Just over a week after Bloomberg exposed the rise of “zombie” or “phantom” oil tankers—cargo ships that hijack the identities of scrapped ships to evade U.S. sanctions—another clandestine maritime supply chain has emerged, this time revealing how Iranian crude continues flowing into China despite mounting pressure from the Trump administration. 

Bloomberg reports that a U.S.-sanctioned “zombie” tanker—Gather View, disguised as a scrapped vessel named Global—delivered 2 million barrels of Iranian oil to a government-run port in Shandong despite a provincial ban on sanctioned ships. Ship tracking data showed the zombie tanker’s port call occurred in late April. 

The clandestine maritime supply chain reveals an increasingly desperate Tehran and China’s “teapot” refiners, defying U.S. sanctions and allowing the Iranian oil trade to remain alive. 

In a separate report, Reuters reported that U.S. sanctions on two small Chinese teapots have created difficult operating conditions for those refineries.

President Trump has been seeking “maximum pressure” on Iran by disrupting Tehran’s crude export operations with sanctions over its nuclear program. 

In March, the U.S. sanctioned Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical and Shandong Shengxing Chemical in April.

Beijing has previously rejected unilateral sanctions and defends legitimate trade with Iran. China has become Iran’s largest crude buyer.

“Iran needs to be creative because the pace for them to find new tankers cannot really match the pace of US sanctions,” Muyu Xu, senior crude oil analyst at analytics firm Kpler in Singapore, told Bloomberg, adding, “So that’s why we’re seeing them come up with this tactic.”

Last month, Bloomberg identified zombie tankers hauling Venezuelan crude as these new tactics to operate dark fleet operations become more prevalent with foreign adversaries of the U.S. 

Authored by Paul D. Thacker via The DisInformation Chronicle,

“Jocelyn, you know, I just, I’m really uncomfortable with this conversation because you’re like actually spreading rumors that you don’t know anything about.”

The charge from NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya came during an uncomfortable and confusing interview with Science Magazine reporter Jocelyn Kaiser last week. The DisInformation Chronicle is releasing a recording of the interview and a transcript.

During almost 20 minutes of back and forth, Kaiser pressed Bhattacharya several times to account for canceled grants as well as news accounts of turmoil inside the agency, while Bhattacharya asked Kaiser to clarify and explain exactly what she was asking. Kaiser’s interview then ended up in two Science Magazine articles that falsely implied Bhattacharya misled Kaiser about a new policy on NIH grants.

Confusing, contentious exchange

Skipping about in a rambling, meandering path, much of the Kaiser interview concerned reports of problems that Bhattacharya claimed he had fixed in his first month as director. However, a proposed policy to ensure that subawards to foreign universities were better managed seemed to take center stage.

KAISER: Okay, so since you brought it up, kind of skipping around here, but so as you know, as you may not have seen the story. But we had heard it too, that there’s going to be a policy canceling collaborations, foreign collaborations.

BHATTACHARYA: No, that’s false.

KAISER: Is there going to be some sort of policy that…

BHATTACHARYA: There was a policy, there’s going to be policy on tracking subawards.

KAISER: What does it mean?

BHATTACHARYA: I mean, if you’re going to give a subaward, we should be able—the NIH and the government should be able see where the money’s going.

Later in the interview, Kaiser noted that Nature Magazine ran an article on a proposed NIH policy that reported all foreign grants might end.

“I mean, Nature also is spreading rumors, right?” Bhattacharya responded. “There’s no announced policy about, what did you say, like ‘halt foreign collaborations.’ Not true.”

Based upon unnamed sources but headlined as an “exclusive,” Nature Magazine reported that the NIH was threatening thousands of global health projects by ceasing foreign awards to laboratories and hospitals outside the United States. Further down in the piece, Nature reported that it was unclear from sources whether the policy “would apply to all research funds to non-US institutions or only ‘subawards’, which are NIH funds that a US researcher can give to an international collaborator to help complete a project.”

Confusion over whether the upcoming NIH policy would cover all research funds or just subawards continued throughout Science Magazine’s interview, with Bhattacharya telling Kaiser she would have to wait until the policy is announced. “There’s no intent to cancel the foreign collaborations, it’s just not true,” Bhattacharya said. “That’s just a rumor being spread falsely by Nature. And now apparently, I hope you don’t spread it.”

Shortly after the interview, the NIH published their new policy which only covers subawards. “NIH continues to support direct foreign awards,” the policy reads.

“’This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage,” reported Science Magazine’ headline. Hinting to readers that Bhattacharya lied to Kaiser in his interview, Science Magazine falsely implied that Nature Magazine had reported the upcoming policy would only concern subawards.

Concerns about subaward changes grew earlier this week, with Nature reporting on an apparent draft of the policy on Wednesday, before it was finalized. NIH’s new director, Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, dismissed the report as “rumors” in an interview with Science on Thursday morning, hours before he announced the new policy.

In a post on Bluesky, Science reporter Jon Cohen also implied that Bhattacharya had lied during the interview.

During Kaiser’s interview, Bhattacharya can be heard explaining that changes in subawards were partly spurred by problems encountered with EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit run by Peter Daszak which gave an NIH subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In the last week of the Biden Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) debarred EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak from receiving federal funds, in part because EcoHealth Alliance had been unable to provide records from the Wuhan Institute of Virology “in response to NIH’s multiple safety-related requests.”

“You wrote about the EcoHealth Alliance,” Bhattacharya told Kaiser, in the interview.

“I did, yeah. Straight, I mean,” Kaiser responded.

“It wasn’t all that straight,” Bhattacharya replied.

Unfortunately, Science Magazine lived up to Bhattacharya’s characterization with reporting that wasn’t all that straight about EcoHealth Alliance.

Straight out of Science

Science Magazine’s lead reporter on the new NIH subaward policy is Jon Cohen, a science writer with a rather tattered history of ethics. In 2023, Tablet reported that an anonymous whistleblower emailed Cohen “a grenade of an allegation” claiming that the virologist authors of a prominent paper were not the true authors. Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the “Proximal Origin” paper dismissed the possibility of a Wuhan lab accident and was later promoted promoted by Francis Collins in his March 2020 NIH Director’s Blog and by Anthony Fauci during a televised White House briefing the following month.

