My head has been spinning with the Iran “deal” and so I thought I would start my overdue newsletter with some perspective from the ancient viewpoint of the prophet Daniel, a Jewish noble, who was taken to Babylon around 2,500 years ago following the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem.

The other parts of this newsletter outline other areas of control that I have been considering as I try to put together the big picture of where the West is heading, as we consider the signs of the times.

The Iran Deal and the U.S. Mid-Terms

Daniel, who lived at the peak of the Persian Empire in what is modern Iraq and Iran, issued a series of warnings about the future rise of a world leader who would eventually demand worship in his own name in Jerusalem. You don’t need much imagination to see such a figure appearing at some future stage on the international horizon.

From both biblical and geopolitical perspectives, Persia (modern Iran) is likely to remain a source of international tension as the “Twelvers” in control seek to usher in a global conflagration to hasten the return of the “enlightened one” - the Mah’di, who will provide a simple option: convert to Islam or die (it’s good to have a choice)!

There are different views about whether the “Mah’di” and the antichrist are the same person, but you wouldn’t rule it out. One thing is certain: the Iranian regime is unlikely to change its views and seek friendship with the U.S. and Israel, after chanting “Death to the Great Satan” and “Death to the Little Satan” for more than 40 years. Don’t expect a great outcome in the ongoing negotiations.

Like my readers, I have been wondering what President Trump’s plan is regarding Iran. I think that the answer is that no one knows – perhaps not even Trump himself! The “deal” is like a yo-yo, but you can see that Trump may have handed some of the trump cards to the apocalyptic Iranians. There appears to be little appetite in the U.S. for extending the war and forcing Iran into “TOTAL SURRENDER”, as Trump wrote in the early days of the war. President Trump also wrote in 2020: “Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation!” These Iranians seem to have their own “art of the deal”.

There are many twists and turns to come as the U.S. mid-term elections approach, and President Trump’s unpredictability may still give him the upper hand. He even seems to have a new strategy - putting his own Republicans offside in a recent meeting with Republican senators. He seems to be ignoring his staff’s advice and instead going with his “gut”. However, President Trump is very attuned to public sentiment, and if the polls continue to decline, he may simply choose to withdraw U.S. troops. In any case, the Nobel Peace Prize looks a long way from Trump’s grasp now.

President Trump’s support among voters has declined for several months, and he will have to pull a rabbit out of a hat to achieve good midterm election results. Fortunately, as opponents, he has the Democratic Socialists (=communists), who are in the ascendancy of the Democratic Party, and this group wants to introduce socialism and confiscate private property. I don’t think that this philosophy is going to take the U.S. by storm, even though they are winning a range of important Democratic primaries.

So in the big picture, Iran is a very significant signpost on the biblical path towards the “man of lawlessness” and his future domination of international affairs. Israel will remain a key focal point for world attention, and this tiny piece of Middle East real estate clearly has a spiritual value far beyond its size, as forces on the Right and Left join with Islam to turn against it. What explanation is there for the extraordinary rise in antisemitism, if it is not part of a wider spiritual battle?

In the big-picture context, wars always create a new “crisis” that requires intervention and more power for governments. This is the well-known Hegelian dialectic that was outlined in the substack post below by Colin Dixon (below) published in December 2023. It is important to make a mental note: when you see a crisis - more control is coming.

Colin’s Substack

The Problem-Reaction-Solution Paradigm: Unraveling Hidden Agendas in Modern Crises

The Problem-Reaction-Solution theory, often intertwined with the Hegelian Dialectic, is a framework frequently used to scrutinize major global events and policies. This analytical lens suggests that powerful groups or entities engineer a problem, anticipating a public reaction that allows them to offer a pre-planned solution. While ostensibly solving th…

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3 years ago · 17 likes · 1 comment · Colin Dixon

Bureaucratic Incompetence - The Saving Grace?

However, despite the challenges we face, I have not been especially alarmed about government attempts to control us. My reasoning was simple: all of these grand schemes depend on government bureaucracies to actually implement them, and government bureaucracies are structurally incompetent. The same people who can’t fix a pothole are hardly going to pull off a seamless global takeover. I slept well.

What I failed to account for was the rise and efficiency of artificial intelligence. ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Claude and their successors don’t need a lunch break, don’t lose the file, and don’t go home at 4:30pm. The one reliable buffer between humanity and total control was always human incompetence. That buffer is now being engineered out of the system.

Now we have to deal with AI bureaucrats that will be much more efficient and will have clever tools to hem us in and take effective action. I think we are staring down the barrel of bureaucratic systems that will become increasingly intrusive as our electronic transactions are monitored and, as in China, CCTV cameras and phones capture our every move.

The Broad Context Facing the West - Globalism and Monitoring

The West faces many serious issues: international conflict, trade wars, nuclear threats, “the climate crisis”, and the rise of artificial intelligence in the move toward global control. However, if you stand back from the detail of the day-to-day issues that we all face, there does seem to be a slow but progressive noose that is tightening - and in such a clever way that most of us are unaware.

The most obvious issues are the shift from a cash economy to people waving their phones across scanners, the constant surveillance by ever-intrusive cameras in almost every location and the clever but inexorable move toward digital identity that will be needed for us to do anything. Unwittingly, we may even have agreed to our own demise, courtesy of the labyrinthine, obscure terms and conditions in various 100-page documents that we failed to read. Readers will have recently received such a document from Google. Few will have read it.

When I first started writing this newsletter, courtesy of Patrick Wood and his clear outline of technocratic control, I could see that all the globalist tools and programs were lining up to enslave us —the U.N.’s Agenda 21, quietly rebranded as Agenda 2030 when the original deadlines slipped by unnoticed, the World Economic Forum with its now-famous promise that we will “own nothing and be happy,” and the seemingly endless parade of COP (conference of parties) climate summits.

Which U.N. genius even thought up the COP acronym? I think it was coined because the globalists decided we were all going to cop it! And now, these annual shindigs are up to COP31 (this year in Turkey). The vast array of international organisations and foundations has the population trapped in a complex pincer movement, necessitating global enforcement mechanisms.

Climate As A Global Tool

Climate, of course, is a tool that has been used to gain international control and was planned by Rockefellers and others since the 1950s. The use of the climate as a tool for global control has gradually gained pace since the U.N. Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.

Now, with all the educational institutions under the control of myriad left-wing groups, climate propaganda has been irresistible, and so the end result is millions of children with “eco-anxiety” and a tightening of the net-zero legislative noose in all Western countries.

Australia, like the U.K., readily embraced the climate agenda even though our country is just a blip on the carbon emissions screen. The United Kingdom legislated their own economic destruction, which is being ruthlessly pursued by the hapless Ed Miliband, the U.K.’s climate czar, who seems to have a stranglehold on U.K. energy policy, with or without Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. Now, he may even become the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, under the new socialist saviour in the U.K. - the “king of the north”, Andy Burnham. Burnham’s failure is assured before he is ever anointed as the new Prime Minister, even though he has excited U.K communists (ie the Labour Party). He seems to be just a better-communicating socialist who is facing the key problem that Thatcher understood: the U.K. has run out of other people’s money and now can’t even defend itself, such is the spending on social welfare programs, which is about 25% of government expenditure. A day of reckoning is coming, but it may be too late by the time the U.K population wakes up.

Looking ahead, the climate bandwagon has so many supporters with their snouts in the trough that once President Trump has departed the scene, the “drill baby drill” philosophy of the U.S. will be forgotten as the Democrats once again embrace the climate crisis when they are back in power. Unfortunately, it seems that the “climate crisis” is here to stay, such is the relentless narrative of the U.N. and various ancillary bodies. As Western governments subsidise “green energy” for net zero, energy costs will rise exponentially, energy in the West will become more regulated, and we will all become poorer.

It looks like bad news on all fronts - and it is. However, the good news is that we are not yet slaves to our AI overlords, and there is time for us to demonstrate wisdom rather than just step into the snares set for us. Then there is the pandemic (most people have already forgotten)!

Control by Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, provided the ultimate reason for more government control, as experts with spreadsheets forecast death and disaster unless everything shut down. Forced isolation followed by forced vaccination was widely accepted by the Australian population, who didn’t heed President Reagan’s warning about the nine most dangerous words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help”.

Drew Holden has just published a six-part series titled: “A COVID Autopsy” which I recommend to my readers. This series is important for everyone to read because it is easy to forget the overreach and dictatorship applauded by the COVID public health bureaucrats and their media acolytes.

Holden Court

A COVID Autopsy, Part 1: 'The Virus Can Be Stopped, but Only With Harsh Steps, Experts Say'

The indictment of a top aide to Dr. Anthony Fauci, formerly of the National Institutes of Health, for misleading the public on COVID has kicked off a renewed effort to hold the experts accountable for dishonesty and deceit about the virus. But do we…

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2 months ago · 89 likes · 43 comments · Drew Holden

The COVID plan was so successful, in terms of government control, that there are undoubtedly plans afoot to reproduce it. Fears are now being raised about rat hantavirus, Ebola, and in Australia, “bird flu”. Remarkably enough, “experts” are urging flu vaccinations for the Australian population to beat the “bird flu”, even though such vaccinations would have no efficacy.

The solutions proposed for infectious diseases and reiterated since COVID-19 are always the same: more power to government agencies and the World Health Organization.

Most people seem to have been seized with collective amnesia about government overreach during COVID, and the majority may even have been affected by a form of Stockholm Syndrome. In the state of Victoria, Australia, where the harshest lockdowns and overreach occurred, voters re-elected the COVID dictator, Dan Andrews, as State Premier despite him being responsible for locking down the state for more than one year. Now that Victoria is in a terminal economic death spiral, a bronze statue of Andrews is being erected! It looks as though you may be able to fool most of the people most of the time (at least in Victoria).

I recommend that Sons of Issachar subscribers take the time to read Drew Holden’s six-part series on COVID-19, which is the best retrospective analysis I have seen. Mr Holden includes headlines and links to many of the articles published during COVID-19, and, as would be expected, the editors of these august publications have made no apology for the misinformation and propaganda that was promoted at the time. Mr Holden’s series is a serious warning about simply following the crowd and mainstream views.

1. Part 1 – outlines the flimsy evidence that had us all donning masks without any evidence of effectiveness. Evidence can still be seen of the effectiveness of the mask propaganda, with a few people in shopping centres masked up, like the Japanese soldiers holding out in the jungles of the Philippines years after the end of WW2.

2. Part 2 - outlines the deception of “15 days to stop the spread” and the illusion that public health officials knew what they were doing. The media with the backing of “experts” condemned those who sought to end restrictions, particularly the Republican states such as Georgia, Tennessee and Florida;

3. Part 3 – highlights the cover-up related to the likely leak of the modified coronavirus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the attempt by Dr Anthony Fauci and his colleagues to promote the Wuhan wet market theory of cross-species transmission. Mr Holden writes: “It’s impossible to overstate how comprehensively the legacy press fought to bury the lab leak hypothesis. Every mention of the lab leak theory was shouted down. Every proponent of the possibility was ridiculed as a crazy person, regardless of their standing in their respective scientific field. The media “fact checks” were endless.”
   The role of the legacy media in preventing a logical assessment may even have been associated with President Trump called it “the China virus. Mr Holden notes: “Rather than try to get to the bottom of that, the legacy press worked tirelessly to foreclose all conversation around the lab leak by writing off anyone who thought the idea worth exploring as a conspiracy theorist or a nut.”;

4. Part 4 – deals with the fabrication around social distancing rules, the evidence of which is still available as you wait in line at some shops with feet drawn on the ground, 6 feet apart. Some “experts” even said that social distancing from pets was necessary. As Mr Holden notes: “Invented though it was, social distancing, paired with the public doctrine of masking from the Left and among legacy media outlets, motivated a wave of hard-hearted and mean-spirited public cruelty for anyone who questioned The Science.” He concludes this part of his article with an important insight: “Setting aside all the other problems, all the other deceptions, all the other untruths, this element of combative, insistent, anger toward and hatred of our fellow citizens – across the country or across the street – defined this era of American life, and I can’t begin to quantify how much damage that must have done to our social fabric. I don’t think we’ve even begun to reckon with it.”

5. Part 5 deals with vaccine hypocrisy. When it was President Trump touting “Operation Warp Speed”, all the media became vaccine deniers. Mr Holden writes: “I think we’re already starting to forget just how viscerally anti-Trump voices attacked Trump’s vaccine efforts. Many major media voices and elected Democrats led the claim that any medical breakthrough during the Trump admin was actually dangerous, and not to be trusted; the kind of vaccine denial that today gets critics booted from social media and polite company.” Despite no or very limited safety data, the vaccines were all touted as being “safe and effective” when the opposite was true.

6. Part 6 – covers the impact of the lockdowns, particularly on children, as test school scores were reduced and various indices of mental health declined. Mr Holden concludes toward the end of his series: “But perhaps the most harmful outcome from efforts to mitigate COVID – and likely the most difficult to measure – was the damage done to our body politic and social fabric. We may never know the damage wrought by legacy-media inspired efforts to demonize those who objected to heavy handed lockdown measures, or the interpersonal cost of the rending of our social fabric that such battles delivered. But what we have learned (again, noting we likely have much more to learn) is depressing.”

The COVID lockdown was such a successful tool of control that undoubtedly, the playbook will be used again and my research indicates that incredibly, most people in our country are still grateful to the government and doctors for the lockdown and vaccines.

The Socialists Are In the Ascendancy With Dependency and Control

In Australia, few people are alert to the next step toward government control as the socialist agenda advances, with handouts to the non-productive and taxation to eliminate incentives for anyone still willing to take a business risk. The image of a bronzed, independent Australia has been replaced by that of people with their hands out, as our national disability insurance scheme has grown out of control (see Figure 1). It looks as though everyone in Australia has a disability and needs financial support!

Figure 1. Increase in spending for Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme from 2016. The funding equates to ~$2,000 for every man, woman and child.

Eventually (and probably sooner than later), this has to come to an end. As Margaret Thatcher said:

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money”.

The Surveillance Architecture

The lure of convenience is of great note in our modern society, and many of Generation Z and Alpha have never even seen cash. I was struck by the information from a CFO of a major organisation who said that a person had requested payment by cheque. Many in the office had never seen a cheque, so they gathered around to see this marvel!

The cashless society will soon be achieved because the baby boomers, the last of those who use cash, are dying out. With AI tools, it will be possible to investigate and even stop electronic transactions, as the Trudeau government did with the Canadian truckers during the COVID lockdowns.

The next step is clearly the requirement for digital identity, followed by Digital Currency, which is programmable money that can be switched off, restricted or tied to a social credit score, a tool already in wide use in China.

Not only can our expenditure be monitored but with the expansion of digital cameras together with improvements in facial recognition tools, everyone can be monitored as they move around the major cities. Facial recognition is being increasingly employed by governments in the West, notably in the United Kingdom.

As far as I know, no vote has been taken on the decision to employ the surveillance state and expand it at every opportunity. Somehow, it has been legitimised, probably in the terms and conditions sheets that no one reads, and may even be a condition for us to drive on the major highways or walk around the city streets. The once fanciful ideas in Brave New World now look increasingly plausible.

Should We Be Worried and What Can We Do?

We definitely should be worried, and while it may be almost impossible to stop the progress toward total control, we can opt out of some of the most obvious control systems.

Here are six practical steps worth considering. None of them requires great sacrifice, and together they reduce your exposure to the most obvious monitoring and control systems now being built around us.

1. Treat your phone as a surveillance device — because it is.

Your smartphone knows where you have been, who you called, what you searched for, and what you said near it. A Faraday bag — a simple, inexpensive pouch that blocks all radio signals — will prevent your phone from being tracked or remotely accessed when you do not want it to be. Use it when you are not expecting important calls. Beyond that: review your app permissions regularly, disable location services for apps that have no business knowing where you are, and consider whether a basic phone might suit you just as well for most purposes. The convenience of the smartphone is precisely what makes it such an effective tool of surveillance — it was designed to be indispensable. Remember, the phone is called the smartphone because it is the smart one, not you!

2. Use cash — while you still can.

Every electronic transaction is a data point. The Trudeau government’s freezing of the Canadian truckers’ bank accounts was not a warning — it was a demonstration. Using cash for routine purchases slows the construction of a detailed profile of your habits, preferences, and movements. It also keeps the option alive for the next person who asks to be paid by cheque and finds a roomful of blank faces staring back at them. Normalising cash use, even modestly, is a small act of structural resistance.

3. Think before you post (or don’t post) — social media is a permanent record.

What you post on social media will be there long after you have forgotten you said it, and the standards by which it may one day be judged may be very different from those that apply today. AI tools are already capable of trawling years of a person’s posts and assembling a political and ideological profile. Opinions that are mainstream today may be categorised as dangerous tomorrow. The simplest rule: if you would be uncomfortable with a future government official reading it, do not post it. Better still, reduce your social media footprint to the minimum necessary, and consider whether platforms operated by large corporations aligned with globalist agendas deserve your daily attention and data at all. Remember that if the app is free, then you are the product.

4. Switch to private, encrypted communications.

Gmail, Outlook, and most mainstream email services are surveillance platforms that happen to carry your mail. ProtonMail (Swiss-based, end-to-end encrypted) is a straightforward replacement that requires no technical expertise to set up. For messaging, Signal is the gold standard — it is end-to-end encrypted, retains no metadata, and is used by journalists and lawyers worldwide for exactly that reason. These are not difficult steps. They are the digital equivalent of closing your curtains.

