When I first saw President Donald Trump’s recent social media comment against the soon-to-open Gordie Howe International Bridge, my first reaction was disbelief. My second was frustration.
I am hardly a Never Trumper. In fact, I voted for Trump thrice. But enough is enough. Attacking a vital piece of infrastructure that maintains critical economic ties with Canada is not just bad policy. It is profoundly out of step with the interests of my home state of Michigan and, frankly, the country.
Canada is the United States’s largest and most important trading partner. Every day, billions of dollars in goods cross the northern border. Much of that trade comes through Michigan, particularly the Detroit-Windsor, Ontario, corridor.
For Michigan, this relationship is not abstract. It is personal.
Countless Michiganders have family, friends, business, and sports ties across the border in Ontario. The history runs deeper still: the first elections in what became Michigan were conducted for what is today the Ontario provincial legislature, a reminder that our region developed together long before the modern boundary hardened.
I know this firsthand. I lived in Canada during a short-lived hockey career. I have spent more hours than I can count crossing the border. Anyone who has experienced the Detroit-Windsor crossing understands how essential it is — not only for commerce but for the daily rhythm of life. The same is true in Port Huron with the Blue Water Bridge over the St. Clair River and in Sault Ste. Marie, where the aptly named International Bridge spans the St. Marys River. These border crossings sustain a flow of goods and workers.
My own views on the Gordie Howe International Bridge have evolved. I remember attending and writing about the 2013 event at the family business of now-Republican gubernatorial candidate John James with then-Gov. Rick Snyder and Lisa Raitt, who, at the time, served in the Cabinet of then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
At the time, I was skeptical of the bridge. I had real concerns about the too-cute-by-half way it came about, which effectively sidestepped the Michigan Legislature. I would have preferred a privately financed solution, most likely from the Moroun family, owners of the Ambassador Bridge.
Those were legitimate debates about private enterprise, governance, financing, and precedent. But that fight ended long ago. The agreements were signed, the financing was secured, and the bridge is now built.
Anyone who has sat in a backed-up line of trucks at the Ambassador Bridge or Detroit-Windsor Tunnel knows the cost of delay. Modern manufacturing depends on just-in-time delivery.
There is also a broader strategic dimension. The U.S. has many allies, but none like Canada. Our respective markets are so intertwined that when one economy sneezes, the other catches a cold.
While there are fair complaints about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of the big-“L” Liberal Party, the reality is that Ottawa would look very different today had Trump not launched a totally unnecessary fight with the closest U.S. ally during the earliest days of his second term. Until that intervention, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre was leading in the polls ahead of last year’s Canadian election. Had he won, there would be a more American-friendly, big-“C” Conservative prime minister leading His Majesty’s Government.
Unnecessary quarrels will hurt America and Americans the next time we find ourselves in a situation that requires the help of friends.
Politically speaking, what is Trump doing?
He arguably would not be president without Michigan, which he carried in 2016 and 2024. Michigan has a competitive open-seat Senate race with Trump-endorsed Mike Rogers as the presumptive Republican nominee. James, a congressman from Macomb County, which statewide Republican candidates must win by significant margins to carry the Wolverine State, is leading a field of several viable GOP candidates to replace term-limited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI). Does Trump want another Democrat in the Senate and another four years of a Democratic governor?
The party of Abraham Lincoln built the transcontinental railroad. The party of Dwight Eisenhower built the interstate highway system. Infrastructure that facilitates commerce was once seen not as a partisan issue but as a core function of government in a modern economy.
TRUMP FORBIDS CANADA FROM OPENING BRIDGE
The Gordie Howe International Bridge is built, whether critics like it or not. Trucks will roll. Commuters will cross. Trade will, hopefully, expand. The bridge will quietly do what great infrastructure has always done: make life better and economies stronger.
That is something worth supporting.
Dennis Lennox is a political commentator and public affairs consultant from Michigan. Follow @dennislennox on X.