News Vérité

That’s two world leaders and two comeuppances for our president. First, Russia’s Vladimir Putin handed Sir Donald his lunch in Anchorage, Alaska, after the president arrived, convinced that his good pal Vlad would simply end his war in Ukraine after Trump treated him like a king. Then, for the past two days, President Trump went to China, convinced that Xi Jinping, that country’s formidable leader, would squeeze his client state Iran to agree to a peace deal with Trump on Trump’s terms. Instead, he got a lecture on America’s stance toward the independence of Taiwan. Xi warned Trump that war between China and the U.S. might be on the table if we try to stop China’s takeover of Taiwan. Trump answered with silence, basically. No major announcement of any sort of deal or agreement was aired by either China or the U.S. after the two days of talks. Trump in his remarks, both with Fox’s Sean Hannity and at a luncheon with Xi yesterday, claimed that Xi had agreed that the Strait of Hormuz should be a free waterway and that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon. Nothing confirming that statement was ever issued by anyone in China. In short,

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Ayatollah Khamenei, presumably the son of the late one, is MIA and can’t be located for his nod or turndown over the latest peace proposal from the U.S. The article makes the startling assertion that no one has seen Khamenei II since being elevated to the position of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. Gee, ya think? Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t been seen or heard since the U.S.-Israeli airstrike in February killed his father, wife, and son. The only semblance of his existence has been messages reportedly released by him, but never in his actual voice, and images that are no doubt AI-generated. His nonexistence or partial existence — it’s been said he cannot talk and needs plastic surgery, among other medical challenges — will play a crucial role in the acceptance of a final peace deal, according to the article. It appears that only the Supreme Leader can sign off on such major decisions. Meanwhile, the same WSJ edition reports that Iran has submitted a response to the latest U.S. peace/end-of-hostilities proposal. Doublessly, it still refuses to turn over its nuclear “dust,” as President Trump calls it, to the U.S. Word has

We know in the aftermath of the subtraction of Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela that control of that country’s oil was Donald Trump’s raison d’etre all along. Now that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced they’re leaving the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) this Friday, Trump can chalk up another oil victory. Perhaps oil mania was behind Trump’s Iran plan all along. The UAE is going to increase its oil production, and in response, so is Saudi Arabia. The increased daily output of barrels of the sacred liquid will offset the loss of Iranian exports while Trump keeps his blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in place. The UAE doesn’t have to use the strait and Saudi Arabia has a pipeline, in addition to access to the Red Sea for shipments. Another plus: Countries have begun buying oil from the U.S. while Hormuz is hammered shut by both Iran and Trump. The UAE is also withdrawing from OPEC+, a larger coalition that includes Russia. OPEC itself was founded in 1960, largely in response to Western control of Middle Eastern oil supplies that began with Standard Oil. The Emirates’ withdrawal is only the first piece in the puzzle to fall,