U.S. President Donald Trump moved to pressure Canada, saying he could block the opening of a new bridge linking the United States and Canada.
On the 9th (local time), Trump said on his social media, Truth Social, that "until the United States is compensated for everything it has provided to Canada and Canada treats the United States with fairness and respect, I will not allow the opening in the second half of the year of the 'Gordie Howe International Bridge.'"
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is a bridge connecting Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and Detroit, Michigan, in the United States. Construction has been underway since 2018 at a cost of $4.7 billion (about 7 trillion won), and it had been slated to open in the second half of this year.
In the post, Trump said "Canada owns the asset on both the Canadian and U.S. sides of the bridge, and there was virtually no use of American-made materials in the bridge's construction," criticizing that "it's because former President Barack Obama granted Canada an exception to the Buy American law."
He added, "I will begin negotiations (with Canada) immediately," and argued, "given what we provided, we should probably own at least half of this asset."
On the improvement of relations between Canada and China, he expressed open wariness. He claimed that China would eliminate all ice hockey games held in Canada and also scrap the North American National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup.
Trump's view is that Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada wants to reach an agreement with China, but China will devour Canada whole.
In response, after a call with Trump on the morning of the 10th, Prime Minister Carney said, "Things will be resolved well," adding that "Canada paid more than 4 billion Canadian dollars in bridge construction expenses, and the state of Michigan and the Canadian government share ownership."
Earlier, White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing the same day that "President Trump believes the United States should own at least half of the bridge, share authority over crossing the bridge, and share in the economic benefits generated by the bridge."