Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised in an interview with a local radio station in Ottawa “to throw everything in the kitchen sink at” at the Trump administration, calling the U.S. president “arrogant,” “cocky” and a “bully.”
Trump can “kiss my a–,” Ford added.
That prompted a follow-up post from the president on Truth Social Monday afternoon, in which he dismissed Ford as “less charismatic, intelligent and overall unimpressive” compared to his late brother Rob Ford — who served as Toronto mayor from 2010 to 2014.
“Someone should get these clowns to ‘fall in line’ or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE!” Trump wrote.
Ford wasn’t the only Canadian premier to call for resolve in the face of higher U.S. tariffs. British Columbia Premier David Eby also denounced the duties, saying in an interview Monday on CNN News Central that “Canada has to hit back” and that the policies are “going to hurt” Americans.
Eby also said that Canada hopes other countries “follow along” in pushing back on Trump.
On the other side of the border, Trump’s intensifying trade war with Canada drew criticism from at least one member of his own party.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins — who’s in the middle of a high-stakes Senate race in Maine — called the president’s decision to impose the new tariffs “a mistake,” saying she met recently with the Canadian ambassador and urged him to focus on Ottawa’s barriers to U.S. dairy products.
“We produce a lot of meat, our blueberries, our potatoes, our lobster, our lumber, that is processed across the border,” Collins told reporters Monday at an annual parade in her home state. “If it comes back with a huge tariff on it, perhaps as much as 50 percent, that increases the cost of heating, building homes, and merchants eating our best-known products.”
In a social media post over the weekend, the veteran Republican lawmaker urged “both sides to return to the negotiating table,” noting the “on-again/off-again” talks between the two North American neighbors lead to “higher costs, risk, and uncertainty for Maine businesses.”
