Fact File: Ontario’s Reagan ad isn’t ‘fake,’ but what’s the context behind his words?

U.S. President Donald Trump ended trade talks with Canada on Thursday night over what he called a “fake” Ontario government advertisement featuring the words of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

The advertisement quotes a 1987 radio address from Reagan where he spoke about the negative impacts of tariffs.

The ad isn’t fake and quotes from Reagan directly; however, it does edit together different sections of the address.

While the advertisement did not include the context behind Reagan’s trade dealings with Japan that framed the speech, the clips it did include are Reagan’s authentic words in support of free trade.

THE CLAIM

U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended trade talks with Canada on Thursday night after he claimed an Ontario ad campaign featuring former U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s remarks on tariffs was a “fake.”

Posting to Truth Social, Trump shared a statement from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, which owns the former president’s likeness.

“The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute learned that the Government of Ontario, Canada, created an ad campaign using selective audio and video of President Ronald Reagan delivering his ‘Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade,’ dated April 25, 1987,” the foundation wrote.

It claimed the $75 million advertisement aimed at U.S. residents “misrepresents” Reagan’s radio address and said it is reviewing legal options because Ontario did not get permission to use or edit Reagan’s words.

THE FACTS

The government of Ontario launched the anti-tariff ad in the United States earlier this month with the aim of reaching Republican voters.

In the advertisement, which pulls from the 1987 radio speech, Reagan says high tariffs lead to retaliation from foreign countries, trade wars, businesses shutting down and job losses.

“The way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition,” Reagan says over scenes depicting American workers.

The advertisement isn’t a “fake” as Trump claims, but the quotes are spliced together from different sections of the original speech.

What viewers hear Reagan say in the advertisement are his real words, but the one minute video is a selection from the full five-minute speech.

In the speech, Reagan said he put duties on some Japanese products because of a trade dispute involving semiconductors.

That decision was a “special case” that he was “loath to take” because Japan violated a trade agreement, Reagan said.

The former president went on to say that trade protectionism contributed to the economic “suffering” experienced during the Great Depression in the 1930s, citing the Smoot-Hawley tariff as an example.

The rest of his speech warned against broad protectionism and its potential negative economic impacts on American workers and the economy, including the business closings and job losses referred to in the Ontario ad.

Reagan ended the speech by warning that protectionist legislation proposed by the U.S. Congress could impede his trade dealings with other countries and affect his coming meeting with the Japanese prime minister amid their dispute.

Neither Trump nor Reagan’s foundation specified how the Ontario advertisement misrepresented Reagan’s remarks.

While the advertisement did not include the context behind Reagan’s trade dealings with Japan from the speech, the clips it did include are Reagan’s authentic words in support of free trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2025.

Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press