Trump, Ontario premier trade insults after Canada-US trade talks collapse

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and US President Donald Trump traded insults Monday following the breakdown of trade talks between Canada and the US.

Ford called Trump a "dictator" and the "king of bankruptcies" after the president criticized him on his propriety social media platform Truth Social.

Earlier, Ford had said Trump could "kiss my a--," a remark he repeated during a news conference in Hamilton, Ontario.

Trump wrote that Ford was "the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great Rob Ford," referring to the former Toronto mayor who died in 2016.

Trump also repeated his claim that Canada "couldn't survive" without the US and again referred to Prime Minister Mark Carney as "Governor Carney," a reference to his calls for Canada to become the 51st US state.

Ford responded minutes later.

"I am not going to take any advice off a guy that is the king of bankruptcies and he is actually tariffing his own people, taxing his own people," Ford said. "I don't respond to a dictator like President Trump.

"He's the type of guy in school that would take your lunch money one day, take your toque off your head the next day and then steal your running shoes."

Trump, for his part, referred to the premier as "Flunky Ford."

Ford also threatened to impose an export tariff on electricity supplied by Ontario to about 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, New York and Minnesota.

He noted that Alberta supplies the US with about 4.1 million barrels of oil per day.