Via Middle East Eye

The UAE is lobbying the Trump administration to torpedo a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip that Egypt drafted and which has been endorsed by the Arab League, US and Egyptian officials told Middle East Eye.

The split is becoming increasingly bitter, with US diplomats concerned that it is harming US interests in the region. It reflects growing Arab competition over who calls the shots in the Gaza Strip’s future governance and reconstruction, as well as different opinions over how much influence Hamas should retain there. 

The Emirati pressure poses a dilemma for Cairo because both the UAE and Egypt broadly back the same Palestinian powerbroker for Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, an exiled former Fatah official. “The UAE could not be the lone state opposing the Arab League plan when it was agreed, but they are trashing it with the Trump administration,” the US official told MEE.

The UAE is flexing its unparalleled access to the White House to criticize the plan as unworkable and accuse Cairo of giving too much influence to Hamas.

The UAE’s powerful ambassador to the US, Yousef al-Otaiba, has been lobbying US President Donald Trump’s inner circle and US lawmakers to put pressure on Egypt to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians, one US official and one Egyptian briefed on the matter told MEE.

Otaiba was previously on record saying that he did not see “an alternative” to Trump’s call earlier this year for Palestinians to be forcibly displaced outside of the Gaza Strip. MEE contacted the UAE embassy in Washington, DC for comment but did not receive a reply. 

Hamas is an offshoot of the Egypt-founded Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE has tried to stamp out across the Middle East. Egypt’s military-led government has also crushed the Muslim Brotherhood, but it allows Hamas officials some freedom of movement. Egyptian spymasters have long-standing relations with Hamas members, including the Qassam brigades, which Egypt has used to mediate the ceasefires in Gaza.

UAE angered by US-Hamas talks

Egypt’s Gaza plan has been criticized by the UAE for not spelling out specifically how to disarm and remove Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian officials say the plan is clear that governance will be handled by the Palestinian Authority. The plan calls for a security force in Gaza trained by Jordan and Egypt and leaves open the possibility for UN peacekeepers to be deployed in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Hamas said it accepts the plan, but Israel is against internationalising the conflict in such a way, regional diplomats say.

The US brokered a ceasefire to the war in Gaza in January, but it has effectively collapsed, with the besieged enclave on the verge of a return to war. Israel has cut off electricity to the enclave. Over the weekend, it launched deadly strikes that killed at least 15 people, Palestinian health officials said.

The US has floated a plan for Hamas to release the 27 living captives left in the Gaza Strip in exchange for an extension of a temporary truce. Hamas has insisted on a permanent end to the war, as stipulated in the January ceasefire agreement.

The Trump administration has said it backs Israel returning to war in the Gaza Strip. American diplomacy was jolted after Trump’s former nominee for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, met directly with Hamas recently in Doha, Qatar. 

The White House said Boehler met with Hamas to negotiate the release of one remaining American captive, but the envoy said publicly he discussed a five-year to ten-year truce with Hamas that would have seen the group disavow politics, and the US and its Arab allies ensure the demilitarisation of Gaza.

Those remarks, and Boehler’s statement to CNN that he would not rule out further meetings with Hamas, sparked backlash from the Israeli government and pro-Israel US lawmakers. On Friday, Boehler was withdrawn as the nominee for hostage affairs.The meeting also riled the UAE, the Egyptian and US officials told MEE.

Trump’s top advisors have been ambivalent about the Arab League’s post-war Gaza plan. While travelling in the region in March, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, did not endorse the plan but called it the “basis for the reconstruction efforts”.

US reassessing military aid to Egypt

Some US and Egyptian officials believe the Emirati campaign has already impacted US-Egyptian bilateral relations, with the US warning Egypt that it will cut military aid in 2026, an Egyptian official and one US official told MEE.

The American warnings that the White House planned to cut military assistance to Egypt were first reported by London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed last week. The US official told MEE that Egypt has been informed that the US is reassessing its military aid but has not been directly told that a future reduction is a quid pro quo in exchange for Egypt accepting a forced displacement of Palestinians. 

The Trump administration has been cutting foreign aid worldwide. Egypt and Israel both obtained waivers from the 90-day freeze on foreign American assistance. Other Arab countries, like Lebanon, have also received carve-outs in recent weeks.

The Trump administration followed through in March on the former Biden administration’s plan to divert $95m in aid earmarked for Egypt’s military to the Lebanese Armed Forces. 

A delegation of former senior Egyptian officials visited Washington last month to meet policymakers and think tanks in a bid to shore up Egypt’s position with the Trump administration. In their public discussions, they did not acknowledge the US warnings, an Egyptian briefed on the matter told MEE.

Egyptian officials have told their US counterparts that it is in Israel’s and Egypt’s interest to maintain US aid, the US and Egyptian officials told MEE. Egyptian officials have told the US that the aid is a cornerstone of the Camp David Accords, which led to a 1979 peace treaty between the two neighbours. But suspicion is deepening among Egypt’s elite.

The military establishment is already seething with resentment at the US for accusing it of failing to police the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. Republican Senator Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, accused Egypt of “blunting” Israel’s fight with Hamas in a previous interview with MEE.

Egypt receives $1.3bn in military aid each year. The US already conditions $300m in aid to human rights matters. The US’s leverage over Egypt has diminished since the Israel peace treaty. In 1978, US aid stood at six percent of Egypt’s GDP. Today, that number is less than half a percent, and it is not clear that the Trump administration views aid as an asset worth preserving.

