RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21627/iran-using-north-korea-playbook

Iran appears to be using diplomacy to stall, deceive and advance its nuclear capabilities behind closed doors, while securing financial and geopolitical concessions from the West.

The disturbing part is not that Iran’s mullahs are following their usual tactics. The horror is that American officials and Western leaders appear to be falling for this shell-game all over again.

The problem with enriching hostile regimes to “buy quiet” is that this is the money they use to build nuclear weapons with which to attack us.

An additional problem, unfortunately, is that the Iranian regime has a well-documented history of lying.

No deal that permits any level of enrichment or allows Iran to keep its centrifuges intact will prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.

We are trying to “deal” with theocrats who believe it is their divine duty to destroy Israel and America, and take over the oil-rich states in the Persian Gulf.

What makes the current situation even more exasperating is that despite decades of talks, deals and diplomatic theater with North Korea, Russia, China and Iran, we have watched them exploit Western weakness and lack of resolve time and again right under our noses. Yet, like Charlie Brown and the football, the West insists on accepting the same failed, bogus guarantees. We do not need another Swiss-cheese agreement filled with loopholes. We do not need photo-ops and press conferences proclaiming bogus triumphs.

As the United States continues negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, if it does not already have them, it has become clear that the Islamic Republic’s regime is not pursuing these talks in good faith.

Far from viewing negotiations as a means toward a peaceful resolution, the Iranian regime appears to see them as a tool that has proven successful before, not only for itself but also for its authoritarian ally, North Korea.

Iran appears to be using diplomacy to stall, deceive and advance its nuclear capabilities behind closed doors, while securing financial and geopolitical concessions from the West.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21626/china-win-tariff-war

[T]he arrangement is a win for China.

The main barrier to American goods in China, however, is not Chinese tariffs but China’s many non-tariff barriers, which are untouched by the new deal. Therefore, the tariff rollbacks benefit Chinese exporters far more than America’s.

The Chinese promise is unlikely to be worth anything. The only way Xi Jinping can honor his pledge is to give up most elements of communism because non-tariff barriers, predatory trade practices, and even theft are inherent in that system.

Trump is still hoping for robust relations with the Communist Party, but unfortunately that is not possible.

Xi cannot now admit that China needs the United States, and he certainly cannot be seen as giving in to American coercion. In fact, the Chinese regime since the tariff announcement has been crowing about its win over Trump.

On May 12th, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” urged a “decoupling for strategic necessities.”

Yes. And “a complete decoupling,” which as Trump tweeted in 2020 would remain “a policy option,” would be even better. Why should Americans shovel any cash to Communist Party’s coffers?

On May 12, President Donald Trump announced a “total reset with China.”

“The best part of the deal,” he said, was that “China agreed to open itself up to American business.” Beijing, Trump proclaimed, will “suspend and remove all of its non-monetary barriers.”

In the meantime, both the U.S. and China agreed to drop tariffs by 115 percentage points. The general American tariff rate on China’s goods is now 30%. The general Chinese rate is 10%. Both reductions will be in effect for 90 days.

China also agreed to reverse “all the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2, 2025.”

American tariffs in place before April 2, such as the Section 232 and Section 301 levies, remain in effect.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/16/trump-unveils-america-first-national-security-2-0-during-visit-to-the-arabian-gulf/

President Trump’s trip this week to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was a great success for many reasons. The trip was also historic due to a speech he gave in Saudi Arabia outlining his America First foreign policy, which could transform global security.

In this speech, delivered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 13, Trump unveiled his second-term approach to foreign policy that might be called “America First National Security 2.0.”

Most of Trump’s America First approach to U.S. foreign affairs is well known. He has called for putting the interests of our country and the American people first in national security policies. Trump wants a strong military but has pledged to use military force prudently to keep our country out of new and unnecessary wars. He has condemned bad treaties favored by the foreign policy establishment, like the Paris Climate Accord, that will have no effect on the global climate but will do serious damage to the American economy.

In his Riyadh speech, President Trump doubled down on his previous America First national security policies with a revolutionary plan to promote stability and peace through economic prosperity in the Middle East and around the world. Deputy opinion editor of Newsweek Batya Ungar-Sargon explained the significance of this speech in a May 13 tweet.

“Anyone hoping to understand President Trump’s foreign policy should watch his whole speech, probably the most momentous foreign policy address of my lifetime. Trump is building a new world order. I would encourage our allies to watch it closely so as not to miss out on what could turn out to be a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

The central theme of Trump’s “new world order” is promoting global security through trade and prosperity. The president said he favored “commerce, not chaos” and a new Middle East that “exports technology, not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence.”

