Tag: donald trump

High-Explosive Drone Pierces Shell Of Chernobyl Nuclear Plant At Very Moment Trump Pushes Ukraine Toward Peace

On Friday just prior to high-level meetings among Western security officials and Ukrainian leadership commencing in Munich, including US Vice President J.D. Vance and Zelensky, there was a dangerous incident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine’s Kyiv oblast.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky accused Russia of launching a drone equipped with a high-explosive warhead at the historic, defunct power plant, site of the April 1986 nuclear disaster and meltdown. The drone reportedly hit the protective containment shell of the Chernobyl plant.

Zelensky’s office released footage showing an impact to the giant concrete and steel shield protecting the remains of the nuclear reactor. BBC writes that “The shield is designed to prevent further radioactive material leaking out over the next century. It measures 275m (900ft) wide and 108m (354ft) tall and cost $1.6bn (£1.3bn) to construct.”

And WaPo details further of the looming potential dangers:

In 2019, construction was completed on the New Safe Confinement — a $1.7 billion arch-shaped steel structure, which would contain the destroyed reactor. The site still contained some “200 tons of highly radioactive material,” according to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, which helped finance the project.

Thus the situation is deeply alarming given the potential for a new radiation leak at the site which could impact the region, or even Europe. An IAEA team on the ground said it heard an explosion at around 01:50 local time coming from the New Safe Confinement (NSC) shelter. Photos showed flames at the top of the huge structure.

The UN agency is on high alert, but issued a statement saying the drone strike did not breach the plant’s inner containment shell. The IAEA also did not attribute blame, not identifying who sent the drone.

The Kremlin strongly rejected that it was behind the incident:

“There is no talk about strikes on nuclear infrastructure, nuclear energy facilities, any such claim isn’t true, our military doesn’t do that,” Peskov told reporters in a call.

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Trump demands full disclosure on assassination attempts, citing withheld information

President Donald Trump issued a directive to the Secret Service on Friday, Feb. 7, demanding a complete and unfiltered disclosure of information regarding two individuals who attempted to assassinate him last year.

Speaking to the New York Post, Trump expressed frustration over the delayed release of details, asserting that he has the right to know.

The incidents, which occurred in July and September 2024, have raised significant questions about the motives and potential foreign connections of the would-be assassins. The first attempt took place at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where 19-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a rifle shot that struck Trump in the ear. Crooks was fatally shot by law enforcement at the scene. Federal investigators later discovered that Crooks possessed six cell phones and accounts on encrypted messaging platforms linked to Belgium, Germany and New Zealand, casting doubt on whether he acted alone.

The second attempt involved 59-year-old Ryan Routh, who was apprehended near the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Routh, armed with a rifle, had been lying in wait. Authorities revealed that he had previously served as a recruiter in Ukraine and authored a self-published book on Amazon calling for Trump’s assassination. Routh is currently awaiting trial in September and faces the possibility of life in prison.

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The Isolation Is Over: Trump Calls Putin

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has led an international campaign to shun and isolate Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former U.S. president Joe Biden did not talk to Putin once after the war began.

That policy of isolation is now over. On February 12, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin.

But Trump did not just open the door a cautious crack. He flung it wide. He did not just agree to further phone calls: he agreed that he would go to Moscow and Putin would come to Washington: “We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations.” More importantly still, Trump appeared to extend an invitation to welcome Russia back into the international community. He says that he and Putin “talked about… the great benefit that we will someday have in working together.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said that Trump and Putin’s phone call lasted almost an hour and a half and that they had agreed that “the time has come for our countries to work together.”

On the same day that Trump spoke to Putin, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was speaking to NATO and Ukrainian defense ministers. He offered the clearest yet revelation of Trump’s position.

Trump and Hegseth’s statements combined provide a glimpse of the parameters of the peace plan. Hegseth clearly stated that “the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.” That blow to Ukraine dovetails with Peskov’s statement that during the phone call, “Vladimir Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict.” Those statements combined suggest a clear path for Putin to achieve his key goal in going to war: to receive a written guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO.

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Trump’s War on Fraud: MORE Staggering Government Waste Numbers Revealed!

On Thursday, President Trump unveiled startling revelations about government waste and fraud, in a report from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk. During a press conference following the signing of a significant executive order, Trump discussed new reciprocal tariffs and DOGE’s eye-opening discoveries. “Whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them. No more, no less,” Trump asserted, as reported by The Gateway Pundit. He emphasized the need for fairness, declaring, “In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them, but those days are over.”