5. Build modest food and supply reserves.

COVID demonstrated how quickly governments will restrict movement and access to goods. A household with four to six weeks of essential food supplies is simply more resilient than one that depends on a supermarket visit every few days. This is not paranoia — it is the same prudence that previous generations practised as a matter of course, before just-in-time supply chains and 24-hour supermarkets persuaded us that resilience was unnecessary. Add to this a modest first-aid kit, a supply of any essential medications, and enough cash on hand to function for several weeks if electronic systems become unavailable. The goal is not survivalism; it is not being entirely dependent on systems that may one day be used to apply pressure.

6. Know what you believe, and why — and do not outsource your thinking.

The most powerful tool the ancient Sons of Issachar had was discernment — understanding the times and knowing what to do. The machinery of control described in this newsletter depends heavily on passive compliance: people who have not thought carefully about what they value and are therefore easily swept along by whatever narrative is dominant. Read widely, including sources that challenge the mainstream consensus. Discuss what you read with people you trust. The COVID period demonstrated that the majority will follow instructions even when those instructions make no logical sense — and that a small minority who retained critical thinking and refused to be shamed into silence were, in most cases, right.

Critical thinking is not a luxury; in the environment we are entering, it is a necessity. As Jesus observed two thousand years ago:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

It was true then. The last five years suggest it is no less true now.

A Final Word — and a Return to Daniel

Daniel lived through one of history’s most sophisticated systems of total control. Babylon was not a ramshackle empire — it was a global bureaucratic and military machine of considerable efficiency, with the resources to enforce compliance on a continental scale. Daniel and his companions were immersed in it from youth, educated in its language and literature, and subjected to sustained pressure to abandon their beliefs and conform. They did not. They served faithfully within the system while refusing to cross the lines that mattered. They were not naive about the power of the empire, but they were not intimidated by it either, because their frame of reference extended well beyond their day-to-day experiences.

What is most striking about Daniel’s account is that Babylon fell. The empire that seemed invincible was gone within a generation. The writing, quite literally, appeared on the wall. Daniel, meanwhile, continued into the reign of the Persian kings that followed — proof, if any were needed, that faithfulness to one’s convictions is a more durable strategy than accommodation to power.

The surveillance cameras will multiply. The digital identity systems will be rolled out. The AI bureaucrats will arrive, efficient and tireless, with none of the helpful incompetence that once gave us breathing room. All of that is likely coming. But so, according to the same book of Daniel that mapped the rise of these empires, is their end.

The trajectory of history as Daniel saw it was not toward the permanent triumph of any human system of control — however sophisticated — but toward its ultimate failure and replacement by something of an entirely different order: an eternal kingdom.

That is the ground on which hope stands. Not optimism about institutions or politicians or the pendulum of public opinion, though all of those may have their moment. But the deeper confidence that the story is not over, that those who understand the times are not helpless, and that faithfulness in small things is important.

Here are a few of the “democratic” countries:

• Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) - One-party Kim dynasty dictatorship, arguably the world's most totalitarian state;

• People's Democratic Republic of Algeria - single-party dominated since independence, the military ("le pouvoir") holds real power behind civilian facades;

• Democratic Republic of the Congo - Chronically plagued by weak governance, military rule, and electoral fraud, though it holds contested elections;

• Lao People's Democratic Republic - one-party communist state, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party has ruled since 1975 with no political competition permitted;

There are many other examples of dictatorships claiming they were “democratic” including the former East Germany titled - The German Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).

Placing the word “Democratic” in a country’s title, is an inverse indicator, and seemed to be a rhetorical device of 20th century Marxist-Leninist states to try to claim popular legitimacy. So what about the Board of Peace? There may be more style and hype than substance.

I have perused various press articles and White House press releases and have attempted to put the story of the Board of Peace together in a logical sequence for my readers. There has been little from the White House about the Board of Peace since the attacks on Iran on 28 February this year. However, President Trump has been quite distracted and may not have time to “give peace a chance”.

The Board of Peace

Figure 1. Photo of President Trump at the Davos Congress Center signing the Board of Peace charter with world leaders present, 22 January 2026 (White House photographer).

President Trump has clearly done some remarkable work since his inauguration in bringing peace to a number of areas of the world but his extravagant claims (see below) from mid-2025 were probably targeted at the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. This Committee would never have awarded President Trump the Peace Prize but you have to admire Trump’s self-promotion.

In July 2025, President Trump said (in relation to solving conflicts: "I'm averaging about a war a month." By August he was saying "I've solved six wars in six months." Then he said "I've settled six wars, and a lot of people say seven because there's one that nobody knows about."

By the time he addressed the UN General Assembly in September, Trump declared "I ended seven wars, and in all cases, they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed." Then by early 2026, the count seemed to have risen to eight. At this rate, by the end of his presidential term there will be no more wars to solve! However, there does seem to be a hiccup with Russia and Iran.

A White House official provided a list of seven conflicts the president had been referencing:

• Israel and Iran,

• Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

• Armenia and Azerbaijan,

• Thailand and Cambodia,

• India and Pakistan,

• Egypt and Ethiopia, and

• Serbia and Kosovo.

I suppose it was a short step to a Board of Peace. The first reference I can find to the Board of Peace is from 29 September 2025 at a press briefing that included Binyamin Netanyahu in the White House Dining Room, where the idea seems to have caught Mr Netanyahu by surprise:

“To ensure the success of this effort, my plan calls for the creation of a new international oversight body. The Board of Peace, we call it. The Board of Peace. Sort of a beautiful name. The Board of Peace, which will be headed, not at my request, believe me. I'm very busy. But we have to make sure this works. The leaders of the Arab world and Israel and everybody involved asked me to do this. So it will be headed by a gentleman known as President Donald J. Trump of the United States. That's what I want, some extra work to do. But it's so important that I'm willing to do it. And we'll do it right."

Trump closed his remarks at the press conference as follows:

“And I look forward to having relationships with everyone. As the Chairman of the Board, I'll be involved in meetings with some very smart people that will be working over there to make sure that we haven't just been wasting time with an agreement that doesn't get done.”

I suppose, if Trump’s statement didn’t have some hyperbole, it would not be President Trump.

The 20 Point Peace Plan

The White House then released a 20-point plan (in relation to Gaza), which I have abbreviated and highlighted below:

1. Gaza will be a deradicalised terror-free zone.

2. Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza.

3. If both sides agree to this proposal, the war will immediately end.

4. Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned.

5. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life-sentence prisoners, plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th 2023.

6. Once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.

7. Full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip.

8. Entry of distribution and aid in the Gaza Strip will proceed without interference from the two parties through the United Nations and its agencies, and the Red Crescent.

9. Gaza will be governed under the temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza. This committee will be made up of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight and supervision by a new international transitional body, the “Board of Peace,” which will be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of State to be announced.

10. A Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza will be created by convening a panel of experts.

11. A special economic zone will be established, with preferred tariff and access rates to be negotiated with participating countries.

12. No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return.

13. Hamas and other factions agree to not have any role in the governance of Gaza, directly, indirectly, or in any form. All military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapon production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. … New Gaza will be fully committed to building a prosperous economy and to peaceful coexistence with their neighbours.

14. A guarantee will be provided by regional partners to ensure that Hamas, and the factions, comply with their obligations.

15. The United States will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza. .. A deconfliction mechanism will be agreed upon by the parties.

16. Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza.

17. In the event Hamas delays or rejects this proposal, the above, including the scaled-up aid operation, will proceed in the terror-free areas handed over from the IDF to the ISF.

18. An interfaith dialogue process will be established based on the values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence to try and change mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis by emphasising the benefits that can be derived from peace.

19. …the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, which we recognise as the aspiration of the Palestinian people.

20. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous co-existence.

You have to give President Trump and his team points for trying. Subsequently, hostages were released but it is a long road until Gaza becomes the Riviera of the Middle East, as imagined by President Trump;

The White House later released a statement about the Board of Peace and its membership on 1 October 2025:

“Joint Statement by the Foreign Ministers of Qatar, Jordan, UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt: “The Foreign Ministers of the State of Qatar, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Republic of Türkiye, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Arab Republic of Egypt welcome President Donald J. Trump’s leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in his ability to find a path to peace. They emphasize the importance of the partnership with the United States in securing peace in the region. Along these lines, the ministers welcome the announcement by President Trump regarding his proposal to end the war, rebuild Gaza, prevent the displacement of the Palestinian people and advance a comprehensive peace, as well as his announcement that he will not allow the annexation of the West Bank. The ministers affirm their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalizing the agreement and ensuring its implementation, in a manner that ensures peace, security, and stability for the peoples of the region.”

Always a great man for a photo opportunity, President Trump flew to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — the famous Red Sea resort on the Sinai Peninsula - for a summit and a signed agreement on 13 October 2025. This was where the first formal agreement was signed and it was notable that Israel was not included at the signing ceremony.

The multi-nation declaration was signed by President Trump, Egyptian President el-Sisi, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, and Turkish President Erdoğan at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit. It is the foundational political document underpinning the Board of Peace. Here is the text:

“We, the undersigned, welcome the truly historic commitment and implementation by all parties to the Trump Peace Agreement, ending more than two years of profound suffering and loss — opening a new chapter for the region defined by hope, security, and a shared vision for peace and prosperity.

We support and stand behind President Trump’s sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza and bring lasting peace to the Middle East. Together, we will implement this agreement in a manner that ensures peace, security, stability, and opportunity for all peoples of the region, including both Palestinians and Israelis.

We understand that lasting peace will be one in which both Palestinians and Israelis can prosper with their fundamental human rights protected, their security guaranteed, and their dignity upheld.

We affirm that meaningful progress emerges through cooperation and sustained dialogue, and that strengthening bonds among nations and peoples serves the enduring interests of regional and global peace and stability.

We recognize the deep historical and spiritual significance of this region to the faith communities whose roots are intertwined with the land of the region — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism among them. Respect for these sacred connections and the protection of their heritage sites shall remain paramount in our commitment to peaceful coexistence.

We are united in our determination to dismantle extremism and radicalization in all its forms. No society can flourish when violence and racism is normalized, or when radical ideologies threaten the fabric of civil life. We commit to addressing the conditions that enable extremism and to promoting education, opportunity, and mutual respect as foundations for lasting peace.

We hereby commit to the resolution of future disputes through diplomatic engagement and negotiation rather than through force or protracted conflict. We acknowledge that the Middle East cannot endure a persistent cycle of prolonged warfare, stalled negotiations, or the fragmentary, incomplete, or selective application of successfully negotiated terms. The tragedies witnessed over the past two years must serve as an urgent reminder that future generations deserve better than the failures of the past.

We seek tolerance, dignity, and equal opportunity for every person, ensuring this region is a place where all can pursue their aspirations in peace, security, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, faith, or ethnicity.

We pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security, and shared prosperity in the region, grounded in the principles of mutual respect and shared destiny.

In this spirit, we welcome the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip, as well as the friendly and mutually beneficial relationship between Israel and its regional neighbors. We pledge to work collectively to implement and sustain this legacy, building institutional foundations upon which future generations may thrive together in peace.

We commit ourselves to a future of enduring peace.”

This all sounds like good stuff: now called the “Trump Peace Agreement”. Branding is important! The intentions seemed good: end the war in Gaza, dismantle extremism, promote education and build institution foundations. This requires cash.

The $1 Billion Membership Fee

Those who join the Board of Peace need to be cashed up!

In January 2026, just before the Davos charter signing, it was discovered that the draft charter stated: “Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter’s entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman. The three-year membership term shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force.”

In other words: a $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership, while a three-year appointment requires no contribution. The money raised would go to rebuilding Gaza.

The White House called reports of a “membership fee” misleading and said there is no minimum fee to join, adding: “This simply offers permanent membership to partner countries who demonstrate deep commitment to peace, security, and prosperity.”

There was also a notable detail about President Putin: Putin said Moscow is open to contributing $1 billion to the Board of Peace, but argued it would require the release of Russian assets frozen in the US during the Biden administration.

And one rather extraordinary governance detail buried in the charter: the Chairman has the sole power to re-invite a serving member state to sit on the Board — meaning President Trump personally controls who stays and who goes, regardless of whether they paid the billion dollars. This is the “art of the deal”!

Inaugural Working Session of the Board of Peace

The Inaugural Working Session of the Board of Peace was held on February 19, 2026. Where to hold the meeting? Of course, the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, Washington DC.

You may not have heard of the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace because formerly the building was called the United State Institute of Peace founded in 1984 under President Reagan. The building and its staff became a target of the DOGE cost-cutting group in July 2025 and the building was empty until 3 December 2025 when the State Department announced it had renamed the institute "to reflect the greatest dealmaker in our nation's history." Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote: "President Trump will be remembered by history as the President of Peace. It's time our State Department display that."

There is dispute over the legality of the name change to Donald J Trump Institute of Peace but for now, that seems to be the building where the Board of Peace will be based.

The meeting on 19 February 2026 was only nine days before the first strikes on Iran. The proximity of the Iran attack to the first meeting of the Board of Peace doesn’t seem to have troubled President Trump. The meeting involved representatives from Argentina, Hungary, India, Pakistan, and Vietnam. Several European allies declined membership of the Board of Peace or sent low-level envoys.

Outcomes noted by The Times of Israel include:

• nine member states pledged $7 billion toward Gaza relief,

• the US pledged $10 billion — a combined total of $17 billion.

• Five countries — Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Morocco — pledged to send troops for the International Stabilization Force of 20,000 soldiers.

• Egypt and Jordan agreed to train police, expected to number 12,000.

Conclusions

The Sons of Issachar are called to understand the times — and the times surrounding the Board of Peace deserve careful scrutiny. Whatever one makes of President Trump’s remarkable burst of diplomatic energy, there are legitimate questions about what this new body actually is, and what it may become.The conflict with Iran needs to come to an end soon and perhaps President Trump can turn his attention back to peace.He does seem to have a short attention span!

The concerns raised by The New American’s Alex Newman deserve a hearing. Writing in May 2026, Newman quoted author and technocracy researcher Patrick Wood, who argued that the Board of Peace “is an illegitimate institution aimed at building world order by undermining national sovereignty piece by piece.” Wood’s indictment is pointed: “Its scope is unlimited. Its chairman is permanent. Its legal basis is fabricated. Its headquarters is a seized building whose ownership is contested in federal court. Its operating capital is money stripped from disaster relief funds without a vote of Congress. Its operational staff comes from the Chairman’s son-in-law’s personal network.”

Newman also raises the question of where the United Nations fits in this picture. Trump himself has insisted the Board will operate “in conjunction with the United Nations” rather than replacing it — which will concern those who remember that the UN was designed from its inception with a world government architecture in mind, and that Alger Hiss, the Soviet spy who presided over its founding conference, embodied the ideological agenda embedded in that project from the start. (If you haven’t read Whittaker Chambers book Witness, which deals with the extraordinary story of the Soviet infiltration of the State Department through the 1930s and 1940s, I highly recommend it.

The Board of Peace may yet prove to be what its supporters claim — a bold, results-oriented instrument for bringing stability to a shattered region. The 20-point plan is serious, the money pledged is real, and the ceasefire, however fragile, has held longer than many predicted. But as we noted at the outset of this newsletter, the word “peace” in a body’s title is not always a reliable indicator of its true nature: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Democratic Republic of the Congo. German Democratic Republic. The Board of Peace. At least Trump got on the front foot with the Department of Defense and it is now the Department of War.

The Sons of Issachar will need continue to watch and pray. Those who understand the times know that lasting peace does not come from Davos, or from a renamed building in Washington DC, or from a $1 billion membership fee. It comes from the Prince of Peace Himself. Until then, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and we keep our eyes open.

While even Trump’s supporters have misgivings about his tactics and style, there is no doubt that the U.S. and world would be in a very different place had Kamala Harris won the 2024 election.

I have been following President Trump’s Executive Orders, since he exploded out of the starting gate on the afternoon of his inauguration and has since signed around 160 Executive Orders. There is no doubt that President Trump learned from his first term, and he decided that it is “no more Mr Nice Guy”, asserting his executive authority and bypassing congressional approval.

As Trump struggles in the polls, I thought that it was worthwhile to review his extraordinary achievements. From my research over the last 12 months, I have put together my top 20 achievements since President Trump’s inauguration in January 2025:

Top 20 Achievements of President Trump’s Second Term

1. Securing the Southern Border — Illegal border crossings were reduced to their lowest level since the 1970s, completely eradicating the Biden-era invasion, with over 2.6 million illegal aliens removed through deportations and voluntary self-departures. There are some estimates that as many as 25 million illegal immigrants came into the U.S. during the Biden years.

2. Ending the Fentanyl Crisis — Monthly fentanyl seizures at the Southwest border dropped by half in the first half of 2025, the DEA made thousands of fentanyl-related arrests, and Trump signed a law strengthening prison sentences for fentanyl smuggling. He implemented policies targeting China and Mexico and has had a significant impact on illegal fentanyl availability.

3. Combating Antisemitism on Campuses — At least four Trump directives specifically targeted antisemitism, holding universities accountable and cutting federal funding to institutions that failed to protect Jewish students. Anti-Jewish protests had got out of hand and presidents of major universities had colluded in allowing these protests which often targeted Jewish students, to continue.

4. Shutting Down USAID & Wasteful Foreign Aid — Congress passed Trump’s historic rescissions package, saving taxpayers $9 billion in wasteful, politically-motivated funding for left-wing foreign aid programs and biased public broadcasters. Among the more extraordinary projects axed were $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbian workplaces, $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, and $32,000 for a comic book in Peru.