Here’s Tablet’s report:

Cohen was handed an opportunity that most journalists can only dream of—a potentially career-making scoop dropped in his inbox by a seemingly knowledgeable anonymous source—and a scoop, it turns out, that was in many ways correct. But he never pursued the story.

Instead, Tablet reported, Cohen forwarded the email to the paper’s lead author, who then forwarded it on to Anthony Fauci.

The purple headline for Science Magazine’s piece “This is insane” is a quote ripped from the mouth of Gerald Keusch, a virologist and an emeritus professor at Boston University, with close ties to EcoHealth Alliance and Peter Daszak.

Due to Daszak’s undisclosed ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs disbanded a Lancet task force investigating the origins of Covid virus in 2021. Specifically, Daszak had not disclosed that several hundred thousand dollars of an EcoHealth Allliance NIH grant had been sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as a subaward. Sachs also discovered that emails showed Daszak had orchestrated a February 2020 statement in the Lancet alleging that it was a “conspiracy theory” to argue that the pandemic could have started from a laboratory leak in Wuhan.

Keusch had signed onto Daszak’s “conspiracy theory” Lancet letter and was a co-investigator on an NIH grant to EcoHealth Alliance when Sachs shut the task force down. HHS suspended the EcoHealth grant with Keusch as co-investigator in March 2024, some months before debarring Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance.

Despite this history, Science Magazine quoted Keusch as an unbiased source, who claimed that “no compelling evidence supports the allegation that the virus leaked from WIV.”

A few minutes on Google finds several reports undermining Keusch’s claim.

In the final months of the Biden administration, the CIA assessed that the COVID virus is “more likely” to have leaked from a Chinese lab than to have come from animals. The current CIA director released the report in January. Both British and German intelligence were reported in March to have concluded back in 2020 that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. And the French National Academy of Medicine released a report last month that found “a body of facts and arguments” support the conclusion that he SARS-CoV-2 pandemic originated from a leak at a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan.

Keusch was also caught in a House report released last year coordinating with the NIH’s David Morens to keep EcoHealth Alliance funded and to hide government records of this collusion. NIH scientists are required produce emails and other records under the Freedom of Information Act.

For example, the New York Times reported:

“I learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d but before the search starts, so i think we are all safe,” Dr. David Morens, a former senior adviser to Dr. Fauci, wrote in February 2021. That email chain included Dr. Gerald Keusch, a scientist and former N.I.H. official, and Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance, a virus-hunting nonprofit group whose work with Chinese scientists has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers.

“Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail,” Dr. Morens added, referring to his personal Gmail account.

In emails released by House investigators, Keusch and Morens also shared ideas to pressure NIH leadership to fund EcoHealth Alliance. This included writing essays and placing stories with writers Jon Cohen and Meredith Wadman at Science Magazine.

“I did try to get Jon Cohen and Meredith Wadman moving on a new article,” Keusch wrote in an April 2021 email to Morens, “but as you know they both declined at this point because it was not news.”

Some months after attempting to place a story in Science with Cohen and Wadman, Keusch emailed Morens that the Washington Post had rejected an essay he had submitted to defend EcoHealth Alliance. However, Keusch wrote, Science Magazine’s Jon Cohen had helped him find a possible home for the essay at Science and suggested that he also try a columnist at the LA Times.

A few days ago, Kaiser published excerpts of her confusing interview with Bhattacharya. In the article, Kaiser again falsely stated that Bhattacharya had dismissed as rumors “Nature news article reporting that NIH planned to suspend subawards for foreign collaborations.” In fact, Nature had speculated the new policy might end all foreign awards.

“Again, the policy is in process,” Bhattacharya said during the interview with Kaiser. “But the aim of the policy ultimately is so that we can track subawards.”

Click here and scroll down listen to the leaked interview plus transcript…

Vice President J.D Vance has weighed in on the escalating fighting breaking out between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India over the last several days. He said in Thursday comments that a full-scare war would be “disastrous” but cautioned that the United States would not get involved. 

“Look, we’re concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict,” Vance told Fox News’s Martha MacCallum in a segment. “What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit.”

That’s when he emphasized that the South Asian conflict is “none of our business” and that Washington acknowledges its inability to control outcomes in the restive region.

“But we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,” he asserted.

But he did admit the danger of nuclear confrontation if it were to spin out of control:

“Our hope and our expectation is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict,” Vance told MacCallum. “Sure, we’re worried about these things, but I think the job of diplomacy — but also the job of cooler heads in India and Pakistan — is to make sure this doesn’t become a nuclear war.”

Interestingly, Vance had actually been visiting India last month when the Kashmir massacre unfolded, involving militants from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LOC) killing 26 mostly Indian tourists on April 22.

As for President Trump, he had soon after the killings stated that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ” and the incredible people of India, have our full support and deepest sympathies.” He said “Our hearts are with you all!”

But despite calls for de-escalation, the fight has been growing over the last 24 hours, with hundreds of drones being exchanged, and anti-aircraft fire active – and more crucially reports of major fighter jet engagements.

Of regional diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation, The NY Times writes Friday that “Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are sending their diplomats to try to de-escalate the conflict between India and Pakistan at a moment of particular global disarray.”

The city of Jammu, on the Indian side, has been under two straight nights of Pakistani artillery fire – but some reports said this ceased at some point early Friday. Heavy artillery fire has been intermittent. 

Currently, each side’s leadership is seeking to prove a ‘tough’ response to their respective domestic populations:

Some Pakistani analysts say they believe that there is still a small window for de-escalation despite the wider fighting over the past day. Farhan Hanif Siddiqi, a professor of international relations at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, suggested that with both Indian and Pakistani leaders publicly proclaiming victory, there was still a chance to save face and back off. “The sooner they do it, the better it is for regional stability,” he said.

Some cities especially on the Indian side in Jammu and Kashmir have been plunged into darkness and even the capital New Delhi is under ‘high alert’ – and military imposed restrictions are evidence through parts of the country especially in the west.

