Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Yesterday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) had a much covered interaction with CNN’s Manu Raju who asked him about Trump’s criminal trial and whether he was guilty of the underlying criminal conduct. Romney responded “I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” I have previously defended Romney in his votes on impeachment despite our disagreement on the constitutional standard. I also understand that he was making a more general comment on character.

However, his response is precisely what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is seeking from the jury: a verdict on Trump as a person rather than the underlying criminal allegations.

Trump is currently facing 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree regarding payments made to Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. As I discuss today in the New York Post, many of us (including liberal legal experts) still question whether there is any crime alleged by Bragg. Raju reasonably asked Romney for his own view.

Romney is an interesting person to ask. He is not only a critic of the President from within his own party but he is a former businessman who has had to deal with complex reporting and business obligations.

Romney’s response must be encouraging for Bragg.

Rather than address the ambiguous criminal allegation, Romney suggested that Trump was guilty as charged in having a tryst with a former porn star.

The defense is not contesting the payment and the fact of the affair is not central to the allegations.

The question is whether the payments were unlawfully denoted as legal expenses with the intent to somehow steal the 2016 election.

Asked Mitt Romney about the hush money allegations against Trump.

“I think everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump’s character, and so far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” pic.twitter.com/ofBL15MJw1

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 23, 2024

It is not a crime to use a NDA or other means to quash an embarrassing story.

Bill Clinton had a host of lawyers quashing allegations of affairs and sexual assaults throughout his presidency. He ran into trouble when he committed perjury in the effort to hide what Hillary Clinton called one of his “bimbo eruptions.”

Moreover, denoting this as a legal expense, on the advice of counsel, is not necessarily wrong. It is not clear how it should have been to be denoted. A “nuisance payment”? The campaign of Hillary Clinton and its general counsel Marc Elias hid the funding of the Steele dossier as a legal expense and was fined by the government for doing so. They litigated the question and insisted that that is precisely what it was.

Romney is precisely what Bragg is looking for in these jurors. Smart and savvy, he still viewed the question of the trial as whether Trump had an affair with Stormy Daniels.  If so, it was not a legal expense. Yet, quashing the story and avoiding any litigation was a legal matter with the eventual crafting of the NDA.

There are a lot of motivations for NDAs of this kind. Trump was married. He was the host of a hit television show (with a clause on termination for scandalous conduct). And, yes, he was also seeking to be president. He wanted these stories killed and friends like David Pecker were helping in that effort. What those facts say about the former president’s “character” will remain a matter of public debate and, as Romney said, most long ago reached their own conclusions. Yet, it is the crime not the character of Trump that is at issue in Manhattan.

Alvin Bragg would like the trial to remain a verdict on character, which is why he started the trial discussing not the Daniels matter but an uncharged affair and settlement with a former Playboy bunny. It is why he fought hard (and succeeded) in being able to question Trump about past cases involving an alleged assault and fraudulent conduct. As legal experts continue this week to debate if there is even a crime alleged in the indictment, Bragg is making a case that Trump’s lack of character is beyond a reasonable doubt.

To be fair, Romney was not giving a full interview on the case in his statement to CNN and may well have some reservations about the Bragg indictment. However, Bragg is likely hoping that “everybody has made their own assessment of President Trump,” including twelve jurors currently sitting in the Manhattan courtroom.

Gucci owner Kering SA’s problems in mainland China are only mounting as the French luxury giant issued a profit warning. As a result, shares of the company in Paris plunged to a six-year low. 

Lackluster Chinese demand for the luxury goods maker, which includes the Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Creed, and Alexander McQueen brands, sparked turmoil in Paris trading on Wednesday. Shares were down as much as 10%, tumbling to lows not seen since October 2017. 

Kering said its sales in the first quarter dropped 11%, citing “tough market conditions” in its Asia-Pacific unit, particularly in China, one of the world’s largest luxury goods markets. 

• Group first-quarter revenue: €4,504 million, down 11% as reported and down 10% on a comparable basis

“Kering’s performance worsened considerably in the first quarter. While we had anticipated a challenging start to the year, sluggish market conditions, notably in China, and the strategic repositioning of certain of our Houses, starting with Gucci, exacerbated downward pressures on our topline,” Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Kering, wrote in a statement.

