President Donald Trump announced he was cutting off trade negotiations with Canada over an ad featuring Ronald Reagan making critical remarks about tariffs decades ago, and he was smacked with criticism and fact-checking on social media.
The U.S. president made his announcement late Thursday on Truth Social after the Reagan Foundation said it was "reviewing legal options" over an ad issued this week by Ontario's provisional government showing video from a 1987 speech by the late president, which the foundation claimed was selectively edited and misleading and Trump declared "fake."
"They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts," Trump posted. "TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED."
But many social media users pointed out the Reagan Foundation's concerns were unfounded and Trump's reaction was off base.
"There he goes again," said conservative lawyer George Conway, using a famous Reagan quip in reaction to a two-minute video clip of the late president's speech.
"Here's the full radio address from Reagan in 1987," posted Gizmodo's Matt Novak. "He talks a little about how he needs to impose tariffs on semiconductors from Japan but it's clear he's singling them out as something that should be rarely used. The Reagan Foundation suggesting they might sue over the ad is hilarious."
"I read the transcript," replied Bluesky user Patrick. "The ad doesn’t misrepresent what he was saying. It’s bizarre for the foundation to claim it did. We can easily see that that’s not true. What is the Reagan Foundation doing here? Showing fealty to Trump for some reason?"
"This is far from the most important issue here, but the Ontario govt was under no obligation to 'seek...permission to use and edit' any recording of Ronald Reagan that is in the U.S. National Archives/Reagan Library, as is the case here," pointed out Adam Keiper, executive editor of The Bulwark. "And the Reagan Foundation has *no* relevant role here."
"Reagan was so bad even his foundation sucks," opined journalist Walker Bragman.
"'The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation is reviewing its legal options...' what? their own website says (and the national archives confirm) the address is in the public domain," added journalist Timothy Burke.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the Reagan Foundation argue that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act doesn't prevent them from suing Ontario, since, in a bit of meta karma you couldn't make up, Reagan was the first big user of the FSIA to stop lawsuits against Iran," posted the National Security Counselors public interest law firm.
"The state of the GOP is so dire the Reagan Foundation is disavowing Reagan quotes LOL," joked Bluesky user Grudgie the Whale.
"This might be the most ridiculous thing the Reagan Foundation has done (and it's a long list)," said former White House staffer Tony Clark. "Reagan made and the WH recorded those addresses while in office; they are presidential records, in the public domain; no one needs to seek the private foundation's permission. It has no 'legal options.'"
"The only misrepresentation in the ad is that it makes Reagan look like he didn’t suck s---," added Bluesky user The Year of God, linking to an infamous video from the 1980s. "Cliff Roth created this edit of Ron and Nancy taking about how great drugs were back in the ‘80s, while both of the Reagans were still alive, and nobody sued him over it. The Reagan Foundation doesn’t have a leg to stand on here."