Trump orders massive tariff hike and announces national emergency as Canada row escalates

Trump orders massive tariff hike and announces national emergency as Canada row escalates
Donald Trump (Reuters)

President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social Tuesday that he is ordering an even greater escalation of tariffs against Canada, with a 25 to 50 percent tax on steel and aluminum imports from that country, effective Wednesday.

This comes in retaliation to the Canadian province of Ontario instituting its own 25 percent tariff on electricity exports to Minnesota, Michigan and New York, which was a salvo against Trump's initial trade war measures on the country.

"Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous," Trump wrote in his announcement. "I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada."

Trump threatened even further actions may be taken in the near future: "If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY??? This cannot continue."

"The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State," Trump added, repeating a demand he has made several times and that Canada has rejected as ridiculous. "This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that."

"The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, 'O Canada,' will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!" Trump continued.

The Dow Jones plunged even further in response to Trump's announcement, with shares trading 500 points below the opening bell as of press time.

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Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and a long-time ally of President Donald Trump, has been hospitalized in Florida, where he remained in "critical but stable condition," a spokesperson told The New York Times on Sunday.

"Mayor Rudy Giuliani is currently in the hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition," the spokesperson said. "Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he's fighting with that same level of strength as we speak. We do ask that you join us in prayer for America's Mayor-Rudy Giuliani."

It remains unclear why Giuliani was hospitalized.

Giuliani's hospitalization happened months after the former mayor was "seriously injured" in a car crash in New Hampshire last year. Giuliani has also attended recent court hearings virtually because of his health, according to reports.

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President Donald Trump called on Republicans to impeach House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Sunday after Jeffries criticized the Supreme Court.

Trump's comments followed a statement Jeffries released last week in which he described the Supreme Court as "illegitimate" after its decision in Louisiana v. Callais. The case struck down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial gerrymandering. Experts have warned that the decision could disenfranchise millions of voters across the nation.

"Hakeem Jeffries, a Low IQ individual, said our Supreme Court is 'illegitimate,'" Trump wrote on Truth Social. "After saying such a thing, isn’t he subject to Impeachment? I got impeached for A PERFECT PHONE CALL. Where are you Republicans? Why not get it started? They’ll be doing this to me!"

Trump's call for impeachment happened at a time when the GOP is gearing up for a consequential 2026 midterm election. Democrats have said they will impeach Trump "on day one" if they take back the House of Representatives after the election.

A newly reported failure of the Trump administration’s ability to handle sensitive private information in the social programs it is tasked with operating triggered a fresh wave of anger over the weekend after it was revealed that healthcare providers’ Social Security numbers were made public as part of a faulty Medicare portal rollout.

The Washington Post discovered the compromised database and alerted the administration last week, before publishing a story about it on Friday, after efforts had been made to protect the sensitive information from further compromise. According to the Post:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last year created a directory to help seniors look up which doctors and medical providers accept which insurance plans, framing it as an overdue improvement and part of the Trump administration’s initiative to modernize health care technology.

But a publicly accessible database used to populate the directory contains some of the providers’ Social Security numbers, linked to their names and other identifying information. For at least several weeks, CMS made the database available for public use as part of its data transparency efforts.

While the reporting noted that the files were “not immediately visible to users who [visited] the provider directory,” lawmakers and experts said the compromised information would be a treasure trove for fraudsters.“

The more we learn about how the Trump Administration handles the people’s most sensitive data, the clearer their incompetence becomes.”

Critics pounced on the new reporting, calling it “yet another mess-up by the Team Trump” and only the latest evidence that the administration cannot and should not be trusted to protect the nation’s most successful anti-poverty programs or the sensitive personal data of the American people who entrust the government with that information.

“Over and over again, the Trump administration is exposing private Social Security data,” said Social Security Works, an advocacy group that serves as a public watchdog for the nation’s social programs.

The compromised database, said the group, “is a goldmine for identity thieves, scammers, and foreign governments. And it is undermining the very foundation of our Social Security system.”

“This is a failure by this administration,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) in response to the reporting. “Exposing Social Security numbers, whether patients or providers, is unacceptable.”

Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the House committee that oversees the Medicare program, put the onus on his Republican colleagues in Congress.

“The more we learn about how the Trump Administration handles the people’s most sensitive data, the clearer their incompetence becomes,” Neal told the Post in a statement. “Do House Republicans need to see their own data exposed before they do right by their constituents and act?”

In March, as Common Dreams reported at the time, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the Social Security Administration accusing a former staffer with Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), run for a time by right-wing billionaire Elon Musk, of trying to share information from SSA databases with his private employer.

Since the outset of Trump’s second term, DOGE’s meddling with Social Security and Trump’s undermining of the program have been the source of deep anger and concerns among the program’s defenders.

In a social media post on Saturday citing the whistleblower allegations from March, Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said, “For more than a year, ‘DOGE’ has been combing through the American people’s records. They want to use your data to overturn elections and profit in the private sector. Enough! This administration must be held accountable for this massive data breach!

On Friday, responding to the Post’s new reporting about the compromised database of physicians’ private information, Larsen condemned Republicans for their ongoing and pervasive failures in the face of Trump’s malfeasance and incompetence.

DOGE, said Larsen, “has been in your data for more than a year. We just learned that physicians’ Social Security numbers were publicly exposed in an online portal launched by ‘DOGE’ officials.”

“If this isn’t enough for Republicans to act,” he asked, “where will they draw the line?”

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