Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives an end of year wrap-up outlining the state of priorities for the United States as they pertain to global influence and geopolitical consequence.  After approximately six minutes of remarks the Q&A with media begins. WATCH:

[Transcript] – Well, thank you, guys, for coming today to cover us and to do this event. I wanted to start – I’m going to be very brief because I just want to get to as many questions as I can. I can do English. I’ll answer Spanish if you ask Spanish, and then I’ll answer it in – I’ll answer it in English after I answer it in Spanish. So any other languages I won’t be able to do it, but those two.

And then – so look, when I took over as Secretary of State – I’ll refer you back to the hearings we had in the Senate in January about the role I hoped to play. And I believe very strongly this president was elected – one of the reasons why he was elected, very specific things, but one of the reasons why President Trump was elected is sort of an understanding among the American people that our foreign policy was in need of a complete recalibration. A recalibration because the world has dramatically changed. Many of the institutions, policies, assumptions that our foreign policy was operating under were built upon a world that no longer existed, and it required us to re-examine that.

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New York Representative Elise Stefanik announced on X that she is suspending her race for New York governor and will not be seeking reelection in congress.  Essentially a complete exit from electoral politics.

ELISE STEFANIK – While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress. I did not come to this decision lightly for our family.

I am truly humbled and grateful for the historic and overwhelming support from Republicans, Conservatives, Independents, and Democrats all across the state for our campaign to Save New York.

However, as we have seen in past elections, while we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York.

And while many know me as Congresswoman, my most important title is Mom. I believe that being a parent is life’s greatest gift and greatest responsibility. I have thought deeply about this and I know that as a mother, I will feel profound regret if I don’t further focus on my young son’s safety, growth, and happiness – particularly at his tender age.

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The look on the faces of the CEOs representing some of the biggest drug manufacturers tells the story. Against the stern backdrop of collapsed resistance, President Trump announces the results of his “most favored nation” policy demand toward major pharmaceutical companies.

President Trump delivers remarks from the oval office, outlining the result of demanding pharmaceutical companies give the same pricing structure to USA medication users as they do to the rest of the world. In addition to noting how his administration has begun reducing the number of federal workers, President Trump announces that 100% of all job growth is in the private sector.

Nine, visibly strained, drug manufacturers were present as President Trump makes the announcement of their new drug pricing structure. Even the buckets of winnamins will be lower priced. WATCH:

A large part of healthcare costs overall are the costs of prescription medication.  President Trump is putting major pressure on all of the drug manufacturers to give the lowest price to the USA.  “As of today, 14 out of 17 pharmaceutical companies have agreed to drastically lower drug prices for American patients,” President Trump noted.

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The grand plans of the EU Leadership failed to generate their desired result.  Initially, Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer intended to permanently confiscate the Russian sovereign wealth fund and use it to fund their interests in Ukraine.  However, the EU coalition didn’t agree.

After 16 hours of failed internal negotiations the EU ended up creating a $90 Billion euro-backed financial loan to Zelenskyy which he will not have to pay back until Russian reparations are paid to Ukraine.

The European elites essentially used EU taxpayers to create an EU loan to Zelenskyy.

EUROPE – BRUSSELS — European governments failed to reach a deal on sending Russian frozen state assets to Ukraine after a 16-hour summit in Brussels, in a major setback for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Countries were forced instead to agree on an emergency backup plan based on EU joint debt that was pushed for weeks by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and was deemed a long shot until hours before the deal was done. In a further blow to EU unity, three countries ― Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic ― won’t take part.

“The bottom line, after today, is that our support for Ukraine is guaranteed,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said as the summit wrapped up at 3 a.m.

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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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Public Press Release – HERE / Affidavit Available – HERE

Rhode Island – […] “On December 18, 2025, a Rhode Island state court, based on an affidavit from a Providence Police Detective, issued a state arrest warrant for Neves Valente charging him with two counts of murder and 23 felony counts of assault and felony firearms offenses.

