Trump says he's killing trade talks with Canada for 'trying to illegally influence' SCOTUS with anti-tariff ad



President Donald Trump announced late Thursday evening that he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada.

The president — who struck a positive tone about the northern nation during his meeting earlier this month with Prime Minister Mark Carney and signaled a desire to make a deal on steel, aluminum, and energy — indicated that the decision to nix trade talks was in response to "egregious behavior," namely the decision by a provincial government to run TV ads critiquing tariffs south of the border.

'CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!'

"The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs," wrote Trump. "The ad was for $75,000,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts."

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments next month regarding the legality of the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Trump apparently saw the ad earlier in the week, telling reporters on Tuesday, "If I was Canada, I'd take that same ad also. They're actually on television taking ads."

Ontario Premier Doug Ford's office indicated last week that it was spending $75 million on an anti-tariff ad that would air on ABC, Bloomberg, CBS, CNBC, ESPN, Fox News, NBC, Newsmax, and other networks.

Ford noted on Oct. 16, "It's official: Ontario's new advertising campaign in the U.S. has launched. Using every tool we have, we'll never stop making the case against American tariffs on Canada. The way to prosperity is by working together."

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The premier, a staunch critic of the raft of high tariffs Trump has imposed on imports from Canada, reportedly suggested to a crowd of Toronto businessmen last week that he was hoping the ad, which contains audio from former President Ronald Reagan's April 25, 1987, radio address regarding protectionism, would resonate with Republicans.

In his address to the Toronto crowd, Ford cited new research from Yale University's Budget Lab indicating that "consumers face an overall average effective tariff rate of 18.0%, the highest since 1934," and that U.S. tariffs and foreign retaliation would cost American families roughly $1,800 a year in lost income.

"That ad — it's not a nasty ad. It's actually just very factual," said Ford. "Coming from a person like Ronald Reagan, every Republican is going to identify that voice."

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute issued a statement on Thursday, claiming that the ad "misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address, and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks."

A spokesperson for Ford's office denied wrongdoing, telling Canadian state media, "The commercial uses an unedited excerpt from one of President Reagan’s public addresses, which is available through public domain."

Reagan's remarks in Ford's ad all hail from the same five-minute speech in which the former president discussed both America's commitment to free trade and why he felt compelled to impose duties on select Japanese products. Contrary to the suggestion by Ford's spokesperson, the excerpt of the speech that appears in the 60-second ad has been substantially edited with the apparent intent to drive Ford's anti-tariff theme. For example:

  • multiple sentences were cut;
  • one sentence was lifted from its original spot at the outset of the speech and inserted midway through the ad with a "that" apparently swapped out for a "but";
  • another portion, which originally appeared just before the opening remarks heard in the speech, now appears toward the end of the voice-over; and
  • the second-last last line of the original speech — "America's jobs and growth are at stake" — has been moved to serve as a conclusion for the ad.

Below is a transcript of the Reagan voice-over for the ad. The ellipses signal where content was dropped, and those segments lifted from their original context elsewhere in the speech appear in bold:

When someone says, "Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,'' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works — but only for a short time. [But] over the long run such trade barriers hurt every American worker and consumer. ... High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. ... Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs. Throughout the world, there's a growing realization that the way to prosperity for all nations is rejecting protectionist legislation and promoting fair and free competition. America's jobs and growth are at stake.

The foundation indicated it was "reviewing its legal options in this matter" and provided a link to the full speech on YouTube, which is labeled as "unrestricted" for both access and use restrictions.

Trump leaned in to his criticism of Canada and the province's ad on Friday morning, writing, "CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY."

"Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country," continued Trump. "Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer."

Blaze News has reached out to Premier Ford's office for comment.

Canadian state media indicated that Carney's office did not immediately respond to its request for comment.

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'Sabotage': Trump attacks Hawley for pushing bill that would ban congressional and presidential stock trading



Numerous members of Congress have gotten fabulously rich making well-timed investments.

Multiple bills have been introduced in recent years that would ban congressional stock trading, including Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley's Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments Act — the PELOSI Act.

Despite the opposition from his Republican peers — Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), for instance, warned of possible "unintended consequences" — Hawley successfully got the bill through through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

President Trump was none too pleased with his longtime Republican ally in the Senate, suggesting in a strongly worded Truth Social post that Hawley was a "second-tier Senator" being used by Democrats to undermine him in an apparent act of "sabotage."

Hawley reintroduced the PELOSI Act in April, noting, "Americans have seen politician after politician turn a profit using information not available to the general public. It’s time we ban all members of Congress from trading and holding stocks and restore Americans’ trust in our nation’s legislative body."

The name of the bill is a not-so-subtle jab at one of the most brazen alleged insider traders in Congress, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D), whose annual salary is now around $174,000 but who has a net worth of $263.39 million, according to Quiver Quantitative.

