Mpneywise: Air travel between the US and Canada is set to plunge 75% and domestic tourism has also slowed — how to plan your trips as Trump’s policies hit travel demand

Forward bookings for flights between Canada and the U.S. in coming months have plunged by as much as 75% compared with the same period in 2024, according to OAG, a global travel data provider.

In February, the number of Canadians crossing the land border into the U.S. dropped almost 500,000 compared to the same period last year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — reaching levels not seen since the height of the Covid-19 border closures.

“A 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses,” according to the U.S. Travel Association, which noted that Canada is the top source of international visitors to the country, with 20.4 million visits in 2024.

Does Trump care?

Probably not!

Air travel between the US and Canada is set to plunge 75% and domestic tourism has also slowed — how to plan your trips as Trump’s policies hit travel demand

Fox News: Trump Says U.S. Doesn’t Need Canada After All

So it was all just a bad dream?

Senility?

Dementia?

President Donald Trump appears to have had a change of heart about the United States taking over Canada, claiming that Americans “don’t need anything” from their northern neighbor.

Despite his repeated assertions that the sprawling, resource-rich country should become America’s 51st state, the president told reporters on Air Force One Sunday that the “golden age” is coming, sans Canada. “We have our own lumber and energy,” he said, referencing slated plans for levies on wood from north of the border. “We don’t need energy from Canada. We don’t need lumber from Canada. We don’t need anything from Canada. I believe this will be the golden age of America,” he added.

Last week, Trump spoke over the phone with the new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney. Despite the ongoing trade war, the call was “very constructive,” Carney said. He added that Trump “respected Canada’s sovereignty” during the chat.

However, despite the apparent softening of hostilities, Trump launched the latest salvo in his trade war Wednesday, announcing a 25 percent tariff on auto imports beginning April 2.

Trump Says U.S. Doesn’t Need Canada After All

The Independent: Under Trump, 80 years of collective security have been dismantled in as many days

The Atlantic Alliance used to believe it had liberal democratic values in common and a shared interest in collective security and free trade. That, thanks to the US president, is no longer true. Europe must adjust to this altered reality, or die.

It may be that the US’s tilt to the Kremlin, accompanied by the twin-track diplomatic and trade wars now being waged on friends and allies, will before long drive Europe to stand on its own two feet and be the independent force in world affairs that the founding fathers of the project of European unity dreamed about. At long last, Europe begins to assert itself. To borrow a famous phrase from a happier era of US-European relations, Europe, like president Barack Obama, is saying: “Yes we can.”

The “coalition of the willing” (or “coalition of action”, as French president Emmanuel Macron prefers to call it) is a concrete example of this emerging European consciousness. The project is to provide a safe and secure future for Ukraine, irrespective of what Russia or the US might desire. Russia is rightly distrusted, while there is still hope that the Americans can contribute in some way to keeping the peace in Ukraine – and in Europe more widely.

Under Trump, 80 years of collective security have been dismantled in as many days | The Independent

Associated Press: Private groups work to identify and report student protesters for possible deportation

When a protester was caught on video in January at a New York rally against Israel, only her eyes were visible between a mask and headscarf. But days later, photos of her entire face, along with her name and employer, were circulated online.

“Months of them hiding their faces went down the drain!” a fledgling technology company boasted in a social media post, claiming its facial-recognition tool had identified the woman despite the coverings.

She was anything but a lone target. The same software was also used to review images taken during months of pro-Palestinian marches at U.S. colleges. A right-wing Jewish group said some people identified with the tool were on a list of names it submitted to President Donald Trump’s administration, urging that they be deported in accordance with his call for the expulsion of foreign students who participated in “pro-jihadist” protests.

So it’s ok for extremist Jewish groups to show bias against the Palestinian people, who have suffered horribly the past two years? Supporting the Palestinian people does not mean that one supports Hamas and/or terror.

“If you’re here, right, on a student visa causing civil unrest … assaulting people on the streets, chanting for people’s death, why the heck did you come to this country?” said Eliyahu Hawila, a software engineer who built the tool designed to identify masked protesters and outed the woman at the January rally.

Eliyahu Hawila, software engineer and fake Jew

And who is Eliyahu Hawila? He is not Jewish, although he has pretended to be a Jew. More on that in separate post.

Private groups identify, report student protesters for deportation | AP News

Alternet: Another dumb Trump move that’s not just a gross mistake | Opinion

In reality, slapping taxes on car parts imported from Canada and Mexico will hurt U.S. automakers harder than their competitors offshore because U.S. automakers have extensive operations in Canada and Mexico.

U.S. auto dealers have warned the Trump regime that tariffs will make cars less affordable to American consumers at a time when many Americans remain concerned about inflation.

Trump has waved away such concerns, insisting his tariffs will raise revenue — enabling him to lower taxes. The White House calculates that his tariffs could raise $100 billion annually. But the mere threat of such tariffs has erased more than $100 billion from the largest carmakers’ market capitalization in recent weeks.

Plus, as I’ve shown, his tariffs are a regressive tax that will be paid mostly by lower-income Americans, while his planned tax cuts will mostly benefit higher-income Americans.

The result: a huge hidden upward redistribution.

Another dumb Trump move that’s not just a gross mistake | Opinion

Irish Star: ‘Dumb’ Donald Trump is torn apart after crisis phone call with Canadian leader Mark Carney

“I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada. It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States of America and Canada. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The post on Truth Social caused Trump supporters to turn on and criticize the president on X.

