Canada’s Prime Minister Accuses ŤRUMP Administration of Trade Corruption in Explosive Dossier

OTTAWA — A political and diplomatic storm erupted Thursday after Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, released a 247-page dossier alleging that the administration of U.S. President ŤRUMP operated a covert corruption scheme within the White House tied to American tariff policy and international trade negotiations.

The document, compiled over several months by Canadian officials and intelligence analysts, describes what investigators call a “tariff exemption kickback pipeline,” in which companies seeking relief from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs allegedly paid millions of dollars in advisory fees to consulting firms connected to individuals within ŤRUMP’s political and business network.

According to the dossier, those fees — typically between 2 and 5 percent of the value of projected tariff savings — were routed through shell companies registered in states such as Delaware and Wyoming before reaching entities linked to figures associated with the president’s inner circle. In one cited case, a midsize American manufacturing company allegedly paid a $4.7 million advisory fee before receiving a tariff exemption projected to save the company roughly $180 million.

Canadian officials say at least 14 companies followed similar pathways.

Carney made the accusations public after what he described as a failed attempt to raise the matter privately with U.S. officials.

“We initially pursued quiet diplomatic channels,” Carney said in a statement accompanying the release. “When concerns were raised, we expected a transparent review. Instead, we encountered efforts to suppress the information.”

The dossier claims that once the concerns were communicated through diplomatic channels, the ŤRUMP administration responded by retroactively classifying communications related to the tariff decisions, reassigning two U.S. trade officials who had raised internal concerns, and urging Canadian officials to sign non-disclosure agreements covering informal diplomatic exchanges.

If accurate, the allegations would represent one of the most significant corruption claims ever made involving a sitting U.S. president and trade policy.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Allies of the president have dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and have questioned the legitimacy of a foreign government publicly releasing such allegations.

Yet the report’s release gained additional attention after Warren Buffett, the 94-year-old investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, issued an unusual public statement addressing the matter.

Buffett has largely avoided commenting on presidential controversies throughout his seven-decade career. In this case, however, he said the pattern described in the Canadian report resembled corporate corruption cases he had encountered in business.

“When leadership enriches itself at the expense of the organization it was entrusted to serve, the organization eventually collapses,” Buffett said in the statement. “The only difference here is that the organization is the United States government.”

He added that the alleged cover-up described in the dossier concerned him more than the accusations themselves.

“When a government uses its classification authority and institutional power to hide potential wrongdoing, you are no longer dealing with a single bad decision,” Buffett said. “You are dealing with a system that has lost the trust required to function.”

Buffett also said Berkshire Hathaway’s compliance division had begun reviewing the company’s contracts with federal agencies, a move analysts described as symbolic but striking.

The dossier also alleges that a parallel negotiation channel existed outside formal U.S.–Canada trade talks. According to the report, intermediaries linked to the president sought preferential access to Canadian critical minerals — including lithium, nickel, and cobalt — for a consortium of companies connected to entities associated with the ŤRUMP business network.

Those resources are central to the global supply chain for electric vehicles and energy storage technologies.

Canadian investigators claim the proposed arrangement would have allowed the consortium to purchase certain minerals at prices 30 to 40 percent below market value.

Another section of the report describes what Canadian officials characterize as diplomatic pressure related to a private development project near Toronto associated with a brand connected to the president. Internal communications cited in the dossier allegedly linked regulatory timelines for the project to broader progress in trade negotiations.

Carney’s decision to publish the report has already triggered political reactions in Washington. Several members of Congress from both parties called for further investigation, though none have yet endorsed the allegations outright.

Legal analysts say the claims, if supported by independent evidence, could raise serious questions about the use of presidential authority over trade policy.

International reaction has also been swift. Officials from the European Union, Japan and South Korea have reportedly requested access to the dossier to determine whether similar practices could have affected their own trade negotiations with Washington.

For now, the document remains a set of allegations rather than proven violations. But its release has intensified scrutiny of the intersection between political power, trade policy and private financial interests.

Whether American institutions will investigate the claims — or dismiss them as a diplomatic provocation — may determine how long the controversy continues to reverberate in Washington and beyond.