USA & Canada Intelligence Brief — Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Executive Summary
USA & Canada Intelligence Brief for 22 September 2026: Trump carries his quarrels to the United Nations, rival newsrooms close ranks at the White House
USA & Canada Intelligence Brief — Tuesday, 22 September 2026
The White House is besieged and hitting back, and on Tuesday it carried the fight to the United Nations. Trump told the General Assembly that his country’s future is “very, very bright”, while a war he started drags on and his newsroom ban heads to court.
The Washington press corps answered by closing ranks, and rival networks refused to film the President without CNN. Three banned outlets sued on Monday, and a judge hears their emergency request on Wednesday, which is the steadying part of a combative week.
American voters are souring, and the doubt has now reached Trump’s own party. A Reuters/Ipsos poll puts his approval at 32 per cent, and approval among Republicans has fallen to 73 per cent from 82 per cent a week earlier.
Towards China the mood is staged warmth, and towards Japan it is anxious courtship. Xi Jinping’s state visit begins on Wednesday, and Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was due to see Trump in New York first.
Canada is confident and turning towards Europe, and its government now moves at speed. On Monday it tabled the Building Canada Strong Act, which promises federal reviews of large projects within a year, and a union leader warned ministers they are “in for a real rude awakening”.
Its provinces are more restless than its capital. Alberta’s premier is quarrelling with her own party before a separation vote on 19 October, and Quebec, which votes on 5 October, says in a new poll that it wants change.
Read across NBC News, CBS News, CNN, NPR, Reuters, Newsweek and the Japan Times. Then CBC, the Canadian Press, CP24, Léger and Segma Recherche for Radio-Canada.
A President Carries His Quarrels To The World
Trump opened his address to the General Assembly, the annual gathering of the United Nations’ member states, in a mood of pride, and spoke for roughly 35 minutes, CBS News reports. “Our nation is growing, our power is expanding, our country is doing better than ever before, and our future is very, very bright,” he said, NBC News reports.
On Iran, with which the United States has been at war since February, he framed a stark choice. “I have a big decision to make,” he said, before asking whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly”, NBC News reports.
He predicted a deal with Tehran “right after the election”, and said Iran was waiting for the midterm vote of 3 November. “What they don’t realize is that I’m not running,” he said, adding that the Republican Party is. He had told the news site Axios on 17 September: “It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me.”
He also claimed new ground in the Arctic. A deal with Denmark gives the United States “permanent control over security and all other needs” in Greenland, the Arctic island under Danish sovereignty, he said. “We will be building two very major military bases,” he added, NBC News reports.
He cast himself as the man of action among talkers. “While others have spoken of peace, I have made peace,” he said, CBS News, the American broadcast network, reports. He added: “While others have promised strength, I have used it to make America the most powerful country in the world.”
Diplomacy around the edges is what steadies the picture. NBC News reports oil prices falling on reports that Iran was offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within days if the United States takes steps towards easing pressure. Optimism over the reopening of a critical pipeline in Saudi Arabia helped too, NBC reports.
His diary in New York is long, and it is aimed at allies he needs. CBS News lists the British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japan’s Sanae Takaichi and Gulf leaders, and a brief conversation with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodríguez.
Rival Newsrooms Close Ranks At The Gate
The newsroom ban that Trump announced on Friday 18 September has become a test of nerve. CNN, the cable news network, MS NOW, a cable news channel, and Politico, a Washington political news site, sued in the federal District Court in Washington on Monday.
They argue that the ban breaks the First Amendment, the constitutional clause that protects a free press, and the guarantee of due process. “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” they wrote, CNN reports.
A hearing on their emergency request, a temporary restraining order, is set for Wednesday 23 September, CNN reports. Trump has said he might add other outlets, and he gave “negative stories” as his reason.
The President answered on his social platform on Monday morning. “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS,” he wrote, and called the FAKE NEWS “a threat to our National Security”.
Rival networks refused to fill the gap left by CNN, which was due to provide the shared television pool on Monday. “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” the pool chair, Fox News’s Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, wrote in a memo obtained by NPR, the public radio network.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the ban on Tuesday. “We’re not closing CNN,” he told TODAY, NBC’s morning programme, adding that the outlets are “just not allowed to work from the workspace at the White House”.
