Canadian anger reaches fever pitch over Trump’s tariff war

▪ Jeffries, Kushner meet ahead of midterms

Canada’s political leaders have united to rally the country against President Trump in a brewing trade war after Prime Minister Mark Carney walked away from talks on Friday just hours before new 50 percent tariffs took effect.

Carney told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa that his government will “match Washington’s new tariffs dollar for dollar.” Retaliatory tariffs are set to take effect on Sept. 8.

Carney said he broke off negotiations reluctantly because he knows the tariffs will result in higher costs for Canadians.

“But at the same time, we take this step confident that it is in the best interest of Canada,” he said.

“You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” Carney added. “We cannot accept what they’ve offered and we will not give what they’ve asked.”

Canadian politicians across the political spectrum have backed Carney’s move, including opposition leader Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party.

“Canadians must stand united to defend our country against these unfair attacks on our jobs and businesses,” he wrote on the social platform X after talks broke down. “Canada cannot accept one-sided tariffs that will deindustrialize our country. Nor can we accept a bad deal. Instead, we must continue the fight for tariff-free trade.”

Provincial premiers struck a similar note.

“I’m sure there is a desire to get back to the table, but we should recognize that the Trump administration and the president are deeply flawed. He’s got two more years left in office. We should be prepared to duke it out for two years. And then hopefully sanity will return to America,” Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told reporters .

“It will be painful, but we have a strong, vibrant, diversified economy,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford , who has led Canada’s opposition to Trump’s trade policies.

“We have to use every tool in our toolbox to make sure as Donald Trump is trying to inflict pain on every Canadian that we inflict pain right back,” he added in remarks to reporters.

Conservative Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressed concern about the impact of a trade war but said the U.S.’s terms in negotiations were “untenable” for Canada to accept.

Trump is not enjoying similar unity behind his trade policies, which have been among the most controversial aspects of his second term.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who is in the midst of a tough reelection battle, urged the administration to “consider the negative impact” of engaging in a trade war with Canada. She said the tariffs would result in higher costs for Mainers.

“Ever since the tariffs were first announced, I have heard from many businesses, farmers, and lobstermen concerned about the cost of navigating the tariffs, the lack of domestic supply chains, and the likely imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Canada,” she said in a post on X . “I urge both sides to return to the negotiating table.”

Democrats were predictably furious over the development, with figures including Sen. Amy Klobuchar , who is running for governor of Minnesota, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warning that prices would go up for U.S. consumers.

The U.S. and Canada had seemed to be approaching a deal that would stave off the 50 percent tariffs from going into effect on more than $20 billion worth of Canadian goods through much of last week.

The tariffs affect a wide range of goods, including wine, cement, plywood, furniture and hockey sticks.

Carney said “significant progress” was made in recent weeks but accused the U.S. of seeking to change the terms at the last minute.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer argued in an interview with The New York Times that the U.S. proposal would have given Canada the most preferential treatment of any trading partner.

He said the Trump administration would have eliminated a 10 percent tariff on softwood lumber and reduce a 25 percent tariff on cars that were imposed last year. He said the U.S. also offered to lower tariffs on metals, including steel and aluminum.

Carney said at the press conference that Canada agreed to many U.S. demands, including lifting various retaliatory tariffs and convincing Canadian provinces to lift bans on the sale of U.S. liquor. But he said the U.S. refused to include exemptions for some Canadian trucks and subsidies for French culture.

Trump showed no signs of backing down Sunday, alleging Canada wants the “benefits of being a state, without being one.”

“They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!!” he said on Truth Social.

▪ The Hill : Sean Duffy says Carney will ‘come to the table.’

▪ Politico : Inside the 72 hours that cratered the U.S.-Canada deal.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has called off settlement talks with Paramount over the state’s lawsuit against its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Bonta, one of 12 state attorneys general suing the company, accused Paramount of leaking details of a meeting they held Friday and misrepresenting the talks.

U.S. Southern Command carried out an airstrike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the East Pacific, the first known such strike in two months. Southcom said two people were killed in the attack. More than 200 people have been killed over the past year and a half of U.S. strikes in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Sean Grayson, the former sheriff’s deputy convicted of fatally shooting Sonya Massey at her home in Illinois in 2024, has died in prison at age 32 after just six months into his 20-year sentence. He was previously denied early release as he was suffering from advanced colon cancer.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, on July 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana )

MEETING OF THE MINDS : House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met in private in recent weeks to discuss possible areas of common ground, five people with knowledge of the meeting told The New York Times .

The meeting is being interpreted as a sign of the administration’s acknowledgement of the likelihood that Democrats win back control of the House in November.

The Decision Desk HQ forecast model currently gives Democrats roughly a 2 in 3 chance of winning a majority this fall.

Two people told the Times that Jeffries and Kushner discussed housing, immigration and the cost of living as potential areas of progress, and Kushner suggested Jeffries could meet with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles .

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) downplayed the significance of the meeting during an appearance on Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing,” noting that Kushner doesn’t have an official position within the administration. Kushner has served as an informal envoy for the president in talks to end the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran.

Trump and Jeffries have often clashed since the president’s return to officer. However, Trump told Punchbowl News earlier this month that he believes Jeffries is a “nice guy” with whom he could do business.

The Times reported that Kushner has told Trump’s advisers that if any bipartisan accomplishments are to get done in Congress, Jeffries, a fellow New Yorker, is the most serious person among Democratic leaders.

▪ The Hill : ‘Shocking’ fake poll firm puts industry under the microscope.

▪ The Hill : ‘Radical’ has become the political word of the summer.

