(October 25, 2025 at 8:24 pm)Angrboda Wrote:Quote: One of President Donald Trump’s superpowers as a politician is getting entities and people who might disagree with what he’s doing to set aside their principles and priors just enough to allow him to plow forward. It happens all the time with Republicans in Congress, who have willingly relegated themselves to second-class citizens in Washington.
They don’t necessarily endorse what he’s doing, mind you. But they do acquiesce. And sometimes they even do Trump a solid by steering the focus towards a common enemy. Think: Trump’s legally dubious deportation policies, the draconian and rushed DOGE cuts, his pardons of violent January 6 defendants, and his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
But rarely have we seen this dynamic play out like late this week – when the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute effectively distanced itself from Ronald Reagan’s own words.
Shortly before 9 p.m. ET on Thursday, the Reagan foundation issued a somewhat bizarre statement.
The government of Ontario, Canada, had recently launched an extensive ad campaign against Trump’s tariffs. The campaign includes a minutelong ad featuring only Reagan’s voice being run during World Series games. It clipped a number of comments from an April 1987 address Reagan gave decrying the dangers of tariffs and trade wars.
The Reagan foundation’s statement accused Ontario of using “selective audio and video” of Reagan and said it “misrepresents” the former president’s address.
As remarkable, the foundation said it was “reviewing its legal options” because Ontario didn’t seek or obtain permission to use Reagan’s remarks.
Neither of these objections really hold water.
While the ad stitched together a number of comments from Reagan’s address, it accurately reflected what he said. The sentiments were also very similar to Reagan’s other comments on tariffs and free trade in this time period. He sometimes used tariffs, but he generally pitched them as a necessary evil and cautioned strongly against trade wars and protectionism.
Reagan’s sentiments on this topic are a world away from the commentary of Trump, who has pitched tariffs as “beautiful,” trade wars as being “good” and “easy to win,” and such policies as being vital to revitalizing American manufacturing.
The foundation has not responded to a question about what, specifically, it alleges was misrepresented in the ad.
As for the suggestion that there could be some legal claim here? It’s not at all clear what that’s based on, either.
Government footage of presidents is generally public domain. The Ontario ad cites the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as its source. The library uploaded the clip of Reagan’s April 1987 address to YouTube eight years ago and listed its access and use as “unrestricted.”
The foundation likewise didn’t respond to a request for insight into its legal considerations.
The Reagan foundation did Trump a solid on tariffs – at the expense of Reagan’s ideals
They've got to be terrified after the museum and educational defunding.
