President Donald Trump talks about placing tariffs on Canadian goods.  Ontario Premier Doug Ford talks about “inflicting as much pain as possible on the American people.”  See the difference?   Tell me again how the term “snowmexicans” is insulting.  I digress.

A few thoughts.  First, apparently Doug Ford doesn’t quite understand that tariffs on steel, aluminum and auto imports are not part of the “reciprocity” tariff regime.  They are an entirely different category classified under national security directives to ensure American industrial capacity.

Second, as Canada moves into the “freedom fries” phase, voices like Doug Ford might want to consider the end of this continuum that finds the word “embargo” in the lingo. Perhaps President Trump would consider elevating the conversation to “reciprocity” in the banking sector.  Again, I digress.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announces the Canadian government intention to “inflict as much pain as possible against the American people.”  WATCH:

Canadians just don’t get it.  Meanwhile, as it was within most of the originating negotiations of the USMCA, Mexico smartly stays quiet as stompy feet Canada draws the attention from President Donald Trump.

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Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem goes straight into the heart of the operation where deported criminal gang members are being housed by an agreement with the government of El Salvador.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sends a chilling warning to illegal criminal immigrants entering the United States. On Wednesday, Noem visited the high-security prison in El Salvador that recently received hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Noem was given a tour of the prison by Salvadoran Minister of Justice Héctor Gustavo Villatoro during her visit. The Homeland Security Secretary then met with El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele and is expected to visit Colombia and Mexico next.

“First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed, and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people,” she said.

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Wealthy nations will attempt to maintain exports against President Trump tariffs by subsidizing their industries. Corporations have deeper pockets, and the politicians are used to the bribes, we call it “lobbying.” Therefore, the government responds by subsidizing the corporations [ie. the WEF business model].

Canada will subsidize their export industries, Germany will subsidize their auto industry, the EU will provide subsidies to their manufacturing powerhouses, and China will once again start subsidizing their manufacturing industry. Each of these nations will in turn devalue their currency.

However, poorer nations will be faster to lower import tariffs on USA goods because they have lower lobbying (bribe) income from corporations to govt. That’s what we should expect to see.

VIETNAM – Vietnam said it plans to cut import duties on a range of goods including cars, liquified natural gas and agricultural products.

[…] The announcement on the finance ministry’s website late Tuesday came less than two weeks after Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the country was reviewing duties in order to encourage increased imports from the United States.

Vietnam represents the United States’s third-highest trade deficit, behind China and Mexico.

According to the finance ministry statement, import duties on some cars will be cut by half and the tax rate for liquified natural gas will drop from five percent to just two percent. Duties will also be cut for a number of other products including frozen chicken thighs, almonds, sweet cherries, raisins and wood. (more)

During President Trump’s first term, many companies proactively moved manufacturing operations from China to other nations in Southeast Asia.  Vietnam was a big benefactor of the manufacturing shift.  It is smart for them to respond to the reciprocal tariffs coming April 2nd by lowering their tariff rate.

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During an executive order signing session in the White House today, President Trump announced a major change in tariffs on the auto industry.  [Full Executive Order Here]

The 25% import duty applies on top of any preexisting tariff for cars and light trucks.  The 25% tariff also applies to imported car parts.  The USMCA trade agreement between the U.S. Canada and Mexico still applies.

If the content of a car assembled in Mexico/Canada contains 50 percent component parts from the USA, the 25% tariff only applies to the final value of the imported components. In this example the tariff rate would be 12.5% of the total value.

The tariff applies to all imported cars and light trucks.  Approximately half of all cars sold in the USA are currently American made, the other half are import vehicles from mainly Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Germany.

This is a very big kick in the teeth to Germany.  Previously in a long-term strategy to avoid U.S. tariffs, German automakers invested billions in auto assembly plants in Mexico.  Ex. the BMW parts were shipped from Germany and the cars assembled in Mexico.  Now that investment is worthless as the vehicle will be taxed at a rate of 25% regardless of whether it is assembled in Germany or Mexico.

Ex.2 High end auto Mercedes currently builds SUVs in the USA in order to avoid the previous 25% tariff; however, they still build cars outside the USA and export them into the USA market.  This will likely change quickly, and Mercedes will begin building all cars and SUVs in the USA.

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Yesterday President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting: “Immediate Declassification of Materials Related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.” [ORDER TEXT HERE]

Within the XO President Trump informs the Attorney General (Pam Bondi) the Director of National Intelligence (Tulsi Gabbard), and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (John Ratcliffe), “I have determined that all of the materials referenced in the Presidential Memorandum of January 19, 2021 (Declassification of Certain Materials Related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation), are no longer classified.”

However, there’s an important set of qualifiers.

“I have further determined that the material proposed for redaction by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a cover letter dated January 17, 2021, remains classified.

My decision to declassify the materials described above does not extend to materials that must be protected from disclosure pursuant to orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and does not require the disclosure of certain personally identifiable information or any other materials that must be protected from disclosure under applicable law.” (link)

Caution is warranted.  Yes, there may be a few new items, perhaps a few redactions removed on previously released items, but essentially this is likely be a rehash of assembled component parts we have already discussed at length.  In essence, this sounds like the Mar-a-Lago ten-inch binder content the FBI was previously trying to get back.

There is also a possibility the FISA Court has ordered some materials related to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, sealed by the FISC.  President Trump does not extend his order to these materials.

There is a certain likelihood the CIA holds foreign intelligence equities that tangentially supports the origin of the Crossfire Hurricane targeting.  We already know officials and intelligence operations from the U.K, Australia, Italy and Israel were involved in the 2016 operation against Trump.  President Trump does not extend his order to these materials, because the equity ownership of the classified material rests in the foreign intelligence services.

