The Final 5: July 24, 2026

AI, Light Claw, Chat GPT, Google Gemini. It seems the younger generations are more likely to have those talks with men, more talkative with AI than women. Not everyone is cool though with these conversations. The poll found a quarter of Americans would view this as cheating, with even more saying it would be a deal breaker for a relationship. Have a great night, even better weekend. Here's the Final Five with Ashurn Rajae. No AI here, all real baby. Right now on the Final Five, President Trump speaks at the White House Correspondents Dinner months after shooting appended the first one. New threats of tariffs over wildfire smoke and much more. And the Trump administration versus DEI bike lanes. That's the Final Five. Let's do this. And welcome into the Final Five on this Friday night. I'm Sharin Rajae. Our Jim is off. And before you ask, no, he did not actually go to the nerd prom. That, of course, is the term some people use to refer to the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, which was rescheduled to tonight after that shooting back in April. That night, a gunman sprinted past the security checkpoint, opening fire, striking a Secret Service officer. The suspect, Cole Allen, pleaded not guilty to attempting to assassinate President Trump. He is due back in court next month. Now, tonight's dinner is at the Waldorf Astoria and had increased security. A smaller group. President Trump spoke at the event and discussed what happened. He also brought some jokes with him. There were a lot of different feelings going on in the room at that moment. But after hearing the gunshots, many people yelled, get down, get down, which caused Nicki Minaj to start twerking. You believe? Get down. She's the only one that really understood what that meant. It's quite an evening. Now, one big part of the event every year is to hand out awards to some of the journalists in attendance. Naturally, many of those awards are focused on the coverage of the president, which really might have created some pretty awkward moments. The journal's courageous reporting on President Trump's past relationship with financier Jeffrey Epstein triggered the release of the so-called Epstein files, thousands of documents that might otherwise have remained hidden from the public. And despite the president's threat of a lawsuit, the journal published a story about a provocative letter to Epstein bearing President Trump's signature. Trump quickly filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the journal, revealing reporter Khadija Safdar's home address. Her family had to be relocated. A little awkward, but the president didn't seem to mind. There's President Trump, of course, shaking hands with a journalist who broke some of the biggest stories in the Epstein case. And yes, the president admits that was a little bit of a challenge. That was very beautiful, but this has not been an easy evening. All these awards, do I have to say those awards, all those awards? Now, things got much less chummy as the night went on, but things largely remained cordial throughout. Earlier today, though, President Trump maintained his usual approach with the press, specifically with this question in the Oval Office. I have a question about Iran. You're talking about blowing up civilian power plants and bridges. Much of the civilized world would consider that a war crime. Do you? I won't respond to that question. Who are you with? The New York Times. I figured so. The L.A. New York Times. Now, the president's scuffle there with a New York Times reporter comes as the outlet takes a big win in a fight against the DOJ. It is over that $400 million Qatari jet President Trump accepted as a gift from the country and proceeded to use as Air Force One. But at one point, he had to go back to using the old Air Force One because the Qatari jet lacked necessary defenses. The Times broke report about behind-the-scenes concerns that some in the president's entourage had about this new airplane. The Department of Justice subpoenaed their reporters with the administration demanding that they give up their sources. Well, today, the DOJ surrendered, saying that they would drop the subpoenas, but let the leak investigation play out. We're not after journalists, we're after leakers. We're after people that are cowards, people that are unpatriotic, people that are treasonous in many cases. And the way you find them is through the journalists, when the journalists probably know they shouldn't, right, they shouldn't be giving information out like that particular information or others. Now, the president butting heads with the media is nothing new, of course, but he does have some reporters that appear to be on his good side. One of them is apparently from Venezuela. I've known him for a long time, I've known that country, and I own the Miss Universe pageant, and Miss Venezuela always did very well in that pageant. So I know something about the country, but I've known it for a long time, they're great people, say hello, okay? Yeah, say hello for me, and yes, that is the same Venezuela the Trump administration literally sent special ops forces into to pluck former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power and bring him to the United States in handcuffs, if you remember that image. But the Miss Universe pageant is a pretty