U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to stall the opening of the new border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Ont., is “just insane,” said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens.
In wide-ranging post on Truth Social Monday, Trump complained that Canada has treated the United States unfairly and says he will not allow the bridge to open until “the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.”
“With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset,” Trump wrote.
Dilkens said he believes the bridge will open and “[this] is just another speed bump that Donald Trump has put in the way of doing good things, not just for our country but for his as well,” Dilkens told CBC.
“It’s just insane, when I read that post I can’t believe what I’m reading, but it’s par for the course,” Dilkens said.
“Under normal times … building a span that links two nations like the United States and Canada would be a monumental moment where a prime minister would meet a president in the middle, they would shake hands and they would celebrate the victory for two nations. Unfortunately Donald Trump created an environment where I don’t think that is going to happen in the near term.”
Former Liberal MP for Windsor-Tecumseh Irek Kusmierczyk said on social media Monday night workers from both countries built the bridge for “shared prosperity.”
“Threatening to block it puts politics ahead of workers and families on both sides of the border.,” he wrote.
Stephen Hargreaves is the director of the Sandwich Town BIA, where the bridge is located.
“It was a surprise to read that this evening,” he said, noting it’s a federal issue. “But we hope to see this resolved as we’d like to see the impact of the Gordie Howe International Bridge positively impact our community.”
The Gordie Howe International Bridge has been entirely paid for by the Canadian federal government and costs will be recovered through tolls when the bridge opens.
The project is a public-private partnership between the Windsor Detroit Bridge Authority, a Canadian Crown corporation, and Bridging North America, the private-sector partner that includes a handful of companies responsible for the design, building, operation and maintenance of the bridge and both ports of entry.
In 2024, the cost of the bridge had risen to $6.4 billion. It was first expected to open in fall 2025, after delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but is now expected to open in the coming months. Earlier this month, bridge officials declined to comment on the bridge’s potential opening date.
It will be the third border crossing between the two cities, joining the Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel.
The new bridge has been the focus of a decade-long legal battle between the American owners of the existing Ambassador Bridge and the federal government.
The owners of the Ambassador Bridge, the Moroun family of Detroit, wants compensation for what they claim is the new bridge’s infringement on their exclusive right to collect tolls.
The Moroun family appealed to Trump during his first term as president to stop the new crossing. However, Trump endorsed the bridge as a priority project in 2017, issuing a joint statement with then-prime minister Justin Trudeau calling it a “vital economic link between our two countries.”