“PMs Trudeau and Carney did a masterful job pushing back on Trump’s BS. Minimal pushback to a bully breaks them. Trump looks dumb here bc what was the point of stiffening Canada’s back to begin with? Trump is weak asf,” a user wrote on X.

“President Trump says the call with PM Carney happened. Note the language here, he’s no longer calling the Canadian PM Governor,” another wrote on X.

“Trump is funny cos he spoke with Trudeau without respect and he is like Polite with Carney, even called him Prime Minister. Huge win politically for Carne,” another wrote on X.

“Not the 51st state, any more? I can’t keep up. Carney is a shrewd man. Trump would be wise to remember that,” posted another on the social media site.

“Trump Speaks to PM Mark Carney of Canada Trump calls it an ‘extremely productive’ call No mention of ‘51st State & No Guv Carney’ ( It was only to tease Trudeau) Both will be meeting after elections,” another posted on X.

The call comes after President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to bring in a new 25% tariff on finished vehicles imported into the United States next week.

‘Dumb’ Donald Trump is torn apart after crisis phone call with Canadian leader Mark Carney

Meeting between King Donald and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

A report on a recent meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, by a WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, someone who was present in the room quoted below…

From a WH Reporter,

“ I’ve covered a lot of Donald Trump press conferences over the years. I’ve seen him lie, deflect, and embarrass himself in countless ways. But what I just witnessed in the Oval Office may have been the most off-the-rails, unhinged display yet.

Trump sat down with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte — a serious figure there to talk about security and alliance unity — but Trump wasn’t interested in that. No, Trump used the opportunity to fantasize about annexing Canada. He actually said, “Canada only works as a state,” and gushed about how the U.S. would look on a map if we just erased the border and took Canada as our own. This wasn’t satire. This wasn’t a joke. This was the president rambling about absorbing another sovereign nation — while the NATO secretary general sat there watching this clown show unfold.

And it didn’t stop there. Trump started pushing the idea of conquering Greenland too, saying NATO might need to get involved in helping the U.S. take it over — as if it’s a game of Risk. He literally said we “need it for international security” and tried to rope NATO into his imperial fever dream. The look on Rutte’s face said it all.

Then, Trump pivoted to his usual bigotry. Instead of talking about defense cooperation or global security, Trump bragged about how he uses transgender people as political pawns to rile up his base before elections — saying Republicans should “bring it up a week before the election” to win votes. In other words, he openly admitted he sees cruelty and manufactured culture war nonsense as a campaign strategy. Despicable.

When asked about American small businesses hurting from tariffs, Trump did what he always does: lie and bluster. “You’re going to be so much richer,” he said. Meanwhile, Medicaid is being gutted, Social Security is under threat, and Trump’s billionaire cronies are cheering as the safety net burns.

Oh, and then Trump suggested we start sending drug dealers to the Netherlands — yes, you read that right — in a bizarre attempt at humor that landed more like a diplomatic insult, especially considering the NATO secretary general used to be the prime minister of the Netherlands.

He kept rambling about how the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada, said the European Union is “very nasty,” claimed we can’t sell cars in Europe (not true), and then told an utterly deranged story about how he “invaded Los Angeles” to turn on the water — another lie pulled from his fantasyland. What actually happened was that he diverted water from Northern California, destroying farmland and hurting his own voters in the process.

To top it off, he said our allies shouldn’t worry about Putin, brushing off any concerns about Russian aggression with a shrug.

Let me be blunt: This is not normal. This is not politics-as-usual. This is a dangerous, unstable person with authoritarian fantasies, spewing nonsense in front of our closest allies while the world watches.”

Keep speaking up. Don’t accept any of this as normal.

Ben Meiselas

https://www.facebook.com/claudia.scholand/posts/10165155546228345

Newsweek: Canada has barred Tesla vehicles from being eligible for the country’s electric vehicle rebate

In a statement released on Tuesday, Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland said that Tesla would be banned from all of Canada’s electric vehicle rebate programs and that any outstanding payments to Tesla owners would be paused.

Freeland said the policy was going into effect due to the tariffs the United States placed on Canada, which she described as “illegitimate and illegal.”

Tesla Suffers Fresh Canada Blow – Newsweek

Newsweek: Greenland Tourism Business Accepts, Then Declines Usha Vance Visit

Vance visit refused!

Seriously, what country needs a visit from arrogant jerks that thinks they’re above the rest of the world?

“A Greenlandic tourism business has said it changed its mind about welcoming the vice president’s wife Usha Vance to their store.

“Tupilak Travel wrote on Facebook that it had informed the U.S. Consulate that it did not want Vance to visit because of the ‘underlying agenda.’ The post ended with a phrase meaning ‘Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.'”

Greenland Tourism Business Accepts, Then Declines Usha Vance Visit – Newsweek

Bloomberg: Deportations Won’t ‘Cure’ Blue Cities. They’ll Get Worse.

Trump has repeatedly disparaged American urban centers as dystopian hellscapes. His solutions are likely to hurt more than help.

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump has beef with America’s cities, especially the ones run by Democrats. He has long falsely cast them as crime-ridden, chaotic and dystopian — and often blamed immigrants for every urban ill.

Sure, cities aren’t perfect. But pandemic-era rates of violent crime have been dropping and cities remain economic engines, creating roughly 90% of the country’s output. And as US birth rates fall, cities owe much of their population growth to immigrants.

Deportations Won’t ‘Cure’ Democrat-Led Cities. They’ll Get Worse. – Bloomberg