US officials have told the White House that reducing aid would prompt Egypt to turn to Russia or China for military equipment, but Trump is re-ordering US ties to Russia. 

“Israeli media reported that the decision to resume heavy strikes against Gaza was made a week ago and was not in response to any imminent threat posed by Hamas.” https://t.co/WGvbRhh0o1

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) March 18, 2025

Egypt receives aid through foreign military financing, which means the US purchases military equipment for Egypt from American defence contractors, whereas oil-rich Gulf states mainly buy American weaponry with their sovereign funds through foreign military sales.

Frenemies: UAE and Egypt

One of the complicating factors in the dispute is that both Egypt and the UAE look to Dahlan as a power broker in post-war Gaza.  When the Egyptian-drafted plan was endorsed by the Arab League, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pardoned exiled former Fatah officials.

That was widely seen as a nod to Dahlan, who was Fatah’s enforcer in Gaza before Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. Dahlan relocated to the UAE after falling out with Abbas in the occupied West Bank.

MEE reported that the UAE is pushing for Dahlan to oversee a committee governing Gaza and later replace octogenarian Abbas as president. MEE contacted Dahlan for comment on this article. 

Sisi enjoys close ties to Dahlan. The UAE is a key backer of Sisi’s cash-strapped government. In 2024, it agreed to a $35bn investment in Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. But the UAE and Egypt are backing opposing sides in a brutal civil war in Sudan.

Further complicating matters, The Financial Times reported that the Trump administration is continuing to push for Sudan and the unrecognized government of Somaliland to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians.

The Trump administration’s expected nominee for Africa Affairs at the State Department, Peter Pham, is a vocal supporter of the UAE and Somaliland’s independence. The UAE is the main powerbroker in Somaliland, where it trains security forces and controls the main port through its state-owned company, DP World.

The Trump administration’s cold shoulder to Egypt’s Gaza plan has riled career officials in the US State Department, who have watched France, Germany, Italy, and Britain all endorse the framework.

American diplomats said the White House was brushing aside career officials’ warnings not to pressure Egypt to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians, MEE reported previously. Trump publicly walked back that demand after being dissuaded not by US officials but in a private discussion with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House in February. The next month, Trump told reporters, “Nobody is expelling any Palestinians.”

The first major poll of Romanians’ preferences in the upcoming “do-over” presidential election points to a nationalist candidate coming out ahead in the first round, but a centrist winning the run-off that’s likely if no candidate tops 50% in the initial balloting. As Romania’s courts and election commissions gun for NATO and EU foes, one of the nationalist candidates is tempering his rhetoric — even calling Russia a “threat.” 

Before looking at the poll results, it’s important to note that polls in the run-up to the November 2024 election wildly understated support for now-banned nationalist Calin Georgescu. An October poll showed him with only 0.4% support, and a November survey had him racking up just 5.4%. He proceeded to snag 23% of the votes, placing him first among 13 candidates. In a shocking move, Romania’s Constitutional Court threw annulled the election and ordered that it start all over again, amid questionable allegations that Georgescu — who opposes Romanian membership in the European Union and NATO — owed his upset victory to “Russian interference.” 

Now, a new AtlasIntel survey finds a different nationalist is poised to win the first round of balloting that will be held on May 4, taking a 30% share. We say “a nationalist” because two prominent right-wingers have received approval from the election commission, but the two previously agreed that one of them would drop out to let a single standard-bearer enjoy the benefit of concentrated support at the polls.  

Those two nationalist candidates are 38-year-old George Simion of the Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) — Romania’s second-largest party — and 41-year-old Anamaria Gavrila of the Young People Party (POT). In scenarios where only one them is on the ballot, the AtlasIntel poll has them performing almost identically — 30.4% for Simion and 30.2% for Gavrila. 

However, the same poll suggests that the first-round nationalist victor will go on to lose a May 18 runoff, with centrist independent Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan taking the prize as the non-nationalist vote rallies to him. In those scenarios, Simion performed better, coming in 6.8 points behind Dan, while Gavrila lagged Dan by 8.4. Though approved to run, Simion’s candidacy may still be in some peril, as he’s under investigation for inciting violence, owing to saying those who banned Georgescu should be “skinned in a public square.” He later said he was merely using a figure of speech amid a “tense” situation, but acknowledged that such fiery rhetoric was “not wanted in a democracy.” 

Perhaps trying to appeal to moderates or to avoid being kicked off the ballot, Simion’s recent pronouncements are a far cry from what one expects from a Romanian nationalist, as he’s discounting the idea of Romania exiting NATO or the EU, sounding alarms over the supposed Russian menace, advocating continued sanctions against Moscow, and embracing increased European military spending.  Consider these Simion quotes from a new interview with the Financial Times: 

• “Our stance cannot be changed. Eighty percent of the Romanians want NATO and want the European Union. This is not something we can negotiate.”
• “Putin’s Russia was and is one of the biggest threats for the European states, especially for us, for the Baltic states and for Poland.”
• “Without a common geopolitical bloc, like . . . NATO, led by the US, we are in a big danger.”

It’s a dangerous time to promote sovereignty in Romania. Last month, Georgescu was arrested and questioned as he faced Orwellian allegations of disseminating “false information” and “incitement to actions against the constitutional order.” Upon his release, he was forbidden from appearing on mass media or creating social media accounts. 

