ICYMI: Trump Threatens To Close A New Bridge Between Michigan And Ontario

0:07You're listening to the 1A Podcast. I'm Jen White, and this is In Case You Missed It, where we bring you some of the week's biggest conversations you might have missed. In his latest verbal attacks against Canada, President Trump says the country is trying to, quote, take advantage of America. The comments come as the president threatens to block the opening of a bridge between Michigan and Ontario. The Gordie Howe International Bridge cost about$4.7 billion to build, and it's been under construction since 2018. The bridge is due to open early this year. That's according to the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, the Canadian government entity behind its construction.

0:45But in a post on social media on Monday, President Trump said he won't allow the bridge to open, saying the U.S. won't benefit. While the bridge is financed by the Canadian government, it's publicly owned by the governments of Canada and Michigan. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said this to reporters Wednesday. Canadians have paid for the bridge. The The bridge was built with organized labor, union labor on both sides of the bridge, including Michiganders. It is a really important part of our economy, the largest crossing in North America. And so it is important that it continues to move forward and open up on time.

1:23And that's my expectation. Joining us to talk about the latest in the rift between U.S.-Canada relations is Nick Taylor-Vasey. He's the Ottawa Bureau Chief for Politico and co-host of their Playbook Canada podcast. He joins us after the break. Stay with us.

1:43Nick, it's great to have you back. Thanks so much for having me. So let's start with that original 2012 agreement between the Canadian government and the state of Michigan that led to the construction of this bridge. What did that agreement lay out? Well, the idea with that agreement was that, well, this was a Canadian prime minister who was conservative and then-Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. They decided that there was going to be such an increased demand for traffic crossing between Ontario and Michigan because of the, as we always talk about, integrated supply chains and integrated economies, that there needed to be another crossing.

2:22The Ambassador Bridge is a beautiful bridge, but it is an aging bridge, and it's only one bridge. And there's also a tunnel between the two cities, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, that facilitates some traffic flow. But the idea was there's going to be more need for more cars, more trucks, just more traffic. So let's make it happen. And the government of Canada had been working on that idea for some years prior to 2012, several years, and spending millions and millions of dollars just doing the preparatory work to try to at least symbolically or rhetorically lay the foundation. And we should note here that at the time this agreement was reached, the Michigan state legislature didn't want to pay for the bridge.

3:02Neither did the U.S. federal government. And so what was the financial part of that agreement? Well, I think this is kind of the most offensive part to a lot of Canadians of Donald Trump's truth social post because the Canadians decided to pay for the entire bridge. You mentioned$4.7 billion in construction costs. That's in addition to other costs associated with planning this thing. They did it because the Americans didn't want to do it. The agreement was once it was built, the Canadian side would then recoup those costs through tolls. And then at the point at which the bridge was paid for, then the revenue would be shared with Michigan.

3:44So the idea that the president was saying Michigan gets nothing out of this, the Americans get nothing out of this, the Canadians own the land on both sides of the border. Well, in fact, the Canadians don't own the land on the American side of the border. They just paid for the infrastructure that the Americans will eventually own when this bridge does open. So the bridge has been under construction since Trump's first term. What did he say about it back then? Well, back then, when Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau were somewhat friendlier before that explosion at the 2018, rhetorical explosion at the 2018 G7 summit in Canada, they agreed that this project should be a priority.

4:22In fact, they talked about the expeditious completion of this project being an important thing for both of them. And it was, in fact, listed as a priority infrastructure by the Trump administration at the time. So back then, Gordie Howe, the Canadian-American hero, was only good news, whether you're talking about hockey or talking about the bridge that was then about to be under construction. So connect the dots for us then. This more recent tirade against President Trump against this bridge, it's not the first, let's say, outburst he's had against Canada since he started his second term. So what are the reasons behind this latest breakdown?

4:58out. Well, Michiganders, I think when they saw this post or heard about it, had a pretty good idea about where it might have come from. Couldn't prove it, but had an inkling. And their inkling would have been that the billionaire Maroon family, which owns the Ambassador Bridge, that beautiful other bridge across town, has strongly, strongly opposed the construction of a second bridge of the Gordie Howe crossing. And then the New York Times, lo and behold, reported later in that day that, in fact, the Maroon billionaire bridge owner did have a conversation with Howard Lutnick, so did get the ear of the Trump administration.