Precedent steadies the newsrooms’ case. CNN reports that courts have rejected similar exclusions, and cites a 1977 case over the revoked pass of Robert Sherrill, a reporter for The Nation magazine.
Key Facts
Doubt Reaches The President’s Own Party
American voters are souring, and this week the doubt reached the President’s own camp. A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Sunday 20 September puts Trump’s approval at 32 per cent, the lowest of his political career, down from 35 per cent a week earlier.
Among Republicans, approval fell to 73 per cent from 82 per cent. For the first time, Republicans who disapprove of his handling of the cost of living outnumber those who approve, by 51 to 44 per cent, Reuters reports.
A second poll is bleaker still, and an analyst urges caution about it. The polling firm American Research Group, surveying 1,100 adults from 16 to 20 September, puts his approval at 29 per cent, reports Newsweek, the American news magazine.
“This poll is an outlier, as others are not as bleak for the president, but overall it’s pretty clear that Trump’s numbers are worse now than they were eight years ago,” Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics told Newsweek. The magazine notes that other recent polls have generally shown Trump in the mid-to-high 30s.
The war weighs on the mood. Only 34 per cent approve of the strikes on Iran, and 17 per cent approve of his handling of the cost of living, the issue Americans say will decide their vote, Reuters reports.
The midterm elections of 3 November decide who controls Congress, and registered voters prefer Democrats by 43 to 35 per cent. Reuters calls it the biggest Democratic lead in its polling this year, but notes that national figures miss the contests district by district.
A Monument Recast As A Fortress
The President’s taste for fortification now reaches a monument that is still only a plan. On Sunday 20 September he wrote that he would turn his planned arch into “a top grade Military Complex/Triumphal Arch”, citing “national security”, NBC News reports.
It would “house, store, and have the rapid ability to use large numbers of drones, plus Snipers, on both the roof and plaza areas”, he wrote. The Pentagon said it had “nothing additional to provide beyond the post”, NBC reports.
The arch would stand 250 feet high in a roundabout between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. Veterans and historians have challenged it in court, NBC reports.
A judge’s clock is the steadying element. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered the administration to give 48 hours’ notice before it starts “any activity” on the arch, apart from archaeological checks. It is a notice period rather than a halt.
Staged Warmth For Xi, And An Anxious Ally
Towards Beijing the mood is staged warmth, with a sense of occasion. NPR describes Xi Jinping’s visit as the first state visit by a Chinese leader in 11 years, and Xi meets Trump at the White House on Thursday, CBS News and NPR report.
The visit is scheduled from Wednesday 23 to Friday 25 September, according to the schedule released by the office of the First Lady, The Standard, a Hong Kong daily, reports. It opens formally on Thursday morning with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn, the paper says.
The agenda is heavy, NPR’s Emily Feng said on air, from tariffs and artificial intelligence to the Iran war. She added that the two countries are still technically in a trade war, and that Trump wants economic wins before the midterms.
Japan is the anxious ally in the room. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was due to meet Trump on the sidelines of the General Assembly on Tuesday, days before his talks with Xi, the Japan Times, a Tokyo English-language daily, reported on 21 September.
The paper says she will press Trump on issues from Taiwan to trade. When the desk last checked, at 15.42 UTC on Tuesday, it found no published account of how the meeting went.
Ottawa Moves Fast, And Labour Bristles
Canada’s government is confident and moving at speed. “We are meeting at a decisive moment for our country,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told his Liberal MPs on Friday, CBC, the public broadcaster, reports. He promised “some of the most consequential legislation, not just of this government, but in decades”.
On Monday, the first day of Parliament’s autumn sitting, his government tabled the Building Canada Strong Act, Bill C-39. It promises to complete federal reviews of large projects within a year and to cut disruptive labour disputes on railways, ports and airlines, CBC reports.
The urgency comes from a rupture with Washington. CBC dates it to the breakdown of trade talks with the United States in late August, and to Carney’s address to the European Parliament.
Labour bristles. Mark Hancock, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the part of the bill that “directly attacks workers and our constitutionally protected right to strike” is “a huge problem for us”, and warned ministers they are “in for a real rude awakening”.
