Ontario Premier Doug Ford told U.S. President Donald Trump he can “kiss my ass” on Monday, capping a day of escalating personal and economic threats between the two leaders after the collapse of Canada-U.S. trade talks over the weekend.
The exchange began Monday morning when Trump threatened to hit Canada with new 50 per cent tariffs on autos, auto parts and steel starting in January, on top of the 50 per cent tariffs on roughly $28 billion worth of Canadian goods, including liquor, dairy, cement, honey, hockey sticks and some wood products, that took effect early Saturday after talks broke down.
Trump also went after Ford personally on social media, calling him “Flunky Ford”, a supposed subordinate of Prime Minister Mark Carney, and describing him as a “less charismatic, intelligent” version of his late brother, former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, according to reporting from Mediaite and CBC News.
Ford, who has positioned himself as one of the most combative provincial voices in the trade dispute, did not back down. Speaking to Toronto radio station Newstalk 1010, he said Trump could “kiss my ass”, then doubled down on the comment at a news conference later Monday, according to CBC News and CTV News. Ford also called Trump a “loser” and told him to “bring it on”, and said Ontario “aren’t going to kiss his backside” as the U.S. president expanded steel and aluminum tariffs, according to Global News.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has so far tried to keep some distance from the personal insults while pursuing a formal response, confirmed Monday that Canada’s dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs will take effect Sept. 8. That timeline gives Ottawa roughly two weeks to finalize the list of American goods that will be targeted, a decision that will land squarely on industries and border states that rely on Canadian trade.
The renewed hostility follows a summer of deteriorating relations. Trade talks between Ottawa and Washington collapsed over the weekend, triggering the 50 per cent tariffs on $28 billion in Canadian exports that took effect Saturday. Canada’s economy was already in a technical recession before this latest round, with Statistics Canada confirming contractions in the fourth quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026, a slowdown economists have partly attributed to tariff uncertainty.
Ford has been publicly clashing with Trump for months, including over a widely covered ad campaign that used footage of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs, which Trump called a “fraud.” Monday’s exchange marks a sharp escalation in tone, with both leaders trading direct personal insults rather than sticking to policy criticism.
What happens next depends largely on whether Ottawa’s Sept. 8 retaliation list changes the calculus in Washington, or whether it triggers another round of tariff increases from Trump, who has already floated pushing auto and steel tariffs to 50 per cent in January. For now, neither side is showing signs of backing down.
This story draws on reporting from CBC News, CTV News, CP24 and Global News.