Pinault continued, “In view of this revenue decline, together with our firm determination to continue investing selectively in the long-term appeal and distinctiveness of our brands, we now expect to deliver sharply lower operating profit in the first half of this year. All of us are working tirelessly to see Kering through the current challenges and rebuild a solid platform for enduring growth.”

Here’s a snapshot of the first quarter earnings (courtesy of Bloomberg):

• Comparable revenue -10%, estimate -10.2% (Bloomberg Consensus)

• Gucci revenue on a comparable basis -18%, estimate -19.4%

• Yves Saint Laurent revenue on a comparable basis -6%, estimate -6.75% 

• Bottega Veneta revenue on a comparable basis +2%, estimate -0.05% 

• Other Houses revenue on a comparable basis -6%, estimate -4.23% 

• Eyewear & corporate revenue on a comparable basis +9%, estimate +18.1%

• Revenue EU4.50 billion, -11% y/y, estimate EU4.47 billion 

• Gucci revenue EU2.08 billion, -21% y/y, estimate EU2.05 billion

• Yves Saint Laurent revenue EU740 million, -8.2% y/y, estimate EU737.1 million

• Bottega Veneta revenue EU388 million, -1.8% y/y, estimate EU381.5 million

• Other Houses revenue EU824 million, -7.4% y/y, estimate EU834.4 million

• Eyewear & corporate revenue EU536 million, +24% y/y, estimate EU517 million

In the financial outlook, Kering warned that, considering “deterioration revenue trends,” the company now expects “a decline of 40 to 45% in first-half 2024 recurring operating income compared to the first half of 2023.” 

In February, Pinault stated, “Our priority is to get Gucci back on track,” adding that this “won’t happen overnight.”

Kering has scrambled to turn the sinking ship around, as Gucci accounts for half the group’s sales. 

Here’s what Wall Street analysts are saying about Kering’s profit warning amid fears the revamp of Gucci is faltering (list courtesy of Bloomberg): 

Deutsche Bank (buy, PT cut to €460 from €540)

• Kering has followed up its surprise first-quarter revenue pre- release with a bigger-than-expected flow-through into first-half Ebit guidance, analyst Adam Cochrane says

• There are “limited green shoots” with regards to Gucci at this stage, and will have to wait until the third or even fourth quarter to see if the Sabato proportion of the collection hit 30-40%

RBC Capital Markets (outperform, PT cut to €430 from €440)

• While Gucci’s margin cut is “optically bad,” it was well- anticipated and largely in the price, analyst Piral Dadhania says

•  Performance is currently challenged, with no improvement in second-quarter trading, but the market will likely focus on sequential revenue growth improvement driven by new product introductions

Bryan Garnier (neutral, PT cut to €350 from €405)

• Kering was even worse than expected, says analyst Loic Morvan, even amid marginal signs of improvement at the top and bottom- line in the second half

Jefferies (hold, PT cut to €360 from €370)

• Kering’s update confirmed Ebit under pressure in the first half, with Gucci’s recovery expected to be only gradual over this year, writes analyst James Grzinic

• Analyst is encouraged that the group is seeking external partners for real estate holdings, but triangulating Gucci’s renaissance remains a “challenging affair”

Morgan Stanley (equal-weight, PT cut to €365 from €405)

• Management’s tone was cautious on the call regarding the sales and profit trajectory for the remainder of the year, analyst Edouard Aubin writes

• The warning is more a function of incremental operating deleverage rather than proactive investments behind the brands

Citi (buy, PT €470)

• Citi analyst Thomas Chauvet says that Gucci’s design transition and new brand aesthetics might be slower-than- expected in driving brand heat and store traffic

• The greatest source of uncertainty this year is the shape of demand in subsequent quarters, and its impact on profitability

Bloomberg Intelligence

• Gucci’s rebuild is dragging toward 2025, analyst Deborah Aitken says, adding that overhaul efforts are taking longer, while Kering’s second-biggest brand YSL is also weaker, which requires deeper investment

• Sabato de Sarno’s collection will take until the third quarter for fuller own-retail store visibility, pushing the resumption of growth to 2025

This all plays into the slowdown of the global luxury market, reflected in the MSCI Inc. index of global luxury stocks, finding three lower highs since peaking during the Covid mania of late 2021. 

