President Trump on Thursday while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office confidently stated he believes the United States would eventually annex Greenland. He even linked it to NATO security.

“I think it will happen,” Trump told reporters. “And I’m just thinking, I didn’t give it much thought before but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know, Mark, we need that for international security,” Trump said, acknowledging Rutte beside him.

“I don’t want to drag NATO in that,” Rutte responded judiciously, but agreed the Arctic Circle region and Greenland in particular are critical for the security of the West, at a time Russia in China have increased their military presence there.

But the center-right Demokraatit party just won Greenland’s parliamentary elections this week, and Greenland’s likely new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has surprised many by quickly coming out so strongly against Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland:

“We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future,” Nielsen, 33, told Britain’s Sky News. “And we want to build our own country by ourselves.”

That didn’t stop Trump from suggesting during a Thursday Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that Greenland’s election that it was “very good” for “us” and “the person who did the best is a very good person, as far as we’re concerned.”

Nielsen said while celebrating his party’s surprising margin of victory that Greenland needs to stand together “in a time of great interest from outside.”

Merely just four years ago Demokraatit won less than 10% in the last election, but took nearly 30% in Tuesday’s election. Much of the campaigning and debate leading into it actually somewhat ignored Trump’s eyeing Greenland, instead focusing mostly on issues like healthcare and other purely domestic concerns.

The center-right Demokraatik party has long advocated for a slower approach to independence, while another opposition party Naleraq, which took 24.5% of the vote to Demokraatik’s 29.9% has called to sever ties with Denmark more quickly.

Trump issues provocative annexation statements on Greenland while NATO’s Rutte sits and reacts nervously…

POTUS on acquiring Greenland: “I think it will happen… We need that for international security.” pic.twitter.com/0j32jk0QL2

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 13, 2025

By and large, Greenland – which is a self-governing region of Denmark – has been moving toward independence since at least 2009. Trump’s transition team began consulting private sector experts as early as November on potential ventures in Greenland. Among the ideas being floated are rare earth mining projects and a new hydroelectric facility – a nod to the island’s renewable energy potential. These internal admin conversations underscore Washington’s escalating interest in the Arctic as a buffer against Chinese influence.

“Trump is absolutely capitalizing on Greenland’s push for independence,” said Jacob Kaarsbo, independent foreign security adviser and former chief analyst at the Danish Defence Intelligence Service. “I can easily see a scenario where Greenland moves away from Denmark after the upcoming elections.” But the question of whether that means toward the US remains to be seen. The fresh rhetoric from the young Demokraatit party suggests not.

The American media is doing its best to ignore the biggest news this week.

As Alex Berenson notes, while every legacy media outlet is reminding you it’s been exactly five years since the Little Epidemic That Could started its long chug into your lungs, or at least your upper respiratory tract, two big German newspapers – Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung -broke some actual news.

Turns out, Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has long had evidence that the Covid-19 virus originally came from a lab in Wuhan, China. 

It was kept classified, however. 

As Remix News reports, according to these reports, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe in 2020, the German government commissioned a secret intelligence operation under the codename of Saaremaa to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2.

As part of this investigation, the BND analyzed scientific data from a number of Chinese research laboratories, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The BND noted that the Chinese labs had conducted “gain-of-function” virology experiments, whereby mutations are deliberately induced in naturally occurring viruses in order to enhance their existing qualities, such as transmissibility and potency. Such experiments are considered highly dangerous.

The BND also observed that these facilities demonstrated numerous violations of routine laboratory safety regulations.

When the BND submitted their report, their conclusion was that there was an 80 to 95 percent probability that Covid had originated in a Chinese lab and was then leaked accidentally.

Upon the report’s completion in 2020, Bruno Kahl, who has been the BND’s president since 2016, personally briefed then-Chancellor Angela Merkel on its findings. 

BREAKING: Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission did not allow the public enough access to Covid-19 vaccine contracts it secured with Big Pharma during the pandemic, the EU’s top court has ruled.

