This is a good compare and contrast scenario.  Yesterday Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump delegation.  [SEE HERE] The bitterness, tension and anger in the room was palpable; this was a hostile meeting and the Ukranian team acted like they were meeting with enemies.

When you understand how corrupt the Ukraine officials are, and when you accept that President Trump is ending the funding to their family bank accounts, the Ukraine anger toward the Trump administration is understandable.  The Ukranian government officials hate President Trump with a passion.

Compare yesterday’s meeting to what you see below.  The U.S. congressional delegation (CODEL) to the Munich Security Conference consists of key Republicans (DeceptiCons) and corrupt Democrats who fund the Ukraine money laundry.  A process that includes kick-backs of the proceeds to the bank accounts of the Republicans and Democrats present.   Watch the greeting:

This is why our senators were too busy to get Kash Patel confirmed over the 3 day weekend.

They had much more important business in Munich sucking up to the little dictator and welfare queen Zelensky. pic.twitter.com/nkaC4K88JM

— Patriot Lady (@angelwoman501) February 15, 2025

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse even tells Zelenskyy, “You’re among friends here.”

Watch again without sound.  Expand full screen if on laptop. Notice how Adam Schiff (at the end of the table) is looking at the cameras, then playing it smart because he can see the optics are not good.  All of these congressional delegation members receive kickbacks as part of their indulgence package, many sit on the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Senators include: Chris Murphy, Roger Wicker, Sheldon Whitehouse, Lindsey Graham, John Cornyn, Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, Thom Tillis, Chris Van Hollen, Joni Ernst, Elissa Slotkin, Adam Schiff, and one more I cannot quite make out, possibly Peter Welch.

Every one of these senators are working against the Trump administration, openly or under cover. Every one!

Roger Wicker was Pete Hegseth’s legislative confirmation guide and the republican Senator who went bananas yesterday when Secretary Hegseth said Ukraine would not gain NATO membership.  You will easily remember Joni Ernst immediate opposition to Hegseth also.

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I’ve been a little quiet on the Lawfare challenges to the DOGE mission in part because we’ve been sending CTH research files up through the silo to the legal eagles who need it.  Additionally, few -if any- of the outside legal filings against the administration are going to survive judicial review.

Quite simply, most of what the public is witnessing, almost entirely driven by funded media outlets, is simple Lawfare.  Remember, “Lawfare” in its purest form is not a legitimate legal challenge; it is a construct to create optics, frame narratives and fundraise for desperate leftists.

The underpinning of Lawfare is not designed to withstand legal scrutiny; it is a ruse, simply narrative and public opinion shaping. That’s it.

Interestingly a familiar name surfaced last night when District Judge John Bates essentially destroyed three of the legal challenges against Musk and DOGE when he determined that DOGE was acting as an “agency of government” appointed by President Trump.  Executive agencies have the ability to detail their employees to other agencies to conduct review and audits at the request of the executive, Trump.

“For the reasons explained above, on the record as it currently stands and with limited briefing on the issue, the case law defining agencies indicates that plaintiffs have not shown a substantial likelihood that [DOGE] is not an agency. If that is so, [DOGE] may detail its employees to other agencies consistent with the Economy Act,” Judge Bates wrote.

This ruling opens up the Labor Department, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to review by the DOGE employees.

This gets interesting because Judge John Bates was a previous presiding judge of the FISA court and has spoken at length about supporting the FISA-702 process.  Judge Bates has defended the FBI/DOJ/Contractor use of the NSA database.

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Fox News pundit Sean Hannity provides a short snippet of an interview with President Donald Trump and Dept of Govt Efficiency head, Elon Musk.

The snippet includes Hannity asking President Trump if he is aware of the media intention to drive a wedge between himself and Elon Musk as a strategy to block the goals of DOGE. WATCH:

For whatever reason, Fox is withholding the interview until next Tuesday when it will air.

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Together with cabinet members from Commerce, the EPA and Energy, President Trump signed two executive orders today and holds yet another lengthy impromptu press conference.

The first XO was an order to remove federal COVID-19 mandates in education. No more COVID vaccines are federally mandated for school attendance.  The second XO is targeting the energy sector to unleash American energy independence [SEE HERE]. The Energy XO encompasses the revitalization of energy infrastructure and creating access to federal energy resources.