‘D-DAY’ ARRIVING : Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Monday will be economic “D-Day” for Iran as Trump has vowed to inflict maximum economic pressure on the country to force it to agree to end the war.

“Their economy is in shambles. And they’re still dangerous. So, the president’s right to focus on it. And now he’s going even further economically. And as you said, tomorrow is D-Day for the economy in Iran,” Barrasso said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

The Trump administration’s main tool for the economic offensive is the use of secondary sanctions, in which the U.S. will penalize foreign nations, banks and businesses that work with Iran economically.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is scheduled to reveal the full details of the plan at a press conference today.

“We are now entering the endgame,” Bessent wrote on X, teasing an article he wrote for The Financial Times . “At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.”

Iran has warned its neighbors in the region against joining the U.S. in an “economic war” against Tehran, saying it will “retaliate in a seismic manner” if Trump takes action.

▪ The Hill Insider : Trump’s ‘economic D-Day’ on Iran puts China in the crosshairs.

▪ The Hill : Mike Pence says more U.S. strikes against Iran ‘inevitable.’

▪ PBS : Iran’s president says U.S. memorandum is best way out of war.

RUNWAY CLEAR : The Trump administration has begun deportation flights of migrants previously protected under temporary protected status (TPS) after the last roadblock was lifted.

A federal judge lifted the final stay that barred immigration authorities from carrying out deportations to Ethiopia last week, the last of various court cases from TPS recipients challenging the elimination of their protections.

There are 13 countries formerly part of TPS that past administrations deemed not stable enough because of civil unrest or natural disasters to safely return migrants. Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill’s Insider that the designations for four other countries still part of TPS are set to expire soon, meaning more than 1.3 million migrants either have or will likely soon lose their protected status.

“Effectively, this signals the end of the program,” Nayna Gupta , policy director at the American Immigration Council, told Beitsch.

The moves come after the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that courts didn’t have the power to review the administration’s decision to end protections for citizens of Haiti and Syria.

▪ The Hill : Florida Republican ‘working’ with Haiti to stabilize government.

▪ The Hill : Federal judge rules against Trump’s 75-country visa ban.

The president will participate in a Rose Garden event at 2:30 p.m. He will participate in two telerallies at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

The House will convene at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session.

The Senate will meet at 12:30 p.m. for a pro forma session.

Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) arrives for new member orientation check-in and program registration in Washington, Nov. 13, 2022.

HURRY UP : Democrats and Republicans are calling on the House Ethics Committee to move more expeditiously in its investigations into members accused of sexual misconduct or domestic violence.

The probes into Reps. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), Max Miller (R-Ohio) and Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) have dominated headlines for weeks and left the public in limbo as the latter two are seeking reelection in November. Mills was defeated in his primary last week.

“One of the long-standing problems of House Ethics investigations is that they simply take too long — staff, the public, and the Members need the investigations and reporting to be quicker and responsive,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fern ández (D-N.M.), the chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, told The Hill’s Sudiksha Kochi .

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) argued on X earlier this month that the current Ethics process has a “massive problem,” saying “slow rolling investigations to protect party members is not due process. It is a cover up.”

The Democratic Women’s Caucus urged the panel to give an update on the status of their investigation into Gomez before the 60-day “blackout period” ahead of Election Day, which starts at the end of next week.

House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told Bloomberg in April that the panel would be “receptive” to changes to speed up investigations.

▪ The Washington Post : The police investigation into how Miller’s daughter got hurt.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky looks on during his meeting with President Trump on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NOT NOW : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a call from his former defense chief for the country to hold new elections, saying that doing so during wartime would “split Ukraine apart.”

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for an election last week in the aftermath of his firing from his role overseeing the country’s armed forces. Fedorov was popular and credited with helping modernize Ukraine’s forces with new technology and drone warfare, but Zelensky ousted him as Fedorov clashed with Ukraine’s top military commander.

Zelensky told reporters that holding elections now, still in the midst of war with Russia, would “pose enormous risks.”

“I believe elections during a war like this would generally pose enormous risks. Holding elections right now would be a tsunami for the state that would split Ukraine apart,” he said, according to The Associated Press .

Zelensky noted it was not the first such call but said no one has come up with a plan for holding elections safely, legitimately and democratically. Holding elections now would be complicated by the Ukrainian territory and citizens currently under Russian occupation, the Ukrainians who have fled abroad and those currently fighting on the front lines.

Trump and his allies have also previously called for Ukrainian elections, with the president even calling Zelensky a dictator. Ukraine noted the remarks seemed to echo a Russian disinformation campaign.

A presidential election was set to be held in 2024 but was postponed indefinitely amid the war. Zelensky said last year that he wouldn’t seek reelection to a second term after the war ends.

▪ CNN : Russia likely to mobilize 300,000 more troops, Zelensky says.

▪ The Guardian : Russia withdraws ambassador to U.K.

The right to worship shall not be infringed , Anti-Defamation League CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt writes in The Hill.

Virginia may be building a national model for corrections , Jeff Bennett writes in The Hill.

Kyle Kirkwood poses for a photo after winning the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix auto race in Washington, on Aug. 23, 2026.

And finally … IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood won the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, capping off the summer of semiquincentennial events.

Kirkwood led the pack for most of the 147 laps, equal to 250 miles total, throughout the streets of the nation’s capital, passing by several key landmarks of the city. The cars reached speeds as high as 180 miles per hour during the race.

First lady Melania Trump took part in a relatively rare interview during the race, sharing how her father got her into racing as she was growing up.

“So, he introduced me to [the] design of the cars and the mechanics, and also the speed, and I loved it, every minute of it,” she said.

The president first called for the race in January, authorizing it with an executive order.