U.S. job growth fuels a market rebound with all major stock indexes on the rise, President Donald Trump orders an end to taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS, and political unrest brews in Canada despite a fresh Liberal Party election win.
It’s Monday, May 5, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2>Trump Touts Economic Comeback</h2>
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Topline: President Trump takes a victory lap as the economy shows signs of improvement. 
After a tumultuous month, stocks are rallying following a better-than-expected jobs report and optimism about trade deals. In the last week or so, markets have taken a bullish turn. On Friday, the DOW, NASDAQ, and S&amp;P 500 all jumped about a point and a half – the S&amp;P saw its ninth straight day of gains, the longest streak in twenty years. Overall, the DOW is now within 2% of where it was when Trump kicked off his &#8220;Liberation Day&#8221; tariffs, while the S&amp;P 500 and NASDAQ are higher than before. Markets have been fickle — there’s always a chance those gains are erased in a day or two — but this is a remarkable recovery so far.
Meanwhile, the April jobs report showed considerably more growth than projected. Economists expected 133,000 new jobs last month, but the number came in at 177,000 — 33% higher. Unemployment also held steady, and hourly wages saw a 4% increase from the same month last year. 
It’s worth noting who those new jobs are going to: Under President Joe Biden, foreign-born workers added nearly four and a half million jobs, but over the same timeframe, the number of American-born workers fell. But in April, the number of foreign-born workers decreased, meaning the net job growth last month was concentrated among workers born in America. Job growth was also concentrated in the private sector, as government employment declined for its third straight month due to the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
Markets also seem to be buoyed by reports that China may be willing to strike a deal with the United States to end the escalating tariff hikes that followed Trump’s Liberation Day announcement last month. Early last week, China was projecting an apparent willingness to dig in for a protracted trade war and weather the economic storm – the Chinese Communist Party said it was prepared to increase payouts for the unemployed, subsidize new housing projects, and incentivize its people to buy more domestic products. But on Friday, we saw our first major sign that Beijing was open to de-escalation, with the country’s commerce ministry saying, “If [The U.S.] wants to talk, our door is wide open.” 
As a sign of that new willingness to strike a deal, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/world/asia/us-china-tariffs-fentanyl.html">Wall Street Journal</a> reported that Beijing is weighing a potential crackdown on fentanyl production as a show of goodwill, and has been reaching out for details on what the White House is looking for on that front.
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<h2>Trump Orders Elimination Of Funding For Public Broadcasters</h2>
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Topline: NPR and PBS threaten legal action after Trump ends their taxpayer funding.
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday to eliminate about $535 million in annual funding to NPR, PBS, and other public media. NPR and PBS vowed to fight the order in court.
President Trump has made it clear for some time that he is no fan of public broadcasting. Recently, he said, “Republicans must defund and totally disassociate themselves from NPR and PBS, the radical left monsters that so badly hurt our country.” He’s also said that taxpayer funding of media networks is “outdated and unnecessary” and “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
In a statement on Friday, Patricia Harris, president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, immediately shot back, saying that the private nonprofit authorized by Congress is not “subject to the President’s authority.” Harris said Congress authorized the funding, so only Congress can revoke it. 
Paula Kerger, president of PBS, also issued a statement calling Trump’s order “blatantly unlawful.” 
“This is probably the most difficult and serious threat in the time that I&#8217;ve been in public broadcasting,” Kerger told PBS News Hour. “This idea that funds that had already been put aside for public broadcasting would be taken away.”
<h2> Oh Canada&#8230;</h2>
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Topline: Canada&#8217;s election season might be over, but the political drama is just beginning. Last week, Mark Carney led his Liberal party to a stunning comeback but <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/federal-election-2025/article/how-did-the-federal-election-change-canadas-representation-in-parliament/">fell just short</a> of a majority.
The Liberal Party of Canada has been in power for nearly ten years. Last week marked its fourth consecutive win, with Mark Carney as Prime Minister.  However, the party isn&#8217;t nearly as popular as that showing would lead you to believe – especially in the “prairie provinces,” where voters favored the conservatives by more than <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/canada/canada-election-2025-how-each-province-voted-liberal-fortresses-and-conservative-strongholds/articleshow/120733997.cms?from=mdr">2:1</a>. Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, was so unpopular that he had to step down to avoid a total electoral blowout. 
The Liberal surge in the polls happened around the same time Trump started floating the idea that Canada should become America’s 51st state. Many Canadians, particularly in Canada’s more densely populated east, rallied around Carney as “the best man to take on Trump,” but recent polling suggests that some Canadians would rather be part of the United States – or their own independent country – than remain in Canada under a Liberal government. According to polling from Angus Reid in early April, three-in-10 voters from Alberta and roughly 1-in-3 from neighboring Saskatchewan said that they would support leaving the country if Carney won – at least 20% in each province would have supported secession even if he lost. 
For reference, Quebec – a province with a large, influential openly separatist party – also reported 30% support for secession from Canada. Québécois separatists have existed for centuries, and the Bloc Québécois has been a major force in Canadian politics for decades. By contrast, Western separatism is younger and less organized, and so far, it has been more of a grassroots phenomenon, but as of now, it appears to be just as intense. 
Canada’s prairie provinces are <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/444816/canada-median-age-of-resident-population-by-province/">younger</a>, <a href="https://economicdashboard.alberta.ca/dashboard/gdp-per-capita/">wealthier</a>, less densely populated, and more dependent on resource extraction – mining, drilling, exporting oil. That’s put them into conflict with the federal government, which has taken steps to restrict the construction of pipelines and refineries. Former Prime Minister Trudeau went so far as to argue for phasing out the production of fossil fuels entirely before Western outcry forced him to walk that position back. Carney has also been a vocal advocate of <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/mark-carney-investing-net-zero-climate-solutions-creates-value-and-rewards">net-zero policies</a> and was a leading figure in the ESG movement (Environmental, Social, and Governance) when he worked in the financial sector. He was also an economic advisor to Trudeau, leading many skeptics to fear his government would be more of the same.
Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith put forward legislation that would significantly lower the signature threshold for citizen-led referendums – as of now, that legislation has been tabled, and Smith and Carney are currently in talks, which are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/smith-carney-first-step-1.7525714">reportedly</a> going well. However, the possibility of secession appears to be a piece of leverage, and as of now, it’s still on the table.