Additionally, keeping with a new process of holding impromptu press availabilities, President Trump took several questions from the media about ongoing current events including the meetings taking place in Europe around the Russia -v- Ukraine conflict.  WATCH:

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The press availability allows President Trump to speak directly to events as they unfold. It is remarkable transparency that cuts through the ability of the media to frame current issues.  A very smart communication strategy.

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I have written about the Trump Doctrine for several years; however, as we enter this critical inflection moment perhaps a revisit is worthwhile to consider.

What you will notice from President Trump’s responses to questions during foreign leader engagements is the unique nature of his honesty.   In the most consequential of ways, President Trump is the most consequential foreign policy leader in generations.   We forget that during Trump’s first term in office, the headlines about North and South Korea were not about conflict, but rather about the possibility of unification on the Korean peninsula.

♦President Trump’s foreign policy approach brought North and South Korea together away from the table of conflict.  ♦President Trump’s foreign policy approach brought Serbia and Kosovo together away from the table of conflict.  ♦President Trump’s foreign policy rallied the Gulf Cooperation Council to stop Qatar’s support for Islamic extremists via the Muslim Brotherhood. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy brought Turkey and the Kurdish forces together away from war and conflict.  ♦President Trump’s foreign policy created a ceasefire to stop the bloodshed in Syria.  President Trump mediated a cessation of hostilities between India & Pakistan in the Kashmir region. ♦President Trump’s foreign policy brought Israel and the UAE together… and then Bahrain… and then Sudan in the Abraham Accords.

President Trump executes a unique doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”

The Trump Doctrine using economics to achieve national security objectives and global peace is a fundamental paradigm shift.  Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference for the effective outcome.

President Trump doesn’t just represent an office or title, nor does he simply represent the majority of the American people; President Trump’s voice is the voice of every ordinary person, what the non-English speaking world defines as “simple people,” and he channels a global message from the majority to the top of the highest power structures.

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If you read the Zelenskyy statement yesterday following the phone call with President Trump, you would notice the seemingly detached nature of his comments.  Almost as if Zelenskyy was a bystander awaiting further instructions.

Apparently, the European Union, various NATO members and likely some DoS/CIA operatives bent his ear.  24 hours later, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy now says it is critical for Ukraine to participate in any discussion on the future of Ukraine.

(Via AP) – […] In his first comments to journalists since Trump held individual calls first with Putin and then Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader conceded that it was “not very pleasant” that the American president spoke first to Putin. But he said the main issue was to “not allow everything to go according to Putin’s plan.”

“We cannot accept it, as an independent country, any agreements (made) without us,” Zelenskyy said as he visited a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine.

While Trump was noncommittal on Wednesday, he offered some reassurances on Thursday when asked by reporters whether Ukrainians would have a seat at the table in U.S. negotiations with Russia. “Of course they would,” Trump said. “I mean, they’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved too.”

During the conversation with Trump on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said, the U.S. president told him he wanted to speak to both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders at the same time.

“He never mentioned in a conversation that Putin and Russia was a priority. We, today, trust these words. For us it is very important to preserve the support of the United States of America,” Zelenskyy said. (read more)

NATO, the U.K and the European Commission are not happy that President Trump and Russian President Putin may end up framing the terms of a peace deal that ends the war in Ukraine. The EU, the U.K, Blackrock and JP Morgan are expecting financial gains; President Trump dismissing their claims and efforts while simultaneously demanding surety for any further U.S. funding has left the EU very angry.

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Today, President Donald J Trump signed an executive order triggering the first ever system of “reciprocal trade tariffs,” a seismic change in U.S. trade policy that will also consider the respective nation’s VAT (Value Added Tax) tariff.

Within the executive order [as outlined], the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative will consider foreign industry subsidies, and non-monetary tariff barriers as part of the determination of the tariff levied.  This is a stunning shift in U.S trade agreements that will cut through all the angles being deployed to avoid U.S. tariffs and block U.S exports into their country.

The policy will pressure foreign nations to lower their trade barriers to U.S. goods and eliminate disparity in foreign trade agreements.  One big example will be the impact on the EU through the continuing Marshall Plan.  The EU will now face reciprocal tariffs and no longer benefit from one-way tariff acceptance. There are obviously no tariffs on products made inside the USA.

