Trump angers Canada over wildfire smoke and threatens to raise tariffs
Smoke from massive wildfires in Canada engulfs the New York City skyline, reducing visibility and casting an orange haze over the city, July 16, 2026.
Selcuk Acar | Anadolu | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Friday criticized Canada over wildfires that blanketed swathes of the United States in a smoky haze and said he would add the cost of that pollution to existing tariffs.
Trump called the situation “totally unacceptable” and accused Ottawa of failing to address the causes of the fires in Canada, whose smoke has pushed air quality in major U.S. cities to dangerous levels in recent days.
The billions of dollars in costs to the U.S. from air pollution “will inevitably have to be added to the tariffs that Canada is currently paying,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“We hold Canada responsible for failing to properly care for its forests and the undergrowth within them, and for needlessly ravaging the United States with dirty, polluted and unhealthy air,” Trump wrote.
He said he planned to call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney later Friday “to find out what they’re going to do about it.”
Carney said in an X post Wednesday that wildfires have “escalated significantly” in recent weeks, particularly in northwestern Ontario, where thousands of people have been forced to evacuate.
The poor conditions have raised questions about the potential impact on the FIFA World Cup final, scheduled to take place in northeastern New Jersey on Sunday. Trump, who is scheduled to attend the game between Spain and Argentina, traveled to New York City on Friday to attend a FIFA reception at Trump Tower.
Scientists have warned that human-influenced climate change is leading to more wildfires and other extreme weather events.
Shortly after Trump posted about Canada on Truth Social, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration had taken steps in recent months to dismantle government labs that research wildfire smoke and its effects.
Lee Zeldin, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Friday that “the impacts of the Canadian wildfires are causing great concern and damage in the United States.”
The EPA is in contact with Canadian leaders and will “strongly encourage them to do everything in their power to extinguish these fires as quickly as possible,” Zeldin wrote in a post on X.
The post also directed Americans to visit AirNow’s fire and smoke map for the latest information.
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