It's Tuesday, February 4, 2025. I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Well, you can't say it's not interesting. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and international leaders have been very much in the

headlines over some of the actions taken by the Trump White House, in particular, threatened

tariffs against, most importantly, the nations of Canada and Mexico, our two largest trading partners.

And by the way, two very key allies to the United States. Now, threatening allies with this kind of a very

stiff tariff, that's not the usual way the politics is done. But then again, Donald Trump was

elected to a second term as president, not for doing things the way other presidents do them,

but rather for doing them differently. And different is pretty much the standard of the day.

Now, over the weekend, President Trump indicated he would be applying 25% tariffs to all goods coming from Canada and coming from Mexico, 10% additional tariff on some coming from China.

The China equation is still very much on the table, but as for Mexico and as for Canada,

as of last night, 30-day probationary periods have been entered in which the terrorists are not

going to be applied. President Trump is claiming victories in terms of the negotiations

because the president of Mexico decided that she would agree to send 10,000 Mexican army troops to the border

in order to defend the border against both illegal immigration into the United States and drug trafficking

across the very same border.

At the same time, Canada also avoided the 25% tariff by having Prime Minister Justin Trudeau negotiate directly with President

Trump in such a way that the president has also agreed to delay for at least 30 days the

implementation of those tariffs. The reality is that there's a lot behind this that isn't just about, say,

tariffs and the products of

international commerce. It's also about the relative advantages that certain nations have

over other nations. As a matter of fact, President Trump pretty much pointed to the fact that

one of his concerns comes down to limitations on banking, the banking industry, in Canada by American banks. And so you might say

...