Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney defended his country’s NATO commitments after being pressed over alliance spending by President Donald Trump, insisting Ottawa meets the benchmark – even though Canada only reached the 2% defense target in 2025.

Speaking recently at a press conference in Monteregie, Quebec, Carney said Iran remains a “grave threat” to the Middle East and beyond and argued Canada is meeting its obligations to the alliance.

But Canada only reached NATO’s 2% defense spending benchmark in 2025, after spending years well below the target. Carney acknowledged Ottawa had not hit that mark since the Cold War, underscoring the vulnerability in his pushback to Trump.

“I’ll underscore that just a few weeks ago that we’ve met for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall our NATO commitments in terms of 2% defense spending,” Carney added. 

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Trump has blasted some NATO allies over what he sees as weak support during the Iran conflict, warning on Truth Social that the alliance “wasn’t there when we needed them and they won’t be there if we need them again.”

When a reporter pressed that Trump threatened to punish NATO, including conflict-averse members Germany and Spain, Carney boasted that Canada “meet[s] its NATO commitments.”

NATO’s 2014-2025 defense expenditure report estimated Canada’s defense spending at 1.01% of GDP in 2014, and below 1.5% through 2024 before reaching 2.01% in 2025.

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Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has praised Trump for pushing allies to meet the 2% benchmark, as several Eastern Bloc nations have noticeably increased their tithes.

Over the past decade, U.S. defense spending has averaged roughly 3.3% of GDP, compared with about 1.3% for Canada. The U.S. GDP is also a higher gross figure than all other NATO members in dollars.

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Greece and the U.K. have been the top two countries consistently contributing to NATO’s funding, while Canada, Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Hungary all sit in the lower tier on average. The only outlier below them is Luxembourg, which contributes an average 0.6% of GDP to NATO, according to calculations made from the report’s figures.

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Rutte previously made waves for appearing to refer to Trump as “daddy,” but said this week the Dutch-to-English translation was flawed and that he meant to refer to the president as a strong disciplinarian-like figure at a time when Trump was angry at both Israel and Iran.

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“In Dutch, you would say the translation of your father is ‘daddy’ and I would say hey, yeah, some time, Daddy has to be angry, so I wasn’t going to say [he’s my] daddy,” he said of a meeting between the two men in The Hague last June.

Rutte issued the response after being pressed on whether he still viewed Trump as “Daddy” or an ally amid the president’s issues with some member-nations.

WASHINGTON — Last September, the Department of Homeland Security started advising unaccompanied immigrant children that they could either self-deport or expect to face long-term detention.

But a federal judge in Los Angeles on Monday ordered the government to stop using such “blatantly coercive” language, ruling that the new advisals, as they are known, violated a 40-year-old court order that bans immigration agents from pressuring unaccompanied children to give up asylum claims and leave the U.S.

According to court documents, the legal advisal was given to recently detained immigrant children. Unaccompanied children are those in the country without a parent or legal guardian.

The minors were told they had the option to return to their country, that doing so would result in no administrative consequences and that they still could apply for a visa in the future.

But the children also were told that if they chose to seek a hearing with an immigration judge or indicated that they were afraid to leave the U.S., they could expect to be held at a detention facility “for a prolonged period of time.”

Those who turned 18 while in custody would be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation, they were told. The advisal, though generally passed on verbally, was written out in court documents by lawyers representing the immigrant children, which the government did not dispute.

“If your sponsor in the United States does not have legal immigration status, they will be subject to arrest and removal,” the advisals continued. “The sponsor may be subject to criminal prosecution for aiding your illegal entry.”

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said that “such a threat disturbingly mirrors” the testimony of Jose Antonio Perez-Funez, a plaintiff in a 1980s class-action lawsuit challenging the tactics of immigration officers.

Perez-Funez, who was 16 when he was arrested near the Mexican border, testified in 1985 in Los Angeles federal court that he agreed to self-deport because federal officers said he would face lengthy detention if he didn’t return to El Salvador.

Perez-Funez’s case originally led the court to establish due process safeguards for immigrant children, giving them the right to speak with a relative or attorney before signing forms that waive their pursuit of legal protection.

“The Government was thus already on notice that such a statement delivered in this environment is precisely the kind of inappropriate persuasion the Injunction sought to prevent,” Fitzgerald wrote.

Fitzgerald, a judge in the Central District of California, also denied a request by the federal government to end the permanent court-mandated safeguards for immigrant children altogether.

In response to a request for comment, U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided a statement, attributed to a spokesperson who wasn’t named, that the agency is following the law and protecting children. The agency said the advisal document explains to unaccompanied children their options available under federal law.

