GWM continues expansion with new Calamba dealership By Hazel Nicole Carreon GREAT WALL MOTORS (GWM) Philippines continues to solidify and widen its presence in the country with the opening of its newest dealership — this one located along Maharlika Highway, in Calamba, Laguna. It targets a growing market in this part of Laguna, in addition to nearby provinces such as Batangas and Cavite. Operated by the Autohub Group, the newly inaugurated GWM Calamba is a 3S (sales, service, and spare parts) facility which boasts a modern showroom that can display up to four vehicle units. Its particularly spacious service area, which will be shared by other Autohub-operated brands in Calamba, will be fully open by January. It is the third GWM establishment of the Autohub Group, following the opening of dealerships in Makati and Santa Rosa, Laguna. Another GWM-Autohub location is slated to open in Dasmariñas, Cavite in the first quarter of 2025. “The opening of GWM Calamba is a testament of our commitment to our brand,” said Autohub Group President Willy Tee Ten in his speech at the inauguration ceremony. “It shows that we believe in the GWM brand, and we are here to make sure that it becomes successful.” GWM Calamba is open from Monday to Sunday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Distributed by the Luxuriant Automotive Group, Inc. (LAGI), GWM made its entry in the Philippines in 2023. Since then, the China-headquartered car maker has gained significant traction in the local market with its diverse lineup of vehicles which include the Haval H6 hybrid SUV, Haval Jolion subcompact crossover, Ora electric hatchback, Tank 300 SUV, and Cannon pickup truck. The brand’s focus on cutting-edge technology, stylish design, and outstanding performance is said to have resonated with a segment of Filipino car buyers. According to LAGI Assistant Vice-President and Director of Business Strategy River Wang, GWM in 2023 sold 1.23 million units globally and generated US$24 million in revenues. “Until now, GWM is still growing bigger,” the executive maintained. “We are planning to bring more models to the Philippine market, so we are looking forward to a better performance next year.” With the inauguration of GWM Calamba, the brand now has a robust network of 16 dealerships nationwide, enabling it to reach more customers and provide quality after-sales support. For more information, visit gwm.com.ph.If you're in the market for high-quality headphones, check out the on . Currently enjoying a generous 51% discount, these headphones offer a fantastic combination of breakthrough audio technology and user-friendly features. One of the standout attributes of the is its custom acoustic platform that promises rich, immersive sound whether you're listening to your favorite tunes or taking a call. This is complemented by lossless audio through USB-C and three built-in sound profiles to enhance any listening experience. Whether you're an audiophile or just someone who appreciates good sound quality, these features promise a listening experience like no other. The also comes equipped with two distinct listening modes: Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) and Transparency mode. Whether you're in a busy environment and want to drown out the noise, or you're in a situation where being aware of your surroundings is crucial, these headphones give you the flexibility to choose. Compatibility is no issue thanks to seamless one-touch pairing and a robust set of features for both Apple and Android users. With personalized spatial audio, these headphones place you in the heart of a 360-degree soundscape through dynamic head tracking. It's the kind of technology that makes you feel as though you're in the studio hearing the music live. When it comes to practicality, excels. Enjoy up to 40 hours of battery life, which can be further extended with a quick 10-minute Fast Fuel charge, offering up to 4 additional hours of playback. This makes them ideal for long trips or marathon listening sessions. Their user-friendly design includes on-device controls for calls, music, and voice assistant interaction, offering convenience within reach. The wireless Class 1 Bluetooth connection ensures extended range and fewer dropouts, perfect for moving around without losing connectivity. Finally, everything you need comes in the box, including a woven carrying case and essential cables, ensuring your new headphones are protected and always ready for use. Don't miss out on these exceptional headphones available for purchase today on . With impressive features and a significant discount, it's a deal that delivers outstanding value for money.Made in Chelsea star to headline ReBalance Bath Wellbeing Festival
ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A president from Plains A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. And then, the world Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” ‘An epic American life’ Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. A small-town start James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. ‘Jimmy Who?’ His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Accomplishments, and ‘malaise’ Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. ‘A wonderful life’ At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” By Bill Barrow Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.While addressing the community program 'Hala Modi,' the Prime Minister said that after seeing the crowd in the event, he felt like he had witnessed a “mini Hindustan” in front of him. PM Modi Kuwait Visit: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed Kuwait for the warm welcome and said that there is a different sense of belonging in the Gulf country. While addressing the community program 'Hala Modi,' the Prime Minister said that after seeing the crowd in the event, he felt like he had witnessed a “mini Hindustan” in front of him. "I have reached Kuwait just two and a half hours ago. since the time I have stepped here, I am feeling a different sense of belonging, a different warmth all around. You all have come from different states of India, but seeing all of you, it seems as if a mini Hindustan has come in front of me," he said. #WATCH | Kuwait: Addressing the community program 'Hala Modi', Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "I have reached Kuwait just two and a half hours ago, since the time I have stepped here, I am feeling a different sense of belonging, a different warmth all around. You all have... pic.twitter.com/UgILDfQK2R — ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2024 PM Modi, who is visiting Kuwait at the invitation of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, was addressing a gathering of the Indian community. His visit to the Gulf nation is the first for any Indian Prime Minister to this Gulf nation in 43 years. Hailing the relationship between India and Kuwait, the Prime Minister said that the two countries are not linked just by diplomacy but also by hearts. "The relationship between India and Kuwait is of civilisations, of the ocean, of trade. India and Kuwait are situated on two banks of the Arabian Sea. We are linked not just by diplomacy but also by our hearts. Not only our present but also our past connects us," he said. #WATCH | Kuwait | PM Modi at the Community Event #HalaModi , says, "The relationship between India and Kuwait is of civilisations, of the ocean, of trade. India and Kuwait are situated on two banks of the Arabian Sea. We are linked not just by diplomacy but also by our hearts. Not... pic.twitter.com/UxNRWewD7m — ANI (@ANI) December 21, 2024 “Every year, hundreds of Indians come to Kuwait; you have added Indian touch to Kuwaiti society. You have filled Kuwait’s canvas with colours of Indian skills, mixed with the essence of India's talent, technology and tradition,” he added. India has manpower, skills and technology needed by 'New Kuwait', he also said. Stay informed on all the latest news , real-time breaking news updates, and follow all the important headlines in india news and world News on Zee News.
President-elect Donald Trump on Friday asked Scott Bessent, a top fundraiser to his campaign, to serve as secretary of the Treasury Department, two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News. If confirmed, Bessent will helm the fiscal policies for an economy that weathered high inflation in recent years, an issue that remained top of mind for many voters who helped send Trump back to the White House in the election earlier this month. Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Trump’s pick will be tasked with implementing any tax cuts that a Republican-controlled Congress may pursue. And with Trump proposing aggressive tariffs on imports from countries spanning the globe, the new Treasury Department chief will have to manage relationships with global finance ministers who may choose to retaliate with tariffs of their own. The Cabinet-level job is to steer federal fiscal policies set by Congress and the White House. The secretary is also the executive branch’s top go-between with the Federal Reserve, a traditionally autonomous institution that sets monetary policies, such as determining interest rates and steering economic conditions at a broader level. That could be a delicate task in the incoming Trump administration, which is likely to put unprecedented political pressure on the central bank. During his time in and out of office, Trump has blasted Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whom he nominated in 2017. In an October interview with Bloomberg News, Trump said the president should not be allowed to order interest rate decisions but should be able to “put in comments as to whether the interest rates should go up or down.” Powell has said he would not yield the position if Trump asked him to resign, meaning he could in theory remain chairman until his term expires in May 2026. With a dramatic improvement on inflation compared to two years ago, the Powell-led Fed has cut interest rates in its last two meetings as part of a bid to stop high borrowing costs from unduly raising unemployment. Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world. In Trump’s first term, he tapped banker Steven Mnuchin as the nation’s chief financial officer. Mnuchin, who also dabbled in Hollywood as a financier and producer, fumbled over some ethics rules at the beginning of his term, landing himself briefly in hot water for plugging a Lego Batman that he executive produced. But his tenure at the Treasury Department was more stable than those of other high-level cabinet posts in Trump’s first term . Mnuchin remained in the role for all four years, helping steer the economy through the onset of the pandemic by helping to push the $2 trillion CARES Act toward bipartisan passage in March 2020. The stimulus package, which most memorably included checks sent directly to households, was hailed by economists as a bridge that helped carry the U.S. over the worst economic turbulence from the pandemic and shutdown orders meant to combat it. After Trump’s re-election, Mnuchin told CNBC he was unlikely to accept a new Cabinet role but would “be happy to serve from the outside.” Since leaving office, Mnuchin launched an investment fund that reportedly sourced its capital from sovereign wealth funds in several Gulf states. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com . More from NBC News:US News Live Today November 23, 2024: Matt Gaetz reveals he will not rejoin Congress next year: ‘I’m still going to be in the fight’
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television National Politics | What will happen to Social Security under Trump’s tax plan? National Politics | Republican-led states are rolling out plans that could aid Trump’s mass deportation effort Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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