Donald Trump canceled trade negotiations with Canada in an overnight Truth Social tantrum not over substance. Not over economic disagreements. Over a television commercial.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford authorized a $40 million ad campaign—now increased to $75 million—featuring a 1987 Ronald Reagan speech explaining why tariffs devastate your allies. Trump saw it during his television monitoring session and detonated. He accused Canada of “cheating,” of “fraudulently” using Reagan’s words, and claimed Canada was attempting to “illegally influence the United States Supreme Court” ahead of a critical tariff ruling.
The accusation is absurd on its face. The Reagan speech exists on YouTube. His anti-tariff position is extensively documented. Ford simply deployed Reagan’s own argument against Trump’s trade war. But Trump’s fury achieved the opposite of suppression—he amplified the very message he wanted buried. The Reagan speech now dominates news cycles, its view count exploding as Trump’s tantrum directs millions of Americans to hear their conservative icon dismantle the current administration’s signature economic policy.
The commercial exposes more than Trump’s thin skin. It reveals the fundamental weakness of his tariff position. Reagan’s speech from 1987 flawlessly argues why tariffs harm American consumers and damage relationships with allies. When your best defense requires claiming Reagan secretly loved tariffs despite his recorded speeches saying the opposite, your position collapses under scrutiny.
But the commercial controversy masks a deeper conflict. Behind Trump’s manufactured outrage sits a harder truth: Mark Carney’s government refused to give Trump what he actually wants. Canada was preparing to announce a sectoral deal covering steel and aluminum. Trump demanded more. He wanted Canadian energy included. He wanted American access to Canada’s rare earth minerals—lithium, and other resources representing some of the largest deposits on Earth.
Carney said no. Canada is executing a nation-building project to extract and control these resources, diversifying buyers beyond American dependence. Trump’s team made their position clear: include energy in the deal. Grant America first right of refusal on mining operations. Open Canadian resources to American plunder. When Carney refused, Trump’s negotiating team issued threats. Shortly after, Carney publicly declared negotiations over. He essentially told the American president to go fuck himself on national television—in diplomatic language, but the message landed clearly.
Trump found this embarrassing. Doug Ford embarrassed him with Reagan’s words. Carney embarrassed him by refusing his demands and walking away. Now Trump faces a strategic problem: Canada controls resources America desperately needs, and Canada’s government won’t surrender them to American pressure. Ford and Trump make an interesting matchup—two similar personalities, both corrupt populists, now clashing across borders. The difference: Ford fights for Canadian interests while Trump fights for Trump.
Dean Blundell interrupted his niece’s wedding reception in British Columbia to record this episode because Canada’s position matters. The message from north of the border: Canada won’t abandon America or American values, but it absolutely will not do business with Trump’s regime. Canada believes in North American democracy enough to fight for it—and possesses the leverage to make that fight meaningful.
Trump wanted this negotiation conducted quietly, with Canada accepting subordinate terms. Instead, Reagan’s ghost rose from the wrecked East Wing to deliver an economics lesson Trump can’t refute, while Carney demonstrated that democratic allies don’t surrender sovereignty to authoritarian threats. The commercial will keep running. The Reagan speech will keep circulating. And Canada’s rare earth minerals will keep developing under Canadian control.
Trump remains free to throw tantrums on social media. The adults are conducting actual statecraft.
The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Advertising inquiries email next@narativ.org. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.
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