Indignant Canada places tariffs in retaliation
After tariff negotiations between the U.S. and Canada fell through and the White House’s previously announced tariffs took effect, Canada announced tariffs of its own — ranging from 15% to 50% across 700 American products. Prime Minister Mark Carney clearly wants to prove to President Donald Trump and Canada that he isn’t going to be pushed around, but at some point, he needs to realize that you can’t hold your ground against a larger force. In this case, placing tariffs on the U.S. is not ideal — for most American companies, Canada is a secondary market, which is not necessarily true when the roles are flipped. While the American and Canadian economies are closely tied, Canada is far more dependent on American goods, and Canadian citizens will pay the price for the prime minister’s ego. Hopefully, this will drive Carney back to the negotiation table.

Lake America?
“The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer,” President Trump posted yesterday. His comment mirrors his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Trump is countering Prime Minister Carney’s claims after trade talks fell apart, and his suggestion highlights one of Carney’s assertions about why the talks collapsed: that the U.S. threatened French-language protections. “I would never interfere with Canadians speaking French! In fact, I have never even thought of doing such a stupid thing,” Trump blasted. “This lie was made up by a weak and ineffective Prime Minister in an attempt to gain political support, which he has totally lost, from the people of Quebec. I love French Canadians!”

Darline Graham wins runoff
The Republican Party is still the party of Trump; that much was reaffirmed on Tuesday when Senator Darline Graham won her primary runoff against Congressman Ralph Norman by five points. Darline was appointed to finish out her late brother Lindsey Graham’s term in office and will now face the Democrat nominee, pediatrician Annie Andrews, in the general election. President Trump got involved in the race, endorsing Darline and investing $827,000 in her campaign through his super PAC, MAGA Inc. Trump notched another win yesterday when Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Mike Mazzei, a former state senator, won his primary by half a point. Mazzei will face the Democrat nominee, Cyndi Munson, minority leader of the Oklahoma state house.

Bill Gates voices AI concerns
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has previously supported AI innovation. In a recent essay, however, Gates worries that AI could enable hacking, hurt job opportunities, and stunt children’s learning and relationship-building skills. Moreover, he is concerned that the industry is greedily downplaying the risks and that the technology will progress faster than regulations can minimize the safety threats. Gates fears AI could capacitate biological weapons and nods to several incidents in which AI escaped constraints and went on hacking sprees. The philanthropist still believes AI can improve health, government, and education — if regulated properly. His essay sketches out a solution: new taxes on AI and a council of elected officials committed to AI oversight.

Judge blocks Ohio’s citizen-proving voting rule
Yesterday, a federal judge temporarily blocked an Ohio law that requires voters to prove citizenship. Only a few other red states have this requirement. Heading into midterm election season, Ohio voters can now register at a DMV and apply for a driver’s license without citizenship paperwork. The judge claimed that the law conflicted with the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law signed by former President Bill Clinton to increase voter registration opportunities. Republicans contested the judge’s decision. President Trump also wants Congress to pass a universal bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. A 2025 University of Maryland study estimated that over 21 million voting Americans don’t have documents to prove citizenship.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve hits record low
In an effort to prevent oil prices from spiking, President Trump has allowed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reach its lowest level in 44 years. Your Patriot Post team rightly harangued President Joe Biden for a similar decision after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine; the SPR is a strategic asset to prevent an energy crisis, not a tool to massage prices and keep poll numbers from dropping. Last week, the SPR released 3.7 million barrels of oil, bringing the total reserve down to 289.7 million barrels. Biden put a bigger dent in the reserve when he released one million barrels a day, or 1/20 of daily U.S. consumption. Biden inherited an SPR of 638 million barrels and left only 393 million barrels.

A second Dan Sullivan could decide tight Alaska Senate race
Incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan likely wouldn’t have guessed that his biggest challenge this election would be distinguishing his own name. Sullivan and Democrat rival Mary Petola breezed into the general election. However, in a race complicated by ranked-choice voting and a four-person ballot that is created regardless of party, the third candidate confirmed for the general election was Dan J. Sullivan. He’s a long-shot candidate by all metrics, but made it out of the primaries due to sharing the incumbent’s name. So, on top of contending with a formidable foe in Petola, Senator Sullivan has to verify that his own voter base is choosing the correct Dan Sullivan.

DOE threatens to remove funding from schools with worthless degrees
At a time when affordability is already an issue for young people, college degrees are often leaving graduates without the income needed to pay off federal loan debt. Hence, the Department of Education is attempting to hold colleges accountable by requiring that they provide data showing tuition and cost totals broken down by academic program for 2024 and 2025 or face fines or lose loans. Trump’s administration implemented a new policy that will end federal aid to programs whose alumni earn less than the average high school graduate, which is why it’s requiring schools to provide program prices. Forty-two percent of eligible colleges have not complied, blaming the deficiency on the difficulty of keeping up with the “raft of changes” and a “lack of administrative resources.” Some 2,000 colleges currently have at least one program likely to fail the new earnings test.

Data restored on good guys with guns
The Biden administration removed defensive gun use data from the CDC website, but the Trump administration has brought it back. The anti-gun crowd is not happy about this reversal and claims that justified self-defense is “rare compared to gun harm.” However, the low estimate for defensive gun use is 65,000 cases per year, with the high estimate at 2.5 million cases. The reason for the wide range is that the CDC doesn’t have one particular study as the “gold standard” for measuring defensive gun use. The site explains that defensive gun use will vary depending on the questions asked, populations studied, and other factors. Using a gun for self-defense can range from simply brandishing a gun, which is 80% of encounters, to actually having to shoot it. Either way, it’s a deterrent that works on the bad guys.

Strait of Hormuz no longer a minefield
President Trump announced on Tuesday, “I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz.” He further noted that Iran has been warned that any ship caught laying new mines will be “immediately and systematically destroyed.” He added that the U.S. Space Force is closely observing the Strait to ensure “a Zero Tolerance policy on mine placement.” American officials also said that over the last 30 days, at least 500 ships have passed through the Strait, with 2% of them experiencing Iranian drone or missile attacks. Despite an announcement of an Omani-Iranian safe navigation agreement, the U.S. is maintaining its blockade against all Iranian shipping.

Headlines

  • Meta settles federal trial over claims Facebook, Instagram addict children (Fox Business)
  • ICE releases father of U.S. Navy sailor serving on USS Abraham Lincoln (CBS News)
  • Soros-backed DA vows to “blow up” Trump’s White House ballroom (RedState)
  • Judge brutally slaps down Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to free herself (NY Post)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, Jacob Geoffrey, Hudson Baldwin, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.