Politics is almost never about the merits. This is one of the toughest lessons to learn in Washington. Some people never learn it, especially intellectuals who spend their days debating evidence-based arguments about policy issues. But the gut-feeling theory of politics is key to understanding President Trump’s trade war with Canada. For him, this isn’t about economics or foreign policy. It’s personal. Also, <a href="https://cei.org/studies/three-reasons-tariffs-dont-work/">he just likes tariffs</a>.
In fairness, Trump administration officials do have rationalizations for the various rounds of Canadian tariffs he has enacted since 2018. A partial list includes national security, trade deficits, fentanyl, and forced labor.
National security is the stated reason for the administration’s steel, aluminum, and copper tariffs, which are currently at 50%. The problem is that Canada is not a national security threat.
Canadians have fought alongside Americans in nearly every major American war in the last century. This includes wars unrelated to Canadian interests, such as the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They’ve been there for us when we’ve needed them.
Canada is also part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, along with Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. For the last 85 years, Canadian and American intelligence agencies have shared their secrets with each other and the other Five Eyes members. If this were causing national security problems, surely these would have emerged by now.
Instead, when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned President Trump about his first-term steel and aluminum tariffs, Trump was reduced to invoking the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/war-of-1812-donald-trump-justin-trudeau-tariff/index.html">War of 1812</a>. This was clearly not about the merits.
The law Trump cited for these tariffs is Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which requires a national security justification for the president to enact tariffs. Citing the War of 1812 might be within the letter of that law, but it violates its spirit.
Trade deficits are another Trump bete noir and were cited to justify the Liberation Day tariffs the Supreme Court struck down. A country has a trade deficit when it imports more than it exports. Economists since Adam Smith have dismissed the balance of trade as an economic health indicator, for the same reason I am not concerned about my long-running trade deficit with my local grocery store: I get things in return for my money that I value more.
Trump’s threat to impose tariffs to prevent nearly non-existent fentanyl trafficking across the Canadian border followed the same pattern. First, Trump decided he wanted tariffs; then advisors rationalized it.
In the last few months, Trump declined to renew his own United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade pact with Mexico and Canada, though the agreement will remain in place through 2036. He also cited forced labor as a rationale for enacting tariffs, drawing on the same Depression-era tariff that Ben Stein mocked in the 1986 Matthew Broderick movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
This has a problem. Canada already bans forced labor. The USMCA trade agreement, which Trump negotiated, also contains provisions banning trade in goods produced with forced labor.
Add to this Trump’s continuing stream of personal insults against both Trudeau and current Prime Minister Mark Carney, such as calling them “Governor,” regular threats to make Canada America’s 51st state, and most recently his executive order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, and we see why Canadians are upset.
Canadians were at first shocked and betrayed that America, of all countries, out of nowhere started imposing tariffs and hurling insults across the border. Now they are angry, which risks making things even worse.
Matthew Broderick offers wisdom here, too. In the 1983 movie “WarGames,” he learned that the only way to win a nuclear war is not to play. The same is true of trade wars. Tariffs are a self-harming policy. If America wants to hurt itself with tariffs, it doesn’t make any sense for Canada to respond by hurting itself with its own tariffs. But again, this isn’t about the merits.
Even if Carney wanted to maintain his dignity in the face of Trump’s bluster, his supporters wouldn’t let him. Shock and betrayal have given way to anger, and Canadians want revenge, even if it will cost them economically.
That gets us to the current moment. Just this week, after Canada enacted a tranche of new tariffs on September 8, Trump announced a further tariff increase. One can only hope that this spat doesn’t go as far as Trump’s China trade war did in 2025, when some tariff rates briefly reached 145%.
At some point, temperatures will cool. Rebuilding the trust Americans and Canadians have shared for generations will take years, if not decades. While there are all kinds of merit-based economic and geopolitical reasons a strong US-Canada alliance matters, in the end it comes down to a simple fact: cooperation is better than conflict, and peace is better than war.
***
 Ryan Young is senior economist and director of publications at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

