Throughout China’s quest to become the global leader in technology, the one aspect that’s been lacking in comparison to the countries whose IP they steal is a lack of innovation.

Enter Joe Biden’s FTC – which may have just become China’s unlikely ally in their quest to become #1.

As former Trump administration advisor Brian Cavanaugh writes in The Hill;

Under Chairwoman Lina Khan, the FTC has embarked on a multi-continent crusade against American tech giants, all in the name of antitrust policy. Most concerning, the FTC announced in March that it would send its own agency officials to aid Europe in implementing and enforcing the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). When challenged in an April congressional hearing, Khan defended her position as simply “good government.”

This 2022 law from the EU is aimed at curbing Big Tech dominance and creating opportunities for European tech companies to compete. It designates a class of tech companies as tech “gatekeepers,” and subjects these companies to additional rules from which other tech firms are exempted. The EU’s goal is to give its own companies an advantage over their larger American counterparts, But in reality, it will only undermine innovation while increasing dependency on technology from China.

Kavanaugh notes that the FTC has committed to enforcing a European law requiring gatekeepers to share certain data with rival tech companies, which will significantly hinder their ability to use their proprietary data for other services. If companies fail to do this, the EU will fine them.

The compliance costs alone are astounding, and could be as high as $50 billion according to one recent study on the new compliance and operational costs on tech gatekeepers. The costs, Kavanaugh aptly points out, will be passed on to consumers one way or another, while American tech companies designated as gatekeepers will most likely need to create new services to comply with the EU rules, or completely pull their offerings out of the EU digital markets, to the detriment of US and European consumers.

Here’s where it benefits China…

Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of so-called gatekeepers are American companies. Even Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in 2021 that there are serious concerns the DMA “will disproportionately impact U.S.-based tech firms and their ability to adequately serve EU customers and uphold security and privacy standards.”

The business environment created by the DMA will not create the level playing field for competition that it seeks. On the contrary, it will enable Chinese tech firms — directed by the Chinese Communist Party — to catch up and dominate digital markets. In fact, this is the goal of China’s trillion-dollar investments in advanced technology, to make the world increasingly dependent on its technology for political and economic leverage.

So, by letting Chinese tech companies swoop in and displace America’s, a whole host of new privacy and security concerns would emerge within the digital market – including consumer data ending up in the hands of the CCP. What’s more, “while the EU is targeting American tech companies with the DMA, it also continues to embed state-subsidized, low-cost Chinese technology into its critical infrastructure, compounding the national security risks.”

In short, FTC chairwoman Lina Kahn is aiding other nations in “hobbling American tech leadership,” which jeopardizes America’s ability to remain competitive.

Just don’t forget – it’s 10% to the Big Guy…

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

The effects of Fed rate rises will be increasingly amplified as households’ duration risk rises, strengthening the hand of those in the FOMC who would prefer a “wait-and-see” approach to further tightening.

Five hundred basis points of rate rises in a little over a year would normally be expected to cause some damage. While there have been a few casualties along the way, and growth has taken a hit, it’s remarkable how resilient the economy has been.

Yet this rate-hiking cycle has been different from others in that the Fed has had a large amount, over $5 trillion, of the market’s duration risk sitting on its balance sheet, shielding the economy from the worst of the effects of rate rises.

That is changing though. The Fed is allowing securities to run-off its balance sheet. Banks are selling Treasuries as they typically do when rates rise. And foreigners are on net not buying as FX hedging costs and a deeply inverted yield curve make USTs less attractive.

The duration has to go somewhere, and it is households and corporates whose debt holdings are rising, by $2.5 trillion in the last year.

Households have also been shielded from higher rates by fixed mortgage rates. The effective rate on existing mortgages is only around 3.5%, considerably less than the market rate of 7%.

Adjustable-rate mortgages are 15% of the dollar value of all mortgages (according to the Mortgage Bankers Association), this is much lower than the 45% peak seen before the housing crisis, but more than a doubling from the ~7% seen before the pandemic.

As ARMs refix to higher rates, more households will experience the “real feel” of 5% points of rate hikes, along with the impact from the $2.5 trillion increase in debt exposure (taking the total amount to $8.3 trillion).

This comes as the Fed uses more “jaw-jaw” to reduce the size of the market’s implied Fed pivot. The spread between Dec 23 and Dec 24 SOFR futures continues to steepen, rising 34 bps since early June.

