Ontario premier issues pause of advert criticizing Trump tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and has decided to pause the advertising campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump effective Monday, so that trade talks can resume.
“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,” Ford said in a post on X.
The Ontario government paid for and produced the advert which uses archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all trade talks with Canada, while White House officials said today that the negotiating process so far had been “difficult”.
Ford said that before the anti-tariff ad is taken off the air, he has directed his team “to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend” by playing the commercial during the first two World Series games.
Key events
‘Pure electoral poison’: GOP groups slam Jeffries endorsement of Mamdani
Since Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, endorsed Zohran Mamdani in a statement to the New York Times, both state and national Republican organizations have slammed the move, often with misleading and untrue claims.
“In an act of supreme cowardice and capitulation, Democrats’ Minority Leader in Congress just threw his lot in with an openly Communist, anti-Semitic, defund-the-police, globalize-the-intifada extremist,” said NYGOP chair Ed Cox in a statement.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said that Jeffries had “officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now running the Democrat Party”.
“Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison. Every single Democrat is a willing accomplice to their own party’s collapse,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the NRRC.
Top House Democrat offers long-awaited endorsement of Mamdani – report
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the New York mayoral race, according to a statement provided to the New York Times.
The top Democrat, who represents a section of Brooklyn in Congress, had not officially backed Mamdani, much to the frustration of progressives within the party. Early voting in New York begins on Saturday 25 October.
The Times reports that Jeffries said in his statement that he and Mamdani had “areas of principled disagreement” but the state assemblyman won “a free and fair election” in the Democratic primary. Jeffries emphasized that the party needed to unite in the face of an “existential” threat from Donald Trump, per the report.
“Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy,” Jeffries wrote.
Letitia James says justice system has been ‘used as a tool of revenge’ following arraignment
New York attorney general Letitia James said that the “justice system had been weaponized” in a statement following her arraignment at a federal court in Virginia. She pleaded not guilty on two charges of bank fraud and providing misleading statements to a financial institution.
“This isn’t about me. It’s about all of us,” she said, adding that the justice system had been “used as a tool for revenge”.
“My faith is strong. I have belief in the justice system and the rule of law,” she added.
Pope Leo says US and Canada experience ‘great difficulties’
Pope Leo, the first American pope, said on Friday that the US and Canada were experiencing “great difficulties” in their relations, in a likely reference to Donald Trump’s decision to cut off trade talks.
“Canada and the United States … as we are sitting here, are experiencing great difficulties,” Leo told a meeting at the Vatican, according to Reuters.
“Two countries that were once considered the closest allies at times have become separated from one another,” he said.
Joseph Gedeon
Chris Sands, the director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, suggested the collapse in talks simply formalizes a dead-end process.
“Can we stop trade talks? Yes, you can stop talks about steel, aluminum, energy, all of it,” he said. “But there was no evidence we were going anywhere anyway.”
Sands noted the irony of Trump citing Reagan while reversing his trade legacy. “Reagan loved the country – he loved free trade. Maybe Donald Trump believes that, but it’s not what he’s selling now.”
Washington imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian imports this spring, prompting retaliation from Ottawa before Trump raised duties to 35% in August. Ontario, heavily dependent on cross-border manufacturing and automotive trade, has been particularly affected. The breakdown ultimately leaves Carney navigating domestic pressure with a minority government.
“Carney’s trying to keep all the provinces together,” Sands said. “He’s walking a tightrope between angry Canadians, an angry Trump, and premiers who are going off-script.”
Joseph Gedeon
Marco Rubio confirmed on Friday that all trade negotiations with Canada had been suspended. Rubio, the secretary of state, on Friday told reporters that the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, had aired commercials in the US that “took President Reagan’s words out of context”, adding that the Reagan Foundation had criticized the effort, too.
“The President made his announcement that he suspended any trade talks with Canada for now,” Rubio said.
Schumer says Senate Democrats will force vote on Trump’s tariffs on Canada
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats will force the chamber to vote on Trump’s “damaging” tariffs on Canada and other countries. In a post on X, the New York Democrat called the levies “one of the driving forces behind higher prices”.
“Americans cannot afford Donald Trump’s price-spiking tariff temper tantrums. These constant tantrums end up costing Americans real money,” Schumer said in a statement reported by Politico. “Refusing to negotiate with Canada to alleviate the tariffs will ensure that Americans continue to pay an average of $1,300 due to higher prices on everything from lumber to beef.”
Reagan foundation reviewing legal options over Canada’s anti-tariff ad
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation said in a statement seen by Reuters that it was exploring its legal options over the controversial Ontario tariff ad that uses “selective audio and video” of the former president.
The ad consists of Reagan voiceover criticizing tariffs on foreign goods while saying they cause job losses and trade wars. According to Reuters, the video uses five complete sentences from the five-minute weekly address, spliced together out of sequence.
“The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address (by Reagan in 1987), and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks,” the foundation statement said.
The ad does not mention that Reagan was using the address to explain that tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration should be seen as a sadly unavoidable exception to his basic belief in free trade as the key to prosperity.
Maya Yang
The East Wing of the White House has now been completely destroyed to pave way for Donald Trump’s $300m planned gilded ballroom, just days after the administration announced it would happen and contradicting Trump’s earlier promise that the existing building would not be touched.
Satellite images on Friday showed the historic building’s eastern section reduced to rubble, to the outrage of historians, former White House officials and much of the public.
The demolition marked a reversal of Trump’s earlier promise in July that none of the White House’s existing infrastructure would be torn down during construction of the ballroom.
Trump went ahead despite not first sending plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal agency that oversees construction and renovations to government buildings across the region.
On Thursday, a White House official told Reuters that construction plans “will be soon” submitted. A White House official also told the Guardian that “The National [Capital] Planning Commission does not require permits for demolition, only for vertical construction. Permits will be submitted to the NPC at the appropriate time.”
Earlier this week, however, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit established by Congress, sent a letter to the White House stating that the demolition plans are “legally required” to undergo public review.
A federal judge in Virginia has tentatively set a trial date in Letitia James’s bank fraud case for 26 January 2026.
Carney says Canada ‘stands ready’ to continue trade talks with US
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, said today that Canadian officials have been working with their American counterparts on “detailed, constructive negotiations” on “specific transactions, specific sectors, steel, aluminum and energy”.
Speaking to reporters before flying to Malaysia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, he added:
We stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions, because it will be for the benefit of workers in the United States, workers in Canada’s and families in both of our countries.
This, amid the Trump administration’s about-turn on trade discussions, after the release of a Canadian television advertisement that criticizes the president’s tariff policy.
Letitia James pleads not guilty to charges of bank fraud
New York attorney general Letitia James has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
She was arraigned at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, in the latest example of what has been described a retribution campaign by Donald Trump against many of his political adversaries.
