Fact File: White House claim of beer victory doused by Sapporo brewer

The White House jumped on a news report last week about tariffs prompting Sapporo Breweries to move production from Canada to the United States. The official White House X account posted a photo of Sapporo beer cans, reproducing the news headline and adding a caption saying, “Made in America.” The brewery has since clarified that no final decision has been made, but the proposed move involves only non-alcoholic beer, which accounts for less than one per cent of its total production in Canada.

THE CLAIM

The White House’s Sept. 8 X post features a photo of three silver cans of the Japanese beer and a headline attributed to Bloomberg News.

“Sapporo beer moving production to U.S. from Canada on tariffs,” the headline reads, with the “moving production to U.S. from Canada” portion highlighted in yellow.

The post drew mixed reaction from online commenters, with many expressing their gratitude to Japan or celebrating the announcement. Other replies criticized the Trump administration and accused the White House of overstating the importance of the move. As of Sept. 16, the post had received 358,000 views and been reposted more than 1,000 times.

THE FACTS


The White House accurately reproduced the initial Sept. 7 Bloomberg headline on the Sapporo story, but that headline was misleading and was later edited by the news agency.

In response to the media attention, Sapporo’s Canadian subsidiary, Sleeman Breweries, said it is exploring options to move production of its non-alcoholic beer only.

“To clarify recent media reports, the potential relocation of Sapporo 0.0% production for the U.S. market from Sleeman Breweries’ Canadian facilities to Sapporo USA’s U.S. facilities is not imminent or finalized,” the brewery said in a Sept. 8 statement. The brewery added that non-alcoholic drinks make up about 0.5 per cent of its total production in Canada.

In a followup statement on Sept. 10, Sleeman said that it has no plans to move its entire Sapporo production in Canada to the U.S and continues to evaluate its options.

“We are aware that certain media reports have created the impression that Sapporo is moving its production from Canada to the United States,” it said. “Sapporo clarifies that no such action will be taken.”

In response to a request for comment about the White House post, Sleeman simply reiterated the contents of its news releases.

Bloomberg subsequently edited the article, changing its headline last week to say Sapporo was moving “some production” from Canada to the United States. A correction note appended to the story says the headline was changed “to clarify that some production is being shifted to the U.S. from Canada, not all production.”

A Bloomberg spokesperson acknowledged that the White House post reproduced the story’s original headline. The spokesperson said the headline was updated to correspond with the story’s first paragraph, which spoke of some production being moved.

The White House X account has not updated its post to acknowledge the correction.

The White House Sapporo post came the same day President Donald Trump signed executive orders to ban the import of certain Canadian goods, including non-alcoholic beer, as of Sept. 29. In August, the United States had included non-alcoholic beer on a broad list of Canadian goods subject to a 50 per cent tariff.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2026.

Timon Johnson, The Canadian Press