map of America

The Self-Harming Logic Of The U.S.-Canada Trade War

canada

donald trump

mark carney

tariff

trade war

usmca

During my time in the Trump administration, I saw firsthand the devastating consequences of porous borders and unchecked international cartels. The criminals who exploit our vulnerabilities have no right to walk across borders and bring preventable violence into our communities.
I stood alongside President Trump because he is a leader willing to look the American people in the eye and promise to fight the lawlessness that threatens our communities. As an advisor who worked on immigration reform and international security, I know he understands that border security is a matter of life and death for families across the nation. He has mourned with grieving parents; he has prayed with them, and he promised action.
However, the danger we face is not solely from the southern border, contrary to what most Americans believe.
Mothers across America are burying their teenage sons and daughters because of a poisoning <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/imposing-duties-to-address-the-flow-of-illicit-drugs-across-our-national-border/">epidemic</a> fueled by open borders in the north. The Canadian border has become a massive thoroughfare for fentanyl, human smuggling, and illicit tobacco trade. Criminal cartels and drug runners are smart. They look for the path of least resistance, and right now, the vast and frozen northern border provides exactly that.
The cartels are exploiting thousands of miles of unguarded territory. They specifically abuse “tribal non-enforcement zones” that straddle the international line. Recent federal drug and gun <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u-s-prosecutors-charge-three-from-akwesasne-in-drugs-for-guns-probe">trafficking</a> cases show exactly how criminals use these unmonitored access points to flood American streets with poison and weapons. Canadian authorities have ignored these smuggling corridors for far too long, prioritizing political correctness over the lives of innocent people.
Politicians in Canada sit in secure offices and worry about profit margins and international trade standing. They are not thinking of the people — countless American families — who are forced to live with the consequences of their inaction. They do not see the families in New Hampshire and across the country who are forced to empty their bank accounts for funerals because a lethal dose of fentanyl slipped right through an unpatrolled stretch of woods.
Right now, President Trump is locked in a fierce trade dispute with Ottawa. Politicians in Washington and media pundits are wringing their hands, wondering how this standoff will end. There is no easy economic exit to a trade war of this magnitude. But a victory awaits that transcends tariffs and trade deficits.
President Trump should demand a total Canadian crackdown on border smuggling as the nonnegotiable price of a trade agreement.
This is the perfect opportunity for the president to do what he does best and force Canada to step up. Canada must deploy its law enforcement to lock down the northern border. They must end the free pass given to tribal smuggling corridors. They must crack down on the illicit fentanyl trade operating on their soil before it reaches our communities.
If Canada commits to real, verifiable enforcement, President Trump can declare another massive victory for the safety of the American people. He can ease the economic pressure while bringing home a historic win for national security. This deal benefits both nations. Canada gets a way out of a trade war they cannot win, and the United States gets a secured northern frontier.
As a former diplomat who has engaged world leaders on behalf of the United States, I know that leveraging international agreements for national security is exactly how we protect our citizens. No more children should be stolen from their families by criminals who cross our borders. No more mothers should have to stand at a podium, tears in their eyes, and plead for the government to protect its citizens.
President Trump has the leverage to force Canada to take this crisis seriously. Let the trade war end with a sealed border. Let it end with a crippling blow to the smugglers and the cartels poisoning our youth.
***
Matt Mowers is former senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of State.

Gordie Howe International Bridge Opens To Traffic

How Canada’s Open Border Fuels A Deadly American Epidemic

border security

canada trade war

fentanyl

opinion

Japanese beer maker Sapporo Breweries Ltd. plans to move production of nonalcoholic beer for American consumers from Canada to the United States in response to the Trump administration&#8217;s “escalating” 50% tariff. 
“The tariff, and also escalating the 50% tariff, will impact us very much, particularly the next year,” Sapporo Chief Strategy Officer Rieko Shofu <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-09-07/sapporo-breweries-cso-on-tariffs-iran-war-video">told</a> Bloomberg. When pressed on how quickly the company would expand production in the United States, she replied, “Next year.” 
Sapporo expects to begin producing the nonalcoholic beer in the United States in the first half of 2027.
The Trump administration’s additional 50% tariffs on certain Canadian imports took effect August 22 after trade negotiations between the two countries collapsed. The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/temporary-suspension-of-additional-duties-to-offset-canadian-discrimination-against-the-commerce-of-the-united-states-with-respect-to-alcoholic-beverages-dairy-and-motor-vehicles">said</a> the tariffs were imposed in response to Canada&#8217;s treatment of American exports, including cars, alcohol, and dairy products. 
Sapporo currently produces nonalcoholic beer destined for the American market in Canada. The company said it is considering acquiring or building a brewery on the West Coast or contracting with another manufacturer to produce it. Sapporo already operates a brewery on the East Coast, but Shofu said rising sales would soon push it to capacity. 
&#8220;Tariffs are something out of our control,&#8221; Shofu said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to move ahead with local production.&#8221;
Sapporo operates production facilities in the United States, Canada, and Vietnam. It may not be the only foreign company pushed toward additional American manufacturing. 
On Monday night, President Donald Trump threatened to block Canadian aerospace company Bombardier from selling planes in the United States unless it manufactured them domestically.
“No more selling Bombardier in the United States,” President Trump posted on social media. “If they want our market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a &#8216;piggybank.'&#8221; 
At 12:01 am on Tuesday, Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of American goods. The duties range from 15% to 50% and cover hundreds of products, including steel, aluminum, cheese, appliances, clothing, cosmetics, farm equipment, and others.
Canada says its measures match the American tariffs dollar for dollar and rate for rate. RBC Economics, the research arm of the Royal Bank of Canada, <a href="https://www.wowt.com/2026/09/08/what-know-about-canadas-escalating-trade-war-with-us-carney-retaliates-with-tariffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> the Canadian tariffs were unlikely to significantly affect overall U.S. economic growth but could hit some American businesses extremely hard.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that Canada could not sustain a prolonged tit-for-tat trade war with its much larger neighbor. 
“Well, I don&#8217;t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who&#8217;s 13 times larger than you are,” he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/31/us/politics/canada-bessent-carney-trade.html">added</a>. “They say they&#8217;re doing OK. What else are they going to say?” 
In a national video address on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8jdev0422jo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, “We have everything we need to pivot and prosper,” but that pivot “will come at a cost.”
“There&#8217;s always a cost to action, but it doesn&#8217;t come close to the cost of standing still,” he added.
Carney has argued that accepting Trump’s demands could leave Canada even more dependent on the United States and <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/politics/2026/09/08/u-s--canada-trade-war-tariffs-take-effect">devastate</a> Canadian manufacturing. Bessent has described the proposed agreement as “the best trade deal of any country on the globe.”

