Philip DeFranco

Germany, UK, & Canada Say Don’t Travel To America #usa #america Germany and the UK have issued travel advisories for the United States and Canadian politicians are now urging Canadians to avoid travel to the United States if at all possible saying that people are being denied their rights through arbitrary detention. This comes after customs deported a French scientist for not liking Trump. It also comes after a German green card holder who has lived here since 2007 was reportedly violently interrogated, stripped naked and put in a cold shower at Boston Logan. His family says they won’t let him go until he forfeits his green card. Two other Germans were also detained in other airports - and one was detained for 6 weeks and placed in solitary confinement. Guys, it gets worse… the incidents are endless. Another incident was when a Canadian woman was detained by ICE for two weeks in a cage because she had an error on her paperwork. She was shackled, thrown in a van, sent to Arizona, kept awake, and not allowed to contract a lawyer. Because the system is so broken, this woman had no recourse to get out of the ICE prisons until her family contacted the media. She says there are hundreds of other women in the prisons and cells she was held in who have been stuck there for months with no way home and the Trump administration won’t give them due process so they’re just stuck there indefinitely. In another incident a British woman who was in the US legally traveled to Canada but - upon entry she was told she needed a different visa and to go back to the US – And when she approached the US border that she just crossed minutes earlier, they classified her as an “illegal alien” and detained her for 10 days. A professional soccer player from Venezuela who coaches youth soccer and was in the US legally was sent to El Salvador’s prisons without due process because ICE allegedly mistook his Real Madrid tattoo for a gang tattoo. This is why having due process is good, it’s why the founders found it so important that they made it the 5th amendment.

Trump Tariffs Worse Than Expected #usa #america Trump has put massive tariffs on every single country in the world. This is the largest sales tax increase in American history. There is a baseline 10% tariff on all goods regardless of country, but some countries have higher tariffs than others. Japan has a 24% tariff. The European Union got a 20% tariff, the UK 10%, Australia 10%, Switzerland 31%. China 34%, Vietnam 46%, India 26%, South Korea 25%, Israel 17%, the list goes on and on. The dollar has now collapsed in value and the stock market has totally tanked and it’s not even open, it’s tanking during after hours trading… So when the market opens tomorrow, it’s going to be a bloodbath. Economists say that trillions of dollars will be wiped from the US economy tomorrow. These are not reciprocal tariffs because Trump is counting VAT taxes as tariffs, and they simply aren’t tariffs. Because in reality, the EU’s tariffs are only slightly higher than the US’s default 2% tariff… so he’s counting the VAT to try to justify this. These tariffs are higher than the Smoot-Hawley tariffs which sent the US deeper into the great depression. And US GDP was already projected to fall by nearly 4% this past quarter, and that was before these tariffs. One expert said - For economists, the tariff spectacle currently coming out of the White House econ team is akin to watching NASA being taken over by astrologers and repurposing the International Space Station to charge magic healing crystals with moonbeams. It’s called Liberation Day because he’s liberating you from your disposable income.

Trump Admin Adds Reporter To Classified Group Chat #usa #america This story is absolutely insane. The Trump administration - and to be clear, we’re not talking staffers - we’re talking JD Vance, Hegseth, Waltz, Rubio, and Ratcliffe. They accidentally added the editor of the Atlantic to a signal group and then actively debated striking the Houthis and then put America’s war plans in the chat. On this text chain, they even revealed the identity of CIA agents and shared classified information on the US military. JD Vance criticized Trump’s foreign policy in the group chat - not on the grounds that isolationism is a mistake but that we’re not isolationist enough. Then Hegseth posted operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing. To which Vance replied “I will say a prayer for victory” and then two other officials added prayer emojis. After the strikes ended, they all hit up the group chat congratulating Pete on a job well done, including Marco Rubio who is apparently a double exclamation point guy. The editor then left the chat, and the White House has confirmed that the text chain is real and that the editor was not added on purpose. Now the Atlantic says that Waltz, the national security advisor, may have violated the Espionage act by doing this. And lawyers for the publication say that officials are not authorized to discuss classified information on Signal and are only supposed to use SCIFs for this. The main reason being - what if their phones were stolen or if they had lost it? What if their phones were hacked? The other crime Waltz may have violated is the federal records act. He set their messages in Signal to disappear after a week. The law calls for text messages about official acts to be considered records that should be preserved. And on top of all that - He added a journalist to a chat with classified information.

