Using his Truth Social account, President Donald Trump said he is “strongly considering” issuing large-scale sanctions and tariffs on Russia to get a ceasefire and settlement deal on the table to end the war in Ukraine.

[SOURCE]

With Ukraine in a vulnerable position due to the USA ‘pause’ in Ukraine missiles and drones targeting systems, President Trump appears to be telling Vladimir Putin directly not to exploit the vulnerability or Russia will face enhanced economic pressure points.

President Trump is putting pressure on both sides to reach an interim ceasefire agreement.

President Trump is also well aware that there are no banking, tariff or sanction pressure points that could materially hurt Russia or will impact the decision making of President Putin.   Accept the public messaging for what it is.

Keep watching…

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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The original information from an FBI whistleblower first surfaced in 2022. Essentially the information was that the DNC contracted law firm of Perkins Coie had an FBI workstation in their DC office since 2012.

The Perkins Coie workstation (collocated by the FBI) has access to the NSA database on all Americans, including political figures.  The Democrats contracted with Perkins Coie for “political research.”

It doesn’t take a lot of thinking to realize what this set up was all about; Perkins Coie could do opposition research on any candidate and feed that information to the DNC for use in their campaigning.

This means both Marc Elias (DNC lawyer) and Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann could exploit the NSA database to conduct searches of all cell phone, computer, email, text message, social media, electronic communication and all private data/communication belonging to Americans; this would include geolocation.

The arrangement was in place since 2012.  Democrats have held access to fully intrusive electronic surveillance of their political opposition, or anyone else – anywhere, for over a decade. The ramifications of this joint collaborative activity are vast.  President Trump just shut it down:

Pay attention to Section 2, paragraph b.

[…] Sec. 2. Security Clearance Review. (a) The Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and all other relevant heads of executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall immediately take steps consistent with applicable law to suspend any active security clearances held by individuals at Perkins Coie, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.

(b) The Office of Management and Budget shall identify all Government goods, property, material, and services, including Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, provided for the benefit of Perkins Coie. The heads of all agencies providing such material or services shall, to the extent permitted by law, expeditiously cease such provision. (LINK)

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President Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff holds a very interesting press availability outside the White House.

The primary topic was the Trump administration position on the release of hostages from Hamas.  However, Mr Witkoff confirms the USA delegation will be traveling to Riyad, Saudi Arabia, for a meeting with Ukraine officials.

Regarding the Russia-Ukraine war – Special envoy Steve Witkoff confirms that planning is underway for a meeting with President Zelenskyy’s team.  Witkoff, will be part of the U.S. delegation alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

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President Trump holds a press conference during an executive order signing session in the White House.

In the beginning of his remarks President Trump announces a significant investment of $20 billion in shipping and logistic infrastructure. The very first executive order suspends security clearances from the Perkins Coie law firm.  This is a big move and will likely lead to the removal of FBI workstations from within the Perkins Coie offices {GO DEEP}.

President Trump also modified the tariff regime against Mexico and Canada, delaying any import impact to goods covered by the USMCA terms of agreement.  However, President Trump noted the reciprocal tariffs scheduled for April 2nd could likely include Canada and Mexico.  WATCH:

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Previously French President Emmanuel Macron refused to commit to putting French troops together with U.K troops on the ground in Ukraine.  Politically in France, Macron is on the ropes.

Obviously, such a direct commitment of troops into Ukraine would put tenuously positioned Macron in an even worse position.  However, putting French technical support systems into place to replace the withdrawn U.S. targeting system just sounds better.

So, as the optics of French politics present, yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket – Macron goes that way.

Stepping into the spotlight Macron said in an address to the nation on Wednesday that Russia was “a threat for France and Europe”, that the Ukraine was already a “global conflict” and that he would open a debate about extending the French nuclear umbrella to allies in Europe.

Macron also said that he plans next week to hold a meeting of army chiefs from European countries willing to send troops to Ukraine after any eventual peace deal with Russia. Macron told the people of France that his nation needs to be ready if the United States is no longer by its side.

Russia Responds –MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian officials and lawmakers on Thursday poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for saying that Russia threatened Europe and cautioned that such talk could lead the West towards the abyss of a new world war.

[…] the advance of Russian forces in Ukraine in 2024 and U.S. President Donald Trump’s upending of U.S. policy towards Ukraine and Russia and demand for a peace deal to end the war have triggered a crisis among European powers who fear the United States is turning its back on Europe.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

(more…)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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The media have not, and in most cases cannot, factually discuss what President Trump has just done without opening up a major can-of-worms about the motives behind the Ukraine war.

When President Trump stopped “intelligence sharing” with Ukraine, what he technically did was stop allowing Ukraine to use exclusive USA targeting systems controlled by U.S Intelligence, the CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

These terrain mapping systems, the missile and drone targeting systems, are what military forces inside Ukraine need to carry out offensive drone and missile attacks against Russian forces.

Some elements in Western Intel are leaking to media that Trump only cut-off the targeting system that would permit Ukraine to hit deep into Russian territory, including in Russia proper.  However, the ‘Russian territory‘ as seemingly defined by the National Security Council includes most of Eastern Ukraine now.

In essence and material reality, the elements in Ukraine who are conducting war, and this includes U.K and U.S special forces, the CIA and various NATO allied military operators (not Ukraine military) can no longer effectively hit long-range Russian targets, without the U.S. targeting system that identifies it.

The real-time sharing of military grade GPS encryption keys has been stopped by the U.S. Commander in Chief, President Trump.  Effective immediately without targeting system access, ATACMS, HIMARS, Storm Shadow and Taurus missile systems are no longer functional to those Ukraine operators (remember, those operators are not necessarily Ukranian).

Additionally, the drones that Ukraine has been using also rely on the same accurate, real-time, terrain-mapping satellite data that transmits back to the guidance systems. Without the U.S. encryption keys, what the media is obtusely calling “intelligence sharing,” all of the aforementioned attack systems are rendered moot.  THIS IS HUGE.

The part that is really interesting to those who have followed the events of the past three years, is literally who has been in control of and deploying these missile and drone attack systems.

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