Trump to Canada’s Mark Carney: you are uninvited to my ‘board of peace’ – as it happened

With the news that Air Force One has returned Donald Trump from his bruising trip to Davos, this concludes our live coverage of his second administration for the day. We will return on Friday. Here are the latest developments:

• Having spent 11 months trying to conceal the bruising on his right hand from public view, Donald Trump developed a large bruise on his left hand on Thursday. His chief spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, deflected questions about hte prsident’s health by claiming that the damage to his hand was caused by a collision with a table during an event at Davos earlier in the day. But then again, the previous day, she accused a reporter of lying for accurately reporting that the president, who turns 80 in a few months, repeatedly referred to Greenland as “Iceland” while staking a territorial claim to one of those places.

• The United States formally withdrew from the World Health Organization with a statement in which the health secretary, RFK Jr, and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, accused the body of botching the response to Covid-19 – the pandemic Trump downplayed as president – and of trying to steal an American flag.

• Trump informed Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, that he is no longer invited to join the “board of peace” the US president unveiled to the world with much fanfare at Davos on Thursday.

• By a vote of 220-207, the US House narrowly passed legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the two agencies carrying out Trump’s mass deportation raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Seven Democrats voted for the funding.

• Asked when he might be willing to allow Venezuela to elect a new leader, Trump said his first priority was keeping control of the nation’s oil sales. “First of all, we have to take in a lot of money, we have to get that back”, he said.

• Trump again warned Iran not to kill protesters, or else. “Nobody knows a number. I mean it’s a lot no matter what. Hey, if it was one person,” the president said. “In this country if it’s one person, it’s front-page news”, he added, in apparent reference to the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis this month by an ICE officer, which he immediately lied about and dismissed.

The United States formally withdrew from the main global public health body, the World Health Organization, on Thursday, according to a joint statement from the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

“Today, the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), freeing itself from its constraints,” the statement began. “This action responds to the WHO’s failures during the COVID-19 pandemic and seeks to rectify the harm from those failures inflicted on the American people.”

While making such a grand, evidence-free, pronouncement, the two men seemed to channel their boss, Donald Trump, by devoting a portion of the statement to complaining about the international body not promptly returning the US flag that has flown outside its headquarters in Geneva, alongside those of the other 193 member nations, for decades.

“We will get our flag back for the Americans who died alone in nursing homes, the small businesses devastated by WHO-driven restrictions, and the American lives shattered by this organization’s inactivity,” the statement says. “Our withdrawal is for them.”

En route home from Switzerland, Donald Trump is whiling away the hours posting on his own social media site.

One of his latest posts is a jibe at Nato, the international military alliance formed to promote the collective security of Western Europe and the US after the second world war.

A cornerstone of the founding treaty is article 5, which commits all member nations to defend the others from “armed attack”.

“The Parties agree, the treaty text reads, “that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

Article 5 has only been invoked once, after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. In the subsequent fighting in Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda was based at the time, hundreds of troops from Nato member nations were killed fighting alongside US forces.

Trump’s anger at Nato, for not agreeing to let him annex Greenland, which is part of the territory of one of the Nato members, the Kingdom of Denmark, led to an angry outburst at Davos this week, when he claimed, falsely, that the allies who served alongside the US only did so away from the frontlines. In fact, on a per capita basis, the loses for Denmark and Britain nearly equalled those for the US.

Either unaware or unconcerned that the arrival of undocumented immigrants in the United States is obviously not :an armed attack”, Trump just posted:

Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks.

In a post on his social media platform, apparently posted from Air Force One, Donald Trump has informed Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, that he is no longer invited to join the “board of peace” the US president unveiled to the world with much fanfare at Davos on Thursday.

“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump’s post began. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”

While the leaders of many liberal democracies declined to sign on the Trump’s new international organization, Carney had, before Davos, accepted in principle, though he said on Sunday his officials had not yet gone through “all the details of the structure, how it’s going to work, what the financing is for, etcetera.”

“Canada wants money to have maximum impact,” Carney told reporters.

Canada’s finance minister, François-Philippe Champagne, then said on Tuesday that the Canadians did not plan to pay the $1bn countries were asked to hand over to Trump for a permanent seat on the board that was originally described as a temporary body to oversee the governance and reconstruction of Gaza.

In a frank address to world leaders at Davos on Tuesday, however, Carney described what he called “a rupture” in the previous “rules-based” world order overseen by the United States caused by Trump’s aggressive behavior.

When he arrived in Davos, Trump made it clear that he had heard or at least heard of Carney’s viral speech.

“Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump said in his own address on Wednesday. “Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

“Canada doesn’t live because of the United States,” Carney responded Thursday. “Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”

At the end of an exchange with reporters on Air Force One on Thursday, Donald Trump was asked about a new, large bruise on the back of his left hand that was visible in video and news images of his appearance at Davos earlier in the day.

“We saw the bruising on your hand; are you OK?” a reporter asked.

Trump, who had turned away to leave, turned back to say: “I’m very good.”

“I hit, I clipped it on the table,” he said, repeating the explanation his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, offered to reporters earlier in the day.