US Economy In Free Fall As Europe Considers Going Nuclear Over Tariffs #usa #america The Stock Market is crashing! The day is just beginning and it’s already lost over 2 trillion dollars worth of value. And the value of the dollar is falling too. The odds of a recession are rapidly rising. Bank of America now sees a “high risk” of recession. JPMorgan says that if Trump’s tariffs are sustained, they will push the US in a recession. And the trade war is just beginning. The EU says the door is open for last-ditch negotiations, but that they are readying countermeasures. Germany and France think that the strategy should be to hit the US so hard that Trump has to remove the tariffs. They’re reportedly considering using nuclear options which range from blocking US tech companies from the European market, taxing US banks, and stripping American companies of their intellectual property rights. France says that Trump is acting like he’s the “master of the world” and has urged European companies to halt all investment in the US. The Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that if countries retaliate to these tariffs, the US will escalate. But countries are already retaliating because they’re being hit with tariffs randomly, these are not “reciprocal” tariffs. The tariff rates that Trump presented yesterday are not actual tariff rates - South Korea does not have a 50% on the US, its tariff is 0.79%. The Trump Administration just took what a country’s trade deficit was last year and divided it by their exports - and then called that their tariff rate. But that’s not what a tariff is, that’s a trade balance. America has a trade deficit with basically everyone because Americans are rich and rich people buy things. We make up 30% of all global consumer spending despite being 4% of the population. You have a trade deficit with your grocery store, you buy from them and they don’t buy from you. It’s really not a big deal.

NATO To Politely Ask US To Leave, Japan Defects To China #usa #europe NATO plans to present the US with a plan to replace them in the alliance within the next 5 to 10 years - Meaning NATO is going to bluntly approach the US and say: Are you in or are you out? And if you’re out, here’s a phased approach for you to leave. Canada is also planning to sign a military security and defense contract with the EU, they hope to replace their American military equipment with European instead. The EU plans to entirely remove American weapons from the continent within 5 years due to Mr. Trump’s conduct and affinity for Russia. On the other side of the world, Japan and South Korea agreed to boost cooperation with China. The Japanese Foreign Minister said "The international situation has become increasingly severe, and it is no exaggeration to say that we are at a turning point in history," Japan and South Korea were American ride-or-dies from 1945 to January 19th of this year – but now with tariffs and not being able to trust the United States, they are looking to China. Experts say that this is the kill shot to America as a superpower because who does America even have left at this point? Israel and the Saudis? This could not come at a worse time, especially now that the US space force says that it’s observing China having its satellites practice dogfighting in space. And for the first time ever - JP Morgan has Japan, the EU, and China projected to outperform the US economically for at least the next 10 to 15 years. Some say it’s because Trump and Elon are just one-shotting the US economy with tariffs and destroying the government.

