RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/22/confronting-chinas-commercial-malign-influence-in-africa/

In another welcome sign of the Trump Administration’s focused prioritization of American interests in foreign policy, the State Department’s Senior Bureau Official for African Affairs recently rolled out a clear-eyed approach to U.S. engagement in Africa. As part of a long-overdue restructuring of the State Department, the Trump Administration articulated a directive to U.S. diplomats that puts enhanced trade and commercial diplomacy at the forefront of advancing U.S. interests, with the American private sector squarely in the lead as the engine of mutual prosperity and expansive growth. As highlighted throughout a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently, threats from Chinese activities across Africa, especially commercial activities, directly undermine U.S. interests across the continent.

Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX) laid out the challenge directly, calling China “the most significant long-term strategic threat to the United States” and highlighting that throughout Africa, “China is exercising its military, economic, and political power and advancing its authoritarian agenda, all while undermining the sovereignty of African nations and the strategic interests of the United States.” To help confront this harmful influence directly, the Trump Administration’s updated strategy prioritizes the need to reduce barriers to entry for U.S. companies and level the playing field for American businesses. Fair, clear, and equal rules of doing business, coupled with strengthened institutions and the rule of law to uphold those standards, are the opportunity the private sector seeks as it evaluates prospective markets. Coupled with broader Trump Administration reforms at trade promotion and enhanced prioritization ensuring American competitiveness in Africa, this strategic focus on “trade, not aid” is what both our African partners and the American people want.

The success of this strategy goes beyond the ongoing reorganization and strategic restructuring of the state. As Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) noted during another recent hearing focused on issues in East Africa, “There are countries where meaningful engagement is possible—but only with sober judgment and clear-eyed realism. We must stop building U.S. policy in Africa around individual leaders and instead focus on strengthening institutions, expanding private sector ties, and empowering the region’s young and dynamic populations.” That clear focus requires careful analysis of the various ways China’s coercive activities have been successful in the past to help inform what is needed to expand commercial relationships in Africa.

https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/middle-east/the-decision-that-will-define-trump/

I can understand President Trump’s taking his time to decide whether or not to intervene in the Israel/Iran war, given the strength of the ‘no new wars’ sentiment of much of his base.  In deference to them he did not rush into a decision.

However, he was caught up by two considerations of his own devising.  Firstly, his firm and repeated assertion that Iran will never be allowed a nuclear weapon.  And, secondly, his demand that allies step up to the plate in defending themselves if they expect US help.  Implicit in that demand is that the US will help those friends and allies who help themselves.  Israel has done that in spades.  And, in doing so, it is rendering a great service to the rest of the world.

If Trump did not support Israel at this critical time, as he has now done, how seriously should, for example, the Albanese government take his demand to increase our own spending?  After all, the effective US contribution would not involve boots on the ground.  Just dropping two or three bunker busting bombs on selected sites from virtually uncontested airspace.  It would pose no risk of escalation from other state parties because they have not already intervened against Israel.

What is the downside?  There is a risk that Iran would strike US facilities in retaliation and that, undoubtedly, would hurt Trump domestically.   It would not, however, materially damage US power. There is a risk that the MOAB bomb might not have been able to penetrate the Fordow fortifications.  But two or three strikes would probably increase the chances.  It would be surprising if it did not do significant damage.  There is speculation the facility could be 100 metres or more below the surface.  But no matter how far underground it is, there must be surface level access points, and it would be strange if Israel did not know where they are.  With modern guidance systems a MOAB can be delivered straight through the front door — or any other door, for that matter.

I believe that Trump genuinely deplores war, as I do.  However, that does not make him a member of the kumbaya brigade, any more than it does me.  No military action comes without risk.  But sometimes the risk of inaction outweighs the alternative.

