Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 19 issued new guidance updating its official definitions of terms such as sex, female, and male as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to restore “the concept of biological truth” in the federal government.

It marks one of the first actions taken by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. following his confirmation last week.

The guidance was released to the U.S. government, external partners, and the public to “expand on the clear sex-based definitions” outlined in a January executive order signed by Trump, called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

That order stated, in part, that the Trump administration “will defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”

The new HHS guidance reiterates the Trump administration’s stance that male and female are the only two sexes and that they cannot be changed.

Specifically, it defines the term “sex” as “a person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.”

Female is defined as “a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs,” while male is defined as “a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.”

A woman is “an adult human female.” 

A man is “an adult human male,” the guidance states.

A mother is described as a female parent and a father is described as a male parent.

The HHS will use these definitions and promote policies acknowledging that “women are biologically female and men are biologically male,” according to the guidance.

“This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Kennedy said in a statement. 

“The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”

Athlete Riley Gaines Praises Trump’s ‘Clarity, Decisiveness’

In conjunction with the new guidance on sex-based definitions, HHS also launched a new website that includes information and resources for “protecting women and children.”

The website features a video from former National Collegiate Athletic Association swimmer, Riley Gaines, defending a recent ban on men participating in women’s sports.

Gaines, who has regularly advocated for such a ban, can be seen in the video thanking Trump for taking swift action to protect female athletes.

“The clarity and decisiveness of this administration sends a strong, clear message to women and girls across the country that we matter,” Gaines said.

The website also features a blog post by Dr. Dorothy Fink, an endocrinologist who served as acting HHS secretary before Kennedy assumed his new role, on the various sports-related conditions faced by women and girls competing in athletics.

“In health care, sex distinctions can influence disease presentation, diagnosis, and treatment differently in females and males,” Fink said in a statement. 

“HHS recognizes that biological differences between females and males require sex-specific practices in medicine and research to ensure optimal health outcomes.”

The latest guidance represents a shift from the previous administration’s stance on gender identity.

Under Biden, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of HHS’s agencies, defined sex as “an individual’s biological status as male, female, or something else,” while gender was defined as “the cultural roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes expected of people based on their sex.”

In the United States, 1.6 million people over the age of 13 identify as transgender individuals, according to the Williams Institute.

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

Three recent but completely unrelated events illustrate the deranged hatred of Donald Trump and his supporters continuing now even into a second decade. And yet the venom only further marginalizes the left.

In its too-long 50th anniversary spectacle, Saturday Night Live offered a skit in which marquee actor Tom Hanks did an impression of what the left thinks is a supposedly neanderthal Trump supporter.

The episode was NBC’s tele-version of the recent Obama-Hillary Clinton-Biden vocabulary of cheap MAGA disparagement: clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, chumps, dregs, semi-fascists, and ultra-MAGAs.

Most of those stereotyped props were evident in Hanks’ character.

He was wearing a red MAGA hat (real and not the fake versions of Jussie Smollett’s wild and sinister imagination).

Hanks sounded off as a superstitious evangelical, a slow-speaking Southern twanger, and a poorly dressed slob.

And of course, the SNL writers insisted that he play the gratuitous racist. So, Hanks, as a clueless Black Jeopardy contestant, initially refused to even shake the hand of the African-American, assumed intellectually and morally superior, gameshow host.

We are supposed to believe the Hanks caricature is in contrast with progressives—usually represented in society as the bicoastal enlightened, well-spoken, and snappily dressed.

Perhaps the SNL crowd thought the counterpart to Hanks’ MAGA sluggard was the recent hard-left, Democratic standard-bearer—the eloquent Kamala Harris of mesmerizing word-salad fame?

Aside from the reality that Trump captured a record number of African-American male voters, nearly split the Hispanic vote, and made gains with Asian- and Jewish-Americans, he also won massive defections from Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

So, does the SNL, Tom Hanks, or the left have any idea why it lost the popular vote due to such a diverse group of Democrat apostates?

Democrats should ask: Who is truly slow-witted? Is it the stumbling Tom Hanks caricature or the real Joe Biden and his ilk?