Another ominous sign is the flashing red from the watch market just days ago. 

Swiss Watch Exports Crash In China & Hong Kong https://t.co/i2LXXHa5aK

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 19, 2024

The underperformance of luxury results from shoppers who are pulling back on spending, especially in Asia, as the Chinese economic recovery has yet to impress anyone. 

New footage has emerged on X of what appears to be a possible explosion moments before the Douglas C-54 Skymaster cargo plane crashed into the Tanana River near Fairbanks, Alaska, on Tuesday evening. 

AP News said the Douglas C-54, a variant of the DC-4 airliner, crashed about 7 miles from Fairbanks International Airport. 

Clint Johnson, chief of the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska regional office, said the cause of the C-54’s crash remained unknown, and an investigation is being launched.  

Pilot Michaela Matherne, who was en route from the village of Galena to Fairbanks at the time of the incident, recounted, “When we were in the air there was speculation that it was a cabin that caught fire.” 

X user Rawsalerts posted land-based security footage of what appears to show a catastrophic failure that brought down the World War II-era cargo plane.

🚨#BREAKING: New Security footage has captured the moment when a Douglas C-54D-DC Skymaster, plane operated by Alaska Air Fuel, crashed soon after takeoff from Fairbanks International Airport in Alaska. Both pilots were killed and the aircraft was destroyed pic.twitter.com/t1MQd3wgB9

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) April 24, 2024

We don’t want to speculate too much about that failure because an NTSB investigation has yet to be completed, but the video above appears to show an explosion, possibly occurring in one of the engines. 

Here’s what X users are saying:

This is incredible footage to have. Such a remote location, and a camera placed looking at JUST the right location. Wow.

— Ankush sharma (@Aku_700) April 24, 2024

Definitely a left engine failure. Could have been a bird strike, especially at that altitude. Sucks regardless.

— James | Modern Outdoorsman (@Rugged_James) April 24, 2024

Looks like an explosion

— Big John Studd II (@bjstudd07041776) April 24, 2024

What happened to the engine?
Wonder how it exploded? pic.twitter.com/jRxOCJQRe1

— Mahalo (@mahalojo) April 24, 2024

Next question: What caused the explosion?  

Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Award-winning journalist Alex Newman, author of the popular book “Deep State” and the new best-selling book called “Indoctrinating Our Children to Death,” says the UN’s quest for total tyrannical control of your life is coming sooner than you could imagine. 

Newman explains, “The bigger story here that people are not paying attention to is the UN is coming together in September… and they are having ‘The Summit of the Future.’ “

“They are telling us they are going to bring out radical drastic reforms in the structure of the UN… and the power of the UN.  Think of it as the biggest power grab ever at the global level.  The Secretary General of the UN (António Guterres) has put out briefs where he is calling for the UN to be the one world global dictatorship with him at the helm.  In emergencies, the UN would have all power in emergencies and have all power to oversee emergency response…

They say the crisis could be a climate crisis, an economic crisis, environmental crisis, pandemic crisis, black swan crisis or maybe something from outer space.  So, basically, anything could be a crisis, and when the Secretary General declares a crisis, all power and authority would go to the UN.  This is like a blank check on the wealth and liberty on every person on the planet, and this is coming soon.  It is imminent.  This is coming in September at the UN, and it is a power grab of historic proportions. 

They know their time is short, and they are going for the big enchilada here.  This is really a summit for a tyrannical future…

They want control of every aspect of your life.”

If you think the “depopulation” or murder program by the Deep State is some sort of conspiracy theory or myth, think again.  Newman says:

“One of the interesting things about going to the UN conferences is they are totally open and totally transparent about the fact that they think there are way too many of us on this planet. 

We are taking up their space and consuming their resources.  They say this openly. 

