Live updates: Trump tells Carney ‘never say never’ on Canada as 51st state

Trump on Tuesday likened himself to a shopkeeper while the United States is a store, as his administration negotiates deals with trading partners on tariffs.

“I can announce all of them now, I can announce 50 to 100 deals right now because I’m the shopkeeper and I keep the store,” Trump said.

He added, “They can go shopping or they don’t have to go shopping because everybody wants to shop here. This is like a beautiful store.”

Earlier in the day, Trump said the U.S. should be thought of “as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods.”

Virginia Rep. Rob Wittman (R) said he told Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) that Medicaid reforms such as lowering the federal match rate or placing a per capita cap on spending are “a no go.”

“I’ve told the Speaker and the Majority Leader that’s an absolute no-go,” Wittman said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday. “I’ve told the Speaker and the leadership that that’s a non-starter.”

“There’s no misunderstanding about where I stand on these things,” he said.

Medicaid has emerged as perhaps the biggest sticking point in enacting President Trump’s massive domestic agenda, with leadership searching for spending cuts and moderate and vulnerable Republicans drawing the line at slashing benefits.

Last month the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced Wittman was on its 2026 target list.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Tuesday that Democratic Govs. Kathy Hochul of New York, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Tim Walz of Minnesota will testify before the panel next month about their states’ sanctuary city policies. 

The hearing, which is slated for June 12, comes after Comer called on the three governors to testify and provide documents and communications connected to their respective states’ sanctuary cities policies last month. 

“The Trump Administration is taking decisive action to deport criminal illegal aliens from our nation but reckless sanctuary states like Illinois, Minnesota, and New York are actively seeking to obstruct federal immigration enforcement,” Comer said in a statement.  

“The governors of these states must explain why they are prioritizing the protection of criminal illegal aliens over the safety of U.S. citizens, and they must be held accountable,” he continued. 

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said Tuesday that he will not seek the top Democratic seat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee if and when the spot opens up before the next Congress.

Frost last week had indicated he was interested in the position, but was awaiting a decision from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who had sought the seat in December as lawmakers were heading into the new Congress. Frost had said he would defer to Ocasio-Cortez if she decided to run.

On Monday, Ocasio-Cortez announced that she would not seek the position, citing the Democrats’ preference for having more senior members at the tops of committees. But Frost said he would also forgo a run at the seat, citing at least two reasons. First, he’s already a leader of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), the House Democrats’ messaging arm. And second, he’s not convinced he could win.

“Many reasons. Some personal, and I’m already a DPCC co-chair,” Frost said. “I think we’re doing really good work there. I don’t want to stretch myself too thin. And I’m not sure I’d be super-successful in it — in getting it.

“I think I’d be a great Oversight ranker, but I’m not sure if it would work out if I did it this time.”

House Democrats on Tuesday launched a long-shot effort to shield Medicaid and food stamps from GOP cuts. 

The Democrats are pushing a procedural gambit, known as a discharge petition, that would force a House vote on legislation protecting the two low-income benefit programs from cuts under President Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”

The petition requires 218 signatures to be successful, meaning Democrats will need at least a handful of Republicans to buck their own leadership and sign on. That’s a tough lift given the intense pressure GOP lawmakers are facing to back Trump’s agenda, including sweeping tax cuts, and give the president a win amid the economic turmoil sparked by his global tariffs.

Still, a number of moderate Republicans have insisted publicly that they won’t support a package that cuts benefits under Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Democrats are urging those centrists to back their words by signing the discharge petition.

“We don’t need 100 percent of House Republicans. We don’t need a majority of them. We need 2 percent,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (Pa.), senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee, told reporters in the Capitol. “There have been far more than 2 percent on TV who’ve been saying, ‘Oh, no. I would never cut Medicaid. I would never cut SNAP. Not me.’” 

“OK, prove it.”

Read more here.

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano to head the Social Security Administration despite strong opposition from Democrats.

He was confirmed on a 53-47 vote.

The final confirmation vote came a day after the Senate advanced Bisignano, 50-45, on a procedural vote.

Bisignano’s nomination drew strong pushback from Democrats after Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency and other senior Trump administration officials called for slimming down the Social Security Administration’s 57,000-person workforce by 7,000 positions and shutting dozens of offices across the country.

The nominee denied at his Senate confirmation hearing in March that the Trump administration secretly intended to privatize the agency.

“I don’t see this institution as anything other than run for the benefit of the American public,” Bisignano told senators.

Bisignano, the CEO of Fiserv, a financial technology and payments firm, has ranked as one of the most highly paid corporate leaders in the country.

A large board bearing the name “Gulf of America” is on display outside Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) office in the Capitol.

The House is set to vote Thursday on a bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as Republicans look to finalize one of Trump’s priorities.

Republicans advanced the measure on Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is considering changes in the materials used to produce nickels.

“With the nickel and the dime, the nickel costs more than a nickel to produce, but we are looking at changes in the materials that would reduce the cost to or below a nickel,” he said. “And then, I believe the dime is profitable.”

