President Donald Trump warned Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada owes the United States “damages” for wildfire smoke that has spread to American cities, delivering this message when the two leaders met at the FIFA World Cup final on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Sunday as he returned from the match at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Trump said he told the Canadian leader that the fires burning across the border have to stop. He floated two possible responses: financial compensation or fresh tariffs.
Trump said he told Carney, “You got to stop these fires from coming in and, you know, poisoning our air.” He added that despite what he described as a good relationship with the prime minister, Canada should either pay damages or face new levies.
The two leaders watched Spain’s victory in the final from a glassed-in suite. Also in the box were First Lady Melania Trump, Carney’s wife Diana Fox Carney, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
Smoke Reaches Across the Border
The fires prompting Trump’s warning have been extensive. As of Saturday, roughly 955 fires were actively burning in Canada, with more than 190 blazes in Ontario alone, many of them out of control. Nearly three million hectares of land has already been destroyed, and many of the major fires are believed to have ignited from about 1,000 lightning strikes around July 6.
The smoke has drifted far south, blanketing states from Minnesota and Michigan to Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. Air quality warnings have been issued across the region, and outdoor events have been canceled. As of Friday, Detroit had the worst air quality in the world, followed by Chicago. Smoke has expanded through July after the fires began in mid-June, affecting an estimated 100 million Americans across 14 states.
Trump said the phenomenon felt new to him. He told reporters he had not remembered wildfire smoke reaching the U.S. this way before the last four or five years. He has long argued that better forest management could prevent large fires, a point he pressed during the January 2025 Southern California wildfires.
Tariffs and Lawmakers Pile On
Trump’s threat did not emerge in a vacuum. On Friday, he posted on Truth Social that the U.S. was being invaded by “filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air,” accusing Canada of “willful negligence” and a failure to properly maintain its forests and clear debris. He suggested the cost of the pollution should be folded into tariffs Canada already pays.
Those existing tariffs are steep. Canada faces duties of 25 percent on steel and aluminum, 10 percent on softwood timber and lumber, and 12.5 percent related to forced labor concerns that took effect last month. The administration has raised duties on Canada and chose not to renew the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It remains unclear what legal authority Trump would use to impose additional tariffs over the smoke.
Members of Congress have moved to formalize the pressure. Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Representative John James (R-Mich.) introduced legislation to penalize Canada for failing to prevent or mitigate the fires.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said Friday that the fires were causing “great concern” and “harm.”
Canada Pushes Back
Canadian officials have rejected the framing that they are to blame. Carney has emphasized that fighting climate change is a shared duty, calling it everyone’s responsibility, including that of the United States. He said Thursday that Canada is making clean energy investments while the United States moves in the opposite direction.
Carney’s emergency management cabinet minister, MP Eleanor Olszewski, said the two countries remain in constant contact and have a long history of collaborating on disasters, citing a reciprocal firefighting agreement from 1982 and another that emerged from the 2025 G7 summit. She noted that Canada has invested about C$12bn ($8.5bn; £6.4bn) in forest sustainability and fire prevention, adding that the challenge “knows no borders.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford was sharper. Over the weekend, he said U.S. critics had a very short memory, recalling how Canada and Ontario sent help to California during that state’s devastating fires in January of last year. Ford said that is what neighbors do, warning that one day the situation could be reversed.
Relations between Washington and Ottawa have been strained for much of the past year, driven largely by trade disputes, and the two countries have yet to reach a new trade deal. Whether the smoke becomes another flashpoint or a rare area of cooperation may depend on how quickly the fires ease and whether Trump follows through on his warning.