JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Maryland – US President Donald Trump said on July 19 that he told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada must do better at controlling Ontario wildfires whose smoke has affected several US states.
The day after threatening to levy additional tariffs on Canadian goods to punish Canada over the wildfire smoke, Trump said he spoke to Carney at the FIFA World Cup final that both of them attended on July 19.
“I have a good relationship with Mark Carney, but we’ve got to stop the fires up there,” Trump told reporters after he returned from the World Cup game in New Jersey.
“Maybe they should pay us some damages or something, or we should do some tariffs.”
Heavy smoke from hundreds of fires in Ontario enveloped a swath of the United States from the Midwest to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic starting July 16, prompting days of warnings to US residents to stay indoors wherever possible.
Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s remarks.
In a post on X on July 18, Carney said Canada has deployed more than 5,300 firefighting personnel, and is leveraging data and advanced thermal imaging to support real-time detection and mitigation efforts.
Roughly 2.4 million ha have burned during this wildfire season in Canada, according to government data.
Climate experts say rising global temperatures are driving an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world. REUTERS