The ruling criticizing the Commission’s lack of transparency comes just one day… pic.twitter.com/alTtwviBCA

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) July 17, 2024

The German Chancellery ordered that these results were to be kept hidden from the public, however.

Several politicians who were in office at the time that the report was drawn up, including former Minister of the Chancellery Helge Braun, former State Secretary for Intelligence Johannes Geismann, and Angela Merkel herself were contacted by reporters and asked to comment. All of them refused to answer.

The trail doesn’t end there, however. Shortly after Olaf Scholz took over from Angela Merkel in December 2021, Kahl again briefed the chancellor on the report’s findings. It was still kept secret.

Covid lockdowns based on politics, not science, leaked messages from UK government reveal. https://t.co/EaRuyEYT5t

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 9, 2023

Not even the Bundestag’s parliamentary oversight committee, which oversees the intelligence services, or the World Health Organization were informed of the report’s existence or its conclusions.

The BND decided to share its findings with the American Central Intelligence Agency last autumn, however. 

This is perhaps why: When John Ratcliffe was appointed director of the CIA after President Donald Trump took office in January, the CIA’s official position on the possibility that Covid-19 had originated in a laboratory was revised from “undecided” to “low confidence.”

The German government itself revisited the issue in December 2024 and ordered a new team of experts to reevaluate the report’s conclusions, which is ongoing. This team includes Lars Schade, the president of the Robert Koch Institute, which conducts research into public health, as well as the virologist Christian Drosten, who became a public expert on Covid-19 during the pandemic.

Notably, during the early months of the pandemic, Schade dismissed suggestions that Covid-19 may have originated in a laboratory as “conspiracy theories.” By 2022, however, he admitted that virologists in Wuhan had “done things that could be described as dangerous,” even though he still said that he regarded the laboratory thesis as unlikely.

The German government has so far declined to comment on the ongoing project.

Determining Covid-19’s origins with certainty is difficult, however, given that the Chinese government has consistently blocked the WHO’s efforts to investigate it.

German MP and Vice President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki has expressed outrage at the fact that the report’s findings were kept secret for so long.

“The federal government has demonstrably left the German public as well as the Bundestag in the dark,” he said to the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Kubicki also called for the resignation of current Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, saying that he “and his colleagues have done much to undermine trust in the integrity of government.”

On X, Kubicki referred to both the report’s findings and the cover-up as “extremely worrying,” and demanded that the German state apologize and also summon the Chinese ambassador for an explanation.

Read more here…

Update(1312ET): Russia’s President Putin in new Thursday remarks declared that his forces are beating back the Ukrainians on all fronts, and especially now in Kursk. “Command and control of Ukrainian troops inside the incursion zone is no longer possible,” Putin said. “During the first stages, the Ukrainian military attempted to leave this zone in small groups. This is no longer possible.”

“They are leaving their military equipment behind, because there is no way to evacuate it. It will remain there, that’s for sure,” he added. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff is soon expected to meet with Putin again. While the Russian leader said he is ‘for’ achieving a 30-day ceasefire, he has raised serious questions about what stipulations must be added. In essence at this point Putin is conveying a list of objections as follows, via state media translation:

“We also want guarantees that during the 30-day ceasefire, Ukraine will not conduct mobilization, will not train soldiers, and will not receive weapons,” Putin said during a press briefing with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.

The president pointed out that Russian troops are advancing along nearly 2,000 kilometers of frontline, and halting military actions could disrupt ongoing operations. Ukrainian forces could use a ceasefire period to regroup, receive more weapons, and train fresh recruits, he warned.

“These 30 days — how will they be used? To continue forced mobilization in Ukraine? To receive more arms supplies? To train newly mobilized units? Or will none of this happen?” Putin asked.

Enforcing a ceasefire over such a vast battlefield would be difficult, he added, violations could be easily disputed, leading to a blame game between both sides. Systems of “control and verification” to monitor a ceasefire are not in place but should be agreed.