To facilitate this vision, President Trump noted that the sophisticated and gleaming cities of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were built by visionary Arab leaders who developed their countries in their own ways and consistent with their heritages. He stressed that these countries succeeded due to the hard work of their citizens and not because of Western military intervention, nation-builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/is-trump-breaking-with-israel/

Is Donald Trump really preparing to recognize a Palestinian state? The news hit like a thunderbolt on Saturday, amid an avalanche of stories claiming that Trump is angry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is changing course from his previous wholehearted support of Israel’s defense against Hamas and the other jihadist entities that are determined to destroy it. As is so often the case in such matters, however, there was decidedly less to the story than there initially appeared to be.

The Jerusalem Post picked up the story Saturday from the American news agency The Media Line. The distancing from the claim began in the headline: “Gulf diplomatic source claims Trump will announce US recognition of Palestinian state.” As the story unfolded, the claim became even more tenuous.

The assertion that Trump would recognize a Palestinian state at the upcoming Gulf-US summit was attributed to “a Gulf diplomatic source, who declined to be named or disclose his position.” This anonymous individual claimed that “President Donald Trump will issue a declaration regarding the State of Palestine and American recognition of it, and that there will be the establishment of a Palestinian state without the presence of Hamas.”

Just three paragraphs later, however, The Media Line quoted a person who didn’t decline to be named, denying the whole thing: “Ahmed Al-Ibrahim, a former Gulf diplomat, told The Media Line, ‘I don’t expect it to be about Palestine. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan have not been invited. They are the two countries closest to Palestine, and it would be important for them to be present at any event like this.’”

So what we end up with is one anonymous source indulging in speculation about what Trump will do at the Gulf summit, and someone else denying that speculation. The pro-Israel activist known on X as Brian of London said of the story that it was “Completly [sic] irresponsible for @Jerusalem_Post to run it and especially with that headline. The internet will go crazy over this s**t quote to a 5th tier news wire which is even contradicted by a NAMED source a few paragraphs down.” And indeed, online Israel-haters immediately began celebrating.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21607/iran-lies-nuclear-weapons

Any deal that permits Iran to keep centrifuges spinning, continue uranium enrichment, or store nuclear material is a deal that guarantees a future nuclear-armed Iran. We cannot afford a disastrous “JCPOA, the Sequel.”

Now, after President Trump’s return, the world is watching to see whether the United States really has the backbone to compel Iran completely to dismantle its nuclear weapons infrastructure – or actually to deliver the alternative.

The Iranian regime is not to be trusted. Its so-called “civilian” nuclear program is a Trojan horse, a fraud designed to keep the West paralyzed. There have to be no more talks, no more half-measures, no more inspectors playing cat and mouse with a regime that lies to their faces with impunity. The only acceptable outcome is either full dismantlement — no centrifuges and enriched uranium for “civilian use”, no secret sites — or unfortunately, the less pretty “Plan B,” if Trump and his administration are to have any credibility.

For more than two decades, the Iranian regime has played a dangerous and calculated game of deception with the West by skillfully masking its nuclear ambitions under the pretense of “civilian use.” This is not a new tactic — it’s a time-tested playbook used by rogue regimes to buy time, mislead international watchdogs, and continue marching in the shadows toward nuclear weapons and the missiles to them.

Tehran has manipulated global diplomacy by leveraging Western naivety and its obsession with appeasement and the search for “peace” to keep all the core elements of its nuclear program intact.

While negotiations and deals were struck in the name of “peace,” Iran preserved and advanced the infrastructure necessary to build nuclear bombs. Preserving its nuclear programs by proliferating secret sites under the deceitful banner of civilian energy has allowed the regime to reap the benefits of economic deals while continuing to lie and manipulate.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/09/what-president-trump-needs-in-his-next-national-security-adviser/

President Trump’s decision to remove Michael Waltz as his National Security Adviser (NSA) came as no surprise to Trump administration watchers who knew a change was coming. The president’s decision to nominate Waltz as UN ambassador was a classy way of taking care of a loyal supporter and decorated Army veteran who didn’t work out in a critical administration post.

Waltz’s ouster reflects how Trump runs the presidency as a business: he will not hesitate to replace officials who are not performing to his satisfaction or have lost his confidence. I expect Trump to be ruthless in managing top staff in his second term, as he has little time to enact an extremely ambitious agenda to take back our country.

By contrast, Joe Biden did not fire or replace any senior official in his four years as president. Notably, Biden failed to fire anyone after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, one of the worst foreign policy blunders in American history.

Trump added the acting NSA job to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s portfolio. This is reportedly a temporary arrangement that could last six months.

The decision to dual-hat Rubio in these top national security posts was a sign of Trump’s confidence and trust in the former Florida senator. (Rubio is actually “quad-hatted”—he also serves as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration.) However, as much as I respect Rubio and his capabilities, this is not an ideal situation due to the pressing responsibilities the Secretary of State must perform as America’s chief diplomat and the duties of the National Security Advisor, who serves as the top national security aide to the president and must be available to him 24/7.