Beer

Beer Giant Makes A Very American Move After Trump Squeeze

bombardier

business

sapporo breweries

As we approach the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Basem Boshra, Senior Director of Journalistic Standards and Public Trust at CBC News, Canada’s largest publicly funded state media apparatus, instructed his staff to refrain from referring to 9/11 as a “terrorist attack.” Instead, he insists: “the hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, DC, Pennsylvania and Manhattan.”
This is an obvious attempt at historical revisionism. Its true intent is pedagogical. A regime&#8217;s deeds are always guided by its opinions. And opinions about the United States in Canada have acquired a character that turns what ought to be an attack on Western civilization into something, at best, ambiguous and, at worst, justifiable. The CBC walked back the 9/11 memo over the weekend, but it&#8217;s important to understand the standard that produced it.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CBC can&#8217;t get anymore ridiculous right? 
New memo tells CBC journalists not to call 9/11 a terrorist attack. 
What do you think of this?<a href="https://t.co/qjl1S8zp48">https://t.co/qjl1S8zp48</a>
— Brian Lilley (@brianlilley) <a href="https://x.com/brianlilley/status/2092668288731914477?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Boshra appears to be another beneficiary of unfettered Islamic immigration in Canada. Many commentators will therefore argue, with reason, that open borders and naïve multiculturalism have security repercussions. While true, it is insufficient. The deeper question is: into what climate of opinion was this man received?
For decades, Canada has formed its political self-knowledge in direct opposition to the United States. This is especially true of the Left, for whom “anti-American” is synonymous with “progressive” or “enlightened.” It is no exaggeration to say that anti-Americanism is a cornerstone of Canadian public orthodoxy and a potent instrument of successful electoral demagoguery. The career of the current Prime Minister, Mark Carney, is inseparable from this posture.
To be “not American” is, for many Canadians, a moral predicate.
This may seem trivial; a sort of provincial snobbery. But the United States is not merely one nation among many. It is the profoundest political expression of the principles of the West: equality, natural rights, and liberty. To despise America then is to despise Western Civilization. While not obvious, anti-Americanism is how hatred of Western Civilization expresses itself within the West.
Anti-Americanism rarely confines itself to policy criticism. Rather, it calls into question the regime’s legitimacy and justice. It says or implies that the American project is a standing injustice. Once this opinion is popularized, attacks on American targets are easily reinterpreted. They cease to be understood as crimes against a common civilization and are instead seen as replies to provocation.
This is the point at which a moral climate becomes a national security threat. The distance between ideas and actions is not as great as one may think. In this year alone, the American consulate in Toronto has been the target of two separate shooting attacks. In Halifax, a man was charged this month with making a bomb threat against the U.S. consulate.
The connection to Islamic terrorism here is related. These terrorists define themselves by a rejection of what they call “Western decadence.” By this, they mean the entire architecture of the West, not certain moral laxities. The United States, the most visible and powerful representative of that architecture, naturally becomes their primary target.
When they encounter a West habituated to describe the United States as racist, imperialistic, and fundamentally unjust; when they see a nation like Canada instructing its youth that moral virtue consists in distancing themselves from America; when they hear, almost everywhere in the educated world, a chorus of delegitimizing rhetoric about the American regime: then they reasonably conclude that they confront a disarmed civilization unwilling to defend itself. The line between “America is wrong” and “America has no right to exist” may be clear to the philosopher. It is not clear to the fanatic.
The situation is made more grave by the fact that the same anti-Americanism cultivated abroad flourishes within the United States. In its universities, media, and halls of power, the United States is treated as uniquely malevolent. Young Americans are explicitly taught that their founding is criminal, its prosperity is the result of plunder, and that its foreign policy is conquest.
Rarely are they introduced to the arguments by which the founders justified the regime, or to the thinkers, both ancient and modern, who supplied its foundations. The regime is condemned before it is ever understood.
This internal anti-Americanism gives a peculiar force to external anti-Americanism. It allows foreign critics to say: “We only repeat what your own best minds say about you.” It makes it more difficult for American statesmen to speak of the nation’s legitimacy without being accused, even at home, of propaganda. And it confuses the public by blurring the line between reasonable criticism rooted in the founding principles and wholesale repudiation.
Anti-American terrorism, whether the target is the World Trade Center or American consulates in friendly nations, is thus the armed manifestation of a broader intellectual disposition. It presupposes, for its moral justification, what our professors now teach: that the United States is an obstacle to a more just world. The terrorist draws one conclusion from that premise; the professor, another. Yet the premise is identical. From a national-security standpoint, this shared premise is the essential problem.
A supposed friend or ally whose political class rises to power by means of anti-Americanism is in danger of becoming, willingly or not, an auxiliary to those who seek to harm Western Civilization. Indeed, it supplies in respectable language the very delegitimization on which our enemies rely.
If this current fashion of contempt for America continues to spread among allies and dominate higher education at home, then one can predict, without resort to prophecy, that attacks like 9/11 or those against the consulates in Canada will multiply. At that point, the decision will already have been made that the American regime does not deserve to endure.
The warning is simple: Canada, the United States, and the West writ large are on the precipice of returning to the delusions of September 10. Chiefly, the liberal fantasy that commerce cures fanaticism, peace is perpetual, and that enemies simply require more diplomacy. Those delusions survived the terrorist attacks because they flatter the vanity of people who believe their refusal to judge has elevated them above both nature and history.
Our enemies do not share this delicacy.
***
<div>Dimpee Brar is the Fellow for Religious Freedom, The Democracy Fund. She is a writer and commentator whose work may be found in the Daily Wire, The Federalist, American Spectator, Washington Examiner, and Western Standard. She is a regular guest on various radio shows and podcasts. You can follow her on X: @isthisdimpeeb</div>