Some of these demands were no doubt communicated to the US side, with Reuters reporting that the Kremlin’s formal list of requirements to achieve permanent ceasefire have been delivered:

Russia has laid out a list of demands to U.S. authorities that need to be met in order for the war in Ukraine to end, Reuters reported, citing two people “familiar with the matter.”

The requests are also aimed at resetting the Kremlin’s relations with Washington, D.C., the outlet noted.

The list of demands came just before Russia’s Defense Ministry announced it has taken over Sudzha, the biggest town in the Kursk region that has been overrun by Ukrainian forces since the surprise cross-border offensive in August 2024. The takeover came after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited military headquarters in the region and spoke to military commanders there.

The exact content of these demands are not yet known, but at least some of it was probably echoed in Putin’s Thursday remarks.

* * *

Russia has rejected the US-proposed 30-day ceasefire which came out of the Jeddah meeting with Ukraine, describing that it would only allow Ukrainian forces to regroup.

“This is nothing other than a temporary time-out for Ukrainian soldiers, nothing more. Our goal is a long-term peaceful resolution,” Yuri Ushakov, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Russian state television. “Our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country and our well-known concerns. It seems to me that no one needs any steps that (merely) imitate peaceful actions in this situation,” he said. He further expressed that it would “give nothing” to Russia.

Russian President Putin came to visit the headquarters of the Kursk operation, dressed in military uniform. This does not seem like a signal that he is ready for a ‘bad’ peace.

Russia does not need a ceasefire, Ukraine needs a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/aJ9jsiescX

— Sašo Ornik (@ornik_saso) March 12, 2025

This was the first official public response on the issue from the Kremlin, after it said Wednesday it was “studying” the proposal. President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is currently en route to Moscow to discuss the temporary truce proposal.

Ushakov says he has communicated Moscow’s rejection of the 30-day ceasefire plan to Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz.

None of this comes as a great surprise, given not only that Russian forces have the clear battlefield momentum and upper-hand, but back in January President Putin explained why he would never settle for any ceasefire that’s temporary.

He had said at the time, “The goal should not be a short truce, not some kind of respite for regrouping forces and rearmament with the aim of subsequently continuing the conflict, but a long-term peace based on respect for the legitimate interests of all people, all nations living in this region.”

The Russian leader had on Wednesday visited Kursk region for the first time since Ukraine’s incursion there and holding of territory which began in August.

“Our immediate goal is as soon as possible to conclusively destroy the enemy entrenched on the territory of Kursk region,” Putin said.

And the optics and symbolism were not missed on Russia’s enemies, as Putin was dressed in military fatigues as he addressed top generals, which is a rarity.

President Trump has been warning of what could happen if Moscow doesn’t come the negotiating table. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump said earlier. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace. I want to see peace and we’ll see. But in a financial sense, yeah, we could do things very bad for Russia. It would be devastating for Russia.”

But as Moon of Alabama highlights in fresh analysis, the meager 30-day truce offering which came out of Jeddah demonstrates weakness on the US side. Asia Times had predicted:

According to the latest from Riyadh, Ukraine says it is ready for a 30 day cease fire. If this is what Washington “extracted” from the Ukrainians, it is operationally meaningless. With Russia on the brink of winning in Kursk and elsewhere, the Russians won’t accept any such deal. If it is a ruse to allow the US to resume arms shipments to Ukraine, knowing Russia will reject it, the so-called peace initiative is a dead letter.