5. Ending DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) — On his first day in office, Trump signed executive orders to cut funding, dismantle DEI offices, halt equity-focused grants, and remove DEI from federal hiring and promotion processes, emphasising merit and equal opportunity instead. Fortunately, Supreme Court decisions have supported Trump’s actions in these areas.

6. Energy Dominance — “Drill Baby Drill “— Trump’s Energy Department has brought in an unprecedented era of energy dominance, with the U.S. leading the world in oil and natural gas production — producing more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined at 24 million barrels per day.

7. Historic Tax Cuts — The One Big Beautiful Bill — Trump made his 2017 tax cuts permanent, eliminated the tax on tips, exempted overtime and Social Security from taxation, and launched Trump Accounts with a $1,000 investment for every child born in the U.S. These changes will take some time to flow through the U.S. economy but will have a major impact during the last two years of his term.

8. Rebuilding NATO & U.S. Military Strength — At the NATO Summit in The Hague, allied nations agreed to spend 5% of their GDP on defence — more than doubling previous targets and expected to add $1 trillion to NATO’s annual defence resources by 2035. Trump also ran into a bit of trouble of his desire to take over Greenland but he still has a few more years to achieve this goal.

9. DOGE & Government Efficiency — The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified $160 billion in fraud, waste, and abuse, dramatically disrupting and downsizing the federal bureaucracy in line with Trump’s mandate. Unfortunately, Elon Musk was unable to achieve more in the way of cuts but large numbers of public service jobs were made redundant.

10. Reducing the Federal Deficit — The 2025 calendar year budget deficit fell to $1.667 trillion — down $351 billion, or 17% lower than 2024 — representing the most significant non-pandemic-related improvement since 2013. Unfortunately, the deficit is still increasing at a staggering rate and there seems to be no solution.

11. Taming Inflation & Lowering Prices — Inflation has run at just 2.4% since Trump took office — down 70% from its Biden-era peak — while fuel prices hit a four-year low and the wholesale price of eggs dropped significantly. Unfortunately, with the war in the Persian Gulf, inflation is on the rise and the impact on the mid-term elections looks dire for President Trump and the Republicans, unless Trump pulls a rabbit out of the hat in the next few months.

12. Dismantling the Department of Education — Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, shifting its functions to other agencies and returning control of primary and secondary education to states and local communities.

13. Defeating Cartels & Restoring Law and Order — Trump designated eight Latin American cartels as terrorist organisations, including Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the Sinaloa Cartel, with the U.S. on track for its lowest murder rate on record. He also abducted Venezuelan President Maduro in a daring operation that has changed Venezuela and opened opportunities for oil exports.

14. Protecting Women’s Sports — Following Trump’s executive order, universities and school systems across the country stopped allowing biological males in women’s sports, including the University of Pennsylvania and the Virginia High School League. Without Trump, the transgender movement would have gained authority and strength.

15. Record Economic Growth & Blue-Collar Wages — Real GDP rose 4.3% in Q3 2025, smashing economists’ expectations, while wage growth saw its largest increase in nearly 60 years, and private-sector real earnings rose. Growth in employment is occurring outside the public sector, unlike many other countries.

16. Historic Trade Deals & Tariff Revenue — Trump signed trade deals with the United Kingdom, China, and Indonesia, while the U.S. Treasury collected nearly $90 billion in tariff duties since January 2025, posting a record June surplus — the first since 2005. There is some contention about tariffs now but Trump definitely has the upper hand in trade.

17. Brokering Peace in the Middle East — Trump successfully negotiated a ceasefire to end the war between Israel and Hamas, with all remaining hostages — alive and dead — returned to Israel as part of the deal. Then - just for good luck, he launched a new war with Iran! I think that the Nobel Peace Prize may now be beyond his reach.

18. Unleashing Nuclear & Clean Energy — Trump approved advanced nuclear energy projects through Department of Energy licensing and financing support, with multiple nuclear reactors set to come online. He also has decimated wind farm projects which he described as “driving whales loco”.

19. Massive Deregulation — Trump’s deregulatory efforts saved Americans over $180 billion, or $2,100 per family of four, with rollbacks of automobile-related rules alone expected to save consumers more than $1.1 trillion.

20. Attracting Trillions in U.S. Investment — Companies and foreign governments pledged over $7.6 trillion in investments into the U.S., including over $1 trillion in AI investment, cementing America’s position as the world leader in artificial intelligence.

The pace of the Trump administration has been frantic and it would be difficult to find another presidency where so much has been achieved in so little time. However, if the Democrats win control of Congress in January 2027, there will be a difficult final two years for the Trump administration.

We will have to see if Trump can pull off another miracle and change the trajectory of the mid-term voting, which at the moment looks very challenging for his administration. If the Democrats do take control of the House and Senate, there is likely to be endless impeachments brought. These have no chance of success but it will distract the administration and cause disruption of Trump’s agenda.

Much depends on what happens in the Middle East over the next few months. The “Art of the Deal” with the Iranians may elude President Trump, the ultimate deal maker and this could dramatically impact the final two years of his presidency.

The Iran Conflict and Next 2 Years

Each day there is more confusion in relation the Iran conflict. The Iranians say something along the lines that "we haven’t even started yet “ and Trump is saying that recent attacks against ships and the UAE are really just “love bites”. The money seems to be on the conflict stopping, as oil prices have come down again. However, there are many unknowns and I suspect that President Trump and his advisors are finding out the challenges of dealing with an apocalyptic, terrorist regime where the normal rules of negotiation are inoperable.

Who knows what might come next? Grok seems to! I was driving with my son in his Tesla during the Easter period and he had just been given access to Grok as part of a Tesla software upgrade. I put a few questions to Grok about the conflict with Iran and my final question was: “what are the chances of the U.S. putting boots on the ground in Iran”? At that stage, given the influx of around 5,000 marines and the airborne division arriving, I thought it quite likely. Grok told me “Zero per cent chance”! The confidence of Grok took me by surprise but it is one month since then and it looks like Grok was correct. President Trump seems to be trying to get a one page agreement but the cagey Iranians are taking their time and seem happy to wait Trump out.

The outcome of the Iran conflict and the impact on to prices in the U.S. will likely have a big impact on the mid-term elections. Whatever happens though, it seems clear that Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, will play an important role in the final years of the Trump administration and also is looking increasingly like a front runner for Republican nominee for the U.S. Presidency in 2028.

I have been watching Mr Rubio for the last six months and have been impressed at how he handles tough questions at press conferences and is always coherent and articulate. In his “tour de force” press conference a few days ago at the White House, one of the final questions was: “what is your hope for America”? Apparently, completely off the cuff,Mr Rubio launched into an extraordinary reply which is shown below:

It is worthwhile watching the entire press conference and I have included an abbreviated version below.

The Amazing Story of “Little Marco”

The rise of Secretary of State Marco Rubio is one of the most remarkable stories of the Trump administration. Mr Rubio was once mockingly dubbed "Little Marco" by Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries (clip below). Somehow, “Little Marco” has become one of Trump’s closest confidants and one of his strongest performers.

Born in Miami in 1971, MR Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants who fled to America in pursuit of the American Dream. His father worked as a banquet bartender and his mother as a hotel maid, and from an early age Rubio learned the importance of faith, family, community, and hard work.

Mr Rubio has said that he was drawn to public service in large part through conversations with his grandfather, who had witnessed communism destroy their Cuban homeland firsthand.

After fourteen years representing Florida in the U.S. Senate, Mr Rubio was nominated by President Trump as Secretary of State and received a historic unanimous vote of 99-0 — the first cabinet member confirmed in the second Trump administration.

Since taking office, Rubio has served simultaneously as Secretary of State, acting National Security Advisor, acting USAID Administrator, and acting Archivist of the United States — earning him the nickname "Secretary of Everything" — and making him the highest-ranking Hispanic American official in U.S. history.

The boy from a Cuban exile family, whose parents arrived with little more than a dream, now sits at the top of American foreign policy. Not so little after all, Marco. Some of the highlights of his White House press briefing room performance is shown below.

President Rubio?

Since the press conference in the White House on 5 May 2026, where Secretary Rubio stepped in for Karoline Leavitt who is on maternity leave, Mr Rubio’s charm and engagement with the large press pack has been noted by journalists on all sides of politics. It would be interesting to know what President Trump says but he is known to stoke rivalries and has repeatedly praised Rubio in the last few months.

Mr Rubio and Vice President JD Vance are close friends and Mr Rubio has even said that he wouldn’t run against JD. Of course, much can happen in the next 15 months after which presidential campaigns for 2028 will start to ramp up. JD Vance and Marco Rubio are the two Republicans with the greatest support at the moment but this could all change depending on what happens economically in the U.S. and internationally, whether there is ongoing Middle East conflict. U.S. voters may then turn to Democrats but it is a bare cupboard. Gavin Newsom is the front runner at the moment but the main skill that the Democrats have is running their states into debt and embracing woke values, detested by a majority of U.S. voters.

It will interesting to see how Marco Rubio positions himself amidst all the uncertainty and whether he leaps to the top of the pack of Republican candidates for president. His strength is foreign policy but the old saying “It’s the economy, stupid”, applies in U.S. politics. Whether Marco has the skills to engage with voters on broader issues remains to be seen. For the moment though, it looks like Little Marco has grown a bit taller.

Stories That Caught My Attention This Week

U.S. National Debt Exceeds 100% of GDP

While the U.S. economy is performing strongly, debt has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. In 2006, the debt was ~35% GDP, in 2016 it was ~76% GDP and now it is >100% GDP. There is no political appetite for cutting spending and this issue will become increasingly important as the U.S. deals with a $1 trillion interest bill.

The New American magazine provided this assessment:

“The U.S. national debt has surpassed 100 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to data released by the federal government. The Wall Street Journal reports:

As of March 31, the country’s publicly held debt was $31.265 trillion, while GDP over the preceding year was $31.216 trillion, according to data released Thursday [April 30]. That puts the ratio at 100.2%, compared with 99.5% when the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30. That figure will likely climb for the foreseeable future because the federal government is running historically large annual deficits of nearly 6% of GDP, which add to the debt.

The government is spending $1.33 for every dollar it collects in revenue, and the budget deficit this year is projected at $1.9 trillion.

Although the national debt briefly exceeded 100 percent of GDP during Covid-19, the latest data show that it could soon surpass the record 106 percent of GDP set in 1946, immediately after the end of World War II.

This development is yet another warning sign that federal spending is out of control — and the nation is running directly into impending fiscal catastrophe.”

The winner from this is China — U.S. interest payments to Beijing run to around $30 billion annually, effectively subsidising a meaningful slice of PLA operations, even as China steadily reduces its Treasury holdings.

COVID-19 and Big Pharma

I started this newsletter four years ago because I was aware that there was substantial misinformation about COVID, its treatment and the effectiveness of vaccination. For example, remdesivir as a treatment for COVID was aggressively promoted by Dr Fauci despite weak evidence of benefit, and documented risks including kidney toxicity. It generated billions in profit for Gilead Sciences.

Now, Maryanne Demasi in her Substack has reported on new evidence challenging the effectiveness of Paxlovid, an antiviral drug, extensively promoted by Pfizer.

MD REPORTS

The Paxlovid illusion

Paxlovid, manufactured by Pfizer, was authorised in late 2021 for people aged 12 and older, catapulting the antiviral into one of the most profitable Covid drugs of the pandemic…

Read more

2 months ago · 87 likes · 35 comments · Maryanne Demasi, PhD

She writes:

“Paxlovid, manufactured by Pfizer, was authorised in late 2021 for people aged 12 and older, catapulting the antiviral into one of the most profitable Covid drugs of the pandemic.

Governments bought the drug in bulk, health agencies promoted it aggressively, and by the time the dust settled, Pfizer had generated about US$28 billion in sales.

Now, years later, two major randomised trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine are challenging the illusion that Paxlovid’s effectiveness had ever been firmly established in real world use.”

The lessons from the COVID-19 disaster include: the failure of statistical modelling, the overreach of government, and the health disasters that can occur from a rush to treatments without effective and statistically-valid trials.

The new data from the New England Journal of Medicine tells a sobering story. Two major randomised trials — the British PANORAMIC study and the Canadian CanTreatCOVID trial — both enrolled higher-risk older patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 and been unwell for five days or less. The results were striking in their consistency: in the PANORAMIC trial, 14 of 1,698 participants (0.8%) in the Paxlovid group and 11 of 1,673 participants (0.7%) in the usual-care group were hospitalised or died — a difference so small as to be clinically meaningless. This follows the earlier EPIC-SR trial, which found no difference in the primary endpoint of time to sustained alleviation of all COVID-19 symptoms between those receiving Paxlovid and those receiving placebo.

Meanwhile, Pfizer sold billions of dollars worth of Paxlovid in 2025, largely on the supposition that the drug decreases hospitalisation or death in high-risk patients. The gap between the marketing and the medicine could hardly be wider.

It must be time for a totally independent medical review into treatments and vaccination for COVID-19. Public health officials need to learn the lesson from their overreach in 2020-2024 as undoubtedly another pandemic will inevitably come, and public health officials will rush for ineffective but politically-expedient solutions.

The Technocratic Agenda Behind the Energy Crisis

Dr Jacob Nordangård, is a Swedish research and musician who understood the fraud occurring in some of the science around the “climate crisis” when undertaking a PhD on the EU’s biofuel policy, almost 20 years ago at Linköpings University.

I have interviewed Dr Nordangård several times for my Substack and he has written a range of excellent books: Rockefeller: Controlling the Game, The Global Coup D’État: The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Great Reset, The Temple of Solomon and recently The Digital World Brain.

In a fascinating interview with Paul Brennan on RCR Media, Swedish researcher Dr Jacob Nordangård argues that the major crises facing the world today — energy shortages, mass migration, pandemics, and war — are not random but form part of a deliberate agenda pursued by interlocking elite networks including the UN, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Economic Forum. The blueprint, he argues, is laid out in the UN’s Pact for the Future, a document adopted by member states that most people have never heard of, let alone read.

Nordangård makes the provocative case that the apparent conflict between the Trump-aligned tech oligarchs — figures like Peter Thiel, Alex Karp of Palantir, and Larry Ellison — and the globalist UN establishment is a false dichotomy. In his view, both paths lead to the same destination: a technocratic surveillance state combining border control and carbon tracking into a single digital control grid.

The intended timeline, drawn from UN and Rockefeller Foundation planning documents, points to a world federation being in place by around 2045-2048.

However, Dr Nordangård is not without hope. He draws on the biblical story of the Tower of Babel to argue that totalitarian systems of this complexity inevitably collapse under their own weight — they require perfect compliance from imperfect humans, which is ultimately impossible. His practical advice: build local, resilient communities, because those who go first into the system will also be the first to come out the other side.

Here is the link to the interview.

Peace in Our Time?

As my regular readers would know, it is almost impossible to understand what is happening in the conflict with Iran and whether there will be a peace deal, which is being talked up at the moment by President Trump.

In the most recent newsletter by Joel Skousen, World Affairs Brief , there is an excellent analysis of the conflict with Iran, titled: Both Trump and Iran Desperate for Peace a Deal. I will quote from a few sections of this article that my readers will find of interest:

“Like it or not, Trump is getting the blame for the war Netanyahu talked him into and he’s desperate for a way out of it. Two thirds of Americans are opposed to what has become Trump’s war on Iran, and his polling numbers are dropping as Americans feel it in the rising cost of fuel and food prices. Iran, on the other hand, is also desperate for a deal before their oil storage tanks fill up, or they will have to stop pumping oil, which can be damaging to oil fields. Their military bases have largely been destroyed and the Iranian military needs a respite from the bombing so they can rebuild. But Iran still possesses enough offensive weapons to continue keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed, which is driving the Western world, especially Europe, toward a deep energy depression. The bottom line is that Trump is finally having to compromise on his one-sided demands, and because of it, insiders say a deal is close….

First, it’s instructive to look at what happened this week to finally convince Trump that he wasn’t going to get all that he was demanding from Iran.

Perhaps the most important was the CIA assessment that Iran still possesses over half of their inventory of missiles and drones, hidden away in underground tunnels, as the Daily Mail reports:

A leaked CIA briefing to the White House concludes that Iran retains significant ballistic missile capabilities, undercutting Donald Trump’s claims that the regime’s stockpile has been wiped out.

The regime retains roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile and 75 percent of its mobile launcher inventory, according to a confidential CIA analysis provided to Trump officials.

A US official told The Washington Post that Iran has recovered and reopened the vast majority of the underground storage facilities damaged in the opening stages of the war.

So, if Trump wants to go back to fighting, Iran can still fight back. In fact, what may be a first in the war there are reports that an American patrol ship may have been hit by an Iranian drone. The Pentagon denies that any of their ships have been hit, but Al Jazeera claims to have two eyewitnesses who say it was hit. Meanwhile, two more tankers were hit by Iranian fast boats in or near the Strait, and one was seen burning….

Another factor that is influencing Trump to get a deal is “a confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship,” according to Dnyuz.com.

Trump started this week hurling one more dire threat at Iran, giving them 24 hours to make a deal or suffer a resumption of Israeli and US bombing, presumably on Iranian infrastructure targets. But cooler heads talked him out of that, and instead he settled for a plan to use military escort vessels to help ships get through the Strait of Hormuz…

These objections by Trump’s Arab allies left Trump little choice but to make concessions in the negotiations with Iran (without admitting to it) because the US military relies heavily on Gulf basing, overflight permissions, logistics hubs, and refueling access. Without cooperation from Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf states, sustaining a large escort operation would become tenuous at best.