Campaigning last fall, Georgescu pledged to restore Romanian sovereignty and put an end to what he characterizes as subservience to NATO and the EU. He took a hard line against the presence of NATO’s missile defense system that’s based in Deveselu, southern Romania, calling it a “shame of diplomacy” that is more confrontational than peace-promoting. He has also pushed for Romania to pursue a non-interventionist policy in the Ukraine war, and said US arms-makers were manipulating the conflict.

Georgescu isn’t the only presidential hopeful to be banned over his political views. On Saturday, Romania’s electoral commission announced that nationalist Diana Sosoaca would be barred from the May election, saying her opposition to NATO and the EU disqualified her.  

The EU…. Preserving democracy for Klaus and George. https://t.co/dZv9Q48Hdq

— Truth Seeker (@TruthSe49517863) March 17, 2025

Authored by Efrat Fenigson via BitcoinMagazine.com,

The European Central Bank (ECB) is laying the groundwork for the probable launch of its wholesale and retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Euro. Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, shared this update at their latest press conference. “President Lagarde stressed that the digital euro is ‘more relevant than ever,’” the ECB tweeted.

Lagarde emphasized that the Digital Euro, the EU’s CBDC solution, is set to launch in October 2025—provided it passes the legislative phase involving key stakeholders, including the European Commission, Parliament, and Council. Notably absent from this process is the European public, despite the significant impact this initiative will have on their daily lives.

🇪🇺 CBDC in EU will launch in Oct. 2025.
Wholesale & retail.
🇮🇱 Israel is following EU’s footsteps – preparing for CBDC with a new 110 page design document. pic.twitter.com/fUr1CkBRmy

— Efrat Fenigson (@efenigson) March 8, 2025

Why Is the Digital Euro More Relevant Than Ever?

Could it be linked to Ursula von der Leyen’s recent “ReArm Europe” announcement, which proposes the creation of an EU army? This initiative requires an estimated €800 billion in funding—money the EU does not have. The options? Extracting it from EU member states and their citizens or printing fresh funds via the ECB. Either way, it’s time to warm up the ECB’s money printers!

We are living in dangerous times.

Europe‘s security is threatened in a very real way.

Today I present ReArm Europe.

A plan for a safer and more resilient Europe ↓ https://t.co/CYTytB5ZMk

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 4, 2025

Furthermore, The EU has introduced the “Savings and Investments Union”, aiming to redirect €10 trillion in “unused savings” from citizens to finance military growth and bolster Europe’s defense industry. “We’ll turn private savings into much-needed investment,” tweeted von der Leyen. If this hasn’t shocked you already, I’ll try to clarify: This is a clear violation of private property rights, and an implicit confiscation of Europeans’ wealth, while bluntly using their funds as the EU sees fit, including funding of a military industrial complex, without even asking them.
If the EU is accelerating toward totalitarian collectivism, as this statement suggests, then a CBDC would be a powerful tool—enabling tighter control over Europeans’ money with features like an “on/off” switch and programming abilities.

If most of your money is still in fiat the bank / stocks / mortgaged real estate etc. – they don’t need your permission.
They want you owning nothing, despaired & numb.

You may want to consider a permissionless, unconfiscatable, easily mobile & liquid digital asset such as… pic.twitter.com/K2xjTpcyS7

— Efrat Fenigson (@efenigson) March 12, 2025

Christine Lagarde recently campaigned at the European Parliament, arguing that the Digital Euro is necessary to reduce the EU’s dependence on foreign payment solutions. European banks must innovate payment methods, but the EU’s primary concern isn’t just reliance on tech giants like Google Pay or Apple Pay—it’s the potential for widespread adoption of decentralized global protocols like Bitcoin.

The ECB is observing geopolitical trends, noting that the U.S. is embracing crypto, Bitcoin, and stablecoins—technologies that pose a risk to centralized control. Unsurprisingly, they are choosing a different path. According to Reuters, “Eurozone banks need a digital euro to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to promote stablecoins” as part of a broader crypto strategy. ECB board member Piero Cipollone reinforced this stance, stating, “This solution further disintermediates banks as they lose fees, they lose clients… That’s why we need a digital euro.”

Bottom line, Lagarde’s and Von der Leyen’s recent agendas are aimed to drive more centralised control while strengthening the EU hierarchy, governance and incentive structure – that has always been their role.

New Digital Euro CBDC Survey

The ECB continues campaigning for the digital Euro, a centralized European payment mechanism – to ‘decrease dependency on external forces’. #CBDC pic.twitter.com/ovlkYX0bsQ

— Efrat Fenigson (@efenigson) March 15, 2025

The ECB recently published findings from a survey on consumer attitudes toward retail CBDC, conducted among 19,000 Europeans across 11 Eurozone countries. Key takeaways include:

1) Lack of Interest – Most Europeans are not interested in the Digital Euro, as existing payment methods already serve their needs well.

Why would you not adopt the digital euro? source: European Central Bank

2) Europeans are Open to Propaganda – While public interest is low, the survey found that Europeans are receptive to video-based education and training. The ECB’s study suggests that CBDC-related videos could drive widespread adoption by reshaping consumer beliefs. The report states: “Consumers who are shown a short video providing concise and clear communication about the key features of the digital euro are substantially more likely to update their beliefs… which increases their immediate likelihood of adopting it.” No wonder the ECB has ramped up its digital euro video content since late 2024. For example:

Propaganda for European CBDC, the digital euro, has began. Be aware. pic.twitter.com/wStnfrZROZ

— Efrat Fenigson (@efenigson) November 14, 2024

3) Preference for Existing Payment Methods – “Europeans have a strong preference for existing payment methods and see no real benefit in a new type of payment system”. While this finding sounds like a positive pushback, it can serve as a precursor to a tactic of technological integrations. “If you can’t beat them, join them” tactic – similarly to the Chinese e-CNY retail CBDC. 

