Pedestrian wears mask amid pollution in New York; Air quality is low in the city due to smoke from forest fires in Canada Angela Weiss/AFP The President of the United States, Donald Trump, blamed the Canadian government for the fires that have been hitting the country and generating thick clouds of smoke in both territories. In a statement this Friday (17), the Republican stated that the neighboring country has been neglecting the preservation of its green areas for years, which is costing the USA "billions of dollars". Trump said he will call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to find out Ottawa's plans to combat the fires. "The cost of this pollution must necessarily be added to the tariffs that Canada currently pays," he said, in a post on social media. ? Follow g1's international news channel on WhatsApp "As a result, the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by dirty, polluted and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous and totally unacceptable," continued the American. ?? The extension of fires is a consequence of climate change, as the heat wave that hits the northern hemisphere hinders the fight against flames. Trump is a global warming denier and even called climate change a hoax in a speech at the UN last year. The statements contrast with scientific data from international organizations. Fires out of control According to the most recent data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center (CIFFC), 207 fires are out of control, out of a total of 897 active fires. City of Toronto covered in smoke from wildfires on July 15, 2026 Reuters/Kyaw Soe Oo Smoke from the fires, carried by winds, caused an extreme deterioration in air quality in Toronto, the most populous city in Canada, and also in the eastern United States. According to data compiled by the Swiss company IQAir, Detroit, Chicago and Washington were among the most polluted cities in the world at around 2pm this Friday. READ ALSO VIDEO: Firefighters bring oxygen to pigeon that fell ill after inhaling smoke in the USA So far, the fire season has been much less intense than that of the record year 2023 or 2025, but the strength of the flames has worsened significantly in the last week. Around 2.8 million hectares have already been consumed by fire since the beginning of the year, according to the most recent official data from the Canadian federal government. Last Friday (10), this total was almost 1.6 million hectares. The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is seen through a layer of wildfire smoke in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, on July 16, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Segar