Leo Hohmann had these comments about the pickle Trump was in:

The so-called peace talks were always a farce. The ceasefire was merely a pause... And none of it had the desired outcome, which was regime change in Tehran.

Iran did what it announced it would do if the U.S./Israel attacked, which was to close the Strait of Hormuz and cause a global energy crisis. If closed long enough that energy crisis would lead to a food crisis, global recession, rampant inflation, followed by global depression and crushing famine. The price of Brent Crude surged to $114 a barrel as of 5 p.m. Monday.

Trump tried to win a war with air power only against a major land power, and he’s never going to succeed in that. It would take a massive ground invasion, and even then the U.S. would suffer heavy casualties in Iran. Some in his inner circle warned him of this reality but he refused to listen. Instead, he listened to Benjamin Netanyahu and Lindsey Graham.

Iran seems to be sending a message: They’re ready. Their leadership is not in disarray as Trump and Israeli leaders have alluded. Their navy has not been [totally]“destroyed.” They are locked and loaded and ready for the next round of warfare if that’s what Trump and Netanyahu want.

Iran wants good faith peace talks with the U.S., because thus far those talks have consisted of the U.S. laying its maximalist demands on the table and telling Iran to accept it or get bombed into the “Stone Age.” That’s how the winner of a war acts toward the loser. But Iran is now showing it’s not the loser. And if we want to end the war, we will have to approach Iran at least as an equal and give up some of our demands.

And so Trump has finally been forced to give a little…

It looks like China is massing for a showdown with Trump when he visits China this month.

Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s declaration that the objectives of the war have been accomplished, they clearly have not.

When the cease-fire in the war with Iran went into effect a month ago, President Trump was pretty direct that if the Iranians failed to end their nuclear program, or to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the bombers would be back in the air. “If there’s no deal, fighting resumes,” he said, making it very clear this was just a pause.

But it turns out, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that the war actually ended at some point after the cease-fire took hold, or so he told reporters at a news conference at the White House on Tuesday. “The Operation Epic Fury is concluded,” he said. “We achieved the objective of that operation.” The effort to reopen the strait, Mr. Rubio said, is entirely a defensive and humanitarian operation that would result in direct military exchanges with the Iranians only if U.S. ships came under fire.

Later on Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced that he was pausing even that effort — which was only one day old, and had succeeded in getting just a few ships freed — “for a short period of time,” citing what he said was “great progress” toward an agreement with Iran. But he kept the American blockade in place, part of a strategy of maximum economic pressure.

For the White House, the insistence that the war was over was the latest rhetorical leap in an effort to put a war that has created the greatest political crisis of Mr. Trump’s presidency in the rearview mirror. But the mere proclamation does not make it true. Missiles were still flying. Both sides insist they control traffic in the waterway.

And despite Mr. Rubio’s declaration that the objectives of the war have been accomplished, they clearly have not. In the 38 days of intensive combat operations, the United States hit, by the Pentagon’s count, about 13,000 targets. But destroying targets was not the only point. Mr. Trump himself described his objectives in the early hours of Feb. 28, when he told the country, in a video he had recorded earlier, that he had five major goals…….

Don’t expect to find out about any deal soon. Trump says he is “giving space” to Iran while he goes off next Wednesday to China.”

It may well be that China holds the key to a peace deal and we can be certain that China will not be acting in U.S. interests. Watch closely this next week when President Trump meets with his “close friend”, President Xi.

Figure 1. Graphic outlining the geographic details of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz. Iran lies to the north; the Musandam Peninsula of Oman juts dramatically into the strait from the south, creating the bottleneck. The UAE sits to the southwest. The two shipping lanes run through the narrowest section — each only about 3 km wide — separated by a buffer zone. Yellow arrows show inbound traffic (laden tankers heading into the Gulf of Oman); green shows outbound (returning empty tankers and other vessels). Qeshm, Hormuz, and Larak islands are Iranian-held. Abu Musa and the Tunb Islands are disputed — seized by Iran in 1971 and still held, though the UAE claims sovereignty. These islands give Iran significant tactical leverage over the lanes. Bandar Abbas is Iran’s main naval base on the strait; Khasab, on the Musandam Peninsula, is the Omani military port.

Insurance challenges have made the owners of oil tankers reluctant to attempt the passage, for fear their valuable cargoes end up at the bottom of the ocean. While U.S. military planners are reported to have considered the threat of closure of the Strait by Iran prior to the war, a proactive strategy to keep it open does not appear to have been part of the initial military planning.

Now the U.S. military operation has reached the 60-day limit under the War Powers Act, after which the President must seek congressional authorisation to continue. An argument has recently been advanced that the ceasefire agreed by President Trump effectively resets the 60-day clock, entitling him to a further 60 days before congressional approval is required. One wonders how many such resets can be claimed before the courts intervene?

As I contemplate the logistics of maintaining this enormous U.S. force in the Gulf, the mind boggles — at the challenge of supplying troops with food alone, let alone military equipment. I have been doing some further investigations to understand how many military personnel and materiel are now in the Middle East. It is staggering and one wonders how long such a long force can be maintained there.

U.S. Military Forces in the Middle East — May 2026

Background

The current buildup is part of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign against Iran that began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on 28 February 2026. For the first time in more than two decades, three aircraft carriers — along with hundreds of Navy aircraft and thousands of sailors and Marines — are deployed to the Middle East. The last time the U.S. had three carriers in the area was during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

The Three Carrier Strike Groups (CSGs)

A standard carrier strike group is composed of roughly 7,500 personnel — usually an aircraft carrier, at least one cruiser, a destroyer squadron of at least two destroyers or frigates, a carrier air wing of 65–70 aircraft, and sometimes submarines and supply ships. Three CSGs therefore represent approximately 22,500 naval personnel at sea, plus their air wings and escorts.

(Just for contrast, the UK decided to send a naval destroyer — HMS Dragon — to Cyprus after it was attacked by a drone strike, and it took three weeks for the ship to arrive due to a combination of maintenance work, re-fitting, and a remarkable revelation that the private contractor responsible for preparing Royal Navy ships at Portsmouth was effectively working office hours under a cost-cutting government contract. The British Navy is at its lowest number of ships and personnel since the end of the Cold War — down from 50 destroyers and frigates in 1991 to just 13 today. No wonder Trump criticised the UK, dismissing their aircraft carriers — which have significantly reduced capability compared to their American equivalents — as ‘toys.’)

USS Abraham Lincoln — operating in the Arabian Sea since January 2026, conducting nonstop combat operations. The Lincoln strike group is accompanied by at least eight Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers distributed across the Arabian Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, and Red Sea.

USS Gerald R. Ford — the Navy’s newest and most capable supercarrier, operating in the Red Sea. The Ford-class carrier introduces a great advance in operational capability with its Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System and Advanced Arresting Gear, enabling significantly higher sortie generation rates than older carriers.

USS George H.W. Bush — the third and most recent arrival. Bush entered the region via the Indian Ocean on 23 April 2026, having taken the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope to reduce exposure to threats in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Bush strike group includes the guided-missile destroyers USS Ross, USS Donald Cook, and USS Mason, along with the fast combat support ship USNS Arctic.

Total naval vessels: U.S. naval presence in the region now exceeds 30 warships, according to CENTCOM. Additional assets include three Littoral Combat Ships (USS Canberra, USS Tulsa, USS Santa Barbara) based in Bahrain with mine-countermeasure equipment, plus Avenger-class minesweepers deployed to the Strait of Hormuz area.

Aircraft: Combined, the three carriers embark 27 squadrons of more than 200 aircraft. The nine guided-missile destroyers across the three groups are equipped with 846 vertical launch system (VLS) tubes loaded with offensive and defensive missiles. At least three fast-attack submarines provide additional undersea capability.

Two Amphibious Ready Groups (Marines)

In addition to the carrier groups, two Amphibious Ready Groups with Marine Expeditionary Units embarked have been sent to the Middle East as part of Operation Epic Fury. Each ARG typically carries around 2,200 Marines and consists of an amphibious assault ship plus support vessels.

Land-Based Forces at Regional Bases

The U.S. military has between 40,000 and 50,000 service members at bases and installations across the Middle East. The key ones are:

Kuwait (largest ground presence): An estimated 13,500 personnel, including Ali Al-Salem Air Base and Camps Arifjan and Buehring. Kuwait serves as the primary logistics and Army headquarters hub.

Qatar — Al Udeid Air Base (largest single U.S. base in the region): Approximately 10,000 military personnel as of 2026, housing the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Air Forces Central Command. Iran attacked the base on 28 February 2026 during the opening of the conflict.

Bahrain — Naval Support Activity: More than 8,300 service members and their families, where U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (Fifth Fleet) is headquartered. Bahrain also hosts the Combined Maritime Forces coalition of 47 nations.

Jordan: Nearly 4,000 military personnel, with dozens of attack aircraft at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base.

UAE — Al Dhafra Air Base: Hosts advanced aircraft including F-22 Raptors and surveillance/AWACS platforms.

Iraq and Syria: Around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria for counter-terrorism operations.

Saudi Arabia — Prince Sultan Air Base: Reactivated to support air and missile defence operations.

The Overall Picture

The arrival of USS George H.W. Bush in late April coincides with a broader U.S. military surge bringing total personnel in the region above 60,000 — across approximately 19 installations. To summarise the extraordinary scale of resources committed:

• 3 carrier strike groups → ~22,500 sailors at sea

• 2 amphibious ready groups → ~4,400+ Marines afloat

• 30+ warships in the CENTCOM area, plus submarines

• 200+ carrier aircraft at sea

• 40,000–50,000 land-based troops across regional bases

• Total in Gulf: over 60,000 U.S. military personnel

Estimated Costs to Date

The first six days of combat cost $11.3 billion — roughly $1.88 billion per day, or $21,800 per second. Each carrier strike group costs ~$6.5 million per day to operate. Tomahawk cruise missiles cost around $2 million each, and hundreds were fired. SM-3 interceptors — used to shoot down Iranian ballistic missiles — cost $36 million apiece.

The Pentagon’s current budget request includes more than $70 billion for missile procurement and related systems — nearly three times the previous year’s figure — as replenishing depleted interceptor stockpiles is expected to take years even at accelerated production rates. It is not inconceivable that before this conflict is resolved, total costs could approach $1 trillion.

Trump’s Shifting Positions: A Chronology

Apart from the staggering costs, the shifting strategy — or simply the shifting thinking — of President Trump can make your head swim. At a local ANZAC DAY remembrance in our area, I talked to a senior Australian naval officer. He outlined how difficult and confusing Trump’s approach is for allied military personnel.

It is difficult to determine whether he is operating on instinct or following a coherent plan. The latter may be the case, but as I outlined in my previous newsletter on The Art of the Deal, Trump does not give away his reasoning.

What I have attempted below is to chart, with dates, what President Trump has actually said over the past two months — statements that have certainly confused me, and hopefully the Iranians too!

Phase One: Rapid Victory Declared (28 February – 7 March)

28 February: Trump gives the order to proceed with Operation Epic Fury. U.S. warships launch Tomahawk missiles while B-2 stealth bombers, B-1 Lancers, and B-52s strike fortified ballistic missile facilities inside Iran.

1 March: Trump says “combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved.” When asked how long the strikes would last, he says: “We intend four to five weeks.”

2 March: Trump says “We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections,” repeating the “four to five weeks” estimate and adding “we have capability to go far longer than that.” He is also reported to have said: “We will win easily.”

3 March: “We won the war.”

7 March: “We defeated Iran.”

Phase Two: The Strait Proves a Challenge (8 March – 1 April)

6 March: Trump declares that only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” would be acceptable and threatens to attack Iranian energy infrastructure and bridges if a deal is not reached.

14 March: “We need help to open the strait.” — a significant admission that the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s primary remaining source of leverage, has not been secured.

15 March: “If you don’t help me, I’ll remember it” — directed at allies who had not joined the operation.

16 March: “We don’t really need any help — I was checking loyalty.”

20 March: “NATO is cowardly.”

22 March: “Last warning. Iran is finished.” Trump sets a deadline of 23 March for a deal, later extended to 7 April.

23 March: Trump says the U.S. has been speaking to “a top person” in Iran: “They called, I didn’t call. They want to make a deal, and we are very willing to make a deal.” The IRGC-affiliated Fars News denied any negotiations had taken place.

25 March: “We are negotiating with Iran.” Pakistani officials deliver a 15-point U.S. ceasefire proposal to Tehran.

27 March: “The Ayatollah and I will jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz” — a striking reversal from the demand for “unconditional surrender” three weeks earlier.

31 March: On the nuclear sites bombed by B-2s, Trump tells Fox News: “I don’t care about the nuclear material in Iran. We’ll watch it via satellite” — adding that the deeply buried material is “pretty safe.” This directly contradicted the war’s stated primary objective of eliminating Iran’s nuclear capability.

Phase Three: Ceasefire and Contradiction (7 April – present)

7 April: Trump warns: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back” if Iran does not reach an agreement. Hours later, a ceasefire is announced.

8 April: Trump says the U.S. will work with Iran to “dig up and remove all of the deeply buried Nuclear ‘Dust’” — directly contradicting his 31 March statement that the material was “pretty safe” and he didn’t care about it. On the same day, Vice President JD Vance calls the ceasefire a “fragile truce.”

11 April: U.S. and Iranian officials meet for face-to-face talks in Islamabad, lasting 21 hours.

12 April: Vance announces the sides have “not reached an agreement,” largely because of Iran’s refusal to abandon its nuclear programme.

13 April: The U.S. implements a blockade of Iranian ports. Trump warns that if a deal is not reached, “it won’t be pleasant” for Iran.

17 April: After Iran offers to reopen the Strait in exchange for a ceasefire with Lebanon, Trump says the U.S. port blockade will continue until a comprehensive final deal is agreed.

18 April: Iran shuts the Strait again, blaming U.S. “breaches of trust.” Trump says negotiations are ongoing but Iran “got a little cute.”

19 April: “We’re offering a very fair and reasonable deal, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran.”

20 April: Trump says it is “highly unlikely” he will extend the ceasefire, which he says expires in two days.

21 April: Trump says he expects to resume bombing if no deal is reached the next day — then, that same afternoon, reverses course and extends the ceasefire indefinitely pending an Iranian proposal. When asked five separate times whether he would extend the ceasefire, Trump gave three different answers: “If there’s no deal, fighting resumes”; “If we need to, I would do that”; and “We’ll see. I don’t know that we’ll have to.”

Late April: Trump tells Bloomberg that Iran has agreed to an “unlimited” suspension of its nuclear programme; he says that Tehran “agreed to everything”; and also says that a deal will come “in the next day or two.” Iranian negotiators dispute each claim.

1 May: Trump sends a war powers letter to Congress stating: “The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated” — even as the blockade of Iranian ports continues and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

I am sure I have only touched the surface of President Trump’s statements, but I suspect my readers are as confused as I am. President Trump has a remarkable business record — notable achievements in real estate and branding — but it also includes repeated corporate bankruptcies. His Atlantic City casino operations alone filed for Chapter 11 four times between 1991 and 2014, with the losses falling largely on investors and bondholders rather than on Trump personally. Trump always seems to come out on top!

Is Trump Applying “Madman Theory” — or Is He Simply Unpredictable?

The “Madman Theory” is a doctrine of deliberate unpredictability in foreign policy, most famously associated with President Richard Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger during the Vietnam War era. The theory holds that a leader who cultivates an image of being irrational, volatile, or willing to take extreme action can coerce adversaries into making concessions — because if an opponent believes escalation might trigger an unhinged response, they will think twice before provoking a confrontation.

Nixon described the strategy to Kissinger in blunt terms: “You can say, ‘I cannot control him.’ Put it that way. And imply that you might use nuclear weapons.”

The roots of the theory go back further still — to the brinkmanship of President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and the Republican belief that nuclear threats had forced China to the negotiating table to end the Korean War. The idea can even be traced all the way to Machiavelli, who wrote in 1517 that “sometimes it is a very wise thing to simulate madness.”

Whether the theory actually works in practice is another matter. International relations scholars have been largely sceptical, noting that prominent “madmen” — including Nixon himself, Khrushchev, Saddam Hussein, and Gaddafi — repeatedly failed to win coercive disputes. The fundamental danger is that unpredictability, real or performed, raises the risk of catastrophic miscalculation — an enemy may conclude that a threat is genuine when it is a bluff, or dismiss a genuine threat as theatre.

Conclusions

In the context of the current Iran conflict, the question we must weigh is whether President Trump’s whipsawing between “we won the war” and “we need help to open the strait,” between threatening to destroy “a whole civilisation” and offering to jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz with the Ayatollah, reflects a calculated strategy to keep Tehran off balance — or something else entirely.

There is certainly confusion in the Strait!

We will have a clearer answer in the next month as election campaigns ramp up for the midterm elections in November. President Trump’s advisors must be acutely aware of his declining poll numbers since the Iran conflict began (see Figure 2). Unless Trump can produce a decisive and visible victory — which currently seems elusive — Republicans face a real risk of losing both the House and the Senate in November.

Figure 2. Consolidate poll results regarding President Trump’s approval rating as President (blue line) and his approval in handling the Iran conflict (pink line).