Trump Goes Full Dictator & Rewrites History? #usa #america Trump is now openly using the authoritarian playbook and is now targeting the Smithsonian and the National Zoo for “anti-American ideology”. He signed an executive order that instructed JD Vance to "eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" in the Smithsonian museums and the national zoo. He also ordered the interior secretary to restore statues, memorials, and parks that were changed or removed in the past five years due to “a false revision of history” — which means they are putting confederate statues back up. The order also says that Congress should not fund Smithsonian exhibits that quote “degrade American values” and “divide Americans by race”, and then he singled out the ‘National Museum of African American History and Culture’ as being problematic. Many say it’s hard to see this as anything but an authoritarian attempt to rewrite American history. Historians say that one of the first things authoritarians do is rewrite the history of their country. This is because it helps them control thought. If people believe a certain version of the past, they’re more likely to behave the way the regime wants in the present because once objective history is compromised, the truth itself becomes relative and manipulable. Stalin would remove political rivals from photos to erase them from history. Mussolini rewrote the Italian experience in World War 1 to fuel nationalism. Putin rewrote Russian history to justify the invasion of Ukraine. In 1949, George Orwell wrote this book based on Stalin’s USSR called ”1984” and in it he writes “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” And in 1951, Hannah Arendt warned of the same saying that authoritarian movements thrive on destroying objective truth, confusing people, and manufacturing alternate historical realities. Experts say this is a very critical moment.

America & Europe Break Up, Now Adversaries #usa #europe Is The Age of American dominance is over? With some saying it took 80 years to build, but just a week to tear down. So JD Vance spoke in Munich and he gave this speech that basically said Germany should rethink the consensus around Nazis and then capped it off by saying Americans and Europeans don’t share the same values anymore. And Europe responded to that with “Yeah, you’re right, we don’t share the same values. We don’t recognize America anymore.“ With the German prime minister responding to Vance saying "Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war." Then Vance met with Germany’s new far right party, the AfD, which brought upon even more denunciations. Then European leaders convened yesterday to discuss moving on without the United States. European officials believe that Trump will withdraw troops from the Baltics and potentially all of Europe in a concession to Russia… Some European politicians now say they believe the US is now an adversary. At no time in our history has America been more alone than it is now… even Singapore joined in.. with the Foreign minister saying the US was once a liberator with great moral superiority but now it’s a Willy nilly landlord seeking rent. The US is now also trying to negotiate a peace in Ukraine without Ukraine or Europe, and demanding Ukraine give it 50% of rare earth metals in exchange for nothing. Some Trump aides say that Ukraine needs to pay back the US 500 billion dollars worth of resources, despite the US only ever giving Ukraine a maximum of $110 billion worth of humanitarian and military aid. In fact Trump demands a higher share of Ukraine’s GDP than the reparations imposed on Germany at Versailles Ukraine and Europe say they will accept no deal that Trump negotiates — with many commentators noting that Europe has more arms to give than the US, and with them saying that the war ends when they decide it does not when Trump & Putin do. Europe is expected to announce a heavy investment in their own industry, with Germany hinting at it being nearly a trillion dollar investment. This also means Europe will eventually no longer be buying American weapons… America’s biggest customers have been pushed away & some say that could be the death for American R&D. The US was only able to spend two trillion to develop the F-35 because they had the entire NATO alliance on contract to buy it… weird, strange times ahead.

America Falls Into Full Blown Constitutional Crisis As Trump Challenges Judiciary #usa #america America has entered a flow blown constitutional crisis as Trump challenges the authority of the courts. Over the weekend Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 which is a wartime power that largely allows the President to deport non-citizens without due process. This order doesn’t just target those who are here illegally, it also targets those here legally including people with green cards, permanent residency, tourist visas, student visas, and on and on. The last time this was used was during World War 2 to place people with German, Italian, and especially Japanese ancestry in concentration camps. Even those with US citizenship were placed in these camps. This time, Trump invoked this to deport people who are supposedly associated with a Venezuelan gang to a prison in El Salvador without due process or any recourse. ICE gets to make that determination without any real legal process, meaning it's impossible to be certain any of these people have actually committed any actual crimes. Furthermore the government hasn’t even released their names, or said why it thinks these people are gang members. We do not know who the government just sent to El Salvador, there could have been US citizens that were deported. A judge stepped in immediately to temporarily block Trump from using the law because the US is not in a state of war and there is no precedent for invoking it in peacetime. The only times it has ever been invoked were during the war of 1812, World War 1, and World War 2. When the judge gave the order, deportation flights were already underway so they ordered them to turn around or if they’ve already landed - to return the people back to the United States, – but the White House ignored the order followed through with deporting the accused to El Salvador. The Trump administration says the court has no lawful basis to issue its order so it chose to ignore it, claiming that this is partially because the deportation planes were over international waters at the time. A defense that many say is not valid because US aircraft are subjected to US laws no matter where they are. One critic wrote “if they can grab anyone they want, stick them on a plane, and then say US law and judicial review doesn't exist over international waters then no one in America has ANY Constitutional rights anymore.” So in times like these, it’s important that you know your rights. You have first and second amendment rights. These rights are not afforded to you by the government but by God himself.

