President Trump holds a brief impromptu chopper presser as he departs the White House for Palm Beach this weekend. President Trump began with remarks of the strong stock market, with the DOW closing over 50,000 much sooner than expected, highlighting the strength of the overall economy.

President Trump also noted positive crime statistics and then took questions.  The first question was about the SAVE act and the need to eliminate the filibuster to get voter ID passed into law.  The conversation then shifted to “affordability” with President Trump noting that prices are stable and declining due to his economic policies.  WATCH:

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CTH reader “Charles” asked a great question yesterday that deserves some expansion:

CHARLES: “I’m having some trouble parsing how exfiltrating [deporting] illegal alien workers thereby pushing American wages upward can cause a decrease in inflation. Conventional wisdom for my whole life (73 years) has held that increasing labor costs drive inflation upwards.”

It’s a great question because Charles is essentially correct from a historical reference.  However, we are in uncharted territory due to the scale of illegal aliens within the U.S. economy in this modern era. The answer is a commonsense theory currently playing out in real time.

ANSWER: A much larger percentage of illegal aliens live on various subsidies and govt spending programs than our native American population. As a result, it’s like govt spending, except we have ten million people spending excessive govt money instead of one big spending bill.

The underlying economy is inorganic and detached from traditional cause and effect. In this dynamic when you deport the illegals, we are reducing the govt spending.  Less govt spending actually tames inflation and lowers housing costs at a greater rate than the upward pressure on wages.

Removing the ‘free govt money” from the economy, creates less upward price pressure. Additionally, deporting the govt spender reinstalls a more authentic supply and demand economy, because the current demand is skewed by all the ‘free money’ subsidy spending.

Charles is correct in that within his 73-years this was not evident.  That’s because we have an unprecedented number of illegal aliens spending govt money without any economic productivity.  Those subsidies, extra non-productive money in the economy, creates upward price pressure.  Take the money away and prices drop.

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This is funny, not because the narrative is so obvious, but because the well-used script is so transparent.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), a misnomer if there is one, Vice Chairman Mark Warner, finds out that Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had previously (May ’25) retrieved voting machines from Puerto Rico for analytical review.  Of course, he needs immediate camera time to clutch his pearls, but it gets better.

For those who walk the deep weeds, you will remember when the Warner operation in 2017 needed to promote the intel script about the first discussion of the Christopher Steele “dossier”, they enlisted CNN’s Manu Raju, Jim Scuitto, Jake Tapper and Carl Bernstein.  That ‘breaking news’ was the original trigger for the Daily Beast to then publish the “dossier.”  Senator Mark Warner then came in for the close with the leak of the Carter Page FISA.  That was the script in 2017.  We watched it in real time.

So, now Mark Warner finds out Tulsi Gabbard is on the trail of the intelligence manipulation of election machines.  In this video below, Mark Warner appears for an entirely scripted segment with… wait for it… Manu Raju.  How do you know this was pre-scripted for TV? Because: (a) that’s what they do, and (b) Raju is the only one who asks questions – while Warner doesn’t even look at him because he knows the narrative in advance.  Seriously, watch it. It’s funny:

[A completely unrelated side note: Notice how the U.K, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have refused to join the Board of Peace? You know what they all have in common…. 5-eyes.]

(REUTERS) – WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – A team working for President Donald Trump’s spy chief, Tulsi Gabbard, last spring led an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines, said Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the previously unreported events.

The sources said the goal was to work with the FBI to investigate claims that Venezuela had hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico, but added the probe did not produce any clear evidence of Venezuelan interference in the U.S. territory’s elections. Reuters first reported the investigation.

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Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent appeared on Capitol Hill today to give testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. The leftists were well prepared with narrative scripts to advance their opposition agenda. Bessent was unfazed.

In this highlight, Senator Elizabeth ‘Liawatha” Warren complains to Secretary Bessent about the price of things she tripled and quadrupled. Bessent responded by pointing out the Trump administration is reversing the catastrophic damage from the Biden-Warren economy. “I’m-a-git-me-a-beer” was not pleased at the retort. WATCH:

No senator, half of something you quadrupled is not less.

