- Is everyone in the trump administration really that stupid? -

The US ambassador Pete Hoekstra has suggested Canada could be blamed if Republicans perform poorly in next week's midterm elections, the latest intervention from a controversial figure who has been accused of inflaming a bitter dispute that has angered and baffled residents of both countries.

On Wednesday, CTV news reported that Hoekstra told business leaders at a closed door meeting that if a number of swing races – including Maine and Michigan – go to the Democrats, it could make things harder for Canada because Donald Trump might try to blame the loss on it.

"That's an interesting way of framing it," the prime minister, Mark Carney, told reporters when asked about the allegations.

For months, Canada and the US have been locked in a bitter tariff war, with Ottawa retaliating against illegal US tariffs and targeting goods in states that rely heavily on trade with Canada.

Carney said that Canada "will pursue" such a deal if it presents itself, but that Ottawa's trade negotiators are "not in that position right now".

Hoekstra is a deeply polarizing figure in Canada, particular for his response to Trump's rhetoric about making Canada the 51st US state. Speaking to a Michigan radio station last year, he described the threats as a "sign of affection" and questioned why Canadians were offended by what he characterized as a "generous offer". He had previously described Canada's 2025 federal election as "anti-American".

This year a House of Commons petition signed by more than 225,000 Canadians called for his expulsion, suggesting his statements violated diplomatic protocols, including the prohibition on diplomats interfering in the internal affairs of a host country.

More recently, Hoekstra has accused Canadian officials of interfering in US elections, pointing to Canadian politicians who have criticized the tariffs in US media, and the province of Ontario's anti-tariff advertisement that ran on US television.

"We see all of that. We are monitoring it. We are evaluating it. And if some of it becomes election interference, America will respond to it," Hoekstra, who comes from Michigan, recently told a Canadian podcast, adding that Canadians should "keep your nose out of American politics".

Canada's industry minister, Mélanie Joly, who was a target of Hoekstra's comments, told reporters in Ottawa that her country "would never do that" and said Canada would "never accept that also being done to us in Canada".

Carney, while in Turkey, told reporters there was "no merit" to the claims of interference and that he was "disappointed that their envoy sees that as his role, to make these suggestions".

Roland Paris, the director of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and a foreign affairs adviser to the former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, said the remarks were an "extraordinary thing" for a US ambassador to say about his host country and looked like an effort to "manufacture a pretext for the Trump administration's own political difficulties".

"The job of an ambassador is to represent the interests of his country, but it's also to maintain channels of communication and build relationships and manage disagreements," he said.

"His comments have repeatedly aggravated tensions instead of helping to manage them. I don't think that he's serving American interests very well. I'm not even sure that he's serving the interests of his president."

Paris points to polling in the US that shows voters have increasingly linked tariffs, the war and cost of living. There is also widespread confusion over why the White House has chosen to treat Canada as a trade adversary.

"It's certainly not working in Canada. It's on the contrary. It seems that every time Mr. Hoekstra opens his mouth, the Canadians are more determined than before to stand up to the bullying of the Trump administration," he said. "That's not serving American interests."

The US embassy denied Hoekstra said Canada would face blame for a poor Republican showing, suggesting the remarks were "grossly taken out of context" from a broader discussion.

"The ambassador has consistently said that the Canadian media is attempting to overstate the relevance of Canadian issues in American elections. As we have previously stated, Americans will decide American elections based on issues that are important to them," the embassy said in a statement.

At a Canadian American Business event last year, Hoekstra delivered what witnesses say was an expletive-laden tirade at Ontario's trade representative after the province ran a series of anti-tariff ads in the US that featured Ronald Reagan. Ontario's premier called the outburst "absolutely unacceptable" and "unbecoming of an ambassador".

Last week, Barack Obama noted the unusual choice to attack a longtime ally while speaking at a Democratic campaign rally in Detroit, mocking Trump's fixation on Canada and jokingly referring to his northern neighbor as a "well-known evil empire".

United States on Tuesday as the president showed off a tanker he claimed had “one million barrels of oil on it” from the country, nine months after deposing its president.

At a campaign rally in Corpus Christ, Texas, Trump touted a US oil deal with Venezuela, which the US attacked in January, capturing its long-serving leader Nicolás Maduro.

Trump claims the agreement – struck with the South American country’s interim government, which is backed by Trump’s administration – will cover “billions” of barrels of oil.

