PoliticsAs Canadian officials scramble to find clarity on Donald Trump’s social media post announcing a 10 per cent hike to what he called “the Tariff on Canada,” the U.S. president himself appears to be thin on the details.U.S. president also says he doesn’t want to meet with Prime Minister Mark CarneyMike Crawley · CBC News · Posted: Oct 27, 2025 8:47 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesU.S. President Donald Trump is flanked by, from left, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo on Monday. (Mark Schiefelbein/The Associated Press)As Canadian officials scramble to find clarity on Donald Trump’s social media post announcing a 10 per cent increase to what he called “the Tariff on Canada,” the U.S. president himself appears to be thin on the details. Nearly two days after posting to social media the words “I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now,” Trump has yet to say which of the various tariffs on Canadian exports to the U.S. will be hit, nor has his administration given Canada official notice of any tariff hike. Aboard Air Force One on Monday, a reporter asked Trump when he expects the tariff increase to take effect. “I don’t know when it’s going to kick in, and we’ll see, but I don’t really want to discuss it,” Trump said. He did, however, discuss at some length the Ontario government advertisement that ostensibly triggered him to call off trade talks with Canada and then announce the tariff hike. Much of what Trump had to say Monday about the ad — which uses excerpts from then-president Ronald Reagan’s 1987 radio address on free trade — was false.WATCH | Mark Carney responds to Trump’s latest trade moves against Canada:Carney asked about Trump’s reasoning for cutting off trade talksPrime Minister Mark Carney, speaking from Malaysia on Monday, was asked about his reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to cut off trade talks with Canada over an anti-tariff ad released by the Ontario government — and whether he thinks there may have been other factors involved.Trump repeated his claim that the ad was “fake” and that it fraudulently manipulated Reagan’s views on tariffs, despite plenty of evidence the late Republican president was strongly against tariffs on economic allies such as Canada. Reagan “liked tariffs, and [the Ontario government] totally changed that to say that he didn’t, because they’re catering to the Supreme Court,” Trump said. Supreme Court tariffs hearing loomsThe U.S. Supreme Court is poised to hear oral arguments on Nov. 5 in a case that Trump has called the most important in the court’s history. It’s his administration’s appeal of a ruling that Trump overstepped his constitutional authority in imposing broad-based tariffs on Canada, Mexico and dozens of other countries over fentanyl trafficking, illegal immigration and trade deficits. Trump brushed off a question about why he’s punishing Canada for an ad by a provincial government. “Whether it’s provincial or Canada itself, they all knew exactly what the ad was. The prime minister knew. Everybody knew,” Trump said. “Canada has been ripping us off for a long time,” he added. “As much as I love Canada itself and the people of Canada, they’ve just had a lot of bad representatives.” WATCH | On Air Force One, Trump speaks about Canada, Carney and that Ontario ad:Trump says he won’t be meeting Carney ‘for a while’U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One on Monday, again took issue with the Ontario government’s anti-tariff ad featuring former president Ronald Reagan. He called Canada a ‘difficult’ country to deal with on trade, and said he doesn’t expect to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney at an upcoming summit.Asked if he’ll meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney, as both are headed to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea this week, Trump was dismissive. “I don’t want to meet with him. I’m not going to be meeting with him for a while now. I’m very happy with the deal we have right now with Canada, and we’re going to let it run,” Trump said. Trump did not clarify which deal he was referring to.Trump says he’s hiking ‘Tariff on Canada’ by 10% over Ontario government adCarney says he’s not spoken to Trump since trade talks scuttledSenior members of his administration were in the midst of negotiating with Canadian officials a potential deal for tariff relief on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. when Trump called off the talks.There’s some indication from the White House that the ad is not the only reason for Trump’s moves to ramp up his trade war against Canada.The only statement from the White House on this topic since Trump abruptly terminated trade talks called the ad “the latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the administration.”WATCH | What this Democratic senator had to say about Trump’s response to the ad:Trump’s ‘temper tantrum’ is ‘embarrassing,’ says U.S. Democratic senatorDescription: In a CBC exclusive interview, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine told chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton that President Trump’s decision to end trade talks with Canada over the Ontario government’s anti-tariff ad won’t last, calling it a ‘little temper tantrum’ that will blow over.Trump’s decision to cancel the talks “reveals his frustration with the actions and postures of the Canadians through months of negotiations,” Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House on Friday.”The Canadians have been very difficult to negotiate with,” Hassett said.On the CBS program Face the Nation on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the ad “interference in U.S. sovereign matters” and described it as “propaganda coming across our border to decry the tariffs.” Bessent was asked both on Face the Nation and the NBC program Meet the Press for specifics on which Canadian exports will face the 10 per cent tariff hike, and did not answer the questions directly. “Does the president know if the tariffs will apply to all Canadian goods?” asked Meet the Press anchor Kristen Welker. “I’m sure he knows,” Bessent replied. ABOUT THE AUTHORMike Crawley is a correspondent for CBC News, based in Washington. He began his career as a newspaper reporter in B.C., spent six years as a freelance journalist in various parts of Africa, then joined the CBC in 2005. Mike reported on Ontario politics for 15 years. He was born and raised in Saint John, N.B.Follow Mike Crawley on Twitter
When will Trump’s tariff increase hit Canada? Not even he knows
