I find it interesting that Putin, Netanyahu, and Big Oil are the main beneficiaries of this action in Iran, and they are the primary parties to which he listens the most closely.
It’s very hard to miss who keeps ending up on the favorable side of these decisions...and it says a lot that the SAME cluster of interests...seems to keep benefiting...while ordinary people get handed the risk...the cost...and the fallout.
That pattern matters. And I think more people are starting to see it clearly.
I really appreciate you saying this. Comments like yours help cut through the fog and name what a lot of people are sensing...but...haven’t quite put into words yet.
We also have learned that Russia, and maybe China are helping Iran locate certain target places of a name which escapes me now. It seems that there is an easy fiddle being played from various directions. Is that so?
What keeps occurring to me is that the people making these decisions are never the people who are most affected - in a real world, what might happen if every member of Congress, the president and the cabinet had a son or daughter of draft age, if they had to pump their own gas with a credit card limit, pay for their own insurance, shop for groceries before the social security deposit goes in??? And of course, sadly, it's a question without a satisfying answer.
Thank you for your clarity, Jack - it goes a long way toward keeping on paddling, one stroke at a time.
I received a glossy mailer a few days ago from the US Marine Corps. Addressed to my 16 year old son using an incorrect but very close version of his full legal name - he has two middle names and was addressed by his full first name, second middle name and last name. My 16 year old son. I have NEVER received such a mailing before. For the record, I would never allow my son to sell his body and become a cold blooded killer for the military industrial war machine. The timing, though. The timing. Fuck this entire timeline.
Angie...that is chilling. And...yeah...the timing makes it feel even darker.
You’re not overreacting to notice it. When a glossy military recruitment piece shows up addressed to your 16-year-old son...and shows up NOW...of course it lands differently. Of course, it hits a nerve. It damn well should.
I think what you said is exactly right...there is something especially grotesque about how quickly the machinery is always ready to reach for other people’s children ...whenever the people at the top start playing with escalation.
I’m really sorry that landed in your mailbox. I can only imagine the rage that would bring up. “Fuck this entire timeline” feels like a pretty accurate summary.
Thank you, Angie... for saying this out loud...because I think a lot of parents are going to feel a version of this in their bones.
Gretchen...you’re exactly right. One of the ugliest truths in the whole deal...is that the people making these decisions are never the ones absorbing the real-world consequences...in the way ordinary people do.
If they had to live inside the financial and emotional pressure their choices CREATE...I think this country would look very different.
And...yes, there’s no satisfying answer to that question, which is part of what makes it so maddening. But, Gretchen...I think you put your finger on something essential: distance from consequence changes EVERYTHING.
I really appreciate you saying that. And I love the way you put it...“keep on paddling, one stroke at a time.” That’s the work right now. That’s how we get through this. It is.
Let's not forget the instances of insider trading believed (at least by me) to be going on in the Trump family and sycophancy. I know the current "story" that Barron bought into oil just prior to the bombing is apparently false, but the "smoke" from the trades associated with tariff on and offs approached the "fire" level. The opportunities to game the market have, at a minimum, been too frequent to ignore, considering the lack of integrity in Trump's circles..
When a government openly tells you that civilian economic pain is “temporary,” “manageable,” and “worth it,” it is not a communications mistake — it is a signal. Jack is correct that this is not the language of leaders blindsided by an unintended consequence. It is the language of people who have already incorporated that consequence into the cost of doing business. This is how democratic publics are conditioned to accept what they never would have before — not through force, but through moral framing. The energy shock becomes a baptism. Proof of seriousness. And the absence of any congressional reckoning over war powers and executive overreach is as telling as anything the White House has said out loud. They told you the suffering was acceptable. In a healthy democracy, that statement alone triggers a constitutional crisis.
The economics demand the same hard read. Jack is correct that the $450 annual household cost figure is almost certainly a floor, not a ceiling — and for families at the lower end of the income scale, the real burden is substantially higher. Even if prices eventually normalize on a chart, the households that came up short in March don’t get that money back. “Temporary” describes a price. It does not describe a life. Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve response has been slow, international coordination muted, and public messaging focused entirely on moral justification rather than emergency relief. That is not the posture of an administration desperate to stop the damage. That is the posture of one that has decided the damage is doing useful work.