Even US officials are now confirming that Indian jets were downed by Pakistan (https://t.co/I223JcJjpB)

So at this stage it’s been confirmed by:
– 4 local Indian government officials (https://t.co/LQ6puYDlBj)
– A high-ranking French intelligence official… pic.twitter.com/RX5Zxr3B0c

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 9, 2025

Islamabad is currently saying ‘no de-escalation’ and score-settling has continued. Pakistani officials have claimed the army shot down up to five Indian jets. But verification of all the claims and counter-claims have been hard to verify and a thick fog of war remains over the remote border region where fighting is at its most intense. 

The Trump administration’s commitment to non-involvement on a military scale is encouraging, however, given the number of hot spots where America is currently deeply involved (on a weapons and intelligence support level) – especially Ukraine and Israel/Gaza. Can a fourth all-out war over Kashmir be avoided? 

Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have launched a joint initiative to build a secure, real-world data platform aimed at uncovering the root causes of autism spectrum disorder, the agencies announced on May 7.

In a statement, NIH and CMS said the partnership will allow researchers to combine Medicare and Medicaid claims data with electronic medical records and consumer wearable information. The pilot phase will focus on individuals diagnosed with autism, with a longer-term goal of supporting broader research into chronic conditions.

“We’re using this partnership to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “We’re pulling back the curtain—with full transparency and accountability—to deliver the honest answers families have waited far too long to hear.”

The NIH defines autism spectrum disorder as “a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn, and behave.”

Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, NIH says it’s “described as a ‘developmental disorder’ because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life. ”

The initiative marks the first time that NIH and CMS will link this type of data across systems, with the agencies citing the need for secure, privacy-compliant access to real-world health information. The agencies said the project will begin with a data use agreement under CMS’s Research Data Disclosure Program and focus on Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries with an autism diagnosis.

The announcement follows earlier public confusion after NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya described the initiative as an autism “registry,” prompting concern from advocacy groups. HHS later clarified that he was referring to the same data platform announced this week, emphasizing that it will link existing research datasets, not create a new registry or track individuals.

As part of the pilot, CMS and NIH teams will establish a technical mechanism for timely and secure data sharing. This will help establish a broader NIH platform to study health care use, chronic disease patterns, and the financial burden of illness, the agencies said.

“This partnership is an important step in our commitment to unlocking the power of real-world data to inform public health decisions and improve lives,” Bhattacharya said in the statement.

“Linking CMS claims data with a secure real-world NIH data platform, fully compliant with privacy and security laws, will unlock landmark research into the complex factors that drive autism and chronic disease—ultimately delivering superior health outcomes to the Americans we serve.”

Research priorities include autism diagnosis trends, outcomes from medical and behavioral interventions, disparities in care access by demographic or geography, and the financial toll on families and health systems, the agencies said.

More than one in 31 children in the United States has been diagnosed with autism, according to the agencies, with more than a quarter of those individuals experiencing profound or severe forms.

“This joint effort aligns with our shared goal of fostering innovation to improve Americans’ lives while safeguarding patient privacy,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said in the statement.

Acting swiftly in the wake of his Tuesday Supreme Court victory, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is giving transgender service members until June 6th to “self-identify” and leave the service on their own, before facing a subsequent campaign to root them out and kick them out. 

“On conclusion of the self-identification eligibility window, the Military Departments will initiate involuntary separation processes,” Hegseth wrote in a memorandum. The Pentagon will immediately begin processing discharges of upwards of 1,000 openly-identifying trans service members. To root out another 3,000 or so — or far more, if you believe activists — the DOD will start scouring medical records looking for diagnoses or symptoms of gender dysphoria, or telltale medical prescriptions, the Associated Press reports. Active duty troops have a deadline of June 6 — the 81st anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France — to come forward and leave voluntarily. National Guard and reservists have until July 7.   

“It is just shameful,” Jennifer Levi, a senior director at the pro-LGBTQ legal group GLAD Law, told Reuters. “It is senseless to fast-track people out of the military who are meeting standards and putting lives on the line to defend the country.”

In a previous memo, the DOD asserted that “the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service.” Between 2015 and 2014, the Pentagon spent $52 million on psychotherapy, hormone therapy and surgeries for trans service members, a Defense Department official told AP. 

After Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling, Hegseth reiterated his resolve to restore traditional military values and focus: 

“We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that shit. We’re focused on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.”

.@SecDef is on pure FIRE!

“We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates, no more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that shit.”

🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/fHZC1a6FwQ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 6, 2025

Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling wasn’t the final word on the legality of excluding trans people from military service. The justices merely granted a stay of a lower court-imposed injunction against involuntarily discharging trans service members, while ongoing litigation continues. Brought by seven transgenders, the case that sparked that injunction is one of two major suits in progress. The other one also yielded a preliminary injunction against enforcing Trump’s trans policy, but the appeals court for the DC circuit already put that one on hold.  

The campaign to cleanse the ranks of trans service members comes alongside declining public enthusiasm about their presence there. In a 2019 Gallup survey, 71% of Americans supported having trans people in the armed forces. By February of this year, only 58% said trans people belong in the military. Gallup gave no insights into the decline, but we’re sure all the social-media-shared photos of lipstick-adorned dudes in uniforms played some part.  

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

Back in 2016 I predicted a resounding win for Donald Trump in his election campaign against Hillary Clinton despite a chorus of voices telling me I was crazy. The argument from skeptics was that the establishment would never allow Trump into office. My position on the event was relatively straightforward – The conservative populist movement was far too strong to deny and the globalists might not see a Trump White House as a total loss if they could control it from behind the scenes, or sabotage it with a national crisis.

By 2020, Trump was in the midst of the astroturf BLM riots and a fabricated pandemic crisis over a virus with a 99.8% survival rate. By November, the election was effectively rigged in favor of Joe Biden. It’s not just the shady mail in ballot voters (millions of them magically disappeared by the 2024 election), it was also the establishment media’s censorship of vital news stories that could have turned public opinion against Democrats along with social media censorship of conservative dissent. All of these factors together gave Biden a win.