Christine Normandin, House leader of the Bloc Québécois, the party of Quebec sovereigntists in Ottawa, says the bill is “basically tearing down environmental laws”. The Conservatives, the official opposition, are still studying it, and their leader Pierre Poilievre told viewers that “we will fight to save you money”.
The Liberals now hold a majority and have the votes to pass the bill through the House, CBC reports. What could reverse the momentum is the cost of living, which the Conservatives made the main theme of Monday’s question period, the daily session in which MPs question ministers.
Carney’s turn to the world began with a stumble. A technical failure at an air-traffic facility in Philadelphia halted flights into New York on Monday, and he missed a UN meeting on multilateralism. Ambassador David Lametti spoke in his place, the Canadian Press reports via CP24.
Carney, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Council President António Costa and Kenya’s President William Ruto made their case in the Financial Times on Sunday. “Cooperation is therefore not an act of idealism, it is a practical necessity,” they wrote.
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, was shaken on Sunday evening. Investigators say a man with a shotgun opened fire on a police officer outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, CBC reports. Some 25 people had gathered inside for Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Constable Jeff Smith is in critical but stable condition, and the suspect, Sean Ward, 29, is in life-threatening condition. Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which examines police use of force, is investigating.
Alberta’s Premier, Squeezed From Both Sides
Alberta, the oil-producing western province, is torn, and its premier is squeezed between separatists and federalists. On Monday Premier Danielle Smith rejected a claim by the president of her United Conservative Party, which governs the province, that she had promised neutrality on separation, CBC reports.
“I’m not a neutral party in this,” she said, adding that she believes “we should remain”. She also said: “I guess I have to take responsibility for my communications on that.”
The party president, Rob Smith, wrote on Facebook that members had “expressed disappointment” about the government’s C$4 million (about US$2.85 million) advertising campaign. He said the premier had assured him the separation question would be promoted as neutrally as possible, CBC reports.
The referendum on 19 October puts ten questions to Albertans, the last on whether to stay in Canada or to move towards a binding vote on leaving. Nine concern more room for Alberta on immigration and constitutional matters, CBC reports.
Separatists say no result will end their fight. “We’re never giving up,” Jeff Rath, a lawyer for a group behind an independence petition, told CBC in an interview on Wednesday 16 September, published on 18 September.
The federalists are steadied by the polls, and their campaigners are now fighting complacency. CBC reports that polls suggest a majority want to stay, and Thomas Lukaszuk of the Forever Canadian campaign said: “This is not the time for complacency.”
Quebec Asks For Change, And Leans To The Sovereigntists
Quebec, the French-speaking province, is hungry for change two weeks before it votes on 5 October. In a Léger poll for Le Journal and TVA, Quebecor’s daily and television network, taken from 18 to 21 September among 1,001 voters, 65 per cent want a new party in government.
The Parti Québécois, which favours independence for Quebec, leads on 29 per cent among decided voters, and its leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is gaining on three leadership measures. Only 9 per cent name Premier Christine Fréchette of the governing Coalition Avenir Québec as the leader who best represents change.
A second poll agrees on the leader. Segma Recherche polled 5,572 Quebecers for Radio-Canada, the French-language public broadcaster, from 8 to 17 September, CBC reports. It puts the Parti Québécois on 29 per cent, the Coalition Avenir Québec on 22 per cent and the Quebec Liberal Party on 19 per cent.
Everyday worries still lead the campaign. Léger finds the cost of living and housing the leading issue, cited by 53 per cent, and the right-wing Conservative Party of Quebec the most common second choice, at 17 per cent.
The lead could still soften. Léger says its leader’s personal gains have not yet translated into higher support for the Parti Québécois, which remains stable.
What This Means From Latin America
Brazil is written into Canada’s turn to the world. President Lula co-signed Sunday’s argument for multilateralism with Carney, Costa and Ruto, CP24 reports, which places Brasília beside Ottawa among governments seeking coalitions of the willing.
Trump’s speech claimed the hemisphere as his theatre, and Venezuela as his proof. He hailed the American military operation in January to arrest Nicolás Maduro, then Venezuela’s President, NBC News reports. “To the victor belong the spoils, you’ve all heard that,” he said, CBS News reports. He added that “if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States”.
He also cited what he called the “largest oil deal in history, covering 65 billion barrels of oil” with Venezuela. The claim is his own, and it signals that Washington sees Venezuelan oil as part of its answer to high fuel prices.