How, for example, would Taiwan – already in some doubt about US resolve to defend it – feel about a decision by Trump not to take all steps available to help Israel rid the world of the risk of Iran having a nuclear bomb?

https://www.frontpagemag.com/misunderstanding-trump/

Many are now demanding that Trump act abroad in the way they think he had promised and campaigned–which can be mostly defined as how closely he should parallel their own version of MAGA.

But Trump’s past shows that he never claimed that he was either an ideological isolationist or an interventionist.

He was and is clearly a populist-nationalist: i.e., what in a cost-to-benefit analysis is in the best interests of the U.S. at home and its own particular agendas abroad?

Trump did not like neo-conservatism because he never felt it was in our interests to spend blood and treasure on those who either did not deserve such largess, or who would never evolve in ways we thought they should, or whose fates were not central to our national interests.

So-called, optional, bad-deal, and forever wars in the Middle East and their multitrillion-dollar costs would come ultimately at the expense of shorting Middle America back home.

However, Trump’s first-term bombing of ISIS, standing down “little rocket man”, warning Putin not to invade Ukraine between 2017-21, and killing off Qasem Soleimani, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and many of the attacking Russian Wagner Group in Syria were certainly not Charles Lindberg isolationism but a sort of Jacksonian—something summed up perhaps as the Gadsen “Don’t tread on me”/ or Lucius Sulla’s “No better friend, no worse enemy” .

Trump’s much critiqued references to Putin—most recently during the G7, and his negotiations with him over Ukraine—were never, as alleged, appeasement (he was harder in his first term on Putin than was either Obama or Biden), but art-of-the-deal/transactional (e.g., you don’t gratuitously insult or ostracize your formidable rival in possible deal-making, but seek simultaneously to praise—and beat—him.)

Similarly, Churchill initially saw the mass-murdering, treacherous Stalin in the way Trump perhaps sees Putin, someone dangerous and evil, but who if handled carefully, occasionally granted his due, and approached with eyes wide open, could be useful in advancing a country’s realist interests—which for Britain in 1941 was for Russia to kill three-quarters of Nazi Germany’s soldiers, and, mutatis mutandis, for the U.S. in 2025 to cease the mass killing near Europe, save most of an autonomous Ukraine, keep Russia back eastward as far as feasible, and in Kissingerian-style derail the developing Chinese and Russian anti-American axis.

Trump was never anti-Ukraine, but rather against a seemingly endless Verdun-like war in which after three years neither side had found a pathway to strategic resolution—a war from the distance fought between two like peoples, one with nuclear weapons, and on the doorstep of Europe.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/06/20/trumps-careful-america-first-approach-to-irans-nuclear-weapons-program/

he mainstream media has been in overdrive this week, claiming that President Trump’s MAGA base is prepared to revolt if the president decides to drop bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment site because this would violate his America First principles to keep America out of new and unnecessary wars.

President Trump answered these criticisms decisively when he told The Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer that, since he originated the America First concept, he alone decides what it means. Trump also told the reporter that stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon aligns with America First principles:

“For those people who say they want peace—you can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don’t want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon—that’s not peace.”

Trump’s statement did not come as a surprise to those of us who have studied his America First approach to U.S. national security and why this groundbreaking approach to foreign affairs was so successful during Trump’s first term. (Full disclosure: I edited a book on this topic published in May 2024 titled An America First Approach to U.S. National Security.)

There is no question that the America First approach repudiates the failed foreign policies of prior Republican and Democratic presidents who embroiled our nation in endless wars and doomed nation-building efforts in areas of the world where there were no U.S. strategic interests. This approach is also a backlash to efforts by Democratic presidents to enmesh America in globalist trade agreements and treaties that were favored by the liberal elite but harmed U.S. security and the American worker.

This led to Trump’s America First approach to U.S. national security. A primary requirement of this approach is a competent and decisive president who exercises strong leadership, appoints exemplary national security officials, and implements a coherent and effective foreign policy to protect America from foreign threats and promote its interests abroad. The America First approach requires a strong military, the prudent use of U.S. military force, and keeping U.S. troops out of unnecessary and unending wars.

