President Donald J Trump delivers the keynote address for the Army Academy’s Class of 2025 at the United States Army Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony.  WATCH:

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Interestingly, just a few days before Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, took control of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) away from the CIA, Gabbard also made a move that is just as consequential and directly related.

It is pretty clear now the NIC was in the middle of a domestic Intelligence Community operation against the Trump administration when Tulsi Gabbard intercepted it (we hope with support from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, but we are not sure).  {GO DEEP} It is clear from the comments by SoS/NSA Rubio, that several media outlets were poised and awaiting leaks from the NIC in anticipation of fulfilling their role to advance the operation. [SEE HERE] DNI Gabbard essentially quashed their plan.

However, I was not aware that it was pushed into the public sphere where DNI Gabbard had taken control of the Presidential Daily Brief simultaneous to her confrontation with the NIC operation. [NYT LINK, Archive]  I am writing this update to inform and also ensure the CTH library has a reference point for future discussions.  Please familiarize yourself with the citations above as well as two very important outlines.

#1 – The unrealized power of the DNI and the possibilities for Trump’s appointed Director of National Intelligence, if a particular process was followed {GO DEEP}. #2 – The actual purpose of the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), as well as the modern weaponization of it by the CIA. {GO DEEP}.   Those two citations are important context to understand a very visible dynamic taking place.

On the same day that DNI Tulsi Gabbard took control of the PDB away from the CIA, DNI Gabbard also removed the National Intelligence Council from the CIA.  This is very good news and highlights both President Trump and DNI Gabbard understanding the unrealized potential power of the DNI that we have discussed on these pages.

Confronting a weaponized Intelligence Community is a key facet of interest for us because it is a core component battle against the main tools of the Fourth Branch of Government.  The IC influence is in every policy related to Trump’s domestic and foreign agenda. Taking control and neutering the capabilities of the IC and CIA specifically, is a key undertaking.

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The National Security Council is a ¹cushy job inside the White House filled with bureaucratic analysts and people who are in place in an attempt to steer policy.  Many of those detailed to the NSC represent the interests of the Silo agency from which they originate.

The National Security Council contains approximately 350 full-time employees.  The National Security Advisor, now Marco Rubio, is in charge of the NSC.  Secretary Marco Rubio just fired more than 100 of them.  A few quotes from Axios are beautiful, and telling:

[…] “The NSC is the ultimate Deep State. It’s Marco vs. the Deep State. We’re gutting the Deep State,” the official said of the move, which will cut the NSC staff to about half of its current 350 members. “The right-sizing of the NSC is in line with its original purpose and the president’s vision,” Rubio told Axios in a statement. “The NSC will now be better positioned to collaborate with agencies.” [link]

WASHINGTON DC – The Trump administration has put more than 100 officials at the National Security Council at the White House on administrative leave on Friday as part of a restructuring under interim national security adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to two US officials and another source familiar with the matter.

[…] An email from NSC chief of staff Brian McCormack went out around 4:20 p.m. informing those being dismissed they’d have 30 minutes to clean out their desks, according to an administration official. If they weren’t on campus, the email read, they could email an address and arrange a time to retrieve their stuff later and turn in devices.

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President Trump signed executive orders today targeting nuclear energy.  President Trump announced a host of regulatory reforms within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) aiming to generate new investment and new nuclear plants being built.  The supportive Energy Department officials are particularly focused on developing small modular reactors as opposed to large-scale legacy reactors.

In addition to calling for a bureaucratic overhaul at the NRC, the executive orders also encourage the departments of Energy and Defense to build reactors on federal land to power data centers and military bases, speed up the process for testing new reactor technology and boost domestic supply chains for nuclear fuels.  This directive comes after Congress passed legislation directing the NRC to modernize its operations and speed up the licensing process.

The Question-and-Answer session begins at 15:12 of the video. WATCH:

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Executive Orders HERE – HERE – HERE

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I returned yesterday following another whirlwind trip to the one place in America I genuinely believe is rooted in evil enterprise, Washington DC.  What I found there was similar to prior visits yet there are some structural and cultural changes afoot that are visible if you know what to look for.