The secretary was asked about the Trump administration’s efforts to end production of pennies, after the president called the coin wasteful.

President Trump’s cuts to monitoring weather and climate research will put millions of Americans at risk, an expert warned this week. 

Alonzo Plough, a researcher and chief science officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, warned in an op-ed published Monday that extreme weather and associated health risks will harm people across the country. 

“Rather than protecting families and communities from these harms, however, the Trump administration has sent a far different message to the American people: You’re on your own,” Plough wrote.

Read the full story here.

Vice President Vance called on voters to back his half-brother in the primary for the Cincinnati mayoral race on Tuesday.

“Hey Cincinnati! My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on the ballot today for the primary. He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community,” Vance said in a post on X. “Get out there and vote for him!”

Bowman is running against incumbent Democratic Mayor Aftab Pureval in a nonpartisan top-two primary, in which all candidates run on the same ballot and the two best-peforming candidates advance to the general election in November. One other candidate, Republican Brian Frank, is also running in the primary. 

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who faces a tough re-election race in 2026, has informed the White House that he will not support Ed Martin, President Trump’s choice to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, torpedoing the controversial nomination.

Martin is currently serving as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and has coming under strong criticism for helping to organize the “Stop the Steal” movement after the 2020 election and for serving as defense counsel to people charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.

Tillis told reporters Tuesday morning that he will not support Martin’s nomination to remain as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia because of his advocacy for people convicted of Jan. 6-related crimes.

A “no” vote from Tillis kills the nomination because Republicans have a 12-10 majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and all Democrat on the panel also oppose Martin’s nomination. The nominee could not advance on an 11-11 deadlock.

Read the full story here.

Three moderate House Republicans — Reps. Zach Nunn (Iowa), Don Bacon (Neb.), and Derrick Van Orden (Wis.) — introduced a procedural resolution to show their opposition to reducing benefits under Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Republicans’ “big beautiful bill” of Trump agenda priorities.

The “point of order” resolution would prohibit the House from considering any reconciliation bill that reduces benefits from Medicaid or SNAP for children, seniors, pregnant women or individuals with disabilities.

House GOP leaders have said they are targeting waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid and SNAP, but some proposals being floated would reduce the share of federal money given to states to administer the programs — risking having states decide to reduce eligibility or benefits to make up for the lost funds.

All three of the Republicans who introduced the measure voted to approve the budget resolution blueprint that provided the framework for Republicans to write the reconciliation bill details.

President Trump said he wished the press would stop asking his administration about when deals with trading partners on tariffs would be announced, nearly a month after he implemented his 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs.

“We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now, if we wanted,” he said.

The president described his approach as “flexible” and not “chaotic,” adding that the administration will adjust tariffs on trading partners if deals are not agreed to.

“One day we’ll come and we’ll give you a hundred deals and they don’t have to sign,” Trump said. “We will sign some deals but much bigger than that is we’re going to put down the price that people will have to pay to shop in the United States. Think of us as a super luxury store, a store that has the goods.”

Trump left the door open to making Canada the 51st state after Carney said that Canada is “not for sale” and never would be.

“Time will tell. It’s only time. But I say, never say never. I’ve had many many things that are not doable and they ended up being doable,” Trump said. “And, only doable in a very friendly way but if its to everybody’s benefit— you know, Canada loves us and we love Canada.”

“We’ll see, over time. We’ll see what happens,” the president added.

President Trump stood by his argument that Canada would be better served as the 51st state, but offered a softer tone sitting alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“I still believe that. But it takes two to tango, right?” Trump said, suggesting Canada joining the U.S. would lead to major tax cuts and other benefits for Canadian citizens.

“I do feel it’s much better for Canada. But we’re not going to be discussing that unless somebody wants to discuss it,” Trump added.

Carney said Canada is “not for sale” and “won’t be for sale ever.”

Trump said the trade agreement from his first term, U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), may not be necessary anymore.

“It’s still very effective but people have to follow it,” Trump said of USMCA. “It was a transitional step a little bit. As you know, it terminates fairly shortly. It gets renegotiated very shortly.”

“This was a transitional deal,” he added. “I don’t know that its necessary anymore.”

Trump signed the USMCA in 2020, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement. He announced in March that the USMCA would be exempted from a 25 percent tariff he imposed on all goods from Mexico and Canada.

California Democrats are hammering President Trump’s recent proposal to slap new tariffs on foreign-made films.

The lawmakers are warning that, if it’s imposed, Trump’s 100 percent levy would simply result in higher costs for movie consumers in the United States.

“This is just nonsensical,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday in the Capitol.

“There are things that we can do to increase production [and encourage] the film industry to film in the United States,” he continued. “We should be looking at those ideas and strategies, not reckless tariffs that will cost people jobs and raise costs for Americans.”