However, there was also a number of bad decisions that might have helped to remove Trump’s edge in the elections and blunt conservative enthusiasm. I was highly critical of Trump’s first term, as many commentators were, mainly because of the DC “swamp creatures” flooding into his cabinet.

To be fair to Trump, he walked right into a den of vipers and parasites. He was surrounded by people who were intent on controlling his policies and sabotaging his second term prospects. There are thousands of cabinet positions to be considered and Trump trusted the wrong people to fill them.

His second term and his dramatic reboot of the federal government has been nothing short of epic. I have far less to criticize this time around. Though, there are still some serious problems to address.

First, I want to go over Trump’s first quarter in office and examine his greatest wins to this point. Some people might not see certain items in this list as “wins” – I really don’t care. Like they say, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

Win #1: Complete Shutdown Of Illegal Immigration

This is an undeniable win. I can’t tell you how many times I heard naysayers argue that Trump would “never get the border under control and never commit to deportations”. These people were wrong (again).

Only a month after Trump’s arrival nearly all illegal border crossings stopped. The Border Patrol, which was dealing with 50,000 to over 300,000 southern border encounters per month under the Biden Admin, is now living the easy life with a minimal 8000 encounters per month. This is the lowest border traffic in the recorded history of the agency.

Median encounters have dropped 95% since Trump took office. This is unheard of. It’s a success that no critic can take away, which is why the media barely mentions it.

The collapse in border crossings proves that the vast majority of people trying to sneak into the US were NOT coming here because they were escaping tyranny or crime. If they were, then those people would still be lining up at border checkpoints begging to get in. In reality, border cities on the Mexico side, once flush with migrants ready to slip into the US, are now ghost towns. There was no humanitarian crisis; it was a fraud perpetrated by Democrats, NGOs and the UN.  Migrants were rushing into the US to get cash and welfare handouts, that is all.

Win #2: DOGE Closes USAID And Other Saboteur Agencies

Elon Musk’s DOGE has had mixed results, but getting rid of decades of corruption and waste is not going to happen in mere months. That said, the DOGE closure of agencies like USAID is an excellent start.

USAID’s slimy tentacles were tied closely to leftist NGOs and their agenda seems to have been the spread of the woke virus into every aspect of social cohesion. They were manipulating culture not just in the US but around the world. All they had to do was offer juicy subsidies to leftist activists and shut out conservative based programs.

I have noticed a distinct change in the woke movement – A kind of death rattle. Suddenly, a lot of these activist groups have gone quiet. Their protests are smaller. Their momentum is frozen. Many corporations have abandoned woke messaging. There has even been an observable decline in online troll activity. Our favorite anonymous lefty stalkers have vanished from the face of the Earth (I almost miss them).

Win #3: Tariff Campaign

It might be too early to make a call on this, but there has been positive movement on the trade front because of Trump’s tariffs. The UK has capitulated and accepted 10% tariffs while cutting their taxes on US goods to around 1%. American products will flow freely across the Atlantic.

China has admitted it’s entering into negotiations, probably because the communist country is currently on the verge of deflationary collapse.  Multiple governments are working with the White House to come to an arrangement. Several international companies are moving manufacturing to US soil.

If Trump can actually shift enough manufacturing to the US, then this will mean greater production capacity, which means higher supply and lower prices. It means a higher number of middle income jobs and better wages. Finally, Trump’s efforts to eliminate the income tax and replace it with tariff revenues would be the ultimate success, as it would free the public from IRS and central bank slavery.

Win #4: Removal Of LGBT/DEI Propaganda From Schools And Federal Institutions

Trump’s threats to cut off federal funds to woke schools is having a far reaching effect. Woke teachers are taking to social media to cry and whine and post videos tearing down trans flags and BLM posters from classroom walls. How this groomer ideology was ever allowed to infect the educational system and target our children is a conundrum that will be studied for generations.

Mentally ill trans activists are being booted from the military under the direction of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. These are people that only entered service to get taxpayer funded gender reassignment hormones and surgeries. They made a mockery of the armed forces and made America look exceedingly weak. Good riddance.

Now we need to get to the fails, and though there will be some debate on these issues I think most conservatives agree that these are areas where Trump needs to improve. I’ll also point out that Trump is highly changeable and these situations can flip overnight.

Win #5:  Freedom For January 6th Prisoners

Everyone said this wasn’t going to happen, but it did.  The Democrat narratives surrounding January 6th were egregiously dishonest and politically motivated.  Capitol police are caught on video launching tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd of peaceful protesters; the feds knowingly triggered the riots that followed.  The media then rewrote history and labeled the riot as an “insurrection” designed to interfere with Joe Biden taking office.

While some people did damage property and others took souvenirs, the prison sentences they received were absurd in light of their minor crimes.  They were being made into examples and justice was not blind or fair.  Trump was absolutely correct in pardoning and releasing them all.

Fail #1: Exposure Of Biden Admin’s Economic Manipulation

Trump has not done a very good job warning the public about the Biden Admin’s manipulation of economic data. The Democrats spent two years denying that stagflation was a threat, then spent two years claiming inflation was declining (it wasn’t). They claimed jobs and GDP were rising (jobs for American citizens were stagnant and GDP was manipulated upward by increased government spending). They said the financial system is as “strong as it has ever been”.

Because most Americans are not aware of these rigged numbers, they will inevitably blame Trump as the true data comes out and the stats go into decline. Trump needs an economic representative or “czar” that gives the public detailed analysis on how the Democrats used disinformation to hide recession signals. There needs to be regular updates on what is being done to repair the situation. The populace needs to see more proactive movement on the economy or there will be a crisis and everything will be blamed on Trump and conservatives.

Fail #2: The Epstein Files Release

What a PR disaster. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been leading the public around in circles for months, claiming that the Epstein client list would soon be made available. She has released fragments of info but nothing new of consequence. She now says that her office is sifting through thousands of hours of video evidence, much of it involving the sexual assault of minors.