The latter bequeathed Americans an open border, 12 million illegal aliens, hyperinflation, two theater wars abroad, mega-trillion-dollar deficits, and the Green New Deal that impoverished the middle classes of all races.

At about the same time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation. He was immediately pressed by host Margaret Brennan, the epitome of the supposedly sophisticated, hip, left-wing journalist, and thus the converse of the Hanks caricature.

Yet when pressing Rubio about the recent dress-down speech of Vice President J.D. Vance to the European ministers, Brennan thought she would draw on her historical wisdom to confound the supposed Trump megaphone.

Did Vance not know, Brennan demanded of Rubio, that he was lecturing Europeans about their unfortunate abandonment of free expression and speech? And in Germany of all places, she intoned—the very place, she insisted, where the Nazis once weaponized free speech to conduct the genocide!

It took Rubio about a nanosecond to clue the historically illiterate Brennan that the Nazis never allowed any free speech.

It was not excessive or even crude free speech that caused the Holocaust, but precisely the complete absence of all sorts of dissenting views in the marketplace of ideas.

Ironically, it was precisely Brennan’s own defense of censoring “hate speech,” “disinformation,” and “misinformation” that the Nazis used to brand as extreme and unacceptable any view contrary to their own.

Next, the stunned European ministers in Munich, of course, sat aghast at Vance’s tutorial.

None refuted what he was saying, namely that European elites’ efforts to delay or cancel elections that might bring national conservative populists to power are contrary to the European enlightenment.

The use of weaponized, selective law enforcement to go after peaceful anti-abortion protestors, but not known violent Muslim illegal immigrants, is not only contrary to a free society but suicidal.

But Vance had a deeper subtext to his remarks.

The left-wing European elite fear even more than they hate the rising populist pushback.

The European apparat knows their own past two decades of massive illegal alien influxes, disarmament, deindustrializing, crashing fertility, green mandates, high taxes, crushing regulations, asymmetrical trade tariffs, and suppression of free speech and dissent were precisely what created the populist backlash.

The growing counter-revolution was not because of bogeyman charges of “racism,” “Islamophobia,” or “xenophobia,” much less “hate speech.”

The real culprit was bankrupt policies that not only did not work but impoverished the entire European Union middle classes.

So, the cure to restore European influence and prestige abroad and prosperity and security at home is not more censorship but more debate, dissent, and fresh ideas.

All that transparency might jumpstart the economy, encourage entrepreneurism, ensure national security, and return Europe to a civil, safe—and influential—society.

Sometimes Trump haters prove to be his best allies. Their venom shows us they either lack common sense or intelligence or both.

Such was the case with Tom Hanks, Margaret Brennen, and the European ministers.

The casualties of the Trump administration’s war on government-sponsored, taxpayer-subsidized wokeism are piling up. In the latest development, a gay men’s chorus performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has been yanked off the schedule. 

Along with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC was set to put on a show called “A Peacock Among Pigeons: Celebrating 50 Years of Pride.” Timed for late May, the show was mean to kick off Pride month. 

The show was based on an LGBT-themed children’s book of the same name, which has been among many such child-indoctrination works targeted for removal from school and public libraries. Rather than simply promoting equality and tolerance, A Peacock Among Pigeons positions being LGBTQ as something more special than being straight. Here’s how the plot is described on the book’s Amazon listing: 

Peter the peacock doesn’t know how it happened, but he found himself growing up in a flock of pigeons. Surrounded by a world of grey, he found himself feeling less than his peers and was embarrassed by his feathers. After he fails to blend in, he decides that it’s time to learn to fly on his own. Along the way, he meets new bird friends from all different flocks that teach him a lesson he will never forget.

Trump ruffled feathers earlier this month when he maneuvered himself into the chairmanship of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, ousting Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. Trump filled board vacancies with allies like Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles, the wife of the Commerce secretary, and the wife of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who voted Trump in, while also giving the boot to Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter and tapping Ric Grennell as her temporary replacement. The gay Grenell‘s most noteworthy experience in managing theater was his service as acting Director of National Intelligence. 

At the time of the Kennedy Center regime change, Trump promised to make the venue great again. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” he said on Truth Social. 