It seems that confusion in the Strait will continue — and perhaps no one knows what the next steps will be, even Trump himself. Whatever the outcome, the economic impact and oil supply disruption will be felt for at least the next 12 months. There is also the deepening fracture within NATO, with Europeans increasingly at odds with President Trump, who has declared he is “no more Mr Nice Guy” in his dealings with allies, let alone the Iranians. Further challenges lie ahead — and it may be time to stock up on toilet paper!

Further challenges lie ahead — and it may be time to stock up on toilet paper!

We live in unpredictable times. Which is precisely why the Sons of Issachar matter. Jesus himself gave the instruction: “Watch and pray.” (Matthew 26:41)

1 Chronicles 12:32 — “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.”

I mentioned in my last post that the remaining Iranian leadership must all be hunched over copies of Trump’s book The Art of the Deal published in 1987.

In any case, I thought that this book, written by Trump (probably his coauthor Tony Schwartz did most of the writing and Trump provided the ideas) in 1987, must provide some key insights into President Trump’s thinking in making a deal. So, to save Sons of Issachar readers from having to buy a copy of the book, I have read it and have distilled a few key quotes from the early part of the book to help readers understand thinking in the Trump world.

Figure 1. Book cover for President Trump’s book The Art of the Deal, published in 1987.

Dealing

The book commences with a fascinating insight into President Trump’s approach to life and why he does what he does. He doesn’t do deals for money but because this is what gives him “kicks”.

“I don’t do it for the money. I’ve got enough, much more than I’ll ever need. I do it to do it. Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks. Most people are surprised by the way I work. I play it very loose. I don’t carry a briefcase. I try not to schedule too many meetings. I leave my door open. You can’t be imaginative or entrepreneurial if you’ve got too much structure. I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops.”

Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 1). (Function). Kindle Edition.

It seems that President Trump dislikes structure and likes to see “what develops”. Under Trump, many things “develop”: conflicts solved, “drill baby drill”, bombs into Iran, tariffs around the world, gold embossing of many items in the White House, threats via social media, demolition and reconstruction of the East Wing of the White House, trolling his enemies, “show trials” with world leaders, hundreds of executive orders. The mind boggles and if you are looking for an overriding strategy - I don’t think you will find it.

“There is no typical week in my life. I wake up most mornings very early, around six, and spend the first hour or so of each day reading the morning newspapers. I usually arrive at my office by nine, and I get on the phone. There’s rarely a day with fewer than fifty calls, and often it runs to over a hundred. In between, I have at least a dozen meetings. The majority occur on the spur of the moment, and few of them last longer than fifteen minutes. I rarely stop for lunch. I leave my office by six-thirty, but I frequently make calls from home until midnight, and all weekend long. It never stops, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. And if it can’t be fun, what’s the point?”

Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 1-2). (Function). Kindle Edition.

It seems as though President Trump likes to have as many things on as possible and always with the potential for a surprise and fun. He doesn’t really care about the future because the present “is where the fun is”! He has no commitment to “down time” and uses all the hours of the day (and night) to work, including weekends. I think that this is the definition of workaholism. He must be a nightmare to work for and his Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, must be a remarkable woman in attempting to create order out of chaos.

The first chapter of the book outlines a day in the life of Trump and the various calls, meetings and decisions he made. Trump’s negotiation style was clear in the story of a woman called Mrs Hill who was trying to stop the bank from foreclosing on her farm after the suicide of her husband. Trump decided to help and he called the bank:

”The next morning, I called and got some vice president on the line. I explained that I was a businessman from New York, and that I was interested in helping Mrs. Hill. He told me he was sorry, but that it was too late. They were going to auction off the farm, he said, and “nothing or no one is going to stop it.” That really got me going. I said to the guy: “You listen to me. If you do foreclose, I’ll personally bring a lawsuit for murder against you and your bank, on the grounds that you harassed Mrs. Hill’s husband to his death.” All of a sudden the bank officer sounded very nervous and said he’d get right back to me. Sometimes it pays to be a little wild. An hour later I got a call back from the banker, and he said, “Don’t worry, we’re going to work it out, Mr. Tramp.” Mrs. Hill and Frank Argenbright told the media, and the next thing I knew, it was the lead story on the network news. By the end of the week, we’d raised $40,000. Imus alone raised almost $20,000 by appealing to his listeners. As a Christmas present to Mrs. Hill and her family, we’ve scheduled a mortgage-burning ceremony for Christmas Eve in the atrium of Trump Tower.”

Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 4-5). (Function). Kindle Edition.

You can see Trump’s genius for threats, publicity and calling in favours. Also his ability to create great press for the Trump organisation with a ceremony on Christmas Eve in Trump Tower. No wonder the E.U. was a pushover, but it does seem that the Iranians are a different kettle of fish and less responsive to threats.

It is fascinating to read the details of just one day, which would make most people’s heads spin. Lunch for Trump is a can of tomato juice. He says that he rarely goes out because “it’s a waste of time”!

At 5:45pm his nine-year-old son calls him to ask him when he will be home.He says he always takes calls from his children, no matter what he is doing. It is impressive to see the love and respect that his children have for him and it demonstrates that President Trump must have done a lot of things right in his parenting. Each of his children is accomplished and speaks well of their father.

His day ends at 6:30pm but he does say that he makes a “few more calls when he gets home” and frequently “makes calls from home until midnight, and all weekend long”. Somehow, he makes time for golf?

The book continues with Trump’s week and the array of events is completely overwhelming. You wonder how he managed to fit in fundraising events, letters to opponents, deals, calls to politicians, visits to check out schools for his children, calls to authors, reporters, investors, attorneys and those with whom he wants to make a deal. One day ends at 5pm as he is driven to a heliport so that he can attend a cocktail party at 6pm.

Trump had also taken on the job of building an ice rink for New York and he has completed it when everyone else thought it impossible and the city had spent a lot of money and got nowhere. Somehow, Trump gets the job done. I think it is because he is relentless.

There is a great story about how Trump dealt with a building contractor whom he thought was trying to “take the shirt of his back”:

“I pick up the phone and dial the guy in charge of demolition at Trump Parc. “Steve,” I say when I get him, “this is Donald Trump. Listen, you’ve got to get your ass moving and get finished. You’re behind. I want you to get personally involved in this.” He starts to give me explanations but I cut him off. “I don’t want to know. I just want you to get the job done and get out. And listen, Steve, you’re killing me on these extras. I don’t want you to deal with Andy anymore on the extras. I want you to deal with me personally. If you try screwing me on this job, you won’t be getting a second chance. I’ll never hire you again.”

Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 38). (Function). Kindle Edition.

I think that threats are seriously made in the world of Trump, and he usually gets his way. The Iranians should take note !

Trump Cards

Donald Trump says that you have to be born with the instincts to make deals, and it is not about being smart.

“My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after. Sometimes I settle for less than I sought, but in most cases I still end up with what I want. More than anything else, I think deal-making is an ability you’re born with. It’s in the genes.”

Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 45). (Function). Kindle Edition.
Here are a few of Trump’s key tips in this chapter of the book:

• Think big - he says that “if you are going to be thinking anyway, think big”. This thinking got him to the U.S. presidency twice. Clearly it works! He says that one of the keys to thinking big is “total focus”. He does concede that this trait doesn’t necessarily lead to a happier life “but it’s great when it comes to getting what you want”.

• Protect the downside and the upside will take care of itself - he says that while he believes in the power of positive thinking, he always goes into a deal anticipating the worst. “If you plan for the worst - if can live with the worst - the good will always take care of itself”.

• Maximize your options - Mr Trump says that you always have to plan for when things go wrong.

  ”I also protect myself by being flexible. I never get too attached to one deal or one approach. For starters, I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they seem at first. In addition, once I’ve made a deal, I always come up with at least a half dozen approaches to making it work, because anything can happen, even to the best-laid plans.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 50). (Function). Kindle Edition.

• Know your market - Trump cites several celebrities who know what market they are in, including Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone and Woody Allen. Trump writes:

  “I like to think I have that instinct. That’s why I don’t hire a lot of number-crunchers, and I don’t trust fancy marketing surveys. I do my own surveys and draw my own conclusions. I’m a great believer in asking everyone for an opinion before I make a decision. It’s a natural reflex.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 51-52). (Function). Kindle Edition.

President Trump is noted for seeking opinions from many sources and likes to provoke conflict between team members to see which ideas are the best. It is likely that in the Iran confrontation, he has made the key decisions with his gut. He says that “I ask and I ask and I ask, until I begin to get a gut feeling about something”.

I suspect that President Trump’s gut feeling will determine when the war with Iran ends.

• Use Your Leverage - Trump says “you have to convince the other guy it’s in his interest to make the deal”.

  “The worst thing you can possibly do in a deal is seem desperate to make it. That makes the other guy smell blood, and then you’re dead. The best thing you can do is deal from strength, and leverage is the biggest strength you can have. Leverage is having something the other guy wants. Or better yet, needs. Or best of all, simply can’t do without.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 53). (Function). Kindle Edition.

  This is a key issue with the Iranians. Somehow, despite being on their knees, they are still talking big and Trump will have to find something “they simply can’t do without”. We hope it is not a nuclear weapon!

• Enhance your location - Trump says that the key premise about real estate: “location, location, location” is misunderstood.

  “First of all, you don’t necessarily need the best location. What you need is the best deal. Just as you can create leverage, you can enhance a location, through promotion and through psychology.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 54-55). (Function). Kindle Edition.

• Get the Word Out - Trump’s tip is to get free publicity and live larger than life!

  “One thing I’ve learned about the press is that they’re always hungry for a good story, and the more sensational the better. It’s in the nature of the job, and I understand that. The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you. I’ve always done things a little differently, I don’t mind controversy, and my deals tend to be somewhat ambitious. Also, I achieved a lot when I was very young, and I chose to live in a certain style. The result is that the press has always wanted to write about me.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 56-57). (Function). Kindle Edition.

  Trump is a genius at getting free publicity and it is estimated that during his 2015-26 presidential campaign he was able to get almost $1 billion of free publicity. He beat Hilary Clinton with only a fraction of her budget.

  Trump says that bravado is important and he is an expert in this area.

  “I play to people’s fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That’s why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 58). (Function). Kindle Edition.

  President Trump must be the master of hyperbole!

• Fight Back - Mr Trump says that there is often no choice but confrontation.

  “I’m very good to people who are good to me. But when people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard.”

  Mr Trump has the following advice:

  “There are people—I categorize them as life’s losers—who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 58-60). (Function). Kindle Edition.

  Simple advice - fight back against the losers!

• Deliver the Goods - Mr Trump says that you can con people but not for long. He has an interesting story about President Jimmy Carter (a loser) coming to see him after he lost the election to ask Trump for a $5 million contribution to the Carter Presidential Library. Trump thought that Carter was hopeless but did admire the fact that he had the guts to ask for an extraordinary sum of money. Trump says you have to deliver the goods and he cites Trump Tower as an example of delivering something extraordinary because he works at the top end to build the best.

• Contain the Costs - Trump oversees costs himself and says that even though the sums seems small, if he can save $5,000 on a job with a 25 cent phone call, it’s a winner!

  ”I believe in spending what you have to. But I also believe in not spending more than you should. When I was building low-income housing, the most important thing was to get it built quickly, inexpensively, and adequately, so you could rent it out and make a few bucks. That’s when I learned to be cost-conscious. I never threw money around. I learned from my father that every penny counts, because before too long your pennies turn into dollars.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (pp. 61-62). (Function). Kindle Edition.

• Have Fun - it is clear that Trump enjoys making deals and as President of the U.S., he is the ultimate deal maker. His advice in this section recognises that life is fragile and so you need to have fun. He does this on a daily basis by toying with the press and his Democratic opponents.

  ”I don’t kid myself. Life is very fragile, and success doesn’t change that. If anything, success makes it more fragile. Anything can change, without warning, and that’s why I try not to take any of what’s happened too seriously. Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game. I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what I should have done differently, or what’s going to happen next. If you ask me exactly what the deals I’m about to describe all add up to in the end, I’m not sure I have a very good answer. Except that I’ve had a very good time making them.”

  Trump, Donald J.; Schwartz, Tony. Trump: The Art of the Deal (p. 64). (Function). Kindle Edition.

These are a few highlights from the first few chapters of The Art of the Deal. The book has been translated into Farsi and I imagine that many of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are poring over the book as you read this post. The Persian title (indicated in the subheading of this post) is roughly translated as “The Book of Trump's Art of Deal-Making”.

I have captured some of the key principles of the first part of President Trump’s book and I may share more of the wisdom of Trump in the next newsletter.

What Does This Mean for the Sons of Issachar?

The men of Issachar were those who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). So what should we make of President Trump and The Art of the Deal in this extraordinary moment?

First, we should resist the temptation to either demonise or idolise him. Trump is neither a geopolitical genius executing a secret masterplan, nor a reckless idiot blundering toward catastrophe. He is, by his own admission, a man who “comes to work each day and just sees what develops” — a deal-maker who thrives on chaos, instinct, and the present moment. The worst analytical mistake would be to impose a coherent strategy where none exists.

Second, the fact that Iran’s leadership has probably studied The Art of the Deal in Farsi is itself a remarkable sign of the times. According to Ali Ansari, a historian of Iran at the University of St Andrews, the Persian translation of Trump's Art of the Deal has found a wide readership in Iran.

Iranshahr with Ali Ansari

The Art of the Deal (Iran edition)

The Persian translation of Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ has found a wide readership in Iran and her politicians and diplomats will have no doubt scoured it to discover Trump’s modus operandi. An important if often overlooked aspect of the title is the fact that Trump describes the process as an ‘art’. It is indeed a performative exercise which requires nim…

Read more

a year ago · 20 likes · Ali Ansari

We have the extraordinary spectacle of the Islamic Republic — which routinely chants “Death to America” — carefully reading the sitting American president’s negotiating manual in order to counter him.

Third, and most importantly for those who seek to discern God’s hand in history: the outcome of the current confrontation between Washington and Tehran will not ultimately be determined by leverage, hyperbole, or deal-making instincts. Empires, presidents, and revolutionary guards all come and go. The question for the Sons of Issachar is not merely what Trump will do next, but what God is doing in this pivotal moment in the Middle East — and how His people should respond.

Watch, pray, and stay curious.

There seems to be a lot of brinksmanship on both sides, with President Trump and what remains of the leadership of the Iranian regime threatening to destroy everything in sight or bring oil supplies to a halt.

An IRGC general warned it would "hit all economic hubs in the Middle East." Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi separately warned that any defensive European military involvement would be considered "an act of war."

President Trump decided to up the ante. In a post on Truth Social yesterday, he wrote:
”Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP”! Praise to be Allah? What is Trump thinking??

I suppose you have to give top marks for clear communication, but you wonder what further damage he intends to inflict and whether the greater rhetorical flourishes will have any impact on the suicidal and apocalyptic regime. The response seems to be: “bring it on”!

I thought it may be useful for my readers to understand what the thousands of sorties and strikes across Iran have achieved to date. I have put together the information below from a range of sources.

PART ONE: What the Strikes Have Achieved — 28 February to 6 April 2026

The Scale of the Campaign

By the end of the third week of the “expedition”, coalition forces from the U.S. and Israel had struck over 15,000 targets across Iran. Israel alone struck approximately 8,500 targets, expending over 12,000 munitions — around 3,600 of them on Tehran. Israel conducted over 540 strike waves and 5,700 combat sorties.

A Washington Post review of satellite imagery found that four of Iran’s key ballistic missile manufacturing locations and at least 29 ballistic missile launch sites had been damaged in the first four weeks of the offensive.

Leadership and Command: Decapitated

The opening strikes on 28 February killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the commander of the IRGC, and Iran’s defence minister, along with several other senior officials. Iran’s entire top command structure was destroyed in a matter of hours.

The Iranian response has been much brava,do and it reminds me of the great scene in Monty Python’s The Holy Grail with the Black Knight. The Iranians are saying: “C’mon then - is that all you’ve got?” after Israel and the U.S. have destroyed the Iranian navy and air force.

Despite these “hits” and continued strikes on Iranian top officials, the regime still operates and has decentralised to allow it to target essential facilities in the Middle East, with the most devastating consequences being the effective blockage of the Straits of Hormuz. It’s difficult to know how much this factored into the U.S. and Israeli planning but it seems to have come as a surprise and the impact has been greater than many thought.

Nuclear Program: Damaged but Not Destroyed

The IAEA reported on 4 March that there was “no damage to facilities containing nuclear material” but some damage “at entrances” to Iran’s largest enrichment facility. The IAEA has not been able to inspect the attacked nuclear facilities. U.S. government reports have provided differing assessments — the 2025 National Security Strategy said the June 2025 strikes “significantly degraded” Iran’s nuclear program, while the 2026 National Defense Strategy claimed they “obliterated” it.

Trump’s own Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff noted in March 2026 that Iran’s nuclear “breakout time” — the time needed to produce enough fissile material for one weapon — remained “a few weeks.” This is a central contradiction of the campaign: the same program Trump claimed to have destroyed in June 2025 was still functional eight months later, and there are differing assessments, none reliable, about how close Iran is or was to a nuclear weapon. Whatever happens next, there seems to be several hundred kg of enriched uranium that will be difficult to locate and remove.

Ballistic Missiles: Heavily Degraded

Over 700 ballistic missiles were destroyed in storage before launch, and there are estimates that approximately 70 percent of Iran’s missile launcher array was eliminated — at least 300 launchers hit. U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth claimed a 90 percent reduction in Iran’s launch capability. Iranian missile attacks on Israel had dropped by over 90 percent by day ten of the, war but as of today, are still occurring with a attacks on Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

A CNN report suggested Tehran may still have had 50 percent of its missile launchers and drones intact, as Iranian forces successfully concealed mobile air defense systems in tunnels and bunkers, allowing them to ambush US aircraft.

