How Photographers’ Images Are Getting Caught Up in the Trade War Between the US and Canada

It’s become a go-to photo for the official White House account on X when it comes to US-Canada relations — which have become decidedly frosty. But who took that stirring photo of a bald eagle with its talons on a Canada goose and where did it come from?

The White House posted the photo on Tuesday while also sharing an article denouncing its northern neighbor, declaring that President Trump is “finally ending Canada’s free ride”; Canada pulled out of negotiations last week amid a trade war between the two countries.

https://t.co/OYaldd4UhI pic.twitter.com/7jQXwWW26K

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 26, 2026

The inference is obvious: the bald eagle, the American national emblem, holds the whip hand over the goose that bears Canada’s name. The White House also used it in February while responding to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The photo is credited to Derek Stoll and is held by the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab or Ornithology, the world’s largest and oldest archive of animal media.

Not much else is known about the photo other than it was taken on January 17, 2022, in Stringham Park, Dutchess, New York.

But another set of photographs has also entered into the ongoing hostilities between the U.S. and Canada.

The pictures above were taken by Canadian photographer Mervyn Sequeira in Burlington, which, ironically, sits on Lake Ontario; Trump has just signed an order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America in retaliation to Canada’s decision to pull out of trade talks and impose its own tariffs.

Sequeira told CBC that while out walking one icy morning last February, he saw the bald eagle launch an attack on the goose, which he believes was suffering from illness.

The 74-year-old photographer said the goose was uneasy on its feet and thinks that’s why the raptor targeted it.

“We see bald eagles going for fish. We see bald eagles going after smaller ducks occasionally,” Sequeira told CBC.

“But it’s quite unusual to see a bald eagle taking on a Canada goose, and in all my years, this is the first time I’ve seen it.”

The fight between the two birds lasted for 20 minutes, with the bald eagle repeatedly attacking the goose as the latter tried to defend itself by hissing and pecking.

“There were pauses; each of them seemed to be catching their breath or deciding what the next move would be,” Sequeira told CBC. “There was round one, round two, round three, and so on. And all the rounds had everything in it.”

“Like in boxing, the contestants were getting more and more tired, and there were times where it seemed hopeless for the goose when the goose was under the eagle, and I thought it was over,” he added. “However, it was very, very impressive: the goose fought back and survived the day.”

Ultimately, the goose survived the onslaught and the bald eagle left empty-handed. Presumably, that is not the message President Trump is trying to convey.

Sequeira, a retired airline captain who is originally from Goa, India, is not interested in talking about politics, but he does see the symbolism.

“There were lots of people who looked at it in the political context,” he said. But for Sequeira, this is just how nature works.