National Symphony Orchestra executive director Jean Davidson claims the decision to nix the show came before the Trump coup. “We made the decision to postpone Peacock Among Pigeons due to financial and scheduling factors,” he said in a statement. “We chose to replace it with The Wizard of Oz, another suitable program for World PRIDE participation.”  

Video of Democrats protesting the Trump administration at the Kennedy Center via interpretive dance. pic.twitter.com/meT5Aj6bG3

— Nick Ballas (@NicholasBallas) February 19, 2025

The Gay Men’s Chorus, which performed at Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, said it was “deeply disappointed” with the decision. “We believe in the power of music to educate and uplift, to foster love, understanding, and community, and we regret that this opportunity has been taken away.”

The ascendancy of Trump and his allies at the Kennedy Center has prompted a wave of cancellations by artists themselves, as well as resignations of people associated with the venue. Actress, writer and comedian Issa Rae cancelled a sold-out March 1 show, citing “an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds. Musician and wimpy-voiced singer Ben Folds — who has married and divorced five women, calls his work “punk rock for sissies” but is totally not gay — resigned as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra. 

On Thursday night Israel’s Transportation Authority halted all public transport including the operation of all buses, trains, and light rails, following an attempted terror attack in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon.

Three empty buses exploded had exploded in quick succession in parking lots in these areas, and police believe the detonations were actually intended to happen in the morning, when the buses are usually packed.

No injuries have been reported, but police said at least two other unexploded devices were discovered on nearby parked buses. A search for suspects and evidence as to who is behind the attacks is underway.

Tel Aviv District police chief Haim Sargarof was cited in local media as saying the bomb plot “looks like something [that originated] in the West Bank.”

Further details presented in Israeli media said:

According to a Channel 12 news report, the devices were slated to explode on Friday, when the buses were in use, but were somehow set off early. The network also reported that one of the undetonated devices was found due to an alert of a passenger who notified the driver of a suspicious bag.

In a statement, the Bat Yam Municipality said that “miraculously, the buses arrived at the parking lots a moment before the explosion,” and were already empty of their passengers.

Had the plot not been thwarted (by the apparent early explosions), this means potentially up to five buses could have been detonated with people on them, which would could have been one of the worst terror attacks in Tel Aviv history.

Israel’s Defense Ministry has in the wake of the bomb plot said it is ramping up operations in the West Bank, to crack down on Palestinian militants.

“In light of the severe terror attack attempts [in the Tel Aviv area] by Palestinian terror organizations against the civilian population in Israel, I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the counterterrorism activity in the Tulkram refugee camp, and all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

BREAKING:

3 buses just exploded in a town near Tel Aviv.

The buses were empty. It seems like the bombs exploded prematurely. pic.twitter.com/CFYIkJoVWw

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 20, 2025

Some Palestinian sources are accusing Israel of being behind a ‘false flag’ operation in order to justify a greater security presence and crackdown in the West Bank.

Since the Oct.7 terror attacks by Hamas, there’s been internecine street fighting in some West Bank towns and camps, with hundreds of Palestinians killed, and dozens of Israelis dead and injured as a result.

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Immediately after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Feb. 13, he was tasked with heading up a commission primarily focused on childhood health.

Kennedy is the chairman of the new President’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, created by President Donald Trump via executive order.

The commission directs executive departments and federal agencies to primarily advise the president on how to “address the childhood chronic disease crisis.”

It is tasked to explore contributing causes to childhood chronic diseases such as “the American diet, absorption of toxic material, medical treatments, lifestyle, environmental factors, government policies, food production techniques, electromagnetic radiation, and corporate influence or cronyism.”

The mandate aligns with Kennedy’s presidential campaign platform and his previous work at Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that he founded in 2007.

“I have prayed each morning for the past two decades for God to put me in a position to solve the childhood chronic disease epidemic and now, thanks to you Mr. President, we will make this promise a reality,” Kennedy said in a Feb. 13 statement.

Aside from the commission, as head of HHS, Kennedy will oversee a budget of $1.8 trillion for fiscal year 2025, the largest of any federal agency.

HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Six in 10 Americans have at least one chronic disease, and four in 10 have two or more chronic diseases, according to the executive order. It’s also estimated that one in five adults in the United States lives with a mental illness.