The America First approach is not America alone. It means working in alliances and with partners to promote regional security while requiring alliance members and allies to carry their full weight in defending security in their regions.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21688/trump-iran

If US President Donald J. Trump wants actual long-term peace in the Middle East, like it or not, there is no alternative other than allowing the departure of Iran’s theocratic terrorist dictators and liberating the Iranian people – just as, after World War II, the US liberated Germany and Japan to enable the election of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in Germany and the highly successful democracy in Japan.

More negotiations are just the usual stalling tactic of the Iranian regime. Interminably negotiating some “deal” — which, based on their track record, Iran will cheat on, no matter how vigilant its guardians are, just allows Iran’s regime a 24-karat opportunity to resupply, regroup and terrorize the region again.

The last thing Trump needs is “help” from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US urgently needs to spearhead not another porous, fake “nuclear deal” but real security, stability and freedom — not only for millions of Muslims, Christians and Jews, but also for the great people of Iran who have been forced to suffer under vicious psychopathic despots long enough.

For real peace, Trump needs to be the Churchill of our time. Let Israel finish the job. It is for us.

The Israel-Iran war erupted as Palestinians were marking the 18th anniversary of the Hamas coup against the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the Gaza Strip.

On June 14, 2007, the Iran-backed terror group staged a violent coup that lasted for a few days and resulted in the death of hundreds of PA loyalists, some of whom were lynched in public squares, while others were thrown from the top floors of high-rise buildings. Human Rights Watch reported on June 12, 2007:

“In internal Palestinian fighting over the last three days, both [the PA’s ruling] Fatah faction and Hamas military forces have summarily executed captives, killed people not involved in hostilities, and engaged in gun battles with one another inside and near Palestinian hospitals…

“On Sunday, Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Muhammad Swairki, a cook for President Mahmoud Abbas’s Presidential Guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City. Later that night, Fatah military forces shot and captured Muhammad al-Ra’fati, a Hamas supporter and mosque preacher, and threw him from a Gaza City high-rise apartment building.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21680/ran-pursuit-of-nuclear-weapons

The findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which were which are being discussed at this week’s IAEA meeting in Vienna this week, should certainly leave the Trump administration in no doubt about the extent of the duplicity that has long characterised Tehran’s dealings with the IAEA over its nuclear ambitions.

The findings should also persuade Trump to adopt a more robust approach in his dealings with Iran.

This is not warmongering; this is peace-mongering – to prevent Iran from creating even greater devastation later.

Rather than persisting with his efforts to appease the ayatollahs, the publication of new damning evidence about Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme should persuade Trump that he has no serious option other than to confront Tehran over its deceitful nuclear activities, as well as its ballistic missile programme, also able to conventionally blackmail Iran’s oil-rich Sunni neighbours, Europe and eventually possibly the US itself.

Amid concerns that US President Donald J. Trump is backtracking on his pledge to confront Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, new evidence pointing to Iran’s clandestine attempts to develop nuclear weapons should persuade the Trump administration to make the Iran threat one of its top priorities.

The latest evidence that Tehran has spent the past few decades developing nuclear weapons has come in the form of a bombshell report published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.

The IAEA has previously identified a number of glaring inconsistencies in Iran’s official declarations about its nuclear programme, which have resulted in the imposition of Western sanctions.

There has, for example, been a long-running dispute lasting nearly two decades between Iran and the West after IAEA inspectors found traces of undeclared enriched uranium at the top-secret Parchin military facility, located around 20 miles southeast of Tehran.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21672/trump-going-wobbly-on-iran

Uh oh. US President Donald J, Trump has reportedly fired a “slew of pro-Israel officials in America First ‘course correction,'” and that “Trump is looking for an Iran dove to take over as Middle East chief at National Security Council, while pushing for nuclear deal,” according to Middle East Eye.

