US senators from both parties have pushed back against President Donald Trump's call for Canada to pay damages over smoke from wildfires that he says has "poisoned" air quality in several American cities. The rebuke, offered by Republicans and Democrats alike, highlights bipartisan scepticism towards Trump's demand and underscores the practical difficulty of attributing responsibility for cross-border environmental effects such as wind-blown smoke.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois called the president's stance "ridiculous", while Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont argued that nobody, including Trump, can control the direction of the wind. The comments came after Trump publicly blamed Canada for the smoke affecting US air quality, a claim senators say overlooks the natural and uncontrollable spread of wildfire smoke across borders.