The net impact is the cumulative effect of the Fed’s hikes thus far will be felt more keenly across the economy.

A new month, another movement, which means corporate media has moved on from everything about rainbows and refocused its energy on climate doom.

The most popular weather story of the day by nearly every corporate media outlet on Wednesday is global climate temperatures hitting a record high earlier this week as the blame is being placed on fossil fuels. 

You’re not fooling anyone CNN (“since records began”). 

Tuesday was Earth’s hottest day since records began https://t.co/y88GusKCHB pic.twitter.com/RHc2OX6NG6

— CNN (@CNN) July 5, 2023

Come on, Bloomberg… “Ever”? 

🧵THREAD: 1) How hot is it where you live right now?

Monday was the hottest day ever globally, and heat records will keep being broken as long as emissions continue to increase https://t.co/RlzGNrUcX1

— Bloomberg (@business) July 5, 2023

More of this “hottest day ever recorded on the planet.” 

July 4th was the hottest day ever recorded on the planet and the forecast for today is also in record territory, according to the University of Maine Climate Change Institute. https://t.co/m2kBUndKe8
https://t.co/l9fH1bRclg

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 5, 2023

Data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction said the average worldwide temperature topped 17C (63F) on Monday, exceeding the previous record in August 2016. Data from Bloomberg shows temperatures have risen above levels dating back to 1979. 

But wait a minute, how can corporate media and global warming alarmists say it’s the hottest day ever with data going back only four decades while the Earth is 4.543 billion years old? It seems like cherry-picking data at its finest. 

Plus, what do you expect? It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and an El Nino weather phenomenon is pushing global temperatures higher. 

Make sure to mark all the maps in scary red, ok? pic.twitter.com/JaheoJpuwV

— DJ (@StillHereX4) July 5, 2023

As a reminder, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has stated, “El Niño and La Niña are naturally occurring climate patterns, and humans have no direct ability to influence their onset, intensity or duration.”

And, of course, UN Secretary-General António Guterres commented on the climate doom by saying, “Our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once.” 

This media blitz about global warming with cherry-picked data back to the 1970s comes as the Biden administration wants to block the sunlight to save the planet. 

By Michael Msika, Bloomberg Markets live reporter and strategist

It’s the last thing that key German industries — already confronting a weak earnings outlook — need this summer: The Rhine is declining rapidly, another potentially nasty headache for Europe’s biggest economy.

Dwindling water levels at Kaub, a chokepoint that can prove a struggle for vessels on their journey inland, are evoking memories of the hot summers of 2022, 2018 and 2015.

Snaking roughly 800 miles (1,288 kilometers) from Switzerland to the North Sea, the Rhine carries vital deliveries and exports of heating oil, gasoline, coal and other commodities. The river is back in focus after disruptions to shipping last summer left parts of inland Europe short of fuel, a problem made worse by a spate of refinery outages.

The DAX Index dropped 20% from early June until late September in 2022 as investors added worries over the Rhine’s navigability to a list of concerns ranging from other supply chain glitches and high inflation to the war in Ukraine and a weakening global economy.

The Rhine could again be about to leave the DAX high and dry. The German blue-chip benchmark is already underperforming other major European peers like the CAC, the FTSEMIB and the IBEX, once dividends are stripped out to establish a fair comparison.

The bad economic news is beginning to stack up too. Final German manufacturing activity numbers for June showed further deterioration, softness that may eventually drag stocks lower. So far, German manufacturers have brushed off weakness in PMI numbers this year, much like companies in other major European markets. When that resistance finally crumbles, the effects could be stark: industrials, construction materials and chemicals account for about 31% of the DAX and carmakers about 12%.

In the lead-up to reporting their results, some prominent German companies have warned about the outlook for profits, including chemical manufacturers Lanxess and K+S, and electrical power equipment maker Siemens Energy.

“We see the risk of a disappointing 2Q23 earnings season, given weak manufacturing data and companies increasingly flagging the impact of a more challenging macro environment,” says Unicredit strategist Christian Stocker. He notes that chemical company profit warnings bode ill for European industrials in general, while a strong decline in German Ifo business climate readings over the past two months — a test of sentiment at 9,000 businesses — is ominous.

 
Of course, companies have emergency plans for dealing with low river levels, and these steps might limit the threat of supply challenges or production halts. Utility EnBW, for example, has built up its coal stock. Chemical manufacturer BASF has a small fleet of special barges suited to a shallower Rhine. Evonik Industries last year chartered additional ships and trucks to compensate for reduced capacity on barges. The effectiveness of these strategies could soon be put to a fresh test.

