The move and shift in National Security Advisor responsibility makes sense on a couple of different levels.  First the U.N position carries “prestige” softening the ouster of Waltz; second, with the foreign policy run from the White House, a dual Secretary of State/NSA role works under currently assigned responsibilities.

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The combined nature of the SoS and NSA position makes good interim sense; both would have essentially been traveling the same itinerary.  However, putting the former head of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence into place as National Security Advisor, well, that’s a level of trust that has never before been witnessed.

Mike Waltz becomes the Nikki Haley of term-2.

Optimal solution.

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I said right after the election the foreign policy and econ institutions would be the first and easiest to deconstruct.  I also said the Intelligence, Main Justice, National Security and Defense apparatus would be the most difficult.

Here’s the high elevation picture of how it works.  The more President Trump (the Executive Branch) doesn’t use the institution, the easier it is to take them apart.  Foreign policy is being run out of the White House, with Rubio doing well.  All economic policy is being run out of the White House, with Bessent and Lutnick doing well.

[Meanwhile, Trump is ignoring (for now) the CIA silo, as if they didn’t exist; but that cannot last long (see Ukraine).  HHS, Ed, Energy, Interior and EPA are making slow and steady progress]

Conversely, President Trump leaves Pam Bondi (Justice), Kash Patel (FBI) and Tulsi Gabbard (DNI) to run/manage their own shops.  It’s an issue of (in)ability, and you can see Main Justice and the FBI remains a hot mess.  Bondi and Patel refuse to call their institutions corrupt, so the operators within them just keep doing what they have always done.  This was predictable, if you just look honestly at the big picture dynamic.

Today, Marco Rubio starts taking apart around 20% of Foggy Bottom. “The Trump administration has begun an aggressive shake-up at the State Department that will close 132 agency offices, including those launched to further human rights, advance democracy overseas, counter extremism, and prevent war crimes.” {READ MORE}

MARCO RUBIO – “Today America confronts a new era of great power competition and the rise of a multipolar order with a State Department that stifles creativity, lacks accountability, and occasionally veers into outright hostility to American interests. The Department has long struggled to perform basic diplomatic functions, even as both its size and cost to the American taxpayer has ballooned over the past fifteen years.

The problem is not a lack of money, or even dedicated talent, but rather a system where everything takes too much time, costs too much money, involves too many individuals, and all too often ends up failing the American people.”

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If you are concerned about the economics of American life, the first step is to understand the financial influences that were put into place by President Obama, then again with Obama’s team using the auspices of Joe Biden.

President Trump is rapidly untangling the tentacles of Obama’s “share the wealth” exfiltration policy, and he will achieve success on a scale most economic analysts cannot fathom.  Traditional financial media, including those who follow the influences of Wall Street are constrained by their need to retain pretenses.  However, President Trump and his economic team are very clear-eyed and focused.

We are already seeing major drops in core energy prices including gasoline.  These decreases will have downstream impacts on all consumer goods, and we will notice a significant drop in food prices in two steps.

The first will be moderate and the result of harvest one cost decreases. The second price drop will be even greater and will come as a result in major farm costs for the second harvest sequence. By Thanksgiving 2025, lowered energy prices in combination with ‘food prepared at home’ price drops will be the leading cause of a major decline in inflation.

In the background of this domestic outcome, the April 2nd tariffs will start to ripple through durable goods.  Initially, there will be waves and fluctuations as some durable goods prices increase and other durable goods prices decrease.  The more the components of the product are domestically manufactured, the more the price of the end product will drop in price.

As a result, the aggregate downward pressure (higher domestic content) will exceed the upward pressure (higher import content component goods) and overall prices for durable goods will decline.  This deflationary pressure point will increase over time as the end of the Marshal Plan starts to return dollars to the United States.

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If USAID was the charitable wing of the U.S. State Dept., why would the remaining senior leadership be instructing all employees to urgently start destroying all records?   The answer is easy, the charity mission of USAID was a front for the real operational mission of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

USAID has always been a CIA operation within the U.S. State Department silo.  The documents they are now being told to shred and burn with urgency are the CIA operational details of how USAID manipulated foreign governments and CIA assets.  This is one big coverup operation.

WASHINGTON DC – A senior official at USAID instructed a number of the agency’s remaining staff to convene at the agency’s now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday for an “all day” group effort to destroy documents stored there, many of which contain sensitive information.

The materials earmarked for destruction include contents of the agency’s “classified safes and personnel documents” at the Ronald Reagan Building, said an email sent by USAID’s acting executive director, Erica Carr, and obtained by POLITICO.

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The information from Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks good.  During his flight to Saudi Arabia, Secretary Rubio answered a few questions about the U.S. delegation expectations of the meeting with Ukraine officials.