Trump Considering Third Term #usa #america Trump is getting closer to becoming a dictator — he says he will not rule out a third term and that he’s not joking. The President is openly talking about subverting the constitution. He said one of the ways of doing this was to have JD Vance run for President with Trump as VP and then JD resign to give Trump the presidency again. He refused to go into detail on the other methods. He says that the people want him to run again. Two weeks ago, Steve Bannon - one of Trump’s top advisors - said that the Trump 2028 campaign is already in the works. Some republicans have called on the people to rally people around Trump. The constitution bans a third term but in the past Trump has called for the suspension of the constitution. Republican house members have proposed a constitutional amendment to give him a third term while banning Obama and Clinton from seeking a third term. They literally don’t have the votes for this but that does not mean he will not try it. Historians say this is a five alarm fire. This is yet another action that’s part of the dictator’s playbook — and this is something you have seen in your own lifetime in Russia and China where they eliminated term limits for their dictators. But this is a new thing in the grand scheme of things. Dictators used to obliterate the democratic system, now they exist with a fake democratic system around them that they’ve hollowed out.

White House Is DENYING They Texted War Plans #usa #america Despite previously confirming it, the White House is now denying that war plans were shared in the group chat or that classified material was shared. They also keep attacking the credibility of Jeffrey Goldberg, and it’s important that you don’t forget this - he was minding his own business until they decided to add him to the airstrikes group chat. And you’re seeing former members of the national security council rebutting the White House saying “this is an obvious lie. They were discussing the names of specific individuals the US military was targeting with air strikes. That is absolutely, 100% guaranteed to have been classified information“. This puts the Atlantic in an interesting spot. They took great care in this story to not publish the shared classified information & to mask the identities of CIA agents. Now with the White House saying “none of it’s classified”, people are saying the Atlantic should call their bluff and just publish it all then with no redactions. Yesterday, Pete Hegseth denied the texts were real even after the White House confirmed they were real. A senior administration official told POLITICO that they are involved in multiple text threads with other administration staffers on what to do with Waltz. With them saying "'Half of them are saying he’s never going to survive or shouldn’t survive'" It’s good to know that they still haven’t learned their lesson. You know what will solve this group chat controversy? More group chats. But Tara Palmeri is reporting that Trump officials are now debating whether to pardon Hegseth even if Waltz takes the fall. Worth pointing out - you don’t need a pardon for sharing unclassified information. Unclassified information is just… information. This is another sign that the White House is lying. Here’s the table at it stands: Waltz added Goldberg to the group chat. Obviously there’s blame there. Waltz also doesn’t have a senate confirmed job meaning he’s easier to replace. Waltz also broke federal records law by having the texts auto-delete. He seems like the obvious fall guy but Trump says that he’s learned his lesson. But on the other side of things, Hegseth did commit a crime or maybe even crimes. He mishandled classified information and then transmitted it on Signal to a reporter. That’s like three crimes at least. Any real investigation into this is likely going to find that he violated the law and as of right now, we haven’t heard a Trump defense of him. One commentator wrote on the situation: An added hilarious detail is that Hegseth and Vance have a specific and deep loathing for Jeff Goldberg. It’s as if Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken had accidentally included Tucker Carlson on their group chat. This is great content, but it’s terrible for the country.

