AFP via Getty ImagesCarney said he also reminded the president that it was built by US and Canadian workers and with steel from both countries.
“This is a great example of cooperation between our countries and I look forward to it opening,” he told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
He said that Trump asked that the US ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, who is from Michigan, “play a role in smoothing the conversation in and around the bridge”.
Speaking to reporters at the White House hours after the call, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump viewed Canadian ownership of land on both sides of the bridge as “unacceptable”.
“He [Trump] also believes that that US should own at least half of the bridge, have shared authority over what passes across it and participate in the economic benefits generated by US use,” she added.
It is not clear how Trump could block its opening but he said in his initial post that negotiations would begin immediately, without elaborating.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he was glad to hear about the Trump-Carney call, adding he was “confident” the bridge would open as planned as it was in the best interests of the economies of both countries.
On Monday, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, said closing the “incredibly important infrastructure project” would be “awful for our state’s economy”.
The move could have “serious repercussions” she said in a post on X: “Higher costs for Michigan businesses, less secure supply chains, and ultimately, fewer jobs.”
The bridge, which spans the Detroit River and is named after late Canadian hockey legend Gordie Howe, who played for the Detroit Red Wings, is expected to open to traffic pending formal tests and approvals in the early part of this year.
Construction began in 2018, but the project has been a point of contention between the countries for more than a decade.
It is estimated to have cost $6.4bn CAD (£3.4bn).
The organisation developing the bridge, the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, is a Canadian federal Crown corporation, an organisation that is wholly owned by the government but operates at arm’s length.
In his Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “The Canadian Government expects me, as President of the United States, to PERMIT them to just ‘take advantage of America!'”
“I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them,” he added.
He also blamed former President Barack Obama for allowing construction to begin without the use of any US steel.
But Mayor Drew Dilkens of Windsor, Ontario, on the Canadian side of the bridge, told the CBC that this accusation was wrong.
“It’s just insane,” he said. “I really can’t believe what I’m reading.”
On Fox Business on Tuesday, Jamieson Greer, Trump’s trade chief, said the negotiations the president mentioned in his social media post were specific to the bridge, and making sure that proceeds from economic activity like tolls also went to the US.
The Moroun family – the American owners of the neighbouring Ambassador Bridge that also connects Detroit to Canada – appealed to Trump during his first term to stop construction of the new bridge, arguing that it infringed on their exclusive ability to collect tolls.
In response, Trump and then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a joint statement saying the bridge was a “vital economic link” between the countries.
Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer pushed back on Trump’s threat to close the bridge, saying it was good for jobs in her state.
“This project has been a tremendous example of bipartisan and international cooperation,” Whitmer’s press secretary Stacey LaRouche told the CBC.
Trump on Monday pointed to recent trade disputes between the two countries, saying that “the Tariffs Canada charges us for our Dairy products have, for many years, been unacceptable”.
He also said that a trade deal signed between Canada and China last month would “eat Canada alive”.
Trump continued: “The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.”
But Slotkin hit back at this, saying the only reason Canada was on the verge of a trade deal with China was because Trump “has kicked them in the teeth for a year”.
Canada is our friend, not our enemy, she added, promising to work to get the project back on track.
