Democrat lawmakers are seeking answers into whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to stall the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge was due to lobbying from a billionaire donor and owner of the competing Ambassador Bridge.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Democrats on the U.S. House Oversight Committee demanded Matthew Moroun provide documentation of a reported meeting held with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Feb. 9.
The New York Times reported last week that the meeting between Lutnick and Moroun, whose family has sought for years to cancel the Gordie Howe bridge project, came hours before Trump’s social media threat that demanded concessions from Canada.
The report said Lutnick briefed Trump on the meeting, citing anonymous sources familiar with the private discussions.
“It appears that you may have used your influence as a donor to President Donald Trump to jeopardize American commerce to protect your company’s bottom line,” the letter from the committee’s ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia of California and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan begins.
“To understand any undue influence you may have had on the United States’s economic and foreign policy, we request information regarding your communications with the Trump Administration.”
Messages left with the Detroit International Bridge Company, where Moroun serves as CEO, were not immediately returned. Global News has also reached out to Lutnick’s office for comment.
Get daily National news
Garcia sent a similar letter to Lutnick last week demanding documents relating to his reported meeting with Moroun and any communications with him or his family, as well as all documents and communications about the Gordie Howe bridge, the Ambassador Bridge, and Prime Minister Mark Carney between Lutnick and anyone in the Commerce Department and the White House.
The letter gives Lutnick until Feb. 25 to provide the information, while Moroun faces a deadline of March 4.
U.S. election records show Moroun has donated over US$600,000 to Trump’s presidential campaigns and related fundraising committees, as well as to the Republican Party, since 2019. He has donated thousands more to various GOP congressional campaigns.
- N.B. budget: Cuts to culture funding would have ‘profound impact,’ advocates say
- Carney set to fly to Yellowknife then Norway with defence-focused agenda
- Manitoba government plans steps toward reducing nurse overtime, improving care
- Alberta minister meets with parents about serious incidents in daycares
“President Trump’s wealthy donors should not be holding secret meetings with administration officials to influence economic and foreign policies that have real impacts on the American people,” Garcia said in a press release Wednesday.
Lobbying records show the Detroit International Bridge Company spent over US$2.5 million to lobby the first Trump administration on “issues related to construction and operation of international bridges.” Since Trump returned to office last year, the company has spent another US$250,000 on lobbying.
The lobbying firm hired by Moroun’s company, Ballard Partners, previously employed current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In 2021, while working at Ballard, Bondi filed to work with the Detroit International Bridge Company in lobbying to Congress and the U.S. State Department. The filing notes Bondi served as a special adviser to Trump in the White House Counsel’s Office from 2019 to 2020.
Moroun’s father, Manuel Moroun, fought the Gordie Howe bridge project for years before his death in 2020, arguing the new Windsor-to-Detroit crossing will lead to reduced toll revenue on the Ambassador Bridge.
In 2012, after the Gordie Howe bridge was formally announced, Moroun spent over US$30 million on advertising and lobbying for a ballot proposal that would change Michigan’s constitution and require the project be approved by a statewide referendum and a separate vote by Detroit residents.
The measure failed, as did numerous lawsuits and free trade disputes the family filed to block construction.
Canada and Michigan struck a joint ownership agreement over the Gordie Howe bridge, which was launched to expand commercial capacity in the busy cross-border trade corridor.
I want to be MAID in Canada. That’s the only cure for my insanity and TDS
Well Mr Troll, if one was to compare comments, the difference would be startling. Only one here is babbling and throwing TDS about. Thats you. But do go ahead and continue to make yourself out the broken shameful person you are. Only a person with low low IQ and even lower esteem for themselves, does what you do and says what you say.
I need professional help for my TDS. It’s so bad I just babble and rant on and on. I have no clue what I’m talking about yet I run on like a soup sandwich. Geesh
Just 2 old grifters. Use the tunnel until one of them eats one cheesburger too many.
It would have been a step forward if the Marouns would pave the Ambassador Bridge once in a while. It’s a mess and it dumps you into a very unsavory part of Detroit.
Use the tunnel. The old bridge is crooked like it’s owner.
Hey Troll, your IQ matches the temp right now. -14 and dropping. I’m surprised you can put sentences together. Nothing but a brainless MAGAt.
Is my TDS showing again? I know my IQ definitely is.
Cheetolini is bought and paid for.
These are the same oversight Democrats that altered Epstein emails and redacted a victims name to push a false narrative because the victim had already stated it wasn’t true long before the files were released.
Maroun’s been lining his pockets for decades. This is just a shakedown.
Its ok. Everyone gets scared…go change your diaper now.
Hey moron, go pound sand you GOOF
Gee, I was expecting the usual slew of MAGAts on here slamming Canada. The anti Canada rhetoric that America is pushing is at an all time high. Do we scare you creatures that much? Is life that unbearable because of lil ol’ Canada? Hahaha! Love it! Glad to be such a sticker in your craw!