Thanks for confirming what many of us have been thinking. With drumpf it is never what he says and it is always some way for him to grift. He would sell his own child if he could make good money of it. #HOLDFAST
Teri...exactly. With him, the stated reason is usually the wrapper. The real action is almost ALWAYS somewhere in the grift...the leverage...or the payoff for people in his orbit.
We've had ridiculous pain at the gas pump in California for longer than I can remember....however, today's announcement is beyond reality: "As of today's date, California gas prices have surged to an average of"
Regular: $5.204/gallon
Average Mid-Grade: $5.399/gallon
Average Premium: $5.603/gallon !!"
Are we fed up and totally exhausted enough with this chaos falling to the people? And are we sick and tired enough to stop talking about Epstein!? There's alot of noise and crazy abandonment being generated right now.
The chaos hits people first...hardest...and most relentlessly...and then the noise machine kicks into overdrive...so nobody can focus on any one scandal long enough to force real accountability.
You’re right to connect the two. Pain at the pump...overload...distraction...abandonment ...it all piles up fast.
Also...that exhaustion is NOT politically neutral. It serves people who need the public overwhelmed...scattered... and too drained to keep pressing on the questions they most want BURIED.
Hmmn...Pain at the pump sez Cheetolini, it will be OK...Destroyer escorts for tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf at about a half billion dollars a day? and how many lives? and what about the tankers bound for China and North Korea, do they get an escort same same? Boots on the ground?...Estimates are 1.9 to 2.1 million soldiers with an estimated 75,000 KIA for this campaign; yes, bigger and worse than Vietnam. Hmmn...the big winner? of course would be Putin; all that incoming revenue to revive his dying economy and the ability to continue Russia's genocide in Ukraine, plus the resumption of natural gas sales to the EU. Israel? eff Israel, not one more penny, not one more bomb or bullet! Strategic reserves worldwide? 3.8 days to keep the disparate economies afloat; so while we have somewhat of a cushion of proven reserves here in America most of the world does not. We have a madman in our Whitehouse that has put our nation on course for destruction to feed his ego. We have about another 10 days before the rest of the world steps in and demands some other course. It's past time to remove this criminal regime...
James...you’re naming the scale of the recklessness here...really well.
Once you start adding up the shipping protection...the military exposure...the global energy shock...and...the geopolitical upside for people like Putin...the whole thing looks even MORE obscene.
You’re right that this is much bigger than “pain at the pump.”
That’s just the piece ordinary people feel first. Underneath it...is a far more dangerous mix of ego...escalation...global instability...and enormous human cost.
I share the urgency in what you’re saying. This course needs to be stopped by EVERY legal, political...and public-pressure mechanism available.
They are not acting shocked ... THEY ARE ACTING LIKE IT'S PART OF THE PLAN!!! Trump has tried everything to crash the economy and this is just another tool in his arsenal.
Jack, thank you. Regarding the leverage, it seems that this uncalled for, horrific, suffering, and death, causing diversion by war, is initiated by the executive branch without consulting the legislative branch, is not only a diversion from the Epstein files, and from whatever is being done to interfere with elections, IF something is being done, and that’s something to think about.
It is a way to obtain leverage to gain access to public lands which belong to Native Americans, in order to take the oil and whatever resources they might include, and simply for robbing them to gain ownership.
It also is leverage to invade waters, which have been pure and well preserved in Minnesota and running into Canada, in order to have a specific type of copper mining, the kind that would involve chemicals which would put H2SO4 into the waters, killing ecosystems, ruining the waters, and ruining some of the forest areas.
It is leverage to push for and gain access for more off shore drilling for oil, ruining more water and ecosystems. The convincing explanation or attempt of one would be that we have this need. If and when this “war” ends, and we are still here, those rides taken to land and water, to resources, would not be reversed. Neither could most of the damage done they reversed.
I see this war as leverage, thanks to your excellent newsletter today, for gaining what “they” want, or “he” wants, to take here at home, and for trying to gain support from anyone and everyone who does not know or understand particular information, thereby believing that he has a good point, while never seeing through what he is trying to do, trying to do to Native Americans, to Minnesota residents, to everyone connected anywhere, no matter how far reaching - connected to those waters, to all Americans who will be breathing air and losing public access to some places, all the while, trouncing on and stealing the public lands, not buying or renting, but stealing those public lands and whatever mineral wealth or other wealth they contain, from Native Americans. In the process, they would become somewhat isolated. Would transportation out of their remaining land still be available? In what ways would still more poverty, isolation, and division be created, all for control, and wealth?