image_4083b83b

Canada’s Complicity In Western Decline

anti americanism

cbc news

september 11 attacks

Google began displaying &#8220;Lake America&#8221; in place of &#8220;Lake Ontario&#8221; for U.S. users of Google Maps on Saturday, complying with an executive order President Donald Trump signed Thursday amid an escalating trade dispute with Canada.
The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/honoring-the-american-history-of-the-great-lakes-and-renaming-lake-ontario-as-lake-america-3a36/">order</a> directs the Interior Department to update the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), the federal database that governs official American map labels. Google <a href="https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/gnis-lake-ontario-lake-america-name-change/">said</a> its maps are updated &#8220;to reflect name changes in official government sources,&#8221; and that the change follows the company&#8217;s &#8220;long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country.&#8221; Under the new display rules, U.S. users see &#8220;Lake America,&#8221; Canadian users continue to see &#8220;Lake Ontario,&#8221; and users elsewhere see both names, with &#8220;Lake America&#8221; appearing in parentheses.
The change mirrors Google&#8217;s 2025 decision to relabel the Gulf of Mexico as the &#8220;Gulf of America&#8221; after a similar Inauguration Day <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/restoring-names-that-honor-american-greatness/">executive order</a> from Trump, a move Mexico <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5143996-mexico-threatens-to-sue-google-gulf-of-mexico/">threatened</a> to challenge legally at the time.
Not every mapping platform has followed suit. Apple Maps, for example, still shows &#8220;Lake Ontario.&#8221; MapQuest said it won&#8217;t adopt the new name at all, instead rolling out a tool letting users rename the lake to whatever they choose.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
We&#8217;re not changing the name of Lake Ontario. Name it whatever you want at your leisure: <a href="https://t.co/E2I0Ezd57W">https://t.co/E2I0Ezd57W</a>
(tag us so we can see your work 🙂) <a href="https://t.co/x8lIAMt6ab">pic.twitter.com/x8lIAMt6ab</a>
— MapQuest (@MapQuest) <a href="https://x.com/MapQuest/status/2093069649713733725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The lake, the smallest of the Great Lakes, sits on the border between New York and Ontario, with its surface area split roughly 52% Canada and 48% U.S., though the White House has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/08/28/nx-s1-5946811/trump-signs-order-renaming-lake-ontario-to-lake-america">noted</a> that most of its volume and its deepest sections lie on the American side.
Canadian officials have rejected the rebranding. Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X that the lake &#8220;is called Lake Ontario — today and forever,&#8221; noting the name predates both the Canadian Confederation and U.S. independence. Ontario Premier Doug Ford <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/ap-ontario-premier-answers-trumps-lake-america-with-giant-lake-ontario-sign/">unveiled a bilingual lakeside sign</a> reading &#8220;Lake Ontario — Now and Always&#8221; on Saturday, and compared the renaming to a Saturday Night Live bit during a Sunday <a href="https://abcnews.com/Politics/week-transcript-8-30-26-ontario-premier-doug/story?id=136055988">appearance</a> on ABC&#8217;s This Week, while urging the two countries to negotiate an end to their trade standoff.
Domestically, reaction split along familiar lines. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung celebrated the change, <a href="https://x.com/StevenCheung47/status/2094025164866383979">writing</a> &#8220;It&#8217;s official! LAKE AMERICA on Google Maps.&#8221; New York Governor <a href="https://x.com/GovKathyHochul/status/2093064058589086181">Kathy Hochul</a> and Vermont Governor Phil Scott both criticized the move, with Scott <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-gov-hochul-rejects-trumps-lake-america-renaming-blunt-message">calling</a> it &#8220;petty and disappointing.&#8221;

President Trump Signs Executive Order To Rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America”