Iran uses it centrifuges to enrich uranium to high levels. Highly enriched uranium is needed only for nuclear weapons. No highly enriched uranium, no nuclear bombs. Even one uranium-enrichment centrifuge in Iran’s possession is a nuclear weapon waiting to happen.

If the US Congress could please pass a bill as soon as possible preventing the US from allowing centrifuges in Iran, it would be an enormous benefit to US and global security.

Meanwhile, America’s enemies — Russia, China, North Korea and Venezuela — are waiting to see if the US actually has any real backbone before deciding if it is safe for them to go on offense again.

This is not warmongering — it is the last resort when diplomacy fails and survival is on the line. Israel and the US have every right to defend themselves – and the region – against a regime that openly seeks their extermination.

Unfortunately, Trump has repeatedly given Iran reason to bet on that. First, Trump told Hamas in January that they had to deliver all the hostages or “all hell will break out.” When Hamas did nothing of the kind, Trump’s dramatic response was — nothing. Even better, Trump seemed to “throw Israel under the bus.” How perfect!

Then, on March 7, Trump sent Khamenei a letter saying that Iran had two months to dismantle its nuclear program… Hmm. It is now June and Iran has been enriching more uranium than ever. No wonder Iran’s regime assumes it is holding a royal straight flush.

Iran’s regime saw what happened to Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi when he gave up his nuclear arsenal. Iran’s regime saw what happened when Ukraine, thanks to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 – signed by Ukraine, Russia and the US – gave up its nuclear arsenal. The lesson they surely learned was: No nukes, no power. Iran will not voluntarily give up what it must see as its insurance policy for ruling Iran forever.

Uh oh. US President Donald J, Trump has reportedly fired a “slew of pro-Israel officials in America First ‘course correction,'” and that “Trump is looking for an Iran dove to take over as Middle East chief at National Security Council, while pushing for nuclear deal,” according to Middle East Eye.

The threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions, however, is no longer a distant concern — it is a rapidly escalating crisis with the most severe and immediate implications for Israel, the oil-rich Sunni Arab Gulf States, and North and South America. Trump appears to be scurrying to back down from “or there will be “all hell to pay,” and is possibly on the verge of letting Iran keep its uranium-enrichment centrifuges. Not an option.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21661/iran-nuclear-agreement
As talks between Washington and Tehran are underway to reach an agreement on Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, even if a deal is reached, unless it features “anywhere, anytime” inspections, to which Iran has never agreed, Iran will secretly continue to develop nuclear weapons and cheat, cheat, cheat.

If such a deal is reached, Iran also is not going to stop its financial and military support for its terror proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Iran, in short, is not going to abandon its declared goal of obliterating the “Zionist entity” (“the Little Satan”) or the United States (“the Great Satan”).

If Trump is serious about preventing war and bloodshed in the Middle East, he must insist that any agreement with Iran’s mullahs include no centrifuges or uranium enrichment of any kind, and no support for Tehran’s terror proxies.

If something could possibly go wrong, unfortunately it will — leaving Trump with the legacy of delivering yet another laughably fake peace deal and of his presidency being that of another failed Barack Obama.

Trump must also demand that Iran’s leaders stop calling for the annihilation of Israel.

The same is true for the leaders of Qatar, as well Qatar’s personal insults against Trump himself.

The Iranian regime is determined to continue supporting [terrorist leaders] to help them achieve their goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel.

“Iran’s openly stated goal is to destroy Israel, but the broader game is its perception of the United States as the ‘Great Satan.’ Iran’s strategy involves orchestrating various terrorist groups in the Middle East, with multifaceted objectives. Firstly, it seeks to dominate the Islamic world in the region, asserting its influence over other nations. Simultaneously, it aims to strike at the credibility of the United States, a long-standing adversary in Iranian foreign policy.” — Shishir Gupta, executive editor, Hindustan Times, April 27, 2023.