“He” said at least once when I heard him, “I own everything.” Those words were spoken in an interview, a newscast, or maybe during a podcast, which I heard on online, but they definitely were spoken by him. Is there any doubt that he meant to make it true?
Leverage definitely can be gained, as you explained, by leading to the high oil and gas prices, and more, while he claims, or would claim that we have need which can be provided in no other way, and supposedly that he should be trusted. Imagine!
In order to obtain such leverage, both family members of Americans, and of people in other countries, including Iran, of course would be and are being used and put at great risk, seemingly like people are toys, easily spent, on a big board game of places made just for him, the object of the game being to gain as much as possible of the property, if not all, and to make every “person” a programmed little robot to use in attaining whatever he wants, barring practically no expense. In other words, Americans have lost some loved ones and will have lost more of their family members, their income or finances in trying to meet higher costs, their outlooks and reasoning if they are convinced to give in to these grabs within our country or elsewhere, their environmental conditions in some places, which of course will spread, and their clear thinking because of the brainwashing! What are we without our brains? Americans also will have lost their freedoms because of the way our government is being swiped away by improper means, many of their rights if the situation continues to go as it has, and as it is headed, the protection by attitudes because of what we have seen and what is being projected, and their reputation as place in the world as a leader and supporter of peace and caring.
Additionally and of extreme importance, is the fact that America is losing much of its population and the qualities individuals have to offer our society, a loss due to people being taken unfairly and illegally, and America will lose still more of its population because of food and medical access being cut or denied in some instances. Still more American benefits will be lost because of interference with education at many levels, both public and private, I believe, and still more because of integrity being lost due to bribes and buy offs. Most likely there are people who do not see these conditions or situations happening, but not seeing them does not mean that they do not exist.
Leverage has been used all along, in the forms of promises made, yet not kept, and probably never intended to be kept, and by the misleading of the supporters who believed in the promises, promises made by the person who ran down people who actually were trying to help and were making obvious gains at helping, not that all problems were solved by any means.
Leverage was made in promises made to the people who made the choice of putting the current person in the office, and the particular leverage used which makes no sense to freedom and America loving believers in our Constitution and its values, were his words, “Vote for me, and you’ll never have to vote again.” If that promise were to come true, “get to vote” rather than “have to vote”, should have been understood. Did followers really not want to have choices, not want to vote, want to be controlled while thinking that they would not be used or controlled, while only people they did not know but did not like would be controlled? What were they thinking?
Leverage has worked to this point, yet until today, in spite of seeing things as they really are otherwise, I believe, that particular term had not come to my mind, Jack. Using and brainwashing, filling with lies, hatred, and divisive thoughts did come to mind, but not the term leverage, in spite of having been a remote concept I swept over by the details, and despite knowing where he was headed with his end goals. How did I miss the defining name or term?
Thank you for opening my mind to an additional number of degree reading. How I hope everybody wakes up and wakes up fast to help us preserve the America and the rights that belong to all of us! (I was going to accomplish some things today instead of writing this much, but as seems obvious now, I was especially stimulated by your words and appreciate them. I would appreciate them even if I had written nothing, yet this is what spilled out.)
The arrogance and hubris is astounding. And yet so many folks buy into the “ we had to line from Trump, Rubio & Co. including the House & Seemingly the Senate.
I do not think Trump has a plan at all, nor does he consider any consequences beyond himself, if that - he is way too far gone in narcissistic dementia. However, there are plenty of others around him doing exactly this. 😖
I find it interesting that Putin, Netanyahu, and Big Oil are the main beneficiaries of this action in Iran, and they are the primary parties to which he listens the most closely.
Scott...you nailed that.
It’s very hard to miss who keeps ending up on the favorable side of these decisions...and it says a lot that the SAME cluster of interests...seems to keep benefiting...while ordinary people get handed the risk...the cost...and the fallout.
That pattern matters. And I think more people are starting to see it clearly.
I really appreciate you saying this. Comments like yours help cut through the fog and name what a lot of people are sensing...but...haven’t quite put into words yet.
-Jack
We also have learned that Russia, and maybe China are helping Iran locate certain target places of a name which escapes me now. It seems that there is an easy fiddle being played from various directions. Is that so?