Meanwhile RT has featured the explanation and more context to Russia’s rejection by political analyst Sergey Markov as follows…

Reasons why Russia to refuse a ceasefire (and especially anything deemed temporary):

1. A ceasefire would be exploited by the West and Ukraine to halt the advance of the Russian army, strip it of its initiative, supply the Ukrainian army with more weapons, continue extensive mobilization in Ukraine, and strengthen the repressive and anti-Russian nature of the Ukrainian political regime

2. The experience of the Minsk 1 and Minsk 2 agreements clearly demonstrates this pattern

3. The consistent dishonesty of Western politicians and media regarding the conflict, as well as their refusal to acknowledge their own and Ukraine’s culpability, strongly suggests that history will repeat itself 

4. Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly stated that what Russia needs is lasting peace, not just a temporary ceasefire

5. The West cannot really be trusted 

6. Russia is advancing.  A ceasefire always benefits those who are retreating.

*   *   * 

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Authored by Jane Yang via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new chief expressed outrage over the Tijuana River sewage pollution that has for decades affected San Diego border communities and generated health hazards, recently causing a record of more than 1,000 consecutive days of beach closures.

“I was just briefed that Mexico is dumping large amounts of raw sewage into the Tijuana River, and it’s now seeping into the U.S.,” said EPA’s Administrator Lee Zeldin in a post on the social media platform X on the afternoon of March 8.

“This is unacceptable. Mexico MUST honor its commitments to control this pollution and sewage!” Zeldin wrote.

A few hours after Zeldin’s post, a transboundary flow of wastewater mixed with heavy stormwater was reported entering the U.S. side starting 1:30 a.m. on March 9, according to the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), the federal agency responsible for implementing boundary and water treaties between the United States and Mexico.

In a follow-up press release on March 10, USIBWC said that it had several meetings with Mexican officials, and preliminary information showed that “multiple unforeseen construction issues” at a project to replace a wastewater pipe in Tijuana resulted in the accidental flows.

“I have made it very clear to Mexico the importance of avoiding future transboundary flows to the greatest extent possible during this very complicated construction project,” said USIBWC Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, who was appointed to head the agency in August 2021, in the statement.

“We appreciate EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s attention to this issue and will keep him as well as all our stakeholders informed of Mexico’s progress,” the commissioner added.

The agency said the transboundary flows stopped mid-afternoon on March 9.

The ongoing project aims to replace Tijuana’s largest wastewater conveyance pipe, which has been plagued by leaks that have caused pollution flows in the past, according to the USIBWC. The project is funded by the United States, Mexico, and a Mexican bank, and is under construction by the Mexico Ministry of Defense.

USIBWC spokesperson Frank Fisher told The Epoch Times in an email that the USIBWC is in regular close contact with its Mexican counterparts at all levels. But for the new regular meetings, the focus will be exclusively on the pipe replacement project and monitoring any problems.

“We continue to work on four fronts to tackle the transboundary issue: Repairs to the South Bay plant; expansion of the plant; monitoring Mexico’s commitment on projects in Minute 328; and taking urgent action to ensure zero transboundary flows during the dry season,” Fisher said.

Minute 328 is a binational agreement signed in July 2022 by the United States and Mexican federal agencies to reduce wastewater in the Tijuana River watershed and Pacific Ocean through a suite of infrastructure projects on both sides of the border.

Trash builds up along the Tijuana River outside of San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

California Leaders Ask EPA Chief for Help

John McCann, Mayor of Chula Vista, a south bay city in San Diego County, which declared a state of emergency last November due to the Tijuana River sewage crisis, told The Epoch Times through email that he had asked “a few South County leaders who are former colleagues of Zeldin” to convey the message and escalate the Tijuana River sewage crisis “to the highest level at the EPA.”

“The ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis is an urgent environmental and public health issue that requires immediate action. Accountability on the part of Mexico is essential,” McCann said in the email, “But we have to recognize that fully solving the crisis depends on a cooperative, binational approach.”

He said the most important first steps in tackling the crisis include securing at least $630 million of federal funding needed for infrastructure repair and expansion and persuading Mexico to act responsibly.

At the Jan. 16 senate hearing on the nomination of Zeldin to be administrator of the EPA, the newly elected Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked whether Zeldin would review a proposal that was rejected by previous EPA leaders.

