President Donald Trump has threatened to block the opening of a new bridge connecting the United States and Canada until Washington is “fully compensated” for everything it has provided to its northern neighbor. The Gordie Howe International Bridge, which links the Canadian province of Ontario with the U.S. state of Michigan, will not be opened until Ottawa begins to “treat the United States fairly and with the respect we deserve,” Trump wrote on social media.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that the United States should own “at least half of this asset.” He also claimed that Canada owns both the Canadian and the American sides of the bridge. According to the project’s official website, the organization developing the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, is wholly owned by the Canadian government.
“The Canadian government expects me, as President of the United States, to allow them to simply ‘take advantage of America!’” Trump wrote. “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them,” he added. It has not yet been clarified how Trump could prevent the opening of the bridge, but he announced that negotiations would begin immediately, without providing further details.
The bridge, which spans the Detroit River, is scheduled to open to traffic in early 2026, following the completion of formal testing and the securing of approvals. Construction began in 2018, although the project itself had been the subject of disputes between the two countries for more than a decade. According to Canada’s public broadcaster, the estimated construction cost is 6.4 billion Canadian dollars. Although the project is financed by the Canadian government, the bridge will be publicly owned by both Canada and the state of Michigan.
The Moroun family, American owners of the neighboring Ambassador Bridge, which also connects Detroit with Canada, appealed to Trump during his first term to halt construction of the new bridge, arguing that it undermined their monopoly on toll collection. Trump then issued a joint statement with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in which they described the bridge as a “vital economic link” between the two countries, reports Index.
Trump also recalled recent trade disputes, saying that “the tariffs Canada has been charging us for years on dairy products are unacceptable.” He also referred to a trade agreement signed last month by Canada and China, claiming that it would “eat Canada alive.”
“The first thing China will do is stop all ice hockey played in Canada and permanently abolish the Stanley Cup,” Trump added. Canadian bridge authorities, the office of the Premier of Ontario, and the office of the Mayor of Detroit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Foto: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic – CC-BY-SA-2.0