What did Donald Trump do today?

He let a wealthy donor try to block an infrastructure project that's already built and cost American taxpayers nothing.

In 2012, the Obama administration struck a deal with the Republican governor of Michigan and the Conservative-led government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to build a new bridge connecting the cities of Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The bridge, named for Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe, was paid for by the Canadian government, who also put up most of the money needed to build a customs checkpoint on the American side of the border.

The new Gordie Howe Bridge, which links I-75 and Ontario Hwy. 401 directly and is capable of handling heavy trucks.

Both the United States and Canada agreed the bridge was necessary because the only other road connection across the Detroit River, the privately-owned Ambassador Bridge, empties onto surface streets in Windsor. That makes for long traffic delays, urban blight, and increased shipping costs—when shipping is possible at all. The Ambassador Bridge has a poor maintenance history and cannot be used by large trucks.

Today, with just weeks to go before the new bridge was set to be opened, Trump demanded that the United States—which, again, did not pay for the bridge and will benefit from it economically through more efficient trade—be given a cut of the tolls.

The reason for Trump's sudden interest in the bridge is that the family that owns the Ambassador Bridge, and has been fighting unsuccessfully for twenty years to keep any competing bridge from being built, is a major Trump donor. And while the White House has not yet admitted it, the direct cause of Trump's multiple outbursts on the subject of a bridge he'd never mentioned before is a meeting between the Ambassador Bridge's owners and Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

(Lutnick was also in the news today for unrelated reasons.) 

In other words, Trump is trying to metaphorically blow up a free bridge that a friendly foreign government has already paid for and built, because wealthy supporters want to maintain a local monopoly on their expensive and poorly maintained bridge.

Trump threatened to close the bridge if his demand for a cut of an investment the United States didn't make wasn't honored, which is presumably what his donors want. This would, of course, hurt the United States in the meantime while merely delaying the inevitable opening of the already-built Gordie Howe Bridge.

Trump first brought up the subject of the bridge in a social media post yesterday, although he lost his train of thought and started ranting instead about how China would take over Canada and cancel the Stanley Cup. (China is not involved with either bridge and has not made any unusually hostile moves towards the National Hockey League.)

Why does this matter?

• Denying Americans basic government services to help political patrons is corruption, pure and simple. 

• Not letting Americans use a free bridge that's already been built makes Trump look stupid, not tough.