Overview
- Ontario’s government aired an ad using edited audio from Reagan’s 1987 radio address criticizing tariffs, which the Reagan Foundation said misrepresented the speech and used edited remarks without permission.
- Trump denounced the ad, halted sectoral trade talks with Canada and announced additional tariffs, linking the dispute to a Supreme Court case over his authority to impose tariffs without Congress.
- The Dispatch’s review found the ad reordered clips and omitted the semiconductor context of Reagan’s remarks, yet the speech itself warned that high tariffs trigger retaliation and trade wars.
- Reagan’s broader record emphasized free trade, including launching negotiations that led to the World Trade Organization and securing the U.S.-Canada Free-Trade Agreement.
- Economists and commentators say protectionist tariffs raise input costs and hurt farmers and manufacturers, with the scope of presidential tariff powers now under Supreme Court scrutiny.