consequential event as well. Anyway, the president also seems to have a sweet spot for Fox News reporter Peter Doocy. He frequently prefers to take his questions as he did this one about an ongoing situation with cycloprosporiasis and lettuce. When is it gonna be safe to eat lettuce again? I don't know, I haven't thought about it, it's the first time I've been asked that question. Are you eating lettuce recently? I should always have more lettuce. Get out of here, Peter. No, that's a very interesting question from you. I didn't think you'd ask that kind of a question. Nobody wants to ask that question, but well, it's exciting. Doocy frequently asks President Trump some of these off-the-beaten-path questions. One of them today was about LeBron James and his big announcement. He announced today he would be picking to join the 76ers to sign a two-year contract with them. President Trump, though, does not seem to like him very much. Where do you stand on LeBron versus Michael Jordan as the best ever? Well, Michael Jordan's a guy that's a friend of mine, played golf with him. He's a really good guy. And I think LeBron is, maybe he's a racist, but maybe he doesn't like Trump, I don't know. I only like people that like me. Overseas attacks in the war with Iran continuing to escalate tonight, nearing the two-week mark tomorrow. The U.S. firing more attacks at Iranian military sites today, marking 13 straight nights of strikes. Tehran is also targeting U.S. bases in surrounding Gulf nations. The Strait of Hormuz remains at the center of this dispute, which has been almost inoperable since the end of the ceasefire. The war has claimed the lives of 18 now American service members since it started nearly 21 weeks ago in February. About Iran, what is the exit strategy? Well, I think there's a lot of them. There's a military exit where we just keep going just the way we are, and we can even make it a heavier dose, and it's knocking out everything they have. Or there's a smarter strategy, and that's you make a deal. And they want to make a deal. I just don't think they're ready yet, but they do want to make a deal. Sometimes they don't want to say they want to make a deal. They want to be the tough guys. Earlier this week, the House passed a war powers resolution for the second time. If adopted by the Senate, it would formally state that the war is happening against the will of the Congress, and it would direct the president to end it. This is actually the second time, and the House has done so. The Senate actually did approve the last one, but the White House has said they're just going to ignore it. You can't say, I'm going to go it alone. I don't need you, because that works for a month, two months, but you don't get support beyond that. And so he's needed to do really two things. He had to make his case to a bipartisan leadership in the Congress, but also to the people. The fact of the matter is, the American people are not for this war. The American people think this war is hurting them. It's hurting them at the gas pump. It's hurting them at the grocery store. Now meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, nothing is happening tonight, and nothing is happening to happen in the House all next week. And the week after that, and the week after that, and the week after that, and the week after that, and that will bring us to August 31st, when they officially return from their August recess. Now before skipping town, they narrowly advanced several major bills, which now head to the Senate. That includes part of the controversial Save America Act, a bill to prevent the threat of a government shutdown on October 1st, which will be here before we know it. And the annual National Defense Authorization Act, including increased military spending for the war with Iran. Who cannot approve voter ID? Who cannot approve proof of citizenship? Who cannot approve funding military when you're winning a war, and what are you supposed to do, stop fighting? The president has said that he will not sign any legislation until Congress passes the Save Act. In fact, it would overhaul the country's election system, changing how to register to vote, and who is eligible, and mandating proof of citizenship and photo ID. Earlier this week, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx brought up something else that requires photo ID. 24 states already require photo ID to be presented prior to voting. Heck, you even need to present a photo ID to utilize the Olive Garden's never-ending pasta pass. And that's an interesting mental image. Naturally, it didn't take long for someone to actually turn it into an actual image. Yep, there you go. Enter Florida Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz, who responded with this AI-generated image of Speaker Mike Johnson and Virginia Foxx sharing an evening at Olive Garden, showing off their lifetime pasta passes. I wanna talk about Olive Garden. They wanna talk about IDs. They wanna talk about Biden. They wanna talk about Ukraine. They wanna talk about anything and everything to distract from this core fact. They have absolutely no plan or agenda whatsoever to bring down costs for the American people. Now, some Republicans are against the defense spending bill as well. One controversial part of it has to do with a measure that would increase the level of Republican