Air Force and Air Defences: Effectively Destroyed

By early March, Israel claimed to have destroyed 80 percent of Iran’s air defense systems. Iran’s air force was wiped out across multiple air bases. Trump stated on 3 March that Iran had “no navy, air force, air detection, or radar.” While this was an overstatement at the time, it was close to reality, and the U.S. and Israel have achieved air dominance.

Navy: Sunk

According to the Atlantic Council, more than fifty Iranian naval vessels are now on the sea floor. President Trump in a recent speech claimed that the U.S. had destroyed 160 ships and CENTCOM confirmed 155. The bottom line is that there don’t seem to be many boats left in the Iranian Navy. Nonetheless, Iran can effectively control the Strait of Hormuz because of challenges to vessel insurance, and the impact on Western economies is severe.

Civilian and Infrastructure Damage

Iran reported damage to at least 120 historical and cultural sites. The UNESCO World Heritage site Golestan Palace was struck. Bridges, universities, hospitals, water reservoirs, and the state broadcasting headquarters in Tehran were all hit. Two U.S. strikes on the B1 bridge — described as the highest bridge in the Middle East — near Tehran - caused it to collapse, killing eight people and wounding 95 others.

What Has NOT Been Achieved

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Iran’s closure of the strait has caused a global shortage of oil and energy, sending gas prices skyrocketing, in what has been described as the world’s largest supply disruption since the 1970s energy crisis. Even though it has been assessed that only 20% of the oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the impact has been much more severe. President Trump says that the U.S. doesn’t need the oil and so it is up to others to sort out the problem. This sent the EU. into a series of traumatic consultations but no action.

Overall, the “Quick War” assumption has failed. The strategy relied on the belief that a swift, massive aerial campaign could force a regime collapse. This failed because Iranian conventional capabilities, while degraded, managed to endure and retaliate, turning the campaign into a war of attrition.

PART TWO: Trump’s Easter Sunday Threats — 5–6 April 2026

Fresh from the dramatic rescue of a downed F-15E crew member from deep inside Iranian territory, Trump posted the following on Truth Social on Easter Sunday morning:

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—-n’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!” He signed off the post with: “Praise be to Allah.”

He then told Fox News he was “considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil” if Iran doesn’t accept a deal, and told The Hill he would not rule out sending ground troops.

Trump set a new deadline of 8 p.m. U.S. eastern time on Tuesday — his third such deadline, having extended previous ones each time mediators claimed progress. The latest reports are that negotiations are proceeding for a cease fire but it seems unlikely that these will produce a positive outcome. President Trump’s post indicates that his patience is wearing thin and that he has been boxed into a corner.

These threats follow an escalating pattern. Earlier in the week, Trump had posted: “We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” He also threatened to target water desalination plants.

Over 100 international law experts signed a letter warning that Trump’s threatened attacks on power plants, if implemented, could constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on “objects indispensable to the survival of civilians.”

The political reaction to this rhetoric has been sharp. Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer wrote: “The President of the United States is ranting like an unhinged madman on social media. He’s threatening possible war crimes and alienating allies.” A Georgia Republican congressman said everyone in Trump’s administration “claiming to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness.”

Iran’s response was defiance. An Iranian presidential spokesperson said the strait would only reopen following payment of reparations, describing Trump’s language as proof that the US had “resorted to obscenities and nonsense out of sheer desperation and anger.” Iran’s UN mission called the threats “clear evidence of intent to commit war crimes.”

Iran’s parliament speaker threatened that if power plants are struck, Iran will retaliate against “critical infrastructure, energy infrastructure, and oil facilities” throughout the entire region. Meanwhile, Iran struck power plants and a petrochemical plant in Kuwait, and targeted a desalination plant in Bahrain on Sunday.

Despite Pakistani intermediaries proposing a cease fire and opening up of the Strait of Hormuz, it is difficult to see how such an agreement can be considered. It does look like further escalation of the conflict and who knows the outcome?

The Lure of Escalation

I watched a recent interview with Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago illuminating. Professor Pape has run Iran war simulations for 20 years and has great credibility. I have included the interview below which is a 90 min long but worthwhile viewing. I found the interview helpful in understanding why administrations become caught in an escalation trap. It seems to be true for most wars and has been evident with U.S. conflicts over the last 60 years from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

If you don’t have time to watch the long video, I have produced a diagram of Professor Pape’s ideas related to his simulations over a period of 20 years below and readers will note that the Trump administration is hovering at Stage 3 - ground operations and deeper entanglement.

The escalation trap is an interesting way of thinking about what is happening with the current conflict and the many unknowns that must be concerning U.S. military planners. Of course their biggest concern must be “The Trump Factor” which is impossible to forecast. The only good news is that President Trump is very attuned to opinion polls and support for the war in the U.S. is decreasing daily. In his speech to the nation this last week, he said that the U.S. would withdraw in 2-3 weeks. This seems unlikely and the unknown unknowns increase daily.

Like most conflicts, escalation seems to be the only likely outcome resulting in major international financial consequences for all economies. Whether President Trump can beat the escalation trap remains to be seen. It seems likely that Iranian leaders will be closely studying Trump’s book: The Art of the Deal!

There are almost no independent journalists on the ground in Iran. Internet connectivity inside the country was reduced to almost zero during the first days of the conflict, and the Iranian regime is punishing those who provide information to external sources. What we have is a torrent of claims, counter-claims, satellite imagery, social media footage of debatable quality, and official statements from parties who all have very strong reasons to lie.

With that caveat clearly on the table, let us attempt to piece together what seems to be happening — and more importantly, why this conflict is unlike any that Western strategists have planned for. I have tried to assemble credible information from a variety of sources for this newsletter to give readers a summary of what seems to be generally known.

What We Think We Know

On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched a surprise joint attack on Iran — reportedly during the very nuclear negotiations that were underway at the time. Israel codenamed the operation “Roaring Lion.” The U.S. operation is called “Epic Fury”, a name probably chosen by President Trump, who is a branding guru.

In the opening hours, the Israeli Air Force struck approximately 500 military targets in western and central Iran, deploying around 200 fighter jets in what it described as the largest combat sortie in its history.

Among those killed on the first day was Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, along with numerous other Iranian officials and civilians. The killing of Khamenei — a man who had led the Islamic Republic for over three decades and who considered himself the personal representative of the Hidden Imam on earth — is one of the most significant events in Middle Eastern history since the 1979 Revolution. Whether it makes the situation better or worse is very much the question.

Figure 1. A schematic demonstrating key locations that have been struck by the U.S. and Israel since 28 February

U.S. forces have struck more than 7,000 targets in Iran since February 28, according to U.S. Central Command. Conflict monitors have documented nearly 2,300 distinct events across at least 29 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with Tehran receiving the heaviest bombardment. The targets have ranged across the country and the map above (Figure 1) gives you a sense of the geographic scope.

Major sites struck include Isfahan, a hub for Iran’s ballistic missile program; Qom, where a turbine engine production site linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was targeted; Tabriz; Kermanshah; Ilam; Karaj; Bushehr; and Shiraz. Missiles have struck several areas of Tehran including the Ministry of Intelligence, the Ministry of Defence, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, and the Parchin military complex.

The precise and targeted nature of the early attacks points to excellent intelligence from inside the country, presumably from Israel’s Mossad agents. The opening attack struck the compound of the Leadership House — Khamenei’s own residence. On 3 March, Israel hit Iran’s 84-member Assembly of Experts while they were in a preliminary meeting to select the next Supreme Leader. This was an extraordinary act: an attempt to decapitate the entire institutional apparatus of the Islamic Republic simultaneously. Unfortunately, it did not lead to a positive outcome because there appears to have been a decision following the 12-day war (13-25 June 2025) to decentralise the Iranian command structure so that decisions could be made independently in each of the 31 provinces.

On 8 March, Mojtaba Khamenei — son of the killed Supreme Leader — was elected to replace his father. There are reports that he was injured and even that he may have died. However, the Iranian leadership is fighting for their lives and are backed by a ruthless force of ~600,000 IRGC guards and a similar number of civilian militia - the Basij. These forces are well armed and know that their lives depend on remaining in power. It is extremely unlikely, given that the civilian population is disarmed, that there will be a popular uprising.

With the decision to appoint Ayatollah Ali Khamanei’s son, the Islamic Republic has become, for the first time, a hereditary theocratic dynasty. Mojtaba Khamenei is close to extremist clerics who advocate a radical interpretation of Mah’dism — the belief in the imminent appearance of the Mah’di — and the new leader will see himself as commanding an historical mission that requires the defeat of Israel and control of the holy sites.

President Trump called the new Supreme Leader "lightweight" and threatened he would not last long without his approval. On 7 March, aboard Air Force One, Trump defined his demand for "unconditional surrender" in characteristically blunt terms: "It's where they cry uncle, or when they can't fight any longer and there's nobody around to cry uncle." He then added that there might not be anyone left to surrender in any case, since the US had already "wiped out their leadership numerous times." We shall see.

On the Iranian side, Iran launched retaliatory strikes it named Operation True Promise IV within hours of the initial attack, targeting Tel Aviv and Haifa, as well as US military bases across the region. Iran has launched strikes across nine countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE — and a drone struck a United Kingdom military base in Cyprus. Two waves of Iranian drones hit Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi refinery, one of the largest oil processing facilities in the Middle East.

The official death tolls, as of writing, are contested. Iran’s Health Ministry reports at least 1,500 killed and over 18,000 injured inside Iran. At least 18 people in Israel have been killed and over 3,700 wounded in Iranian counter-strikes. The real figures are almost certainly higher on the Iranian side, for the simple reason that the regime controls information inside its own borders.

The Fog Deepens: Trump’s Shifting Position

If the military picture is difficult to read, President Trump’s strategic intentions are harder still. In the space of a single week, the following positions have all been attributed to him:

• that major combat objectives have been achieved;

• that the US may withdraw soon;

• that Washington is considering occupying or blockading Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub;

• that he has ordered strikes on Iranian power plants; and

• that “productive talks” are underway with Tehran towards a deal.

Iran’s parliament speaker responded that “no talks with the US have taken place” and called the reports “fake news aimed at influencing financial and oil markets.”

Trump said the US is having “really good discussions” and that Iran “agreed they will not have a nuclear weapon.” Iran denied this entirely. Trump then announced he was instructing the Pentagon to postpone military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of ongoing meetings. Stock markets rose sharply on the news. Oil prices fell.

Whether this is masterful dealmaking, deliberate ambiguity as a negotiating tactic, or genuine confusion — Sons of Issachar readers will have their own views. What is clear is that the situation is extraordinarily fluid, and anyone who tells you they know exactly where it is heading - is lying!

The Heart of the Problem: This Is Not an Ordinary War

President Trump thinks in deal-making terms. His model is simple: apply overwhelming pressure until the other side “cries uncle” and comes to the table. It has worked in business. It worked, to a degree, with many of his trade negotiations. The problem is that this model assumes a rational actor on the other side — one who ultimately values self-preservation and economic stability over ideology.

The Iranian theocracy is not that actor.

To understand why, you need to understand Mah’dism — the ideological engine of the Islamic Republic, and what Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called the regime’s governance by “pure theology.” In Twelver Shia theology — the official creed of Iran — the world must be conquered and ruled by Muslims for the Mah’di to return. The existence of a thriving Jewish state in land previously ruled by Muslims is a direct threat to this theological imperative.

The 12th Imam — Muhammad al-Mah’di — is believed to have entered a miraculous state of concealment in 874 AD. He did not die. He will return at the appointed hour to establish universal justice and rule decisively over the world, which will be Islamic - or else! This belief was largely disregarded for centuries. However, in 1979, after the Islamic Revolution, it became clear that the Supreme Leader governs not merely as a political head of state but as steward of the Islamic Revolution and representative of the Hidden Imam- the Mah’di. The regime’s legitimacy is explicitly theological.

The IRGC considers itself to be the Mahdi’s army-in-waiting. From the post-2009 period onwards, Mah’dism has become one of the main lenses through which the IRGC understands the world and communicates that understanding — with hostility toward the U.S. and the eradication of Israel being core policy objectives understood through this theological lens. Senator Ted Cruz covered this issue recently in an interview with the TRIGGERnometry team and I have included the link below because it is very informative.

Senator Ted Cruz said that we should believe Iranian leaders when they speak. For over forty years they have chanted 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel' — labelling the United States 'the Great Satan' and Israel 'the Little Satan' — and called for their destruction. These are not the throwaway slogans of a political rally. They are theological declarations.

Senator Cruz made a great joke about previous negotiations with Iran led by John Kerry when he was the U.S. Secretary of State. Cruz said that when the leaders called for “Death to America”, Kerry probably said: “Can we meet you halfway”!

Iranian theology matters enormously for the question of how this conflict ends. During the Cold War, the logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) kept nuclear superpowers from attacking each other, because any nuclear attack would invite annihilation. But this model presumes that survival is the highest goal.

In regimes where martyrdom and apocalyptic expectation are interwoven with state ideology, that assumption becomes fragile. If the destruction of Israel and confrontation with America are not merely political goals but sacred obligations — prerequisites for the return of the the Shi’ite Messiah — then a regime facing military humiliation does not necessarily behave as one would expect.

The new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei and his entourage, appear to be more radically committed to this ideology even than the Ayatollah Khamanei. This radical-apocalyptic regime perceives military conflict as a test of faith, in which casualties among Muslim soldiers or civilians are considered martyrdom. In this worldview, war is the only way the world can be prepared for the Mah’di’s comprehensive Islamic rule.

This is why Trump’s “cry uncle” model may not apply here. You cannot negotiate a surrender with people who believe that martyrdom in a final conflagration is a form of victory.

What Happens Next?

Frankly, nobody knows. The variables in play are extraordinary. Will the Iranian regime fracture internally? Will the Iranian people rise up, as Trump and Netanyahu urge — a people who have already paid with an estimated 30,000 lives simply for taking to the streets? Will the strikes on Iran’s nuclear program prove genuinely decisive, or will the knowledge and personnel survive to rebuild? Will the Strait of Hormuz — through which approximately a fifth of the world’s oil passes — remain effectively closed?

Senior military adviser to Mojtaba Khamanei, Mohsen Rezaei has declared the war will continue until Iran receives full compensation for damages and all economic sanctions are lifted. This is a man who is reported to have sent thousands of Iranian children into minefields during the Iran-Iraq war. Definitely not a moderate! He also doesn’t seem like a guy who, faced with overwhelming force, will “cry uncle”.

President Trump’s supporters often claim that he is playing 3-D chess and one hopes that he has a clever blueprint in mind, that belies his constantly changing statements. Michael Yon is an astute observer of international conflicts and he has often said: “Wars tend to grow and they tend to grow unpredictably”. The Ukraine war is the most recent example of a conflict that was planned to last just a few weeks.

The conflict in Iran is at a crucial stage but President Trump is constrained by the markets and his own supporters who are opposed to foreign wars. However, it would be just like Trump to announce suddenly that the war was over! Vice President JD Vance is reported to be involved in negotiations with whoever is left of the Iranian regime and we will know by the end of the week whether President Trump has called up 5,000 Marines as a negotiating tool or for the start of a ground invasion.

What is the biblical perspective? The Sons of Issachar were men who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Understanding these times requires us to hold several truths simultaneously. First, God is sovereign over the affairs of nations — including this one. Second, we are almost certainly watching events that the ancient prophets described in terms that seemed impossible until very recently. Third, our calling is not to fear but to watch, pray, and engage with clear eyes. The fog of war is thick. The truth is elusive. But we are not without a guide.

Articles That Caught My Attention

Wimps and Warriors

Melanie Phillips is unashamedly pro-Israel and writes a very interesting substack as well as a weekly opinion column for the U.K. Times. Here is an extract of a recent post of hers titled: Wimps and Warriors:

Melanie Phillips

Wimps and warriors

The war against Iran is having a most clarifying effect. It’s shining a light on those who are prepared to stand with civilisation against barbarism and flushing out those who are not…

Read more

4 months ago · 235 likes · Melanie Phillips

“This week, Israel was still being barraged by missiles, including illegal cluster munitions, as a result of which Iran succeeded in murdering at least two Israelis and four West Bank Arabs. And obviously, there’s no telling how this war will end.

But it has demonstrated with savage clarity the cowardice of Britain and Europe, which have refused to join this fight against one of the great evils of the world. Trump’s blunt language may not be to everyone’s taste, but he is entirely correct to be furious at their response.

Iran is a menace not just to Israel and America, but to Europe and the rest of the world. As the biggest state sponsor of terrorism, it has left a bloody trail of innocent victims and has been poised to achieve a nuclear-weapons arsenal.

Yet Starmer has repeatedly and wrongly declared that the war is illegal under international law, a claim repeated by the Europeans. The European Union’s chief foreign-policy officer, Kaja Kallas, stated: “Iran is not our war.”

But Britain and Europe, which won’t lift a finger to fight this threat to civilisation, rely parasitically on the United States to defend them against all such dangers.

Britain was once a byword for martial grit, loyalty to allies and a bloody-minded refusal to kowtow to tyranny. Trump, who has sentimental ties to Britain, rightly declared that Starmer is “no Winston Churchill”.

