It’s taken more than 2,000 days of construction, $6.4 billion Canadian dollars and seemingly endless studies and permits to build the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Stretching 1.5 miles between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the towering cable-stayed span will offer an alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge at one of the busiest land borders in North America, providing a boost to international traffic and trade. And it wasn’t so long ago that President Donald Trump cheered it on.
Shortly after a meeting in 2017, the man who styled himself as “the builder president” issued a joint statement with Canada’s then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau celebrating their shared focus on infrastructure. “In particular,” they said, “we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”
A list of 50 priority projects for emergency and national security, developed as Trump embarked on his first term in office, included the toll bridge. When the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge aired a commercial aimed at Trump in 2018, in hopes that he’d torpedo the project competing with it for tolls, the president didn’t act. His Canadian ambassador lifted a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking.
And in 2019, Trump signed the spending bill that allotted the first U.S. funding for the project: $15 million for inspection and screening systems. (Canada paid for the bridge project in full. The tolls will go toward recouping that investment.)
But Trump’s second term has busted all sorts of presidential norms — including his own. He now takes a more antagonistic stance toward Canada, and his ambassador in Ottawa has followed his lead. No longer does Trump speak of “the opportunity to build even more bridges” with Canadians. Instead, he used an emergency declaration to hit the country with aggressive tariffs and repeatedly said it should become the “51st state.”
This week, without warning, Trump targeted the Gordie Howe bridge that’s named after a Canadian hockey player who is beloved in Detroit.
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.
How the bridge battle ends is unclear, but it once again puts Michigan — a swing state and co-owner of the bridge — at the center of Trump tactics that could hurt the state’s economy.
“Michigan is an automotive state,” said Brent Pilarski, business manager of the Michigan Laborers District Council, which oversees unions representing people who worked on the bridge and who work in auto facilities. Parts cross the border constantly, he said, and they “need to get there on time, or cars can’t be built.”
So far, support for Trump by top Republicans has shown no sign of cracking.
Asked at a press conference about the bridge, Mike Rogers — the Trump-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate — said, “Obviously, we’d like to see it open.” But, he said, commerce is still happening without it, and “I would like the president to have some leverage to stop thousands and thousands and thousands of Chinese-made cars from pouring over that bridge.”
Michigan state Sen. Jim Runestad, who chairs the Michigan Republican Party, said in a statement to ProPublica that “Canada has been playing dirty with our trade relationship for decades.”
“They won’t stock US liquor and have made it nearly impossible for our farmers to sell many of their products in Canada, all while they are cozying up to Chinese EVs,” Runestad said. “President Trump is standing for American workers and farmers and this is clearly the start to negotiations which will finally make trade with Canada fair for Americans.”
However, the state’s two U.S. senators, both Democrats, have pushed back.
“We’ve wanted this bridge for years because it will be a boon for our economy,” Sen. Gary Peters said in a statement. “This is another case of the president undermining Michigan businesses and workers.”
“Canceling this project will have serious repercussions,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin said in a statement. “Higher costs for Michigan businesses, less secure supply chains, and ultimately, fewer jobs. With this threat, the President is punishing Michiganders for a trade war he started.”
Rick Snyder, the Republican former governor who was instrumental in getting the bridge built, was also critical of Trump’s threat. The bridge, he wrote in a column, is “a great deal for America.”
If its opening is delayed or stopped, he added, the big winner will be the Ambassador Bridge company and its owner. “Every day, they make much more money at our expense.”
In his post, Trump suggested that the bridge is solely owned by Canada, though it’s jointly owned by Canada and the state of Michigan. And he blamed former President Barack Obama for allowing it to be built “with virtually no U.S. content,” though U.S. materials were in fact used.
The post echoed claims made in the 2018 ad from the company that owns the Ambassador Bridge, part of a furious decadeslong fight against the competing span. Hours before Trump posted on Feb. 9, according to The New York Times, the billionaire owner, Matthew Moroun, met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Lutnick then spoke with Trump by phone about the matter. Messages sent by ProPublica to emails linked to Moroun didn’t receive a response. The bridge company didn’t provide a comment.
Since opening in 1929, the Ambassador Bridge has been a vital link. But limited highway connections force trucks through traffic lights. And, as the 2022 Canadian convoy protest that blockaded the bridge demonstrated, a single corridor for commercial traffic is vulnerable. (The 95-year-old Detroit Windsor Tunnel is too small for today’s trucks.) Besides offering a modern and publicly owned option, the Gordie Howe bridge has direct highway interchanges on both sides of the border. It’s expected to open later this year.
The 2018 ad urged Trump to review the presidential permit, issued more than a decade ago, that allowed the Gordie Howe bridge to go forward. This week, the administration told reporters that Trump may now do so.
And, when asked this week how the bridge’s opening could be hindered, Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell noted that it needs staffing by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, at her confirmation hearing last year, assured Michigan’s senators that she wouldn’t neglect the new bridge. “Our focus is there to make sure that it is staffed appropriately,” Noem said.
DHS, the White House and the Commerce Department did not respond to ProPublica’s queries.
Following Trump’s threats, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that Trump asked for U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra to “play a role in smoothing the conversation in and around the bridge.” Hoekstra, a former U.S. representative from Michigan, has mirrored Trump’s hostile second-term approach toward Canada during his diplomatic posting.
Publicly, at least, he’s been silent on the bridge. And the embassy in Ottawa declined a request for comment.
