The Cracks Are Spreading

From Canada’s trade revolt to the Epstein files rebellion, Trump’s regime is collapsing under the weight of its own lies, and even Ghislaine Maxwell is afraid of what comes next.

Good morning! Welcome to yet another day in the crumbling imperial circus, where Canada is leading the resistance, the House has fled the Epstein files in abject terror, Pam Bondi is purging prosecutors like it’s a loyalty contest, and Trump, cornered and incoherent, is once again accusing Barack Obama of treason to distract from the grift economy devouring what’s left of American credibility. Shall we begin?

North of the border, something remarkable is happening. Canada, usually known for polite smiles and well-reasoned communiqués, has finally had enough. Prime Minister Mark Carney joined premiers from across the political spectrum, Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, in Huntsville, Ontario to deliver a unified and unmistakable message to Donald Trump: shove your tariffs. Canada will not be bullied, not by trade blackmail, not by American exceptionalism turned economic hostage-taking. From high-grade nickel to lumber, uranium to steel, Canadian leaders lined up to remind the world just how much the U.S. needs Canada, especially while Trump continues torching alliances with everyone else.

Even Ontario Premier Doug Ford, rarely the poster child for nuance, made it plain: if Trump wants a trade war, Canada will go dollar-for-dollar, tariff-for-tariff, and beat him at his own game. Carney, meanwhile, refused to grovel. Instead, he promoted a positive economic vision, bolstered trade missions abroad, and rallied Canadians to vacation at home and invest in their own industries. It was a masterclass in strategic defiance.

And just to clear up any confusion from yesterday’s edition: we absolutely stand with Charlie Angus. He’s not opposition to Carney, he’s part of the resistance with Carney, Ford, and every Canadian leader willing to stand up to fascist authoritarianism creeping south and now creeping back north. Canadian readers, we hear you. We’re on the same side of the border on this one.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Speaker Mike Johnson is holding the House together with prayer, duct tape, and whatever back issues of Guideposts he keeps in his drawer. The Epstein files, the scandal Trump desperately wants erased, just blew up his entire week. Johnson’s own Rules Committee, normally a rubber stamp for leadership, rebelled against a Democratic push to release the files. But rather than vote the measure down like grown-ups, Johnson’s crew panicked. They canceled Thursday votes entirely and sent the House into recess a day early. That’s how terrified they are of transparency.

Even MAGA allies are turning up the heat. Rep. Ralph Norman is demanding a vote on a Republican-led resolution (crafted carefully to protect Trump while pretending to promote “victim-centered disclosure”). Meanwhile, Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna are pushing a bipartisan discharge petition with actual legal teeth, and they’re gaining signatures. Trump’s people tried to slow-walk the issue with vague promises, maybe they’ll “seek new information” from Ghislaine Maxwell, maybe they’ll release a few grand jury transcripts, but it’s not working. The dam is breaking.

And Pam Bondi’s solution? Fire anyone who might touch the real files. After New Jersey federal judges installed career prosecutor Desiree Grace to replace the legally illiterate Alina Habba, Bondi swooped in and removed her. She accused the judges of being “politically minded” and undermining Trump’s sacred Article II powers because, apparently, appointing someone competent to oversee a politically radioactive criminal investigation now qualifies as an insurrection. Bondi is dismantling the Department of Justice from the inside, brick by brick, loyalist by loyalist, until what’s left is a Potemkin legal system devoted solely to shielding Trump.

And if all that weren’t enough, we now have credible reporting that Ghislaine Maxwell fears for her life. According to her brother Ian, she is “terrified” following the Trump DOJ’s sudden announcement that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, who just so happens to also be Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, plan to meet with her personally. This comes on the heels of Rep. Tim Burchett successfully issuing a congressional subpoena for Maxwell’s testimony while House leadership wasn’t paying attention, an act that triggered Speaker Johnson to abruptly send Congress home. The timing is as suspicious as it is revealing: the moment Maxwell is compelled to speak, Bondi and Blanch step in to control the narrative, and the one prosecutor who successfully brought her to justice, Maureen Comey, is unceremoniously fired. The message is clear, and Maxwell reportedly sees it for what it is, a threat cloaked in legal process. Her fear, according to Ian Maxwell and the Daily Mail, is that what happened to Epstein could happen to her, especially now that the Trump DOJ is dangling the possibility of a retrial or even a pardon if she just echoes the official line: “no credible evidence, no case.” It’s obstruction by insinuation, and it’s happening in real time.

The corruption isn’t just legal, it’s financial. Let’s talk tariffs. Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has been parading around cable news declaring this a new golden age of American trade. He’s the man with the big board, hyping the 10-to-50% tariffs slapped on half the world. But behind the scenes? His sons, who now run Canter Fitzgerald, the firm Lutnick supposedly “turned over”, have launched a new business line that openly bets against those tariffs.

That’s right. They’re offering to buy claims from companies that overpaid on Trump’s tariffs at a discount, expecting to cash in once the courts rule those tariffs illegal. If a company paid $10 million in excess tariffs, Canter Fitzgerald offers them $2 million up front, then waits for the courts to overturn Trump’s economic emergency authority and collects the full refund. It’s arbitrage-by-corruption, a family-run hedge fund on presidential failure.

While Daddy Lutnick sings the praises of the Trump economy on Bloomberg, his kids are hedging against the collapse. And they’re not alone. Canter Fitzgerald’s revenue has surged 50% under the Trump regime, in no small part because of its aggressive moves in cryptocurrency markets, another corner of TrumpWorld where public scorn masks private profit.

And when all else fails, when the Canadian premiers revolt, the DOJ implodes, the House won’t play ball, and even Wall Street is betting against him, Donald Trump reaches into his old bag of hate and pulls out one of the most poisonous cards he has left: accusing Barack Obama of treason. In yet another Oval Office meltdown, Trump declared Obama guilty of “every word you can think of”, sedition, sabotage, maybe even sorcery. No evidence, no logic, just primal fear and a need for someone else to blame. Call it projection as performance art.

And when all else fails, when the Canadian premiers revolt, the DOJ implodes, the House won’t play ball, and even Wall Street is betting against him, Donald Trump reaches into his old bag of hate and pulls out one of the most poisonous cards he has left: accusing Barack Obama of treason. This week, in yet another Oval Office meltdown, Trump declared, without a shred of evidence, that Obama was the “leader of the gang” trying to “steal the election.” Treason. Espionage. Maybe voodoo. Who knows. The man was flailing.

But this time, Obama didn’t stay silent. In a rare public statement, the former president dismissed the accusations as “false, reckless, and beneath the dignity of the office,” and emphasized that the only treason being committed is against the truth. “Americans see through this,” he said, adding, “History will too.”

And he’s right. Trump’s world is crumbling, his economic façade exposed, his legal cover-up unraveling, and his political allies openly plotting their exits. His own commerce secretary’s family is betting on his failure. The only thing he has left is rage, projection, and increasingly desperate attempts to rewrite reality before the full truth arrives, possibly with Ghislaine Maxwell under subpoena, and a bipartisan discharge petition at his front door.

Carpe Momentum!