Trump to impose tariffs as punitive measure against accurate commercial
By 
The threat has been made real:
The U.S. will impose an additional 10% tariff on Canada, President Trump said on Saturday, a punitive measure in response to an ad campaign that he said misrepresented comments by former President Ronald Reagan.
“Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
The ad campaign, released by the Canadian province of Ontario, uses audio from a 1987 radio address delivered by Reagan, in which he explains that despite putting tariffs on Japanese semiconductors that year, he was committed to free-trade policies. While tariffs can look patriotic, Reagan said, “over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer,” lead to “fierce trade wars” and result in lost jobs.
Trump had threatened to cut off trade talks with Canada on Thursday over the ad, claiming it misrepresents Reagan’s comments, and was being used to influence the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of a hearing on the administration’s tariffs next month. In response, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that he would call off the campaign, effective Monday. But the ad still ran on Friday night during the first game of the World Series—a fact Trump noted in his Saturday post, saying that the ad “was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY.”
If I may be permitted to be so gauche as to invoke the law, Congress just simply did not authorize the president to impose tariffs in retaliation for ads he doesn’t like. If this counts as “national security” the term means nothing at all. If the Supreme Court of the United States was a court of law as the term was once understood, this would be a highly relevant fact.
Rule of Law Alert: Trump’s authority for country-specific tariffs comes from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which doesn’t mention tariffs—but does require a national emergency. An ad showing that Reagan opposed tariffs surely is not a national emergency. (It may be a personal one)
[image or embed]— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) Oct 25, 2025 at 4:51 PM