Schiff asked, “Will you agree to review EPA’s January 7 decision to deny request to investigate the Tijuana River Valley for a potential Superfund designation? … Will you agree to review it and consider whether a different judgment should be reached?”

Zeldin answered “Yes.”

The Superfund site designation petition was initiated by San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer last October. One of the co-signers was Mayor Paloma Aguirre of Imperial Beach, the city most heavily affected by the sewage crisis.

The petition requested the EPA to investigate and assess the hazardous materials in the Tijuana River Valley area in San Diego for its eligibility for inclusion in the EPA’s Superfund program, which could help bring federal resources to clean up hazardous materials in heavily contaminated regions.

Aguirre also sent two letters to Zeldin, one on Jan. 22 after the Senate hearing and another on March 3, after Zeldin was sworn in on Jan. 29 as the 17th EPA head. In both letters, Aguirre asked Zeldin for a new review of Tijuana River Valley’s Superfund designation.

“I was heartened by your agreement in your confirmation hearing to CA Senator Schiff’s request to review the EPA’s recent denial of Superfund designation for this environmental crisis,” she wrote in the letters. Aguirre also invited Zeldin to visit the region to see the disaster firsthand.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Schiff, Lawson-Remer, and Aguirre for comment on Zeldin’s post but did not hear back before publication.

A sewage treatment facility pumps in water from the Tijuana River outside of San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

A Decades-Long Crisis

The majority of the Tijuana River’s 120-mile course is within the northern Baja California state of Mexico, and only about five miles of its lower end crosses the border from Tijuana to San Diego and empties into the Pacific Ocean.

The Tijuana River pollution has gone on for decades, but the crisis has only become worse in the past few years with Tijuana’s fast-growing population, as well as the deterioration of water treatment infrastructure, said Phillip Musegaas, executive director of the non-profit San Diego Coastkeeper, in an article dated May 2, 2024, on the organization’s website.

In the past five years, over 100 billion gallons of pollutants have been discharged into the Tijuana River, raising major concerns about water quality and public health in the San Diego region, according to a recent Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, performed in October 2024 and released in January.

California leaders at federal and local levels, as well as community advocates and organizations, have in recent years pushed to generate momentum to tackle the complex transboundary pollution issue by introducing new legislation, securing federal funding, filing lawsuits, giving out air purifiers to residents in affected communities, and other means and proposals.

With tomorrow’s shutdown deadline looming (and the House gone on recess until March 24), Senate Democrats are scrambling to both kill the GOP bill that passed the house, and avoid the optics of a shutdown falling squarely on their shoulders after minority leader Chuck Schumer categorically rejected the bill on Wednesday, and instead floated a 30-day continuing resolution which would allow Democrats to stuff it full of their own pork to include in a revised package (that he doesn’t have the votes for)…

In short:

Schumer negotiating pic.twitter.com/iDmRuB0rXK

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 13, 2025

As the Senate opened Thursday, Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) – who filed cloture on the House-passed CR on Wednesday – said, “It’s time to fish or cut bait.“

And as the Associated Press notes, debates over funding the federal government routinely erupt in deadline moments but this year it’s showing the political leverage of Republicans, newly in majority control of the White House and Congress, and the shortcomings of Democrats who are finding themselves unable to stop the Trump administration’s march across federal operations.

Given that the Senate has 53 Republicans, one of whom is a definite ‘no’ (Rand Paul of Kentucky), at least eight Democrats need to cross party lines to avert a shutdown at midnight on Friday.

Update: Sen. John Fetterman told Punchbowl News, “I refuse to shut the government down.”

So there’s one.

Two Ways This Can Go

According to the chaps at Punchbowl News, there’s really two ways this can play out at this point:

Option one: Democrats can fold and take the deal on the table – providing the votes needed to advance the House GOP’s stopgap spending bill in exchange for a symbolic amendment vote on their own 28-day funding extension. This would be pure theater, giving Democrats the chance to go on record opposing a shutdown while letting Republicans push through their own bill anyway. The government stays open, Schumer saves face with progressives, and Republicans get what they wanted all along.