Based on my experience as the National Security Council Chief of Staff and discussions with people inside and outside the Trump administration, I have come up with the following recommendations on what the president should look for in his next NSA. (I have a few more suggestions that I will pass to the president’s team privately.)

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21587/trump-nuclear-iran

If Iran can enrich a little uranium, it can at any time enrich a lot.

Iran’s latest diktat to the United States openly states that the regime has no interest in compromise, no intention of abandoning its nuclear weapons program, and no fear of impotent threats from a US president.

The Iranian regime at least deserves credit for honesty. The mullahs want to preserve its uranium enrichment program: it gives the regime a loaded gun pointed at the world.

This cat-and-mouse game has been Iran’s playbook for nearly 20 years. The regime pretends to comply with some dismissible Westerner, dial back enrichment slightly to satisfy desperate Western politicians who want to score short-term diplomatic victories, and in return, they extract billions of dollars in sanctions relief, economic benefits and especially political legitimacy.

One thing is certain: the minute it is clear that Iran has acquired nuclear weapons, every country in the Middle East, except for Israel, will submit to it rather than risk being bombed.

Mr. President, you have a choice. You can leave behind a legacy as the great, historic global leader who had the courage to save the entire free world from the Iranian nuclear threat. Or you can seek a meaningless political victory by signing a deal that will just paper over the crisis for twenty minutes. If you negotiate a weak agreement, history will remember you not as a success, but as a gigantic “loser” – and regard you with the same derision as Chamberlain. Chamberlain never got a Nobel Peace Prize and neither will you. But if you save the world from a nuclear Iran, you will go down in history as a second Winston Churchill.

Continuing to negotiate with an Iran that has bluntly stated that it will never give up its claimed “right to enrich uranium” is not diplomacy, it is surrender. Any agreement that allows even limited enrichment is a betrayal of everything the West stands for. We must not walk down that path again.

Mr. President, act now, decisively, and ensure that Iran’s nuclear ambitions are buried forever — and most of all that your legacy as the greatest leader of the 21st Century is enshrined forever.

Iran’s true intentions could not have been made any clearer: Last week, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi flatly declared the issue of uranium enrichment is “non-negotiable.”

Iran has called President Donald J. Trump’s bluff about bombing the country if the regime does not voluntarily dismantle its uranium enrichment centrifuges, ballistic missiles and the rest of its nuclear program. Trump immediately folded. Now the president seems to be backing down and trying to dodge: “I think we can make a deal without the attack.”

https://amgreatness.com/2025/05/02/president-trump-must-reverse-john-kerrys-worst-concession-to-iran/

On May 8, 2018, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from what he called “the worst deal ever”—the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, known as the JCPOA.

For many reasons, President Trump was exactly right. The most crucial reason was an unforgivable concession made to Iran by then-Senator John Kerry in 2011: conceding to Iran the “right” to enrich uranium.

The JCPOA was a bad deal for several reasons, including provisions that allowed Iran to do nuclear weapons-related work while the agreement was in effect, a weak inspection regime that Iran cheated on, and secret side deals that helped Iran evade IAEA inspections. The agreement also wasn’t permanent—it had “sunset provisions” that limited its duration.

In addition, the JCPOA gave Iran $150 billion in sanctions relief. This included $1.7 billion in “pallets of cash” that the U.S. secretly flew to Iran in small planes as ransom to release five innocent Americans being held hostage in Iranian prisons.

But the worst U.S. concession in the JCPOA was the Obama administration’s decision to concede to Iran the “right” to enrich uranium.

Uranium enrichment is the process of concentrating the rare uranium isotope uranium-235 (U-235) so it can be used for either nuclear reactor fuel (3 to 5% U-235) or nuclear weapons fuel (90% U-235).

Prior to the Obama administration, Republican and Democratic administrations were concerned that the spread of uranium enrichment would lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons because it is very easy for a nation to use uranium enrichment centrifuges initially constructed for peaceful purposes to produce nuclear bomb fuel.

The U.S. was also especially opposed before 2009 to letting Iran enrich uranium because of clear and convincing evidence it had engaged in a broad, covert program to produce nuclear weapons that violated Tehran’s treaty obligations.

John Kerry believed differently. As a senator, he argued in 2009 that he agreed with Iranian officials that because Iran had the right to peaceful nuclear technology under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, it had a right to enrich uranium. While he was still in the Senate in 2011, Kerry informed Iran (through Oman) on behalf of the Obama administration that the United States would acknowledge Iran’s right to enrich uranium at the start of new nuclear talks.