Trump is on a mission to slash wasteful government spending that has long been siphoning taxpayer money through fraud and abuse. The findings are quite staggering: up to $521 billion federal dollars are lost to fraud annually, with 2023 witnessing an estimated $236 billion or more in improper payments. Since 2003, an astonishing $2.7 trillion has vanished in improper payments, meaning payments funneled to the wrong recipients. The numbers for 2024 were equally disconcerting, with $162 billion in improper payments, including a $15.9 billion loss in the Earned Income Tax Credit, $10.5 billion in food stamps, $8.7 billion in the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, $6.5 billion in Supplemental Security Income, $5.6 billion in unemployment insurance, and $8.3 billion in Social Security Disability Insurance and Survivors Insurance Program, which included $6.5 billion in overpayments.

The Gateway Pundit has been diligent in exposing these massive waste figures, including the $2.7 trillion squandered since 2003, an issue highlighted by Marjorie Taylor Greene’s DOGE Subcommittee. Trump has made it clear that this is merely scratching the surface. Imagine the potential savings for American taxpayers if Washington stopped obstructing President Trump’s efforts to audit government spending with Elon Musk’s team. “That’s what Elon’s working so hard on with his group of almost 100 geniuses,” Trump remarked to reporters.

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Is Trump’s Plan To Take Greenland To Control Arctic Shipping Lanes?

Donald Trump’s recent flirtations with acquiring Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal are not new ideas. They all relate to a single strategic objective: controlling shipping lanes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The US has long been a champion of “freedom of navigation”, using military force to police the world’s seaways, from the South China Sea to the Straits of Hormuz.  Although the US has never ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), it consistently enforces its principles worldwide.

As Arctic seas ice continues to recede, opening the Northwest Passage (NWP) and the Northern Sea Route(NSR) for longer periods each year, international access to these shipping routes is becoming an ever more pressing issue, as these Arctic routes offer significantly shorter transit between Europe and East Asia than routes through the Panama or Suez canals.

Moreover, the economic and geopolitical implications of Arctic trade are staggering. Shorter and more cost-effective shipping routes will reshape the balance of global trade, and control over these routes will dictate economic flow, energy transportation, and even military positioning, given the critical role of seaborne logistics in global defense strategies. The viability of the Arctic as a major shipping region also brings with it economic opportunities in tourism, fisheries, and natural resource extraction, including oil and rare earth minerals.

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‘Obama Bros’ admit they should’ve done ‘some of the stuff’ Trump is doing with DOGE

Former aides to President Barack Obama admitted on an episode of “Pod Save America” they should have done “some of the stuff” President Donald Trump is doing with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

When discussing DOGE’s initiatives to cut federal spending, the “Obama Bros” admitted to “lamenting” their situation.

Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, implied he “didn’t know” they could make government so efficient. 

“Honestly, some of this is pretty annoying because it’s some of the stuff we should’ve done. We didn’t know you could do some of this,” Lovett said. 

Jon Favreau, also a former Obama speechwriter, shared Lovett’s frustration, admitting the Obama administration tried to cut through bureaucracy and create government efficiency, but “it’s hard to do.”

“We all know that government is slow. We all know government can be inefficient. We all know that the bureaucracy can be bloated. We all worked in the f—ing White House. We tried to reorganize the government. We tried to find efficiency. It’s hard to do,” Favreau said. 

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UK Could Weaken Online Censorship Law To Avoid US Trade Battle

As European leaders scramble to shield their economies from impending US tariffs, the UK’s Labour government appears ready to make significant concessions. Facing the risk of economic fallout, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration has reportedly signaled to Washington that it is open to revising the controversial and dangerous Online Safety Act — legislation critics have described as an aggressive censorship regime.

The Act, which gives UK regulators the power to fine tech companies for failing to remove vaguely defined “harmful content,” has been a major point of contention between the two allies and has become a major threat to free speech online. The Trump administration has been especially vocal in its opposition, viewing the law as an affront to free speech and a potential financial burden on US tech giants.

According to The Telegraph:

“Downing Street is willing to renegotiate elements of the Act in order to strike a trade deal, should it be raised by the US, The Telegraph understands. The law has been heavily criticized by free speech advocates and economists, who argue its broad provisions to tackle harmful online content could lead to excessive censorship and deter investment from American tech giants.”

