After President Trump noted there are issues with the Panama Canal management, costs and fees being paid by American transit companies for goods that flow through the canal, the President of Panama José Raúl Mulino hit back strongly.

President Mulino is a conservative nationalist who won election seven months ago.  Mulino did not like the implications of President Trump contemplating a renegotiation of the Panama Canal Treaty, with ownership and management given by the USA to Panama in 1999.  Mulino hit back releasing a video statement [SEE HERE] with the transcript of his remarks below:

“As President, I want to express clearly that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belongs to Panama, and will continue to do so. The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.

Every Panamanian, here or anywhere in the world, carries it in their heart, and it is part of our history of struggle and an irreversible conquest.

The Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977 agreed to the dissolution of the former Canal Zone, recognizing Panamanian sovereignty and the complete transfer of the Canal to Panama, which ended on December 31, 1999. And we will soon celebrate the 25th anniversary of this transfer. Since then, there have been no objections or claims; on the contrary, it has been a source of strong international support and national pride. It was operated and expanded by Panamanian decision and today represents a great asset that contributes billions of dollars to our economy.

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Rand Paul is the newly appointed Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In this interview with Maria Bartiromo, Senator Rand Paul gives his perspective on the looming issue of the debt ceiling needing to be raised.

As Senator Paul outlines, extending and making the Trump tax cuts permanent is a priority. If the congressional spending bill, which will include the need to extend the debt ceiling, is attached to true structural reform on government (the mission of DOGE), then it makes the issue of the debt ceiling much easier to support. This is the legislative position of President Trump.

Additionally, Rand Paul expresses full support for each of the cabinet nominations put forth by President-elect Trump. Chairman Paul will control the nomination process for Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and OMB Director Russell Vaught, and promises quick committee work on those nominations. WATCH:

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The Senate Armed Services Committee follows a tradition of the Chair and Vice-Chair reviewing the FBI report on Defense Secretary nominations, and then bringing the nomination to a full committee hearing and vote.

However, in an unprecedented move being discussed the Chairman Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, and the ranking member from Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, are debating releasing the FBI report on Pete Hegseth to the full committee, thereby positioning the FBI report to be leaked to media.

Keep in mind, this is an “FBI investigative report,” and we already know the history of how the FBI uses their investigative authorities to influence, change and manipulate political outcomes.  If we drop the pretending, the FBI is a weaponized agency of DC government with the expressed intent to protect the interests of DC.

The only reason to widely distribute the FBI background investigation of Hegseth is so that someone can leak it to media.

WASHINGTON DC – At least a dozen senators are pushing to see the FBI’s background check on Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for Pentagon chief — a rare move for the committee that oversees his confirmation and a sign the former Fox News host still faces hurdles in the Senate.

Unlike some other committees, the Senate Armed Services usually limits access to these types of background checks to its two lead senators. But pressure is building from both Democrats and Republicans to provide more lawmakers with the ongoing report, whose contents could determine whether Hegseth makes it to the Pentagon.

“It would be helpful, given the allegations that have been lodged against Mr. Hegseth, to be able to see the FBI background check,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a potential swing vote on Hegseth, said in an interview.

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Talk about a person who continues failing upward and constantly getting applause for her failures. Wow. Harmeet Dhillon is the opposite of Marc Elias.  Dhillon professionally loses every election case, Elias wins.

After being specifically appointed to focus on the Arizona republican votes, and only to focus on Arizona for 2024, Mrs Dhillon lost every legal election challenge and close ballot contest in the state. All of them. Again, just like the Georgia senate races in 2021 and Arizona race in 2020, Dhillon has nothing to show for the tens of millions in fees paid by the RNC and Trump campaign.

President Trump puts her in charge of future elections via being in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.  Almost as if, some entity in the background wanted to ensure the MAGA movement would never gain long-term election integrity benefit.  Imagine that.

Seriously.  Can anyone point to a significant election win that can be attributed to Harmeet Dhillon?  She was specifically assigned to Arizona to focus her efforts for 2024, and it’s a hot mess in AZ again.  She might be friends with Pam Bondi as she was with Ronna McDaniel, that doesn’t mean competency on task.

This is likely not a popular opinion amid a particular part of the MAGA movement.  I can be objectively fair with a review of competence, but Dhillon continues getting more responsibility with each failure.

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Appearing on Meet the Press for an interview which was taped last Friday and aired Sunday morning, President-elect Donald Trump outlines his goals and objectives for the second administration term.  Here is the FULL and EXTENDED interview.  WATCH:

[Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: President-elect Donald Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press.

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much.

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This is a critically important segment of the President Trump interview with NBC.  Within this segment President Trump is asked whether he would direct, encourage or seek to have Attorney General Pam Bondi or FBI Director Kash Patel target the previous administration officials.