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Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Last year, President Donald Trump demanded that Pelosi be prosecuted for alleged insider trading after her husband dumped 2,000 of his shares in Visa — valued at roughly $500,000 — two months before the company was sued by the Department of Justice for allegedly monopolizing the debit markets. Visa stock dropped by 5% following the announcement of the DOJ's civil antitrust suit.

Pelosi is certainly not alone.

In his Blaze Originals documentary, "Bought and Paid For: How Politicians Get Filthy Rich," James Poulos, the host of BlazeTV's "Zero Hour" and the editor at large of Blaze Media, highlighted some of the "most egregious transactions" members of Congress have directly or indirectly pulled off in recent years — like making big investments in defense contractors on the eve of the war in Ukraine — without remorse or consequence.

Around the time of its reintroduction, Trump indicated that he would support such a ban.

However, the bill debated in committee on Wednesday would not just bar lawmakers in Congress and their spouses from buying, selling, or holding individual stocks while in office — it would apply to the American president and vice president as well.

'Members of Congress should be focused on delivering results for their constituents, not returns on investments.'

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he likes the legislation "conceptually," adding that "Nancy Pelosi became rich by having inside information. She made a fortune with her husband, and I think that's disgraceful. So in that sense, I'd like it, but I'd have to really see — you know I study these things very carefully, and this just happened, so I'll take a look at it."

A White House official speaking to the New York Times on the condition of anonymity claimed that Hawley blindsided the president's team with the bill, the original version of which would have reportedly required Trump and Vance to sell off their investments starting in 2027.

Hawley changed the bill so that officeholders would not have to divest until the beginning of their next terms, meaning Trump would be exempt.

— (@)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized the change, suggesting that the prohibition "should apply to everybody or nobody."

Nevertheless, the bill passed committee 8-7 — with all Republicans but Hawley voting in opposition.

After the vote, Hawley said in a statement, "Members of Congress should be focused on delivering results for their constituents, not returns on investments. It's time to find out where members stand. It’s time we restore trust in Congress and ban all members from trading and holding stocks."

RELATED: House Ethics clears GOP lawmaker of insider trading, calls for stock divestments anyway

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Trump subsequently attacked Hawley on Truth Social, writing, "The Democrats, because of our tremendous ACHIEVEMENTS and SUCCESS, have been trying to 'Target' me for a long period of time, and they're using Josh Hawley, who I got elected TWICE, as a pawn to help them. I wonder why Hawley would pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with."

Trump suggested further that Hawley "is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats. It’s a great Bill for [Pelosi], and her 'husband,' but so bad for our Country! I don't think real Republicans want to see their President, who has had unprecedented success, TARGETED, because of the 'whims' of a second-tier Senator named Josh Hawley!"

The president also took issue with Hawley for siding with Democrats against Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott's attempt to add a report of controversial stock trading by Pelosi and her family to the bill — a possible deal-breaker for Democrats — and to add an exemption for the president and vice president.

When asked for comment on whether Trump's view changed in light of Hawley's alteration to the bill, the White House referred Blaze News back to the president's Truth Social post.

A poll conducted in 2023 by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation found that 86% of Americans favored barring members of Congress and their family members from trading stocks. When broken down by political affiliation, 87% of Republican respondents, 88% of Democratic respondents, and 81% of independents supported the proposal.

The poll found that 87% of Americans also supported prohibiting the president, the vice president, and Supreme Court justices from trading stocks in individual companies.

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Stock market CRASH: What does Warren Buffett know that we don't??



Americans woke up on Monday morning to a stock market plunge after a bad day on Friday. The Dow plummeted hundreds of points, Warren Buffett is selling stocks like crazy, and to top it all off, Japan’s stock market had its worst day since 1987’s Black Monday.

Glenn Beck is understandably worried.

“Friday, we had a bad jobs report. We’re still not in a recession; indicators are showing that we’re headed towards one, but the indicators have been wrong before. We are headed towards one; we’re headed for a depression at some point,” Glenn Beck warns.

Glenn is concerned about what this might mean for ordinary Americans and the United States economy and consults financial expert Carol Roth for some advice.

Roth explains that while the Fed did not lower rates, it might be on the table in September.

“Normally, you would say, ‘Okay, the market wants the Fed to cut rates,’ but what happened is then we got a weak job report on Friday, and while sometimes the bad news can be good news for the market, in this case, they took it as bad news,” Roth tells Glenn.

“The Fed was behind the curve in terms of lowering rates,” Roth continues. “They felt like maybe this whole idea of a quote ‘soft landing,’ the idea that you can get the inflation down without wrecking the economy, is off the table.”

However, while it doesn’t look good, Roth says that “if there is any silver lining here,” it’s that the market did not open back up and continue to fall.

