White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing from the Brady Room. The anticipated start time is 11:00am ET with livestream links below.
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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing from the Brady Room. The anticipated start time is 11:00am ET with livestream links below.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio held an extensive press availability on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Manilla. During the questions the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was one of the key areas of focus.
Rubio noted the U.S. was still willing to play a positive and constructive role toward a ceasefire in Ukraine, with the intention of bringing an end to the hostilities and bloodshed. However, Rubio was not willing to discuss details of the private conversation with Lavrov. WATCH:
[Transcript] – SECRETARY RUBIO: All right, what’s up?
QUESTION: Have you made any progress on Ukraine today? Is Russia serious about peace this time?
SECRETARY RUBIO: I mean, you think we settled the war in Ukraine in our 30 minutes here in Asia? That’s not the way it works. Look, we had a good conversation, a frank conversation. I’m not going to tell you what we talked about, because these – diplomacy doesn’t work well when you run to the microphones afterwards. Suffice it to say – I’ll tell you what I told you yesterday. The United States, the President’s been clear that we want – if we can, we are prepared to play a constructive role in bringing about an end to a senseless war. And we’re ready to do that, and we of course expressed that, and we’ve expressed it in other meetings. So we talked about other things as well.
QUESTION: Did you talk to him about Russia sharing information with Iran targeting U.S. troops?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, who says that they are?
QUESTION: Are they not?
SECRETARY RUBIO: Who says they are?
QUESTION: Hegseth acknowledged that Russia was enabling in some ways, both Russia and China.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Yeah, but that’s a different question from what you just asked me. Who said that they were – they’re doing that?
QUESTION: There’s been reporting that there’s – are you —
SECRETARY RUBIO: Reporting in the media?
QUESTION: Yeah.
SECRETARY RUBIO: Oh, then it must be true.
QUESTION: So is it not true?
According to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy {SEE HERE}, he has removed and replaced the entire leadership apparatus of the Ukraine military. This follows his removal of 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov from the defense ministry last week {CITATION} that led to massive protests against Zelenskyy and armed forces Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, who was also eventually replaced.
As the story is told the young Defense Minister Mykailo Fedorov was very well regarded and was the person responsible for the successful technological advancements in military drone use. 35-year-old Fedorov was a close working partner with Palantir head Alex Karp who is assisting Ukraine in their drone development and deployment.
If the drone development and deployment was such a massive success, as pronounced in all western and Ukraine statements, then why would Zelenskyy remove such a critical and effective Defense Minister? This makes no sense.
Additionally, if Chief General Oleksandr Syrskiy was such an effective combatant commander, and if Russia was indeed pushed back on their heels by both Syrskiy’s campaign and Fedorov’s drones, then why would Ukraine disrupt their entire military leadership apparatus while they are winning such well publicized victories. Again, none of this makes sense.
These moves by President Zelenskyy are akin to President Trump firing Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, while saying they were doing an exceptional job on Operation Epic Fury in Iran. See the problem?
None of these moves by Ukraine President Zelenskyy make any sense against the background story of them having incredible success against Russia. You don’t replace the entire military leadership apparatus if things are going swimmingly. However, it seems that no one in western media even fathoms the obvious conflicts in the narrative.
Susan Kokinda from the Promethean Action PAC believes the USMCA tariff and trade issue is not a simple U.S–Canada dispute; rather it’s a broader conflict about U.S. sovereignty vs the British empire.
Kokinda points to how Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is staffing his government with figures tied to the British Crown and globalist institutions: trade minister Dominic LeBlanc also leads King Charles’s Privy Council, new Chief Operating Officer Maia Johnson is an American Democratic operative linked to Clinton and Bloomberg networks, and new the Governor General Louise Arbour comes from UN legal roles associated with the International Criminal Court.
Promethean Action believes that under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Canada is not a nation, it’s the new front for the British Empire, and President Trump’s new Canadian tariffs should be viewed through this prism. WATCH:
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President Donald Trump gives remarks at Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga, on the topic of Trump savings accounts. Livestream Links Below.
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Following discussions at the 2026 ASEAN Summit in Manilla, Philippines, Secretary of State Marco Rubio answers questions from the media on a variety of current issues and events.
