Today in One Sentence. Canada retaliated against Trump’s new tariffs with duties of up to 50% on U.S. goods; Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America”; the Secret Service is “aware” of an Iranian state media video threatening Barron Trump; CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Russia; Trump urged South Carolina Republicans to vote for interim Sen. Darline Graham over Rep. Ralph Norman in a special Senate runoff, telling voters to “pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot”; the EPA proposed eliminating the federal requirement that states notify the public and solicit comments before issuing permits for data centers and other “minor” pollution sources; and a federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s effort to overturn her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence.

1/ Canada retaliated against Trump’s new tariffs with duties of up to 50% on U.S. goods. They take effect Sept. 8, and cover about $20 billion in American goods, doubling duties on U.S. steel and aluminum to 50% and imposing rates of 15% to 50% on hundreds of other products, including dairy, appliances, seafood, clothing, and electronics. The tariffs match Trump’s latest duties “dollar for dollar, rate for rate.” The move followes the collapse of trade talks and Trump’s imposition of 50% tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods. (New York Times / NPR / NBC News / Washington Post / Politico / CNN / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / ABC News / CBS News / CNBC / Reuters)

  • Farmers say Trump’s tariffs and Iran war have eroded their profits. The combination has raised the cost of fertilizer, fuel, and machinery costs as weak crop prices make those expenses harder to cover. (Washington Post)

2/ Trump threatened to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America.” Trump claimed he was giving the change “serious consideration” because “we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.” He later posted an altered map with “Lake Ontario” crossed out and “Lake America” in its place. However, Lake Ontario spans the U.S.-Canada border, and while Trump could change the name used by the federal government, Canada and international bodies wouldn’t be required to recognize it. Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, meanwhile, said Canda had decided “not to respond to sort of the daily social media posts of either the president or his Cabinet secretaries.” (Washington Post / ABC News / Wall Street Journal / CNN / Axios / CBS News)

3/ The Secret Service is “aware” of an Iranian state media video threatening Barron Trump. The video opens with the words “Where to kill Barron Trump?!” and depicts locations where the 20-year-old might be found while suggesting a $10 million reward. The Secret Service said it “investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” but said “out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.” (ABC News / CNN / Politico / Washington Post / PBS News)

4/ CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Russia. It’s his first known visit to Russia as CIA director and the highest-level Trump administration visit since January. The purpose of the talks and who Ratcliffe met with, however, weren’t disclosed, while the Kremlin maintained that there were no meetings planned with U.S. administration officials. Ahead of the trip, the U.S. asked Ukraine to suspend drone and missile strikes on Moscow and other parts of northern Russia while the American delegation was traveling. (Axios / Reuters / Washington Post / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal / NBC News)

5/ 🟥🟦 Primaries: Trump urged South Carolina Republicans to vote for interim Sen. Darline Graham over Rep. Ralph Norman in a special Senate runoff, telling voters to “pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.” Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, had never been elected to office before she was appointed to serve the remainder of his term. During last week’s debate, however, she acknowledged that “national security is not my thing” and that she was “not that informed on national security” when asked about Taiwan. Nevertheless, Trump pushed Graham to run, campaigned with her, and held a tele-rally. The MAGA Inc. super PAC also spent $827,000 on voter calls and text messages on her behalf. The winner will face Democrat Annie Andrews in November in a state where no Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in decades. (CNBC / CBS News / Associated Press / Politico)

6/ The EPA proposed eliminating the federal requirement that states notify the public and solicit comments before issuing permits for data centers and other “minor” pollution sources. The change would leave public participation largely to state and local discretion. The EPA claimed that the proposal would speed permitting but “does not alter emission standards or weaken environmental protections,” while nearly 200 advocacy groups and Democratic attorneys general from 14 states opposed it. Resistance to data centers, meanwhile, has spread across party lines: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott paused new projects pending an audit, Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton proposed new restrictions, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro required developers to craft “detailed community outreach plans.” (The Guardian / New York Times / Axios / Washington Post)

7/ 😏 Well, that’s fantastic: A federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s effort to overturn her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer found Maxwell’s claims “all meritless” and “all or almost all” frivolous, and concluded that evidence released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act was largely irrelevant and, where relevant, “incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.” (CBS News / NBC News / ABC News)

The 2026 midterms are in 70 days; the 2028 presidential election is in 805 days.

✏️ Notables.

  1. ICE arrested 49,571 people in July, the highest monthly total of Trump’s second term and 70% more than in February. More than half of those arrested had not been convicted of a crime and were not facing criminal charges, while less than a quarter had criminal convictions. (Associated Press)

  2. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries defended his private meeting with Jared Kushner, describing the conversation as a “high-level, topical” discussion that produced no agreement. The meeting reportedly covered immigration, housing, and the cost of living. Some critics argued that Jeffries should be preparing to investigate Kushner, not privately discussing cooperation with Trump’s son-in-law and outside adviser. Jeffries, however, insisted that “no one is going to get a pass” and said Democrats would hold the Trump administration accountable, while leaving open the possibility of impeaching Trump if Democrats win control of the House. (CNN / New York Times / Semafor)

  3. A FEMA crew violated federal law and agency policy by skipping 11 Florida homes displaying Trump signs after Hurricane Milton in 2024. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general found that during FEMA’s hurricane response, the crew leader instructed workers to avoid the houses with Trump signs over safety concerns. (Washington Post)

  4. Two unvaccinated people in Pennsylvania died from measles – the first measles deaths in the U.S. this year and Pennsylvania’s first in 35 years. More measeles cases have been reported in 2026 than in any year since the virus was declared eliminated in 2000. (The Guardian / New York Times / CNN / NBC News / ABC News)

  5. After Trump’s name was added to the Kennedy Center, ticket sales and fundraising plunged, putting the center on track to miss its revenue target by nearly $100 million. The center had budgeted about $220 million in revenue, but by late May, officials projected it would only bring in about $124 million. (Washington Post)

  6. Justice Department lawyers warned that the Kennedy Center could be demolished if a federal judge blocks Trump’s planned $250 million renovation, saying the building would otherwise deteriorate into an “unsafe, decrepit structure” that would have to be “taken down.” They also argued that Trump deserved to have his name inscribed on the building because of his role in securing renovation funding and attracting donors. (New York Times / NBC News)

  7. The State Department is exploring whether it can sell a Kehinde Wiley painting that Trump administration officials called “woke.” Wiley is best known for painting Obama’s official portrait. Nevertheless, Art in Embassies executive director Erin Scavino described the work as “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying.” Ambassador Leah Campos, meanwhile, said she wanted to move away from “woke” ideologies after the painting was removed from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic. (Washington Post)