Venezuela “will become a prosperous country, and who knows? Maybe some day soon it’ll become a prosperous 51st state,” Trump said at the podium on Tuesday. “That’s possible.”

Venezuela is on a growing list of countries and territories Trump has spoken of acquiring, including Greenland, Canada and Mexico.

With tens of millions of Americans set to vote in next week’s midterm elections, Trump’s aggressive foreign policy – including his controversial war on Iran, and tariffs on goods from much of the world – have challenged his popularity, according to opinion polls, with his approval ratings falling to record lows.

But on Tuesday, the president sought to point to the Venezuela operation as an example of his success. US fuel prices, which surged after the start of the Iran war, piling pressure on Americans’ cost of living, “will soon come plummeting down”, he claimed in a social media post.

“We’re celebrating the greatest oil victory in history,” he said at the rally, pointing out the ship off the Texan coast. “The oil provided is being provided to the United States at zero cost to the American taxpayer.”

Moments before Trump took the stage in Texas, he claimed on his Truth Social platform: “By unleashing Energy Dominance from Alaska, all the way down to Venezuela, I have made the Western Hemisphere the Energy Capital of the World.”

The deal has also drawn skepticism as critics complained that the Trump administration has not pushed a transition to democracy in Venezuela, where elections have not been held since Maduro was detained by US forces and taken to New York to face criminal charges after a raid on his Caracas residence.

The urgency of the oil agreement stems from Trump’s opting into the war with Iran in February. Gas prices have shot up nationwide after Iran closed the strait of Hormuz, a passageway for 20% of the world’s oil

- The tinpot dictator has so decreed -

President Donald Trump has promised to ban everyone from using the phrase 'artificial intelligence' as he continues to promote a more favorable term — 'super intelligence' (AFP via Getty Images)

President Donald Trump has promised to ban everyone from using the phrase "artificial intelligence" as he continues to promote a more favorable term — "super intelligence."

"When will The Wall Street Journal start calling Artificial Intelligence (AI), a very bad and inaccurate name, SI (Super Intelligence), the name which virtually everyone else is using, or soon will be.

"In short order, we will be officially BANNING the term, 'AI/Artificial Intelligence,' in all relevant documents, and everything else, due to its inaccuracy," Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday afternoon.

As AI infiltrates many aspects of people's everyday lives, from asking chatbots what to cook for dinner to how to form a work email or breakup text, the term has become a household name — making it hard to shake.

But Trump is determined to do just that.

Earlier this month, Trump bizarrely stated in another Truth Social post that the White House considers anyone who uses the term "artificial intelligence" over "super intelligence" to be "THE ENEMY!"

Trump's recent push to rename AI comes at a time when experts in the field are sounding the alarm over the potential risk to humanity that the technology poses.

Donald Trump has hit out at Norway in another sweary rant after his Nobel Prize snub.

The US President told a political rally in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday that immigrants from Norway are not welcome in the United States, days before next week's midterm elections.

The US President escalated his invective against the Scandinavian country, calling it a "s**t house country" and complaining that the Nobel committee, based in the capital Oslo, has not awarded him a Peace Prize.

President Trump has long coveted the prize and made no secret of his aspiration to win it. He has previously heaped pressure on the committee to give him the prestigious accolade.

Attributing recent unrest in France to immigration, Trump said he would welcome immigrants from some countries but not from Norway "because ‌I didn't get the Nobel Prize ... So I don't want anybody from Norway."

"Norway has become a s**t house country, actually," Trump said, using a term that he has previously applied to Haiti, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

There was no indication that the Trump administration was adopting new official policy on Norwegian immigrants.

Trump earlier previously called the failure to give him a Nobel Peace Prize an "indelible stain" on Norway.

Earlier this month Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay took a swipe at Donald Trump after winning the prize , joking that she would offer to share it with him.

The South African judge and legal expert was awarded the prize for being "instrumental in ensuring war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted", according to Nobel committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

At the Nuremberg court where Pillay was attending an academic and legal conference, she addressed attendees and made a joke at Mr Trump's expense. Walking into a room of applause, she said: "If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump."

Norway is among the highest-income countries as measured by GDP per capita, according to International Monetary Fund data.

The country's sovereign wealth fund posted a record profit of 1.75 trillion Norwegian crowns ($184.3 billion) for the first half of 2026.