Look, the public doesn’t want to see that stuff. All we want is a concise list of who engaged with Epstein and his “services”. These people need to be called out and brought to justice NOW. If they are in government they need to be removed ASAP. There is no room for pedos in American leadership anymore.

I can understand certain obstacles, such as keeping victims protected. An outright dump of info would be reckless, not to mention illegal. That said, the feds have had years to go over this evidence. I suspect that the White House is stalling because the client list could destroy a large portion of the government. The number of leaders exposed must be extensive enough that a release of the list would cripple the system. It’s the only explanation that makes sense for why they continue to keep the American people waiting.

Fail #3: Foreign Aid To Israel

I’ve made my position on the war in Gaza consistently clear – I don’t care about either side, I care about America. Let them vaporize each other, as long as we aren’t subsidizing the vaporizing. It’s ancient tribal insanity. If we’re going to go back thousands of years to determine who should control the Levant region, well, that right goes to Christians in my view. It was controlled by Christians for centuries until the Islamic hordes overran it in 634 AD.

Trump shut down foreign aid to hundreds of countries, but he still kept tens-of-billions in annual aid to Israel in place. I get that his father was fond of Israel and that the evangelical base wants to keep Israel out of Muslim hands. I get that many conservatives see Israel as the only foothold western civilization has in the Middle East. I understand the defensiveness when it comes to Israel as a symbol.

However, there also needs to be consistency of principles and Israel does not need our money. If we’re going to cut foreign subsidies and pursue America-first policies, then we need to cut off some of the largest panhandlers. We can maintain relations with Israel without allowing them to drain our pockets.

Let the war play out without us paying for it. It’s not our concern.

Fail #4: Continued Military Aid To Ukraine

As with Israel, the conflict in Ukraine does not concern the American people. It may be that Trump wants to keep the EU from inserting itself into the quagmire and sparking off WWIII. Perhaps if the US backs out completely then this would leave a vacuum that the European elites are more than happy to fill. Of course, the EU has no capacity whatsoever to fight the Russians, they only have the ability to set off a regional nuclear event by sticking their noses into other people’s business.

At bottom, a freeze on US military aid is more likely to force Ukraine to settle on a practical peace agreement. The Russians have consistently stated they want a return to diplomacy, but they have also said they won’t be giving up the lands in the Donbas or Crimea. In his delusion, Zelensky has demanded that these lands be returned before any talks are organized. To the credit of Trump and JD Vance, they called the little man out on his fantasy publicly.

I’m doubtful that Ukraine or Europe will allow a true peace accord. I suspect they will drag the situation on for months while pretending they want to negotiate. Trump needs to end military aid once and for all and if Ukraine wants to trade minerals they can do so in exchange for humanitarian aid and infrastructure rebuilding. America has no business being involved in such a war.

Fail #5: Real ID And Biometric Tracking Of US Citizens

The Real ID program is another ugly remnant of the Bush and Obama era. It is essentially a requirement for mandatory biometric tracking of anyone traveling by air. The reason you can use a US Passport as a substitute for the ID is because passports already have biometrics in place on traveler photos.

There is truly no practical need for Real ID, it only serves to intrude on the privacy of US citizens. It’s not going to prevent terror attacks. It’s not going to speed up airport processing. TSA will still be a thing. With mass biometrics they might as well put a lo-jack on every traveler (with cell phones they’ve basically already done that, too).

The Real ID was in development long before Trump’s rise to the White House. DHS claims they will not have access to the files (I don’t buy that for a second) and that this is a “state based program”. They went through the states because that makes it more difficult for any single administration to shut the program down. Trump still has power over the DHS. He can also encourage states to remove REAL ID as a requirement.

Biometric tracking of the population is an Orwellian nightmare waiting to happen. Maybe not under Trump, but under another government this will undoubtedly become a threat to people’s freedoms.  The feds do not need to know where we are and what we are doing all the time.

Overall, I would weigh Trump’s presidency as exceedingly positive, especially compared to the grotesque degeneracy and autocracy we faced under the Democrats. If Trump can take a hard stance against Patriot Act era violations of the constitution, if he can better communicate his economic vision and keep America out of foreign entanglements that could lead to global hellfire, then he might end up as one of the greatest presidents in modern history.

*  *  *

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The days leading up to Russia’s Friday Victory Day celebrations witnessed record levels of drone attacks from Ukraine, but Friday observances, which has included dozens of world leaders on hand for the customary a massive military parade through Red Square – went off without a hitch. Chinese and North Korean military delegations and officials were also present.

Ukraine appears to be respecting President Putin’s unilaterally declared three-day truce in honor of the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2, and this is seen in the fact that there have been no reports of inbound drones threatening Moscow.

A total of 29 foreign leaders attended the celebrations, despite the last 48 hours of intermittent airport delays and flight pauses due to prior drone threats. The leaders of China, Brazil, Egypt, Slovakia, Serbia, and Uzbekistan have taken part with discussions led by Putin – and joint statements with Xi has been a particular focus.

Also, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in Moscow for his first visit in 15 years. He has offered Russia wide-ranging cooperation on nuclear energy, defense and space, the Kremlin confirmed Friday.

“In addition, the countries are currently actively working to launch joint projects in the fields of AI, medicine, industry, and mining,” a Kremlin statement said. Lula told Putin, “My visit today is aimed at strengthening the building of our strategic partnership.”

Chinese and North Korean military delegations were part of Friday’s events – which is somewhat unprecedented in terms of numbers and visibility. Putin also met with North Korean officers:

The new world:

China’s🇨🇳 Honour Guard of the People’s Liberation Army marches on Red Square for Russia’s🇷🇺 Victory Day Parade

US-UK-EU media channels and textbooks won’t tell you that China lost 20 million people in the fight against Imperial Japan https://t.co/qlxwpoAwWi pic.twitter.com/Cf9O2fvKfm

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) May 9, 2025

“We’re interested in discussing military, space, scientific, economic, educational and above all energy,” Lula added.

Watch: compilation of key moments from Victory Day events on Friday, via RT:

Best moments from the Victory Day parade in Moscow.

