Trump live: Carney set for tariff talks after White House labels Canada ‘socialist’

Ahead of Mark Carney’s first face-to-face meeting as Canadian prime minister with Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday, he played down the idea of any immediate breakthroughs.

The high-stakes head-to-head between the two leaders comes after Trump’s antagonistic posturing toward Canada – including repeated annexation threats and the imposition of sweeping 25 percent tariffs.

“Do not expect white smoke out of that meeting,” Carney said in French in his first press conference as prime minister Friday, referring to the signal the Vatican sends to indicate a new pope has been selected.

Carney is expected to make a bid for a comprehensive deal on trade and national security, while hoping to reset frayed U.S.-Canada relations.

“Our focus will be on both the immediate trade pressures, and the broader future economic and security relationship between our two sovereign nations,” he added.

“My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada. We will take all the time necessary-but not more-to do so.”

President Donald Trump has dismissed criticism surrounding AI-generated images of himself, including one depicting him as the pope, that were posted on social media.

Trump characterized the images as harmless jokes, but communications experts disagree.

The AI-generated images, which surfaced over the weekend, show Trump in papal vestments and wielding a red lightsaber reminiscent of Star Wars villains.

These posts appear consistent with Trump’s provocative style, often used to energize supporters and antagonize critics.

James Oliphant and Steve Holland have more:

Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that Harvard University would no longer be eligible for any new federal grants in a blistering letter shared to social media on Monday evening.

In the letter addressed to Alan Garber, the president of Harvard, McMahon accused of “disastrous mismanagement.”

“This letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek grants from the federal government, since none will be provided,” she wrote.

The White House has previously threatened to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status and its eligibility to host foreign students. The administration had announced last month a freeze of more than $2 billion in federal funds committed to the nation’s oldest university, which are likely to last well into the summer.

Further light has been shed on Donald Trump’s desire to impose tariffs on foreign-made films, with Jon Voight reportedly providing the president with a partial roadmap to aid the Hollywood film industry.

On Sunday, Trump took to social media to brand foreign film production a “National Security threat.”

Details about the controversial plan have been scarce following Trump’s rant, but Deadline has now reported that a team comprised of Voight, special adviser Steven Paul, and SP Media Group/Atlas Comics president Scott Karol has submitted a proposal to Trump at his Mar-A-Lago resort, detailing how film production in the US can be boosted.

Greg Evans has more:

On his first day back in office, Donald Trump issued full commutations and pardons for more than 1,500 supporters charged with crimes connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Mike Pence, who was evacuated from the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riots, said that Trump’s act of clemency “sent the wrong message.”

“I was deeply disappointed to see President Trump pardon people that engaged in violence against law enforcement officers on that day,” Pence, who had received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for defying Trump’s calls to help overturn the result of the 2020 election.

“The President has every right under the Constitution to grant pardons, but in that moment, I thought it sent the wrong message.”

After Trump continued to claim that the results of the 2020 election were “rigged,” Pence repeatedly told Trump that there was no evidence of fraud to alter the election’s outcome, according to a filing by special counsel Jack Smith late last year.

But Trump ignored his vice president, and at a rally on January 6, 2021, urged his supporters to “fight like hell” in order to “stop the steal.” Later that day, his followers stormed the Capitol to try to overturn the election results.

Phone logs revealed in Smith’s filing show that once back at the Oval Office, Trump tweeted: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”

While storming the Capitol, some rioters were heard chanting: “Hang Mike Pence.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that he is skeptical of striking a U.S.-Canada trade deal, calling the Canadian government a “socialist regime.”

“I mean, this is really complex, because they have been basically feeding off of us for decades upon decades upon decades, right?,” he told Fox Business Monday, a day before Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was due at the White House for his highly anticipated first meeting with Donald Trump.

“They have their socialist regime, and it’s basically feeding off of America, I mean, the president calls it out all the time. Why do we make cars in Canada? Why do we do our films in Canada? Come on,” Lutnick continued.

“So, I think … it’s going to be a fascinating meeting, I’m glad I’m going to be there listening, but it’s going to be a fascinating meeting tomorrow. I just don’t see how it works out so perfect.”

The conditions that families in Gaza are being forced to endure are beyond what any of us could imagine in our worst nightmares, and the world has greeted that unprecedented suffering with a shrug, writes Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew.

Famine is stalking the population after Israel decided two months ago not to allow any aid into the besieged, blasted Strip, which is just 26 miles long and home to 2.3 million people.

Now, that bloody reality is only going to become more apocalyptic if Israel goes ahead with plans to dramatically expand its operations, as Israeli officials have said.

The plans echo Mr Trump’s own outlandish plans in the past that the Palestinians be forced out of Gaza to allow the US to turn the enclave into a “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Read more:

As the number of measles cases approaches four figures across 29 states, Mike Pence shared his “concerns” over Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a known vaccine skeptic, and his handling of the outbreak.

“Measles is a very serious disease, particularly for small children. And we should send no message across America other than to encourage parents at the time that young children are able to be vaccinated to get that measles vaccine,” Pence told CNN’s Kailin Collins Monday.

“It’s a completely preventable disease, and I do have concerns that we have a secretary at HHS who has had a lifetime career of undermining public confidence in vaccines. We should have the opposite.”

Newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to the White House on Tuesday for his highly anticipated first meeting with Donald Trump, with the pair expected to discuss tariffs, economic issues and national security.

The high-stakes head-to-head comes against a backdrop of Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada – in doing so, pledging to turn its leader into the “governor” of what he hopes to make the 51st U.S. state – and the imposition of sweeping 25 percent tariffs in violation of a free trade agreement.

Carney said he is going to Washington to “get the best deal for Canada” and to address the “immediate trade pressures.”

Trump, however, attempted to play down the meeting. “I’m not sure what he wants to see me about,” he told reporters Monday. “I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does.”