Elon Blows Up US Alliance With Poland & Italy #usa #america America is now falling out with Poland and Italy. And the situation further worsened yesterday when Elon wrote that Ukraine’s front line would collapse if he turned off starlink. To which the Polish Foreign Minister replied that Starlinks for Ukraine are paid for by Poland and if SpaceX proves to be unreliable - we’ll get a new supplier. Then Marco Rubio replied by saying that Poland should say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russians would be on the border with Poland right now. Which many have noted… This “say thank you” thing that the Trump folks are doing is truly bizarre because geopolitical alliances are not personal relationships. But also others have pointed out that Poland paid for it - It’s like the pizza guy yelling at you for not saying thank you, you paid for it! Maybe it’s polite but you paid for it! Then Musk somehow made the situation even worse with him telling the Polish Foreign minister: “Be quiet, small man.” Many experts like Ian Bremmer have questioned the utility of the US government continuing to insult allies. Well Musk’s antics now look like they may have cost him a 1.6 billion dollar deal with Italy. With the Italian parliament now looking to sink the deal after Musk’s tweets and Trump's decision to end military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine as well as his comments on NATO. This fall out has been so grand that Starlink's European competitor Eutelsat’s stock has soared 650% over the past week.

Trump & Vance AMBUSH Zelensky In Huge Oval Office Fight #usa #america

Republicans Try To Name Greenland “Red, White, and Blueland” #usa #america A Republican congressman has introduced a bill that would authorize Trump to acquire Greenland and then rename it to “Red, White, and Blueland”. The bill is called the “red, white, and blueland act of 2025”. With that Congressmen saying “America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland. President Trump has correctly identified the purchase of what is now Greenland as a national security priority, and we will proudly welcome its people to join the freest nation to ever exist when our Negotiator-in-Chief inks this monumental deal.” The reaction has generally been… Are we in hell? This comes after Trump has said that all the Palestinians will have to leave Gaza and go to Egypt or Jordan, and if the countries don’t take them - he’ll cut their aid. Leading to a region wide condemnation. This led to a denouncement from Shane Gillis as well, who said: “He’s nuts. He’s fun to watch if he is not talking about kind of a genocide. If he’s not talking about ethnic cleaning, it’s really fun.”

America Is Begging Europe To Buy Their Weapons Again #usa #europe US officials have objected to Europe’s push to rearm themselves. With Rubio telling European allies that they want them to keep buying American weapons. They also complained that the EU’s military spending project does not include American defense companies. This is entirely a problem of America’s own creation. They turned off aid to Ukraine, they eased pressure on Moscow, they insulted Europe multiple times and told them that we don’t share the same values anymore. They threatened to turn off the UK’s weapons, threatened to withdraw troops, and threatened to invade Canada and Greenland. They weakened NATO’s article 5, they spread a rumor about a kill switch inside of the F-35, and for Trump’s entire political career he complained about Europe buying too many American weapons and not having a defense industry of its own. And now that they’ve gotten what they supposedly wanted, they’re upset that Europe is making its own defense industry and not buying American weapons. Rubio told the Baltic nations that not buying American weapons would be seen as inappropriate. And the State Department said that "Transatlantic defense industrial cooperation makes the Alliance stronger". One official said “what exactly is the foreign policy of Washington?” To give you an idea of the chaos, incompetence, and overall disaster that is happening with America abroad: China has five different backchannels with the Trump Administration and they say that all of them are carrying different messages. Another example is that in December, Trump told Europe - if you buy more American gas, I won’t hit you with tariffs. So Europe bought more gas, and then Trump imposed tariffs anyway.