Secretary Rubio noted considerable discussions with Chinese officials on the upcoming state visit by Chairman Xi Jinping in September. Additional questions surrounded the ongoing conflict with Iran. WATCH:
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As President Trump’s doctrine continues to unfold, foreign sovereign policy becomes more important. Secretary Rubio notes the importance of high-level contacts and communication between global powers like USA, China and Russia as things unfold.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has a message to President Trump and to all Americans. Premier Ford promises to dismantle the U.S. economy if President Trump continues to threaten tariffs and trade sanctions.
Considering the economy of the USA is ten-times larger than Canada, that’s quite a threat from Premier Doug Ford. WATCH:
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Personally, I think all this back-and-forth banter is no longer worth the surface effort. It would be much easier, and now affirmed as constitutionally appropriate by the Supreme Court, if President Trump just executed a full trade embargo against all Canadian goods for a period of 60-days.
Perhaps that way Canada will recognize just how vulnerable they are. Perhaps not, but it’s worth the effort. Just ban all imports and exports for 60-days and let’s see what happens.
Things are going to escalate very quickly now as the midterm election looms closer and various interests start to take their lane against President Trump and the economic position of the United States. There are trillions at stake.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was asked about the latest Sec.338 tariffs levied by President Trump and USTR Jamieson Greer. Carney said he and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to intensify trade negotiations following a phone conversation earlier this morning.
While the phone call likely did contain that sentiment, USTR Greer was clear on CNBC today that Mark Carney is simply not telling the truth. The babble from the Canadian side is nothing of substance and just repeats the same nonsensical claims about agreeing to things that are not in conflict.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Prime Minister Carney said both sides would step up discussions in the coming weeks despite Trump’s latest tariff threat against Canada. He added that all options remain on the table if the United States proceeds with new tariffs. WATCH:
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Below is how President Trump responded to questions about the motive for the new tariffs.
In the first half of this CNBC interview with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, the Ambassador walks through the reasoning, purpose and intent of the recently announced 50% tariff rate against Canadian imported goods.
As noted by USTR Greer the Canadians are applying two separate metrics within their trade agreement with Europe and the USA. Toward Europe there are no limits and quotas on dairy products, toward the USA there are severe limits and quotas applied by third party brokers (co-ops owned by Canadian dairy farms) leveraged by the Canadian government. This is one example of Canadian duplicity.
Additionally, by the various provincial governments of Canada banning the import and/or sale of U.S. products, and with Canada putting caps and limits on automobiles, these USA trade actions are being confronted by the 50% countervailing duties against Canadian imports. Greer also calls ‘bulls**t’ on Carney’s double speak. WATCH:
The trade discussion with Canada returns at the 10:00 minute mark. Jamieson Greer notes we have always had trade issues with Canada for decades. There was a significant percentage of the population who are against offshoring jobs, which is what NAFTA essentially did in North America.
It is also worth emphasizing that President Trump wants Canada to diversify. Both U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra and President Trump have said, repeatedly, President Trump wants Canada to go make other bilateral deals with other nations.
Why? Two main reasons.
{Bumped – By Request More Analysis Added}
It is very obvious from the construct and details of this announcement that U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has completed a comprehensive review of the retaliatory action by Canada that followed the U.S. Section 232 tariffs on Steel and Aluminum. {FACT SHEET HERE}
Last year two countries retaliated against the U.S. for the 232 (steel and aluminum) tariffs, China and Canada. The USTR office has now quantified the tariff and non-tariff barriers triggered by Canada in 2025 and provided President Trump with a financial quantification of the trade impact.
The three Canadian retaliatory sectors highlighted include: (1) Alcoholic Beverages, (2) Motor Vehicles, (3) Dairy Products. These are the three segments quantified by USTR Greer that form the baseline for the U.S. to retaliate with countervailing duties.
Effective 30 days from now, August 16, 2026, President Trump has established a 50% tariff rate against a wide variety of Canadian imports. Essentially three major Annexes: {LIST 1 – LIST 2 – LIST 3} under the authority of Section 338.
♦ Section 338 authorizes the President, if he determines it will serve the public interest, to offset any burden or disadvantage placed on the commerce of the United States by an unequal imposition or discrimination by a foreign country by specifying and declaring additional duties not to exceed 50 percent ad valorem (or its equivalent) and not to take effect earlier than 30 days after the President’s proclamation finding that a foreign country imposes an unreasonable charge, exaction, regulation, or limitation that is not equally enforced on the like articles of every foreign country, or discriminates in fact against U.S. commerce in a way that places the commerce of the United States at a disadvantage compared to the commerce of any foreign country.