Last week, the White House capitalized on a news report indicating that Sapporo Breweries was considering relocating its production from Canada to the United States due to tariffs. The official White House account on X (formerly Twitter) shared an image of Sapporo beer cans alongside the news headline, proclaiming, “Made in America.” However, the brewery later clarified that no final decision had been made about the move, which concerns only non-alcoholic beer, a product that constitutes less than 1% of its overall production in Canada.
The White House’s post on September 8 featured a photo of three silver cans of Sapporo beer and included a headline sourced from Bloomberg News. The headline asserted that “Sapporo beer is moving production to U.S. from Canada on tariffs,” with the phrase about the production shift highlighted in yellow. Social media reactions to the post were mixed; while some expressed gratitude towards Japan or applauded the announcement, others criticized the Trump administration, arguing that the significance of the production shift was overstated. As of September 16, the post had garnered 358,000 views and had been shared over 1,000 times.
Upon reviewing the claims, it was found that the White House accurately reproduced Bloomberg’s initial headline from September 7. However, this headline was misleading and has since been revised. Sapporo’s Canadian affiliate, Sleeman Breweries, clarified that it is exploring options to move the production of its non-alcoholic beer only. The brewery stated, “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.” They further specified that non-alcoholic products account for merely 0.5% of their total production in Canada.
In a follow-up statement on September 10, Sleeman Breweries reiterated that there are no plans to transfer all Sapporo production from Canada to the United States, indicating that options continue to be evaluated. The company noted, “We are aware that certain media reports have created the impression that Sapporo is moving its production from Canada to the United States. Sapporo clarifies that no such action will be taken.” When approached for comment regarding the White House’s post, Sleeman Breweries chose to restate the information from its prior releases.
In response to the backlash and to set the record straight, Bloomberg modified its article, altering the headline to reflect that Sapporo is moving “some production” from Canada to the United States. A correction note appended to the piece states that the headline was amended “to clarify that some production is being shifted to the U.S. from Canada, not all production.” A spokesperson for Bloomberg confirmed that the White House post mirrored the original headline but acknowledged the revision was necessary to align with the article's content, which discussed the limited scope of the production move.
Despite the updated information, the White House account has yet to revise its post to reflect the correction. Notably, the announcement coincided with President Donald Trump’s signing of executive orders on September 8 aimed at banning the importation of specific Canadian goods, including non-alcoholic beer, effective September 29. Prior to this, the U.S. had already included non-alcoholic beer on a list of Canadian products subject to a steep 50% tariff.