As Leavitt looked on, Trump added: “I clipped it. I would say, take aspirin if you like your heart, but don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising.”

“You know, if you take the big, I take the big aspirin,” he added, referring to an earlier statement that he takes four times the recommended dose of aspirin as a measure to prevent blood clots. “When you take the big aspirin, they tell you, you bruise,” Trump continued. “The doctor said, ‘You don’t have to take that, sir, you’re very healthy’. I said, ‘I’m not taking any chances’. So, anyway, that’s one of the side effects of taking aspirin.”

Leavitt claimed to a CBS News reporter earlier on Thursday that Trump “hit his hand in the corner of the signing table, causing it to bruise,” at an event for his “board of peace”. The bruise was clearly visible in news photographs taken during the event, and at one stage, after Trump greeted the prime minister of Qatar, he was seen looking down and inspecting the back of his left hand.

Trump’s latest explanation for what many have speculated is a sign that he is receiving doses of medication intravenously, comes after he had spent 11 months covering up a similar bruise on his right hand, with thick make-up or by keeping his left hand on top of his right at public events.

The initial White House explanation of the persistent bruise on Trump’s right hand was that it came, in part, from shaking hands, and from the president’s decision to take a much higher dose of aspirin than is recommended. The bruising on his left hand seems to rule out handshakes as a cause.

Dr Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist who treated Dick Cheney, suggested that Trump’s explanation was baffling. “Why would you continue to take a higher dose of aspirin than your doctor recommends if you’re bruising excessively? Makes no sense,” Reiner observed on social media.

Concerns that the White House might not be telling the truth the physical health of the president, who turns 80 in a few months, come one day after Leavitt accused a reporter of lying for accurately reporting that Trump had mistakenly called Greenland “Iceland” four times during a speech in Davos, despite the fact that those flubs were recorded on video and even posted on the White House YouTube channel.

As many observers noted, when Joe Biden tripped over his words, something he had done for many decades before becoming president, Trump and his supporters called such flubs evidence of dementia.

As our colleague Andrew Roth reported earlier, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, used his address at Davos on Thursday to warn European leaders that their desire to change Donald Trump would not work and the continent’s liberal democracies have to come together to defend themselves from the threat of Russian aggression that might not stop in Ukraine.

“Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers. Instead of taking the lead in defending freedom worldwide, especially when America’s focus shifts elsewhere – Europe looks lost, trying to convince the U.S. President to change. But he will not change,” Zelenskyy said. “President Trump loves who he is. And he says he loves Europe. But he will not listen to this kind of Europe.”

The Ukrainian president also criticized the continent’s leaders for failing to take action to protect protesters in Iran, again leaving that to the whims of Trump.

“There was so much talk about the protests in Iran – but they drowned in blood,” Zelenskyy said. “In Europe, there were Christmas and New Year celebrations. The seasonal holidays. By the time politicians came back to work and started forming a position – the Ayatollah had already killed thousands.”

“And what will Iran become after this bloodshed? If the regime survives, it sends a clear signal to every bully: kill enough people, and you stay in power,” he added. “And yet – Europe hasn’t even tried to build its own response.”

By a vote of 220-207, the US House narrowly passed legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the two agencies carrying out Donald Trump’s mass deportation raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Seven Democrats voted to extend funding which expires at the end of this month through 30 September.

They are: Henry Cuellar of Texas, who was facing corruption charges until he was pardoned by Trump; Don Davis of North Carolina; Laura Gillen of New York; Jared Golden of Maine; Vicente Gonzalez of Texas; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington; and Tom Suozzi of New York.

Six of the seven, all but Gillen, represent congressional districts won by Trump in 2024. Gillen’s Long Island district voted narrowly for Kamala Harris, 50-49.

Thomas Massie was the lone Republican to vote against the funding bill.

Shortly before the US House narrowly failed to pass a war power resolution constraining US military action in Venezuela, Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had called the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, “just to say hello.”

Machado recently gifted Trump her Nobel peace prize, after reports that her decision to accept the award, rather than saying that it should be given to the US president, is what caused him to sour on her and claim that the popular politician lacked the support to run the country.

“We have a very good relationship,” Trump said. “She’s a good woman, a very nice woman.”

“She’s been through a lot, and at the same time, I’ll tell you they’re doing a very good job in Venezuela,” Trump said, in reference to the remnants of the ousted president’s regime he has decided to leave in place instead of calling for new elections Machado would likely win.

“I get along with both sides,” he said.

At another point in the exchange with reporters, Trump said: “Delcy’s shown very strong leadership so far, I have to say,” Trump said, referring to Delcy Rodríguez, the interim president of Venezuela who was elected vice-president in what the US called a stolen election.

Asked when he might be willing to allow Venezuela to elect a new leader, Trump said his first priority was keeping control of the nation’s oil sales. “First of all, we have to take in a lot of money, we have to get that back”, he said.

