FILE PHOTO: Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump as the Village People perform during the FIFA World Cup draw December 5, 2025, Pool via REUTERS/Mandel Ngan/File Photo
Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers came out in support of President Donald Trump's threats to extort the government of Canada by blocking the opening of a yearslong international bridge project between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
In his Truth Social rant earlier this week, Trump proclaimed he would hold closed the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which has been in the works since 2013, until Canada acknowledges the U.S. owns half of the bridge and "negotiates" with him about how it is operated — demands that threaten to spark an international incident with one of America's closest allies and neighbors.
Rogers, a former member of Congress who chaired the House Intelligence Committee, concurred with Trump's assessment, calling the ultimatum "the right thing to do," per Michigan Advance.
“That commerce that you’re talking about is still happening every day,” said Rogers. “What the president has done is say, ‘I need some leverage.’ Canada just took Chinese-made cars and dropped them down from 100 percent tariffs to a 6 percent tariff. I would like the president to have some leverage to stop thousands and thousands and thousands of Chinese-made cars pouring over the bridge. Do you know who that hurts? It hurts Michigan autoworkers.”
Rogers was promptly slammed on social media with assertions he has no idea what he's talking about — by people on both sides of the border.
"Mike Rogers. Carpetbagger and grifter," wrote political scholar Norm Ornstein, referencing recent reports that Rogers actually lives in Florida and may be running his campaign from there.
"He not only backs Trump, Mike Rogers also is doing the bidding of the Moroun family," wrote former Michigan state representative and Democratic strategist Mari Manoogian. "The Morouns, who are Republican mega donors, own the Ambassador Bridge, and stand to lose money once the Gordie Howe opens. More of the usual grift from these guys."
"Canada is allowing 50,000 Chinese made vehicles. Mexico imports half a million each year," wrote Brent Bellamy, an architect based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "One in five new cars purchased in Mexico are Chinese. If the worry is these vehicles flooding into the US from its neighbours, why isn’t it already happening from the south?"
"Seems like a vote loser for the GOP in Michigan," wrote Ben O'Hara-Byrne, a radio host from Vancouver, British Columbia. "Real threat to state’s automotive industry isn’t 49K Chinese EVs, it’s Trump’s destructive tariffs and policies. Don’t forget, Canada is biggest export market for US made vehicles too, decimating that relationship is just dumb."