The Trump administration would do well to take these issues into consideration before signing any agreement with Iran. Such an agreement, if reached, unfortunately will not mean that the Iranian regime has become America’s friend. As long as the mullahs continue to wish for the destruction of Israel and America, and to back Islamist terror groups, they should be treated as dangerous enemies of both Israel and the US.

It is wrong and unrealistic to assume that Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his regime, if and when they sign a nuclear agreement with the Trump administration, would abandon their dream of destroying Israel and America. Pictured: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on as a ‘Qasem Soleimani’ missile is displayed during a military parade in Tehran, on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

As talks between Washington and Tehran are underway to reach an agreement on Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, even if a deal is reached, unless it features “anywhere, anytime” inspections, to which Iran has never agreed, Iran will secretly continue to develop nuclear weapons and cheat, cheat, cheat.

If such a deal is reached, Iran also is not going to stop its financial and military support for its terror proxies in the Middle East, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthi militia in Yemen. Iran, in short, is not going to abandon its declared goal of obliterating the “Zionist entity” (“the Little Satan”) or the United States (“the Great Satan”).

US President Donald J. Trump said on May 28 that he believes his administration is “very close to a solution” with Iran on a nuclear agreement. “Right now, I think they want to make a deal,” Trump said. “And if we can make a deal, I’d save a lot of lives.”

These are the main reasons that address why an agreement regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions is not enough.

The Iranian regime’s ongoing effort to acquire nuclear weapons is a huge problem, as are its repeated demands to enrich uranium (whatever could go wrong?) and threats to destroy Israel – especially with Iran’s proxy terror groups that also seek to destroy Israel.

If Trump is serious about preventing war and bloodshed in the Middle East, he must insist that any agreement with Iran’s mullahs include no centrifuges or uranium enrichment of any kind, and no support for Tehran’s terror proxies.

If something could possibly go wrong, unfortunately it will — leaving Trump with the legacy of delivering yet another laughably fake peace deal and of his presidency being that of another failed Barack Obama.

Were it not for Iran’s financial and military support, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Houthis would not have been able to fire thousands of rockets, ballistic missiles and explosive drones at Israel over the past 20 months.

Halting or limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment may be a positive development, but what about the hundreds of millions of dollars and the weapons it sends to its terror proxies? The Trump administration must demand an immediate halt to the funding and arming of the Iran-backed Islamist terror groups. Furthermore, it must demand that Iran’s leaders stop calling for the annihilation of Israel.

The same is true for the leaders of Qatar (such as here and here), as well Qatar’s personal insults against Trump himself.

As Trump was voicing optimism regarding the prospects of reaching a nuclear deal with the Iranian regime, Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, received a delegation of Hamas and PIJ officials in Tehran and discussed with them “the latest developments in the region, especially the situation in Palestine and the Gaza Strip.”

Iranian and Palestinian media outlets quoted Velayati as “assuring” the Hamas and PIJ officials that “the Zionist entity is doomed to disappear.” Hamas and PIJ, the second largest Iran-backed terror group in the Gaza Strip, participated in the October 7, 2023 invasion of Israel. At least 1,200 Israelis were murdered and thousands wounded on that day. Another 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 58 remain in captivity (only 20 are believed to be alive).

Velayati also “affirmed Iran’s solidarity with the [Palestinian] resistance groups and praised the victories of the Palestinian resistance [against Israel] as a rare achievement in the history of Islam,” according to media reports.

The meeting between Velayati and the Hamas and PIJ representatives shows that the Iranian regime has no intention to turn its back on its terror proxies, notwithstanding any possible future nuclear agreement with the US. The opposite is true. Velayati reassured the Palestinian terror leaders that the Iranian regime is determined to continue supporting them, to help them achieve their goal of murdering Jews and eliminating Israel. When the Iranian official talks about the “resistance,” he is referring to terrorism against Israel, including the October 7 massacre.