Probably.
What keeps occurring to me is that the people making these decisions are never the people who are most affected - in a real world, what might happen if every member of Congress, the president and the cabinet had a son or daughter of draft age, if they had to pump their own gas with a credit card limit, pay for their own insurance, shop for groceries before the social security deposit goes in??? And of course, sadly, it's a question without a satisfying answer.
Thank you for your clarity, Jack - it goes a long way toward keeping on paddling, one stroke at a time.
I received a glossy mailer a few days ago from the US Marine Corps. Addressed to my 16 year old son using an incorrect but very close version of his full legal name - he has two middle names and was addressed by his full first name, second middle name and last name. My 16 year old son. I have NEVER received such a mailing before. For the record, I would never allow my son to sell his body and become a cold blooded killer for the military industrial war machine. The timing, though. The timing. Fuck this entire timeline.
Angie...that is chilling. And...yeah...the timing makes it feel even darker.
You’re not overreacting to notice it. When a glossy military recruitment piece shows up addressed to your 16-year-old son...and shows up NOW...of course it lands differently. Of course, it hits a nerve. It damn well should.
I think what you said is exactly right...there is something especially grotesque about how quickly the machinery is always ready to reach for other people’s children ...whenever the people at the top start playing with escalation.
I’m really sorry that landed in your mailbox. I can only imagine the rage that would bring up. “Fuck this entire timeline” feels like a pretty accurate summary.
Thank you, Angie... for saying this out loud...because I think a lot of parents are going to feel a version of this in their bones.
-Jack
Who provided those records? Not just birth certificates. They had your address.
Gretchen...you’re exactly right. One of the ugliest truths in the whole deal...is that the people making these decisions are never the ones absorbing the real-world consequences...in the way ordinary people do.
If they had to live inside the financial and emotional pressure their choices CREATE...I think this country would look very different.
And...yes, there’s no satisfying answer to that question, which is part of what makes it so maddening. But, Gretchen...I think you put your finger on something essential: distance from consequence changes EVERYTHING.
I really appreciate you saying that. And I love the way you put it...“keep on paddling, one stroke at a time.” That’s the work right now. That’s how we get through this. It is.
-Jack
Agree
Let's not forget the instances of insider trading believed (at least by me) to be going on in the Trump family and sycophancy. I know the current "story" that Barron bought into oil just prior to the bombing is apparently false, but the "smoke" from the trades associated with tariff on and offs approached the "fire" level. The opportunities to game the market have, at a minimum, been too frequent to ignore, considering the lack of integrity in Trump's circles..
When a government openly tells you that civilian economic pain is “temporary,” “manageable,” and “worth it,” it is not a communications mistake — it is a signal. Jack is correct that this is not the language of leaders blindsided by an unintended consequence. It is the language of people who have already incorporated that consequence into the cost of doing business. This is how democratic publics are conditioned to accept what they never would have before — not through force, but through moral framing. The energy shock becomes a baptism. Proof of seriousness. And the absence of any congressional reckoning over war powers and executive overreach is as telling as anything the White House has said out loud. They told you the suffering was acceptable. In a healthy democracy, that statement alone triggers a constitutional crisis.
The economics demand the same hard read. Jack is correct that the $450 annual household cost figure is almost certainly a floor, not a ceiling — and for families at the lower end of the income scale, the real burden is substantially higher. Even if prices eventually normalize on a chart, the households that came up short in March don’t get that money back. “Temporary” describes a price. It does not describe a life. Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve response has been slow, international coordination muted, and public messaging focused entirely on moral justification rather than emergency relief. That is not the posture of an administration desperate to stop the damage. That is the posture of one that has decided the damage is doing useful work.
#HOLDFAST
Thanks for confirming what many of us have been thinking. With drumpf it is never what he says and it is always some way for him to grift. He would sell his own child if he could make good money of it. #HOLDFAST
Teri
Teri...exactly. With him, the stated reason is usually the wrapper. The real action is almost ALWAYS somewhere in the grift...the leverage...or the payoff for people in his orbit.
You said it perfectly.
#HOLDFAST
-Jack
also, when we feel the pain at the gas pump, notice that there are still no bombs dropping on our heads, killing our children.
I wish I hadn't had to add a final word. Yet.