Google Maps Complies With Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Order

google maps

lake ontario

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher mocked liberals who were losing their minds over President Donald Trump&#8217;s decision to rename Lake Ontario.
Trump announced the change to &#8220;Lake America&#8221; as his administration squabbles with Canadian leadership over trade and tariffs — and liberals, as Maher pointed out, were quick to claim that the president was not allowed to simply rename things whenever the political whim struck.
&#8220;Trump is so mad at Canada, he renamed Lake Ontario &#8216;Lake America,'&#8221; Maher said, prompting laughs. &#8220;Now I gotta buy a new globe again. It&#8217;s like the fifth time it&#8217;s happened&#8221; — a nod to Trump&#8217;s earlier renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the &#8220;Gulf of America.&#8221;
&#8220;The liberals are very pissed at this,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;They say you can&#8217;t just go around changing things to fit your political agenda. Just ask any Latinx birthing person.&#8221;
Newsbusters Executive Editor Tim Graham laid out a similar argument, telling <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/bill-maher-ridicules-liberals-lake-america-outrage-jab-left-wing-language-police">Fox News Digita</a>l, &#8220;Liberals want to rename all kinds of things to satisfy their urge for wokeness. Just in this decade, they&#8217;ve pulled down all kinds of statues and renamed scads of military bases. What they hate is anything Trump does to add a patriotic pro-America tinge to something which they associate more with his ego than with patriotism. They see red  — as in a red MAGA cap.&#8221;
&#8220;The media routinely genuflect ethnic and LGBTQ pressure groups and their demands to remake the language we&#8217;re all supposed to use. So, they can&#8217;t seriously object to renaming things. They just want to be the only people who get to rename things,&#8221; he said.
Trump&#8217;s beef with Canada stems from trade talks that <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-canada-trade-war-deepens-as-trump-revives-depression-era-trade-tool-whats-at-stake-for-consumers-and-the-midterms-290569">stalled again</a> on Friday, despite reports that a deal was close. The resulting reciprocal tariffs — up to 50% on some goods — also prompted harsh words both from Trump and from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Carney, for example, accused Trump of attempting to destroy Canada&#8217;s automobile industry. Trump responded by labeling Canada &#8220;one of the worst countries in the world to deal with&#8221; and suggesting that Canada wanted the benefits of being a U.S. state without any of the responsibilities.
The Trump administration is relying on a never-before-used provision built into 1930&#8217;s <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senate_Passes_Smoot_Hawley_Tariff.htm">Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act</a> — Section 338 — which allows the president the authority to implement unilateral tariffs of up to 50% based on his determination that the nation against which he&#8217;s levying the tariffs is using policy to &#8220;discriminate&#8221; against the United States.

Bill Maher

Bill Maher Mocks Liberals For Pearl-Clutching Over ‘Lake America’ Name Change

Bill Maher Mocks Liberals For Pearl-Clutching Over 'Lake America' Name Change

bill maher

politics

Some foreigners, and other irrelevant people, complain that Americans don’t care about their tiny, unimportant countries. And of course, that’s true, and for obvious reasons.
Why should we waste our time thinking about some weirdly shaped blotch on the living room globe when they can’t even speak English there like civilized people, and we could be focusing our attention on the mighty and virtuous empire that gave the world all the truly great people in history, like Babe Ruth and the Hardy Boys and Julius Caesar and so on?
But now and then, it is important to hear the latest news about some meaningless hellhole where we might be buying computer parts or killing people or… well, that about covers it, really.
So now, I’d like to catch up on what the Trump administration is doing to achieve our foreign policy goals, whatever the hell they may be.
Let’s begin with the war. This week, the administration announced it was going to unleash financial hell on our enemies by cutting them off from every possible source of income. Then, if that works in Canada, we might try it in Iran as well.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/andrew-klavan-show-ep-1293"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-974735 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now.jpg" alt="" width="1800" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Klavan-watch-now-1536x256.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" /></a>
The Canadians objected to this in that girlishly adorable little petulant way they have, and so our president was forced to teach them a lesson by putting a 50% tariff on their major exports to our country, like hockey sticks and boredom. The Canadians — who really are cute when they’re mad — retaliated by continuing the negotiations in French so no one here could understand what they were saying.
In response, Trump declared he was going to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake Screw You, Canada, whereupon the Canadians broke down and said that if we would just continue to name the lake after them, they would do anything we wanted, so we told them to stop talking with those stupid accents, because it’s just annoying. The deal should be finalized as soon as the White House can find someone who speaks French.
Meanwhile, in Iran, Trump has declared that the Strait of Hormuz is now completely under our control and will be moved to upstate New York and renamed the Strait of Screw You, Canada. The president says the Iranians are only days away from surrendering and admitting this whole Koran business was just a prank to get people to blow themselves up because they thought that would be funny. Trump says the end of the war would have been negotiated long ago, but we killed so many of their leaders that now the only Ayatollah left is a one-legged homosexual, who’s afraid if he steps down, the mullahs will throw him off a building before they find out about the whole fake Koran thing.
Finally, in the most shocking development concerning tiny little foreign people, the spare prince of England and his wife what’s-her-name have announced they are leaving the United States and returning to wherever England is because they thought they would be famous here, but instead no one cares about them.
The reaction in the U.S. was muted because no one cares about them, but in England, it was a different story. Due to one of their quirky, primitive indigenous superstitions, many people in England still believe it’s a real place and the things that happen there matter.
So The Daily Wire sent a reporter to London to gauge the reaction of the population and also pick up some Indian take-out. Our reporter interviewed one typical Englishman on the street, asking him, “How do you feel about the return of the spare prince and what’s-her-name?” The man replied, “Allahu Akbar,” then brandished a knife and chased our reporter around the Cupid statue in Piccadilly Circus, which disappointingly turned out to be just another street without any dancing elephants or acrobats like a real circus would have. Our reporter did manage to escape the attacker and ask another typical Englishman for his response, and the man replied with typical English honesty, “Allahu Akbar,” and ran him over with a truck.
So that’s the roundup of news from meaningless foreign places. If you’d like to learn more about countries that aren’t America, just write in and let us know, and we’ll have you deported.

