Gordie Howe bridge that’s named after a Canadian hockey player who is beloved in Detroit.
“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 in a lengthy Truth Social post.
How the bridge battle ends is unclear, but it once again puts Michigan — a swing state and co-owner of the bridge — at the center of Trump tactics that could hurt the state’s economy.
“Michigan is an automotive state,” said Brent Pilarski, business manager of the Michigan Laborers District Council, which oversees unions representing people who worked on the bridge and who work in auto facilities. Parts cross the border constantly, he said, and they “need to get there on time, or cars can’t be built.”
So far, support for Trump by top Republicans has shown no sign of cracking.
Asked at a press conference about the bridge, Mike Rogers — the Trump-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate — said, “Obviously, we’d like to see it open.” But, he said, commerce is still happening without it, and “I would …
Trump Is Threatening to Block the Michigan-Canada Bridge. He Used to Cheer It.
This isn't complicated—it's willpower.
It’s taken more than 2,000 days of construction, $6.4 billion Canadian dollars and seemingly endless studies and permits to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Stretching 1.5 miles between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the towering cable-stayed span will offer an alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge at one of the busiest land borders in North America, providing a boost to international traffic and trade. And it wasn’t so long ago that President Donald Trump cheered it on.
Shortly after a meeting in 2017, the man who styled himself as “the builder president” issued a joint statement with Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrating their shared focus on infrastructure. “In particular,” they said, “we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”
A list of 50 priority projects for emergency and national security, developed as Trump embarked on his first term in office, included the toll bridge. When the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge aired a commercial aimed at Trump in 2018, in hopes that he’d torpedo the project competing with it for tolls, the president didn’t act. His Canadian ambassador lifted a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking.
And in 2019, Trump signed the spending bill that allotted the first U.S. funding for the project: $15 million for inspection and screening systems. (Canada paid for the bridge project in full. The tolls will go toward recouping that investment.)
But Trump’s second term has busted all sorts of presidential norms — including his own. He now takes a more antagonistic stance toward Canada, and his ambassador in Ottawa has followed his lead. No longer does Trump speak of “the opportunity to build even more bridges” with Canadians. Instead, he used an emergency declaration to hit the country with aggressive tariffs and repeatedly said it should become the “51st state.”
This week, without warning, Trump targeted the Gordie Howe bridge that’s named after a Canadian hockey player who is beloved in Detroit.
“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 in a lengthy Truth Social post.
How the bridge battle ends is unclear, but it once again puts Michigan — a swing state and co-owner of the bridge — at the center of Trump tactics that could hurt the state’s economy.
“Michigan is an automotive state,” said Brent Pilarski, business manager of the Michigan Laborers District Council, which oversees unions representing people who worked on the bridge and who work in auto facilities. Parts cross the border constantly, he said, and they “need to get there on time, or cars can’t be built.”
So far, support for Trump by top Republicans has shown no sign of cracking.
Asked at a press conference about the bridge, Mike Rogers — the Trump-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate — said, “Obviously, we’d like to see it open.” But, he said, commerce is still happening without it, and “I would …
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