Ambassador Bridge owners ramped up lobbying before Trump’s Gordie Howe threats

It’s no arcanum that the Morouns, owners and operators of the nearly 100-year-old Ambassador Bridge connecting Michigan and Ontario, are no fan of the new competing span down the Detroit River.

The billionaire family has spent years — and millions of dollars — fighting the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which once open will end their monopoly on commercial truck toll revenue in the area. 

But an analysis of U.S. Federal lobbying and campaign finance data sheds fresh light on how the family has sought to influence the political landscape around the busiest land border crossing between the U.S. And Canada. 

Those efforts have drawn renewed scrutiny this week after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to block the opening of the more than $6-billion bridge that the Canadian government paid for in full, further inflaming tensions between the two countries. 

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that Trump’s social media broadside came just hours after Michigan trucking titan Matthew Moroun, chairman of the company that oversees the Ambassador Bridge, met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington — and that Lutnick then spoke to the president by phone. 

Matthew Moroun is the chairman of the Detroit International Bridge Company. The company owns and runs the Ambassador Bridge and the Canadian Transit Company, which operates the Canadian half of the bridge.

In the summer, the bridge company revived its working relationship with Ballard Partners, a top lobbying firm in Trump’s Washington with deep ties to his administration — including his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, a former Ballard partner.

The firm first registered to lobby on behalf of the bridge company in the spring of 2018 — months before construction officially kicked off on the nearby Gordie Howe bridge. During the first Trump administration, the company would pay Ballard at least $2.5 million US to lobby on transportation regulation and “issues related to construction and operation of international bridges,” according to disclosure reports.

The amount is more than the bridge company had ever spent in previous years on other lobbyists.

Wiles doesn’t appear to have been working on the bridge file. Another major figure now in Trump’s orbit — Pam Bondi — registered to do so in early 2021, the same period Trump left office. Bondi is now the U.S. Attorney general.

But work on the new span continued, and during former president Joe Biden’s term, that relationship appears to have gone largely dormant — until this past August.

Ballard updated its registration to lobby on behalf of the bridge company on Aug. 1, 2025. The bridge company has since paid Ballard $250,000 US to lobby the White House, U.S. Congress, and State Department on “international bridges” again, per subsequent reports.

That lobbying has included a total of six lobbyists, including firm founder Brian Ballard and two Trump administration veterans, the records show. It’s the most lobbyists the bridge company has had working on its behalf since 2005, according to OpenSecrets, a U.S. Organization that collects and analyzes campaign and lobbying data.

Representatives for Ballard did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Matthew Moroun and his wife have been frequent donors to Republican candidates, political action committees, and congressional campaign arms over the years. 

He hasn’t always supported Trump, though. In 2023, Moroun gave $236,800 US to Never Back Down Inc., a super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bid for the Republican presidential nomination. 

But Moroun’s support of the party didn’t end with DeSantis’ eventual withdrawal from the race. In July, roughly a month before Ballard started lobbying for the bridge company again, Moroun gave the Republican National Committee a total of $250,000 US, according to Federal Election Commission data.

The three payments dated July 8, 2025, each included different memos: A $44,300 donation was listed as a “contribution,” a $72,800 donation was listed as a “headquarters account contribution,” and $132,900 donation was listed as a “legal proceedings account contribution.”

It’s unclear to which legal proceedings the memo refers, but Trump in 2024 reportedly struck a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee to funnel donations to his campaign and a PAC that has paid his hefty legal fees.

Video Journalist

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