Trump Renames Lake Ontario To ‘Lake Screw You, Canada’ In Brutal Diplomatic Victory

iran

prince harry

satire

In preparation for the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation sent a memo to its staff with instructions on how to refer to the 2001 terrorist attacks — specifically, not to call the events terrorist attacks.
“Do not refer to September 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo read. “The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed.”
The memo was attributed to “BB” — identified by the Toronto Sun as Basem Boshra, the senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News.
Rachael Thomas, a conservative member of Canada’s Parliament, slammed the outlet’s memo and argued it was attempting to rewrite its southern neighbor’s history. “Refusing to call it an act of terrorism dishonours the victims, their families, the survivors, and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day,” she wrote on X. “Trying to sanitize or rewrite that history is deeply offensive and does a disservice to everyone who was affected by the attacks.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) reacted in a post on X, writing, “Maybe we shouldn’t call Canada a ‘friendly country.’&#8221;
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) offered a similar take, adding, “Wow, The Canadian Broadcast Center told staff NOT to call 9/11 a terrorist attack. 9/11 is one of the darkest days in our history — nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered by terrorists. Say the word terrorism.”
In a statement defending the outlet, CBC director of public affairs Kerry Kelly pointed to a 2023 editor&#8217;s blog that argues using labels like “terrorist attacks” would make the outlet appear less impartial.
“Our focus is to report the facts of such atrocities with accuracy, clarity and detail; to convey the scale and scope of violent acts wherever they occur; to quote the people affected, and to convey the views of officials and experts on these events. We bear witness,” CBC Editor-in-Chief Brodie Fenlon wrote in the blog. “But CBC News does not itself designate specific groups as terrorists, or specific acts as terrorism, regardless of the region or the events, because these words are so loaded with meaning, politics and emotion that they can end up being impediments to our journalism.”
CBC <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/guantanamo-khalid-sheik-mohammed-trial-date-9.7322450">published</a> an article Thursday titled, “Khalid Sheik Mohammed, accused of masterminding 9/11 attacks, set for military tribunal trial in 2028.” The word “terrorist” appeared only once in the article — in a description of Al-Qaeda that read, “Al-Qaeda, which the U.S. designated a terrorist entity in 1999, claimed responsibility for the attacks.”

September 11

News Outlet Tells Staff Not To Call 9/11 A ‘Terrorist Attack’

canadian broadcasting corporation

media bias

world

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” as his trade battle with Canada continues to escalate.
Trump called reporters into the Oval Office to announce the move, while the White House made the name change official in a social media post.
“EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Lake Ontario is renamed to LAKE AMERICA!” the White House wrote.
The move is a direct swipe at Canadian political leaders, whom Trump criticized during his Oval Office gaggle with reporters.
“They’re nasty people,” Trump said of Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “But they treat us very badly. Canada treats us very badly. I would say that of all countries, as you know, we have — President Xi coming in a couple of weeks — we deal with a lot of people.”
“They’ll ask me, who’s the worst to deal with on trade? And I said, that’s easy. Canada. They are the worst to trade!” he added. “They feel entitled, and we can’t have that.”
The president first floated the idea earlier this week, posting on Truth Social that he was considering a total name swap for one of North America’s iconic Great Lakes.
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,” Trump declared on his social media network
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-is-coming-for-another-name-on-americas-map">renaming mirrors</a> Trump’s executive action during his second term, where he directed federal agencies to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” His latest move to reshape the map follows an escalating trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration slapped a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-canada-us-trade-war-293908564c7a381ea58a61db6e9a8517">50% tariff</a> on over 550 distinct Canadian imports under a Great Depression-era trade law. The tariff hits everything from basic household staples like toilet paper, makeup, and honey to furniture, paint, smartphones, hockey sticks, and Christmas decorations.
In response to the $20 billion hit on exports, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised “dollar for dollar” retaliatory tariffs kicking off next month targeting American steel, agricultural machinery, and electronics.
The feud quickly spiraled, with Trump slamming Ford and Carney, <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117151799569745572">writing</a> on Truth Social: &#8220;Lots of “bluster” from Doug Ford, who is the Premier of the Canadian Province of Ontario, but who is better known as the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford,” Trump said. 
“America has been carrying Canada for decades, but no longer! The U.S.A. will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada. Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive,” he added. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Lake Ontario is renamed to LAKE AMERICA! 🇺🇸 <a href="https://t.co/ZFww8PexiW">pic.twitter.com/ZFww8PexiW</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2093027464545018109?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

