• Canadians are canceling trips to the US over growing US-Canada tensions.
• US Airbnb host Robert Carlson tells BI a Canadian man canceled his $7,000 Palm Springs reservation.
• It comes as Trudeau told Canadians to reconsider travel to the US after Trump's proposed tariffs.

Last week, Palm Springs Realtor Robert Carlson received a distressing message from a Canadian friend out of the blue. The 65-year-old retiree was returning to Vancouver and canceling all coming US travel for the year.

"I'm having real trouble sleeping here right now. I'm cutting my stay short and am going home to Canada," he wrote in an email to Carlson.

The guest canceled a $7,000 booking at a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom Airbnb property that Carlson manages. Carlson is now worried that the next booking, a Canadian couple, will cancel a five-month $17,000 stay at the same property.

Carlson said that Canadians make up a significant portion of Palm Springs' population in the wintertime. He's right: A study conducted by the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau found that about 300,000 Canadians visited nearby Indio, California, in 2017, spending about $236.5 million. Now, residents of Palm Springs are worried that more cancellations are coming.

"Nobody seems to have any good answers [about] what to do or to say to calm the situation," Carlson told Business Insider on Friday.

Canadians are canceling US trips amid increased tensions

The cancellation comes after outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadian citizens to reconsider travel to the US amid growing tensions between the two countries.

Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has called the 158-year-old nation the "51st State" and proposed several tariffs. This week, he said there would be 50% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, although those are seemingly delayed.

Some Canadians are responding. In February, the number of Canadians driving to the US fell 23% compared to last year, according to Statistics Canada, and was the second consecutive monthly decline.

A slowdown in Canadian visitors could have a major economic impact in the US. The US Travel Association projected last month that a 10% decline in Canadian travel could result in $2.1 billion in lost tourism spending in the US.

'People are fed up'

Canadian couple Gary and Carol Cruise told CNN they've canceled two upcoming vacations to the US. The couple said they traditionally spend $30,000 annually on road trips around the country.

"We are furious and horribly insulted by the lack of respect coming out of the Oval Office," Gary Cruise said.

For now, the couple said they haven't officially canceled plans for a November trip to the US. They hope the once-friendly US-Canada relationship will be repaired by then.

"We love your country. We have seen almost all of your country. This is really horrible," Carol Cruise added.

In Provincetown, Massachusetts, a popular summertime destination in New England, vacation rental owner Kent Newton told The Cape Cod Times one guest has already tried to cancel an upcoming summer stay. Newton eventually had to negotiate a discounted rate with them to keep the booking.

Canadian traveler Joe De Rome told the outlet that his family is canceling their annual trip to Cape Cod for the first time in 30 years. He specifically blamed Trump's barrage of comments about his country.

"People are fed up," he added.

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Schumer sparked Democratic outrage over his position on the GOP-backed continuing resolution.

Ten Senate Democrats joined with the Republican majority in voting to move forward with a stopgap spending bill Friday — clearing the path to avoid a government shutdown.

Why it matters: Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is facing outrage from his party, including House leadership, over his decision to vote for the bill. Many Democrats wanted to force a shutdown to protest President Trump and Elon Musk's sweeping federal spending cuts.

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• The key procedural vote was 62-38. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only Republican who voted "no."
• Schumer did manage to get GOP leadership to agree to hold a vote to ensure that the D.C.'s budget did not suffer a $1 billion cut. The House's bill was written to include the budget reduction, sparking concern.

Zoom in: After days of lengthy caucus meetings and threats of a shutdown, Schumer announced Thursday evening he would be voting "yes" to clear the way for Republicans to pass the spending bill.

• Despite public outrage especially from House progressives, Schumer delivered the needed votes, drawing support from moderates, members of his leadership team and retiring Democrats.
• Democratic Sens. Richard Durbin (Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Gary Peters (Mich.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Brian Schatz (Hawaii) (Nev.) all voted "yes" in addition to Schumer, — as did Maine's Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Cortez Masto told reporters before the vote that a shutdown would give Trump and Musk "more authority to cherry-pick" which agencies to close and "would cost the economy billions of dollars.

• "I'm not going to exacerbate that," she added.

What to watch: The Senate will vote on final passage Friday, after leaders reached an agreement to speed up the process.

• Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) granted votes on three amendments brought by Democrats and one brought by Paul. All are expected to fail.
• "Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took 'guts' and courage!" Trump posted Friday on Truth Social, calling Schumer's decision to back the bill a "really good and smart move."

Zoom out: The bill largely maintains 2024 levels of spending through the end of September, with some additional defense funds and nearly $500 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

• The measure narrowly passed the House earlier this week with all Republicans except Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voting for it and all Democrats except Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) voting against it.
• Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) ability to get the bill through the House — despite his narrow margins and skeptical conservatives — presented Senate Democrats with a tough choice: Join Republicans or risk getting blamed for a government shutdown.

Go deeper: Inside House Dems' furious anti-Schumer movement

• Alexander Simonpour, who has worked at Tesla for several years, has popped up at NASA.
• He's scheduled to attend a meeting next week with other DOGE people on NASA's layoff plans.
• At least four people with Tesla connections have joined the Elon Musk-linked initiative.

A longtime Tesla engineering manager is on the DOGE team at NASA, according to agency records and two people familiar with the matter.

Alexander Simonpour, an employee of the General Services Administration with a NASA email address, is among those expected to attend a meeting between NASA officials and staff from the White House's Department of Government Efficiency initiative next week where "reductions-in-force" may be discussed, according to the people and records reviewed by Business Insider. He lists several roles at Tesla going back to 2015 on his LinkedIn profile.

His name and work with DOGE have not previously been reported.

Other attendees at the meeting include Riley Sennott, a DOGE staffer whose connections to the initiative were revealed because his Google Calendar was public, and Scott Coulter, who has been named in court documents as being involved with the Trump administration's efforts at the Social Security Administration. Coulter has been listed as a "program specialist" at NASA for weeks, according to agency employees.

Simonpour is at least the fourth person with Tesla connections pitching in on DOGE, the Elon Musk-linked White House initiative to shrink the government workforce and quickly slash spending. Sennott appeared to have interviewed at Tesla, BI previously reported, and a Tesla employee, Thomas Shedd, leads GSA's Technology Transformation Services division.

Antonio Gracias, a longtime member of Tesla's board of directors who is close with Musk, has a Social Security Administration email address, according to people familiar with the matter. His presence at the SSA was previously reported by Bloomberg. Jon Koval, who listed himself on LinkedIn as an employee of Gracias's investment firm, Valor Equity Partners, is also involved with DOGE's work at SSA, according to a record seen by Business Insider.

Tesla, NASA, Simonpour, Gracias, Koval, and Coulter didn't respond to emails seeking comment.

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