They say there are way too many people having way too many babies, and we have to drastically cut back on the number of people on the planet.  They have a whole agency dedicated to this called the UN Population Fund.”

One sure fire way to kill a lot of people in a short amount of time is war.  Newman says:

“They have understood, the globalists, the Deep State, the evil doers and the sick cabal, have understood for a very long time that war was the best mechanism for bringing about their totalitarian one world government. 

This is not speculation on my part.  This is what they say.  Their game plan is war, famine, energy crisis and economic crisis.  These are all tools and catalysts for accelerating this agenda. 

If millions of people die in a third world war, and it does not matter if it is Iran and Israel, or China and Tiawan, or Ukraine and Russia, it really does not matter, they want millions and millions of people dead so people will give up their attachment to the nation state, self-government and individual liberty and give up anything, money or freedom, anything to make it stop.”

Don’t lose hope because Newman also talks about all the things you can do to not comply with tyranny.   

Newman also points out what state and local governments can do and are doing to resist this UN total control of everything.  Newman says, “We are at war, and everyone needs to put on the full armor of God.”

There is much more in the 40-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with hard-hitting journalist Alex Newman, founder of LibertySentinel.org and author of the runaway best-selling new book called “Indoctrinating Our Children to Death,” for 4.20.24.

*  *  *

To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

To order Newman’s new book called “Indoctrinating Our Children to Death,” click here. Newman’s website is called LibertySentinel.org.  There is lots of free information and articles. For a copy of Alex Newman’s popular book “Deep State,” click here.

Another near-mid-air disaster involving a Boeing 737-8EH was narrowly averted. The incident occurred last weekend in South Africa as the narrow-body airliner traveling from Johannesburg to Cape Town lost a wheel and was forced to make an emergency landing. 

South African budget carrier FlySafair operated the 737. According to the aviation blog AirLive, one of the plane’s main gear wheels separated during takeoff from Johannesburg.

Following the wheel separation, the 737 descended from 22,000 feet and returned to the airport.

LIVE: #FlySafair flight FA212 lost a wheel on take-off from Johannesburg Int Airport (FAOR) for a flight to Cape TOWN (FACT).

Return to airport and landing now.#SouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/mBM0UsXLIm

— Dean Wingrin (@deanwingrin) April 21, 2024

The pilots then performed a low pass inspection for air traffic controllers. 

Low level pass for inspection. Lots of emergency vehicles on the runway. pic.twitter.com/RRjTyybPN6

— Dean Wingrin (@deanwingrin) April 21, 2024

This revealed the left main gear was missing a wheel. 

Via internet pic.twitter.com/rS7C3HQ4a2

— Dean Wingrin (@deanwingrin) April 21, 2024

After that, pilots performed an emergency landing.

Video released by #FlySafair pic.twitter.com/95qClbvwBZ

— Dean Wingrin (@deanwingrin) April 21, 2024

Aviation authorities are currently investigating how the wheel separated from the landing gear. 

📹 A Flysafair Boeing 737 lost one of its left rear wheels on take-off from Johannesburg to Cape Town today. Flight FA212 took off at 11.32AM and landed back safely at 2.06PM after burning fuel which included low fly past over OR Tambo Int for emergency services to assess damage pic.twitter.com/5pny2SR3Mt

— ZimLive (@zimlive) April 21, 2024

Found it. 

Possibly the culprit pic.twitter.com/uXQrwP3bm4

— Dean Wingrin (@deanwingrin) April 21, 2024

The incident comes days after whistleblower Sam Salehpour’s testimony on Capitol Hill, in which he accused Boeing of “putting out defective airplanes.”

The 737’s wheel separation adds to a growing list of recent mid-air incidents involving Boeing jets, which include collapsed landing gear, detached door plugs, engine fires, external covers ripping off, and other cases of wheels coming off. This incident underscores the mounting confidence crisis surrounding Boeing jets. 

Via SchiffGold.com,

What is Nvidia? If you’re a committed gamer the question may sound like nonsense. Nvidia, which was founded in 1993, is a tech company that makes GPUs and other products. It originally specialized in making products for the video game industry, that assisted in 3D rendering. If you were a committed gamer, you probably owned their products. If you weren’t, you might not have heard of them.

