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Donald Trump posted a statement on his meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau ahead of a possible trade war.

The prime minister flew Friday to Mar-a-Lago to discuss sweeping tariffs threatened by the former president against Canada, Mexico and China, and Trump provided additional details the following day on his Truth Social account on their three-hour meeting over dinner at his private resort.

"I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada," Trump posted.

The president-elect has threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on products coming from Canada and Mexico if the North American neighbors don't stop what he calls the flow of drugs and migrants into the U.S.

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"I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China," Trump posted. "Too much death and hardship! Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families. We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before."

Trump and Trudeau were joined at the dinner by commerce nominee Howard Lutnick, interior nominee Doug Burgum and national security adviser nominee Mike Waltz, along with Canada’s public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc and Trudeau chief of staff Katie Telford.

“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said before his visit to Florida. “Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well and hurting American industry and business."

Donald Trump has nominated a Cabinet full of loyalists with questionable qualifications, but his critics predict they'll quickly become consumed by chaos and infighting.

Trump began his first term as a political newcomer surrounded by more experienced and conventional conservatives he eventually drove off, and the former president's critics told The Guardian his leadership will lead to predictable results.

“The same thing that happened last time will happen this time,” said Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Trump conservative group the Lincoln Project. “He cannot resist chaos. It is his drug. He will eventually start doing what he always does and turn on different people and start sandbagging his own choices for these various jobs."

“It’s that pattern he has," Wilson added. "He comes out one day and says, ‘I love so and so,’ and then the next he’s talking to his friends saying, ‘Hey, you think Tillerson’s doing a good job or is he screwing me over?’ Those things are patterns we’ve seen in Trump’s personal life, his business life and his prior administration. An 80-year-old man is not going to be a changed person.”

The once and future president has assembled "a revenge team," according to one analyst, while another compared his Cabinet picks to the "wretched hive of scum and villainy" found in the Star Wars cantina, but it's not clear how the hodgepodge of missions and political ideologies will mesh with one another.

"Regardless of whatever individual ideological leanings these people have had at varying points in their adult lives, it’s largely irrelevant because the only litmus test we have seen put forward is absolute fealty to Donald Trump," said Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella. “As we have seen in the Republican party overall, absolute fealty to Donald Trump overshadows any ideological belief. We could take almost every issue that used to be a part of the Republican party and show how the party has moved to a diametrically opposite position. This is not a party governed by ideology any more. It is governed by personality. It is governed by loyalty to Donald Trump.”

"They’re all going to get in a room and they’re just going to go: ‘Here’s what we think – what do you think, boss? Oh, okay, well, that’s what we’re all going to do,’" added Bardella, a former Republican congressional aide. "The idea that there’s going to be ideologically rooted debate, vigorous debate happening in the Trump administration is absurd. It’s laughable.”

Some of Trump's nominees, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) as top diplomat and Wall Street billionaire Scott Bessent to head the treasury, are somewhat conventional picks for their roles, but seasoned Trump watchers believe he'll once again govern on impulse and thrive on conflict.

“I don’t think there’s any evidence that Trump has learned anything about governing since his first term," said Chris Whipple, the author of The Gatekeepers.

“There’s a lot of wishful thinking among a lot of commentators that, okay, he’s had four years in office, he learned a lot, he’s had all this time to plan with Project 2025 and the America First Policy Institute and he’s got his act together," Whipple added. "I just don’t think that’s true. I don’t see any evidence that there’s any sort of plan here other than ‘this guy looks good for that job, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has got a cool last name.'"

Donald Trump has nominated one of his in-laws to serve as ambassador to France.

The president-elect tapped son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, real estate developer Charles Kushner, to the diplomatic post on Saturday touting his business accomplishments and public service but studiously avoiding mention of his criminal conviction for a scheme to hire a sex worker to seduce his own brother-in-law and send a recording of the encounter to his sister.

"I am pleased to nominate Charles Kushner, of New Jersey, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France," Trump posted. "He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests. Charlie is the Founder & Chairman of Kushner Companies, one of the largest & most successful privately held Real Estate firms in the Nation. He was recognized as New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, & served as a Commissioner, & Chairman, of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, as well as on the Boards of our top institutions, including NYU."

"Congratulations to Charlie, his wonderful wife Seryl, their 4 children, & 14 grandchildren," the former president added. "His son, Jared, worked closely with me in the White House, in particular on Operation Warp Speed, Criminal Justice Reform, & the Abraham Accords. Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!"

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Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka, served as a White House adviser during the ex-president's first term and received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia after leaving, but the couple is not expected to rejoin his second administration.

Charles Kushner was convicted in 2005 illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering in the scheme against his brother-in-law, which resulted in a two-year prison term and his disbarment, but the former president pardoned him Dec. 23, 2020, and his nomination surprised many.

"Like Trump, Charles Kushner is a convicted felon," said former Hillary Clinton senior adviser Zac Petkanas.

"Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, recorded their sexual encounter, and sent the tape to his sister, all in retaliation for his brother-in-law's cooperation with a federal investigation into other crimes Kushner had committed," said Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

"In 2020, Chris Christie called Charles Kushner's hiring of a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and subsequent filming of the act to obstruct justice 'one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes' he prosecuted," posted X user Lemon Sturgis.

"'From pardoned to Paris,'" added X user David Kenah. "For those who don’t remember, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner right before leaving office in 2021."

President-elect Donald Trump railed against President Joe Biden's foreign policy, but as he enters the White House, Trump may end up agreeing more than he thinks.

The New York Times outlined some of the ways that Trump has claimed he and Biden differ, but they're actually fairly similar.

