An ad featuring Ronald Reagan is about to crash the World Series broadcast this weekend, and it’s already set off a political firestorm stretching from Washington to Ottawa.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford confirmed Friday that the now-infamous anti-tariffs ad, the same one that sent President Trump into a full-blown rage and derailed trade talks between the U.S. and Canada, will air during the first two games of the MLB World Series before being paused Monday.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in a post on X. “We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.”
Translation: mission accomplished — maybe too accomplished.
Ford added that, after discussions with Prime Minister Mark Carney, “Ontario will pause its U.S. advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume.” But not before the message lands in front of tens of millions of baseball fans as the Toronto Blue Jays host the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first two games of the series.
The ad itself is simple but sharp — and clearly effective. It splices together pieces of a Reagan speech from April 1987 about tariffs on Japan.
“When someone says ‘let’s impose tariffs on foreign imports,’ it looks like they’re doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs,” Reagan says at the start. “And sometimes for a short while it works — but only for a short time.”
Then comes the kicker: “That over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.”
For anyone paying attention, it’s a direct hit on Trump’s economic nationalism — and apparently, it struck a nerve.
Shortly after the ad started circulating online, Trump blew up on Truth Social, abruptly calling off trade negotiations and accusing Canada of trying to “illegally influence” a Supreme Court case involving his tariffs.
“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” Trump posted Friday morning. “They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.”
That post came just hours after the president had already pulled the plug on talks, effectively freezing relations over what amounts to a 30-second flashback from the Gipper.
The irony? Reagan’s actual words — the ones Ford used — are straight from the record. And they cut directly against Trump’s trade crusade.
Trump’s latest tariff wave, announced in late July, slaps a 35 percent tax on all Canadian goods not protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It’s already rattled markets and strained relations between the two countries.
Now, the ghost of Reagan — America’s conservative icon — is being used by a Canadian premier to question the modern Republican approach to trade. And Trump, predictably, can’t stand it.
Watch the ad and Trump’s reaction below:
After Trump’s morning meltdown over the Ronald Reagan ad criticizing tariffs, Ontario Premier Doug Ford just announced the same commercial will air during Game 1 of the World Series; to millions of viewers.
😂🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/jUHSMTnlTz
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) October 24, 2025
