Week in Politics: Canada talks collapse; U.S. 'Economic D-Day; record national debt

Trade talks with Canada collapse hours before a new tariff deadline. President Trump threatens Iran with an "Economic D-Day" the same week the U.S. national debt surpassed $40 trillion.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: There was a breakdown last night in U.S. trade talks with Canada as Canadian negotiators walked away from what Prime Minister Mark Carney called unfair and uneconomic last-minute terms. Fifty percent tariffs on Canadian goods are in effect today, and the prime minister says his country will match those tariffs, quote, "dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses." NPR senior analyst Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us. RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott. SIMON: Of course, Canada's a top U.S. trading partner. Why did these talks collapse? ELVING: Talks broke down after Trump on Tuesday had said a deal had been struck, but both sides accuse the other of including new demands in the late stages and both sides have sought to have previous tariffs rolled back as part of this deal. Now, a lot of this has to do with the auto industry, which produces cars on both sides of the border and has done so for generations. Now, these new tariffs kicked in as of one minute after midnight this morning. We've seen this kind of brinksmanship before, and sometimes tariffs get rolled back, but Canada is one of our top trading partners. It's been a longtime ally. Note that they use dollars of their own. We use dollars of our own. It almost seems as though the stalemate with Iran has created a moment for the tariff wars to begin again. SIMON: President Trump, by the way, a 60-day memorandum of understanding expired on Monday. The President says he'll impose, quote, "economic D-Day" on Iran. What does he think this kind of pressure campaign might achieve? ELVING: We can't be sure what President Trump really thinks, let alone why, but he surely should know by now how economic sanctions have failed to force Iran to do what the U.S. wanted. The chances of economic sanctions forcing their hand now look slim even to Trump. But the war has reached a stalemate, with no ceasefire in place, relatively little fire being exchanged for the moment. Trump might well prefer talking tough about D-Day economically, as opposed to another round of bombing threats, especially because we're seeing the limits of bombing right now. Air power alone may not finish the job. SIMON: Of course, there are key economic concerns that American voters bring to the conversation - the cost of gas and of goods and food, the cost of borrowing. And that brings us to note another development, the $40 trillion debt of the United States of America. How big a political issue is this? ELVING: It's been an issue back to the earliest days of the Republic, and it was a big issue to many Republicans after the Depression in World War II and Vietnam had pushed the debt out to - are you ready? - $1 trillion. President Ronald Reagan treated that like the crack of doom back in 1980. But it's only gotten worse since then and very much worse lately, and now we're at 40 trillion. And everyone blames someone else. SIMON: I remember a lot of talk in the 1990s about balancing the federal budget and it was important to bring the debt down. How has it happened that to Congress and whoever is in office in the White House, $40 trillion debt today is more palatable somehow than of a - than the $5.5 trillion debt back then? ELVING: There was a window back 25 years ago when the debt was still in single-digit trillions and a decade of growth was swelling tax revenues after the 1990s, and the federal budget was actually balanced on paper just after the year 2000 with a chance to pay down the debt thereafter, possibly wiping it out entirely. But right after that, Congress gave President George W. Bush a huge tax cut, and then the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, happened. And then a decade of the war on terror, and the annual deficit spiked again. And the national debt became the national balloon as it got bigger and bigger and bigger year after year. SIMON: Finally, Stars and Stripes, the military's news outlet, supposed to be independent, and yet the Pentagon has fired the publisher who was set to retire, the editor in chief and a Middle East correspondent. What do we know? ELVING: Well, going back to the Bill Mauldin cartoons that captured so much of the life of the Army in World War II, those cartoons began in the Stars and Stripes, and this publication has been part of the life of the American military. It's been part of the life, not part of the Pentagon's power structure. If you change that relationship, you change the experience of being in the American military. SIMON: Ron Elving, thanks so much. ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: There was a breakdown last night in U.S. trade talks with Canada as Canadian negotiators walked away from what Prime Minister Mark Carney called unfair and uneconomic last-minute terms. Fifty percent tariffs on Canadian goods are in effect today, and the prime minister says his country will match those tariffs, quote, "dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses." NPR senior analyst Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us. RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott. SIMON: Of course, Canada's a top U.S. trading partner. Why did these talks collapse? ELVING: Talks broke down after Trump on Tuesday had said a deal had been struck, but both sides accuse the other of including new demands in the late stages and both sides have sought to have previous tariffs rolled back as part of this deal. Now, a lot of this has to do with the auto industry, which produces cars on both sides of the border and has done so for generations. Now, these new tariffs kicked in as of one minute after midnight this morning. We've seen this kind of brinksmanship before, and sometimes tariffs get rolled back, but Canada is one of our top trading partners. It's been a longtime ally. Note that they use dollars of their own. We use dollars of our own. It almost seems as though the stalemate with Iran has created a moment for the tariff wars to begin again. SIMON: President Trump, by the way, a 60-day memorandum of understanding expired on Monday. The President says he'll impose, quote, "economic D-Day" on Iran. What does he think this kind of pressure campaign might achieve? ELVING: We can't be sure what President Trump really thinks, let alone why, but he surely should know by now how economic sanctions have failed to force Iran to do what the U.S. wanted. The chances of economic sanctions forcing their hand now look slim even to Trump. But the war has reached a stalemate, with no ceasefire in place, relatively little fire being exchanged for the moment. Trump might well prefer talking tough about D-Day economically, as opposed to another round of bombing threats, especially because we're seeing the limits