Congresswoman of Colorado Lauren Boebert says that's why she was going to vote against it. But she says Republican negotiators lied to her about it and also said that she was recovering from, shall we say, like a minor medical procedure. I'm told the vote's gonna stay open. They closed the vote. And so now I'm forced to talk to TMZ while I do have an issue that we talked about off record. I don't wanna be on camera this week. And I've been on camera more than any other week. I am talking out of the side of my mouth like a damn politician because my Botox hasn't caught up on this side. Maybe in two days, this side will catch up to the other side. But here we are. That also necessary Botox. All right, still to come, President Trump ups this threat of new tariffs on Canada. David Clement of the Consumer Choice Center is here to tell us about the real impacts that you could feel when the final five comes back. Stay with me. President Trump said today he is considering imposing tariffs on Canada as retaliation for the wildfire smoke that put a haze over parts of the United States. It's the latest threat and a long running back and forth between tariffs and between the two countries. And I've got the perfect guy to talk about it. His name is David Clement, policy director for the Consumer Choice Center based in Ontario. David, great to have you on. Thank you very much, appreciate it. So the president is now threatening additional tariffs, essentially because of the wildfire smoke that drifted into the United States. Do you view this as a serious negotiating position or is this simply adding another layer to a very tense trade dispute? I think the prospect of tariffs because of the wildfire are really silly. It's not a very serious argument in terms of the overall problem of wildfires. I mean, as we're speaking now, there are wildfires in the Pacific Northwest that are causing advisories in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and throughout the Canadian West. What's more serious here is the 50 percent tariffs in response to accusations of American businesses in the automotive sector, the dairy sector and the alcohol sector being treated unfairly. I think what the Trump administration has put forward is a pretty serious escalation in terms of what the impact could be on Americans, because some of the Canadian goods that are impacted in that 50 percent are things that maybe are a little more trivial, like Canadian whiskey like Crown Royal or Canadian Club. But more seriously, lumber, paper. These are core inputs for America's housing construction. If you make that 50 percent more expensive, Americans are going to be in a world of pain. And that will be entirely because of a decision from the Trump administration, not because of anything Canada has done specifically in regards to lumber, which would be really unfortunate given how many Americans are struggling to pay rent or find a home. Yeah. Let's talk about the Trump administration's, I guess, allegations fundamentally. What do they believe Canada is doing unfairly when it comes to trade? Can you break it down for us? So on alcohol, several Canadian provinces pulled U.S. alcohol from liquor store shelves in response to the initial tariffs and kind of the initiation of the trade war. So that is the one grievance. Two is the way in which American dairy is treated. Canada has a very, very high tariff rate, anywhere from 150 to 300 percent on imports for what we call supply managed goods. That's milk, cheese, chicken, turkey and eggs. And that really leads them. They're trying to defend their own dairy, dairy farmers. Oh, yes. To the expense of all Canadian consumers. Supply management. The program is an absolute disaster in Canada that inflates the cost of those core food items for Canadians. While Canada is in its own cost of living crisis and record number of Canadians are lining up at food banks, we artificially inflate the price of these core food items. So it certainly doesn't make any sense to have this type of high tariff on imports for core food items. And so and then there is also the automotive complaint, which was largely in response to counter tariffs and kind of the tit for tat response in the auto sector, which, again, is a disaster for Americans because the North American auto market is so intertwined. You have individual pieces of cars that cross the border between Detroit and Windsor as much as eight times a billion dollars worth of automotive trade crosses the bridge every day. And so to try and tariff that going across the border, let's say each time would just be a disaster for American consumers. Yeah, I mean, listen, this is our one of our closest allies when it comes to trade. There's so many goods that are passed across those border lines. But the president, President Trump argues that, listen, tariffs are leverage. They bring countries to the negotiating table. They ultimately produce better results when it comes to these trade deals, better results for American workers. Do you see any evidence of these tariffs accomplishing that? No, I don't think anyone really wins in a trade war. Tariffs generally speaking, protect Americans from one thing and one thing only. And that's lower prices because they decrease competition and artificially inflate the cost of imports. And so, no, I don't believe that anybody wins in