President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center of Performance Arts.  As they walked the red carpet, President Trump paused to answer questions from the assembled international press pool.  WATCH:

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President Trump appeared very relaxed and comfortable with the events of the evening and was deliberate in his responses to several critical issues happening around the world.

JD Vance also attended with his wife, Usha Vance, and responded to brief questions, below.

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The crowd erupts into cheers as President Donald Trump arrives to enter the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J, to attend UFC 316.  WATCH:

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No Elon. No JD.  But Marco Rubio is beside him.

Subtle, like a brick through a window.

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This is super interesting on multiple levels.  Several key issues are rapidly approaching an inflection point at the same time.  Urgency scale 1-10: Trade deals (5), BBB (9), Russia-Ukraine conflict (9) and now domestic ICE operations which will require intervention against California (9).

In addition, thanks to work by National Security Advisor Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the corrupt Intelligence Community network has taken several hits below the waterline.

From a White House official to traveling press: “On Sunday, the President will depart Bedminster and spend the night at Camp David before returning to the White House on Monday. The White House has organized what will become a regular off campus retreat of principals attended by the President and Vice President. They will meet on a number of issues and topics.” (source)

It’s a smart move.

Remember, it’s Team MAGA facing down DC.

Quiet time, in a casual format, for tight, secure team-building focus on specific high priority issues as they increase in urgency.

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Vice President JD Vance joins Theo Von to talk about the Elon Musk fallout, the debate over what’s actually in the “Big Beautiful Bill” and the night he watched Gladiator 2 in the White House movie theater.

The interview was happening on Thursday as President Trump and Elon Musk were having a very visible public conflict. At 18:30 Vance notes how this interview will air after the public is much more aware of the backstory.  WATCH:

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Phone calls from the Tesla Board, Peter Thiel and especially Larry Ellison, tend to change things.

Remember, Bill Ackman is the billionaire who constructed the SPARC (special purpose acquisition rights company) to save Elon Musk and Twitter financially, before Larry Ellison (Oracle) stepped in.

[Source]

Elon Musk also walked back from his threat to decommission the Dragon spacecraft {link}.

Sea Island hit the MAGA anvil, but it didn’t split.

They’ll be back.

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Vice President JD Vance speaks at the DC session of the Munich Security Conference.   Inside the discussion JD Vance outlines the status of President Trump foreign policy in a host of regions.

The status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  The perspective of the Trump administration toward NATO and the EU.  The relationship between President Trump and the European leadership in Brussels.  The China issue.  The ongoing trade discussions.  The middle-east, Iran, Gaza and the upcoming President Trump trip to Saudi Arabia.

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Vice-President JD Vance travels to India as part of a diplomatic tour that includes geopolitical relationships and trade deals.  With the Trump administration emphasizing an Indo-Pacific strategy to help thwart aggressive Chinese expansion, India plays a key role.  Indeed, the Trump plan in term #1 always included close economic ties with India; in term #2 that strategy remains.

Enhancing term #2 and the geopolitical strategy around the Indo-Pacific approach, JD Vance represents a close personal relationship with India that fits inside a natural synergy he has with Silicon Valley and the Indian tech community. The Tech Bros love India, and with JD and Usha Vance representing close ties to the nation, JD Vance fits the pro-India trade position like a glove. Usha Vance’s parents are Telugu-speaking teachers from Andhra Pradesh. They had moved to the US in the early 1970s.

For President Trump the relationship with India is ‘business strategic’, a hedge against Beijing.  For Vice President JD Vance the relationship with India is personal.

Vice President JD Vance praised India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, “Our kids just like him. And because children have such a good sense of character, I like Prime Minister Modi too. It’s a great foundation for the future of our relationship.” Vance highlights personal warmth alongside diplomatic ties because for him and the Tech Bros, this relationship with India is personal. WATCH:

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Vice President JD Vance appears on Fox News this morning to discuss the trade tariffs and the ongoing MAGAnomic trade reset.

The reciprocal tariffs and global trade rebalance are two components of a much larger MAGAnomic policy.  Tax structures to the benefit of the working-class, upward pressure on wages and expanded GDP growth are all elements of increasing the wealth of Main Street and middle-class Americans. WATCH:

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National Security Advisor Mike Waltz appears on Fox News with Laura Ingraham to discuss the exploding controversy around a left-wing journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, being included on a Signal chat with members of President Trump’s cabinet.

According to Mike Waltz the name of a contact was mis-attributed to the telephone number of Jeffrey Goldberg.  Waltz thought someone else (¹he will not say who) was in the chat group, but it was actually Goldberg.  Waltz says his team and Elon Musk’s technical team are working through an investigative process to discover how that happened.

As I repeated earlier, the most likely origination of the mis-attribution is the intelligence community, specifically the CIA.  The entire fiasco originates as an operation targeting the Trump administration.  Mike Waltz says he is not a conspiracy theorist, but indicates he too thinks something like this is quite possible. WATCH:

Let me summarize for those new to these performances: (1) The CIA tech team organized the Signal App operation (directory manipulation). That’s how Goldberg got in. (2) Jeffrey Goldberg held the story until the day before the scheduled SSCI hearing. (3) The SSCI uses the hearing to attack the Trump officials at the top of the critical silos.

Why? The CIA group doesn’t like the Trump Ukraine and Trump Russia policy.

[¹We may discover that somehow the name Marco Rubio was attributed to the phone number of Jeffrey Goldberg.  Rubio was reportedly on the chat, but didn’t say anything.]

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According to Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic [SEE HERE], National Security Advisor Mike Waltz invited him to a group chat on the Signal app, where various Trump administration officials and cabinet members were discussing how to address the Houthi rebels in Yemen in advance of military airstrikes.

The media is having a field day with the story, and it does have multiple angles that will unfold in the next several days and weeks. Some media even claiming the story could take down Mike Waltz and/or Pete Hegseth due to the national security implications in the series of events [Politico Here]. However, I wouldn’t go that far at all.

(left, Mike Waltz – right, Pete Hegseth)

Why Mike Waltz would be texting an invite to Jeffrey Goldberg is an issue for later discussion. Generally, given the nature of these things it is not the principal who sets up the text network, usually a top aide or lead staff, which might indicate Waltz’s wife Julia Nesheiwat was involved [SEE WHY], but let’s put that aside.

Goldberg claims “details of war plans” were discussed in the group chat.  Perhaps so, perhaps not.  This specific part of the story is refuted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.  What was discussed and further shared and outlined by Breitbart News [SEE HERE] is a conversation about the strategic reasoning for the U.S. to directly attack the Houthi rebels in Yemen and reopen the sea lanes into and out of the Suez Canal.

The EU and Egypt are the primary beneficiaries of U.S. involvement toward stopping the Houthi terrorists from targeting ships in the region.  Egypt manages the Suez Canal, and obviously there are some strategic U.S. benefits in the region from helping Egypt deal with the Houthi issue.  Specifically, as President Trump seeks to have Egypt, Saudi Arabia and partners help solve the problem in Gaza.

Additionally, most of the shipping through the region is headed to the European Union through the canal.  Reestablishing safe maritime flow of goods economically assists the EU more than any other region.  Again, a point of leverage for the Trump administration as President Trump confronts the issues of EU support for a Ukraine conflict he is trying to resolve.

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