Earlier this evening, law enforcement tracked Neves Valente to a Salem, New Hampshire storage unit. After obtaining a federal search warrant for the unit, authorities entered and found Neves Valente deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Neves Valente (age 48) was born in Torres Novas, Santarem, Portugal and was a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States. Neves Valente arrived in the United States in August 2000 as an F-1 student at Brown University and subsequently obtained U.S. lawful permanent residency in April 2017. While at Brown University, he was enrolled in a doctoral program but subsequently withdrew from the university.”  – Affidavit Here

[SOURCE]

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The Brown University shooter has been identified as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente (48) a Portuguese national, green card holder, and former Brown University student.   Claudio Valente was identified and found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage facility in New Hampshire.

Claudio Valente was a student at Brown University physics PhD program from the fall of 2000 until taking a leave of absence in April of 2001, Brown University President Christina Paxson said. He formally withdrew from the university in 2003; she told reporters Thursday night.

There is no known motive being discussed, however Valante is also accused of killing MIT Professor Nuno Loureiro, 47, who was fatally shot in his Brookline home on Monday December 15th.

The killer, Valante, and the victim, Professor Loureiro, attended the same university in Portugal.

Before killing MIT Professor Louriero in Massachusetts on Monday, Claudio Valente entered a Brown University study session in the Barus & Holley engineering and physics building and fired 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun on Saturday (Rhode Island). Two Brown University students, Ella Cook (Alabama) and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov (Uzbekistan) were killed, nine others were injured.

Valante was a resident of Miami Florida; however, in late November he travelled to Boston Massachusetts, rented a vehicle and then traveled to Rhode Island in early December.  He was seen in/around the campus of Brown University for around a week before he carried out his mass shooting (Sat).  Valante then traveled back to Boston and reportedly killed MIT Professor Louriero (Mon).  The rental vehicle was found in a New Hampshire storage facility along with Valante’s body and the weapons used in the targeted killings.   No motive yet identified.

The full press conference from Rhode Island officials is below.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy is huddled with European Leaders at the European Council meeting in Brussels.  The key effort by the assembly is how to use frozen Russian assets to give money to Ukraine.

The EU itself does not want to lend Ukraine money directly because people within each nation of the EU assembly do not support giving Ukraine more money.  The issue reflects a political disconnect where the EU leaders want to give money that the EU citizens do not support giving.

As a result, the only viable option is for the EU to find a mechanism where seized Russian assets can be disbursed or used as collateral for payments to Ukraine.  However, some member states like Hungary, Italy and Belgium are refusing to cooperate with the seizure of the Russian sovereign wealth fund.  The problem for Zelenskyy and his friends is simply that without money wars cannot continue.

As noted by Decentralized Media: “What is unfolding in Europe reads less like miscalculation and more like controlled demolition operation. The freezing—and now effective seizure—of Russian-linked assets at Euroclear is not simply a sanction gone too far. It is a deliberate trigger in a broader effort to collapse the European Union’s existing financial architecture and, with it, the London-centered banking cartel that has dominated global capital flows for decades.

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The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) has released the November Consumer Price Index (CPI) [DATA HERE] showing the rate of inflation has dropped to 2.7% overall, with core inflation at 2.6%.  This is a significant drop from expectations by financial pundits and pontificating economic media.

While the media proclaim, “inflation cooled unexpectedly,” the reality is that it’s not unexpected.  The results of a slowing of price increase are not accidental; they are the result of Trump’s domestic economic policies working.

[Non-Paywall Source and Media Spin]

President Trump has been cutting waste, fraud and abuse in runaway government spending; slashing costly regulations across all sectors of the economy and ending Green New Scam energy policy in favor of drill, baby, drill.  As noted by NEC Chairman Kevin Hasset, Trump has reduced deficit spending overall.

There’s still a long way to go, but significant MAGAnomic progress is being made.  Oh, and that skyrocketing “tariff inflation” the same shocked pundits proclaimed was sure to happen this time, well, that has not surfaced either.  Just like it didn’t surface in 2018 or 2019 when the tariffs were applied the first time.

NEW YORK – US inflation unexpectedly cooled in November – slowing its pace in the first report since September after a government shutdown disrupted data gathering.

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