A billionaire family that owns a bridge crossing between Michigan and Canada has wanted Trump to stop a new bridge

[In It to Win It]

Gift Link
NYT

President Trump threatened on Monday to block the opening of a new bridge between the United States and Canada if Canadian officials did not address a long and growing list of grievances, escalating diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

Amid a trade war and a deepening rift between the United States and its northern neighbor, Mr. Trump said that he would “not allow” the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, scheduled to open early this year for traffic between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, “until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve.”

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, denounced the president’s threat in a statement, writing that “whether this proves real or simply threatened to keep uncertainty high — blocking or barricading bridges is a self-defeating move.”

It was not immediately clear how Mr. Trump would block the opening of the bridge. Its construction was paid for by Canada, and a public-private arrangement , under which Canada and Michigan would jointly operate the crossing, gives Michigan part ownership.

One possible avenue would be for Mr. Trump to declare an emergency. Under the law, Customs and Border Protection can temporarily close a port of entry “when necessary to respond to a specific threat to human life or national interests.” Mr. Trump has often invoked emergency statutes for events and circumstances that are largely considered routine to make use of the expanded authority that doing so grants him.

A billionaire family that owns a bridge crossing between Michigan and Canada has wanted Trump to stop a new bridge — and Trump is now threatening to block its opening (with authority he doesn’t have). www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/u...

— Taniel (@taniel.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T04:08:51.560Z

[AZJonnie]

1. This is just another of the sundowning manbaby's tantrums

screeching "WHAAAAH I'M THE KING AND ALL OF AMERICA IS MINE!!!1!"

However, said billionaire family does not own that bridge anymore, unlike what Taniel says.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Do you know who does own it, and since when ?

I dislike the idea of transportation infrastructure being in private hands, almost without exception.

[AZJonnie]

5. Here it is. The billionaire who fought the new bridge and owned Ambassador himself for decades died in 2020

Manuel Moroun had effectively sole control after he finished buying up the bridge in 1979, and it remained essentially a one‑owner asset (him personally) until his death in July 2020.

Since 2020, the bridge has been described in news and regulatory coverage as being owned by the Moroun family or by companies chaired by Matthew Moroun, rather than by Manuel as an individual.

So, sorry, sounds like it's probably still be owned by his family. I misread another article about the guy having died and it being passed on to a corporation since.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. OK, thanks. I'm surprised a situation like that has continued for so long. nt

[Ilikepurple]

3. I'm not sure who owns it, but his family manages it through family owned corps

The Canadian Transit Company and Detroit International Bridge Company manage the bridge I believe. I can’t locate the owner, but it seems like the billionaire family still has a vested interest in import export travel between Michigan and Ontario? If you know who owns it now, please tell. Now I’m curious.

[AZJonnie]

4. I'm just saying it's not the one dude who owned it forever, and fought the new bridge for many years, he died

Manuel Moroun had effectively sole control after he finished buying up the bridge in 1979, and it remained essentially a one‑owner asset (him personally) until his death in July 2020.

Since 2020, the bridge has been described in news and regulatory coverage as being owned by the Moroun family or by companies chaired by Matthew Moroun, rather than by Manuel as an individual.

So, sorry, sounds like it's probably still be owned by (dead billionaires remaining) family through a corporate entity. I misread another article about the guy having died and it being passed on to a corporation since.

[Ilikepurple]

7. Manuel, the individual, never owned the Bridge. Centra Inc. I believe was the ultimate owner.

I’m not sure if he was ever sole shareholder, but both his siblings and children have owned stock over the years. Mathew has been involved with Centra Inc and its subsidiaries long term, perhaps most of his adult life. He was also involved in fighting the G Howe bridge. I can’t find any info that he’s still fighting it though, but it’s a big asset not fight for. I’m not pointing fingers at you. I just hate the way the press rarely gets simple ownership facts right. I guess sometimes not so simple when multiple subsidiaries are involved.

[Figarosmom]

6. I wonder how much he

Pocketed from them?

[moniss]

8. The story about these two bridges goes back

longer and is more complicated than the bsky post or NYT article describes. The Ambassador Bridge was built long ago with private money and was run that way and the shares of the company that owned the bridge could have been bought by the state of Michigan or the US government all along but they chose not to. Then in the '70's Manuel Maroun bought up the shares and invested big in maintenance etc. and collected tolls.

But subsequently political types in Michigan began to see the potential for huge revenue as the cross border trade, mainly auto related, boomed and they wanted the bridge. They have been fighting with that family by denying permits, limiting street access, refusing to fix and maintain the streets and on and on for years they have been battling. Maroun refused to sell. That's just a brief recitation. There is much, much more.

Finally pols in Canada and Michigan got together and said they would construct their own bridge. The Gordie Howe Bridge. There are supposedly legal commitments that were made through the years by the governments of Michigan and Canada regarding The Ambassador Bridge that Maroun kept arguing with Michigan and Canada about them not living up to those and they argued back about other things with Maroun. There have been lawsuits.

Did the man and now his heirs want to maintain their bridge as the primary link across the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario? Certainly but this is not some evil billionaire and his heirs trying to strangle Detroit etc. It is a long running battle between political forces who didn't want to take responsibility for something, then saw the revenue potential and have been screwing with the owner who did take responsibility and invest huge money over the years in maintaining and upgrading the bridge.

So they had a right to build their own bridge which they now have done. But the State of Michigan, long time political types, the US government, Canadian government and political types there along with others don't have clean hands either in this long running saga of the question about bridges between Detroit and Windsor. The last I knew a few years back Michigan and Detroit have still not met their commitments about maintenance and improvement of access streets etc. A big part of the arguments about the whole planning and spending on The Gordie Howe Bridge were on the order of "You have huge millions to spend on the access streets for that bridge but you cry year after year you have no money to meet your commitments at The Ambassador Bridge."

There were other issues between the parties to be sure but as I said it is way more involved and long running than the article boils it down to. It has been going on for way longer than Crumb The 1st has been on the scene.

[uncle ray]

10. oh dear, I didn't realize this was a poor opressed billionaire story.

I wonder how the dead guys billionaire heirs can drag themselves out of bed in the morning given the challenges they face.

[moniss]

12. That's hardly the point of my post.

Perhaps you need to reread. Let me save you a bit of time. A longstanding battle between self serving pols and self serving business people was boiled down into a simplistic story that is misleading about all of this. I added background along with others who posted on this. Simplistic portrayals of situations that have a long running history are misleading and when thoughtful people see them who have more of the background on the situation they add to that in comment sections.

Your snark towards me is unfounded. In the interest of helping you go beyond the simplistic I have included a link to the Wiki page for The Ambassador Bridge that has some more info and very extensive footnotes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Bridge

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. The Gordie Howe Bridge