5:36Now, we don't know exactly what connects those dots to the Trump's, to the Trump Truth Social Post, but we have a pretty good idea that the opinion of the Maroon family found its way to the president, and then there you go, he threatens Canada. Nick, the bridge is fully constructed at this point, so how is Prime Minister Carney responding to the president's comments? Well, Prime Minister Carney, every time we talk about a response to anything the president says, of course, journalists up here on Parliament Hill always badger the prime minister for some sort of comment. And it's hard to match, of course, the particular charisma of President Trump.

6:15Mark Carney has a very different kind of charisma. He often will try to downplay the confrontation. He'll try to turn down the temperature. In this case, he just said, he can't wait to see the bridge open. That's it. What do you make of that? Well, this is the perennial, not just perennial, this is the weekly preoccupation of the prime minister. He goes to Davos and he draws a pretty hard line in the sand about how middle powers around the world should band together in a time of great power rivalry. Of course, that gets the attention of the president. It's a risky gamble anytime the prime minister opens his mouth and even implies that the United States or the United States president is a threat.

7:00He didn't mention Trump's name in that speech in Davos, but he is trying to do this thing where he asserts Canada's sovereignty. He flexes a little bit of muscle and tries to show the world that, in fact, Canada can stand on its own two feet. But of course, if he goes anywhere close to too far, even if he doesn't go too far, the president may find a way or find a reason to lash out. It's a really tough, it's a tough balancing act. Justin Trudeau tried it before Mark Carney, when he was prime minister, worked for a little while. By the end of it, it was pretty toxic between the two of them. Carney's trying to do the same thing.

7:34Well, without the toxicity. Right. How are Canadians responding to all of this? I mean, I think a lot of Canadians roll their eyes at truth social posts. They don't roll their eyes at threats. So again, it's kind of putting a truth social post through a filter. Is there a real threat here? Is there something that may affect my job, may make groceries more expensive for me because of tariffs or some sort of economic blowback? Or is this just the president sort of feeling his feelings about something? I mean, in that truth social post, he talked about how Mark Carney's deal with China will ultimately empower China to eliminate hockey in Canada and the Stanley Cup.

8:18And it just, that's where I think where it tips into, ah, there's other things going on in Canada, around the world, other more serious things. Donald Trump is very much able to make a meaningful threat. We know he will do that. We'll pay attention when he does that for real. Well, Trump officials also met with a group of separatists in the province of Alberta. They're hoping to gather enough signatures to trigger a vote on independence for the province. What can you tell us about that campaign and how united Canada is at this moment? Yeah, that particular set of meetings is a little bit fuzzy on details, but does rise to the level of pretty serious concern, I would say, because Canada is an interesting country, 150 plus years old.

8:59I think a lot of people up here are really proud of it, but also acknowledge that Canada is a vast place a collection of people with all kinds of different interests, all kinds of different livelihoods, and all kinds of different sort of, well, all kinds of different reasons for living in the country. We all love hockey. But other, you know, beyond that, that sort of surface level, rah-rah Canadian patriotism, Canadians are very different people from coast to coast. And so when you have this group of Alberta separatists who are mounting what might be a serious bid to put a referendum to the province on separation, it of course is pretty alarming when State Department officials in Washington are taking meetings with them.

9:41I mean, you would think in the status quo environment that the State Department of the United States of America would say, well, maybe we'll turn that meeting down and we'll let the Albertans and the Canadians figure themselves out according to the processes that they've laid out. A lot of Canadians are turned off the idea that anybody in the U.S. government would even entertain a conversation with Alberta separatists. And then Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, went on TV and kind of played it up, played up that these meetings are happening. And it seemed to be trolling Canada in a way that I think, frankly, annoyed a lot of people.

10:17And we should say that there were no senior staffers at those meetings and no promises were made, but the optics of it are quite interesting. Before we let you go, Nick, Nick, what are you watching for next, both within Canada and when it comes to the country's relationship with the U.S.? Everything, always, all the time. But I'm sure we can't even, we won't even be able to, we couldn't guess what we're going to talk about next on this show together. But USMCA Review, that's the next big thing for us. Well, that's Nick Taylor-Vezy. He's Politico's Ottawa Bureau Chief and co-host of their Playbook Canada podcast.

10:52Nick, it's always great to check in with you. Thanks. Thanks so much for having me. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington, distributed by NPR. I'm Jen White. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk more soon. This is 1A.

11:25Thank you.