We've had ridiculous pain at the gas pump in California for longer than I can remember....however, today's announcement is beyond reality: "As of today's date, California gas prices have surged to an average of"
Regular: $5.204/gallon
Average Mid-Grade: $5.399/gallon
Average Premium: $5.603/gallon !!"
Are we fed up and totally exhausted enough with this chaos falling to the people? And are we sick and tired enough to stop talking about Epstein!? There's alot of noise and crazy abandonment being generated right now.
Leslie...yes...that’s exactly how this works.
The chaos hits people first...hardest...and most relentlessly...and then the noise machine kicks into overdrive...so nobody can focus on any one scandal long enough to force real accountability.
You’re right to connect the two. Pain at the pump...overload...distraction...abandonment ...it all piles up fast.
Also...that exhaustion is NOT politically neutral. It serves people who need the public overwhelmed...scattered... and too drained to keep pressing on the questions they most want BURIED.
You said this really well, Leslie.
-Jack
Thanks, Jack. I appreciate you and the depth of guidance that you provide us with on a daily basis.
This is just the beginning, Jack. Great article, and will reStack ASAP 💯👍
Why believe in conspiracies when actual facts are just as crazy?
trump promised the other Middle Eastern countries that he is insuring them against loss for their oil tankers. He is so generous.
And, yeah, what all of you said!
Sue P...yeah...a real "sweetheart," eh? Always looking out for others.
-Jack
Hmmn...Pain at the pump sez Cheetolini, it will be OK...Destroyer escorts for tanker traffic in the Persian Gulf at about a half billion dollars a day? and how many lives? and what about the tankers bound for China and North Korea, do they get an escort same same? Boots on the ground?...Estimates are 1.9 to 2.1 million soldiers with an estimated 75,000 KIA for this campaign; yes, bigger and worse than Vietnam. Hmmn...the big winner? of course would be Putin; all that incoming revenue to revive his dying economy and the ability to continue Russia's genocide in Ukraine, plus the resumption of natural gas sales to the EU. Israel? eff Israel, not one more penny, not one more bomb or bullet! Strategic reserves worldwide? 3.8 days to keep the disparate economies afloat; so while we have somewhat of a cushion of proven reserves here in America most of the world does not. We have a madman in our Whitehouse that has put our nation on course for destruction to feed his ego. We have about another 10 days before the rest of the world steps in and demands some other course. It's past time to remove this criminal regime...
James...you’re naming the scale of the recklessness here...really well.
Once you start adding up the shipping protection...the military exposure...the global energy shock...and...the geopolitical upside for people like Putin...the whole thing looks even MORE obscene.
You’re right that this is much bigger than “pain at the pump.”
That’s just the piece ordinary people feel first. Underneath it...is a far more dangerous mix of ego...escalation...global instability...and enormous human cost.
I share the urgency in what you’re saying. This course needs to be stopped by EVERY legal, political...and public-pressure mechanism available.
-Jack
They are not acting shocked ... THEY ARE ACTING LIKE IT'S PART OF THE PLAN!!! Trump has tried everything to crash the economy and this is just another tool in his arsenal.
CLF...a VERY good chance you are correct. No question about it.
-Jack
Damn him.. Damn them all. That’s probably enough to tell you how I feel about all of it… and today I’m just exhausted..
Thank you for the in-depth analysis. I’ve no doubt that you’re right and I just hate that.
#Holdfast
~Susan
PS. I’ll shake it off. It’s just one of those days.,
Jack, thank you. Regarding the leverage, it seems that this uncalled for, horrific, suffering, and death, causing diversion by war, is initiated by the executive branch without consulting the legislative branch, is not only a diversion from the Epstein files, and from whatever is being done to interfere with elections, IF something is being done, and that’s something to think about.
It is a way to obtain leverage to gain access to public lands which belong to Native Americans, in order to take the oil and whatever resources they might include, and simply for robbing them to gain ownership.
It also is leverage to invade waters, which have been pure and well preserved in Minnesota and running into Canada, in order to have a specific type of copper mining, the kind that would involve chemicals which would put H2SO4 into the waters, killing ecosystems, ruining the waters, and ruining some of the forest areas.
It is leverage to push for and gain access for more off shore drilling for oil, ruining more water and ecosystems. The convincing explanation or attempt of one would be that we have this need. If and when this “war” ends, and we are still here, those rides taken to land and water, to resources, would not be reversed. Neither could most of the damage done they reversed.
