Smoke from massive wildfires in Canada engulfs the New York City skyline on July 16, 2026, reducing visibility and casting an orange haze over the city.
Selcuk Achar | Anadolu | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Canada for the wildfires blanketing the United States in haze and said he would add the cost of that pollution to existing tariffs.
President Trump called the situation “totally unacceptable” and accused Ottawa of failing to properly respond to the fires that have caused air quality in major U.S. cities to reach dangerous levels for several days.
The costs the United States incurs as a result of air pollution “necessarily must be added to the tariffs Canada currently pays,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump added that he plans to call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney later on Friday to “ask him what he plans to do about this.”
Carney said on Wednesday’s X-Post that wildfires have “spread significantly” in recent weeks, particularly in northwestern Ontario, forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
The poor conditions have raised questions about the potential impact on Sunday’s FIFA World Cup final in northeastern New Jersey. Trump, who is scheduled to attend the Spain-Argentina match, traveled to New York on Friday to attend a FIFA reception at Trump Tower.
Climatologists have warned that human-induced climate change is leading to an increase in wildfires and other extreme weather events, but the Trump administration has moved in recent months to dismantle government labs that study wildfire smoke and its effects, The New York Times reported.
“The impacts of the Canadian wildfires are causing significant concern and damage across the United States,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said Friday.
The EPA is in contact with Canadian leadership and “strongly encourages them to do everything in their power to extinguish these fires as quickly as possible,” Zeldin said in the X post.
The post directed Americans to visit AirNow’s Fire and Smoke map for the latest information.