“We’re going to start drilling very soon, we have the biggest companies in the world, they’re going to be going in, they’re all negotiating right now,” Trump said. “And we’re representing the nation,” he said, in reference to Venezuela. “And the nation is very thrilled by that, because we’re really good at this. And they’ll be taking in more money than they ever have, but we’ll be taking in a lot of money too.”

“It’s going to make the United States a lot of money,” Trump added.

By seizing control of Venezuela’s oil industry, Trump is finally putting into action a scheme to use the US military as the muscle in a global protection racket he first proposed 15 years ago, in a post for the video blog he set up to promote The Celebrity Apprentice.

“I can’t believe what our country is doing,” Trump said in a video posted on YouTube on 28 February 2011, two weeks before the Obama administration got US Security Council authorization “to protect civilians” in Libya during Arab spring protests against Col Muammar Gaddafi. “Gaddafi in Libya is killing thousands of people, nobody knows how bad it is, and we’re sitting around we have soldiers all have the Middle East, and we’re not bringing them in to stop this horrible carnage and that’s what it is: It’s a carnage.”

“After it’s all done, we go to the protesters, who end up running the country,” Trump added, “and we should then say, ‘By the way, from all of your oil, we want reimbursement.’”

A month later, as he teased a run against Barack Obama for the presidency in 2012, the Fox host Bill O’Reilly quizzed him on how he would handle foreign policy as president. Trump revealed that he had an entirely new plan for Iraq: American troops should be withdrawn, but only from those parts of the country without oilfields.

“In the old days, when you had wars, you win, right? You win. To the victor belong the spoils, Trump said. “I like the old system better: You won a war, you stay there, and you keep the oil.”

“You stay and protect the oil, and you take the oil and you take whatever is necessary for them and you take what’s necessary for us and we pay our self back, Trump added. “I study wars, OK? My whole life is a war. You look at wars over the years. A country goes in, they conquer and they stay. We go in, we conquer, and then we leave. And we hand it to people that we don’t even know. … So, in a nutshell, we go in, we take over the second largest oilfields, and we stay.”

The US House failed to pass a Democratic-backed resolution on Thursday that would have prevented Donald Trump from sending US military forces to Venezuela after a tied vote on the legislation fell just short of the majority needed for passage.

Democrats forced the vote on the war powers resolution, bringing up a debate in the Republican-controlled Congress on Trump’s unauthorized military intervention.

The Trump administration told senators last week that there are no US troops on the ground in Venezuela and committed to getting congressional approval before launching major military operations there. But Democrats argued that the resolution is necessary after the US raid to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and since Trump has stated plans to control the country’s oil industry for years to come.

Reminded by a reporter on Air Force One that he had said last week that he would be imposing tariffs of 25% on countries that trade with Iran, Donald Trump said: “I am doing that, yeah. We’re doing that. If you do business with Iran, you’re going to have a tariff of 25%.”

Pressed to say when that would go into effect, Trump said “It goes into effect very soon.”

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flies back to the US, Donald Trump was just asked about the possibility of US military intervention in the country amid widespread reports of protesters being killed.

“We’re watching Iran,” the US president said. “You know we have a lot of ships going that direction, just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we’ll see what happens.”

“We have a big force going toward Iran. I’d rather not see anything happen. But we’re watching them very closely,” he added.

Minutes later he also said that “a lot” of protesters had been killed, but did not know the exact number.

“Nobody knows a number. I mean it’s a lot no matter what. Hey, if it was one person,” the president said. “In this country if it’s one person, it’s front-page news”, he added, in apparent reference to the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis this month by an ICE officer, which he immediately lied about and dismissed.

“It’s a lot of people, but you know there’s a difference between ‘a lot’ and 20,000 people, so we’ll find out,” Trump added.

“But we have an armada, we have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it. We’ll see.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, has filed paperwork to establish a campaign committee that would allow her to run for governor later this year, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports.

The newspaper quotes a source close to the senator saying that the filing is a preliminary step but “The senator will make an announcement of her plans in the coming days”.

Klobuchar, who ran for the presidency in the 2020 Democratic primaries, is expected to enter the race to replace Tim Walz, who dropped his bid for a third term after Donald Trump made the state the focus of his immigration crackdown, which is doubling as an effort to attack Democratic run states and cities.

Accusations of fraud by dozens of Somali-Americans in the state have also been used by Trump to attack Walz, who was the Democratic nominee for vice-president in 2024.

Leaders of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party have reportedly urged Klobuchar to run, viewing her as the strongest Democratic candidate.

In recent days, Klobuchar has come under withering criticism from Minneapolis residents for making a series of light-hearted posts about her public appearances around the state as the Twin Cities have been under siege by federal immigration officers.

On social media on Thursday, Klobuchar repeatedly criticized the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis, where Renee Good was killed by an officer this month, and posted a letter to the acting director of the agency in which she and her fellow senator Tina Smith argued that ICE was violating the constitution by not allowing people they detain access to legal counsel. “ICE must comply with the law and allow access to attorneys,” Klobuchar wrote. “This is not optional.”

Smith has already announced that she will not be seeking re-election in the 2026 midterms, meaning that both of the state’s seats in the US Senate could be at stake in the midterms.