For example, both men are firmly behind Israel.

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"Mr. Trump casts himself as Israel’s best friend in American politics, and he may give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wide latitude on security issues and his treatment of Palestinians. But so did Mr. Biden. While the Biden administration often criticized Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza, it took few concrete steps to restrain his behavior," the report said.

In Iran, Trump ripped up former President Barack Obama's denuclearization deal, issuing sanctions. While Trump falsely claimed that Biden lifted the sanctions he imposed, it never happened. Despite efforts, Biden wasn't able to negotiate another deal with Iran. Now, Trump wants another deal.

“We have to make a deal,” he told reporters in September, saying that Iran having nuclear weapons is an “impossible” outcome.

The Times thinks Trump could run into problems because he campaigned on inflation and high gas prices, but if he ends up in a fight with Iran it could adversely impact both.

The report said Taiwan is one "wild card." Biden supported the small democracy and its refusal to genuflect to China.

"Mr. Trump has sounded ambivalent," the report said. That said, many of Trump's appointees are China hawks.

After Obama began diplomatic outreach to Cuba, Trump shut it down, reinstituting a decades-long blockade. Biden didn't change anything Trump did.

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"Similarly, Mr. Biden has largely maintained heavy Trump-era sanctions on Venezuela meant to pressure its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, from power," said the Times.

What has caused some anxiety is the U.S. relationship with Europe. One diplomat told the Times that there is an air of "uncertainty and alarm" about relations with the U.S. Trump has already advocated pulling out of NATO, though the diplomat said most think that it's all talk.

"Few in Europe, he said, believe that Mr. Trump will actually take such a radical step," said the Times.

Read the full report here.

Donald Trump caused alarm in the medical community by picking anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the Department of Health and Human Services. But less noted was a similarly-minded pick to head up the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, profiled by The New York Times on Friday.

Last week, Trump announced the CDC nominee will be Dave Weldon, a doctor and former Florida congressman known for his anti-abortion views and for seeking to intervene in the Terri Schiavo brain death case. In addition to all these things, The Times noted, Weldon is an outspoken anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist himself.

"Over the years his views have aligned in many ways with those of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mr. Trump’s choice for health and human services secretary, and Dr. Weldon’s potential boss. The two have maintained a 25-year relationship," said the report. "Like Mr. Kennedy, Dr. Weldon, 71, has claimed that some children may develop autism when vaccinated against measles because of genetics or other factors, despite dozens of robust studies that thoroughly disproved the claim."

The autism-vaccination theory was most widely popularized by Andrew Wakefield, a discredited British gastroenterologist whose study purported to suggest autism was caused by an intestinal abnormality triggered by the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Follow-up studies failed to replicate these results, and it subsequently was revealed Wakefield had falsified his data, leading to the retraction of his paper and the loss of his medical license. Despite this, he continued for years after to push anti-vaccine activism.

The CDC is one of the most critical agencies responsible for tracking and containing pandemics, and was on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed over 1 million Americans and required the development of multiple vaccines to get it under control.

Despite all of this, Kennedy, a former Democrat with some views that cut against the traditional GOP orthodoxy on food and medicine, has had mixed results in getting other key allies confirmed to other positions in the government; Trump reportedly snubbed his advice in his appointment for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is praising Donald Trump as a "real man," and “clever and experienced,” while issuing what has been described as a "bizarre" warning that the American President-elect is "not safe."

“He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a real man,” Putin said Thursday, referring to the assassination attempt in July, Reuters reports. “I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election.”

“What was said about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to bring about the end of the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion this deserves attention at least,” Putin also said.

According to Reuters, "Trump said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours if elected, but has given few details on how he would seek to end the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two."

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The Daily Beast adds that although he described "Trump as 'clever,' Putin used examples of previous assassination attempts on Trump’s life and his treatment by opponents as reason to be cautious. Notably, Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania in July."

Putin said that what struck him "the most is not that Donald Trump was faced with uncivilized means—including assassination attempts—more than once," according to a translation from the Associated Press (video below).

“By the way, in my view, even now he’s not safe,” Putin said of Trump, The Daily Beast also reported, describing it as a warning. “But he is a clever and cautious man, I should hope he realizes all that."

The Russian president, currently conducting an illegal war against Ukraine, was speaking to reporters at a Russian Black Sea resort. He suggested he was open to conversation with Trump about the war in Ukraine. Citing a senior Trump aide, journalist Bob Woodward in his latest book reported that since leaving office in 2021, Donald Trump has talked with Putin "maybe as many as seven times," NBC News reported in October.

Bill Browder is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, and successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, used to punish Russian human rights abuses.

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"If Trump cuts aid for Ukraine," Browder warned, "it will lead to Ukraine’s defences collapsing, which will set off a refugee crisis in Europe like we’ve never seen before."

If Trump cuts aid for Ukraine, it will lead to Ukraine’s defences collapsing, which will set off a refugee crisis in Europe like we’ve never seen before (and that’s before Putin trains he guns on the Baltics). This is all avoidable if we seize the $300B of Russian reserves pic.twitter.com/UWf0ShdpIn
— Sir William Browder KCMG (@Billbrowder) November 29, 2024

On Friday, Newsweek reported, "Russia's currency has continued to plunge, adding to the country's economic turbulence and raising questions about the financial sustainability of Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine."

Russian casualties. Newsweek also reported, "hit more than 2,000 troops in a single day, Ukraine's defense ministry said Friday morning—breaking a bleak record set only weeks ago."

"If the latest figures are accurate, this would bring Russia's total number of casualties since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to 738,660."

Watch the video of Putin below and Browder above, or both at this link.

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