But with sudden advances in artificial intelligence, it has been everywhere in the news because its products can also be used for artificial intelligence. Its fourth-quarter revenue from Q4 2022 to 2023 literally increased 265%.

A decade ago, its market capitalization hovered around $10 billion In 2016, it was around $50 billion.. As of April 2024, it was worth over $2 trillion. The Motley Fool ranked it third most valuable publicly traded company in the world, just behind Apple. It is now over five times more valuable than Walmart. It is one of the best-performing stocks of the last few years.

Sometimes the stock market, particularly tech stocks, are placed in a different mental bucket than traditional investments and stores of value, such as gold and silver.

But often precious metals are more closely connected to tech than some think.

And that is because one of the essential components in many of its products is gold. Nvidia uses various metals to make its products- gold of course, as well as tantalum, tungsten and tin. SchiffGold has long covered how demand for industrial silver use is forecasted to rise, but many high-tech industries depend on the industrial use of gold as well.

GPU microchips are made with gold as well as other metals like minum, silicon, and copper because of their useful conductive properties. Of course, the monetary value of gold provides an incentive to minimize its use, but the chemical properties of gold remain so useful that manufacturers continue to use gold in chips and sometimes in internal computer wiring and switches despite their cost.

As competition for the best GPUs heats up and the price of GPUs is likely going to rise due to advances in artificial intelligence, the cost of the metal in GPUs will become less relevant to the overall cost of gold. 

This means that manufacturers can use more gold in their products without dramatically increasing the cost of their GPUs and other products.

Perhaps that’s why some savvy investors are betting on both gold and artificial intelligence companies.

One prominent example is Stanley Druckenmiller who shifted his allocation away from big tech and towards AI and gold.

More gold may currently be used for investment or jewelry than in high-tech, but it’s intriguing that humanity’s newest and most advanced technology, artificial intelligence, has looped around to depend on our oldest kind of money.

Gold’s resilience depends on its historic, current, and future usage as money. It’s buoyed by its beauty and use in jewelry and decoration. But its value is also driven by its unique chemical features that power the greatest technologies in the world.

The cost of gold encourages companies to seek alternatives to it, but its natural features guarantee that it’s still used as a vital component of computers and GPUs despite its cost.

Multiple Chinese companies are focused on commercializing flying cars, utilizing a design that is different from the popular eVTOL aircraft that have been developed over the last several years, according to a new report from Nikkei this week. 

XPeng AeroHT, an affiliate of the electric vehicle startup, plans to market a dual-mode eVTOL vehicle capable of both driving on roads and flying. The Civil Aviation Administration of China is currently reviewing the aircraft for commercial certification.

Nikkei reports that pre-orders in China are set to start in October, with mass production anticipated next year, targeting tourism companies and outdoor enthusiasts. Initially priced around 1 million yuan ($138,000), XPeng AeroHT aims to reduce costs in the future and is also planning to expand internationally.

Qiu Mingquan, vice president at XPeng AeroHT commented: “Normal eVTOL vehicles cannot drive on the ground, but our model is dual use.”

“If large-scale mass production becomes possible, we can dramatically reduce costs,” Qiu said, adding: “The Middle East is an important market for us, given the level of regulation, openness to new things and cost.”

And, hey – the best part is you almost can’t even notice a difference from a regular looking car!

As is blindingly obvious from the above photo, XPeng AeroHT is developing an integrated eVTOL aircraft that doesn’t require detachment, with the flight propeller folding on top during road use.

It debuted a concept model at a Las Vegas trade show in January. Meanwhile, EHang’s two-seater EH216-S, capable of a 25-minute flight per charge, began sales on April 1 after receiving type certification in October. Last month, EHang was authorized for mass production and plans to partner with hospitality businesses for tourism services.

The report notes that China leads globally in eVTOL development, holding 50% of the world’s models, significantly ahead of the U.S. and Germany. This surge is supported by advancements in EV technologies like high-density batteries essential for eVTOLs, with Chinese firms like CATL at the forefront.