Authored by Will Jones via The Daily Sceptic,

In a move that gives the lie to years of propaganda claiming falling costs, the wind industry’s leading lobbyists have written to the Government threatening to abandon the U.K. unless subsidies for their companies are hugely increased…

The industry lobbyists claim that unforeseen rising costs now require three actions:

1. A revision to the auction rules so that the winners are not determined by lowest bids but by an administrative decision that weights bids according to their ‘value’ in contributing towards the Net Zero targets.

2. Special new targets and thus market shares for floating offshore wind, one of the most expensive of all forms of generation;

3. A vast increase in the budget for the fifth auction (AR5) of Contracts for Difference subsidies, with an increase of two and half times the current levels for non-floating offshore wind alone;

Such changes, were the Government to agree to them, would not only increase the total amount of subsidy to an industry that was until recently claiming no longer to need public support, but also provide the industry with protected shares of the energy market, eliminating risks for investors at the expense of the paying public. It would also clearly be an open invitation to corruption.

Climate lobby group Net Zero Watch has urged the Government to stand up for consumers by rejecting the wind industry’s latest demands.

Dr. John Constable, Net Zero Watch’s Energy Director, said:

“It would be both absurd and counterproductive for Government to bail out the wind industry in spite of the evident failure to reduce costs. A refusal to learn from mistakes will be disastrous.”

In a press release, the organisation argued the Government should “reject the self-serving demands” because the U.K. economy should not be expected to continue to subsidise a sector “that is still uneconomic after nearly 20 years of above-market prices and guaranteed market share”.

“The wind experiment has failed and must be wound down,” it adds.

The Government should also be mindful that U.K. households and businesses are already experiencing extreme pressures on budgets, and a further burden on the energy bill should not be tolerated, it says.

This is particularly the case as the wind industry’s current cost difficulties are “neither unforeseen nor unpredicted but have been obvious to careful observers for over a decade”.

Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute, 

Top German officials expressed concern regarding Western escalations in Ukraine and signaled Berlin will push back against the most provocative proposals.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was reluctant to send longer-range weapons to Ukraine as the arms may be used to attack Russian territory. London has provided Kiev with Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles which have a range of more than 155 miles. According to recent reporting, the White House is closing in on a decision to send Army Tactical Missile Systems, also known as ATACMS, to Ukraine. These rockets can be fired roughly 200 miles. 

Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu warned the West that Ukraine using long-range weapons to attack the Crimean Peninsula could lead to a direct war between Moscow and NATO. “The use of these missiles outside the zone of our special military operation would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict and would entail immediate strikes on decision-making centers in Ukraine,” he said.

Berlin is now receiving requests from Kiev to provide Taurus KEPD 350 missiles, an air-launched missile with a range of over 300 miles. Scholz said Germany is considering the request. 

Germany has been the subject of intense pressure throughout the war due to Berlin’s reluctance, at times, to provide Kiev with all requested aid. However, in several instances, Berlin has caved to Kiev’s demands. In one example, Germany resisted sending its Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. After Poland, the UK and the US pledged to send advanced tanks, Germany sent Ukraine dozens of its Leopard 2 main battle tanks. 

Some of the German tanks have already been destroyed on the battlefield and Kiev is asking Berlin for replacements. Meanwhile, the American Abrams tanks have not yet arrived in Ukraine. 

Berlin is additionally pushing back on plans to give Ukraine an official timeline for membership in NATO at a summit in Vilnius next week. In an interview published in Rzeczpospolita on Monday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the alliance will be unable to determine the conditions for Kiev to join the alliance until after the conclusion of the war with Russia. 

“In my recent meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, we were once again in agreement that the Alliance must never become a party to a conflict,” He continued, “Therefore, we will not be able to answer the question of Ukraine’s accession to NATO as long as the war continues in Ukraine.”

⚡️Powerful Ukrainian strike on Donetsk moments ago pic.twitter.com/Wreu6BlyEG

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) July 4, 2023

Pistorius went on to explain that Germany is committed to supporting Ukraine’s war effort for as long as the conflict continues. He said Berlin would be delivering dozens of older Leopard 1 tanks to Kiev in the coming weeks.

Authored by Dustin Luchmee via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Wearing a black cowboy hat, a red “America First” T-shirt, and a silver cross, you would never know Matt Rey was born female.