CANADA-G7-SUMMIT-DIPLOMACY

Trump Officially Renames Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’

doug ford

A 68-year-old man is in custody on an arson charge after a historic Catholic church in eastern Canada was reduced to ashes on Monday.
Gilles Mallet of Saint-Simon, New Brunswick, was arrested Monday after the blaze consumed Saint-Simon Catholic Church, a more than century-old landmark on the Acadian Peninsula. In its <a href="https://rcmp.ca/en/nb/news/2026/08/4356298">news release</a> announcing the arrest, New Brunswick RCMP said the Office of the Fire Marshal had determined the fire was intentionally set.
The church was unoccupied when the fire began. Firefighters responded shortly after 4 a.m., but flames had already spread through the sacristy and into the roof. The building was ultimately declared a total loss, while four neighboring homes suffered heat damage. No one was injured. 
Mallet appeared in Bathurst Provincial Court on Monday and was remanded into custody. His bail hearing is scheduled for Friday.
The destruction devastated a community that regarded the wooden church as far more than a place of worship. Caraquet Mayor Bernard Theriault <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fire-saint-simon-church-wood-9.7318148">said</a> the church was the last major institution in Saint-Simon that had been built by and for the community.
“It was a gathering place — it was the soul and the heart of Saint-Simon,” local resident Monica Albert Légère told <a href="https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/americas/suspect-arrested-for-arson-in-burning-of-historic-catholic-church-in-new-brunswick-canada">EWTN News</a>. 
Bishop Michel Proulx of Bathurst called the destruction an “immeasurable loss,” remembering the baptisms, weddings, and funerals celebrated there across generations. The church, started as a mission in 1910 and completed in 1918, was the largest remaining wooden church in New Brunswick.
Although authorities have not connected Monday&#8217;s fire to any broader trend or publicly identified Mallet&#8217;s motive, the destruction comes after years of elevated arson attacks against religious institutions across Canada. 
A <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/scorched-earth-a-quantitative-analysis-of-arson-against-canadian-religious-institutions-and-its-threat-to-reconciliation/">2025 study</a> by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute found that arson attacks against religious institutions more than doubled in 2021 compared with the pre-2021 baseline and have not substantially declined since.
The surge coincided with a national controversy that began with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-mass-graves-hoax-is-officially-dead-and-no-one-will-be-held-accountable">now-debunked claims of unmarked graves</a> at former Indigenous residential schools, many of which had been operated by Catholic institutions. The claims generated intense public anger and were followed by a wave of attacks on churches.
Updated Statistics Canada data <a href="https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/residential-school-burials-controversy-continues-to-fuel-wave-of-church-arsons-new-data-suggests-edgardo-sepulveda-for-inside-policy/">released</a> in 2025 showed that arsons at religious institutions remained high in 2024, at nearly twice the baseline level recorded before 2021. Of 306 arsons at religious institutions from 2021 through 2024, 53 resulted in charges.
The report called for a more coordinated approach to investigating arsons at religious sites, including greater cooperation among police and fire authorities and improvements to Indigenous police and fire services.
Authorities have not said whether Mallet&#8217;s alleged actions were motivated by religion or connected to the increase in church arsons. The investigation remains ongoing.