Thankfully, the grocery prices that Biden-Warren exploded, are finally starting to come down thanks to the economic policies of President Trump.  Warren’s “affordability” narrative collapses each month the real wages of the American worker rise faster than the trailing inflationary impact of prior policy.

As noted by several economic indicators, inflation on the stuff that matters is in retreat. We are now entering the phase of lower gasoline prices, lower transportation costs, lower overall energy costs and stable domestic market prices.  Additionally, exfiltrating illegal alien workers, both underground and above ground, is starting to put upward pressure on American wages and lower overall housing costs.

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President Donald Trump gave an extended interview to NBC News’ Tom Llamas. President Trump addresses immigration enforcement, the American economy, U.S. tensions with Iran, Joe Rogan, AI and other topics during his interview in the Oval Office.

The interview begins with a discussion of what is going on in Minneapolis, Minnesota. WATCH:

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White House Manufacturing Policy Advisor, Peter Navarro, has written an op-ed warning about a new bill under construction in congress [BILL HERE] that seeks to stop President Trump from blocking the ‘de minimis loophole’ on imported goods.

Previously, various shippers and transport companies like UPS and Fed-X had lobbied congress to retain a loophole on customs and duties allowing items valued less than $800 to enter the USA without tariffs.  They were joined by ecommerce outlets like Amazon, Alibaba, Temu and Shein to keep cheap foreign goods flowing into the U.S. without passing through customs declarations.

President Trump stopped the de minimis loophole on China and Hong Kong and then globally.

As noted by Navarro, “the threshold for the exemption hit a staggering $800 per package — by far the highest in the world. Europe’s is closer to $150. Japan’s is under $70. China’s general threshold is in the single digits. The U.S. wasn’t “aligned with global norms.” We were the outlier, and a very expensive one.”

Now, Navarro is warning that congress is seeking to subvert the Trump position on imports and go back to allowing cheap foreign goods flood the U.S. market at a level that creates chaos in customs enforcement and facilitates the flow of illegal drugs and narcotics back through the system.

(The Hill) – […]   Their bill is simultaneously a poster child for big money politics and a breathtaking insult to the public’s intelligence. It assumes voters won’t read past the title, won’t remember why de minimis was killed in the first place, and won’t connect the dots between lobbying disclosures, campaign checks, and a legislative resurrection of a loophole that nearly destroyed U.S. trade enforcement. 

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In September 2025, after a two-week trial in Fort Pierce, Florida, a jury found Ryan Wesley Routh (59) guilty of attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, assault of a federal law enforcement officer and multiple firearms offenses. Today Judge Aileen Cannon sentenced Routh to life in prison plus 84 months.

DOJ PRESS RELEASE – Today, Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, was sentenced to life plus 84 months in federal prison for the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and related violent and firearms offenses. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon for the Southern District of Florida imposed the sentence following Routh’s conviction by a federal jury on all five counts charged in the indictment.

“Ryan Routh’s heinous attempted assassination of President Trump was not only an attack on our President — it was a direct assault against our entire democratic system,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Thanks to our prosecutors in the National Security Division and the Southern District of Florida, Routh will never walk free again.”

“Routh’s plan to kill a major presidential candidate, President Donald Trump, was a despicable attack on our democratic system,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Thanks to the work of the FBI and our Justice Department partners, he will pay a high price for his actions. Today’s sentencing demonstrates the justice system will not tolerate such heinous attacks.”

“Routh attempted to assassinate President Trump and thereby cast our Nation into what would have been one of its darkest periods,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Today’s sentence is a resounding rejection of political violence and a clear reminder that we resolve our differences through civil discourse, democratic elections, and lawful protest, not by force.”

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In the past few years people have heard the term “rare earth minerals” or “critical minerals” as they relate to the manufacture of component goods that are vitally important in the lives of everyone.  However, the term “rare” is somewhat of a misnomer.  The minerals themselves are not rare; indeed, they have been around for hundreds of millions of years in abundant supply.  It is the processing of those minerals into stable second stage commodities that has become rare.