a trade war. I think that the heat needs to be dialed down significantly. A perfect scenario would be the federal government in Canada and the Trump administration rehashing out the USMCA and actually getting the deal closer to zero on as many goods as humanly possible, because this is the greatest trading relationship in the world. There is no reason for it to be upended. It should be strengthened and encouraged because we are both better off because of free trade between our two countries. Yeah. And the consumers as well on both sides. Absolutely. David Clement, thank you so much for your perspective. We appreciate you. Thank you. And we will be right back. And welcome back to The Final Five. Let's get to our third block tonight. We start with a country that we seem to discuss quite a bit here on Final Five, Canada. One reason that we do so might be because of the apparent sense of humor exhibited by the Royal Canadian Mountain Police Force or Mounties, as you might know them. For example, on June 29th of last year, they ticketed the driver of a pickup because cargo fell off his truck. What was the cargo? Blueberries, several, several crates of them. In typical Mountie fashion, their official announcement called it, quote, a juicy incident and also suggested officers start producing some, quote, jackknife jelly pothole preserves and the ever popular traffic jam. Get it. But hey, we're a news program and this happened last year. So why are we still talking about this random dated news headline from another country? Well, to quote the lead line of the press release from that very same police agency, quote, it happened again. The press release was titled Traffic Jam Part Do Not Berry Funny Berry, to quote there. It happened two days ago, also in British Columbia and also involving blueberries that fell off a truck. What is going on here? Mounties said, quote, a witness reported the matter after seeing a motorcycle go slip sliding through the mess while other vehicles turned the matter into a very juicy incident. Indeed, their road has since been reopened. There are worse things, but that was funny. In some places, commuters might be able to get around road hazards like blueberries using dedicated bicycle lanes. But not if Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has anything to say about it. A couple weeks ago, he vowed to end support for, quote, DEI bike lanes. Since then, the agency has quietly removed a set of recommendations, including bike lanes and speed cameras from a list of proven safety countermeasures. The agency says most people drive anyway, added quote. This is a common sense approach, despite the left's belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox size apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda. The Trump administration, of course, has never been shy about putting their own spin on things. One of the latest in that book, Jimothy, that's what the Internet named the raccoon as he went viral for his unusually spherical body. Naturally, the official White House account official posted, quote, Jimothy spotted on the way to Washington, D.C., along with a Photoshop picture of Jimothy wearing a Trump was right about everything hat on the official White House post. Up next on the final five, who's sleeping soundly, who's tossing and turning? Stay with me. Sleeping soundly tonight, Secret Service Officer Victor Gonzalez, remember just a few months after taking a bullet while protecting President Trump during the White House Correspondents Dinner and the shooting that followed. He was back tonight, this time being honored for his bravery. Talk about a full circle moment. He did his job, recovered. Now he's being recognized for it. Likely, he is sleeping soundly tonight. And the knives seem to be coming out and not from Democrats, but from fellow Republicans for Vice President J.D. Vance. The Washington Post reporting today about the growing criticism, anonymous attacks, even a Camp Rubio emerging ahead of 2028. If the Iran conflict continues to weigh on the administration, it could make Vance's political future even tougher and not the position you want to be in when thinking about a presidential run. So I'd say J.D. Vance is tossing and turning tonight. That does it for me on the final five on this Friday night. I'm Sharin Raje, but I will be back on Monday. I appreciate you. Lights out. Heels off. Good night. As far as the state's concerned, the state set up operation centers in locations like San Antonio and College Station. We worked with power companies to make sure they were doing everything that needed to be done to make sure that the power stayed on throughout the event. And we embedded our state officials with local officials to ensure that we were going to be prepared for that tropical storm in advance. And the good news coming out of it is no lives have been lost at all in Tropical Storm Bertha. Similarly, we work with local communities to respond to the rising water, and we will continue to do so as the water recedes in some communities like those in the Fort Bend County area and elsewhere. Heavy rain engulfs some roadways as well as some other areas around the region. There are, however, no reports right now of flooded homes or businesses. That said, we are still in the process of gathering information. Once again, I want to thank everybody.