Less than one month before meeting with a top administration official to lobby against a new bridge connecting Michigan with Canada, the billionaire owner of an existing bridge donated $1 million to a super PAC devoted to President Trump.
Matthew Moroun, a Detroit-based trucking magnate whose family has operated the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, for decades, made the donation to MAGA Inc. on Jan. 16, according to a campaign finance report filed on Friday evening.
On Feb. 9, Mr. Moroun met in Washington with Howard Lutnick, the secretary of commerce, who called Mr. Trump after the meeting, The New York Times reported. Hours after the meeting, Mr. Trump lambasted the competing span.
Spokesmen for the White House and MAGA Inc. dismissed suggestions of any connection between the donation and Mr. Trump’s stance.
Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for MAGA Inc., said in a statement: “Donations to MAGA Inc. have no bearing on government policy and any suggestion otherwise is falsely making a connection where it does not exist.”
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said that “the only special interest guiding President Trump’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people.”
He suggested without evidence that the new bridge would benefit Canada more than the United States.
“Infrastructure being built over America’s border that connects Canada’s $2.3 trillion economy to America’s $30 trillion economy should first and foremost benefit America and Americans,” Mr. Desai said.
Representatives for the Commerce Department and Mr. Moroun’s company did not immediately respond to questions.
But corporations and individuals who have donated large sums to MAGA Inc. have been granted audiences with Mr. Trump and his team. Donors have used those meetings to lobby for their interests. The Trump administration has at times taken actions that have advanced donors’ businesses or personal causes, prompting criticism of a pay-to-play system.
While Mr. Moroun had donated to Mr. Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, the $1 million to MAGA Inc. is larger than any previous federal political donation on record by the Michigan businessman.
In a social media post on Feb. 9, Mr. Trump said that he would “not allow” the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge, scheduled to open early this year, for traffic between Detroit and Windsor, “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.”
The new bridge is expected to compete for some of the toll revenues that are now exclusively going to the Ambassador Bridge. The busy crossing, the most important one between the two nations for the trade of goods going both directions, is often congested.
Mr. Trump’s threat to block the opening of the Gordie Howe bridge is the most recent flashpoint in the deteriorating relationship between the United States and Canada. The two top trading partners and allies have been locked in a dispute over Mr. Trump’s tariffs as they prepare to enter talks over a review of their trade agreement with Mexico.
Upon taking office, Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and repeatedly said he wanted to make the country part of the United States. Canada is one of the few countries globally that responded with counter-tariffs and continues to boycott the sale of U.S. liquor, a move that has become a major irritant for the administration, among other measures.
Mr. Trump’s threat to block the opening of the new bridge was partly motivated by a desire to needle Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and create leverage over the Canadian side, officials familiar with the president’s thinking previously told The Times.
Mr. Carney said he spoke with Mr. Trump in the aftermath of the incident on Feb. 10, and told the president that the bridge, which was entirely paid for by Canada to the tune of some $4.7 billion, or about 6.4 billion Canadian dollars, was constructed using both Canadian and U.S. steel, disputing Mr. Trump’s claim that there was “virtually no U.S. content” in the bridge. The bridge is jointly owned by Canada and Michigan.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat, defended the bridge, calling it “a really important part of our economy,” in comments to the news media on Feb. 10.
“It is important that it continues to move forward and open up on time,” Ms. Whitmer said.
MAGA Inc., which is run by Mr. Trump’s allies, also received a $5 million donation last month from the parent company of Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency trading platform that has lobbied the administration and has previously donated to the PAC.
Kenneth P. Vogel is based in Washington and investigates the intersection of money, politics and influence.
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