Trump blasts ‘dirty play’ by Ontario in waiting to pause Reagan trade ad after World Series

President Donald Trump late Friday blasted the Ontario provincial government in Canada for waiting until after the first two games of the World Series to pause a television ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs.

“They could have pulled it tonight,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he headed to fly to Asia.

“Well, that’s dirty play,” he said. “But I can play dirtier than they can, you know.”

Trump had cited the ad in his decision on Thursday night to trade negotiations with Canada.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Friday afternoon said he would pause the ad on Monday so that trade talks could resume.

But Ford also said, “I’ve directed my team to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend so that we can air our commercial during the first two World Series games.”

Trump said Friday night that he had heard that Ontario was pulling the ad.

But he also said he did not know the government was leaving it on until Monday.

The ad was shown Friday night during a broadcast to millions of Americans of the first game of the World Series.

That game was won 11-4 by Canada’s Toronto Blue Jays over the U.S.’s Los Angeles Dodgers.

Toronto is in Ontario, and is the home town of Ford.

Ford, in a tweet earlier Friday announcing the ad pause, said “Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses.

“We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels,” Ford said, apparently referring to Trump.

“In speaking with Prime Minister [Mark] Carney, Ontario will pause its U.S. advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume,” he said.

Trump halted trade talks with Canada after claims by The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute that the ad misrepresents Reagan’s radio address speech from April 25, 1987, and that his remarks were edited without permission.

The foundation posted a YouTube video of the speech on its site and urged people to watch it in its entirety.

Ford responded to that criticism earlier Friday by tweeting out a link to the same video.

On it, Reagan discusses his recent imposition of new tariffs “on some Japanese products in response to Japan’s inability to enforce their trade agreement with us on electronic devices called semiconductors.”

That context is missing from Ontario’s ad. But the ad accurately captures Reagan saying, “Over the long run, such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”

The ad also has Reagan, from the same speech, saying, “When someone says, ‘Let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes, for a short while, it works — but only for a short time.”

“High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars,” Reagan said in the speech and in the ad.

Ford, who calls himself a “big Ronald Reagan fan,” first posted the ad on X on Oct. 16, days after saying that Ontario’s government would spend $75 million to run the ad in the United States.

“We’re going to repeat that message to every Republican district there is, right across the entire country,” said Ford.

Trump raged about the ad in a Truth Social post on Friday morning.

“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote.

“Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country. Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer. Thank you to the Ronald Reagan Foundation for exposing this FRAUD.”

The Supreme Court in early November is set to hear oral arguments in a case that will determine if Trump had power under the law to impose sweeping tariffs against scores of countries, including Canada, without the consent of Congress.