of bombing right now. Air power alone may not finish the job. SIMON: Of course, there are key economic concerns that American voters bring to the conversation - the cost of gas and of goods and food, the cost of borrowing. And that brings us to note another development, the $40 trillion debt of the United States of America. How big a political issue is this? ELVING: It's been an issue back to the earliest days of the Republic, and it was a big issue to many Republicans after the Depression in World War II and Vietnam had pushed the debt out to - are you ready? - $1 trillion. President Ronald Reagan treated that like the crack of doom back in 1980. But it's only gotten worse since then and very much worse lately, and now we're at 40 trillion. And everyone blames someone else. SIMON: I remember a lot of talk in the 1990s about balancing the federal budget and it was important to bring the debt down. How has it happened that to Congress and whoever is in office in the White House, $40 trillion debt today is more palatable somehow than of a - than the $5.5 trillion debt back then? ELVING: There was a window back 25 years ago when the debt was still in single-digit trillions and a decade of growth was swelling tax revenues after the 1990s, and the federal budget was actually balanced on paper just after the year 2000 with a chance to pay down the debt thereafter, possibly wiping it out entirely. But right after that, Congress gave President George W. Bush a huge tax cut, and then the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, happened. And then a decade of the war on terror, and the annual deficit spiked again. And the national debt became the national balloon as it got bigger and bigger and bigger year after year. SIMON: Finally, Stars and Stripes, the military's news outlet, supposed to be independent, and yet the Pentagon has fired the publisher who was set to retire, the editor in chief and a Middle East correspondent. What do we know? ELVING: Well, going back to the Bill Mauldin cartoons that captured so much of the life of the Army in World War II, those cartoons began in the Stars and Stripes, and this publication has been part of the life of the American military. It's been part of the life, not part of the Pentagon's power structure. If you change that relationship, you change the experience of being in the American military. SIMON: Ron Elving, thanks so much. ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

There was a breakdown last night in U.S. trade talks with Canada as Canadian negotiators walked away from what Prime Minister Mark Carney called unfair and uneconomic last-minute terms. Fifty percent tariffs on Canadian goods are in effect today, and the prime minister says his country will match those tariffs, quote, "dollar for dollar to protect our workers and businesses." NPR senior analyst Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us. RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott. SIMON: Of course, Canada's a top U.S. trading partner. Why did these talks collapse? ELVING: Talks broke down after Trump on Tuesday had said a deal had been struck, but both sides accuse the other of including new demands in the late stages and both sides have sought to have previous tariffs rolled back as part of this deal. Now, a lot of this has to do with the auto industry, which produces cars on both sides of the border and has done so for generations. Now, these new tariffs kicked in as of one minute after midnight this morning. We've seen this kind of brinksmanship before, and sometimes tariffs get rolled back, but Canada is one of our top trading partners. It's been a longtime ally. Note that they use dollars of their own. We use dollars of our own. It almost seems as though the stalemate with Iran has created a moment for the tariff wars to begin again. SIMON: President Trump, by the way, a 60-day memorandum of understanding expired on Monday. The President says he'll impose, quote, "economic D-Day" on Iran. What does he think this kind of pressure campaign might achieve? ELVING: We can't be sure what President Trump really thinks, let alone why, but he surely should know by now how economic sanctions have failed to force Iran to do what the U.S. wanted. The chances of economic sanctions forcing their hand now look slim even to Trump. But the war has reached a stalemate, with no ceasefire in place, relatively little fire being exchanged for the moment. Trump might well prefer talking tough about D-Day economically, as opposed to another round of bombing threats, especially because we're seeing the limits of bombing right now. Air power alone may not finish the job. SIMON: Of course, there are key economic concerns that American voters bring to the conversation - the cost of gas and of goods and food, the cost of borrowing. And that brings us to note another development, the $40 trillion debt of the United States of America. How big a political issue is this? ELVING: It's been an issue back to the earliest days of the Republic, and it was a big issue to many Republicans after the Depression in World War II and Vietnam had pushed the debt out to - are you ready? - $1 trillion. President Ronald Reagan treated that like the crack of doom back in 1980. But it's only gotten worse since then and very much worse lately, and now we're at 40 trillion. And everyone blames someone else. SIMON: I remember a lot of talk in the 1990s about balancing the federal budget and it was important to bring the debt down. How has it happened that to Congress and whoever is in office in the White House, $40 trillion debt today is more palatable somehow than of a - than the $5.5 trillion debt back then? ELVING: There was a window back 25 years ago when the debt was still in single-digit trillions and a decade of growth was swelling tax revenues after the 1990s, and the federal budget was actually balanced on paper just after the year 2000 with a chance to pay down the debt thereafter, possibly wiping it out entirely. But right after that, Congress gave President George W. Bush a huge tax cut, and then the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, happened. And then a decade of the war on terror, and the annual deficit spiked again. And the national debt became the national balloon as it got bigger and bigger and bigger year after year. SIMON: Finally, Stars and Stripes, the military's news outlet, supposed to be independent, and yet the Pentagon has fired the publisher who was set to retire, the editor in chief and a Middle East correspondent. What do we know? ELVING: Well, going back to the Bill Mauldin cartoons that captured so much of the life of the Army in World War II, those cartoons began in the Stars and Stripes, and this publication has been part of the life of the American military. It's been part of the life, not part of the Pentagon's power structure. If you change that relationship, you change the experience of being in the American military. SIMON: Ron Elving, thanks so much. ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or mat