Trump Says US Will Take Over Gaza Strip & Own It #usa #america Trump says the U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and that we now own it. He also said that Palestinians will have to leave and move somewhere else. He says they’re going to have to go to Jordan & Egypt or somewhere else. Both countries have repeatedly said no. Here’s a direct quote from Trump on what the U.S. will do in it’s newly acquired Gaza - “we’re going to level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job.“ He says he’ll send troops if that’s necessary but that he’s mainly focused on developing it. Trump also said that he sees the United States as the long term owners of the Gaza Strip. He called it the riviera of the middle east. I'm gonna be real with y’all… I have no idea what he means by that we’re taking it over and that we own it. Like functionally I’m hearing it and I’m repeating it back to you, but still… what?

“Our Last Peaceful Summer”: Russia Could Attack NATO As Early As This Fall #usa #europe Russia could attack Lithuania as early as this fall, German experts are warning. They warn that this could be our last peaceful summer. This comes after Russia announced large scale exercises in Belarus, with them amassing over 100,000 soldiers - similar to what we saw before the invasion of Ukraine. The Baltics states are reportedly very concerned that we are seeing a rerun of Ukraine. Yesterday, the Vice President of the EU said that Russia has to lose in Ukraine in order to avoid World War 3. She says that the difference between the start of World War 2 and what’s happening now is that Ukraine is “fighting and standing” And adding: "We want to have peace, but we want to have sustainable peace and peace on Russia's term is not sustainable," This morning former officials from all around the West have given out ways to prevent this from happening. There’s a key paradox at play here - there is no question that Europe can defeat Russia in a war, but the US security guarantee wasn’t about being able to defeat Russia – It was about threatening a violence so grand that Russia wouldn’t dare. Priority #1 is always to avoid war, and while Europe has made huge moves recently - it is going to take Europe time to meet that level of grand violence that keeps the peace. So you have some experts saying that Trump needs to drop the games and reaffirm the NATO alliance even if he wants to leave, just to buy Europe more time.

Trump Blames Ukraine, Backs Putin #usa #europe Wow, Trump just said that Ukraine started the war, called Zelensky a dictator, & said Ukraine doesn’t deserve a seat at the negotiating table. Saying that Ukraine should have traded land to Russia 3 years ago. He added that Russia could destroy Ukraine if it wanted to. Trump then parroted a Russian talking point saying that Ukraine needs to have elections before peace talks can begin — this is a key Russian demand because they hope to install a puppet before negotiations. Trump also falsely claimed that Zelensky has a 4% approval rating, the last poll that was done shows he has a 52% approval rating. And to say this saga from Trump has lit the world on fire would be understating it. Zelensky says that Trump is living in a disinformation bubble. France says it doesn’t understand Trump’s logic. Republican Senator Roger Wicker said “Putin is a war criminal who should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.” Republican Senator John Kennedy also said that Putin should be executed. Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick said Putin should try holding free and fair elections in his own country before demanding Ukraine do so. Former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said that Trump's team allegedly offered Putin Ukrainian territory, no NATO membership for Ukraine, no US soldiers in Ukraine, the withdrawal of US soldiers from Europe, including from frontline states, and sanctions relief. And that in return Russia would give the US nothing. The New York Times reports that Trump views Putin as a compatriot and believes he’s a genius for invading Ukraine. One reporter wrote “Listening to Trump you’d think Ukraine was bombing its own cities and invading its own country.” Across the pond, the secretary of defense for Britain’s conservative party is now swinging at Trump with Secretary Wallace debunking Trump’s lies and calling the White House a spreader of fake news. Boris Johnson also fired at Trump, saying “of course Ukraine didn’t start the war, you might as well say America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor” The leader of the British Liberal Democrats said that Trump is a spokesperson for Putin. But Trump still says he will meet with Putin by the end of the month.