The Online Safety Act arms UK media regulator Ofcom with sweeping new authority over social media platforms, enabling the imposition of multimillion-pound fines for failing to police content according to government directives. While supporters claim the law is necessary to protect users, critics argue that its vague wording and punitive approach encourage preemptive censorship — where platforms remove lawful content simply to avoid regulatory punishment.

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Elizabeth Warren’s Hubris Allowed Trump To Defund the CFPB

Since at least the days of the ancient Greeks, humans have known that one way to write a compelling story is by including a bit of hamartia—a tragic flaw.

Sometimes that is a physical shortcoming—Achilles had that famously vulnerable heel—but it is often more interesting if the flaw is a more innate thing tied to a character’s understanding of themselves. Hubris, or excessive pride, is the famous one. After all, it wasn’t really Achilles’ unprotected heel that took him down, but his false belief that his mother had made him invulnerable.

You might say the exact same thing about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It could be headed into a sort of coma later this year because of a fatal flaw embedded by its own parents: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and former President Barack Obama.

Unlike every other department and agency within the federal government, the CFPB is not funded via congressional appropriations. Instead, its funding flows directly from the Federal Reserve. Each year, the White House submits a budget to the Federal Reserve, and the central bank hands over the necessary amount—$729.4 million last year, in case you were wondering.

For a long time after the CFPB was created in 2010, there were serious questions about the constitutionality of that structure. That finally got resolved last year, when the Supreme Court ruled that Congress was within its powers to hand off the purse strings. So, funding the CFPB via the Federal Reserve is not unconstitutional—it’s just unorthodox and foolish.

Here’s where the hubris enters the story. When Warren and Obama created the CFPB, they designed that unorthodox funding structure specifically to prevent a future Republican-led Congress from trying to defund the bureau. Remember, this was in the age when Republicans were running around the country telling voters they intended to repeal Obamacare too. By isolating the CFPB from Congress’ budgetary powers, Warren was trying to make it invulnerable to attack.

Instead, she simply gave it a fatal flaw.

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Is Trump Getting Ready To Cut Ukraine—and Europe—Loose?

President Donald Trump started peace negotiations over Ukraine with dramatic flair. Although he had been expected to send his envoy Keith Kellogg to present a peace plan at the Munich Security Conference this week, Trump instead had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, announcing on Wednesday morning that they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” Along with the peace talks, the two countries announced a surprise prisoner exchange. And Trump snubbed Kellogg, leaving him out of the announced negotiating team.

European governments panicked at the notion that they would be left out of any final deal. “Peace can only be achieved together. And that means with Ukraine, and with the Europeans,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters. “There will be no just and lasting peace in Ukraine without the participation of Europeans,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said to France’s cabinet. Leaders across Europe made similar statements.

The talks about Ukraine are about more than Ukraine, and everybody on both sides of the Atlantic knows it. The new Trump administration seems eager to draw back from America’s post-World War II role as Europe’s military protector. In a speech on Wednesday, a few hours before Trump’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called on the other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to pick up the tab for defending Ukraine and Europe.

“Our transatlantic alliance has endured for decades. And we fully expect that it will be sustained for generations to come. But this won’t just happen. It will require our European allies to step into the arena and take ownership of conventional security on the continent,” Hegseth said. “The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe. Full stop. But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship that encourages dependency. Rather, our relationship will prioritize empowering Europe to own responsibility for its own security.”

Of course, Trump talked about having European countries pay a bigger share of defense in his first term, too. He also built up U.S. forces close to Russia’s borders, and sent the first lethal military aid to Ukraine, mocking former President Barack Obama for giving Ukrainian troops only “pillows and sheets.”

The stakes, however, are different now. During Trump’s first term, the conflict was a war between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia rebels. Since then, Russia has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading to the most intense combat in Europe since World War II—and burning through U.S. resources. The threat of a direct U.S.-Russian war has loomed in the background. 

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EU/NATO Freak Out Over Trump Position On Ukraine – Zelenskiy Says Trump ‘Not Nice’

Since Ukrainian “President” Volodymyr Zelenskiy is not a legitimately elected leader at this point, we find these statements humorous.

Zelensky: The question of the elections is not at issue at the moment, it’s really not very nice that Trump called Putin first. I did not discuss joining NATO with Trump, but I know that Washington does not want us to be a member of the alliance.

We will not accept any deal between Moscow and Washington without Kyiv.

Hegseth: There is no betrayal of Ukraine. The world and the U.S. are investing in peace—through negotiations. Russian aggression was a wake-up call for NATO that it must be stronger.

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