The billionaire owner of a bridge connecting Michigan with Canada met Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, on Monday hours before President Trump lambasted a competing span, in the latest flashpoint in the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Canada.
After that meeting Mr. Lutnick spoke with Mr. Trump by phone about the matter, the officials said.
Shortly afterward, Mr. Trump threatened to block the planned opening of a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, which would take away toll revenue from Mr. Moroun’s crossing, if Canadian officials did not address a long list of grievances.
The Moroun family has for decades mounted legal challenges to block or delay the competing project, known as Gordie Howe International Bridge. One of the challenges reached the Canadian Supreme Court, while the family has also lobbied extensively against it.
A spokesman for the Commerce Department declined to comment on the meeting with Mr. Lutnick. A representative for Mr. Moroun’s company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new bridge was fully paid for by Canada but is owned in part by Michigan, and is expected to ease congestion in the busiest trade corridor between the United States and Canada.
Mr. Trump’s latest salvo comes at a particularly fraught moment in the relationship between the two allies and top trading partners. Since Mr. Trump’s election, he has menaced Canada, questioning its sovereignty and leveling tariffs on some of its key industries including steel, lumber and automobiles.
The two countries — along with Mexico — are expected to review their comprehensive, longstanding free-trade agreement this year. Those talks are expected to be strained given Mr. Trump’s punishing use of tariffs.
“The fact that Canada will control what crosses the Gordie Howe bridge, and owns the land on both sides, is unacceptable to the president,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s also unacceptable that more of this bridge isn’t being built with more American-made materials.”
She added: “This is just another example of President Trump putting America’s interest first.”
In a rambling social media post on Monday evening, Mr. Trump threatened to stop the bridge from its scheduled opening later this year, saying that he wants to punish Canada for exploiting the United States and for reviving its trade relationship with China, among other purported transgressions.
It was not immediately clear how Mr. Trump would block the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which remains under construction.
The new crossing, which cost $4.7 billion, was paid for by Canada and is to be operated jointly by Canada and Michigan under a public-private arrangement.
The Moroun family had previously called on Mr. Trump to halt the construction of bridge — which, once opened, would compete with the Ambassador Bridge for the more than $300 million in daily cross-border trade.
Mr. Trump on Monday suggested in a post that the United States might seek to acquire “at least one half” of the new bridge and take a cut of the tolls.
In his first term, Mr. Trump had promoted the Gordie Howe Bridge in a joint statement with Canadian officials as a symbol of the countries’ deep ties and as “a vital economic link between our two countries.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada said he had a call with Mr. Trump on Tuesday and explained that Canada paid for the bridge, though it will share ownership with Michigan.
“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries,” Mr. Carney told reporters. “I look forward to it opening.”
Canada is Michigan’s largest export market and Democrats assailed Mr. Trump’s bombast.
“The billionaires scored again,” Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, said in an interview. “Donald Trump won Michigan. Why is he going to screw the working people who voted for him?”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Carney had enjoyed a stable, amicable relationship despite the lack of progress in the two nations’ trade relationship. But that changed after Mr. Carney delivered a high-profile speech last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos that irked Mr. Trump.
Mr. Carney described the end of the U.S.-led world order as an irreversible “rupture,” and called on middle powers such as Canada to band together in order to defend their interests and survive the turmoil that has come with Mr. Trump’s second term. Despite not once mentioning Mr. Trump or the United States by name, the speech was widely interpreted as a rebuke of the U.S. president.
Mr. Trump reacted sharply.
“Canada gets a lot of freebies from us,” Mr. Trump said the day after Mr. Carney’s speech in Davos. “By the way, they should be grateful also, but they’re not.”
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Canada bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the country.
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