A recent Euromoney article highlighted e-CNY’s integration with China’s most popular apps (DiDi, Meituan, Ctrip, WeChat Pay, and Alipay), a move that facilitated its widespread adoption. Despite early struggles, e-CNY now boasts 180 million personal wallet users and a cumulative transaction value of $1 trillion. I recently explored this topic in depth with Roger Huang recently on my podcast. 

Not Just Retail—Wholesale Too

On the wholesale CBDC front, the EU is experimenting with distributed ledger technology (DLT) to interconnect financial institutions across Europe and beyond. This follows exploratory work conducted by the Eurosystem between May and November 2024. Their trials involved 64 participants—including central banks, financial market players, and DLT platform operators—conducting over 50 experiments.

“Digital Cash“

Lagarde insists that the Digital Euro is a form of cash, gaslighting and misleading uninformed Europeans about the risks of CBDCs. Permission-based CBDCs such as the Digital Euro are prone to micro levels of control through expiry dates, geofencing and programmability. If Europeans don’t recognize these dangers, they won’t resist the Digital Euro. By framing it as “digital cash,” the ECB ensures smoother public acceptance with little to no public fuss. 

[2025] Europeans!
Are you ready for “YOUR Digital Euro”?
Christine Lagarde is prepping you to the next phase of EU’s CBDC, which is everything *but* a form of cash (nice try though). pic.twitter.com/t6mG5liw26

— Efrat Fenigson (@efenigson) January 5, 2025

To be clear, cash itself is fiat currency—centrally controlled, easily debased, and prone to inflation. Every time the issuer expands the money supply, citizens suffer from declining purchasing power, essentially being robbed by the state.

“Rules for Thee, But Not for Me”

While ordinary citizens are bound by the rule of law, elites often evade consequences. A prime example is Christine Lagarde, who was found guilty of negligence for approving a massive taxpayer-funded payout to controversial French businessman Bernard Tapie. However, she avoided a jail sentence. The Guardian reported in 2016: “A French court convicted the head of the International Monetary Fund and former government minister, who had faced a €15,000 fine and up to a year in prison. But it decided she should not be punished, and that the conviction would not constitute a criminal record. … The IMF gave her its full support.”

My Prediction for the EU’s CBDC

Despite public disinterest, the ECB (and other central banks) will push forward with their CBDCs. To maintain the illusion of public involvement, they will conduct surveys and create engagement tools. But ultimately, the Digital Euro will be integrated into existing payment methods and consumer apps—just as China did with e-CNY. This strategy will drive adoption even without direct public enthusiasm.

We are, after all, playing the game of “democracy,” right?

Geopolitical analyst Alex Krainer recently tweeted in response to Lagarde and von der Leyen’s acceleration of CBDC efforts: “This is excellent news; Christine Lagarde and Ursula von der Leyen never took on something they didn’t completely mess up. I hope they’ll continue with their excellent performance. Godspeed.”

Stay tuned as I continue to track central banks’ moves toward CBDC implementation.

On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight with anchor Abby Phillip, GOP analyst Scott Jennings was shocked to find that leftists at the roundtable defended violent transnational terrorist gang members residing in the U.S.

Here’s the interaction between Jennings and Phillip (transcript courtesy of Mediaite):

PHILLIP: So, maybe it will end up being that the courts might agree with the Trump administration that this is a national security exercise. But it seems like what Donte is saying and what seems self- evident is that there is a process for determining whether that’s true or not, because it’s not obvious that immigration enforcement is like carrying out a war, you know, overseas somewhere in Syria or elsewhere.

JENNINGS: Well, I think a few things. Number one, we’ve had a number of instances now on immigration and other matters where individual district court judges are trying to effectively substitute their judgment for that of what the White House believes is core function of the presidency as designated by the Constitution.

That’s a key question and probably needs to be sorted out by the Supreme Court someday. That’s number one. Number two, on the issue of these deportations, it’s quite clear the president believes he is keeping the United States and its citizens safe from noncitizens who are in the country illegally, first of all, and, second of all, who have a long history of committing very violent acts from murder to rape to sex trafficking and so on. And —

PHILLIP: Don’t you think they have to prove that though? Because, I mean, I think that’s — I don’t think anybody disagrees about their ability to deport people who are who are murderers or rapists or whatever, but don’t they have to actually prove that those people are who they say they are and that they’ve carried out those acts of — those criminal acts?

JENNINGS: Well, we know they’re violent people because —

PHILLIP: How do we know?

JENNINGS: Well, because their records have already been pulled. I mean, these people were violent from where they came from, and now they’re here illegally. So, wouldn’t anyone keep them?

After Phillip and Jennings went back and forth, the other roundtable participants—all leftists—chimed in, shockingly defending violent transnational terrorist gang members.

On X, Jennings wrote, “The passion on the left for defending violent transnational terrorist gang members has surprised even me. But yet … here we are.”

🚨Scott Jennings takes on hostile CNN panel looking for any reason possible to oppose Trump’s deportation of violent illegal gang members:

Jennings: It’s quite clear the president believes he is keeping the United States and its citizens safe from non-citizens, who are in the… pic.twitter.com/hfUGO2BnLg

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 18, 2025

Jennings concluded and addressed the roundtable: “You all are conflating different groups of people—US citizens are different from noncitizens.” 