I was honored to witness the parade in person today, but for those watching from abroad, hope this footage makes you feel a fraction of the emotions that pass through the heart of every Russian on May 9.

Happy Victory Day! pic.twitter.com/0jWFov7FhM

— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) May 9, 2025

One news source which focuses on Russia and is based in Amsterdam detailed that Russia implemented tight security controls for the civic holiday nationwide, but affirmed no major security events or disruptions:

Beyond the main event on Red Square, capitals of Russia’s regions and ethnic republics — and even small villages — held military parades and air shows, while civilians marched in Immortal Regiment processions for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Commemorations were held amid heightened security measures over fears of possible sabotage attacks. Mobile internet shutdowns were recorded in at least 31 Russian regions since Thursday evening, and spectators had to pass through metal detectors and undergo thorough searches to access closed-off celebration areas. 

Though no major security incidents were reported Friday, the fighting in Ukraine still loomed over the day’s events, even as far away from the front lines as Siberia and the Far East.    

So there has not been a full ceasefire along the front lines, and yet Kiev refrained from sending drones or missiles across the border.

Happy Victory Day!

The legacy of our fathers and grandfathers lives on in our hearts.

We remember that if the enemy refuses to surrender, it must be destroyed. pic.twitter.com/KfPQEx1MsO

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) May 9, 2025

Commemoration events took place in every region of Russia, and across Siberia and the East. For example, the republic of Sakha, Aysen Nikolaev, declared while overseeing victory parades…

“[Today] the fight against fascism has united all Russians around our national leader, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Eleven of the bravest sons of Yakutia were awarded the title of Hero of Russia and thousands were awarded [other] high state awards [for serving in Ukraine],” said Nikolaev. 

President Trump earlier said that these small windows of ceasefire were promising, and he wants Putin to sign on to a fuller 30-day ceasefire, while also dangling the possibility of reducing or removing anti-Russian sanctions.

Five months after Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) effectively “Bud Light’d” itself with a woke social media campaign, the British automaker is reportedly severing ties with its ad agency, according to British media. 

But why now—half a year later? The backlash over its controversial woke rebranding occurred last fall, yet the company’s pronoun-wielding executive publicly defended the cringe ad at the time.

The Telegraph first reported that JLR was severing ties with its ad agency, Accenture Song, after the marketing disaster on November 19.

Copy nothing. #Jaguar pic.twitter.com/BfVhc3l09B

— Jaguar (@Jaguar) November 19, 2024

Elon Musk asked JLR: “Do you sell cars?” 

Do you sell cars?

— gorklon rust (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024

In 2021, Accenture Song joined forces with Spark44, JLR’s client-agency joint venture, to create a new marketing approach for JLR’s shift to an electric-first, modern luxury business.

But JLR’s marketing blunder was merely a repeat of Bud Light’s trans activism and a lesson for corporations not to stack their teams with woke activists.

Much like Bud Light’s disastrous foray into identity politics, JLR fell into the same woke trap. Now, the brand is paying the price as a multi-year sales decline deepens.

Days after the ad was launched and backlash erupted, Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover said the ad’s “intended message” had been lost in “a blaze of intolerance” on social media platforms and rejected the notion that the video was woke.

“If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,” Glover stated. On LinkedIn, the executive still promotes his pronouns…

Unlike JLR, Volvo’s ad team read the room. Sensing the Overton Window had shifted away from far-left wokeism toward themes of family, tradition, and stability—they released this…

Volvo posted a 3 min and 46 second ad on Instagram, shot by Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer of Interstellar and Oppenheimer.

It goes against every single rule you can think about as a social lead. Length. Format. Over-produced.

Every comment under the ad said it… pic.twitter.com/wkmghuP4ye

— Guillaume Huin (@HuinGuillaume) November 21, 2024

Revisiting the earlier question: Why did JLR wait six months to start searching for a new ad agency?

Was it due to slumping sales, or perhaps pressure related to tariffs? We may never get the full story—but what’s clear is this: woke marketing is dead. Companies view the purple-haired college graduate as an increasing liability rather than an asset. 

Why does Aston Martin get it?

. . . 

Friday has seen the border conflict between India and Pakistan escalate once again, with The New York Times describing that it has escalated to the most expansive military clashes in decades. Entire large expanses of border zones are swarming with drones overhead – a first in the history of the long-running rivalry. 

“There were reports of nonstop barrages along the border overnight into Friday, as well as reports of attacks by Pakistan into the Indian city of Jammu, a part of Kashmir,” the Times report says, citing that drone attacks have been exchanged along India’s entire western border.

Pakistan has rejected Indian Army claims that all drone attacks into India have been intercepted. There’s been days of a ‘fog of war’ environment in which it’s been impossible for outside media to verify each claim and counter-claim.

NYT further observes:

India’s defense officials said Pakistan’s military had attempted aerial intrusions in 36 locations with “300 to 400” drones to test India’s air defense system. The officials said they had identified the drones as made in Turkey.

And more troop losses have been reported, after Pakistan claimed up to 50 Indian droops had died in the last day of fighting. Indian defense officials said their forces had suffered “some losses and injuries” last night, a Times  correspondent says Friday.

According to more, “Artillery in the disputed region of Kashmir has been ferocious, and dozens of civilians have been reported killed on both sides of the boundary.”

But despite several historic wars between the nuclear-armed rivals, what makes this week ‘new’ and unprecedented is the use of drones and loitering munitions, or ‘suicide’ UAVs. 

#BREAKING

The #Pakistan Air Force releases voice recordings of secured communications obtained through Pakistani electronic warfare platforms, between #Rafale pilots of #India’s Air Force where they report one of their formation members exploding in the air: pic.twitter.com/WY2XOQVpig

— The STRATCOM Bureau (@OSPSF) May 9, 2025

“Still, the escalation is not visible in the death toll” – in towns and villages along the Line of Control (LOC), NYT continues. “Relatively few people have been reported killed by those weapons since the first night of India’s offensive.”

The ongoing blackout in Indian-administered Kashmir has been accompanied by the constant sounds of shelling and overhead drones. “I’m at my workplace and can see red light and explosions in the sky,” one local eyewitness told Al Jazeera.