Other Chinese initiatives include Guangzhou Automobile Group’s GOVE eVTOL with a detachable aircraft section, and Geely’s Aerofugia, a six-seater for longer flights. China’s burgeoning “low-altitude economy,” which includes eVTOLs, drones, and helicopters, is being actively promoted by the government alongside biotech and space industries, with local support measures from cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

However, the expansion faces challenges such as limited takeoff/landing infrastructure and undefined traffic regulations for eVTOLs.

One eVTOL executive told Nikkei: “We will be forced to fly relatively infrequently for the next few years.”

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

The UK saw two consecutive quarters of wind power overtaking fossil fuels as the single-largest source of electricity generation for the first time, per data from think tank Ember quoted by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire.

In the first quarter of 2024, wind-generated a total of 25.3 terawatt hours (TWh) of Britain’s electricity, higher than the 23.6 TWh generated from fossil fuel sources, Ember data showed.

As a result, wind power generated an average of 39.4% of the UK’s electricity between January and March 2024, versus a 36.2% share of fossil fuel generation.  

Wind power generation, however, could begin to dip with warmer and still weather in the summer months, Reuters’s Maguire notes.

Last September, a report prepared for power group Drax showed that Britain has now installed more wind capacity than any other type of power source, with wind power capacity overtaking combined-cycle gas power stations for the first time and ending more than a century of fossil fuels dominating the electricity system.

As of June 2023, Britain’s fleet of wind farms reached 27.9 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, exceeding the gas-powered stations total capacity of 27.7 GW, according to the study prepared by experts from Imperial College London and the University of Sussex for the quarterly Drax Electric Insights.

For the whole of 2023, power generation from renewable technologies matched the previous record high of 2022 but renewables’ share of electricity generation increased to a record 47.3%, UK government data showed last month.

Wind generation hit a record-high share of 28.7% of generation in 2023, up from just 2.7% back in 2010.

Generation from fossil fuels fell to a record low, a share of 36.3%, but generation from gas remained the principal form of UK generation at 34.3%, the statistics from the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero showed.

Low carbon power generation, of renewables and nuclear combined, increased to a record-high share of 61.5% in 2023.

A staffer who worked for a high profile German member of European Parliament for years has been arrested on charges of spying for Chinese intelligence, Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday.

Identified only as Jian G., he had reportedly been a staff member for German MEP Maximilian Krah going back to 2019. Krah is with what mainstream media commonly dubs the “far-right” AfD (Alternative for Germany party).

“In January 2024 the accused repeatedly shared information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament with his intelligence service employer,” the prosecutors office said.

The suspect has also been accused of spying on and monitoring Chinese opposition communities inside Germany. Beijing has long been suspected in the West, including the US, of keeping close tabs on the political leanings and activism of expat enclaves via a network of spies connected to consulates.

German interior minister Nancy Faeser subsequently announced on X, “If it is confirmed that there was espionage for Chinese intelligence services from within the European Parliament, then that would be an attack on European democracy from within. Whoever employs such a person carries responsibility.”

The investigation into “Jian G”, who was detained Monday, was led by German domestic intelligence services. Recent days and weeks have seen other arrests in Europe of suspected Chinese spies, including a couple in the UK in recent days.

On Tuesday China’s foreign minister reacted by denouncing the “hype” surrounding such cases, describing it as more anti-China propaganda aimed at political manipulation and to ratchet pressure on Beijing.

According to Politico, “The bombshell arrest, which rocks the AfD while it polls in second place nationally, sparked calls from one top European lawmaker for a tougher crackdown on Chinese and Russian infiltrators attempting to influence EU democracy.”

Authored by Thomas Brooke via ReMix News,

The notion that mass immigration brings a net economic benefit to a developed nation is a myth that needs to be debunked, a former U.K. government minister who resigned over the spiraling numbers arriving in Britain has claimed.

In an interview with the Conservative Home website, Robert Jenrick, the Conservative MP who stepped down from his role as immigration minister in the Home Office last year, called the government’s post-Brexit immigration policy a “complete disaster” and a “betrayal to voters” who for decades have elected parties promising to cut the number of new arrivals into Britain.

