President Donald Trump said he’s immediately suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms, which he called “a direct and blatant attack on our country.”
Trump, in a post on his social media network on Friday, said that the Canadians had just informed the U.S. that it was sticking to its plan to impose the tax set to take effect Monday.
The digital services tax applies to Canadian and foreign businesses that engage with online users in Canada. It will apply to companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb with a 3% levy on revenue from Canadian users. It will apply retroactively, leaving U.S. companies with a $2 billion U.S. bill due at the end of the month.
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Here's the latest:
Federal judge blocks executive order targeting law firm
U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan ruled Friday that the order against the firm of Susman Godman was unconstitutional and must be permanently struck down.
It’s the latest blow to Trump’s retribution campaign against prominent law firms. Other judges have previously blocked similar orders against the firms of WilmerHale, Jenner & Block and Perkins Coie.
The orders have all generally imposed the same sanctions, including the suspension of security clearances for attorneys and the restriction of access to federal buildings.
Millions of Californians could lose health coverage under Trump’s bill, Newsom says
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says Republicans from his state who support Trump’s spending bill are betraying constituents who rely on federally funded health care.
Newsom says up to 3.4 million Californians are at risk of losing health coverage if the bill becomes law.
He says the bill, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” should be known as a “big, beautiful betrayal.”
He says it threatens coverage for millions of Californians who rely on Medicaid, the federally funded health insurance program for low-income people.
Some of California’s reddest areas in the Central Valley rely heavily on Medicaid.
“You have representatives in these very districts promoting this betrayal, supporting these devastating cuts,” he said.
Why have Congo and Rwanda asked the Trump administration to play peacemaker?
The Rwandan and Congolese diplomats’ Oval Office meeting with Trump comes after their signing of a U.S.-mediated peace deal at the State Department earlier Friday.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda have asked the Trump administration to use its pressure to ensure the peace deal sticks. More than 100 Rwandan- and Congolese-allied militias have battled in resource-rich east Congo for three decades, killing 6 million people.
There’s no sign that the biggest Rwanda-aligned militia in east Congo is on board with the deal, raising doubts about the pact’s success.
For its part, the Trump administration hopes to ensure access to east Congo’s minerals for the U.S. government and American companies.
Trump responds to Putin’s praise
After Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Friday praised Trump for his efforts to end the war in Ukraine and improve ties with Russia, the U.S. leader said Putin’s comments were “very nice statements.”
“Putin respects our country,” Trump said.
He then named leaders of other U.S. adversaries, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and said they respect the U.S. as well.
Trump calls Fed chair ‘a stubborn mule and a stupid person’
Trump has been criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at almost every public appearance, and his remarks in the Oval Office were no different.
The president said, “I’d love him to resign” before his term ends, and Trump said Powell has done “a lousy job” by not lowering interest rates.
“He doesn’t get it,” Trump said.
Rwanda asks US to make sure Congo peace deal sticks
Rwanda’s foreign minister appealed to Trump to make sure that the new U.S.-mediated peace deal with Congo sticks.
There can be no flood of U.S. business deals in the region without that peace, Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe added in an Oval Office session with Trump marking the new deal.
“We’ll make sure that you follow through,” Trump assured him.
Trump says Canada was ‘foolish’ to continue with digital services tax
The president spoke to reporters about his announcement he was cutting of trade talks with America’s neighbor and said “Canada’s been a very difficult country to deal with over the years.”
He said the U.S. has “all the cards” when it comes to trade positioning with Canada.
“It’s not going to work out well for Canada. They were foolish to do it,” he said.
When asked if Canada could do anything to restart talks, he suggested Canada could remove the tax, predicted they will, but said, “It doesn’t matter to me.”
Trump cements Africa peace agreement by handing out challenge coins
Trump finished off a signing ceremony that he said will end conflict between Congo and Rwanda by suggesting that he’s going to be watching to make sure peace holds.
Both countries stressed having to keep things peaceful over the long haul, and Trump said he’d continue to monitor the situation closely.
The president then handed out presidential ceremonial challenge coins to leaders from both countries. He even gave one to Hariana Veras, a White House reporter from Africa with whom he’d chatted at the start of the event.
“Darling, that’s for you,” Trump told Veras.
‘It’s close,’ Trump says of Gaza ceasefire
Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, the president said, “We think within the next week we’re going to get a ceasefire.”
Such an agreement has long been elusive, and it’s unclear if this time will be different.
“We’re working on Gaza and trying to get it taken care of,” Trump said.
Trump signs letters to African leaders
Sitting at the desk in the Oval Office, Trump signed letters to the leaders of Rwanda and Congo inviting them to Washington for the finalization of the peace agreement.
The event is expected to take place in July.
Officials said negotiations were also underway for investment agreements stemming from the peace accord for Congo’s resource-rich east.
Trump drifts off topic at event about new peace deal
Trump has assembled the press to tout a new peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda — but the president can’t help but veer off into other things on his mind.