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President Trump has given remarks supporting National Security Advisor Mike Waltz during an interview with NBC.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump stood by his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, after The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief was accidentally added to a private, high-level chat on the messaging app Signal where military plans were being discussed.

“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC News.

When asked what he was told about how Goldberg came to be added to the Signal chat, Trump said, “It was one of Michael’s people on the phone. A staffer had his number on there.”

Trump said Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” on the military operation.

The president expressed confidence in his team, saying he was not frustrated by the events leading up to The Atlantic’s story. The situation, Trump said, was “the only glitch in two months, and it turned out not to be a serious one.” (more)

The rest of the DC setup is transparently clear.  (1) Goldberg held the story until the day before a long-scheduled Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. (2) The SSCI then used the hearing to blast the heads of the Trump administration intelligence silos on the issue of “classified” information in the text messages.

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According to Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic [SEE HERE], National Security Advisor Mike Waltz invited him to a group chat on the Signal app, where various Trump administration officials and cabinet members were discussing how to address the Houthi rebels in Yemen in advance of military airstrikes.

The media is having a field day with the story, and it does have multiple angles that will unfold in the next several days and weeks. Some media even claiming the story could take down Mike Waltz and/or Pete Hegseth due to the national security implications in the series of events [Politico Here]. However, I wouldn’t go that far at all.

(left, Mike Waltz – right, Pete Hegseth)

Why Mike Waltz would be texting an invite to Jeffrey Goldberg is an issue for later discussion. Generally, given the nature of these things it is not the principal who sets up the text network, usually a top aide or lead staff, which might indicate Waltz’s wife Julia Nesheiwat was involved [SEE WHY], but let’s put that aside.

Goldberg claims “details of war plans” were discussed in the group chat.  Perhaps so, perhaps not.  This specific part of the story is refuted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.  What was discussed and further shared and outlined by Breitbart News [SEE HERE] is a conversation about the strategic reasoning for the U.S. to directly attack the Houthi rebels in Yemen and reopen the sea lanes into and out of the Suez Canal.

The EU and Egypt are the primary beneficiaries of U.S. involvement toward stopping the Houthi terrorists from targeting ships in the region.  Egypt manages the Suez Canal, and obviously there are some strategic U.S. benefits in the region from helping Egypt deal with the Houthi issue.  Specifically, as President Trump seeks to have Egypt, Saudi Arabia and partners help solve the problem in Gaza.

Additionally, most of the shipping through the region is headed to the European Union through the canal.  Reestablishing safe maritime flow of goods economically assists the EU more than any other region.  Again, a point of leverage for the Trump administration as President Trump confronts the issues of EU support for a Ukraine conflict he is trying to resolve.

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Interim installed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has confirmed the snap election for Canada is scheduled for April 28, 2025.

Given that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre generally sealed his fate with criticism of President Trump while aligning himself with a surging patriotic-leftist movement, it is now expected that Mark Carney will win the election.

Politico has an article about the dynamic underway, and the following quotes are noteworthy:

CANADA – […] Trump has even taken credit for turning the Liberals’ fortunes around.

“Before I got involved and totally changed the election — which I don’t care about, probably, it’s our advantage, actually — but the Conservative was leading against, I call him Governor Trudeau. The conservative was leading by 35 points,” he said Friday, while exaggerating the polls.

“I think Canada is a place, like a lot of other places, if you have a good candidate, the candidate is going to work,” Trump said.

[…] Canadians have responded to Trump’s intimidation tactics with an outburst of patriotism. They are canceling spring break plans, buying made-in-Canada products, damaging Teslas and booing “The Star Spangled Banner” at professional sporting events.

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Yesterday, Sunday night, the U.S technical delegation met with representatives from Ukraine to get deeper into specifics of what Ukraine wants for a ceasefire.  The meetings are taking place in Saudi Arabia.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.  Heorhii Tykhyi, foreign ministry spokesperson, said on Friday the Ukrainian and American sides were due “to clarify the modalities, the nuances of possible different ceasefire regimes, how to monitor them, how to control them, in general, what is included in their scope”.

Following the meeting with the Ukrainian delegation who, together with elements of the CIA/EU and NATO – visibly appear to hold a desire to continue the war (and funding therein), the U.S delegation is scheduled to meet with their Russian counterparts today (Monday).

SAUDI ARABIA – […] Trump said on Saturday that efforts to stop further escalation in the Ukraine-Russia conflict were “somewhat under control”. The U.S. hopes to reach a broad ceasefire within weeks, targeting a truce agreement by April 20, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the planning.

Russian and U.S. experts meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday are due to discuss ways to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea, the Kremlin has said.

Despite all the diplomatic activity, Russia and Ukraine have both reported continued strikes, while Russian forces have also continued to advance slowly in eastern Ukraine, a region Moscow claims to have annexed.  (read more)

As soon as details can be worked out, hopefully sooner rather than later, President Trump can then schedule a face-to-face meeting with the unelected leader of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi makes her 69th Fox appearance this year to talk about how the Biden and Congress approval ratings are terrible when contrast against their opposition to President Trump’s deportation program.

As a political pundit Mrs Bondi is an effective communicator as she outlines how Judge Boasberg made her work on weekends.  However, as the head of the United States Dept of Justice, those political skillsets just don’t transfer to legal acumen.  What we end up with is performance #69.  WATCH: 

We worried that AG Pam Bondi would be performative. We didn’t know each performance would be on Fox News.

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