President Trump says there would be no instruction from him to appoint a special counsel or special investigator(s) for the conduct of Joe Biden or previous administration officials.  However, President Trump also takes the opportunity to note the targeting and weaponization the former Biden administration directed toward him.

SEGMENT TRANSCRIPT – KRISTEN WELKER: Ok. Let’s talk about some of your picks to fill out your administration. You named Kash Patel to be the next FBI director.

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah.

KRISTEN WELKER: He has a list in his book of 60 people that he calls members of the so-called “deep state.” It includes Democrats like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. It includes former members of your cabinet, from Bill Barr to Christopher Wray. You campaigned on destroying the deep state. Do you want Kash Patel to launch investigations into people on that list?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: No. I mean, he’s going to do what he thinks is right. And I will —

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, do you think that’s right?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: — and I will —

KRISTEN WELKER: Do you think that’s right, sir?

PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: If they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or a corrupt politician, I think he probably has an obligation to do it, but —

KRISTEN WELKER: Are you going to direct him to do it?

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There it is. The background for the first meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy is buried in the story of Emmanual Macron holding two bilateral meetings before the Notre Dame reopening ceremony.  [Now, where’s Tucker?]

If you carefully read this Politico Story you can see how President Trump and President Zelenskyy would be in the same place at the same time, courtesy of French President Emmanuel Macron.  This explains Trump’s willingness to go to the Notre Dame ceremony and simultaneously reconciles the absence of Joe Biden.

It’s a simple application of geopolitical Occam’s Razor. There’s no other background that reconciles all the variables. Trump is going to speak with Zelenskyy. All of it makes sense.

POLITICO – PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will hold separate bilateral meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump ahead of the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame cathedral on Saturday, the French presidency announced.

This will be Trump’s first visit abroad since his victory in the Nov. 5 election. Macron is among those leaders currently in power to have known the soon-to-be 47th president during his first term in office — a position he will look to leverage in order to assert himself as a key European partner to the U.S.

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Anytime the professional leftists lose anything, they immediately become victims.  Whether defeated in the battle of ideas (retreat to safe spaces), defeated in the field of pop culture, or even defeated linguistically through debate (words are violence).  Whenever the professional left loses, they immediately become victims.  It’s what they do.

The professional political left, newest version from the Chicago spawn of Dohrn/Ayers, has been waging full combat Lawfare via a weaponized government for the past 16 years.  However, Obama/Plouffe were defeated, “their kind” rose again and won the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.

What we see in this “preemptive pardon” narrative, is a repeat of the victim narrative.  This time the White House discussion boils down to ‘Lawfare agents must be protected from any retaliation for their action’.  Pardons presumably provide the mechanism to protect the victims.  In the big picture of ideology, this is a continuation of the same mindset.

Politico started the narrative with an outline {SEE HERE} saying the White House was having an internal debate as to whether Joe Biden should preemptively issue pardons to members of the J6 committee, members who constructed false impeachment accusations, members within the DOJ who fabricated political cases using the Special Counsel process, or generally people on the political left who supported/facilitated all the aforementioned false attack fronts.

As the narrative is told, all those who supported the attacks against President-Elect Trump and his allies, now need to be protected from “retribution.”  Inherent in the argument, and within the use of pardons, is the baseline that some form of illegal activity was taking place.  Heck, if it wasn’t unlawful conduct, then no pardon would be needed.  This is the political catch-22 created by the preemptive pardon narrative.

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Senator Ron Johnson appears with a very excited Maria Bartiromo to discuss the possibility of Kash Patel taking the lead role in the FBI.

As Senator Johnson notes in the interview, bringing the truth forward to the American public is the greatest challenge. “The truth is a powerful weapon,” Johnson said. However, Johnson also notes “I’m not an optimist in this Maria, quite honestly, I wish I could say I was.”

Well said, Senator Johnson, well said. WATCH:

~ Also Related, READ THIS ~

More soon…

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Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member Mike Rounds doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about Kash Patel in the role of FBI director.  In an interview this morning on ABC, the Republican senator from South Dakota said President Trump has the right to nominate Mr Patel, and the Senate will consider the “consent” from there.  WATCH:

Several people are wondering if current FBI Director Chris Wray will resign.  It’s a very unusual dynamic and the internal pressure will likely be on Director Wray to force President Trump to fire him, especially if the House and Senate are in session and there’s no possibility at the time for President Trump to appoint an “acting” replacement.

A lot can happen with President Trump announcing Kash Patel “will serve as” FBI Director, while a current FBI Director is still in place.  Without the ability to appoint an “acting” replacement, the Deputy FBI director would take Wray’s place even if Wray was fired.  Mike Rounds expresses full confidence in Chris Wray during this interview.

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