He noted the recent end of the conflict between Israel and Iran, and his decision to strike three nuclear sites in Iran. He also talked about his recent visit to the NATO summit and a booming economy.
Then Trump got back on topic.
“This is about Congo and Rwanda,” he said.
Trump touts peacemaking efforts
The president has long coveted a Nobel Peace Price, and he used his Oval Office event to tout efforts to end conflicts.
In addition to the agreement in Africa, he mentioned a truce between India and Pakistan and Israel and Iran.
He also acknowledged U.S. strikes on Iran but said “hopefully there can be a lot of healing.”
“I think we can do war better than anybody. But we don’t want to,” he said.
Trump chats with White House reporter from Africa
Trump kicked off an Oval Office announcement on Congo and Rwanda by having an extended chat with an African reporter.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt introduced reporter Hariana Veras as being “from the continent of Africa,” and Veras said she was the only reporter from Africa accredited to the White House.
Veras told Trump she arrived from Congo on Thursday and had interviewed people, telling Trump, “They know your name” and that he was working for peace.
Veras asked if Trump would invite Angola President João Lourenço to the Oval Office when other African leaders gather at the White House in July. Trump said he would. Lourenço hosted then-President Joe Biden in Angola in December.
A ‘step toward peace’ in Congo
The U.N. special envoy for Congo called the signing of the draft peace agreement with Rwanda “a major step forward toward the end of the conflict.”
Bintou Keita, who heads the nearly 14,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in eastern Congo, told the U.N. Security Council that the agreement “marks a decisive step toward peace” in Congo and that part of central Africa.
She welcomed “the tireless efforts made by the United States in facilitating the agreement” and commended efforts by Angola’s president, who chairs the African Union; Togo’s president, who was the AU mediator; African experts; and Qatar.
“We need to promote dialogue rather than division and actively work towards national cohesion,” Keita said.
Trump releases video to promote his big bill
The president posted a video Friday on his Truth Social media as part of his ratcheted up effort to pass his big tax and spending cuts bill in Congress before a July 4 deadline he set.
Trump focused on the components that aim to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system.
“It’s time to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill into law. We’re going to get it done,” Trump said in the video, which shows him sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and looking directly into the camera.
House Republicans expand inquiry into Biden’s potential mental decline with new round of interview requests
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer sent letters to four former senior Biden administration officials requesting their testimony in the investigative committees’ expanding inquiry into former President Joe Biden’s mental state while in office.
Comer sent letters to Jeff Zients, the former White House chief of staff; Karine Jean-Pierre, the former White House press secretary; Ian Sams, a former White House spokesperson to the White House general counsel’s office; and Andrew Bates, a former deputy press secretary.
Citing news reports and a recent best-selling book, Republicans allege that Biden was not mentally fit for much of his term and that, consequently, many executive actions taken by his administration may be illegal.
Comer wrote in one letter that the matter “cannot go without investigation, given the mounting evidence that President Biden was incapacitated for much, if not all, of his single term.”
Biden said several weeks ago that he was fully in control as president.
New lawsuits challenge Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
The moves come after the conservative majority of the Supreme Court ruled that federal judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, but left unclear whether Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship could soon take effect in parts of the country.
Lawsuits were filed in New Hampshire and Maryland on Friday.
The New Hampshire lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups. The same groups filed a lawsuit in January on behalf of babies born on U.S. soil who would be denied citizenship under Trump’s order.
“Every court to have looked at this cruel order agrees that it is unconstitutional,” Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead attorney in this case, said in a statement. “The Supreme Court’s decision did not remotely suggest otherwise, and we are fighting to make sure President Trump cannot trample on the citizenship rights of a single child.”
University of Virginia president resigns under Trump administration pressure, AP source says
The Justice Department had pushed for his departure amid scrutiny of the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion practices, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.
James Ryan’s departure represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s effort to reshape higher education. Doing it at a public university marks a new frontier in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted Ivy League schools. It also widens the rationale behind the government’s aggressive tactics, focusing on DEI rather than alleged tolerance of antisemitism.
Ryan had faced conservative criticism that he had failed to heed federal orders to eliminate DEI policies, and his removal was pushed by the Justice Department as a way to help resolve a department inquiry targeting the school, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the move by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.
The New York Times first reported on the resignation and the Justice Department’s insistence on it. The Justice Department declined to comment.
— By Eric Tucker and Collin Binkley
The twists and turns of Trump’s trade war with Canada
Progress with Canada has been a roller coaster. Trump repeatedly suggested Canada would be absorbed as a U.S. state. Carney visited Trump at the White House in May, where he was polite but firm with Trump. And just last week, Trump traveled to Canada for the G7 summit in Alberta, where Carney said the two countries had set a 30 day deadline for trade talks.
A refresh on Trump’s tariffs on Canada
Overall, Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos. He is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period set by him would expire.
Canada and Mexico face separate tariffs of as much as 25% that Trump put into place under the auspices of stopping fentanyl smuggling, through some products are still protected under the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signed during Trump’s first term.
