President Donald Trump broke off trade negotiations with Canada last week after Ontario's leader ran a controversial television ad which argued that former President Ronald Reagan opposed tariffs.

While left-wing news outlets have denounced Trump's claim that the ad's claim is "fake," others say the facts prove he is right. 

Mainstream media fact-check claims Reagan's words were "faithfully reproduced"

As Fox Business reported, the ad featured audio excerpts taken from the "Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade" Reagan gave on April 25, 1987.

A video clip of his full remarks is available on YouTube, and it shows Reagan talking about the potential risks that trade barriers carry before justifying his decision to impose tariffs on Japanese semiconductors.

A fact-check published by The New York Times found that the ad "faithfully reproduced" the former president's words despite not including the portion in which he announced new tariffs.

Yet according to Breitbart contributor John Carney, the advertisement creates a false impression that Reagan uniformly opposed tariffs by leaving out important information.

Regan put tariffs on motorcycles, cars, steel, textiles, and agricultural products

"Does Trump go further than Reagan did?" Carney wrote. "Yes. But that’s because he faces trade deficits and unfair-trade practices that dwarf anything imagined in Reagan’s time."

"The imbalances and barriers that looked anomalous and transitory in Reagan’s era—hiccups on the way to global free trade—have hardened into a beggar-thy-American-neighbor system," the writer maintained.

Carney later stressed that "[w]here Reagan used tariffs to discipline a few offenders, Trump uses them as a universal framework to rebalance a world economy that runs permanently on U.S. deficits."

In addition to tariffing Japanese semiconductors, Reagan imposed a tenfold increase in tariffs on imported heavy motorcycles, taking the rate from 4.4% to 49.4%.

What's more, Newsweek noted how at various times Reagan also raised tariffs on steel, automobiles, textiles, and agricultural products.

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute condemns ad

For its part, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute put out a social media post condemning the Ontario ad.

Listen to President Reagan's unedited remarks here: https://t.co/1gQUcbR4eZ pic.twitter.com/iqmjSuypp0

— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) October 24, 2025

"The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address, and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks," the post read.

"The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is reviewing its legal options in this matter. We encourage you to watch President Reagan's unedited video on our YouTube channel," it further declared.