Ontario’s Ford warns US power could be cut as he trades insults with Trump

Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Monday threatened to cut the province’s power exports to the U.S. as a trade war with President Trump plays out publicly for a second time.

Ford told reporters “everything is on the table” when it comes to retaliatory measures against the White House in response to failed trade talks and heightened tariffs .

“We power 1.5 million homes and businesses. Everything’s on the table. I’ll do whatever it takes,” Ford said at a Monday press conference.

“You won’t get a grain of sand out of Ontario,” he added.

Ontario’s power grid connects directly across the border to Michigan, New York and Minnesota. Ford has previously threatened to cut power to U.S. states during the fallout of trade negotiations last year.

Ultimately, at that time, he met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and cooled tensions via bilateral talks.

However, pressures have resumed after Trump introduced a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods.

Ottawa had already said it would respond with retaliatory tariffs before Ford launched his energy threat and proposed pulling U.S. access to Canada’s critical minerals.

Trump responded to the potential actions on Truth Social and called Ford the “overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford,” Doug’s older brother who served on city council and as mayor of Toronto.

The president said Canada was facing “bad leadership” primarily from Prime Minister Mark Carney and “Flunky Ford.”

He urged the two to “fall in line,” to which Ford said , “kiss my a‑‑.”

Canadian opposition leader Pierre Poilievre is urging politicians to tread lightly with the Trump administration.

“As Canadians are vulnerable to an escalating trade war with the United States, Parliament must be reconvened. Canadians deserve answers on how trade talks collapsed, what tariffs will cost their families, and how their jobs will be protected,” Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party in the Canadian Parliament, said Monday in a post on the social platform X .