Trump's threat to Canada came hours after backroom meeting with billionaire competitor

A Detroit billionaire who owns a major U.S.-Canada border crossing met privately with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick just hours before Donald Trump publicly threatened to block the opening of a competing international bridge, according to a report from The New York Times.

Matthew Moroun, whose family has long controlled the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, met with Lutnick in Washington on Monday, two officials briefed on the meeting told the Times. The officials said Lutnick later spoke by phone with Trump about the matter.

Not long after, the MAGA leader took to his Truth Social platform to rail against the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, which he threatened to block unless Canada addressed “a long list of grievances,” the Times reported Tuesday.

The family has spent decades trying to block the publicly backed international bridge through litigation and lobbying efforts, and “had previously called on Mr. Trump to halt the construction of bridge — which, once opened, would compete with the Ambassador Bridge for the more than $300 million in daily cross-border trade,” according to the report.

One legal challenge reached Canada’s Supreme Court, and the family has repeatedly urged U.S. officials to intervene against the bridge, the outlet stated. The $4.7 billion Gordie Howe bridge is fully paid for by Canada and will be jointly operated by Canada and the state of Michigan.

“Mr. Trump’s latest salvo comes at a particularly fraught moment in the relationship between the two allies and top trading partners,” the Times said. “Since Mr. Trump’s election, he has menaced Canada, questioning its sovereignty and leveling tariffs on some of its key industries including steel, lumber and automobiles.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt framed Trump’s involvement in the escalating bridge debate as “just another example of President Trump putting America’s interest first.”

“The fact that Canada will control what crosses the Gordie Howe bridge, and owns the land on both sides, is unacceptable to the president,” Leavitt said to reporters on Tuesday. “It’s also unacceptable that more of this bridge isn’t being built with more American-made materials.”