Yet again, the Democratic party that still can’t define what a woman is also fails to understand the difference between a citizen and a noncitizen. This only suggests that Democrats do not respect the rule of law—and without laws, there is no country. 

That’s why Trump’s in the White House: the American people gave him a mandate to restore law and order. Democrats still don’t get it.

President Trump’s tariffs are reshaping non- “America First” trade policies and agreements, causing concern among Goldman analysts. They recently downgraded the US GDP growth forecast to 1.7% from 2.4%, marking their first below-consensus call in 2.5 years.

In the latest Top of Mind macro research note titled “All About Fading U.S. Exceptionalism,” analysts Jenny Grimberg, Allison Nathan, and Ashley Rhodes provided clients with a brief note about the declining US outlook and the rise of the rest of the world amid expectations that the average US tariff rate will increase by 10 percentage points this year—a generational high.

Chart of the Day: The US effective tariff rate is likely to rise by 10pp this year, roughly 5x the increase during the first Trump Administration.

Here’s the summary:

Our expectation that the average US tariff rate will rise by 10pp this year has left our 2025 US GDP growth forecast at 1.7%, down from 2.4% (both on a Q4/Q4 basis) at the start of the year and our first below-consensus call in 2.5 years. Markets have also downgraded their US growth views—and sharply so, on our estimates—as evidenced by the S&P 500 entering correction territory this week. While we continue to expect US equities to move higher ahead, we recently lowered our YE25 S&P 500 index target from 6500 to 6200 and trimmed our 2025 EPS growth forecast from 9% to 7% on the back of our US growth downgrade, and modestly reduced our valuation expectations given the significant uncertainty around US policy.

In stark contrast, markets have significantly upgraded their European growth views, fueling strong outperformance of European assets that we think has further to run. Specifically, we believe European equities can continue to outperform given the still-large valuation gap between US and European equities and recently raised our 2025/2026/2027 SXXP EPS growth forecasts to 4%/6%/6% (from 3%/4%/4%), partly on the back of the growth boost from higher European defense spending that we expect. We believe Europe has made a promising start on the road to this higher spending amid positive signals from the EU Council and Germany, where preliminary coalition negotiations have resulted in an agreement on the recently-announced substantial fiscal package. We also expect EUR credit to continue outperforming USD credit ahead, as implied by our recently-revised spread forecasts. But we think the risks are more two-sided for Bunds and the Euro even as we recently raised our YE25 10y Bund yield forecast to 3.00% (from 2.25%). Beyond Europe, China and broader EM equities have also performed relatively well this year, and we see further room to run here as well.

We believe this fading of US exceptionalism further underscores the case for regional diversification, and continue to like Defense, Technology, and Healthcare stocks in Europe, both China A and H shares, and pockets of EM equities. That said, we believe the diversification theme could run into challenges if the current US equity market correction extends further, as we find that regional correlations tend to be higher during larger US corrections and regional equities have rarely delivered positive returns in such periods.

Trump’s tariff saber-rattling has been seen as a critical tool to unleash America First and globalism last. Ridding the system of toxic policies will likely result in a detox period for the economy. At the same time, hemispheric defense comes next.

Update (1915ET): The JFK files have finally been released in the form of 1,123 PDF files on the National Archives website.

Click Here

Check back for any notable findings, such as just how deluded the gunman was.

*  *  *

President Trump on Monday announced that his administration is about to release 80,000 pages relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Jr. Trump told reporters the mass-release will happen on Tuesday afternoon. Fittingly, he broke the news on an afternoon visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

“While we’re here, I thought it would be appropriate: Tomorrow we are…giving all of the Kennedy files,” Trump told reporters. “I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything. I said ‘Just don’t redact. We can’t redact’. It’s going to be very interesting…you’ll make your own determination.” On Monday evening, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said the released files will be accessible at the National Archives JFK Assassination Records website.

* * *

You can support ZeroHedge with the purchase of a high-quality, sharp, ZeroHedge Multitool.

Three days after his January inauguration,Trump signed an executive order instructing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Attorney General Pam Bondi to come up with a plan for “the full and complete release of all John F. Kennedy assassination records,” and records relating to the killings of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The order made the JFK files the first priority. “More than 50 years after these assassinations, the victims’ families and the American people deserve the truth,” said Trump in announcing the order. 

Last month, the FBI disclosed that, pursuant to the order, it found approximately 2,400 new records pertaining to the JFK assassination, saying they “were previously unrecognized as related to the JFK assassination case file.” It gave no indication about the substance of that batch of records. In 2022, the National Archives claimed that more than 97% of its Kennedy assassination documents were available to the public. At the time, the agency said the entire collection comprised approximately 5 million pages. 

