Inside the Democrats' new media strategy to reach voters and take on Trump
The day of President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress last week, Democratic lawmakers flooded social media with videos to try to break through the Trump-dominated news cycle.
On the Senate side, more than two dozen Democrats, including Sens. Cory Booker (New Jersey) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), posted videos under the headline 'Sh*t that ain't true,' reading from the same script and fact-checking Trump's promise to lower prices.
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Senate Unveils New Trump Tax Draft With Plans to Vote Soon
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Hamilton Spectator
32 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Donald Trump says he's cutting off trade talks with Canada over Ottawa's digital tax
OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that he is cutting off all trade talks with Canada over the federal government's digital services tax that would impact American tech giants, calling it a 'blatant attack' on the United States. Trump announced his plan to end trade talks in a social media post Friday afternoon, less than two weeks after he agreed with Prime Minister Mark Carney at the G7 summit on June 16 to work toward a deal to end the ongoing trade war within 30 days . 'Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,' Trump's post said. 'We will let Canada know the Tariff that they will be paying to do business with the United States of America within the next seven day period.' The Prime Minister's Office responded later Friday afternoon with a short statement that did not mention the digital services tax and expressed Canada's desire to continue the trade talks. 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Trump doubled his steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 per cent against Canada on June 4, arguing the tariffs are needed to protect and promote a key American industry, as his broader policy of tariffs is designed to raise government revenues and overcome what the U.S. president argues is unfair commercial relations for his country. The Liberal government has long planned to impose a tax on digital services, which Trump views as an unfair trade practice that will hit American companies like Google and Meta. In his social media post Friday, Trump alluded to how the European Union is planning a similar digital services tax, and said Canada was 'copying' the bloc of states with 'a direct and blatant attack on our Country.' On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the G7 — a group of rich democracies that includes Canada — agreed to exempt American companies from certain taxes. In return, the Trump administration would remove a so-called 'revenge tax' from a sweeping bill in the U.S. Congress, which would have imposed taxes on investments from countries the U.S. deemed to be treating American firms unfairly. President Donald Trump said he's immediately suspending trade talks with Canada over its plans to continue with its tax on technology firms. Trump said the Canadians was sticking to its plan to impose the tax set to take effect Monday. (AP Video / June 27, 2025) Neither the PMO nor Champagne's office responded Friday when asked if that deal impacted Canada's digital services tax. The policy, enacted in 2024's Digital Services Tax Act , imposed a three per cent tax on revenue earned from online marketing and advertising, social media and some sales of user data. The tax applies to domestic and foreign businesses that reap more than $1.1 billion in global revenue and earn more than $20 million of revenue within Canada in a given year. The Liberals promised to introduce the tax in 2019, and argued hiking tax on big companies could help pay for social services and other public investments to spur the economy. The independent Parliamentary Budget Officer reported in 2023 that the tax would raise about $1.2 billion per year in government revenues. In a written statement Friday, the head of the Business Council of Canada said it has warned the government for the past three years that the digital services tax 'could risk undermining' Canada's economic relationship with the U.S. Goldy Hyder called on Canada to immediately propose to eliminate the tax, in exchange for the removal of American tariffs on Canadian goods. Catherine Cobden, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, said Friday that trade relations are so unpredictable and uncertain with the U.S. that even a new deal to remove current tariffs can no longer be seen as a guarantee. She called for stronger measures to encourage using domestically produced steel in Canada, and other steps to protect the sector. 'We are really under attack by the United States, so we are rapidly pivoting away from that market,' she said. Another business group that has opposed the digital services tax, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that 'surprises' should be expected in negotiations. 'The tone and tenor of talks has improved in recent months, and we hope to see progress continue,' said the chamber's president, Candace Laing. 'We respect that Team Canada is conducting these negotiations at the table, and we need to give them the space to navigate.'
