The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
The optics of President Trump’s Moroungate scandal have gotten uglier. The Detroit News just added a critical piece to what looks less like a trade dispute and more like a lobbying-driven intervention.
AI illustration by Deadline Detroit
The News reports that public filings reveal that the Moroun family’s Detroit International Bridge Co. spent at least $250,000 in the second half of last year lobbying the Trump administration on issues tied to international bridge construction and operation. The Morouns own the privately controlled Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit — the span that stands to lose meaningful toll revenue once the Canadian-financed Gordie Howe International Bridge opens.
Consider the sequence that’s unfolding.
According to The New York Times, President Trump threatened to derail the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge after receiving a phone call from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick reportedly called Trump after meeting with Matthew Moroun, who runs the family business.
Matthew Moroun
Trump then went on a tirade on Truth Social arguing that the U.S. is entitled to half ownership of the Gordie Howe Bridge, betraying an alarming ignorance of critical details. Canada paid the entire cost of the Gordie Howe International Bridge and agreed to evenly split toll proceeds with Michigan after recouping construction expenditures.
And what lobbying firm did the Moroun family hire? That would be Ballard Partners, whose Washington, D.C., office was formerly led by Trump's White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Trump would be wise to consult with former New Jersey Gov. Christe Christie about what happens when political power and bridge access collide. Christie’s top aides in 2013 engineered traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge, allegedly to punish Fort Lee’s mayor for not endorsing the governor. The bridge jams caused massive traffic delays in Fort Lee, an obstruction that didn’t sit well with commuters on either side of the political aisle.
"Bridgegate" came to define Christie’s administration and crippled his 2016 presidential bid. Media coverage in Michigan of Moroungate is mounting and universally negative.
If the New York Times’ sequence of events is accurate, it doesn’t appear that Trump even consulted with Peter Hoekstra, who serves as his ambassador to Canada. Hoekstra is a former Michigan Congressman who previously served as Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. I doubt that he’d support Trump’s threats to delay the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
In a 2017 interview with the Detroit Free Press, Matthew Moroun said he hoped to improve his family’s reputation from decades of contentious relations with Michigan communities. Under his father, Manuel (Matty) Moroun, the Moroun name came to stand for endless lawsuits, antagonistic relationships with neighbors, and bitter opposition to any move that appeared to threaten their business in any way.
It would appear the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Starkman can be reached at eric@starkmanapproved.com Anonymity assured and protected.