Trump announced his new tariff proposal Sunday night on Truth Social, the social media company he owns, saying the incentives other countries provide to attract filmmakers pose a national security threat. The policy change, he said, would revive a domestic movie industry that’s dying “a very fast death.” 

Read more here.

Trump announced during his meeting with the Canadian prime minister that the Houthi rebels have informed his administration “that they don’t want to fight anymore.”

“They just don’t want to fight. And we will honor that,” Trump said. “And we will stop the bombings. They have capitulated, but more importantly we will take their word. They say they will not be blowing up ships anymore.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued the campaign against the Houthis in Yemen was about “freedom of navigation.” Houthi rebels had been targeting shipping in the Red Sea.

Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney began their meeting in the Oval Office just after noon EDT, with the president quipping that he deserved partial credit for Carney’s recent election win.

“He won a very big election in Canada. And I think I was probably the greatest thing that happened to him, but I can’t take full credit,” Trump joked. “His party was losing by a lot, and he ended up winning.”

Trump said the two would discuss trade and the war in Ukraine.

Watch Mark Carney’s arrival via The Hill’s White House reporter Alex Gangitano here.

President Trump just welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to the White House. The two shook hands and smiled for the cameras before walking in.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Ed Martin, President Trump’s controversial pick to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, will “probably” stay stuck in the Senate Judiciary Committee given the opposition from Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

Thune indicated that he doesn’t see a path for getting Martin to the Senate floor if Tillis, a member of the Judiciary panel, remains opposed to the nominee.

Read the full story here.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration is considering changes in the materials used to produce nickels.

“With the nickel and the dime, the nickel costs more than a nickel to produce, but we are looking at changes in the materials that would reduce the cost to or below a nickel,” he said. “And then, I believe the dime is profitable.”

The secretary was asked about the Trump administration’s efforts to end production of pennies, after the president called the coin wasteful.

Several House Democrats walked out of a hearing on cryptocurrency legislation Tuesday, after Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) objected over concerns about President Trump’s recent ventures in the digital asset industry. 

Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, sought to block the joint hearing between the panel and the House Agriculture Committee with her objection, sparking several tense minutes between lawmakers. 

House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) slammed the move by the ranking member, accusing Waters of throwing a partisan wedge into bipartisan efforts to hash out market structure legislation for digital assets.

Read more here.

President Trump swiped at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney moments before he arrived at the White House for their first in-person meeting.

“I look forward to meeting the new Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney. I very much want to work with him, but cannot understand one simple TRUTH — Why is America subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection, and many other things?” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump repeated his argument that the United States does not need various imports from Canada, such as cars or lumber.

“They, on the other hand, need EVERYTHING from us!” Trump posted. “The Prime Minister will be arriving shortly and that will be, most likely, my only question of consequence.”

As House GOP leaders work this week to hammer out sticky details of their “one big, beautiful bill,” and ideological adversaries clash over issues such as Medicaid, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is projecting confidence that he can not only work out the policy but survive politically.

“I don’t make promises I can’t keep. This is a consensus-building operation,” Johnson said.

“I think at the end of the day, we’ll get that consensus. And you know, there may be some grumbling about certain provisions, but as the whip said so aptly this morning in the conference meeting, he said, ‘You gotta, you gotta focus on the totality of the bill and not just individual details,’” Johnson said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday that Ed Martin’s nomination to be U.S. attorney for D.C. could be in serious trouble.

His comments came shortly after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he would not support the controversial Trump pick.

“I think that would suggest that he’s probably not going to get out of committee,” Thune told reporters when asked about Tillis’s opposition.

A federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s request to revoke the temporary legal status of nearly a million migrants living in the country.

In an order Monday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put a hold on a judge’s order that stopped the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from terminating parole protections for people who entered the country through the CBP One app.

The DHS move would have revoked legal status for nearly a million people who came to the U.S. under the Biden administration. Of the roughly 985,000 migrants who used the app, many were often permitted to seek asylum and given a temporary work authorization.

The three-judge panel in Boston, comprised of appointees of Democratic presidents, said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has not made a “strong showing” that the termination of the parole for the migrants is “likely to be sustained on appeal.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is proposing Google sell two of its advertising products following a judge’s ruling that the tech giant illegally acquired and maintained a monopoly in the ad tech sector.

In a late-night filing Monday, the DOJ urged a Virginia federal court judge to order Google to divest its AdX exchange business and conduct a “phased” sale of its DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), a platform bringing together publishers.

Read more here.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he would support Ed Martin’s nomination to be U.S. attorney for D.C., after telling reporters the day before he had not yet reached a decision. 

“When he comes up for a vote, I intend to support him,” Cornyn said Tuesday morning.  “I tend to defer to the president on his choices.”

Cornyn had been criticized by his Republican primary challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, for not backing Martin earlier. Paxton accused Cornyn of “trying to undermine President Trump’s agenda by refusing to say whether he supports” the embattled nominee.

Cornyn’s comments came shortly after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said he would not support Martin’s nomination.