At 24, Rey transitioned from female-to-male (FTM). Now 32, Rey is experiencing serious health complications resulting from an overprescription of testosterone and a mastectomy.

Rey is part of a growing number of “detransitioners” returning to the gender of their birth—now warning youth considering “gender-affirming care” not to do it. “While I understand transition does not go badly for everyone, many trans people can have health complications later in life. If you are young, please don’t do this to yourself. Transitioning is NOT for kids. Parents, don’t do this to your children! The risks are too high,” Rey wrote on Twitter.

“Gender-affirming care,” which includes the administration of hormones and sex reassignment surgery, is claimed by advocates to save lives, however, this proposed remedy may actually be what’s driving the high mortality rate in the transgender community.

Authors of a recent Danish study of transgender suicide wrote: “Transgender individuals may be exposed to systemic negativity regarding their trans identity in the form of bullying, discrimination, exclusion, and prejudice, which in turn may result in alienation and internalized stigma, mental health problems, and, ultimately, suicidal behavior.”

The Lure of Incentivized ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

Rey experienced gender dysphoria at a young age. “When I was 5, my mom walked me over to the girls’ clothing section and she was looking at girly outfits. I was looking at the boys section, and wondering why she wasn’t taking me there,” Rey told The Epoch Times.

As a confused and isolated teenager, Rey looked to the internet for answers. FTM individuals who shared glamorous stories about transitioning convinced Rey that a new identity was the solution to happiness.

Turning to the gender identity clinic at the Tavistock Institute in the UK, Rey was surprised to learn that access to “gender-affirming care” was so easy—one visit with a primary doctor, two consultations at the gender identity clinic, then bloodwork—were all it took to begin the transitioning process.

Rey’s bloodwork indicated high levels of testosterone. “One of the doctors said I was ‘intersex’ because of this, but that is not how you diagnose that,” said Rey. “I probably had PCOS, which was not diagnosed at the time. I didn’t even question it, because when you go to a doctor, you expect to be told the truth. When they told me that I was intersex, it made me want to transition, because it made sense as to why I experienced all this confusion all my life.”

The “I” in “LGBTQIA+” represents “intersex,” an umbrella term used to categorize a person having both male and female sex characteristics. These include differences in anatomy, hormones, chromosomes, or reproductive organs. A typical intersex diagnosis requires a physical examination and genetic testing, neither of which were included in Rey’s medical evaluation.

“Gender-affirming care” services are being incentivized by both public and private institutions. Patients like Rey are often steered in the wrong direction of care, jeopardizing their mental and physical health (pdf). Organizations providing “gender-affirming care” can contribute to the confusion around gender identity, sexuality, and the possibility of an individual being intersex, a condition that is actually very rare.

Rey, like many in the LGBT community, is against the push for children to transition and is concerned these procedures are being incentivized by the medical community. “Therapists are being paid today to affirm gender rather than do thorough work on a client’s psyche,” said Rey.

A Social Contagion With Dire Consequences

Dr. Miriam Grossman, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and author of “Lost in Trans Nation: A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness,” in an interview with MG Show stated that the idea of being born in the wrong body is dangerous for kids and has no foundation in medicine or biology.

Grossman says kids are being indoctrinated to believe these ideas and when authorities, teachers, guidance counselors, and internet influencers tell kids this—they believe it. “This is why we have something like a 5,000 percent increase in the number of kids who are identifying as something other than what their body is,” she said. “It’s a social contagion.”

A social contagion is a phenomenon of feelings or behaviors that spreads among peer groups, usually with adolescents and more common with girls, explained Grossman. There are many examples in psychiatry of past social contagions, such as suicidal behaviors, cutting, and eating disorders. “That’s why we have entire groups of girls who are friends from school or from online, and they are going together to a Planned Parenthood or to a gender clinic to get injected with testosterone,” she said.

Grossman is urging parents to become educated and to inoculate their families against this destructive contagion.

Indoctrination Under the Guise of Affirmation

As an outspoken critic of gender ideology, Rey is an active member of Gays Against Groomers, a nonprofit organization of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children under the guise of acceptance and equality.

“If the truth is told, gender ideology is removed from schools, kids are not taken to drag shows, and agendas are not being pushed down people’s throats, only then will we be able to recover and prevent these atrocities from happening,” said Rey.

