The Department of Defense has suspended a joint military advisory board with Canada that dates to World War II, escalating tensions between President Donald TrumpThe Department of Defense has suspended a joint military advisory board with Canada that dates to World War II, escalating tensions between President Donald Trump
Pentagon's shock move puts U.S.-Canada ties on ice
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The Department of Defense has suspended a joint military advisory board with Canada that dates to World War II, escalating tensions between President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby announced the suspension of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, claiming Canada has failed to adequately invest in military modernization, and he pointed specifically to remarks Carney had made at the World Economic Forum in January calling on "middle powers" to unite as a bulwark against superpowers, reported The Hill.
Carney downplayed the move Tuesday, noting that Canada was spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, including a $40 billion investment in the North American Aerospace Defense Command. "I wouldn't overplay the importance of this," he said of the suspended board.
But Canadian defense experts warned the decision signals a dangerous deterioration in one of the world's most important bilateral relationships.
"None of this political rhetoric serves anyone's purposes but China and Russia," said Andrea Charron, director of the Center for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.
The board, composed of military and civilian advisers, typically meets once a year to consult on matters of mutual importance. Experts said its suspension is unlikely to disrupt day-to-day military cooperation between the two countries, given that other communication channels remain intact — but said the symbolism carries real weight.
Trump's frustrations with Carney have been building for months. Canada is renegotiating a trade agreement with the U.S., recently awarded Australia a contract to build its Arctic radar system, and is weighing the purchase of Swedish fighter jets over American-made F-35s.
Defense analyst David Perry said Canada has itself to blame, in part, for not using forums like the joint board more proactively. "I can imagine a scenario where somebody in the Pentagon said, 'What's on the agenda for this next meeting?' and thought the answer was underwhelming," he said.
Carney has committed to raising defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035, though experts say achieving that target will require difficult trade-offs with domestic social programs.
Donald Trump just signaled he is trying to get away with something big, according to an ex-DOJ lawyer.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance is raising alarms over what she calls a "pardon on steroids" — a one-page Justice Department settlement, signed quietly Monday by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, that shields Trump, his family, and his businesses from any federal prosecution or civil action for crimes "presently known or unknown."
And Vance says the most pressing question is what, exactly, Trump is trying to bury.
"The optics of this are so bad that it's hard to believe Trump would expose himself to their consequences unless he really needed this deal," Vance wrote in her Civil Discourse newsletter Tuesday. "The protection it offers must be essential in some way we are as of yet unaware of."
The Supreme Court's 2024 immunity ruling already shields Trump from prosecution for official acts. But Vance noted that personal business dealings, tax matters, and private transactions fall outside that umbrella — and those are exactly the areas the new settlement wipes clean.
A senior veteran FBI agent told Vance the sweep is staggering: "Fraud by Don Jr at Kalshi? Out. Fraud at Trump Media & Technology Group? Out. Fraud at whatever crypto/drone/AI/investment endeavor? Out — no DOJ, no SEC, no IRS, no CFTC — no federal entity."
Legal scholars have long argued a president cannot pardon himself. Vance says Trump just found the workaround.
"There is no hint in the document of what consequence Trump may be trying to avoid. But many legal commentators believe that while a president’s pardon power is broad, it’s not so broad that he can pardon himself," the ex-federal prosecutor wrote. "Here, Trump seems to have found a way around that limitation, obtaining a pardon equivalent and then some for himself and for his family."
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Donald Trump’s string of big primary wins on Tuesday, where his hand-selected candidates took out some of his biggest critics in the Republican Party, was undercut by his endorsement of controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is now expected to be the nominee in place of incumbent Sen. John Cornyn.
Appearing on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” conservative journalist David Drucker of The Dispatch reported on Wednesday morning that Trump’s pick of the scandal-plagued Paxton has the GOP leadership furious and the president has been told in no uncertain terms that Paxton should not expect any party money for his general campaign should he win his primary battle as expected.
“I will say one thing about Texas, because I can't help myself,” he told the MS NOW panel. “As I said last week — I'm just going to be wrong one day — I've been covering Texas for two decades, it's the big red whale, and it's really hard for Democrats to flip; do not expect, don't expect party and party-affiliated organizations to spend a dime there.”
"What they're telling me is that Trump has plenty of money, all of his groups,” he added. “You've got about $350 to $400 million, depending on how you count it. And since he has the money and since, as one Republican insider told me, ‘You broke it, you bought it,’ they're going to say, ‘This is your project. We have more important, more pressing needs in North Carolina and Maine and everywhere else.'"
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A fire alarm is blaring in global markets, but Washington seems content to let it ring, according to a fiscal conservative.
Billionaire philanthropist and hedge fund veteran John Arnold posted a stark warning Tuesday on X, sharing a chart showing long-term government bond yields in the US, UK, France and Japan spiking to levels not seen in decades. The US 30-year Treasury yield has climbed above 5.1 percent, its highest since before the 2008 financial crisis, according to the chart sourced from Bloomberg.
"This is a fire alarm going off and everyone is ignoring it," Arnold wrote.
The surge in long-dated yields signals growing investor anxiety over massive government deficits, persistent inflation pressures and endless borrowing. Higher yields mean sharply higher interest costs for governments already drowning in debt. For ordinary Americans, it translates into pricier mortgages, loans and eventually broader economic strain, analysts say.
Arnold, a fiscal conservative, has repeatedly highlighted the political incentives that fuel reckless spending and tax cuts on both sides of the aisle. Reversing course risks voter backlash, so leaders kick the can down the road.
Yet the bond market is delivering a clear message, according to experts: the era of ultra-cheap money is over, and the bill for years of fiscal excess is coming due.
As for a solution, Arnold was asked, "So, John, you're one of the best and brightest.....what do you see up the road?"
Arnold cryptically replied, "I don’t know."
He added, "Fiscal conservatives, including me, have been crying wolf for many years. People quit listening. There’s too much political incentive to come up with a new spending program or tax cut. Try to reverse either and you’ll get voted out of office."
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