But the problem isn’t just that Keir Starmer, a fanatical zealot for international law, is unfortunately Britain’s current prime minister.
Deeper trends have made Britain increasingly irrelevant on the world stage. Its refusal to join the war has camouflaged the embarrassing truth that it doesn’t have warships to send. For decades, it has been steadily emasculating its defenses to feed the voracious and limitless welfare state.

At the same time, Britain has been genuflecting to its increasingly assertive and politically powerful Muslim community, giving into its demands that British society adapts to Islamic precepts in accordance with the Islamist agenda of infiltrating, intimidating and conquering the West. The country is unable to defend itself because it no longer even acknowledges its own historic identity.

However, America, which has been gazing in dismay at the sad decline of the mothership of liberty across the Atlantic, has been having its own clarifying moment during this war.

Joe Kent just resigned as director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre in protest against the war. He falsely claimed that Washington attacked Iran “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.

Not only did he further claim that Israel had drawn America into the 2003 Iraq war, even though Israel had actually warned the United States against that campaign. He also claimed that his wife had died “in a war manufactured by Israel,” whereas in fact she had been murdered in 2019 by an Islamic State suicide bomber in America’s war to destroy ISIS.

In other words, Kent outed himself as a profound antisemite — in keeping with his association with the poisonous, Jew-hating MAGA faction led by Tucker Carlson.

It’s a relief that Trump has finally started to speak against this faction. However, US Vice President JD Vance has once again dodged the elephant in the room.

Speaking about Kent’s resignation, Vance said it was fine to disagree, but those working for the Trump administration had to go along with whatever the president decided to do. So it was right for Kent to resign.

This was a wholly inadequate response. What Vance should have said was that Kent’s comments were antisemitic and totally unacceptable, whether made by someone in or out of government office.

Just as he had previously done with antisemitic comments made by Carlson and the neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, Vance was again presenting the “big tent” approach for welcoming disagreement over different opinions.

But Jew-hatred can never be acceptable as a mere difference of opinion. It is utterly unacceptable and should be given no house-room in a tent of any size.”

There is a problem on the Right side of politics with many notable influencers coming out against Israel and promoting the view that Prime Minister Netanyahu forced President Trump’s hand in the current conflict. This seems very unlikely but the progress and outcome of the conflict will have a significant impact not only on the U.S. mid-term elections in November this year but also the fortunes of Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. JD Vance has been notably unenthusiastic about the war with Iran and his fence-sitting attitude may prove terminal for his relationship with President Trump. Much depends on a quick end to the conflict. “Little Marco” may have gained the upper hand in the struggle for Trump’s endorsement.

In any case, the U.K. and NATO more generally have shown themselves to be unable to make any decision about supporting the U.S. and most of the West have been similarly shy. As President Trump has pointed out: what use is NATO, when it is a one-way relationship?

Legal Moves to Block Robert F Kennedy Jnr’s Vaccine Agenda

Senator Robert F Kennedy Jnr eventually backed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024 and Kennedy’s supporters promoted the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda as Mr Kennedy became Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. One of the key areas that Mr Kennedy investigated was the childhood vaccination schedule. He found that many of those advising the government had conflicts of interest and were on the payroll of Big Pharma. He reconstituted the major advisory committees and a reduced childhood vaccination schedule was recommended as I wrote about recently in the Sons of Issachar Newsletter.

Now Big Pharma has fought back with legal action being taken in Massachusetts. This was outlined by Joel Skousen this week in his newsletter: worldaffairsbrief.com:

“Leftist or Deep State federal judges have blocked about half of the good things Trump has done by Executive Order. But this time a federal court blocked all of R F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine changes, and invalidated his new vaccine advisory panel that is (for once) not controlled by Big Pharma. The Hill.com reports:

A federal judge on Monday blocked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to vaccine policy, including the reduction of the recommended childhood immunizations and his remaking of a key vaccine advisory panel.

Judge Brian E. Murphy, a Biden appointee, granted a motion by the American Academy of Pediatrics [whose doctors are paid to push vaccines] for a preliminary injunction against the reduced childhood immunization schedule earlier this year, along with the remaking of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, invalidating all votes made by the committee since.

Murphy found that the reconstitution of the ACIP last year failed to abide by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. He also found that the CDC bypassing the ACIP when changing the childhood immunization schedule was both a “technical, procedural failure” and “an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by that committee.” [Controlled by Big Pharma]

Last June, Kennedy fired all 17 sitting members of the ACIP, claiming it was necessary to “re-establish public confidence in vaccine science.”

Yes, by firing all those who had ties to vaccine manufacturers and Big Pharma.

Since this remaking, the new members of the ACIP went on to vote in favor of no longer recommending birth doses of the hepatitis B vaccine; to delay the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine; and to no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for everyone 6 months and older but to leave it to “individual-based decision making.”

When it came to the new members of the ACIP, Murphy acknowledged that many of them had “extensive expertise” in their fields. The federal judge determined, however, there are “glaring gaps” in the expertise “relevant to the functions and tasks performed by the committee.”

Of course, any new appointees are not going to be familiar with the bureaucratic procedures, but that doesn’t stop them from make good judgments on the safety or danger of vaccines. Then the judge went on quoting from the AAP’s brief, attacking the qualifications of those appointed:

“First, of the fifteen members currently on ACIP, even under the most generous reading, only six appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines—the very focus of ACIP,” wrote Murphy.

True, but they were all medically trained and capable of investigation and interpreting data on vaccine safety. Children’s Health Defense weighs in on how this radical ruling may not fare well on appeal. It’s a good analysis.”

The childhood vaccination schedule will be an ongoing point of contention and Big Pharma will not let this go easily. They are powerful political lobby gtoup and also provide extensive financial support to the American College of Pediatrics. I suspect that in this David v Goliath battle, Goliath will win.

Energy Winners and Losers

Jim Rickards produces an insightful newsletter titled Strategic Intelligence and undertakes research using predictive analytics. He correctly predicted down to the number of votes in the U.S. Electoral College, Donald Trump’s winning margin the 2024 election. He covers a number of areas in his latest newsletter and I thought that this section of his latest newsletter would be of interest to my readers:

“Every financial crisis produces winners and losers, and the energy crisis resulting from the war in Iran is no different.

Among the biggest winners is Russia, which is receiving much higher prices for its oil and natural gas exports, along with surging volumes as the world faces energy supply shortages. The situation in Europe is already so strained that EU nations may soon ease sanctions on Russian energy exports.

Another major winner is the United States. The U.S. is a net energy exporter and maintains effective control over Venezuelan oil in addition to its own production. Individual Americans are paying higher prices at the pump, but the country as a whole benefits because those same elevated prices apply to U.S. exports.

The U.S. is also in a position to pick and choose among allies—deciding who receives energy exports and who does without. That kind of leverage becomes increasingly valuable in a constrained global market.

Japan is a clear loser, given its near-total dependence on imported energy to sustain its industrial and transportation infrastructure.

But the biggest loser may be South Korea. The country is a massive energy importer with almost no domestic production of oil or natural gas. At the same time, its economy depends heavily on energy-intensive industries, including semiconductor manufacturing, shipbuilding, automobiles, consumer electronics, appliances and petrochemicals.

Every one of these sectors requires enormous energy inputs.

Right now, seven South Korean oil tankers and 19 South Korean LNG vessels are effectively trapped in the Persian Gulf. Without access to Middle Eastern oil and natural gas, South Korea’s industrial base will begin to slow, then stall. Assembly lines could shut down entirely, and the broader economy could grind to a near halt.

The knock-on effects are easy to imagine: protests, civil unrest and political instability.

That instability may not go unnoticed. Kim Jong Un in North Korea could see this as an opportunity to apply pressure on the Korean Peninsula.

Investors today are focused on rising energy prices. What they have not fully accounted for are these second-order geopolitical and economic effects.

Those effects may soon become too large to ignore.”

Everyone is suffering from the fuel crisis created by the war with Iran. In Australia’s case, we have few energy reserves and a suicidal commitment to “net zero”. We are certainly going to be an “energy loser”.

Back-Channel Diplomacy

An interesting article was published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal documenting some of the behind the scenes discussions that have involved various Muslim countries. A version of this article was also published on msm.com. I have extracted some of the most relevant information for my readers:

“Foreign ministers from Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan gathered before dawn Thursday in Riyadh for talks aimed at finding a diplomatic off-ramp to the war in Iran.

But there was one big problem, according to Arab officials involved in the discussions: finding a counterpart in Iran to negotiate with. Earlier that week, Israel killed Iran’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, who had been considered a viable partner who could engage with the West.

Egyptian intelligence officials managed to open a channel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—the paramilitary group that protects the Iranian regime and is the country’s most powerful security and political entity—and put forward a proposal to halt hostilities for five days to build confidence for a cease-fire, some of the officials said.

Those discussions laid the groundwork for an abrupt reversal more than 7,000 miles away in Florida.

On Saturday night, President Trump, who spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago club, gave Iran an ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or the U.S. military would “obliterate” the country’s power plants. Two days later, as word of the discussions in Riyadh made its way to the White House, Trump reversed course, embracing diplomacy with Tehran and putting his threatened strikes on hold.”

A negotiated settlement to the war is almost impossible to believe, given the requirements that President Trump has set out:

1. Complete destruction of Iran's ballistic missile capability.

2. Elimination of Iran's navy and air force.

3. No nuclear weapons — ever.

4. Reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

5. Unconditional surrender of the regime.

6. Regime change / Iranian uprising.

In contrast, Iran has set out its conditions:

1. No ceasefire — only a permanent end to the war.

2. Full lifting of all economic sanctions.

3. Financial reparations for all war damages.

4. Legally binding international guarantees against future attacks.

5. Recognition of Iran's "legitimate rights".

6. A new legal regime over the Strait of Hormuz.

7. Full US withdrawal from the Persian Gulf.

You don’t need to be a skilled negotiator to see that the two sides have no common ground. In fact, there are some incentives for Iran to continue the war as the price of oil skyrockets and puts hundreds of billions of dollars into Iran’s financial coffers.

Meanwhile, about 5,000 marines arrive in the Gulf late this week and presumably, they are not just there for an R&R break visiting the sights around Doha.

We all know much more now about the Strait of Hormuz and I was very amused last night with the report that when President Trump was asked about who would control the Strait of Hormuz after the war he replied:

“Maybe me—me and the ayatollah,” he said, “whoever the next ayatollah is.”

I immediately had a picture in my mind of President Trump and his buddy the ayatollah sitting together and working out a “deal” to see which ships could navigate the Strait. If that ever happens, President Trump should be flown straight to Oslo to receive the much-vaunted Nobel Peace Prize!

This is clear communication! If I were an Iranian leader, I think I’d take “complete immunity” over “certain death”. I don’t think that there has ever been a leader like President Trump, who evokes both love and hate and communicates in such unconventional language.

In the case of Iran, since the initial strikes on Ayatollah Khamenei’s compound, there has been voluminous analysis of military options, missile stockpiles, and comparisons of relative materiel. However, one dimension of the conflict that most commentators have ignored is the spiritual one: for Shi’ite leaders, “certain death” may have more appeal than “complete immunity”. To understand why such a threat may not have the deterrent effect Western strategists assume, we need to recognise that the Iranian revolutionary worldview is shaped by powerful religious ideas about martyrdom, apocalyptic conflict, and the eventual return of the Mahdi.

Beneath the surface of the unfolding Iran–Israel–U.S. war lies a deeper story: this conflict is not merely about nuclear enrichment, strategic deterrence, or regional power. It is also profoundly religious in character. Iran’s revolutionary regime openly frames its mission in eschatological terms, Israel’s identity is rooted in covenantal history, and American leaders increasingly give interviews that echo the language of providence and judgment.

When President Trump speaks of surrender or annihilation, he is not only issuing political threats; he is echoing themes as old as the prophets — the language of repentance, judgment, and the fate of nations. President Trump says Iran is being “beat to hell” - and there is more to this reference than may be first evident.

Historical Biblical Links to the Current Conflict

Throughout history many commentators have attempted to interpret current events through the lens of biblical history. One modern voice who has done this extensively is Messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn.

Jonathan Cahn has a fascinating video (see below) that links the downfall of Ayatollah Khamanei with the time of Moses in ancient Israel, the Amalekites who attacked the children of Israel on the exodus from Egypt, and subsequently in ancient Persia (modern Iran), the link to Haman, the evil right hand man of the Persian king, outlined in the biblical book of Esther.

Rabbi Cahn has a reputation, over the last 20 years, for linking significant modern events to ancient biblical history and demonstrating that God Himself sets the times and seasons. Jonathan Cahn’s writings and books have helped me refocus on the significance of the signs of the times and the importance of the Middle East as a region to study and understand. At the heart of the current challenges, is enmity towards the Jewish people, which goes back to the time of ancient Egypt and is a direct result of God’s favour toward the “children of Israel” and the significance of Israel in God’s bigger plan.

The Spiritual Battle

It is always difficult, in a particular time or season, to see the bigger picture of the often hidden spiritual battle that unfolds day by day. The great apostle Paul wrote about this almost two thousand years ago:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” — Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV)

Paul’s words remind us that history may unfold on two levels at once — the visible struggles of nations and the unseen spiritual forces that shape them.

The attack against Iran by the U.S. and Israel has at its foundation, the battle between good and evil that has been a theme of history since the time of the Garden of Eden. The biblical story, at its core, is about God’s plan to redeem His creation with the eventual restoration of all things.

The biblical narrative takes us through many meanderings from the story of Abraham, the friend of God, and his family - through to Jesus and His life, death and resurrection and His promised return. A series of shocking events will precede His return, followed by an era of restoration and peace. Jesus’ followers have been examining likely dates for His return for almost 2,000 years.

Jesus provided some information about what would happen before His return when just before His death, he forecast the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Such an event would have been unimaginable to his followers.

Over the centuries, scholars have pored over these words and also other biblical texts such as the books of Daniel and Revelation in vain attempts to determine the exact date of Jesus’ return. Entire denominations have been formed with the main focus being when Jesus would return. All have been wrong. Dates are impossible to forecast but we do have information about the times and the seasons that precede His return.

Jesus spoke about the end times toward the end of his earthly ministry, and probably the most well known is in the Book of Matthew (Matthew 24), where Jesus said:

”Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹² And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

Paul’s words remind us that behind the visible conflicts between nations there may be deeper spiritual forces at work.

I won’t attempt to cover the interpretation of this passage, and similar ones in the books of Luke and Mark but the big picture is that:

1. Deception will be a major problem - deception often involves the mixture of truth and lies;

2. There will be wars between the nations;

3. Believers in Jesus will be hated and seen as the cause of the troubles;

4. There will be lawlessness - meaning laws that are against God’s laws;

5. The Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to all the world.

6. Then the end will come.

There is probably nothing in the current conflict to make it more prominent as an indication of a final eschatology but amidst the geostrategic machinations where the U.S. has brought overwhelming military force, the spiritual battle is between the worldview shaped by Judeo-Christian civilisation and the revolutionary Islamic ideology of the Iranian regime.

The Shi’ite theocracy that Israel and the U.S. is attempting to destroy believes in bringing into being a “final conflict”, a global war that would see the return of the Mahdi - “the Guided One”. Like the choice spoken of by President Trump to current Iranian leaders, the Mahdi would provide a choice: convert to Islam or die. This belief is foundational to Shi’ite Islam and the then Iranian President Ahmadinejad made reference to the Mahdi in his speech to the U.N. in September 2012:

“God Almighty has promised us a man of kindness, a man who loves people and loves absolute justice, a man who is a perfect human being and is named Imam Al-Mahdi, a man who will come in the company of Jesus Christ and the righteous.”

President Ahmadinejad made no reference to the life-or-death choice to be offered for those who do not wish to convert to Islam but that is the choice to be offered. Even the U.N. may have had some issues if President Ahmadinejad had made this choice clear.

The ideology of the Islamic Republic did not begin with President Ahmadinejad. It traces back to the founding leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who openly declared the global ambition of the movement:

“We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle.”

This is at the heart of the spiritual battle taking place in the Middle East right now and the commitment by Shi’ite leaders to an apocalyptic end to bring about the return of the Mahdi may not have been central in thinking by the U.S. and Israeli military planners.

So - we live in interesting times and despite all the planning, the law of unintended consequences now comes into play. It has been reported for example that U.S. military planners had not considered that Iran would attack other Muslim states in the Gulf.

Sons of Issachar readers may find a few additional articles and podcasts that I have referenced below helpful in considering and understanding the current conflict.

Water and the Iran War

Sam Faddis, is a former CIA Operations Officer, who writes a substack that is well worth a subscription. In the last 24 hours he was written an article about the significance of water in the Middle East and the dependence of Gulf states on desalination plants for their water.

“We are talking about 100 million people. Kuwait gets ninety percent of its drinking water from desalination. Oman eighty-six percent. Saudi Arabia seventy percent. Without these plants, these nations would become uninhabitable within days.

On March 2, Iranian missile debris struck a power station in Fujairah in the UAE that feeds one of the world’s largest desalination facilities. Interceptor fragments also started a fire at Kuwait’s Doha West power and water desalination complex.

Since then, we have moved to an entirely new phase. The Iranians, who claim we struck a desalination plant in their country first, have now moved to directly targeting desalination plants in Gulf nations. A desalination plant in Bahrain was struck yesterday. Bahraini authorities admit “material damage” but claim there will be no disruption from the attack. It remains to be seen how true that is.

This is only the beginning. The locations of every plant in the Gulf are well known. You can pinpoint them on your laptop using Google Earth. There is no hiding them…..