President Trump on JFK Files: “We are tomorrow announcing and giving all of the Kennedy files…I don’t believe we are are going to redact anything…it’s going to be very interesting…approximately 80,000 pages.” pic.twitter.com/0NW4QdLSzL

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 17, 2025

“People have been waiting decades for this,” said Trump on Monday. “I said during the campaign that I’d do it, and I’m a man of my word.” Over those decades, a growing consensus has formed around the belief that the official story is false. On the other hand, there are many competing theories about who was really responsible. Here are just a few hypotheses (if your top theory isn’t listed, share it in the comments): 

• The CIA killed JFK because of its outrage over his failure to invade Cuba in the wake of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and his desire to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”
• The Soviet Union killed JFK in retaliation for embarrassing the USSR in the Cuban Missile Crisis. 
• Cuba’s Fidel Castro killed JFK because of US assassination attempts on him, and/or because of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
• The Mafia killed JFK because of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s crackdown. 
• Vice President Lyndon B Johnson conspired to kill JFK to take power. 
• Israel killed JFK because of his opposition to the country’s nuclear weapons development, potential sympathy with the Palestinians’ right to return to homes they were expelled from in 1948, and insistence that the American Zionist Council register as agents of Israel pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr — son of RFK and nephew of JFK — may have had a big influence on Trump’s move to release the long-secret documents. He’s Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, and he’s long pointed to the CIA as being a top suspect in both assassinations. “The evidence is overwhelming that the CIA was involved in the murder and in the cover-up [of my uncle],” RFK, Jr said in a 2023 podcast interview. Regarding his father’s death, he said evidence of the CIA’s guilt is “circumstantial” yet “convincing.” 

In 1992, Congress passed the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which required the release of all records by 2017. Under that law, further delays are only allowed with a presidential certification that 

• “Continued postponement is necessary due to an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations, and 
• Such identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”

There are questions swirling around what will be released on Tuesday afternoon. It’s unclear if this will truly represent “all” of the remaining pages, or if — contrary to Trump’s reassurance to reporters — some released documents may contain redactions that leave long-suffering transparency advocates aggravated.   

The JFK Files I’m expecting tmrw pic.twitter.com/P6hkGvW7q1

— An0maly (@LegendaryEnergy) March 18, 2025

If they do this with the JFK files, we riot. pic.twitter.com/uyIph4rsIU

— Green Lives Matter (@Ultrafrog17) March 17, 2025

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

As a nation, we have literally been in the process of committing financial suicide for decades.  Sadly, some people have responded to the new administration’s efforts to get debt levels under control by committing acts of extreme violence.  Our society is deeply addicted to debt and that must stop.  The 7 economic charts that you are about to see are incredibly shocking.  If you know anyone that still does not believe that the United States is in the midst of a long-term economic decline, just show them these charts.  Sometimes you can quote economic statistics to people until you are blue in the face and it won’t do any good, but when those same people see charts and pictures suddenly it all sinks in.  What is great about charts is that you can very easily demonstrate what has been happening to the economy over an extended period of time.  As you examine the economic charts below, pay special attention to what has been happening to the U.S. economy over the last 30 or 40 years.  The truth is that what is wrong with the U.S. economy is not a great mystery.  All of the economic problems that we are experiencing now have taken decades to develop.  Hopefully the charts in this article will help people realize just how nightmarish our economic problems have become, because until people start realizing how incredibly bad things have gotten they will never be willing to accept the dramatic solutions that are necessary to fix our financial system.

The sad fact of the matter is that we are living in the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.  All of this debt has made the present more pleasant, but it has also destroyed the bright economic future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to enjoy.  If they have the opportunity, future generations of Americans will look back on what we have done to them in absolute horror.

The 7 economic charts posted below are meant to shock you.  Most Americans today need to be shocked before they will be motivated to take action.  Please share these charts with as many people as you can.  If we can wake enough people up, hopefully something will be done about all of these problems while there is still time.

1 – Government spending is expanding at an exponential rate.  As you can see from the chart below, federal spending is now roughly 14 times higher than it was back in 1980.  And federal spending is about three trillion dollars higher per year than it was during the last full year before the pandemic.  Once the pandemic subsided, federal spending went down a bit, but now it is starting to rise at an exponential rate once again…

2 – U.S. government debt is absolutely exploding.  The United States government is 36 trillion dollars in debt.  How insane is that?  Our national debt is approximately 36 times larger than it was when Ronald Reagan first entered the White House.  Unfortunately, it continues to grow at breathtaking speed.  Even with the budget cuts we are witnessing, we will add trillions more to the debt this year.  Can we afford to continue to accumulate debt at this rate?…

3 – The growth of our money supply is a horror show.  Just look at how rapidly M1 has been skyrocketing over the last couple of years.  During the pandemic, M1 went from about 4 trillion dollars to more than 20 trillion dollars.  The Federal Reserve is clearly guilty of economic malpractice.  Is there any way that we are going to be able to avoid paying a very serious price for all of this reckless money printing?…

4 – Household debt has soared to almost unbelievable levels over the last 30 years.  The sad truth is that it is not just the U.S. government that has a massive debt problem.  U.S. households have also been accumulating debt at a staggering rate.  Total household and nonprofit organization debt did not pass the 2 trillion dollar mark until the mid-1980s, but now total U.S. household and nonprofit organization debt has surpassed the 20 trillion dollar mark.  Household debt alone accounts for approximately 18 trillion dollars of this total…

5 – The total of all debt (government, business and consumer) in the United States is now well over 100 trillion dollars.  If anyone doubts that our society is addicted to debt, just show them this chart.  This is a debt bubble that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history…

6 – More than 100 million U.S. adults that do not have jobs are considered to be “not in the labor force”.  When a U.S. adult is not working, they are put into one of two buckets.  For years, government bureaucrats have kept the number of Americans that are “officially unemployed” at a very low level, while the number of Americans that are dumped into the bucket labeled “not in the labor force” has just kept going up and up.  During the Great Recession, the number of Americans that were considered to be “officially unemployed” plus the number of Americans that were considered to be “not in the labor force” never exceeded 100 million.  Today, the number of Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” alone exceeds 102 million…

7 – The price of gold has gone absolutely nuts, and that is not a good sign.  When instability hits the financial markets, many investors flock to gold.  This is especially true in inflationary times.  Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by close to 99 percent.  One of the reasons given for the creation of the Federal Reserve was that the Fed was supposed to help control inflation.  But that didn’t exactly work out too well.  The truth is that the United States never had consistently rampant inflation until the Federal Reserve took control.  In particular, once the U.S. totally went off the gold standard in the 1970s inflation really started escalating out of control.  When the gold standard ended, an ounce of gold was worth 35 dollars.  Today, an ounce of gold is worth more than 3,000 dollars…

Needless to say, if the economic trends documented by the charts above continue to persist, we will have an enormous nightmare on our hands.