First, the level of opposition to Donald Trump is bigger than in term-1, way bigger.  The hatred is likely a magnitude of three times as strong against President Trump and what/who he represents.  The opposition sentiment, now three times more vitriolic, is held by around 90% of the inhabitants of the region, perhaps more but I am trying to be gracious.

Somewhere are 90% of every thought, word, deed and action, as well as tone therein, is bitterly against President Trump’s perspectives, policies and intentions for government reform.  In term-1 and prior visits that percentage was likely around 75%.  The current scale of opposition is actually stunning albeit not surprising.  However, it does give you an idea of how impossible it is for a MAGA-minded political official to live, work and even breathe in the environment.

This is why so many elected officials we count on collapse after only a few weeks/months of effort.  The hatred they face is like a flea looking into a furnace, and unfortunately when put into that kind of battle geography only those who carry the purest armor of God are going to keep stable footing.  Everyone from the 7-11 attendant to the pizza delivery guy and beyond, will openly hate you if you even suspect you are Trumpy minded or even MAGA adjacent.

There is pure evil deep within the Washington DC hatred, and it emanates, vibrates like a frequency you can physically feel and mentally sense.  This is not America, not even close.  In the last two decades this place of “fundamental transformation” has become something else entirely. I will note there is approximately 30% more office space for lease today than prior visits. Perhaps DC is shrinking.

The various independent American survivors trying to cope within the region live like French resistance forces under Nazi occupation rules.  Secret meetings, safe venues, careful transit, eye signals, questioning glances, knowing nods, stunning nervousness and other identifying survival tradecraft are very visible.  This is a putrid and horrid place. In its modern form it is much worse than most can fathom, and you would be safer on the streets of Mogadishu.

Inside the security perimeter where the illusion of democracy is maintained for tourists’ things are safer; however, getting there requires a very deliberate effort to keep your head down, walk briskly through the safari zone and stay on very narrow paths carefully avoiding eye-contact lest you be suspected as an outsider.  Yeah, I dislike this place immensely.

My favorite question, and I’m very careful about how I ask it, is: “when was the last time you encountered joy?”  Try asking that question in Washington DC and you’ll need more than a Snickers as you await a reply.

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Alternate headline: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has officially entered the 2028 contest!

 [SOURCE]

With two simple words, Kristi Noem has entered the race with Vance and Rubio.

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Those who followed the first-term trade negotiations will likely remember the challenges of dealing with the European Union and their entrenched dependency on retaining the Marshall Plan system; a one-way tariff process that enabled Europe to rebuild after World War II.

Unfortunately, as with all long-term financial subsidies, the beneficiary becomes dependent and retaining benefit is their only objective.

Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross spent the majority of his time focused on trying to negotiate with the EU to remove these ridiculous trade benefits that have long exhausted their usefulness.  Enough is enough.

Term-two Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has the same regional assignment formerly held by Wilbur Ross, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in full support.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ASEAN nations as his primary regional focus, Lutnick’s primary region is the EU and President Trump is personally attentive to China and the USMCA.  USTR Greer then goes to the primary with the closest deal under consideration and organizes the paper construct, the technical aspects.  It’s an overall similar arrangement to term-1 only with a much bigger scope.

As would be expected from historic reference points in trying to break this insufferable one-way Marshall Plan system, the EU is once again operating in bad faith and will not give up their status.  When President Trump says the entire reason for the EU to form was to ensure their retention of this Marshall Plan benefit, he’s not wrong.  That’s the brutally honest background.

President Trump has announced today that a 50% tariff rate will be applied toward all EU imports until such a time as they come to the negotiation process willing to let go of their economic model dependent on the one-way benefit.  There really is no other way to break the Gordian trade knot, other than to cut it – forcefully.

President Trump (via Truth Social) – “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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