The social obsession over gender is doing more harm than good by pressuring individuals to take drastic steps to fit into an identity without considering the implications on their well-being, explained Rey. In 2021, Rey noticed that Hollywood was beginning to push transgenderism, and shortly thereafter, mainstream media followed suit.

The craze surrounding gender affirmation is a social trend that according to Rey, is doing irreparable harm with intentional coercion tactics to exploit vulnerable people. Anyone calling them out is referred to as “transphobic,” including Rey, who embraced transgenderism.

Rey believes this radical pressure is driving the high transgender mortality rate. “There’s this cult-like mentality to be a victim and romanticize this ideology, it sets you up for failure. The only way for people to really help is by telling the truth. The lies are causing a lot of harm to actual trans people,” said Rey. “The radicals are forcing their beliefs on everyone else so that public tolerance is dwindling and people with actual gender dysphoria are not getting the help they need.”

The Unseen Side of Transitioning

“Would you rather have a living daughter or a dead son?” This fearmongering phrase is commonly used to manipulate parents into supporting their child’s “gender-affirming care.”

In Rey’s experience, “gender-affirming care” is sold as the only solution to improve the mental health of individuals struggling with gender dysphoria. Yet “gender-affirming care” can exacerbate mental health problems rather than improve them. “When the facade goes away and you see that you can’t really be the opposite sex, it begins to wear on you. It sets you up for a lot of disappointment,” said Rey.

Read more here…

Authored by Robert Williams via The Gatestone Institute,

The gifts the Biden Administration has already given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in just two years have been nothing short of exorbitant — and often to the detriment of the US.

They have included cancelling the China Initiative that was countering CCP espionage on American soil; allowing the CCP spy-balloon to leisurely hover over America’s major nuclear and military sites while gathering sensitive information to send back to Beijing in real time; permitting CCP interests (there are no private interests in China) to buy up American farmland — especially near US military bases — also with the potential of controlling the distribution of food inside the US or manipulating the crops; poisoning to death more than 100,000 Americans — each year — with fentanyl and other drugs; placing at least six CCP police stations inside American cities; sidestepping Chinese accountability for lying about the origins and transmissibility of COVID-19; condoning the data-gathering and propagandizing of American children by TikTok; doing nothing as the CCP and established naval and other military facilities in the Pacific, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Africa, Djibouti, Sri Lanka, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, Mexico, Argentina, and has established a significant presence on both sides of the Panama Canal. The Biden Administration has also sat back and watched as the CCP not only installed itself throughout Latin America but also in Caribbean, as well as establishing a military training facility on Cuba’s north shore.

Now, the Biden Administration intends to spend more than half a trillion dollars on “clean energy and climate action over the next decade”, according to the US Department of Energy.

That amount would reportedly include projects for climate change and investments in renewable energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines.

The problem is: these policies are all gifts to China.

In solar energy, according to S&P Global, China produces between 70% and 98% of the world’s silicon-based raw material and other components for solar panels — a solid world monopoly. According to the US Department of Energy:

“Since President Biden took office, nearly $5 billion in solar manufacturing investments have been announced, including 47 manufacturing plants. Altogether, these investments are enough to power an additional 7 million homes per year.”

It will take an extremely long time before the US can produce anything that remotely matches China’s current monopoly, which is why the Biden administration’s policy will benefit China for years to come.

According to USA Facts:

“Most solar panels are imported, with three-quarters of the imports originating from Chinese subsidiaries manufacturing in Southeast Asia. Despite heavy import tariffs, the US has not kept pace with global solar manufacturing growth and lost 80% of its global market share from 2009 to 2019. In 2004, the US accounted for about 13% of global solar panel shipments but fell to just 0.5% in 2017.”

Additionally, not enough is being invested in the manufacturing of solar panels in the US. The lapse has caused the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie to question whether the US market will be able to meet the Biden administration’s lofty environmental goals. Solar cells will mainly be coming from China.

In addition, the Biden Administration has placed a massive bet on electric vehicles. The goal is that 50% of new vehicles sold in the US should be electric by 2030. The problem is: that also directly benefits China. Electric vehicles need lithium-ion batteries. China has almost a global monopoly on producing them. China, in 2020, manufactured 76% of global lithium-ion battery capacity. The US produced 8%. Another problem is that electric vehicles are expensive — just replacing the battery-pack of a vehicle can cost up to $18,000 — and prices are currently soaring.

