Ontario Premier Doug Ford says that it is time to turn down the temperature after “things got a little heated” and a “little personal” with U.S. President Donald Trump one day prior. Ford made the comment during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, noting that it is “time to get back to the table” and negotiate “a fair deal” to end the trade war with the U.S. The more conciliatory tone from Ford came one day after he called Trump a “loser,” a “dictator” and the “king of bankruptcies” during a press conference in Hamilton. Trump, for his part, called Ford the “the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford” in a post on Truth Social. That post was made after an earlier interview with The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll in Ottawa in which Ford said that Trump could “kiss my ass.” “I think so. Things got a little heated, it got a littler personal yesterday between the president and myself but I want to make a deal, a good deal for the American people and a good deal for the Canadians,” Ford said when asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer whether it was time to turn down the temperature in his war of words with Trump. “It’s time to get back to the table and let’s negotiate a fair deal because it is hurting the U.S., it is hurting Canada.” Ford is scheduled to make a number of appearances on U.S. television networks on Tuesday. In his appearance on CNN, Ford called Trump’s threats to stop doing business with Ontario “a lot of rhetoric,” noting that the province is America’s third largest trading partner globally. “What’s happening now is we are seeing a decrease in Canadians buying American vehicles,” he said. “That is going to hurt the American people.” Ford’s personal attacks directed at Trump on Monday came after he was asked to respond to Trump’s Truth Social post, in which the U.S. President referred to Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Ontario premier as “Governor Carney and his flunky, Ford. Trump appeared to set his eyes on Ontario again on Tuesday morning, saying in another Truth Social post that the U.S. was “giving serious consideration” to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America since “we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer.” Ford did not comment on that threat during his interview with CNN but did say that “Canada has to stand up for its sovereignty.” “I do not understand why he wants to attack Canada non-stop. We are their closest friends and allies,” he said. “And make no mistake about it: Canadians still love the American people, they love the U.S. They don’t see eye-to-eye with the president by any means but they love the American people and I do as well.” Ford’s CNN appearance on Tuesday came ahead of a news conference where federal officials detailed counter tariffs on700 different American products. Federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne was asked during that press conference whether anyone in the federal government asked Ford to tone down his rhetoric. However, he told reporters that he has learned “not to comment on every remark that is being made on either side of the border.” “My job, our job here this morning is to fight for Canada, is to fight for workers, is to fight for industries, is to bring the support to make sure we give them a bridge when we have more stability in our economy and certainty in specific sectors affected by the U.S. tariffs,” he said. “That is what Canadians are expecting from us.”