Seventy-seven percent of young adults do not qualify for the military based, in large part, on their health scores, and 90 percent of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual health care spending is for people with chronic and mental health conditions, according to a White House fact sheet.

“In short, Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively. These trends harm us, our economy, and our security,” the order reads.

The President’s MAHA Commission will demonstrate “gold-standard research on why Americans are getting sick in all health-related research funded by the federal government,” the fact sheet states.

Within 100 days (by ​​May 22), the commission will deliver an initial assessment of potential factors that contribute to the chronic disease epidemic, the order states. A national Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy will be presented within 180 days.

The commission includes the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency; the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Education, and Housing and Urban Development; and several economic advisers. The FDA commissioner, the CDC director, and the NIH director will also be involved.

Sayer Ji, co-founder of Stand for Health Freedom and founder and director of GreenMedInfo, said Trump’s executive order is “an extraordinary and historic moment for the health freedom movement and the future of our nation’s well-being.”

The commission institutionalizes the MAHA movement that Kennedy got behind last year, he said.

“For far too long, we have watched as chronic disease, vaccine injury, environmental toxicity and regulatory capture have devastated the health of millions—especially our children,” Ji said.

“For the first time in modern history, a federal commission will formally acknowledge these crises and work toward real solutions that put the well-being of the American people over corporate profits.”

‘Radical Transparency’

Kennedy has said that “radical transparency and returning gold-standard science to the NIH, the FDA and CDC,” and “ending the corporate capture of those agencies” that led to compromised science are two parts of his plan.

These dovetail with the commission’s objectives.

Federally funded health research should “avoid conflicts of interest,” empower Americans through transparency and open-source data, “and should avoid or eliminate conflicts of interest that skew outcomes and perpetuate distrust,” the White House said regarding the commission.

The NIH and other health-related research funded by the federal government should prioritize gold-standard research on the root causes of why Americans are getting sick, according to the fact sheet.

Kennedy said he believes that little will change in the health arena until corporate influence on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is addressed.

At a roundtable organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in September 2024, Kennedy said these agencies “advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry,“ which has transformed the agencies and the food industry into ”sock puppets for the industry” that they’re supposed to regulate.

Working With Agriculture Secretary

Kennedy is expected to work with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on several initiatives, aside from the new commission.

The USDA and HHS have a late 2025 deadline to complete the 2025–2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Rollins said on Feb. 14 that she will also work with Kennedy and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as food stamps, to healthier items.

“We really need to look at where that money is going, what it’s being spent on,” she said. “I look forward to working with Bobby Kennedy as we figure out, ‘Do we have the healthiest choices?’ So when a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are we OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious?”

SNAP benefits were distributed to 42.1 million people in fiscal year 2023, according to the USDA.

Rollins said she believes SNAP grew by almost 30 percent under the Biden administration.

“Will we ever take food out of a hungry child’s mouth? Of course not, this is the United States of America,” she said.

Read the rest here…

Legacy media TV anchor Gayle King of CBS appeared shocked to learn that President Trump’s layoffs of FAA employees do not impact air travel safety in the US. Meanwhile, Democrats have been drumming up misinformation and disinformation campaigns with their legacy corporate media partners to push a narrative that layoffs are endangering air safety. 

Delta CEO Ed Bastian sets the record straight for far-left propagandist TV news anchor Gayle King:

The cuts do not affect us. I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the, the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there’s over 50,000 people that work at the FAA. And the cuts, I understand, were 300 people, and they were in non-critical safety functions.

The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies. They’ve committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators, and safety and investigators. So no, I’m not concerned with that at all.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian leaves CBS’s Gayle King in a state of shock after he defends the Trump administration’s planned changes to the FAA:

“The cuts do not affect us. I’ve been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the, the cuts at this… pic.twitter.com/3SvKqWlLVR

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 19, 2025

“When narrative runs into reality,” CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings wrote on X, responding to Kirk’s video. 

Via The Cradle

Israeli settlers are still reluctant to return to the northern settlements, which were evacuated as a result of Hezbollah’s pro-Palestine operations. 

Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent Yair Kraus reported that settlers from the Metula settlement have filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court requesting a conditional order and hearing to discuss an appeal for the settlement’s exclusion from the return protocol that is set to begin in early March. 