But make no mistake – this wouldn’t be a win for Schumer (a “fake BBQ’ing Palestinian“), who floated a 28-day CR that doesn’t have the votes to pass, even with a simple majority. Meanwhile, Republicans can sit back and let the clock force the issue. Time isn’t on the Democrats’ side, and at some point, they’ll have to face reality.

Option two: Schumer and Senate Democrats hold the line, block the House CR, and force a government shutdown.

That means federal workers furloughed, services delayed, and chaos come Monday morning when the full effects hit. And here’s the kicker – Trump’s people at the Office of Management and Budget get to decide exactly how painful this shutdown will be. White House sources are already warning that the former president will make sure Democrats feel every bit of the pressure.

But here’s where it gets ugly for Schumer: what’s the exit strategy? There isn’t one. The House is gone, meaning there’s no magic fix coming. And at some point, Democrats will have to explain why shutting down the government over a short-term CR that never had a shot at passing was somehow worth it.

So those are the choices: take the loss now and move on, or hold out, take the blame for the shutdown, and likely still take the loss later. Either way, Trump and Musk are watching from the sidelines, ready to make their next move while Washington does what it does best—trip over itself in broad daylight.

According to the White House, “They’re totally screwed.”

Stay tuned for updates…

*  *  *

Going, Going, Gone… we’ve only got three black hats left…

That was fast – black hats are gone, but we still have ~50 green waxed canvas hats until sometime in April. 

Combine with awesome multitool for free shipping.

Thursday saw more nuclear escalation nuttiness coming from heads of NATO states. This time it is NATO ‘eastern flank’ member Poland calling for more nuclear deterrence with an eye on Russia.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has again called on the United States to deploy nuclear weapons to his country, following on the heels of French President Emmanuel Macron last week saying he’s ready to extend France’s nuclear umbrella over all of Europe.

Duda’s fresh request of Washington came in an interview with the Financial Times, and some key lines were in the following:

Andrzej Duda said it was “obvious” that President Donald Trump could redeploy US nuclear warheads stored in western Europe or the US to Poland, a proposal the Polish president said he recently discussed with Keith Kellogg, US special envoy for Ukraine.

“The borders of Nato moved east in 1999, so 26 years later there should also be a shift of the Nato infrastructure east. For me this is obvious,” Duda said in an interview with the Financial Times. “I think it’s not only that the time has come, but that it would be safer if those weapons were already here.”

European leaders talking about “a shift of NATO infrastructure east” is precisely a key motive for Russia’s invasion in the first place – and such provocative rhetoric could only serve to escalate the full-blown proxy war.

President Duda as part of his rationale cited Russian tactical nukes currently stationed in Belarus, which sits to the immediate east of Poland.

“Russia did not even hesitate when they were relocating their nuclear weapons into Belarus,” Duda said. “They didn’t ask anyone’s permission.” So Duda is urging Washington to just do it, and similarly to not ‘ask permission’ or bother with consensus. 

Interestingly, on the question of Poland developing its own nuclear arsenal, he said this:

Duda, who is also supreme commander of Poland’s armed forces, echoed Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in saying that the country could alternatively get better protection from President Emmanuel Macron’s idea to extend France’s “nuclear umbrella” to cover European allies. 

But Duda poured cold water on Tusk’s suggestion last week that Poland could develop its own nuclear arsenal. “In order to have our own nuclear capability, I think it would take decades,” the president said.

France, which remains the only nuclear power in the European Union, has called for a debate over strategic forces – especially amid signals that the Trump administration could again withdraw support for Ukraine, and might even step back from being the biggest military supplier and funder of the NATO alliance generally.

As for President Macron and his recent jingoistic remarks… for many Liberals and EU bureaucrats, he is currently the hero of Ukraine, and yet he’s now literally teasing nuclear escalation while claiming some kind of ‘Munich moment’ nonsense, as if Putin is about to imminently send his army to march down the Champs-Élysées.