The average cost of raw materials, including lithium, nickel and cobalt, was more than $8,000 per electric vehicle in June 2022. That amount represented an increase of more than 140% since 2020, resulting in the cost of producing an electric vehicle being 125% more to that of an internal combustion vehicle. How many American consumers can afford such expensive cars? Furthermore, electric vehicles have a tendency to burst into flames. None of these problems seems to bother the Biden Administration.

When it comes to wind energy, according to the US Department of Energy:

“The Administration has set an ambitious goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes, support 77,000 jobs, and spur investment across the supply chain. The Department of Energy, through President Biden’s clean energy plan, has supported this initiative with nearly $50 million in research, development and demonstration funding.”

There are, however, several problems with wind turbines. One is that the US still relies on foreign imports to make them, including from — China. Another is that wind turbines endanger wildlife, such as birds and whales.

The Biden Administration, furthermore, has set the goal of reaching a 50-52% reduction in carbon emissions from 2005 levels in 2030 and economy-wide “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Biden Administration has also set a goal to “achieve a carbon-pollution-free electricity sector by 2035.” All these measures clearly hobble the US and reduce its power to compete, while China, already the world’s largest user of fossil fuels, has announced that by 2030, its carbon dioxide emissions will peak.

China last year built more new coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined — the equivalent of two new coal-fired plants per week. China, in fact, according to the energy data organizations Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, quadrupled the amount of new coal power approvals in 2022 compared to 2021.

Finally, as part of the Biden Administration’s climate change policies, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a program to limit how much carbon dioxide US coal- and gas-fired power plants may emit.

The proposal means that US electric power plants would have to transform the way that they operate, either costing them billions in new equipment, or closing them down entirely.

All these Biden policies seem almost custom-tailored to reduce America’s ability to compete internationally, while giving China even more room to grow its economy and gain an even greater edge over the US.

It should also be recalled that, according to John Kerry, the Biden Administration’s “climate envoy,” whatever the US does unilaterally, without similar action by China and other major economies, is utterly pointless. Kerry admitted in January 2021 that even if the US were to have zero carbon emissions, “almost 90 percent of all of the planet’s global emissions come from outside of US borders. We could go to zero tomorrow and the problem isn’t solved.”

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Steve Cortes, a top spokesperson for GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’s Super PAC, admitted that defeating former President Donald Trump is an “uphill battle” and that they are “way behind” in polls.

“Right now in national polling, we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that,” Cortes said in a July 3 Twitter spaces event. “I believe in being blunt and really honest. It’s an uphill battle. I don’t think it is an unwinnable battle by any stretch. But clearly, Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner, particularly since the indictments. That was not the case before the indictments. It is the case afterward.”

“And it is understandable that a lot of folks want to rally to him when he’s been unfairly, not prosecuted, really, but persecuted—particularly the Alvin Bragg indictment, which I think was just an absolute sham. So, it is understandable that there was a rally to Trump there.”

“In the first four states, which matter tremendously, polls are a lot tighter, we are still clearly down. We’re down double digits, we have work to do,” he said.

Cortes said that DeSantis is not as well known as Trump. “A lot of regular Americans” outside Florida do not know much about DeSantis, he said.

“Whereas, knowledge of Donald Trump is ubiquitous. He’s literally the most recognized and known [personality] in the world, certainly in America. So, given that, it’s not surprising that we’re right now chasing.”

Supporting Trump, Polls

Cortes believes that the GOP primary is “a two-man race” between DeSantis and Trump. “We’re clearly the underdog. We’re clearly fighting uphill.”

While saying that he respects Trump and his supporters, Cortes pointed out that if the DeSantis campaign “does not prevail” in the GOP primaries, “we will make President Trump better for having this kind of primary.”

Polls have shown Trump leading the GOP primaries by a large margin. A survey conducted in June by Echelon Insights showed that 49 percent of respondents would vote for Trump in the Republican primaries compared to just 18 percent for DeSantis.

Third-placed Vivek Ramaswamy got 10 percent support, with the remaining GOP candidates polling in the single digits.

An NBC News poll from late June showed that Trump’s lead over DeSantis widened after the former president’s indictment, which was noted by Cortes in his Twitter Spaces interview.

War of Words

Rhetoric between Trump and DeSantis has heated up in recent months. Just hours before DeSantis’s widely expected announcement he was running for president, Trump said that the Florida governor “was, and is, a disciple of horrible RINO Paul Ryan, and others too many to mention.”

Read more here…