Donald Trump has blasted the leadership of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), claiming the organization has been poorly managed by “radical lunatics.” The American president’s criticism comes after two top USAID security officials [...] The post Trump Says USAID Is Run By ‘A Bunch Of Radical Lunatics’ appeared first on The People's Voice.

Elon Musk spoke with President Trump this morning about the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Trump agreed that the agency should be shut down. Staffers who work at the Washington D.C. agency have been told not to come to work today. Over 600 agency employees were locked out of the computer system overnight. […] The post USAID Staffers in Washington Told to Stay Home appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Trade networks in North America are under stress after Canada and Mexico promised to raise import duties on goods from the United States in response to tariffs from the same. Though President Donald Trump promotes tariffs as an antidote to trade deficits and shrinking domestic industry, the budding trade war in North America has little to do with trade. Washington has accused its international neighbors of not doing enough to combat drug cartels and human traffickers, and that failure has had harmful spillover effects on the United States. As a result, Trump has demanded Canada and Mexico crack down on cartels and illicit drug makers or suffer a 25% tariff on all exports to their number one trading partner, except for Canadian energy, which will be under a lesser 10% tariff. The tariffs, originally set to go into effect this week, are already being delayed. Talks over the tariffs began on Monday with Trump speaking with Trudeau at least twice and Mexico now agreeing to send up to 10,000 troops to police its border with the U.S. “Mexico sends [a] ton of fentanyl into our country. Canada has seen a massive increase in fentanyl trafficking across its border. There are three ways of stopping this. The first is [to] ask nicely, which we’ve done. It’s gone nowhere,” Vice President JD Vance posted on Sunday. “Now we’re on to the consequences phase.” Mexico sends ton of fentanyl into our country. Canada has seen a massive increase in fentanyl trafficking across its border. There are three ways of stopping this. The first is ask nicely, which we’ve done. It’s gone nowhere. Now we’re on to the consequences phase. — JD Vance (@JDVance) February 2, 2025 Canada and Mexico coordinated over the weekend to announce their own plans for 25% retaliatory tariffs on a slate of American imports. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would target $155 billion-worth of U.S. goods. The details of Mexico’s response have not been finalized, but officials are considering a carousel tariff that would rotate to different U.S. goods, according to The Wall Street Journal. “The coming weeks will be difficult for Canadians, and they will be difficult for Americans. The level of cooperation, the level of effective partnerships between our two countries that have been established over decades and generations means that this trade action by the Americans and our response is going to have real consequences,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters. Those consequences are projected to fall much more heavily on Canada and Mexico than the United States, an outcome that Trump likely intends to use as leverage in negotiations. While the United States sends about a third of its exports to its northern and southern neighbors, Canada and Mexico send about 80% of their exports to the U.S. International trade also comprises much larger portions of Canada’s and Mexico’s economies than the United States’. If just the U.S. tariffs on Canada and Mexico were implemented, U.S. consumers would suffer an extra half-point of inflation over the next year, according to projections from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The added inflation is likely to be concentrated in certain affected goods, such as fuel. In contrast, Canada and Mexico would suffer an extra 1.7 and 2.3 points in inflation, respectively. The tariffs could also devastate some of their largest industries, such as vehicle manufacturing and oil and gas, because of the extent to which both countries rely on American markets. The negative effects of tariffs projected by the Peterson Institute will be magnified with the addition of tariffs going from Canada and Mexico on exports from the U.S., according to experts. To ratchet down trade tensions between the three countries that in 2019 signed the USMCA trade agreement, the White House has demanded action against drug trafficking and illegal immigration. Mexico and its drug cartels are major pipelines for illegal drug smuggling and human trafficking into the United States. Canada has been, as well, to a much lesser extent. Trudeau appeared surprised that Trump initiated tariffs against Canada because of the flow of drugs and illegal immigration coming from Canada. “We have one of the strongest, most secure borders between Canada and the United States. As I said, less than one percent of fentanyl going into the United States comes from Canada, less than one percent of illegal migrants going into the United States come from Canada,” Trudeau told reporters over the weekend. The illicit movement and drugs and people into the U.S. from Canada has surged in recent years, though it still remains low relative to the U.S. southern border. Over the weekend, Trump and Vance have added on to the list of grievances with Canada its failure to meet NATO obligations on military spending and restrictions on imports from the U.S. as well as other issues. “Canada has been very abusive of the United States for many years,” Trump said Saturday. “I love the people of Canada. I disagree with the leadership of Canada and something is going to happen there.” The White House accused Mexico of collaborating with the drug cartels that operate widely throughout the country. The collaboration has been widely recognized in Washington, though a formal accusation against the Mexican government has not been made until now. “The Mexican DTOs have an intolerable alliance with the government of Mexico. This alliance endangers the national security of the United States, and we must eradicate the influence of these dangerous cartels from the bilateral environment,” Trump’s February 1 order directing tariffs on Mexico says. “The government of Mexico has afforded safe havens for the cartels to engage in the manufacturing and transportation of illicit drugs, which collectively have led to the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims,” the order continues. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the White House’s accusation “slander,” according to CBS News. “If the United States government and its agencies wanted to address the serious consumption of fentanyl in their country, they can combat the sale of narcotics on the streets of their main cities, which they don’t do, and the money laundering generated by this illegal activity that has done so much harm to their population,” Sheinbaum said.

Only 17 days before the Biden administration left power, it sent more than $3 million to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF), among whom are members who, according to a report, executed more than 1,500 terror attacks against Israel in 2023. The Washington Free Beacon gained access to a January 3 nonpublic funding notice transmitted to Congress. “Those funds allowed the PASF to conduct ‘firearms and ammunition’ training—and came after its members carried out scores of attacks against Israelis,” Adam Kredo of the Free Beacon reported, adding that the “PASF is reportedly seeking more than $680 million from the American government over the next four years.” Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which researches Palestinian society and has numerous Arabic language researchers, conducted a 2024 investigation that found roughly 400 Palestinians imprisoned for terrorism were known to be members of the PASF. Additionally, PMW reported in February 2024 that it had “documented at least 55 attacks by PA security forces against Israeli soldiers or civilians since 2020 … In each case, the PA or its ruling Fatah party has eulogized the attacker as one of their own ‘soldiers.’” “The American suggestion to empower these terror forces to rule Gaza after Israel has destroyed the terror infrastructure is inconceivable,” PMW founder Itamar Marcus told the Washington Free Beacon last year. “The PA and its security forces are a fundamental part of the problem; it is absurd to believe they can be part of the solution.” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted, “The PASF have demonstrated an ongoing inability to maintain order in (Judea and Samaria), a fact made more concerning by emerging reports of the group’s ties to terrorism in the region. As everyone knows, money is fungible.” McCaul called for the Trump administration and Congress to “conduct rigorous oversight of this type of funding, which the Biden administration quietly noticed at the 11th hour. We must ensure taxpayer dollars are not empowering terrorists to fight our allies and undermine the very principles they’re meant to protect.” According to the notice, the funds the Biden administration sent are providing “equipment and training” in Judea and Samaria for the Palestinians. As The Free Beacon noted, the first Trump presidency froze hundreds of millions in U.S. funds for the Palestinian Authority, but the Biden administration reinstated $45 million a year in funding to the PA security services, despite the fact that internal assessments “showed that the funding could boost the Iran-backed terror group Hamas.”