đš JUST IN: Mark Carney says Canada is not chasing a China free trade deal, but Washingtonâs tariff warning is already exposing a deeper power struggle âĄ.
The warning from Washington did not sound like routine diplomacy. It sounded like a test.
When asked how Canada would respond to Donald Trumpâs threat of 100% tariffs, Prime Minister Mark Carney did not lunge for a headline. He reached for the rulebook.
Calmly, carefully, and with the precision of a man who understands exactly how markets panic, Carney reminded reporters that Canada respects its commitments under USMCA/CUSMA and has no intention of pursuing a free trade agreement with China.
That answer mattered because the threat was real.
According to recent reporting, Trump warned that if Canada moved toward a deeper free trade deal with Beijing, he would hit Canadian goods with a 100% tariff.
Carneyâs response was to make clear that Ottawaâs recent work with China is not a sweeping FTA, but a narrower effort to ease trade irritants in a handful of sectors, including electric vehicles, agriculture, fish products, and other food items.
That distinction is the entire battleground.
Under Article 32.10 of CUSMA, if one party enters a free trade agreement with a ânon-market country,â the others can terminate the trilateral deal with six monthsâ notice and replace it with a bilateral arrangement between themselves. In other words, this is not a vague diplomatic norm. It is written into the architecture of North American trade. Carneyâs argument is that Canada is staying inside those lines.
But politics is moving faster than legal text.
Beijingâs message has been almost theatrical in its contrast with Washingtonâs. China has framed its growing engagement with Canada as cooperation, not confrontation â âwin-win,â not zero-sum. That phrasing is no accident. It positions China as the calm alternative while painting the United States as the country trying to force loyalty through tariff threats. Even if the actual Canada-China arrangement is limited, the symbolism is enormous: China is offering Canada another lane, and Washington is trying to close it before traffic gets moving.
Carney, for now, is trying to cool the temperature without backing away from the larger strategy.
He has made clear that Canada wants to become less dependent on a single trading partner and more resilient to external shocks. That is not just rhetoric. In the same exchange, he pointed to a broader diversification push, saying Canada has concluded 12 new trade and security agreements across four continents in six months, with more to come. APâs reporting also places this China episode in the wider context of Carneyâs effort to rally middle powers and reduce overreliance on Washington.
That is why this fight feels bigger than tariffs on a few product categories.
The White House is effectively warning Canada that even a limited thaw with China could be treated as strategic disloyalty. Canada, meanwhile, is insisting it is simply protecting its own room to maneuver while honoring existing agreements. And China is standing off to the side, smiling like a rival who knows the pressure itself may do more to push countries away from Washington than any sales pitch ever could.
The economic stakes are not theoretical. Carney has argued Canadaâs economy has added 190,000 jobs since August, and he is selling diversification as part of a plan to build a stronger, more independent economic base. I could not independently confirm that exact âsince Augustâ number from the sources I checked, so that figure should be treated as coming from Carneyâs remarks rather than verified here. What is clear is that Ottawa wants to project confidence: momentum is building, the world is knocking, and Canada is no longer interested in being told that every global relationship must be filtered through U.S. approval.
And that is the deeper reason Trumpâs tariff threat may backfire.
The more Washington frames trade as loyalty and diversification as betrayal, the more it encourages allies to keep searching for alternatives. Canada is not announcing a full pivot to China. It is doing something more subtle and, in some ways, more consequential: proving that it can widen its options while still claiming to stay inside the rules.
That may be exactly what makes Washington so uneasy.
Because once a close ally shows it has alternatives, the threat of total dependence starts to collapse.
'Guilty Of Fraud' - Hammer Dropped On Former First Lady Jill Biden During Live Fox News Segment
McEnany Accuses Jill Biden Of Misleading Americans About Debate Performance
Posted July 15, 2026
Former White House press secretary and Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany accused former first lady Jill Biden of misleading the American public about President Joe Bidenâs condition following his widely criticized debate performance during the 2024 campaign.
McEnany made the remarks Thursday during an appearance on Fox News Channelâs âAmericaâs Newsroom,â where she reacted to comments Jill Biden reportedly made in her upcoming book regarding the presidentâs performance during the debate that ultimately intensified questions about his age and fitness for office.
The discussion began when co-host Dana Perino referenced remarks Jill Biden made immediately following the debate.
At a campaign event after the debate, Jill Biden praised her husbandâs performance.
âJoe, you did such a great job. You answered every question,â she said at the time.
Perino contrasted those comments with more recent claims attributed to Jill Biden and raised questions about the apparent inconsistency.
âSo now we know that this is what sheâs saying in her book,â Perino said. âAnd the question I would love to ask her is where are you lying then or now?â
McEnany responded by arguing that Jill Bidenâs reaction following the debate was inconsistent with her more recent descriptions of the event.
âItâs a great question,â McEnany said.
âThat is not the reaction of someone who believes they just watched their husband have a stroke. It is an absolute lie.â
McEnany then accused the former first lady of concealing concerns about the presidentâs condition from voters.
âIt was fraud,â she said.
âWhat she did fraud on the American public and sheâs continuing it by saying she had never seen him like that before or after.â
The debate between Biden and President Donald Trump became a turning point in the 2024 election cycle, with many Democrats publicly expressing concern about Bidenâs performance and his ability to continue his campaign.
Questions about Bidenâs age and mental sharpness had circulated for years, but the debate intensified those concerns and fueled calls from some Democrats for him to step aside.
During the Fox News discussion, McEnany referenced comments previously made by veteran journalist Carl Bernstein regarding Bidenâs condition behind the scenes.
âDana, you all remember Carl Bernstein, who said he talked to people who knew Joe Biden, loved Joe Biden, supported Joe Biden, and they were adamant that what we saw was not a one-off,â McEnany said.
According to McEnany, Bernstein reported that individuals close to Biden had observed similar episodes before the debate.
âThey said it had happened 15 or 20 times prior, him losing his train of thought,â she said.
McEnany also cited a fundraiser Bernstein reportedly described.
âHe described a fundraiser where he froze up and seemed to have some type of rigor mortis,â she said.
âThis is not something that was a one-off.â
McEnany argued that concerns about Bidenâs condition were widely known among those close to him.
âThis was well known,â she said.
She then questioned why Jill Biden continued publicly defending her husband following the debate.
âSo why did she keep up with the fraud on the American people?â McEnany asked.
The former first lady has repeatedly defended her husband and rejected claims that she or members of his inner circle concealed concerns about his health, Breitbart News reported.
The debate over Bidenâs condition became one of the defining political stories of the 2024 election cycle and continued after he ultimately left the race.
McEnanyâs comments reflect ongoing scrutiny surrounding what Bidenâs family, advisers and top Democratic officials knew about his condition and when they knew it.
Neither Jill Biden nor representatives for the former president immediately responded to McEnanyâs latest remarks.
As new books and accounts from those involved continue to emerge, questions surrounding Bidenâs final campaign and the decisions made by those closest to him remain a major topic of political debate.