According to the correspondent, the Metula settlement council head, David Azoulay, argued that the Israeli government’s refusal to exempt Metula residents from returning has led to a “completely unreasonable” outcome. 

It would force the settlers to leave their current accommodation, places of employment, and schools to return to an area where 70 percent of the houses have been damaged or destroyed. Azoulay also highlights a continued “security risk.”

The settlers of Metula have urged Supreme Court representatives to inspect the settlement and reevaluate the decision.  Kraus said over 2,200 projectiles struck the settlement during the war, which began in October 2023, damaging both homes and public infrastructure. The council petition states that there is no protection due to a lack of proper shelter or fortified rooms. 

Hospitals are closed, and schools are unfit to accommodate students. “For this reason, it was stated that the current situation in Metula does not allow for commercial activities, tourism (as all hotels and dozens of guest houses were damaged), agriculture, community life, welfare, health services, and more,” Kraus added. 

A settler from the Misgav Am settlement, which was also heavily targeted by the Lebanese Shia resistance group, told the Ynet news site: “I’m not feeling safe. Most people are not feeling safe because nobody knows what will happen. Now, the army has left Lebanon. So, people, I think, will wait to see what happens at the border.”

“You can see on the other side, all the Lebanese are coming home. We’re not coming home yet,” he added.  “The ceasefire with Lebanon is not ideal. It doesn’t give us the full meaning of peace,” another settler told Ynet. 

Missile, rocket, and drone attacks launched by Hezbollah from the start of the war until the announcement of the Lebanon ceasefire caused major destruction in many northern settlements – from which tens of thousands of settlers were forced to evacuate.

According to property tax data obtained by Ynet in late November, “a disturbing partial image emerges that indicates destruction and damage to approximately 9,000 buildings and over 7,000 vehicles that were damaged mainly by Hezbollah fire.”

Late Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed before his assassination that the settlers of the north would not return before a ceasefire was reached in Gaza. While the war in Lebanon came to an end before the Gaza ceasefire, most settlers are still refraining from returning due to a sense of unease. 

Citizens of south Lebanon border villages have returned to their homes despite massive destruction and the continued presence of Israeli forces on their land. 

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute,

The wailing sound you heard last Thursday was the chorus of the Beltway warmongers shrieking in despair at President Trump’s suggestion that there was no reason for the United States to be spending one trillion dollars on “defense.”

“…[O]ne of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” the President told reporters.

With this statement, President Trump blew up one of the biggest myths of our time, particularly among Republicans, that spending more on the military is essential to keeping us safe. There is a vast and well-funded network of political and industrial interests that depend on maintaining that myth, from the weapons manufacturers to the mainstream media to the think tanks and beyond. Why? Because most of what is called “defense spending” has little to do with defending this country and a lot to do with enriching the politically well-connected.

Maintaining that global military empire has bankrupted the United States while making us less safe and less free. President Trump seems to understand this. But the military-industrial complex and its cheerleaders have for decades pushed the idea that we could not survive without continuously increasing their budgets.

Thanks to the work of the “Department of Government Efficiency” we are learning that much of what has been sold as “essential spending” is nothing of the sort. Take USAID, for example. We were led to believe that this agency was feeding the poor while promoting the best kind of American values overseas. Thanks to DOGE, we learned that the money was going to absurdities like funding transgender puppet shows in Peru.

We are also learning that a great deal of USAID money was going to actually overthrow democratic governments overseas – as well as manipulate foreign media and promote censorship of “dissident” voices at home and abroad. Not only was USAID not helping countries overseas – it was actually harming them!

Just as with USAID, when we are able to see just where that one trillion military budget is going Americans are going to fully realize that they have been lied to for decades. That is why we need a full audit of the Pentagon and full transparency of the results.

We also need a change in policy. Americans are beginning to understand the economic costs of maintaining a global military empire. US taxpayers are forced to cover more than half of the entire NATO budget while European countries rattle sabers at Russia and threaten war. If Europe feels so threatened by Russia, why don’t they cover the costs of their own defense? Why do poor Americans have to pay for the defense of rich Europeans? Haven’t we had enough of this?