Canada Ends Alliance With America #usa #canada Canada’s Prime Minister says the era of close ties with the US is over and he said that America is no longer a reliable partner. He declared that “the old relationship we had with the US based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over.” This is in response to… oh so much. Of course it’s a response to Trump’s constant yapping about Canada becoming a part of the US. It’s a response to these new tariffs on cars that he says is "permanent" and it’s a response to the 25% tariff on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, in addition to the time he imposed a blanket 25% tariff on Canada. So Canada is looking to Europe to strengthen the trading relationship. And this apparently has Trump very paranoid and nervous because he tweeted last night at 1:50am: “If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!” One commentator responded: Two things here: 1) Trump is clearly an E.U. federalist by recognizing it as a country. 2) I thought that Canada and the other countries were way too reliant on cheating us to do our country any economic harm? I think if Canada could physically sever itself from the US at this point it would and we can see that in air bookings which are now down 70%. In April of last year, 1.2 million Canadians visited America via air travel. This year only 200,000 will be. The situation gets worse as the summer goes on. Tack this on top of international travel to the US cratering… Y’all need to start praying for Florida.

Trump Fires Military Lawyers Who Block Illegal Orders #usa #america Trump fired America’s highest ranking general and the lawyers who determine if military orders are legal or not - and therefore whether or not the military should follow orders. Former Marine pilot Amy McGrath reacted to the news saying “When you start firing the military’s top lawyers, that means you are getting ready to order the military to do unlawful things. Trump replaces those JAGs with men who will justify any future unlawful and unethical actions that he wants the military to do.” Trump has now appointed Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Caine to be the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Trump says he first met Caine in Iraq in 2018 and that he told him “I love you sir, I think you’re great sir. I’ll kill for you sir.” — but what reportedly really sealed the deal to Trump is that he put active duty military in MAGA hats when he arrived in Iraq - in violation of federal law that prohibits the military from wearing political clothing. Some cite this as evidence that Trump has appointed a general who will execute illegal orders for him. It’s important to note though that as of right now - there is no official explanation for these firings & no communication with the public whatsoever about them. JD Vance has defended this move by saying that Truman fired McArthur & that Obama fired McCrystal. But many have noted though that context matters because in the two previous firings, high profile incidents happened before the firing. McCrystal was fired for mocking the President and several other senior staff of the Administration in a Rolling Stone article — So Obama fired McCrystal because quote - “his remarks eroded the trust in the civilian control of the military.” Truman fired MacArthur because he was going rogue. In Truman’s own words he said: “I fired MacArthur because he wouldn’t respect the authority of the president. I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son, although he was.” Comparatively though - There is no scandal with General CQ Brown, and we’re not at war either. Senator Duckworth said that Trump’s moves here are the ”work of a wanna-be dictator.” But others have said - this is a trick play actually - And that the real thing to focus on is that he fired the military’s lawyers who are responsible for blocking illegal orders. We try to be impartial news program here but you should know that this happened on a Friday night because they didn’t want you to know. Presidents, regardless of party, do unpopular things on Friday nights because they want you to miss it — but if you follow to stay in the loop, we can make sure you don’t.

Trump Tariffs UK & Australia #usa #uk Trump has placed tariffs on Australia and the UK. The Australian Prime Minister has been trying to call Trump but he won’t take his call. He says they’ve tried everything including sending a message through the embassy but no luck. The UK says that all options are on the table. But neither country has retaliated yet – for what seems to be two reasons: 1) They believe they can convince Trump to remove the tariffs due to their deep alliance, and 2) they’re trying to send the message that countries that are supposed to be like family don’t do this to each other. Both Australia and the UK have trade surpluses with the US, meaning they buy more American products than America buys from them. Trade deficits have been a chief complaint from Trump which is why they feel so blindsided. In their eyes, they did everything right. The EU and Canada were also tariffed but are taking a different approach. The EU has placed 28 billion dollars worth of tariffs on steel and aluminum, but also textiles, home appliances, food, motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter, and jeans. Their tariffs are aimed at Republican states. Canada has hit the US with 25% tariffs on 20 billion dollars worth of goods like computers, sports equipment and cast iron products. So those are the two approaches that America’s allies are taking. The EU and Canada seem to believe that Trump is like a rabid dog that has to be beaten with a stick. While the UK and Australia are taking a play dead approach.