Here’s all the unhinged episodes from the last 24 hours in Trumpworld – as Donald Trump ratchets up tensions with its closest neighbour
It’s a tenet of common wisdom to assume things the government says can’t be taken at face value. That’s been a fair and safe rule of thumb since the first days of spin doctors and professional government communications. But even in the age of spin, there is, for the most part, some truth to the messages put out into the world – just wrangled into the best possible version for the people in charge.
Donald Trump’s administration is not the same. In recent weeks we’ve seen the administration openly lie about he shooting of an unarmed woman in Minnesota, baselessly branding her a “domestic terrorist” within hours of the shooting.
And now they’ve been caught deliberately fabricating an image of a US citizen under arrest for protesting. We’re way past the point of wondering if the Trump administration’s claims can be taken at face value. We’ve reached the point where the default has to be to assume that anything that comes from the White House is a lie unless proven otherwise. We’ll be watching with interest to see if Washington’s press corps catches up with reality.
Meanwhile in Trumpworld
- Rod Stewart demands Trump apology in weird frilly costume
- The memes will continue
- Ice-bashing priests arrested in Minnesota
- The rewriting of history has begun
- FBI agent quits over Renee Good killing
Here’s everything you need to know
1. Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariff
Donald Trump has threatened to slap Canada with a 100% tariff if it goes ahead with a trade deal with China. Trump said in a social media post that if Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
While Trump has waged a trade war over the past year, Canada this month negotiated a deal to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower import taxes on Canadian farm products. Trump initially had said that agreement was what Carney “should be doing and it’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal.”
It comes after Trump withdrew Carney’s invitation to join his League of Villains …sorry… Board of Peace. Something Carney has no doubt yet to recover from.
Trump had commented while in Davos, Switzerland, this week that “Canada lives because of the United States.” Carney shot back that his nation can be an example that the world does not have to bend toward autocratic tendencies.
2. Rod Stewart demands an apology from Donald Trump dressed as a dandy highwayman
Sir Rod Stewart has waded into the row over Donald Trump’s dismissive remarks about troops in Afghanistan. Which is nice of him, but we’re unsure why he did so dressed like an elderly extra from Bridgerton.
Anyway, he urged Keir Starmer and for some reason Nigel Farage to demand Trump apologise for the comments.
“I may just be a humble rock star, but I’m also a Knight of the realm, and I have my opinions,” he said. “I was born just after the war, and I have great respect for our armed forces that fought and gave us our freedom.
“So it hurts me badly, deeply, when I read that draft-dodger Trump has criticised our troops in Afghanistan for not being on the front line.”
“We lost over 400 of our guys,” he added. “Think of their parents. Think about it. And Trump calls them almost like cowards. It’s unbearable.”
He continued: “So I’m calling on you, Prime Minister Starmer and Farage, please make the draft-dodger Trump apologise. Please.”
He then, presumably, returned to his Eyes Wide Shut theme party.
3. The memes will continue
The White House posted an AI slop picture of Trump holding hands with a penguin, walking across an icy landscape with a Greenland flag in the distance. The penguin is holding a US flag. The caption reads: “Embrace the penguin”.
Of course, everyone immediately pointed out that there aren’t any penguins in Greenland. They’re almost exclusively resident in the Southern Hemisphere, on the other side of the world from Greenland.
In response to which, a whole bunch of other government controlled twitter accounts posted similarly nonsensical memes about penguins and Greenland. Because this isn’t reality and facts don’t matter.
This is obviously all very silly and harmless. Unlike the other bit of AI slop the White House posted earlier in the week.
An image posted on the official White House account showed a woman being led away from a protest at a church in Minnesota apparently in floods of tears.
The image was fake. They took the original image, where the woman looks pretty annoyed, but not weeping, and amped it up with AI.
Called on it, the official White House response was: “Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter”
4. Will nobody rid me of these meddlesome priests?
Police arrested about 100 clergy demonstrating against immigration enforcement at Minnesota’s largest airport last night. Several thousand people gathered in downtown Minneapolis despite Arctic temperatures to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown.
The clergy were issued misdemeanor citations of trespassing and failure to comply with a peace officer and were then released, said Jeff Lea, a Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman. They were arrested outside the main terminal at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport because they went beyond the reach of their permit for demonstrating and disrupted airline operations, he said.
Rev. Mariah Furness Tollgaard of Hamline Church in St. Paul said police ordered them to leave but she and others decided to stay and be arrested to show support for migrants, including members of her congregation who are afraid to leave their homes. She planned to go back to her church after her brief detention to hold a prayer vigil.
“We cannot abide living under this federal occupation of Minnesota,” Tollgaard said.
5. FBI agent quits after being pressured not to investigate Renee Good killing
An FBI supervisory agent in Minnesota has resigned over the Justice Department’s handling of the investigation into Renee Good’s killing. The agent resigned because she felt pressured to not investigate the shooting in a way she felt the FBI would have ordinarily done, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner, meanwhile, posted Good’s initial autopsy report online, which classified her death as a homicide and determined she died from “multiple gunshots wounds.”
A more detailed independent autopsy commissioned by Good’s family said one bullet pierced the left side her head and exited on the right side. This autopsy, released Wednesday through the Romanucci & Blandin law firm, said bullets also struck her in the arm and breast, although those injuries weren’t immediately life-threatening.
6. Rewriting history
Trump was accused of “whitewashing history” after the National Park Service removed an exhibit on slavery at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park in response to his executive order “restoring truth and sanity to American history” at the nation’s museums, parks and landmarks.
Empty bolt holes and shadows are all that remains on the brick walls where explanatory panels were displayed at the President’s House Site, where George and Martha Washington lived with the people they owned as property when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital. One woman cried silently at their absence. Someone left a bouquet of flowers. A hand-lettered sign said “Slavery was real.”
Workers on Thursday removed the exhibit, which included biographical details about the nine people enslaved by the Washingtons at the presidential mansion. Just their names — Austin, Paris, Hercules, Christopher Sheels, Richmond, Giles, Oney Judge, Moll and Joe — remain engraved into a cement wall.
Karen Oliver, a retired Philadelphian who was visited the exhibit Friday, said she was “heartbroken” at the removal of references to slavery and a chance for visitors to learn from the nation’s history.
“You show all of it,” she said. “The good, the bad, and the ugly.”
Seeking to stop the display’s permanent removal, the city of Philadelphia on Thursday sued Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron.
“Let me affirm, for the residents of the city of Philadelphia, that there is a cooperative agreement between the city and the federal government that dates back to 2006,” Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a press conference Friday. “That agreement requires parties to meet and confer if there are to be any changes made to an exhibit.”