As a result of western environmental rules and regulations, U.S, EU and developed nations have outsourced critical mineral processing (the dirty stuff) to China and Asia. We then import the finished commodity after processing.  This becomes a problem when you realize the processor can weaponize western dependency, as we have recently seen with China controlling the export of processed minerals needed for manufacturing.

President Trump has made a strategic decision to bring back the manufacturing of critical minerals to the United States and has made a policy decision to create a critical mineral reserve. Just last Monday President Trump announced a $12 billion strategic mineral reserve to combat China’s domination of critical mineral supply chains, a major step toward tackling China’s advantage in a crucial sector of the U.S. economy.  The initiative is called “Project Vault.”

“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions,” President Trump said. “Just as we have long had a strategic petroleum reserve and a stockpile of critical minerals for national defense, we are now creating this reserve for American industry,” Trump said during the Oval Office announcement.

Today in Washington DC, Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio led a critical minerals discussion at the State Dept., where they are organizing an effort to get all nations to invest and create their own critical minerals strategic reserves.  WATCH:

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As background for this interview, I’m going to say something that generally will not be received well by many. I have it on very good authority that FBI Director Kash Patel’s organization is currently one of the biggest impediments to successful execution of Trump administration domestic policy goals.

Specifically stated, DC operatives within the FBI are creating, manufacturing and leaking information against the goals and objectives of the White House, DOJ and other administration executive offices. In short, Kash Patel does not have his arms around the agency and subversive operatives are actively successful because of his incompetence. Accept it or disregard it, but that is the honest expressed sentiment from officials who are having to deal with the consequence.

All of that said, here is FBI Director Kash Patel appearing on Fox News to again emphasize that the agency is working in a supportive role on various domestic issues of concern. Not “lead“, “support.” WATCH:

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The Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) delivered the “read and return” intelligence report to congress that sits at the background of an anonymous whistleblower complaint against Director of National Intelligence, DNI Tulsi Gabbard. [CBS Story]  In addition to delivering the report, the ICIG also delivered a declassified letter outlining the framework of the backstory [SEE HERE].

I strongly urge people to take a few minutes and read both links above, particularly the pdf of the ICIG report that frames the complaint.  In essence, the same playbook the IC tried to create the impeachment narrative against President Trump (2019), they repeated against DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Now, the story gets a little weedy, so at the risk of yet another subpoena for outlining highly classified intelligence information simply by using public sourcing information and strategic brain mapping to put dots together, the easiest way to explain what has happened is to tell the big picture story of it.

People opposed to President Trump inside the National Intelligence Council (NIC), which in 2025 was a sub-silo inside the CIA, wrote an analysis saying the Venezuela gang ‘Tren de Aragua” (TdA) was not officially affiliated with the Venezuela government. Therefore, when President Trump and Secretary Rubio defined TdA as an officially recognized terrorist group, the analysis was intended to separate the TdA violence from the official U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

[The NIC is the “federal agency” being described in the media reports. I suspect the report’s authors were Mike Collins and Maria Langan-Riekhof or close associates therein.]

The “highly classified” component to the analysis, the part that intentionally skewers the telling of the story, is almost certainly the sourcing for the NIC analysis.

Here I would estimate with 90%+ confidence, that a CIA asset within the Venezuela government was the source of the intelligence saying TdA is not officially aligned with the Venezuelan govt.  That CIA asset could be someone very close to former dictator Nicholas Maduro, or someone currently inside the transitional government.  That source makes the component to the NIC analysis “highly classified.”  [However, it also fulfills the goals and operational agenda of the people who want to weaponize the “whistleblower angle.]

Now, I want to break out a component here because it is directly related to the reason for anti-Trump IC to manufacture this official CIA-NIC analysis.  Remember, Judge James Boasberg’s argument against deporting TdA members was based on his refusal to accept the deportees were designated terrorists.  Venezuela would not take them back, so President Trump sent them to the maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

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