The U.S. economy as it currently exists is unsustainable by definition.  It is only a matter of time before we slam into an economic brick wall.

We have developed an economy that cannot function without massive amounts of debt, and at this point it seems like almost everyone is drowning in red ink.  The federal government is massively overextended, most of our state and local governments are massively overextended, most of our major corporations are massively overextended, and the majority of U.S. consumers are massively overextended.

The only way that the game can continue is for our leaders to continue to borrow and spend increasingly larger mountains of money.

But no debt spiral can go on forever.  At some point this entire house of cards is going to collapse.

When that happens, there is going to be economic pain that is greater than anything that this country has ever seen before.

Everything that I have been warning about for more than a decade is playing out right in front of our eyes.

We can’t keep piling up debt like this.

We just can’t.

But look at what has happened as a result of Elon Musk and his team making some modest cuts to government spending.

A significant portion of the population is losing their minds.

Our society cannot handle large spending cuts, and our society cannot handle what will come after a financial crash either.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize.

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Michael’s blockbuster entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

On Monday, the CEO of Canadian jet manufacturer Bombardier warned a business audience in Montreal that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s potential decision to trim or cancel Canada’s purchase of 88 U.S. F-35 stealth fighter jets could trigger a retaliatory response from Washington against his company, according to Bloomberg. 

“Canceling the F-35s might be a good idea, but we need to think about it,” Bombardier CEO Eric Martel said at the event hosted by Canadian Club, adding, “We have contracts with the Pentagon. Will there be reciprocity there?“

Martel warned: “Effectively, we could be targeted. This is my concern.”

He noted his biggest concern is that the Trump administration may target Bombardier’s defense unit. The unit has two contracts with the U.S. government—one for communication aircraft and another for surveillance jets—both of which could become collateral damage if Carney reduces or scraps the F-35 contract. 

“I am there to defend Bombardier, but I understand why the new prime minister is asking these questions,” Martel said.

🛩️ Aujourd’hui, @karlblackburn a assisté à la conférence d’Éric Martel @Bombardier, sur le rôle de l’aérospatiale dans la prospérité du Canada.

L’innovation, la résilience et l’autonomie industrielle sont essentielles pour renforcer notre économie et bien positionner le Québec. pic.twitter.com/KcgrXdD2ET

— Conseil du patronat (@conseilpatronat) March 17, 2025

Martel’s comments highlight the risks to Bombardier’s business, 60% of which comes from the U.S. and is highly exposed to the ongoing U.S.-Canada trade war.

On Sunday, President Trump doubled down on reciprocal tariffs, calling the April 2 implementation date a “liberating day for our country … and we’re getting back to some of the wealth that very, very foolish presidents gave away because they had no clue what they were doing.”

Reuters noted: 

It is unclear whether a U.S. exemption for Canadian and Mexican goods like Bombardier’s planes that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will be extended past April 2.

“Common sense will return, and our business will continue to move forward,” Martel said, adding that orders have not slowed. However, he acknowledged that discussions with some customers have changed, particularly regarding contractual clauses aimed at reassuring both parties. 

It’s almost guaranteed that if globalist Carney alters or cancels the F-35 deal in favor of European fighter jets, Trump will retaliate against Canada, likely targeting Bombardier. Trump’s vision for hemispheric defense in the Americas relies on U.S. defense weapons—not foreign ones from Europe. That’s all you need to know.

Authored by Aaron Sobczak via The Mises Institute,

On January 20th, the Trump administration indicated it would pause foreign aid to most countries for 90 days. Newly-confirmed Secretary of State, “Little” Marco Rubio, confirmed this and paused “all new obligations of funding, pending a review, for (U.S.) foreign assistance programs funded by or through the Department and USAID.”

He also recently floated closing USAID permanently and merging it with the State Department. It is right to credit the Trump administration for this. He is pausing more aid than any other modern president and implementing parts of his “America First” agenda. Foreign assistance, after all, has been historically ineffective and rife with mismanagement and corruption. USAID is notoriously used to spread “pro-democracy” messaging (pro-censorship and Western intervention) via think tanks around the world. Libertarians and international realists should applaud any measure that seeks to curb the foreign aid cartels.

Unfortunately, President Trump’s attempt to cut foreign aid spending has hit some snags and features glaring omissions. What is probably most unfortunate is that this order does not officially touch military aid. Hundreds of billions of dollars are sent to countries worldwide, with the likes of Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan being the chief recipients. Ukrainian President Zeleneky confirmed that Kyiv will still receive aid from Washington, and Trump recently ordered $1 billion in military equipment and weapons be sent to Israel. This military aid further entangles Washington in foreign conflicts and enriches politicians, defense contractors, and the like.

Secretary of State Rubio has also added regular exceptions to Trump’s order. “Life-saving” aid will continue in some countries, and USAID proponents are asking for more exceptions.