- A Very Presidential Language -

Donald Trump praised rapper Nicki Minaj's "beautiful ass" during a political rally on Sunday.

The US president travelled with Minaj to Port Huron in Michigan on Air Force One, amid speculation that she could be named the new White House press secretary.

During the rally, Mr Trump said: "By the way, I looked at one hell of a beautiful ass before – Nicki Minaj. That's hard to miss."

Minaj then stood and waved to a cheering crowd, while the president added that he hoped she was not "insulted" by his remark.

The rapper, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, then joined him on stage and said that he "changed the energy of the country".

Well, I guess it would be entertaining...

Fuck shareholders. They can all rot in Hell

- It's not a joke. He is serious -

Donald Trump wants to turn the White House press briefing room into a swimming pool and kick reporters out of the West Wing.

The US president has repeatedly discussed plans to move the press out of the White House, according to The New York Times.

The James S Brady press briefing room does sit on the site of a swimming pool, built during Franklin D Roosevelt's presidency.

Mr Trump pitched the idea to Karoline Leavitt, the former press secretary, as something which could be "her last legacy", the newspaper reported.

He raised the proposal several times during the final months of her tenure, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions, before she left in August.

Mr Trump has previously floated the idea of turning the briefing room into a swimming pool.

On Sept 27, he shared two images on Truth Social. One showed the briefing room as it is now, captioned "Fake News", while another showed the space as a swimming pool, captioned "FDR Pool".

Bill Pulte, the director of the federal housing finance agency who often spends weekends with Mr Trump at his golf clubs, has also been a prominent advocate of the proposal, according to the NYT.

Mr Pulte has even produced a foam-board rendering of the briefing room converted into a pool area, the newspaper reported.

"All options remain on the table and we will make an announcement when appropriate."

"From the moment I arrived in the White House, I believed it was a national security threat to have the press literally surround the Oval Office," Steve Bannon told the NYT this month.

Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that he would serve as "the arbitrator" of decisions in the justice department's new anti-fraud program that awards compensation to those who submit tips resulting in conviction or significant federal enforcement.

While announcing the new program alongside JD Vance, the vice-president, who leads the White House's taskforce to eliminate fraud, the president told reporters he had a solution for situations where multiple people submit a tip for the same alleged fraud.

"I was just thinking, when you do these things, sometimes there's a dispute as to who turned 'em in and who didn't turn 'em in, who's supposed to get what and when, you know," Trump told reporters.

"So I am going to do something, which I think people will like, I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions. In other words, I'll determine whether or not the person is deserving, and I will be very generous, believe me," the US president said, resulting in laughter from the group.

It is unclear whether Trump was being genuine about his new role. The Department of Justice website says the department has "sole discretion" in issuing rewards and exercising its authority in the program.

When asked whether the president's statement was true, the White House referred the Guardian to Trump's Oval Office comments.

The Guardian has asked the justice departmentfor comment.

The new fraud whistleblower incentive program gives anyone who submits a tip the opportunity to receive a financial reward of up to $30,000 for tips in the "charging stage of a criminal case".

The government already gives financial rewards to whistleblowers who file lawsuits against individuals and companies committing financial fraud through the False Claims Act. If the government intervenes in a suit and prosecutes it, whistleblowers can obtain 15% to 25% of the financial penalties.

Vance said the new program differs from the False Claims Act because it expands the opportunity for financial reward in cases of fraud related to the government.

"Over 99% of the fraud that we're finding in the federal government isn't covered by the False Claims Act," Vance said.

The new program also provides whistleblower rewards at an earlier stage of investigation, rather than requiring it to result in large fines or forfeiture.

Vance said he and Trump decided to create the program to incentivize more people to report fraud like Nick Shirley, a conservative influencer who went viral earlier this year for accusing Somali-run childcare centers in Minnesota of rampant fraud.

During his Oval Office announcement, Trump indicated the program would result in whistleblowers obtaining 1% of however much fraud was uncovered, insisting people could make "millions and millions" of dollars from submitting tips.

However, the justice department website says the program is limited to a $30,000 reward.

"You'll get your money immediately, but I'll make the determination," Trump added. "So if two people are fighting over it, maybe they'll split it or maybe whatever, but I'll make that determination. It'll be done expeditiously and fairly."

Trump encouraged members of the media to participate in the program by investigating and reporting instances of fraud. He said the government would be willing to give reporters the financial reward, so long as their respective outlet allowed it.