Xi’s visit matters to the region’s exporters as much as to Washington. NPR says the two powers are still technically in a trade war, so any truce on tariffs could reshape demand for what South America sells to both.
What We Are Watching
- The press ban in federal court — 23 September. A hearing on the newsrooms’ request for a temporary restraining order is set for Wednesday, CNN reports. It is the first test of the ban before a judge.
- Xi Jinping’s state visit — 23 to 25 September. The First Lady’s office has scheduled the visit for these dates, The Standard reports, and Xi meets Trump at the White House on Thursday, CBS News and NPR report. A trade truce is the practical test.
- The seven-month war with Iran — next week. The war reaches its seven-month mark next week, CBS News reports. Trump told the General Assembly he expects a deal “right after the election”.
- The Quebec general election — 5 October. The Parti Québécois leads on 29 per cent in both Léger and Segma Recherche polls. Two in three voters tell Léger they want a new government.
- The Alberta referendum on its future — 19 October. Ten questions, the last on staying in Canada. The premier and her own party president disagree about how neutral her campaign is.
- The Canada–European Union summit — 29 October. It meets in Montreal, CBC reports. It will show how far Carney’s turn towards Europe has travelled.
- The American midterm elections — 3 November. Registered voters prefer Democrats by 43 to 35 per cent in the Reuters/Ipsos poll. Control of both houses of Congress is at stake.
More from the Rio Times Intelligence Desk on 22 September 2026: Africa · Asia · Europe. For how these stories developed, see the USA & Canada Intelligence Brief for 21 September and 19 September.
North American politics and trade policy and their bearing on this hemisphere run through our pillar coverage of The United States & Canada. That section carries the daily record behind this brief.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Trump say at the United Nations on 22 September?
Trump told the General Assembly that “our future is very, very bright” and presented Iran as a choice between a deal and force. “I have a big decision to make,” he said, asking whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly”. He predicted a deal “right after the election” of 3 November, NBC News reports. The speech lasted roughly 35 minutes, CBS News reports. He also said: “We will only encourage superintelligence.”
Why are CNN, MS NOW and Politico suing the White House, and what happens on 23 September?
Trump announced on Friday 18 September that the three outlets were banned from the White House, and gave “negative stories” as his reason, CNN reports. On Monday 21 September they sued in the federal District Court in Washington, arguing that the ban breaks the First Amendment and the guarantee of due process. A hearing on their request for a temporary restraining order, an emergency order restoring access, is set for Wednesday 23 September. The pool chair, Fox News’s Bryan Boughton, told members in a memo that the TV pool would stop covering the President’s pool events, NPR reports.
How low is Trump’s approval, and how reliable are the new polls?
A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on 20 September puts it at 32 per cent, the lowest of his political career, with 1,277 adults and a margin of error of 3 points. A poll by American Research Group of 16 to 20 September puts it at 29 per cent, Newsweek reports. Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics told Newsweek: “This poll is an outlier, as others are not as bleak for the president, but overall it’s pretty clear that Trump’s numbers are worse now than they were eight years ago.” Newsweek notes that other recent polls have generally shown Trump in the mid-to-high 30s.
What is Alberta voting on on 19 October, and why is its premier under fire?
Albertans answer ten questions, nine on immigration and constitutional matters and the last on whether to stay in Canada or move towards a binding vote on leaving, CBC reports. Premier Danielle Smith says she is “not a neutral party” and wants Alberta to remain. The president of her own United Conservative Party says members are disappointed with the government’s C$4 million (about US$2.85 million) advertising campaign. Separatists say no result will end their fight.
Sources: NBC News, CBS News, CNN, NPR, Reuters, Newsweek, The Japan Times. Then CBC, CP24 and the Canadian Press, Léger, and Segma Recherche for Radio-Canada as reported by CBC. Canadian-dollar amounts are converted at the Bank of Canada rate for 21 September, C$1.4021 to the US dollar. The account of Trump’s speech follows NBC News’s live coverage as updated at 11.20 a.m. and CBS News as updated at 11.28 a.m. New York time; the desk last checked the Takaichi meeting at 15.42 UTC. Reporting window 20–22 September 2026.
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