“The numbers are just so large that it has a proportionally much greater impact on everyone’s lives. This cuts to the housing crisis, why we have such low productivity, and why we have concerns about community cohesion and integration,” he told the site.

Net migration is at record levels in Britain since the U.K. left the European Union, peaking in the year to December 2022 at 745,000. It subsequently fell to 672,000 in the year to June 2023, but after leaving the European Union Single Market, this is a paradox that Jenrick finds difficult to accept.

“For years, politicians made promises to cut legal migration they knew they couldn’t keep because ultimately the UK was beholden to the EU’s freedom of movement.

“The great reform was the Conservative Party delivering Brexit, which finally took back control of the levers of migration. But the decisions made in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote were a betrayal to voters — they created a system that was even more liberal than the one before by lowering the salary threshold, creating a graduate route and an unregulated social care visa,” he said.

“Frankly, these decisions were two fingers up to the public, and in public policy terms they’ve been a complete disaster.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made “stopping the boats” a key pledge throughout his tenure in Downing Street — a nod to the illegal immigration crisis on England’s southern shores as thousands of undocumented migrants are transported across the English Channel from mainland Europe where they claim asylum and use human rights laws to avoid deportation.

However, despite attempts to combat this issue through the flagship Rwanda policy — a plan to deport migrants to the African nation for offshore processing — Jenrick believes that this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tackling immigration.

“To me, legal migration has always been the more important issue,” he explained.

“I’m 42, and for my entire adult life, if not longer, political parties of all persuasions have stood at elections saying they’re going to bring down the level of legal migration.

“All alighted on this challenge, said they were going to take action, and all ultimately failed.”

The Conservative MP challenged the view that mass immigration has a net economic benefit on a developed country like Britain, highlighting that just 15 percent of non-EU migrants who came to the country last year arrived with work visas.

“So, the overwhelming majority of people were students, dependants, or were those coming as refugees.”

The figure is actually slightly higher than 15 percent. In the year to June 2023, 968,000 non-EU migrants arrived in Britain, of which just 169,000 were the main applicants on a work visa, amounting to 17.5 percent.

“One can make arguments for and against each of those categories, but they’re not people who are demonstrably making an economic contribution to this country.”

He warned the economic model that Britain has adopted when it comes to immigration isn’t working.

“If importing hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to the UK was a route to prosperity, the U.K. would be one of the richest countries in the world,” he said, adding that Britain has been in a recession in terms of GDP per capita for almost the last two years.

“I care about the prosperity of our own citizens, not the overall size of the economy.”

The former immigration minister accused businesses in Britain of becoming “hooked on the drug of imported foreign labor” and said the government had done too little to “boost training for young people in our country” to take on jobs in key sectors like construction.

He urged the government to adopt a “highly selective” immigration policy that enables it to choose the types of people that will make an economic contribution to Britain, noting that there is no longer the bogeyman of the European Union to fall back on as a reason why immigration figures should remain as high as they are now.

“What we need is radically reduced, highly-selective, high-skilled, and high-productivity migration,” Jenrick added, suggesting that an annual cap could “serve as a democratic lock” on Britain’s immigration policy and ensure that promises to the electorate to bring down the numbers are met.

Several studies support Jenrick’s observation that mass immigration is an economic drag on developed nations.

In November 2021, a Danish Ministry of Finance report revealed that the net cost of immigration from non-Western countries, after tax contributions had been deducted, amounted to €4.2 billion in 2018.

Similarly, a study from the University of Amsterdam published in December last year revealed the net cost to the Dutch public sector for decades of mass immigration between 1995 and 2019 was €400 billion, averaging €17 billion a year.

The research categorized the types of migrants arriving in the Netherlands during that time by nationality, revealing that those arriving from other EU and European countries had a net positive contribution to the Dutch economy, while those coming from countries such as Turkey and Morocco had cost the Dutch taxpayer the most with a net negative contribution of €200,000 and €260,000, respectively.

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