MorningWire-0505

Morning Brief: Trump’s Good And Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis

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On Thursday, President Donald Trump took a step conservatives had been hoping for through many presidencies, issuing an executive order to end the taxpayer subsidization of National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
The directive instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting&#8217;s board of directors to &#8220;cease federal funding&#8221; to both outlets.
In mid-April, the White House released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/the-npr-pbs-grift-has-ripped-us-off-for-too-long/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> delineating its grievances with the two nonprofit public broadcasting organizations, suggesting eliminating taxpayer funding for them.
“For years, American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,’” the report stated.
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For years, Americans have been on the hook for subsidizing NPR and PBS as they spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as “news.”
As <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> has said, funding their biased content is a waste.
🧵 Here are some examples of the trash that passes for “news” at NPR and PBS: <a href="https://t.co/7xlZOKGay1">pic.twitter.com/7xlZOKGay1</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1911929632846213532?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Trump’s executive order <a href="https://x.com/rapidresponse47/status/1918134250236461197?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>: “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB [Corporation of Public Broadcasting] was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence. At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.”
“The CPB&#8217;s governing statute reflects principles of impartiality: the CPB may not ‘contribute to or otherwise support any political party,’” the order continues. “The CPB fails to abide by these principles to the extent it subsidizes NPR and PBS.  Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter. What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens. I therefore instruct the CPB Board of Directors (CPB Board) and all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS.”
In 2021, Katherine Maher, who had just left her position as CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation and later became the CEO of NPR, said at a <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_maher_what_wikipedia_teaches_us_about_balancing_truth_and_beliefs/transcript" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TED talk</a>, “Seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth might not be the right place to start. In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that&#8217;s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.  I think our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting things done.”
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“I think our reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction that is preventing us from finding consensus and getting important things done.”
— Katherine Maher (NPR CEO) <a href="https://t.co/nCfDcyPbtH">pic.twitter.com/nCfDcyPbtH</a>
&mdash; The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1856340038574907449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
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In April 2024, former NPR Editor Uri Berliner published an <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust">essay</a> in which he admitted, “An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don’t have an audience that reflects America. &#8230; At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff.” He continued:
<blockquote>
By my count, NPR hosts <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/03/09/519382847/rep-adam-schiff-on-trumps-wiretapping-claims-and-russia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed Schiff</a> 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports. But when the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/robert-mueller-report-public/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mueller report</a> found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming. &#8230;
In October 2020, the New York Post published the <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/21/hunter-biden-laptop-linked-to-fbi-money-laundering-probe-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explosive report</a> about the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer shop containing emails about his sordid business dealings. With the election only weeks away, NPR turned a blind eye. 
</blockquote>
Berliner wrote of former NPR CEO John Lansing’s attitude in the wake of the death of George Floyd: “In confessional language he said the leaders of public media, ‘starting with me—must be aware of how we ourselves have benefited from white privilege in our careers. We must understand the unconscious bias we bring to our work and interactions.’ &#8230; He declared that diversity—on our staff and in our audience—was the overriding mission, the ‘North Star’ of the organization. &#8230; Race and identity became paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”
He concluded, “What’s notable is the extent to which people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview. And this, I believe, is the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity.”

DOGE Considers Cutting Funding to National Public Radio And The Public Broadcasting Service

Trump Defunds NPR And PBS: ‘No Media Outlet Has A Constitutional Right To Taxpayer Subsidies’

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Morning Brief: Trump’s Good And Bad Economy & Canada In Crisis

Trump Defunds NPR And PBS: ‘No Media Outlet Has A Constitutional Right To Taxpayer Subsidies’