Politics and views in the United States

President Trump renames Lake Ontario to Lake America. Election experts call for voter education, after a big SCOTUS mail-in ballot ruling and Florida Governor DeSantis calls for regulations on automated license plate readers.

Transcript

Welcome to 2026 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

They want to be treated like they're a state, and so we just can't do that anymore.

We lose on average over the last 15 years, $60 billion a year carrying Canada.

Even as he cites what he calls unfair trade, President Donald Trump insists renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America isn't about the U.S. tariff war with Canada.

Despite what the president says, the U.S. trade deficit, including services, is less than $40 billion, and much of that is due to America buying Canada's oil and electricity.

Trump's position that Canada wants to be and should be made a U.S. state is unpopular on both sides of the border.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the trade war will cost consumers $10 billion, hurting Canada more than the U.S., but border states like New York are seeing impacts as cross-border trips decline and Canada's retaliatory duties increase the price of fertilizer and lumber.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul says it's already hard getting people to go into agriculture.

How are we supposed to encourage young people to go into these careers that are essential for our very existence, if they look at what their parents and their neighbors are going through and saying, why?

Why would I go into that?

It just seems too hard.

As the Iran war enters its seventh month with no end in sight, the administration is asking Congress for a record $1.5 trillion 2027 defense budget.

It includes a half trillion increase to replenish ammunition stockpiles and begin work on what the White House calls the Golden Dome, a new space-based missile defense system.

Brian Garvey with Massachusetts Peace Action says to pay for it, The administration is requesting a 10% cut in all non-defense spending, meaning deep safety net cuts.

That's going to be your taxes, and it's going to be cuts to services that you enjoy and that your families and your neighbors desperately need.

After the Supreme Court allowed a Trump executive order limiting mail-in voting to move forward, democracy groups are bracing for the fallout.

The order allows a U.S. Postal Service rule demanding states submit lists of eligible voters so the agency can double-check citizenship and residency before sending mail-in ballots.

Amy Weidstrom with the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania says voters can still use absentee ballots, but once the postal service data isn't always accurate and could leave out newly naturalized citizens.

Recently naturalized citizens have found to be missing on the USPS list, so they would deem that registration ineligible, even though they are naturalized citizens and should be able to vote.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis wants state lawmakers to regulate automated license plate readers, calling their use out of control.

Florida has an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 of the cameras, and Flock, one of the biggest of the camera companies, is facing a nationwide backlash.

DeSantis says people are right to be concerned.

I think you've got to have protections for people, but go after criminals, great, let's all do that.

But surveilling just regular Floridians' movements and how that data is used, that's a bird of a different feather.

Commerce Secretary Howard Letnick is defending Trump's restoration of the Kennedy Center and putting his name on it.

He says the building's in danger of falling apart.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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