I very much hope that President Trump follows through with his plan to drastically reduce our bloated military budget. We can start by closing the hundreds of military bases overseas, bringing back our troops from foreign countries, and eliminating our massive commitments to NATO and other international organizations.

We will be richer, safer, and happier.

Oil extended a string of small gains as uncertainty over global supplies lingered, offsetting API’s report of another increase in US crude stockpiles.

Crude has risen this week on the prospect that supplies may tighten as oil flows through a key Kazakh pipeline were reduced and as OPEC+ considers whether to push back a planned production increase.

“Prices will likely remain rangebound, continuing to move with headlines,” Royal Bank of Canada analysts including Brian Leisen wrote in a note, adding that “as more time passes without the market realizing a substantial catalyst,” traders will tend to position themselves closer to average prices.

So all eyes are on the official data this morning for confirmation of the inventory rise.

API

• Crude +3.34mm

• Cushing

• Gasoline +2.8mm

• Distillates -2.7mm

DOE

• Crude +4.63mm (+2.16mm exp)

• Cushing +1.47mm

• Gasoline -151k

• Distillates -2.05mm

Crude stocks rose more than expected last week – the fourth straight weekly build – as Distillates inventories drew down again but the official Gasoline stocks shift was de minimus…

Source: Bloomberg

For the first time since Nov 2023, there was no addition to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve…

Source: Bloomberg

US Crude production inched higher…

Source: Bloomberg

WTI was hovering up near the high of the day around $73 ahead of the print and is holding the gains for now…

Trading has calmed after a tumultuous start to the year, with prices locked in a narrow range this month as the market becomes increasingly numb to the array of changes that US President Donald Trump is seeking to implement.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Wednesday that President Trump’s goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

“Think about it, Donald Trump announces the External Revenue Service, and his goal is very simple (…) his goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Lutnick told Fox News host Jesse Watters.

Lutnick: Donald Trump announced the external revenue service, and his goal is simple: to abolish the internal revenue service and let all the outsiders pay. pic.twitter.com/k8KIUS8evR

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 20, 2025

Trump has said that the External Revenue Service will force foreign trade partners to “finally pay their fair share,” and has previously floated the idea of abolishing federal income taxes as part of his plans for “tariffing and taxing foreign nations to enrich our citizens.”

Lutnick also said that Elon Musk and DOGE were “going to cut” $1 trillion, “and then we’re going to get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against America, and we’re going to raise a trillion dollars of revenue.“

The IRS is responsible for collecting the federal taxes from individuals and corporations – taking in some $823 billion in individual taxes in 2024, roughly 52% of total revenue, according to the Treasury Department.

Lutnick’s remarks come as the IRS is reportedly looking to lay off thousands of workers. According to the Associated Press, the agency will start by letting go roughly 7,000 probationary workers in Washington and around the country. Those with roughly one year or less of service at the agency – largely in compliance departments – will be affected, according to the report.

The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s intensified efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency by ordering agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who have not yet gained civil service protection. They come despite IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season being told earlier this month that they would not be allowed to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration until mid-May, after the taxpayer filing deadline.

It’s unclear how the layoffs may affect tax collection services this year. As the nation’s revenue collector, the IRS was tasked during the Biden administration with targeting high-wealth tax evaders for an additional stream of income to the U.S., which is $36 trillion in debt. By the end of 2024, the IRS collected over $1.3 billion in back taxes from rich tax dodgers. -AP

On Wednesday, the NY Times reported that the IRS would begin laying off roughly 6,000 employees on Thursday, and will target ‘relatively recent hires which the Biden administration had attempted to revitalize with a surge of funding and new staff.’ According to that report, IRS managers on Wednesday began asking their employees to bring their government-issued equipment to the office.

“Under an executive order, I.R.S. has been directed to terminate probationary employees who were not deemed critical to filing season,” one email reads. “We don’t have many details that we are permitted to share, but this is all tied to compliance with the executive order.”

According to former IRS official Dave Kautter, “There’s a flood of résumés from people at the I.R.S. looking for jobs throughout the tax community,” adding “Law firms are getting a fair number of résumés, accounting firms are getting a fair number of résumés.”

The IRS employs roughly 90,000 people across the country.

*  *  *

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