US President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Canada for the smoke from wildfires spreading across the United States and said the "incalculable cost" of fighting the pollution would be added to existing tariffs on Canadian goods, Reuters news agency reported today.
Thick smoke from hundreds of fires in Canada blanketed much of the United States, from the Midwest to the Northeast, on Thursday and Friday, prompting residents to be warned to stay indoors.
Trump, who has a conflicted relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, said he would call the Canadian leader to find out what he intended to do about the "completely unacceptable" situation.
"We hold Canada responsible for not properly maintaining its forests... and for the fact that the United States is needlessly flooded with dirty, polluted and unhealthy air. This is a conscious negligence that is becoming an annual occurrence and is costing the United States billions of dollars, which is why the cost of this pollution must necessarily be added to the TARIFFS that Canada is currently paying," Trump said in a post on the social network Truth Social.
Canada's Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience Eleanor Olszewski said that since 2020, the government has invested 12 billion Canadian dollars, or 8,56 billion US dollars, in forest sustainability and fire prevention, as the country faces increasingly drier and warmer weather conditions.
She also pointed to the long history of cooperation between the US and Canada in fighting wildfires on both sides of the border.
"At this time, our first priority is protecting Canadians and keeping communities safe," Olsevski said in a statement.
Climate experts say rising temperatures have led to drying out of forest vegetation and an increase in the number of fires in recent years in Canada, a country that is home to some of the largest forest areas in the world.
"As the climate warms, we are seeing more extreme weather events and there will be more fires," said Mike Flanigan, a professor of wildfires at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Reuters reported.
Shortly after taking office in 2025, Trump imposed tariffs on several key products imported from Canada.
Carney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's remarks. Carney said on Thursday that the United States could do more to combat climate change, which is leading to longer droughts and rising temperatures around the world.
The two are expected to meet on Sunday at the World Cup final in New Jersey.
Many of this year's fires have broken out in the vast province of Ontario, with most concentrated in the remote and sparsely populated northwest, where air travel is the only mode of transportation. So far, 650.000 acres, or 2.630 square kilometers, have burned, compared with 600.000 acres at the same time last year. Thousands of people have been evacuated.
"Nothing is left"
The settlement of the Namajgosisagagun First Nation, also known as the Collins First Nation, in northwestern Ontario was engulfed by fire, forcing residents to evacuate by boat and seek shelter in Thunder Bay, Matthew Hope, head of the community's crisis management team, told Reuters.
"There's nothing left. You can imagine the community members are completely broken, upset, overwhelmed with emotion and lost," Hop said.
Thunder Bay, a city of about 110.000 people on the north shore of Lake Superior, more than 1.300 kilometres northwest of Toronto, has filled all available capacity to house people evacuated by the fires from across northwestern Ontario, Mayor Ken Boshkoff told Reuters.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday that the province will purchase 11 new aircraft to help fight the fast-spreading wildfires, rejecting criticism from American politicians that efforts so far have not been enough.
The US is also experiencing an above-average wildfire season. So far in 2026, 3,7 million acres have burned, compared to the 10-year average of 2,7 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Trump says the US should host the World Cup again, but without Canada and Mexico
As the World Cup, hosted by North American countries, draws to a close, Trump expressed his desire for the United States to host the World Cup again in the near future, at a reception held in New York on Friday ahead of Sunday's final.
"You should re-elect the United States. This time we're going to leave out Canada and Mexico," Trump said at a reception at Trump Tower.
The USA hosted 78 of the 104 games at this year's World Cup, including all 12 matches from the quarterfinals onwards.
The 2038 World Cup is the next tournament to be held without a host. While a 12-year gap would historically be a short time for a country to host the World Cup again, FIFA has somewhat put itself in this situation with the way it allocated the hosts for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments.
The 2030 World Cup, which will mark the centenary of the competition, will be held on three continents — in Africa, namely Morocco; in Europe, where Spain and Portugal will host; and in South America, in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. The 2034 World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia, in Asia. Therefore, according to current FIFA hosting rules, North America and Oceania are the only continents that can organize the 2038 tournament.
Trump also revealed that FIFA President Gianni Infantino had suggested to him the possibility of the US and China jointly hosting the World Cup in the future.
Trump, who will attend Sunday's final between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, New Jersey, has become part of the story of this World Cup after, according to media reports, he contacted Infantino about the possibility of overturning the red card given to US striker Folarin Balogun in the victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 16.
Although FIFA, in a controversial decision, suspended the one-match ban and allowed Balogun to play, the Americans lost to Belgium 4-1 and again failed to advance to the quarterfinals.
"You made another great decision. You will never get credit for it," Trump told Infantino, referring to the decision regarding Balogun.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