Real cuts to foreign defense spending could assist Trump in a hypothetical battle to rein in the deficit and show voters that he is serious about an “America First” agenda. Washington is also much more likely to abstain from future conflicts in East Asia, Eastern Europe, or the Middle East if aid were cut to Ukraine, Taiwan, or Israel, as this can ensure that policymakers stop falling for the “sunk cost fallacy.”

In addition to foreign entanglements, foreign aid drains the budget and has a low return on investment. The national debt is over $36 trillion, and interest on the debt is over $1 trillion. Rather than giving tens of billions in aid annually to foreign countries, Washington should focus on paying down the debt. The argument for cutting should be even more apparent when considering return on investment and some of the specific things foreign aid is spent on. A good investment should yield good returns rather than decades of lost capital.

Pakistan, for example, has received hundreds of billions over the years since 1947, with only brief instances of respite for various reasons. Aid peaked in the country initially in 1963 at around $3 billion and then again in 2010 at around $4.5 billion, with an almost complete pause from 1992 to 2002. The country saw its first big GDP jump from 1999-2000, when American aid was at a low, and then lagged significantly again from 2008-2010, when American aid was at a new peak. This observation alone isn’t conclusive, but it makes sense that long-term, no-strings-attached aid would serve as a moral hazard rather than a legitimate solution.

In addition to the general inefficiency of most foreign aid projects, there are numerous reports of the USAID agency promoting censorship or governmental changes in different countries. A former US State Department Official revealed that USAID had been funding NGOs in Brazil that were designed to affect the country’s political landscape. The former official claimed the agency operated as a “geopolitical manipulation arm.” In many of these cases, Brazilian journalist David Agape claims that these funds are given under a humanitarian or anti-disinformation guise but actually assist in pushing for American interests in the government.

That isn’t all; from assisting an Ecuadorian prosecutor as she targeted her opponents, to funding the cultivation of poppy fields in Afghanistan, this agency is clearly not just a vehicle for transferring American aid to less fortunate countries. It is deeply involved in spreading Washington’s ideology and crony agendas.

Unfortunately, it is doubtful whether Trump’s administration will make enough significant changes that will last beyond his second term. While technically having potential, Elon Musk’s DOGE has failed thus far in cutting meaningful government spending. Daily spending is at about $30bn a day under Trump, up from about $26bn under Biden. Only about 25 percent of the country’s 7 trillion dollar budget is discretionary, and about half of that goes to defense. President Trump and some Republicans have paid lip service to the “America-First” agenda, but the party is very unlikely to cut the Pentagon’s budget, as Republican voters generally prefer high defense spending. Even if Trump were to close USAID, it would save the US government .6 percent of its budget every year.

The first Trump administration had a mixed record regarding foreign aid, it still sent money to Ukraine and increased aid to Israel. Additionally, one of his favorite pieces of legacy is the Abraham Accords, which commit to Arab countries hundreds of billions in aid (and other promises) in return for their recognition of the state of Israel. Trump plans to expand the Abraham Accords in his second term, leading to further foreign aid promises and defense agreements. He would be wise to actually pursue an America-first agenda in his second term by not only scrapping aid provided through USAID but by also removing Washington’s financial interests from the Middle East and Ukraine. The hawks in the Republican Party are scared that he might just do it.

Update (1820ET): The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four crew-9 astronauts safely splashed down in the waters off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida.

The Dragon Capsule’s parachutes automatically deployed at around 6,500 feet, bringing it from roughly 119 MPH to 16 MPH, according to SpaceX’s Kate Tice.

What a sight! The parachutes on @SpaceX‘s Dragon spacecraft have deployed; #Crew9 will shortly splash down off the coast of Florida near Tallahassee. pic.twitter.com/UcQBVR7q03

— NASA (@NASA) March 18, 2025

Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, Nick, Suni, Butch, and Aleks! pic.twitter.com/M4RZ6UYsQ2

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 18, 2025

“There’s just breathtaking views of a calm, glass-like ocean,” said NASA’s Sandra Jones just before touchdown.

SpaceX-operated rescue ships sped towards the capsule. Upon arrival, a rig onboard one of the vessels will haul the spacecraft out of the water into what’s known as the “Dragon’s nest.”

We can’t wait for all the ‘Hitler saves astronauts’ articles from regime media.

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Save 25% on one of ReadyWise’s most popular products:

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NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are finally returning home after what was supposed to be a week-long mission in a Boeing Starliner spacecraft left them stranded on the International Space Station for nine months. The toxic political environment further prolonged their extended stay under the Biden-Harris regime.

NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov also joined Williams and Wilmore aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that undocked from the ISS early Tuesday morning.

The @SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying four #Crew9 members undocked from the station at 1:05am ET today and is headed for a splashdown off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of America at 5:57pm. More… https://t.co/eISgbf1ngL pic.twitter.com/kHSzIlrZhP

— International Space Station (@Space_Station) March 18, 2025

 “NASA’s Crew-9 return coverage will resume at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday on NASA+ until Dragon splashes down at approximately 5:57 p.m. off the coast of Florida, and crew members are safely recovered,” the space agency wrote in a statement.

Days ago, Williams and Wilmore thanked Elon Musk for deploying a Dragon capsule to rescue them after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft malfunctioned last summer.

❤️🚀🚀❤️
pic.twitter.com/aAkJRKsu1Q

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 16, 2025

Due to Musk’s DOGE efforts, the rescue mission has been widely ignored by the leftist conspiracy networks on corporate television.