Blackout in Jammu and Kashmir’s Katra:

WATCH | #Blackout in Jammu and Kashmir’s #Katra pic.twitter.com/4AkizlCNgX

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 9, 2025

Al Jazeera’s latest reporting also strongly suggests rapid escalation, including alleged militants seeking to cross into India from Pakistani areas:

We’re also getting reports of a blackout in Jammu.

There have been fast-moving developments overnight, including India saying it has taken down several Pakistani drones and missiles and also stopped armed men trying to cross into the Indian side.

There have also been a lot of security developments in many cities, including the Indian capital, New Delhi, which is on high alert.

Wild scenes from Punjab, Pakistan. Bro pulled up on CD-70 & shot down an Indian drone with a gun. pic.twitter.com/YkiiuNGMLr

— OSINT Insider (@OSINT_Insider) May 9, 2025

And CNN in a fresh update reports, “We can hear sirens and there is complete blackout. … We can hear the blasts intermittently for about 20 to 30 minutes now; my family and I are hunkered down at home.”

Three weeks ago, when we first reported that as a result of the ongoing Trump trade war with China, “chinese factories are shutting down, laying off workers“, we said that as a result of this war of attrition in which the outcome of every incremental clash and battle will be used just as aggressively for media propaganda, “the fact that any marginal pain will be amplified as trade war weakness will mean that Beijing will do everything in its power to prevent the full extent of the shutdowns from being revealed.”

Sure enough, last week the WSJ reported that whereas “not long ago, anyone could comb through a wide range of official data from China… then it started to disappear.” 

We detailed the unprecedented disappearance of Chinese “data”, fake as it traditionally may have been, earlier this week. But while we had our theories why China quietly vaporized hundreds of data sets – naturally one wouldn’t be deleting the data if it was good, or could at least be massaged in a credible way – it was not until today when a Reuters report confirmed what we said from day one, namely that in the long run China’s economy has more to lose than the US, where the hit would be faster but would focus primarily on the market, and once the initial selloff shock wears off leverage would swing to benefit the White House.

And just as we supposed, Beijing’s unprecedented propaganda campaign, it was the cracks in the economy that forced Xi to the negotiating. According to the Reuters report, “since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on China last month, Beijing had responded in kind. On state and social media, it posted images of Mao Zedong, lambasted “imperialists,” and sent a message: capitulation to bullies is dangerous, and it wouldn’t back down.”

But behind closed doors, China was quietly preparing to do just that, and Reuters reports that according three sources, officials had grown “increasingly alarmed about tariffs’ impact on the economy and the risk of isolation as China’s trading partners have started negotiating deals with Washington.”

China’s reasons for deciding to negotiate, Washington’s letter on fentanyl, U.S. diplomatic challenges in Beijing, and the early outreach between the two sides are reported by Reuters for the first time, based on interviews with nearly a dozen government officials and experts on both sides.

As usual, China’s diplomatic efforts had two faces, one for popular domestic consumption, and one for private engagement with the adversary, in this case the US. 

Sure enough, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement to Reuters that it reiterated that “China’s firm opposition to the U.S. abuse of tariffs is consistent and clear, and there is no change.”  It added that “the U.S. has ignored China’s goodwill and unreasonably imposed tariffs on China under the pretext of fentanyl. This is a typical act of bullying, which seriously undermines dialogue and cooperation between the two sides in the field of drug control.”

In retrospect, the pretext may have been “fentanyl” but as we learn in a follow up report today from the WSJ, it was anything but a facade: according to the Journal, Xi Jinping is sending his top public-security aide to Switzerland as part of Beijing’s trade talks with Washington, signaling the importance of the fentanyl issue to bilateral relations.

So no, the US had not “ignored China’s goodwill”, and judging by Xi’s response, clearly the issue of fentanyl is a very serious one, and more importantly, one which will allow Trump to score a quick and easy victory over the weekend, one which will further demonstrate the Trump admin’s growing leverage in the ongoing negotiations.

But back to the Reuters report, according to which China’s Vice Foreign Minister Hua Chunying said on Friday that China has full confidence in its ability to manage U.S. trade issues, adding that “the Trump administration’s approach cannot be sustained.” Once again, however, we learn that it was China’s approach which was far more unsustainable.

The trade war between the world’s two largest economies, combined with Trump’s decision last month to impose duties on dozens of other countries, has disrupted supply chains, unsettled financial markets and stoked fears of a sharp downturn in global growth.

After Trump’s tariff salvo last month, China took a hard line in its public messaging. Beijing posted footage on its official social media feeds of a Chinese MiG-15 fighter shooting down a U.S. jet in the Korean War, with commentary: “China won’t kneel down, because we know standing up for ourselves keeps the possibility of cooperation alive, while compromise snuffs it out.” The tone began to shift on April 30, when a state media-affiliated blog said the U.S. had “proactively reached out to China through multiple channels, hoping to discuss tariffs”, commentary which according to the White House was a lie. Meanwhile, China was adamantly denying that there were any discussions taking place about trade talks, which was also a lie as just a day later we learned that discussions were in fact taking place ahead of this weekend’s trade talks.

CSIS’s Kennedy said contacts between Chinese agencies, Beijing’s embassy in Washington and the Trump administration had been increasing in frequency in recent weeks. Some in-person interactions took place at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in late April, including with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, which paved the way for the Swiss meeting, said Kennedy, confirming what we reported two weeks ago ( see “Chinese Delegation Spotted Entering Treasury Department, Demands Photos Be Deleted: Report“.)

More importantly, we also learn today that it was China that first reached out, more than a month ago.

After Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, Reuters reports that Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao quietly reached out to his U.S. counterpart, Howard Lutnick, but was rebuffed as not senior enough, according to one official familiar with the exchanges. While Trump has been pushing for direct talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, China had originally rejected that idea as not in keeping with its traditional approach of working out the details first before the leaders sign any deal, according to public statements by both sides. Which is why after the original Chinese overture was shut down, both sides engaged in unprecedented diplomatic jingoism to deflect attention from the failure to pursue a diplomatic solution.