It appears President Duda and Poland is jumping on the bandwagon – but of course these eastern European countries as well as the Baltic states have long presented the most heated rhetoric aimed at Moscow.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The White House released a statement Tuesday saying the Trump administration will not cut Social Security or Medicare after presidential adviser Elon Musk commented on cuts to entitlement programs.

On Monday, Musk spoke with Fox News about the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and said that most government spending is on entitlements, prompting media outlets to speculate that he plans to cut Social Security and Medicare.

“So, the waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements. So, that’s, like, the big one to eliminate,” Musk told Larry Kudlow in the Fox interview, adding that such cuts could create over $600 billion in annual savings.

The White House said in a statement titled “FACT CHECK: President Trump Will Always Protect Social Security, Medicare” that instead of pushing for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, Musk was talking about removing fraud and waste in entitlement spending.

“President Trump himself has said it (over and over and over again). Elon Musk didn’t say that, either. The press is lying again,” the statement read, with hyperlinks to Trump’s past statements on the issue.

The White House then asked: “What kind of a person doesn’t support eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending that ultimately costs taxpayers more?”

In the statement, the White House linked to government findings about fraud and waste such as a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report estimating that the United States stands to lose $521 billion annually to fraud, namely within the Medicaid and Medicare programs.

It also pointed to an August 2024 report from the Social Security Administration inspector general that discovered $72 billion in improper payments, a report that said the government has made $2.7 trillion in “improper payments” such as “payments to deceased individuals or those who no longer [are] eligible for government programs” over two decades, and a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services statement that it made $140 billion in “improper payments” last year.

During interviews with media outlets, Trump has often said he does not want to touch Medicare or Social Security, saying he instead wants to go after fraud within the two programs.

“Look, Social Security won’t be touched, other than if there’s fraud or something. It’s going to be strengthened. But it won’t be touched,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in February.

“Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched,” he said in the interview, adding he will move to remove any illegal immigrants receiving such payments.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump indicated on several occasions that he would not touch Medicare or Social Security, and at one point, proposed ending income taxes on Social Security checks. A projection from the Congressional Budget Office has shown the Social Security program will become insolvent by the 2030s.

Musk also spoke with Hannity in the February interview and said that federal spending has to be slashed or Social Security and Medicare will be impacted in the future.

“We either solve the deficit, or all we’ll be doing is paying debt,” Musk said. “It’s got to be solved, or there’s no medical care, there’s no Social Security, there’s no nothing. It’s got to be solved.

Another long-standing restaurant in one of Baltimore City’s popular bar districts is closing its doors, marking another casualty in the city’s imploding hospitality scene. While the farewell messages from these establishments offer little explanation for their abrupt departures, the broader message has been very clear: Years of lawlessness, gang violence resembling a war zone, carjackings, out-of-control youth, high taxes, and deteriorating public safety have taken a toll on business owners. Meanwhile, City Hall—under far-left Democratic control—continues marching the metro into economic demise as the city’s population tumbles to a century-low.

The latest restaurant that called it quits is Banditos Tacos & Tequila in Federal Hill. 

“Over the past 14 years, Banditos has become a neighborhood staple in Federal Hill and Baltimore City,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook earlier this week, adding, “Banditos Federal Hill allowed us the opportunity to create an amazing brand that has grown to multiple locations, something we could not have done without YOU!” 

According to the restaurant, the Federal Hill location will be sold, and GameOn Bar+ Arcade will be moving into the space “in the near future.”

Banditos hedged its bets with locations outside the city, including in Towson, Columbia, and White Marsh, Maryland, and in Fairfax, Virginia. 

The restaurant did not mention the exact reasons for abruptly exiting the city, but a trend has become evident in recent months: 

• Mother’s Grille shuttered its Federal Hill location in January after nearly three decades in business. 

• The Riptide seafood restaurant in Fed Hill also closed up in January. 