BURNING-CHURCH

108-Year-Old Catholic Church Burns To The Ground, Man Charged With Arson

catholic church

church arson

new brunswick

A new report is warning that Muslim Brotherhood-aligned networks have embedded themselves across the Canadian government, charities, and universities, raising concerns about the influence of Islamist organizations within the country’s democratic institutions.
The 195-page <a href="https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/An-Assault-on-Canadian-Democratic-Values-and-Principles.pdf">report</a>, published by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), examines what it describes as “Islamist entryism” in Canada and identifies connections between Muslim Brotherhood-aligned organizations and institutions ranging from universities and student groups to political advocacy and charitable groups.
“Canada’s challenge is not simply the presence of individual extremist voices or isolated institutional weakness,” Charles Asher Small, ISGAP’s executive director, told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/muslim-brotherhood-linked-networks-embedded-across-canadian-institutions-new-report-alleges">Fox News Digital</a>. “The report maps how interconnected ideological networks acquire legitimacy, institutional access, public funding, political influence, and protection from scrutiny.”
The report, titled “Assault on Democratic Values and Principles: How Islamist Entryism Weakens Civil Society and Higher Education in Canada,” argues that the organizations it examined should not be viewed as isolated entities, but as components of a broader network operating across multiple sectors. 
One of the report’s principal areas of focus is the Muslim Association of Canada, a large nonprofit organization based in Mississauga that operates mosques, community centers, schools, and educational programs. ISGAP alleges that leaders of the organization have been “directly or indirectly” associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and argues that those relationships warrant scrutiny of the organization’s activities and institutional influence.
The Muslim Association of Canada disputes the allegations.
“The ISGAP report is nothing more than recycled Islamophobic tropes dressed up as research,” the organization told Fox News Digital. “It is a biased, unsubstantiated hit piece that relies on discredited allegations that were themselves challenged by the Ontario Superior Court for their apparent bias.”
The organization also said that a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) audit had been completed and that “preliminary questions raised around any links to the Muslim Brotherhood were dismissed from the CRA’s final conclusion.”
The CRA previously raised concerns about potential Muslim Brotherhood connections during an audit of the Muslim Association of Canada. The organization denied the allegations and accused the agency of “systemic bias” and Islamophobia. The CRA ultimately did not revoke the organization’s charitable status.
The report divides what it describes as the Brotherhood-linked strategy into four overlapping areas: narrative development, institutional embedding, political mobilization, and what ISGAP calls “legal framework manipulation.”
According to ISGAP, the first involves shaping public discourse surrounding Islam, Islamism, the Palestinian cause, Israel, and accusations of Islamophobia. The second involves establishing connections across mosques, charities, schools, universities, student organizations and advocacy groups. The third involves translating those institutional relationships into political activity, including coalition building, relationships with policymakers, and electoral mobilization. The fourth involves the use of litigation, procedural challenges, and reputational pressure to respond to scrutiny. 
ISGAP points to the “Vote Palestine” campaign during the 2025 Canadian election cycle, which it says secured endorsements from 344 candidates across four political parties.
The report also examines relationships among Muslim Students’ Association chapters, Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Palestinian Youth Movement. The Muslim Students’ Association was established in 1963 by individuals associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and is referenced in a 1991 document known as the Brotherhood’s “Explanatory Memorandum.” MSA National says it now has chapters at more than 600 colleges and universities across North America.
ISGAP alleges that the organizations have collaborated and references support and resources provided by American Muslims for Palestine, whose leadership has included individuals associated with organizations identified as part of a Hamas-support network during the federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation. The report also examines foreign funding of Canadian universities, particularly funding connected to Qatar. 
ISGAP argues that the combination of foreign funding, university partnerships, and organizations it identifies as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s broader ideological network warrants greater transparency and scrutiny. Additionally, the group called on Canada to coordinate with the United States in addressing what it describes as Muslim Brotherhood-linked networks operating across North America.
The findings come as the Muslim Brotherhood itself has faced increasing scrutiny from the U.S. government. In January, the Treasury Department <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0357">designated</a> the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the organization as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. In July, the administration <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0572">sanctioned</a> a senior Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood official whom Treasury accused of helping finance Hamas’ military wing.
“The Trump administration will relentlessly pursue terrorists and those who finance them,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote. “Whether operating under the guise of charities, businesses, or underground financial networks, those who enable Hamas will be exposed, sanctioned, and held accountable.”

Rally ‘Stop Genocide Now’ Held In Edmonton

Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Networks Embedded Just Across U.S. Border, Report Warns

hamas

institute for the study of global antisemitism and policy

muslim association of canada

muslim brotherhood

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President Donald Trump took his ongoing battle with Canada to new heights today, posting on <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117155789874645152">Truth Social</a> that the White House is eyeing a total name swap for one of North America’s iconic Great Lakes.
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&#8220;The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to doing much business with Ontario any longer,&#8221; Trump declared on his social media network.
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The renaming threat mirrors Trump&#8217;s executive action during his second term, where he directed federal agencies to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the &#8220;Gulf of America.&#8221; His latest Great Lake comes amid a trade war with the United States’ northern neighbor.
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<div>
Over the weekend, the Trump administration slapped a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-canada-us-trade-war-293908564c7a381ea58a61db6e9a8517">50% tariff</a> on over 550 distinct Canadian imports under a Great Depression-era trade law. The tariff hits everything from basic household staples like toilet paper, makeup, and honey to furniture, paint, smartphones, hockey sticks, and Christmas decorations.
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In response to the $20 billion hit on exports, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney promised &#8220;dollar for dollar&#8221; retaliatory tariffs kicking off next month targeting American steel, agricultural machinery, and electronics.
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<div>
The feud quickly spiraled, with Trump slamming Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Carney, <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117151799569745572">writing</a> on Truth Social:
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<blockquote>
Lots of “bluster” from Doug Ford, who is the Premier of the Canadian Province of Ontario, but who is better known as the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late, great, Rob Ford. &#8230; Without the United States, Canada couldn’t survive — It’s where they get all of their money and, because of their current bad leadership, primarily Governor Carney, and his Flunky, Ford, they will not be allowed to keep taking advantage of the United States.
Someone should get these clowns to “fall in line” or, the consequences for Canada will be far WORSE! Canada’s Unemployment Rate is now at 10%, and rapidly rising. Their businesses are fleeing for the United States, and it’s all because of their failed policies, and inept leadership! The days of ripping off our Farmers, and other Businesses, are OVER!</blockquote>
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Ford shot back during a televised appearance, declaring, “Bring it on, buddy. I’m ready. Bring it on. You know something? I’ve dealt with guys like you my whole life. And guess what? You all become losers because you’re a loser.” He warned that Ontario could pull the plug on clean electricity and vital mineral exports to the U.S. if Washington doesn&#8217;t back down.
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Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/live/trump-economy-news-updates-08-24-2026#000001a0-3412-d56c-a3e1-bf9bcf470000">responded</a> by threatening to expand the massive 50% import levies directly to Canadian-made automobiles, auto parts, and steel by early 2027.
</div>

President Trump Holds Campaign Rally With Darline Graham In Myrtle Beach

Trump Is Coming For Another Name On America’s Map

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