I see this war as leverage, thanks to your excellent newsletter today, for gaining what “they” want, or “he” wants, to take here at home, and for trying to gain support from anyone and everyone who does not know or understand particular information, thereby believing that he has a good point, while never seeing through what he is trying to do, trying to do to Native Americans, to Minnesota residents, to everyone connected anywhere, no matter how far reaching - connected to those waters, to all Americans who will be breathing air and losing public access to some places, all the while, trouncing on and stealing the public lands, not buying or renting, but stealing those public lands and whatever mineral wealth or other wealth they contain, from Native Americans. In the process, they would become somewhat isolated. Would transportation out of their remaining land still be available? In what ways would still more poverty, isolation, and division be created, all for control, and wealth?
“He” said at least once when I heard him, “I own everything.” Those words were spoken in an interview, a newscast, or maybe during a podcast, which I heard on online, but they definitely were spoken by him. Is there any doubt that he meant to make it true?
Leverage definitely can be gained, as you explained, by leading to the high oil and gas prices, and more, while he claims, or would claim that we have need which can be provided in no other way, and supposedly that he should be trusted. Imagine!
In order to obtain such leverage, both family members of Americans, and of people in other countries, including Iran, of course would be and are being used and put at great risk, seemingly like people are toys, easily spent, on a big board game of places made just for him, the object of the game being to gain as much as possible of the property, if not all, and to make every “person” a programmed little robot to use in attaining whatever he wants, barring practically no expense. In other words, Americans have lost some loved ones and will have lost more of their family members, their income or finances in trying to meet higher costs, their outlooks and reasoning if they are convinced to give in to these grabs within our country or elsewhere, their environmental conditions in some places, which of course will spread, and their clear thinking because of the brainwashing! What are we without our brains? Americans also will have lost their freedoms because of the way our government is being swiped away by improper means, many of their rights if the situation continues to go as it has, and as it is headed, the protection by attitudes because of what we have seen and what is being projected, and their reputation as place in the world as a leader and supporter of peace and caring.
Additionally and of extreme importance, is the fact that America is losing much of its population and the qualities individuals have to offer our society, a loss due to people being taken unfairly and illegally, and America will lose still more of its population because of food and medical access being cut or denied in some instances. Still more American benefits will be lost because of interference with education at many levels, both public and private, I believe, and still more because of integrity being lost due to bribes and buy offs. Most likely there are people who do not see these conditions or situations happening, but not seeing them does not mean that they do not exist.
Leverage has been used all along, in the forms of promises made, yet not kept, and probably never intended to be kept, and by the misleading of the supporters who believed in the promises, promises made by the person who ran down people who actually were trying to help and were making obvious gains at helping, not that all problems were solved by any means.
Leverage was made in promises made to the people who made the choice of putting the current person in the office, and the particular leverage used which makes no sense to freedom and America loving believers in our Constitution and its values, were his words, “Vote for me, and you’ll never have to vote again.” If that promise were to come true, “get to vote” rather than “have to vote”, should have been understood. Did followers really not want to have choices, not want to vote, want to be controlled while thinking that they would not be used or controlled, while only people they did not know but did not like would be controlled? What were they thinking?
Leverage has worked to this point, yet until today, in spite of seeing things as they really are otherwise, I believe, that particular term had not come to my mind, Jack. Using and brainwashing, filling with lies, hatred, and divisive thoughts did come to mind, but not the term leverage, in spite of having been a remote concept I swept over by the details, and despite knowing where he was headed with his end goals. How did I miss the defining name or term?
Thank you for opening my mind to an additional number of degree reading. How I hope everybody wakes up and wakes up fast to help us preserve the America and the rights that belong to all of us! (I was going to accomplish some things today instead of writing this much, but as seems obvious now, I was especially stimulated by your words and appreciate them. I would appreciate them even if I had written nothing, yet this is what spilled out.)
#HOLDFAST!
The arrogance and hubris is astounding. And yet so many folks buy into the “ we had to line from Trump, Rubio & Co. including the House & Seemingly the Senate.
What a total financial and diplomatic CF.
I do not think Trump has a plan at all, nor does he consider any consequences beyond himself, if that - he is way too far gone in narcissistic dementia. However, there are plenty of others around him doing exactly this. 😖