• Across the Inner Harbor, Bondhouse Kitchen in Fells Point halted operations in January. 

The abrupt exit of these restaurants—some of whose operators are now focusing on locations in surrounding counties—follows more than a decade of far-left activism by social justice warriors in control of City Hall who have prioritized a woke agenda instead of actually governing the city like effective managers.

The result of failed leadership over the last 15 years has accelerated business exodus and population collapse. 

While violent crime may have declined last year, many residents have lost patience with the rudderless Democratic Party and its failed social justice policies, which have ultimately backfired into a firey mess. 

Via Headline USA,

The Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law prohibiting human trafficking.

The Department of Homeland Security has “significant concerns” that federal grants used to address a surge of migration under former President Joe Biden were used for illegal activities, wrote Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

His letter, dated Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press, asks recipients of grants from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program to provide names and contact information for migrants served and “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided” within 30 days. The letter says funding will be withheld during the review.

While it doesn’t explicitly threaten criminal prosecution, it raises concerns that recipients may have violated U.S. Criminal Code Section 1324, a felony offense against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States. It also says executive officers must sign sworn statements that they have no knowledge or suspicions of anyone in their organizations violating the smuggling law.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.

Hamilton’s letter suggests that the U.S. government is taking action to address a scandal that the House GOP has been chasing for years.

In May 2023, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to DHS Alejandro Mayorkas asking Mayorkas to provide information, communications, and documents related to the agency’s funding awards to NGOs at the southern border.

At the time, Jordan argued that NGOs are likely taking advantage of the administration’s loose funding guidelines to make a financial profit off of the border crisis.

Jordan cited a recent inspector general report that found more than $110 million in federal funds had been fraudulently spent by immigration nonprofits. The nonprofits “did not always provide the required receipts or documentation for claimed reimbursements” and “were unable to provide supporting documentation” for how the money was spent, the Office of the Inspector General reportedly found.

“NGOs simply tell DHS how many illegal aliens they encounter, and funding can be awarded without any documentation or receipts,” Jordan wrote. “Federal funding for migration-related NGOs at the border has increased dramatically at a time when federal resources for border security and immigration enforcement and local resources for emergency response and medical care have been strained to the breaking point.”

Last November, The Center Square revealed that the federal government allocated $159 million in FEMA funding to “provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants” in California alone since 2023.

FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program awarded $641 million to dozens of state and local governments and organizations across the country in the 2024 fiscal year to help them deal with large numbers of migrants who crossed the border from Mexico. They include the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Denver, as well as the United Way of Miami, the San Antonio Food Bank and several branches of Catholic Charities.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Gold prices broke out to a new record high this morning following President Trump’s latest threat to ratchet up tariffs against European imports.

Spot prices hit $2974 this morning…

This moves come just a couple of weeks after “Structurally higher central bank demand” pressured Goldman Sachs Precious Metals Research team to shift their year-end 2025 gold price forecast dramatically higher, from $2890 to $3100/toz with Lina Thomas and the team reiterating their ‘long gold’ trading recommendation.

The chaotic situation in the physical gold market remains with precious metal imports exploding…

…and while gold lease rates have normalized somewhat…

…the flow in COMEX vaults continues. Every single day for the past 3 months physical gold has been delivered to COMEX vaults bringing the total to a record 40.15MM oz or 1,250 metric tons

Precious metal speculators may have a problem as they reduced length into this surge…

Finally, we note that Gold’s recent strength has almost entirely erased bitcoin’s outperformance since the election…

Barbarous relic vs digital gold – who will win?

Finally, Goldman estimates a 5% additional rise in gold prices by December 2025 to $3,250 if concerns over US fiscal sustainability were to grow. 

Rising fears of inflation and fiscal risks could drive speculative positioning and ETF flows higher, while US debt sustainability concerns may push central banks, especially those holding large US Treasury reserves, to buy more gold.

Professional subscribers can read the full precious metals note here…