With “reciprocal tariffs” the Commerce Dept and USTR will now determine the trade imbalances with each individual country and will evaluate each FTA (Free Trade Agreement), one-by-one to deconflict the trade imbalance.  Direct tariffs, subsidies, regulatory hurdles, non-monetary trade barriers and hidden export subsidies will be addressed as part of the reciprocity evaluation.  This is a completely new dynamic in the era of modern global trade and economics.

During the executive order signing event, President Trump took questions from the media. WATCH:

Between now and April 1st, each individual trade agreement will be evaluated with consideration for all facets of the cost for American companies to export to the evaluated nation.  Direct tariffs, Value Added Taxes (VAT), state subsidies and non-monetary regulatory tariff barriers, will be determined for each nation.  That nation will then be made aware of the tariff against each sector within their export system to the United States.

Effective April 2, 2025, President Trump will then have the tariff data provided by the USTR and Secretary of Commerce. President Trump will determine when the reciprocal tariff will be triggered and will likely engage in discussions with the leaders of the foreign nations.

These fireside chat-style impromptu pressers during executive order signings are awesome.  The revolutionary change in government transparency and communication is, well, quite literally historic and stunning.  The media can ask questions in real-time as the specific policy is implemented and explained, while simultaneously the ability of the media to shape an anti-Trump policy narrative is removed.

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Earlier today the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr 52-48, with Senator Mitch McConnell (U-DC) the lone Republican joining all 47 Democrats to vote against him. Kennedy made pledges to protect existing vaccination programs in a bid to secure votes of hesitant lawmakers.

Completing the journey to align Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) with Making America Great Again (MAGA), Secretary RFK Jr will now run a Health and Human Services agency that coordinates more than $3 trillion in healthcare spending. Also under Secretary Kennedy are the Medicare and Medicaid programs that provide health insurance for over 140 million Americans, along with the National Institutes of Health.

During his swearing in ceremony RFK Jr pledged to work to end chronic disease. Previously Kennedy said he wants to break any ties between employees at the U.S. drugs regulator and Big Pharma industry. Secretary Kennedy had high praise for President Donald Trump; saying, “God sent me President Trump” to fulfill his mission to turn the American system of health around. Swearing in ceremony below:

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President Trump delivered some rather remarkable filler information today surrounding the phone calls between himself, President Putin and President Zelenskyy.  The remarks, which should not be missed, come at the conclusion of the Tulsi Gabbard swearing in ceremony. [09:45 video, prompted]

The first question received was about the Russia v Ukraine conflict and the conversations with Zelenskyy and Putin.  President Trump outlined that the first meeting to end the conflict will likely take place between himself and Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia as organized through the intermediary, Mohammed Bin Salman (MbS). [11:45]

President Trump noted there was unlikely to be any NATO discussion for Ukraine, and the concession of territory to Russia was generally accepted foregone conclusion.  [15:10] Due to the curiously missing Zelenskyy in the response, the media asked if President Trump “sees Ukraine as an equal member in the process.” President Trump responded that it was an interesting question, but ultimately “they have to make peace.”  President Trump then noted that eventually, during this ceasefire, Ukraine is going to need to conduct elections. [More than implying that Zelenskyy is irrelevant].

The general response in combination with the previously released statement from Zelenskyy seems to frame a strange dynamic.  Zelenskyy never asked Trump to visit Ukraine, and the way President Trump frames the Zelenskyy perspective is as if the Ukranian President is willingly an outside observer without a genuine ability to engage without having to ask another “entity” for permission.  WATCH:

The way President Trump outlines the discussion(s) further evidences the suspicions we highlighted before. [SEE HERE] The response to the Ukraine questions extends to around 22:17 of the video, where the subject changes to DOGE.  There again, some really interesting remarks from President Trump.

President Trump notes the corruption being outlined is of such a massive number, “billion and billions”, that there is no way these payments do not include kickbacks, likely to politicians.  Trump then turns to AG Bondi and remarks that this is something the AG will likely have to look at. “There’s a lot of things to look at Pam.”

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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been conspicuously quiet since her confirmation last week.  The Lawfare has raged against the Trump administration, while AG Bondi has remained silent.

However, today at 4:30pm EST, Attorney General Bondi is scheduled to hold a press conference from Washington DC.  Livestream Links Below.

UPDATE: Video Added

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