Senate parliamentarian advises against $1,000 fee on immigrants seeking asylum
The chamber’s nonpartisan arbiter of Senate rules also said other proposed fees on immigrants in Trump’s big bill would not comply with procedures, and would be subject to a higher 60-vote threshold to be included.
Republicans are counting on the fees as well as cuts to food stamps and health care to help offset the costs of extending Trump’s tax breaks bill that also includes bolstered funds for his mass deportation agenda.
Not so fast on the July 4 extension
Not even two hours after he signaled it was OK for Republicans to take more time on their massive tax-and-border bill, Trump is walking it back.
At a news conference Friday, the president said it’s “not the end all” if Congress does not send the bill to his desk by July 4.
But in a later Truth Social post, Trump made it clear he wants it done by Independence Day.
“The House of Representatives must be ready to send it to my desk before July 4th — We can get it done,” he wrote.
The July 4 deadline is symbolic. The real deadline for lawmakers is sometime later this summer, when the government runs dry of its borrowing authority. The bill includes an extension of the U.S. debt limit.
The other actual deadline is at the end of the year, when lower tax rates for individuals outlined in Trump’s 2017 tax law are set to expire.
Social Security advocate warns of court decision’s impact on enumeration at birth
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, said the Supreme Court ruling could open the door to the agency ending its enumeration at birth program.
Virtually all babies born in the U.S. are automatically given a Social Security number.
“If there are new injunctions or in the unlikely event that injunctions get lifted, SSA has to change its procedures,” Altman said. It could mean the Social Security Administration ends its enumeration at birth program, she said, “costing a huge amount of money, causing huge inconvenience and swamping already overwhelmed field offices.”
Trump says he’s terminating all trade talks with Canada ‘immediately’
Canada and the U.S. have been discussing easing a series of steep tariffs Trump imposed on goods from America’s neighbor.
But Trump said that Canada’s continuing to collect a digital services taxes on Canadian and American technology companies — a levy first approved in June 2024 — was prompting him to call off all trade talks.
“Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,” Trump posted Friday on his social media site. “We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.”
Trump earlier told reporters at the White House that the U.S. was preparing to send letters to different countries, informing them of the new tariff rate his administration would impose on them.
Fulfilling new peace deal after deaths of millions ‘will not be easy,’ Rwanda says
Rwanda’s foreign minister emphasized that the peace deal with Congo must bring the end of Congo-based militias that have attacked Rwanda, including culprits in the 1994 genocide in his country.
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe spoke before the State Department ceremony for the accord, which requires both countries to end any support for the militias fighting in resource-rich east Congo.
“We must acknowledge that there is a great deal of uncertainty in our region and beyond, because many previous agreements have not been implemented, and there is no doubt that the road ahead will not be easy,” the Rwandan official said.
“But with the continued support of the United States and other partners, we believe that a turning point has been reached.”
Sympathetic camera operator bellows ‘Trump 2028!’ during president’s White House press conference
Girish Gaur of Lindell TV shouted his support for a third presidential term for Trump and cheered during a break in questions that the president took for nearly an hour Friday in the White House briefing room.
Gaur was standing just off stage, slightly behind the podium where Trump stood, but otherwise closer to the president than reporters in their assigned seats.
“Who said that? I like him,” Trump responded, before taking more questions.
Lindell TV was founded by Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, and a fierce Trump supporter.
Trump is constitutionally barred from seeking a third presidential term, but has refused to rule the idea out.
Congo invokes war’s victims in signing peace deal with Rwanda
Congo’s foreign minister invoked the millions of victims of the decades of conflict in signing the peace deal with Rwanda.
“Some wounds will heal, but they will never fully disappear,” Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said of the generations scarred by the resource-fueled fighting in east Congo.
“Those who have suffered the most are watching. They are expecting this agreement to be respected and we cannot fail them.”
Trump says he saved Khamenei from ‘ugly and ignominious death’
The president in a statement on his social media platform shortly after his news conference laid into Iran’s supreme leader for claiming victory in the 12-day Israel-Iran war.
“As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie. His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” Trump added.
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda sign peace deal facilitated by the US
The deal will help end the decades-long deadly fighting in eastern Congo. The agreement signed Friday has been lauded by Trump as “a big day for the world.”
The deal will also help the U.S. government and American companies gain access to critical minerals needed for much of the world’s technology at a time when the United States and China are actively competing for influence in Africa.
“This is an important moment after 30 years of war,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a signing ceremony before a White House event that will bring the ministers together with Trump.
Analysts see the deal as a major turning point but don’t believe it will quickly end the fighting in the region that has killed millions of people since the 1990s
Trump to Ayatollah: You got beat to hell
The president scoffed at Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s assertion delivered on Thursday that Iran delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a U.S. air base in Qatar and warned against further attacks in his first public comments since a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
“The place was bombed to hell,” Trump said.
The president said he plans to soon deliver a formal response to the supreme leader that will say in part: “Look you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”
The Associated Press