But there are still major indicators that something strange is going on, and one of them is Warren Buffett’s recent behavior.

“Another catalyst that we’ve seen is Warren Buffett,” Roth says. “He had lessened his position in Apple by about 49%.”

“That’s not lessening. That’s cutting it in half,” Glenn says. “He’s making some of the biggest sales he’s ever made. It’s almost as if he’s becoming bullish on America. What does he know that we don’t know?”

“Starting in 2019, he doubled down on Japan. So he has five really big companies and really big positions in Japan. So the day that we’re talking about Japan going down and at the same time the U.S. is going down,” Roth says. “It is interesting.”


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GameStop, AMC shares skyrocket after Roaring Kitty returns; Dave Portnoy pumps $1 million into market



A stock trader who goes by the name Roaring Kitty returned to the limelight, sparking a market frenzy around stocks that are considered meme stocks, which are seemingly propped up by the momentum of the internet.

Keith Patrick Gill, aka Roaring Kitty, was known for starting a firestorm in the meme stock category by encouraging a short squeeze on the GameStop (GME) stock in 2021 and then disappearing from the online community.

Gill returned by posting a meme on May 12, 2024, at 8 p.m., and by the next morning, the GameStop stock prices had once again soared.

The meme in question simply showed a person playing a video game and making a motion of leaning in, which is a metaphor for taking things seriously. A nearly identical meme was posted by GameStop in February 2024 with the caption "casual to competitive" on the image.

The morning of May 13, 2024, GameStop shares opened at around $21. Within 24 hours, they nearly quadrupled to around $80.

GME wasn't the only meme stock to see resurgence either.

'Every time I think I'm out they pull me back in!'

None
— (@)

Movie theater AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (AMC) saw similar gains.

AMC opened May 13 at around $3.10, then also approximately quadrupled in 24 hours to over $12.50 per share.

Both of the brands were helped not only by the circulation of the meme and the many memes to follow but by Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy once again injecting himself into the fray.

"You wanna get nuts [Roaring Kitty] let's get nuts!" Portnoy wrote on X. "Every time I think I'm out they pull me back in!" he added.

"Breaking news, I can't f***ing miss a f***ing 50 year storm. You wanna f***ing party, let's f***ing party," Portnoy said in his breaking news video.

The sports brand operator then announced that he was buying $500,000 worth of AMC stock and $500,000 in GameStop stock.

"You wanna know who's on this ship? I'm on this f***ing ship. Let's f***ing go!" he added.

You wanna get nuts @TheRoaringKitty let's get nuts! Every time I think I'm out they pull me back in! #GME #AMC #ddtg
— (@)

Both GameStop and AMC were seen as struggling and nearly extinct franchises in 2021 until Gill gained national attention for his remarks on GameStop. The meme stocks then took on a life of their own through Reddit.

Trading was pushed to its height through the Reddit group Wall Street Bets, along with Portnoy and Gill.

Portnoy even had a very public clash with the CEO of trading app Robinhood over the company's decision to stop trading on GameStop shares.

Robinhood CEO Vladimir Tenev went head to head with Portnoy on Fox News, with Tenev saying his company supports "the little guy."

"We're all about that," he added.

"You did something and gave a huge advantage to the big guy. That is the exact opposite of helping the little guy. You killed the little guy," the Barstool Sports founder came back.

Mainstream stock advisers warned casual traders about this latest trend.

Roaring Kitty "seems to be the most likely suspect for the renewed interest [in the stocks] but I would be careful not to characterize the participants in this phenomenon as investors," Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth told Reuters.

Gill, on the other hand, has seemingly done nothing but post memes and movie clips since the stocks have once again become their own unpredictable entities.

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— (@)

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'We're doomed.' Watch Crowder react to TikTok dance videos



A group of Army soldiers decided to showcase their dance skills in a TikTok video.

On Tuesday's show, Steven Crowder expressed concern after watching a group of female Army soldiers dance in a less than coordinated fashion on TikTok. "We're doomed," he began, adding that the women in the video "are not even good at dancing, which is concerning."

According to Crowder, dancing can indicate the group's overall coordination and teamwork.

"If they [the women in the video] get into a conflict with a potential threat like China and a dance-off settles it, we are still screwed," Crowder said.

Watch the clip to hear more from the conversation. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.


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Top 5 things you didn't know about MLK



Is it really a happy Martin Luther King Day? Today, Steven Crowder presents five facts about the man you may not know. Also, Dana White defends Joe Rogan against 270 "doctors." And a shocking new poll shows just how far Democrats would go if we let them. That and more on Monday's episode of "Louder with Crowder."




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Of Course Pelosi Doesn’t Want Congress Banned From Trading Stocks — She Rakes In Millions From It

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi doesn't want Congress banned from trading stocks because she profits big from her and her husband's investments on a regular basis.