Big announcement Friday, Musk vs Trump, come see me speak and more...

Thursday afternoon was a good day to leak bad news as all eyes were on Musk and Trump.

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Yes, we have to talk about the epic battle between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, but first...

Do we have a trade deal between Ottawa and Washington? I was first to report on Tuesday that a deal was close, and then on Wednesday that a “high-level” plan had been mapped out and was being discussed.

Thursday night the PMO put out an advisory that there would be a news conference on Friday.

The Prime Minister will hold a media availability. He will be joined by the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy, Dominic LeBlanc, the Minister of Transport and Internal Trade, Chrystia Freeland, and the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson.

LeBlanc being there could mean details on a Washington deal. Freeland likely means details on the federal moves on internal trade. Hodgson could hint at either or both.

Well, we know for sure that they will be talking about internal trade because it’s there on the Notice Paper for what is coming up in Parliament. The government has tabled “An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act.”

That doesn’t preclude them from talking about a potential deal with Washington though, and both LeBlanc and Hodgson could be part of that piece. Carney admitted on Wednesday that talks were intensive and delicate and on Thursday, it was revealed that Carney and Trump are speaking directly.

That lines up with what we heard from Trump’s new Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, when he spoke to the Empire Club on Tuesday. Hoekstra told a skeptical audience that Trump is on top of the talks with Canadians and directly involved.

I’ll be sitting down for an in-depth interview with Ambassador Pete – hope he doesn’t mind me calling him that – on Friday morning. The plan is to release the interview on Monday morning which is our regular schedule but if there is any breaking news in it, I’ll push to release it sooner.

And you thought your break-up was bad...

It was just last Friday that Elon Musk stood in the Oval Office as Donald Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk and praised his right-hand man.

“He did a fantastic job, and he didn’t need this,” Trump said.

In a session with the media that lasted 52 minutes, the two men heaped praise on one another and Musk said he would stick around as an advisor whenever the president needed him.

I’d seen the stories over the past several months about how they didn’t get along, were about to break up, and were both trying to be on top. I take most stories like that with a grain of salt regardless of who is involved because I’ve been at this for a while.

When they went to the news conference last Friday and seemed to be non-stop singing each other’s praises, I thought, 'Well, it was all fake!'

Apparently not.

Musk has been critical of Trump’s tax reform bill, which also includes major spending and an increase to the debt ceiling. Throughout the day, Musk had made several social media posts critical of the spending bill, which any sane Republican would agree with.

He posted screenshots of old posts from Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson being critical of the kind of out-of-control spending they are now backing.

I'm not sure how we went from that to all-out war, but at 2:37pm on Thursday, Trump took to Truth Social to say he asked Musk to leave.

Elon was “wearing thin,” I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!

About a half hour later, Musk responded on X and he went for the jugular.

Time to drop the really big bomb:

@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.

Have a nice day, DJT!

The two continued to battle throughout the day with pot shots at each other. Doubt this is the last of it.

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Come listen to me speak...

I’ll be giving a keynote address at the 2025 George Jonas Freedom Award this coming Thursday in Toronto. If you are in the area, please consider purchasing a ticket, which you can do at this link here.

The event is held by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms which supports legal challenges to government overreach and helps ordinary citizens stand up for their Charter rights. The recipient of this year’s award is Dr. Frances Widdowson.

I’ve attended the dinner in the past and it is a great event.

What to read...

James Moore has a wonderful piece today on how when he served as industry minister in the Harper government It was his opposition critic, Marc Garneau, who offered him real help. It’s a beautiful reflection on Garneau’s passing.

When the head of the International Olympic Committee said at a news conference last year during the Paris Olympics that there was no scientific way to tell a man from a woman, my jaw dropped. The entire establishment had drunk the Kool-Aid. Well, things are changing now and Terry Newman has a look at how male boxer Imane Khelif won’t be punching women anymore.

And shocker of shocker, Randall Denley, is saying nice things about Doug Ford for a change. Denley appears happy the Ford government is dealing, to a degree, with DEI in the education system.