“Many unaccompanied minors are brought to the border by smugglers and face real risks of exploitation, which is why providing a clear, lawful advisal is essential,” the statement said. “It ensures they understand their rights and options — and for many who were trafficked or coerced, returning home to their family is the safest path.”

Unaccompanied children are first held by Homeland Security before being turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is within the Department of Health and Human Services, for long-term housing. Federal law requires ORR to provide them with a legal consultation within 10 days.

“It is difficult to imagine a scenario more coercive than the one faced by [unaccompanied immigrant children] in the 72 hours before they are transferred into ORR custody, particularly for noncitizen children who likely do not know whether they possess any rights at all,” Fitzgerald wrote in his order.

In declarations to the court, children wrote that they felt threatened by the government’s advisals. One minor, identified as D.A.T.M., said the threats to prosecute their parents and of long-term detention caused them to sign voluntary departure papers.

Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney at the pro bono law firm Public Counsel, helped secure the 1986 court order. He said his legal team discovered Homeland Security had changed the advisals only after a government attorney notified him in November that the agency was going to seek to end the court-mandated safeguards.

“I consider this a war on children — the most vulnerable population,” he said.

The government has until Thursday to decide whether it will appeal the judge’s ruling. Regardless, Rosenbaum said, his goal is to establish more aggressive monitoring of unaccompanied children’s cases to ensure their rights aren’t violated again.

President Donald Trump slammed Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger ahead of meetings in the state Saturday, warning her policies are triggering a tax base exodus similar to New York and California.

Trump, in an early morning Truth Social post, said the Democratic governor had imposed a wave of taxes he argued were draining the state’s economic strength.

“She is adding so many Taxes, a Food and Beverage Tax, Digital Services Tax, Utilities Tax, and more,” Trump wrote. “It has lost its Energy, Vitality, and Strength. People are leaving that would never have even thought of doing so!”

Trump’s comments come as Republicans have criticized Democrats in the state legislature over a slate of tax and revenue proposals, warning the measures could hurt Virginia’s business climate, though the governor has not publicly supported or signed the measures referenced by Trump.

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“New companies that signed to come into the Commonwealth under Governor Youngkin are now looking for ways to get out — Break their Deal,” he said.

The president, who said he was heading to Virginia for meetings at Trump National Golf Club, drew comparisons to high-tax states like New York and California, which he has frequently criticized.

“We have a similar situation in New York and, most of all, in California, where Rich, Job Producing people and companies are being forced to FLEE at levels never seen before,” Trump wrote.

He added that California’s tax base was “literally disappearing” as wealthy individuals and corporations relocate, warning Virginia could face a similar trajectory.

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“Remember, once people and companies leave, they are never coming back!” Trump said.

Spanberger pushed back on the criticism in a post on X, arguing Trump and his allies were mischaracterizing her policies.

“The president and his allies are talking about taxes that our state legislature never even voted on and I certainly didn’t sign,” she wrote. “Why? Because if they don’t flood the zone with fake news about fake taxes, people might hear about the bills I am signing to lower energy costs, strengthen our schools, make housing more affordable, and bring billions of dollars of business investment to Virginia.”

Spanberger has supported a broader set of revenue measures since taking office, including proposals targeting digital services and business activity, as part of an effort to fund priorities such as education and health care.

A spokesperson for Spanberger’s office also issued a statement criticizing Trump’s claims.

“Virginians are tired of Donald Trump’s lies,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Governor Spanberger has signed dozens of bipartisan bills to contend with high housing, healthcare and energy costs for Virginians — and not any of the taxes President Trump and his allies are lying about.”

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The spokesperson added that businesses have announced “more than $500 million in new investment in the commonwealth since Governor Spanberger took office in January,” while accusing Trump of focusing on politics instead of economic stability.

On Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin also took aim at Spanberger as a state vote on redistricting approaches during a rally in Rockingham County opposing Democrats’ proposed 10-1 gerrymander ahead of the April 21 referendum election.

“She talks like a moderate, and she governs like a Marxist,” Johnson said. “I mean, this is serious stuff.”

Johnson also warned that the outcome in Virginia could have national implications, citing the GOP’s narrow House majority.

Youngkin, meanwhile, accused Spanberger of weakening public safety policies in the state.

“She says she’s going to stand for public safety, and she makes Virginia a sanctuary state after one of the most successful federal-state collaborations in the entire country,” Youngkin said. “We arrested thousands of violent criminals who are here illegally, and she put a stop to it.”

Spanberger defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the 2025 gubernatorial race, securing a Democratic win. Youngkin was not eligible for re-election under state law.

Spanberger campaigned on issues including health care and abortion rights, while positioning herself as a more moderate alternative despite GOP criticism of her voting record.

Fox News Digital’s Preston Mizell contributed to this report.