There’s more: another significant factor for China was Trump’s public berating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in February, said one of the sources, adding that any unscripted hostile interaction between the U.S. and Chinese leaders would represent an unacceptable loss of face for Xi.

But as messaging on both sides grew more conciliatory, China decided to put forward its vice premier and Xi confidant He Lifeng, whose direct predecessor struck the “Phase One” trade deal with the U.S. in 2019.

The move satisfied Washington’s demands for substantive talks with a senior official with direct access to Xi, but avoided exposing the Chinese leader to potential embarrassment, said one of the sources.

As for the choice of venue, the Swiss foreign ministry said that “during its recent contacts in Washington and Beijing, Switzerland expressed to the U.S. and Chinese authorities its willingness to organize a meeting between the two parties in Geneva.”

And while that addresses the how and where, the big question is why? And what is key about the Reuters report is that it confirms what we had reported all throughout the first month of the trade war, namely that “the main drivers of Beijing’s climb-down were internal signals that Chinese companies were struggling to avoid bankruptcies and to replace the U.S. market, three people familiar with the Chinese government’s thinking said.”

Some segments feeling immediate impact were furniture and toy makers, as well as textiles, one of the officials told Reuters. US diplomats in China had also been closely monitoring factory closures, strikes, and job losses in the industrial heartland in southern China, all of which were deteriorating rapidly, and confirming that Trump’s gambit had worked.

Many analysts have downgraded their 2025 economic growth forecasts for China, and Goldman and Nomura warned the trade war could cost it up to 16 million jobs. Earlier this week, admitting just how bad the local economy had gotten, China’s central bank this week announced fresh monetary stimulus (while the Fed did nothing).

China’s central bank cuts key rates, injects 1 trillion yuan 3 hours after agreeing to trade talks to prop up economy and give communist party ammo for negotiations.

Tomorrow the Fed will do precisely none of that.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 7, 2025

One of the officials said Chinese companies were struggling to replace the U.S. market because developing nations cannot buy as many items, and that for many firms “this was an existential threat that needed to be resolved in days or weeks.”

In addition, Beijing – which had made loud noises warning its “allies” not to engage in negotiations with the US – was worried it was left without a place at the negotiating table while its major trading partners, such as Vietnam, India and Japan, began talks with Washington, said two officials familiar with Beijing’s thinking.

In a warning to the countries negotiating with the U.S., China’s commerce ministry said in a statement this week that “appeasement cannot bring peace, compromise cannot be respected, and adhering to principled positions and upholding fairness and justice is the right way to safeguard one’s own interests.” The statement did nothing to change the direction of negotiations.

In Geneva, Beijing appears to have modest expectations, and certainly now after a report confirming that Trump indeed has the upper hand.

Internally, China has downgraded the talks from a higher level to merely a meeting, reflecting its view that the discussions will be mostly about finding out Washington’s demands and red lines after weeks of contradictory messages by Trump and other senior U.S. officials, according to a person familiar with the matter.  Still, one official said China could draw on its extensive toolbox and follow Asian neighbors in offering to buy more American liquefied natural gas, a step which could be seen as capitulation – and thus devastating to Xi’s reputation – unless it is offset by some action by Trump.

On the table may also be purchases of agricultural goods, similar to the 2019 “Phase One” deal during Trump’s first term. At the time, Beijing said it would increase purchases of U.S. agricultural products by $32 billion over two years. While other matters like the U.S.’s axing of the “de minimis” exemption for packages under $800 from China and the sale of TikTok are also likely to play a part in the broader talks, Chinese officials said they do not expect them to play a central role this weekend.

Even before triggering the broader trade war, Trump imposed a 20% tariff on Chinese goods, saying Beijing wasn’t doing enough to counter the flow of chemicals used to produce the deadly drug fentanyl. One of the moves that complicated the rapprochement, according to two officials, was a letter sent by the U.S. to China in late April that outlined the steps Trump wanted Beijing to take on fentanyl.

The document, reviewed by Reuters, caused friction with Beijing because it referenced a congressional report that asserted China, through value-added tax rebates for exporters, directly subsidizes production of fentanyl precursors for sale abroad. China denies it does so, although following the WSJ report, it appears that it actually does so.

The letter, sent to the ministries of foreign affairs, commerce, and public security, called on Beijing to publicize the crackdown on fentanyl precursors on the front page of the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily; send a similar message through “internal party channels” to party members; tighten regulation of some specified chemicals; and deepen law-enforcement cooperation.

Two officials familiar with China’s reaction said it found especially the first two points “arrogant” because Beijing saw it as the U.S. dictating what China should do within its ruling apparatus. 

Of course, we now know that fentanyl would feature prominently in the Geneva talks and that the U.S. government’s opening position would be to present the four points to China. A U.S. official familiar with the letter said the Trump administration simply wanted China to curb the flow of fentanyl precursors to drug cartels, in a move that would allow Xi to save some face.

Which is not to say that the US approach in the negotiations has been seamless. Complicating the negotiations, Trump’s Washington team has frozen out many U.S. embassy officials responsible for earlier contacts with Chinese counterparts, two people familiar with the matter said. Trump’s new ambassador to China, David Perdue, is slated to arrive in Beijing next week, but Deputy Chief of Mission Sarah Beran, who served as a senior official on China in the Biden administration’s National Security Council, was removed from her post this week, the two officials said. 

The turmoil has resulted in lack of internal consultations on demands put forward by the American side, the officials said. An official familiar with Chinese thinking said there had been minimal contact with the U.S. embassy ahead of the Geneva talks.

In the end, however, both sides are about to sit down, and now that it is clear just how more powerful the economic hit to China has been – bizarrely receiving virtually no coverage by the anti-Trump American press which has been acting as if it works on behalf of Beijing for the past month – and how big the imbalance in political leverage between the US and China is, expect Trump to push for a quick, easy win and proceed from there with detailed negotiations that will likely take much of the next 2-3 years, and where every modest victory will be used to wash out any and all incremental market shorts, just as we saw during the first Trade War of 2018-2019.