Updated

Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 24

McMorrow Launches $400,000 Ad Accusing Trump of Blocking $4.4 Billion Bridge for Donor

Updated

Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 24

McMorrow Launches $400,000 Ad Accusing Trump of Blocking $4.4 Billion Bridge for Donor

Q: What specific 'outstanding issues' are holding up the $4.4 billion U.S.-Canada trade bridge?

The delay appears to be driven mainly by unresolved U.S.-Canada political and administrative negotiations, not by a structural problem with the bridge itself. Officials have not publicly released a detailed list of the “outstanding issues,” but reporting points to a final binational agreement that still needs to be completed before traffic can begin. That includes U.S. federal approvals tied to border operations and access, such as sign-off from relevant transportation and border agencies and the removal of remaining barriers on the U.S. side. Multiple officials and reports also indicate the bridge has been caught up in broader U.S.-Canada trade talks. Trump had publicly demanded that Canada give the United States at least partial ownership or otherwise “fully compensate” the U.S., and reporting has said U.S. negotiators were also seeking concessions connected to wider trade disputes under the USMCA framework. Canadian officials have suggested the bridge was being used as leverage in those negotiations. There were also late-stage project closeout items still being finished, including contractor sign-offs, quality reviews, testing and commissioning work. But available reporting suggests those technical items were not the main obstacle. So, the clearest answer is that the holdup is a mix of unfinished final approvals and a larger cross-border dispute over trade, compensation and control terms, with no evidence so far that the bridge itself is unsafe or unready to operate.

Q: What is the true daily cost of the Gordie Howe Bridge delay to the North American economy?

There is no verified, comprehensive dollar figure in the available reporting for the “true daily cost” of the Gordie Howe bridge delay to the entire North American economy. What is documented is narrower. The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority has said the delay is costing it about **C$7 million a week**, which works out to roughly **C$1 million a day** in direct project-related costs. That is the clearest hard number tied to the postponement. The broader economic cost is real but harder to pin down from the public evidence provided. The Detroit-Windsor corridor carries roughly a third of U.S.-Canada trade traffic and is critical to auto supply chains. The new bridge was expected to reduce congestion, add redundancy to a corridor now heavily dependent on the Ambassador Bridge, and save about **850,000 truck hours a year**. That equals roughly **2,330 hours a day** in unrealized time savings while the opening is delayed. There are also missed savings for carriers. The Ontario Trucking Association has said some members expected to save **C$20,000 to C$100,000 a month** in tolls once the bridge opened. But that is sector-specific and not a full measure of continent-wide losses. So the most defensible answer is this: the only solid daily figure currently on the record is about **C$1 million per day in direct authority costs**, while the total North American economic loss is certainly higher but has not been publicly quantified in a reliable daily amount.

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Jun 24

Mallory McMorrow used a new campaign ad to accuse Donald Trump of keeping the Gordie Howe International Bridge closed to help the Moroun family, owners of the rival Ambassador Bridge.
The ad points to Matthew Moroun’s $1 million donation to Trump’s super PAC and argues the new span is ready, even though its June 12 ribbon-cutting was abruptly postponed over unresolved U.S.-Canada issues.
Trump had already demanded in February that Canada give the U.S. at least 50% ownership of the bridge, widening a dispute over a project Canada financed and that has cost nearly $4.4 billion since work began in 2018.
For McMorrow, the bridge fight is both an anti-corruption message and a bid to break through in Michigan’s three-way Democratic Senate primary against Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed.
The clash gives Democrats a rare chance to tie Trump to a visible economic bottleneck in a battleground state, while Republican Mike Rogers has also promised to get the bridge opened.