Velayati’s talk about the destruction of the “Zionist entity” shows that the Iranian regime does not intend to abandon its dream of wiping Israel off the map, and the US as well.

In the past few years, Khamenei has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and America. He was also quick to praise the October 7 massacre as a “logical and legal” action.

It is wrong and unrealistic to assume that Khamenei and his regime, if and when they sign a nuclear agreement with the Trump administration, would abandon their dream of destroying Israel and America. The previous nuclear agreement the Iranian regime signed with the Obama administration in 2015 did not stop the mullahs in Tehran from providing financial and military aid to the Islamist terror groups in the Middle East. That agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also did not see Iran’s leaders change their minds about destroying Israel.

Iran’s support for the Palestinian terror groups, Hezbollah and the Houthi militia has brought death and destruction on Palestinians, Lebanese and Yemenis. Iran’s regime is a threat not only to Israel, but also to the US.

“Iran’s openly stated goal is to destroy Israel, but the broader game is its perception of the United States as the ‘Great Satan,'” wrote Shishir Gupta, executive editor of the Hindustan Times, in April 2023.

“Iran’s strategy involves orchestrating various terrorist groups in the Middle East, with multifaceted objectives. Firstly, it seeks to dominate the Islamic world in the region, asserting its influence over other nations. Simultaneously, it aims to strike at the credibility of the United States, a long-standing adversary in Iranian foreign policy.”

The Trump administration would do well to take these issues into consideration before signing any agreement with Iran. Such an agreement, if reached, unfortunately will not mean that the Iranian regime has become America’s friend. As long as the mullahs continue to wish for the destruction of Israel and America, and to back Islamist terror groups, they should be treated as dangerous enemies of both Israel and the US.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/middle-east/315166/

Now, we’re not saying the $400 million plane offered to Donald Trump by Qatar is a Trojan Horse. But we’re not not saying it, either.

Let’s just say, if it walks like a horse, costs more than the GDP of Tonga, and comes with gold taps and suspiciously diplomatic aftershave, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t park it in your metaphorical garage without a quick X-ray scan and a chat with Homeland Security.

Because Qatar, lovely little peninsula that it is, has had, well, connections. Not the “Let’s-network-over-hummus” kind, but the “hosts-the-Hamas-leadership-in-Doha” kind. Yes. Since 2012. Back when kale was just becoming a thing. They rolled out the plush carpets for Khaled Mashal, and later welcomed Ismail Haniyeh with open arms, an espresso, and possibly a beachfront view. That is, until his death in 2024 (Haniyeh’s, not the espresso’s). Qatar’s been called Hamas’s most generous foreign backer, which is quite the résumé line, even by Middle Eastern standards.

So when Qatar offers a US President a flying palace, you have to ask, Why?

Because it’s not exactly standard gift-giving protocol. It’s not a Montblanc pen. It’s not even a Cartier watch. It’s a jet. With bedrooms. And offices. And probably a button labelled “Espionage Lite.”

Still, one could argue that any self-respecting world leader with a Davos calendar and a penchant for dramatic entrances might fancy arriving in a jet that screams “Bond villain chic.” And maybe, just maybe, they assumed Donald wouldn’t notice the strings.

But let’s pause here and consider the man himself. This is the same Donald Trump who, on a state visit to Saudi Arabia, was famously filmed not drinking the beverage handed to him. Possibly because he suspected poison. Possibly because it was coconut water. But either way, the man has his limits. After the attempt on his life (which, to be fair, would put most of us off sharing baba ghanouj), you’d think he’d employ a full-time taster by now. Or at least travel with a few tins of Trump Tower-endorsed baked beans, Shane Warne-style.

So why take the jet?

Has he not heard of the Trojan Horse? Surely Melania’s explained the general idea of history. At the very least, someone must’ve mentioned the Soviet Spy Seal?