Rubio notes the aforementioned “minerals deal” is not an important part of the larger objective.  Secretary Rubio says that finding out if Ukraine’s desire for peace with Russia is true, in good faith or not, is the key objective.  A pragmatic Rubio also notes that Ukraine is likely going to have to give up lost territory to achieve peace.

FOX NEWS – […] “”The minerals deal is on the table that’s continuing to be worked on – it’s not part of this conversation, per se,” he said, noting that Tuesday’s meeting in Jeddah can be considered successful even without securing such an agreement.

[…] “The important point in this meeting is to establish clearly their intentions, their desire, as they’ve said publicly now, numerous times, to reach a point where peace is possible,” Rubio said, adding that he will need to be assured that Kyiv is prepared to make some hard decisions, like giving up territory seized by Russia, in order to end the three-year war. 

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It was inevitable. We have been together from the outset of the conversation where we admitted to ourselves that sooner or later the pretending was going to have to stop. Well, here we are.

President Donald Trump begins a very uncomfortable process to peel back the mask that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy represents. This is needed:

President Trump – Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation.

On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is “MISSING.” He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden “like a fiddle.” A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues….. (link)

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As expected, initial direct talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are being planned to take place in Saudi Arabia.  Saudi King Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) will be the key emissary to coordinate the agenda.

WASHINGTON DC – U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio held a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Feb. 15, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Building on the Feb. 12 phone conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States, the foreign ministers agreed to maintain a communication channel to address accumulated issues in Russian-American relations,” a readout from the Russian Foreign Ministry read.

“This is aimed at removing the unilateral barriers inherited from the previous administration that hinder mutually beneficial trade, economic, and investment cooperation.”

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Former USAID Administrator Samantha Power, the architect of the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine (R2P) traveled to CBS HQ in New York for a late-night television appearance with Stephen Colbert.   The purpose of Power’s appearance was to defend the institutional interests of her former agency, as USAID comes under scrutiny for ridiculous spending and manipulation of foreign and domestic politics.

Mrs. Power does her very best Sally Stuthers impersonation as she claims the only purpose of USAID is to facilitate charity and life-saving public health in “underserved nations” around the world.  Colbert never asked her, if true – then why spend time in healthy Hungary and well-fed Europe? I digress.

Similarly, if the mission of USAID is as Mrs. Power described, then why was she never describing that ‘humanitarian relief’ type of activity in all of her self-promotion videos that she distributed during her travel.  I am going to post a short example below the Colbert video so you can watch it, listen to what Power says in her own words about her objective, and then contrast that against the USAID mission as she proclaims on Late Night television.

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Below is USAID Administrator Samantha Power traveling Europe talking about her priority mission on behalf of USAID.  Contrast her remarks on Colbert with her actual remarks during her travels.  Notice her emphasis on “building media,” how many starving children in the Sudan are fed by building out a media influence system in Europe?

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is following an excellent political strategy to position for 2028, and We The People are likely to benefit from it.

Rubio, Vance and DeSantis will be the financially backed lineup competing for the 2028 Trump endorsement.  DeSantis will use his Florida platform to run alongside every MAGA initiative and be first to execute the priorities of the Trump administration – all good.  From Rubio’s perspective, he’s in a big spotlight and capable of using his influence to rebrand the MAGA opinion strongly in his direction – again, really good.  JD Vance holds the top spot for the ’28 endorsement as long as he continues to be the firm right hand of the one that matters, President Donald J Trump.

None of the three require any endorsement for financial support, all of the background billionaire players have checkbooks fattening as we speak to deliver the needed funding.  However, all of the three require the endorsement for success in the ’28 campaign.  This dynamic ensures some really awesome results will flow from all three positioning leaders in the next few years.

The era of Trump’s influence is the determinative factor, in the real life “Apprentice.” – We benefit. All good.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces publicly he will not attend the woke G20 summit this year for all the right reasons.

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The decision is great MAGA policy, and the decision is great MAGA politics.

I anticipate we will see more of this fortuitous benefit to the era of Trump.

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The following message is the only message on the landing site of USAID.Gov

“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).

For USAID personnel currently posted outside the United States, the Agency, in coordination with missions and the Department of State, is currently preparing a plan, in accordance with all applicable requirements and laws, under which the Agency would arrange and pay for return travel to the United States within 30 days and provide for the termination of PSC and ISC contracts that are not determined to be essential. The Agency will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship, mobility or safety concerns, or other reasons. For example, the Agency will consider exceptions based on the timing of dependents’ school term, personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons. Further guidance on how to request an exception will be forthcoming.

Thank you for your service.”

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