“The restraint is over. The precedent, real or fabricated, is set. And the hundred million people whose survival depends on desalination plants within range of Iranian missiles are now living inside the targeting envelope of a doctrine that just lost its last constraint.”

Mr Faddis has drawn attention the fact that there is not just oil at stake in this war but water could be the limiting factor as Iran seeks to turn its Gulf neighbours against the U.S.

Burning Fuel Depots

Various reports have been in the news about acid rain from burning oil depots in Iran. Jeff Childers writes a substack titled “Coffee and COVID” and I have included a link below to his latest post:

☕️ Coffee & Covid 2025 🦠

☕️ GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENTS☙ Sunday, March 8, 2026 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Good morning, loyal C&C supporters, it’s Sunday— and if you woke up panicking about Iran, this post is your antidote. Welcome to Daylight Saving Time (DST). Change your clocks, and congratulations if…

Read more

4 months ago · 1592 likes · 140 comments · Jeff Childers

Here is an extract from his section on the attacks on oil depots:

“Last night, coalition forces mostly destroyed Tondgouyan Oil Refinery (located south of Tehran) and multiple storage depots. Towers of incandescent flame turned night into day, and giant plumes of thick, black smoke blackened the capital’s skyline. “The attacks,” the Times noted, “appeared to be the first targeting energy infrastructure since the joint U.S.-Israeli air war on Iran began last weekend.”

What the Times was trying to say was that the strike crossed an invisible red line, because the longstanding gentleman’s agreement for making war in the Middle East has always been don’t touch the oil.

For decades, there’s been a tacit understanding among all major players in the Middle East —including the US and Israel— that oil infrastructure is off-limits in military conflicts. Not because anyone signed a treaty, but because everyone understood that hitting oil facilities was mutually assured economic destruction. Oil prices spike, stock markets plunge, and the attacking country gets blamed for wrecking the economy.”

Mr Childers provides a good summary of what has occurred in the first 8 days of the war and a perspective that I found helpful:

“Iran is a burning country whose Supreme Leader is dead, whose military is openly ignoring its civilian government, whose navy has been sunk, whose allies are fleeing like rats off a torpedoed destroyer, and whose only remaining asset —Kharg Island— looks likely to be seized by US special forces. That’s not “winning strategically.” That’s a regime in free fall watching its final friends heading for the exits.

What looks like reckless escalation is actually a four-dimensional squeeze, and every piece was in position before the first Tomahawk hit Tondgouyan:

• The IRGC is being financially strangled. Its domestic refinery is destroyed, its revenue sources are cut, and its soldiers were offered amnesty to surrender.

• Russia is being peeled away from Iran with an offer Moscow can’t refuse— hundreds of millions of barrels of unsanctioned oil revenue, plus a path to end its economic isolation.

• China is watching all three of its discount oil suppliers —Venezuela, Iran, and soon maybe Russia— disappear or reprice simultaneously, as tariffs bite from the other direction. Without oil, it can’t even think about invading Taiwan.\

• And Kharg Island —Iran’s crown jewel— sits there undestroyed, waiting to be captured. A seized terminal is worth infinitely more than a bombed one.

As for oil prices, why wouldn’t they stabilize? The Administration is already turning the valves. Secretary Bessent explained it on Friday. Russian oil floods back onto world markets, Saudi spare capacity kicks in, and the US remains the world’s largest producer. Like Trump said, the spike will be temporary.

But the strategic realignment will be permanent.

The people freaking out are making the oldest mistake in the Trump playbook: they’re confusing the appearance of chaos with actual chaos. They said the same thing about tariffs. They said it about the Abraham Accords. They said it when Trump walked across the DMZ to shake Kim Jong-un’s hand. Every single time, the “experts” saw madness, and every single time, later events showed the method underneath.”

The Last War That the U.S. is Likely to Fight in the Middle East?

The final resource that I thought my readers would appreciate is an interview on the Americano podcast, where Daniel McCarthy from the Heritage Foundation is interviewed by the Spectator U.S. editor, Freddy Gray. Mr McCarthy provides a big picture view of the conflict and the role of neoconservatism. The title above is taken from the first paragraph of his associated article in the Spectator magazine, where Mr McCarthy writes:

”Win or lose, Donald Trump has begun the last war the United States is ever likely to fight in the Middle East. That might sound wildly optimistic, but what it really means is that war with Iran has been decades in the making. If the mission succeeds, it will mark the end of an era. And if it fails, this war will have exhausted what’s left of America’s willingness to remake the region by force.”

Conclusions

President Trump is often underestimated and for all that his critics believe that he has just an idiosyncratic and chaotic approach to international affairs, there may be a clever plan in place that no one knows about. Most wars, like the attack on Iran, are planned to only last weeks or months. In almost every case, they spiral out of control.

In the current war with Iran, the practical military challenges have been well recognised but not the spiritual dimension that is seldom considered by the usual pundits. For those who take the biblical narrative seriously, this should not be surprising. The Bible repeatedly teaches that the conflicts of nations are only the visible surface of a much deeper spiritual struggle unfolding through history.

At some time in the future, the antichrist will take control of the world — a figure of dazzling capability and charisma who will appear to bring peace to the Middle East for a short period. Then there will be trouble like never before as we face the final period of history. This looks unlikely any time soon but the signs will be clear: a global leader who brings about peace in the Middle East and a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem.

This week’s newsletter has attempted to outline some the signs of the times and their spiritual significance that may help Sons of Issachar readers discern the deeper currents shaping our world. The challenge for believers is not to predict the exact timetable of history, but to understand the times in which we live — just as the sons of Issachar were praised for doing many centuries ago.

“…the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times…” (1 Chronicles 12:32).

History often appears chaotic in the moment, but the sons of Issachar remind us that the times can still be understood (even if dimly).

What is the Munich Security Conference?

The Munich Security Conference was founded back in the Cold War days of 1963 when it was titled: Internationale Wehrkundebegegnung (International Defence Encounter). The conference was the idea of Ewald‑Heinrich von Kleist, a German resistance fighter during the latter part of WWII who sought to create a dialogue-based forum for Western military and political leaders, aiming to prevent conflicts like those witnessed in the World Wars.

The conference has grown and became the Munich Security Conference in 1999 as it grew from a European focused meeting to a conference that involves dialogue on global security. The annual conference has become an important event where new ideas are proposed and the conference has become increasingly influential in signaling changes in the international order.

In 2025, the newly-minted Vice President J.D. Vance told the Europeans that the main threat was not from Russia or China but from threats to free speech and freedom in Europe itself. Delegates were shocked and the Chairman of the session actually cried.

Warnings Given by President Putin at Munich

As I listened to the highly finessed speech by Secretary Rubio, I remembered dimly that President Putin had given the Europeans warnings around 20 years previously. I did some research and discovered that in 2007, President Putin signaled a warning to the West at the Munich Security Conference.

President Putin, in the first speech given by a Russia to the annual conference made the following points:

• Criticism of Western unilateral military intervention, which he believed was destabilising global security;

• President Putin targeted the U.S. which he said “dominated a unipolar world”;

• His chief complaint was the expansion of NATO eastward which placed military infrastructure on Russia’s borders. This complaint went back to the period immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union when guarantees were given that such expansion would not occur;

• In retrospect, Putin’s Munich speech was a warning to the West of a more aggressive Russian policy, if NATO continued with what seemed to the Russians as a threat along its borders. It is evident now that Putin’s warnings should have been taken much more seriously and millions of Russian and Ukrainians are casualties of a war that may spread into a wider European conflict.

Munich 1938

Munich has a significant historical and even spiritual role in world affairs. History is no longer taught in Australian schools and universities where the Institute of Public Affairs has declared: “a national identity crisis”. I imagine that this is similar throughout the West as academic historians have promoted what one former Australian Prime Minister described as a “black armband view of history”, one where the West is collectively viewed as rapacious colonisers.

Thus, it is unsurprising that many have forgotten the significance of Munich as the birthplace of Nazism. The 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler’s then failed coup attempt began in Munich and Nazi Party headquarters were located there. Munich thus became “sacred ground” to Hitler with the Nazis rise to power in 1933. By 1938, Great Britain had finally become alarmed at Hitler’s expansionist intentions and the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain flew to Munich to negotiate with Hitler.

Chamberlain met Hitler in Munich together with the radial socialist French Prime Minister, Édouard Daladier and the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini. The meeting, ostensibly focused on the future of the Sudetenland, then part of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was not invited to the conference and the Sudetenland was offered up as a sacrifice to Hitler on the proviso that there would be no further German expansion. Famously, Chamberlain returned holding up a piece of paper on emerging from his flight at Heston Aerodrome in London and declaring “I believe it is peace for our time”. Winston Churchill had been sounding warnings to the U.K. Parliament since 1933 but there was no appetite for conflict in either the U.K. or France after the carnage of World War I.

This background is significant in relation to the annual Munich Security Conference because President Putin’s warnings in 2007 were ignored despite a further warning delivered in a written submission in 2012 where he criticised NATO military defense expansion and called for a multipolar international order rather than what he saw as U.S. dominance. It must have appeared to Putin that the West did not take him seriously and he then turned his face toward China where in February 2022, following a meeting with President Xi in Beijing, an “everlasting friendship” with “no limits” was declared. Only a few weeks later, Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

So - Munich is interesting as a location and the strategic location of the security conference in Munich is important because the conference was born from the determination not to repeat appeasement failures, seeking instead open strategic dialogue even among adversaries — though, as events have shown, dialogue doesn't guarantee peace.

Thus, it seems that Munich has become shorthand in international politics for:

• Appeasement

• Strategic miscalculation

• The illusion of “peace for our time”

• The danger of misreading an expansionist power

Geneva - the New Munich?

Geneva in Switzerland has become a new Munich - where peace negotiations are hammered out - and mostly fail. There have been dozens of meeting including those involving Syria, Russia, Iran, Libya, Georgia, North Korea and Yemen. I suppose, taking the most positive approach, World War III has not yet erupted and so all the talks may be seen as being successful.

Currently, President Trump’s envoys: real estate developer Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are meeting with Iranian delegates led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, together with other senior Iranian diplomats. Iran has experience in beating the West in previous negotiations during President Obama’s time and their speciality is wearing down negotiators as they return for approval from the Supreme Leader. However, President Trump seems to be playing a different diplomatic game.

On 19 February 2026, during a meeting of the Board of Peace, President Trump announced that the United States would decide within the next 10 days whether to push forward with diplomacy or take military action against Iran if a “meaningful nuclear deal” couldn’t be reached. It is uncertain whether the carnage inflicted by the regime on protestors also plays a role.

He also indicated that the time frame for negotiation could extend up to 10–15 days. By my calculation, given the extraordinary build up of the military arsenal around the Gulf, an attack on Iran of some type could occur as soon as 1 March 2026.

War or Peace?

Yet this crisis is not occurring in isolation. Russian and Chinese naval assets are reported moving in support of Iran toward the Strait of Hormuz — that narrow maritime artery through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows. Beijing watches Taiwan. Moscow calculates its next move in Ukraine and perhaps Eastern Europe. President Trump speaks openly of Greenland as a strategic asset. Europe, for all its rhetoric, remains hesitant — politically divided, fiscally constrained, and militarily underprepared.

The chessboard is no longer regional; it is global. And when great powers begin repositioning fleets rather than merely issuing communiqués, history suggests we have entered a more dangerous phase.

For the moment, President Trump holds the initiative. Ultimatums project strength. Deadlines create leverage. But once a strike is launched — even a limited one — the realm of controlled diplomacy gives way to the law of unintended consequences. Energy markets convulse. Proxies activate. Alliances harden. Miscalculations multiply. Think Vietnam!

In 1938, leaders believed they were managing risk. In 2007, warnings were politely absorbed and set aside. The question before us now is not whether negotiations are occurring in Geneva, but whether the decision that follows will narrow the conflict — or widen it beyond the control of those who believe they are directing events.

War or peace is rarely decided by rhetoric alone. It is decided by what follows. I suppose the old adage is still true - when countries start speaking about peace - prepare for war!

I have been interested in Iran for several years because of the significance of “The Twelvers” in Shi’ite theology. I wrote about this in detail in October 2023 and refer Sons of Issachar readers to the post linked below. The Shi’ites have an apocalyptic theological view, and several leaders over the last decade or so have spoken of bringing forward the “final conflict” which would lead to the return of “the guided one” or “Mahdi” - also known as the Twelfth Imam. This is the regime that President Obama decided to send hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. What could go wrong?

President Trump’s decision to strike the Iranian regime’s nuclear weapons laboratories deep in the mountains, in June 2025 caught everyone by surprise and now has largely been forgotten - but not by the Iranian mullahs.

When the United States removed General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, it shattered the illusion that Iran’s leaders could forever operate in the shadows, exporting terror while remaining untouched themselves. The strikes provided a reality check for the mullahs and for the West. Iran is a theocracy which is fundamentally opposed to the West and its values. Iran’s nuclear ambitions, its regional violence, and its apocalyptic theology are not separate streams, but a single river flowing toward confrontation.

For decades, the West treated Iran as a problem to be managed. However, it is better understood as a power pursuing its destiny. And when a regime believes history itself is moving in its favour — that chaos hastens redemption and the end of the world — the question is no longer whether conflict will come, but who will recognise the signs in time, and what action will be taken.

This weekend, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s lead envoys, are in Muscat, Oman, meeting with Iran’s foreign minister as part of a renewed attempt to corral Tehran’s nuclear program. After more than two decades of Iranian resistance to meaningful limits on its nuclear ambitions, progress on a deal remains far from assured — Tehran insists on its right to enrich uranium even as Washington demands strict constraints and transparency.

The “carrot” on offer, if any, has not been publicly laid out; what is plainly visible is the growing “stick” of American military power: a massive carrier strike group, combat aircraft and naval assets steaming in the Gulf, backed by explicit warnings that diplomacy has a firm deadline and that force remains an option should talks collapse.

It’s difficult to come to grips with what is happening in Iran because President Trump’s “flood the zone” strategy - multiple projects executed all at once: Venezuela, Greenland, NATO, Minnesota, tariffs, Gaza - has us looking in many directions at once and it is hard to consolidate a coherent strategy. However, all these projects seem to fit under the umbrella of “America First” and the assertion of U.S. power. There is no room for the usual diplomatic niceties and the E.U. bureaucrats are left floundering in the face of the Trump bulldozer.

Why Is Iran Important?

I have turned my attention once again to Iran because I listened to the outstanding “Rest is History” four-part podcast on Iran which was aired recently. You can find the podcasts at this link.

It is extraordinary to remember that Iran was an important ally of the U.S. up until the time of President Jimmy Carter. President Carter gave a New Year’s Eve speech in 1977 praising the Shah of Iran. In the speech, President Carter stated:

“Iran, because of the great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world. This is a great tribute to you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership and to the respect and the admiration and love which your people give to you.”

“Island of stability” are not the words that come to mind in relation to Iran today and since the revolution in 1979 and overthrow of the Shah, there has been a war waged against Israel and the U.S. and the Islamic fundamentalists have been funded by Iranian petrodollars.

President Carter and his advisors understood the importance of an ally like Iran in an unstable region that was largely hostile to U.S. interests. However, the Carter administration failed to understand the significance of Shi’ite Islamic fundamentalism. President Carter thought that the Ayatollah Khomanei was a god-fearing man but Carter failed to understand that it was a different god to the one he worshipped.

Backed by Shi’ite “Twelver” theology and an apocalyptic worldview, Iran has used its oil wealth (and U.S. cash) to foster terrorism and support groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah to attack and destabilise Israel.

Iran has a “take no prisoners” approach and it is difficult to see a negotiated settlement being reached by Witkoff and Kushner. I hope I’m wrong.

A Brief Modern History of Iran

To understand why Iran looms so large in global geopolitics now, it helps to step back and look at how the country arrived at this moment. Following the First World War, Iran became a monarchy under the Pahlavi dynasty and a close ally of the West — especially the United States and the United Kingdom — which viewed Iran as a bulwark against Soviet influence and also important as a key oil producer. In 1953, that alliance was cemented when Western intelligence agencies helped overthrow Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, after he nationalised the country’s oil industry. The Shah was reinstated but the region was left with a deep and enduring suspicion of foreign interference in Iranian politics.

By the late 1970s, widespread discontent with the Shah’s authoritarian rule, political repression, and perceived subservience to Western powers ignited mass protests. Led by taped sermons from the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini based in Paris, these demonstrations culminated in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy and established the Islamic Republic — a new system of government based on the religious doctrine of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of Islamic jurists).

Almost immediately, Iran’s relationship with the United States collapsed. The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and the resulting hostage crisis — in which 52 American diplomats and citizens were held for 444 days — transformed mutual distrust into outright enmity and set the tone for decades of adversarial relations. The powerlessness of the U.S. in the face of Iran’s intransigence was a key factor in ensuring that President Carter did achieve a second term.

In 1980, Iraq (majority Sunni) invaded Iran, launching a bitter eight-year war that drained Iranian resources, devastated its population, and reinforced its revolutionary leadership’s belief that the West and its allies would seek to contain or destroy the Islamic Republic.

In the post-war decades, the Islamic Republic pursued a mixture of revolutionary ideology and strategic nationalism. Its support for militant groups across the Middle East, its defiance of international demands on its nuclear program, and its partnership with Russia and China have made Iran a focal point of U.S. foreign policy for more than four decades. Successive U.S. administrations — Republican and Democratic alike — have struggled with how to engage Tehran, from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (failed attempt to reach a nuclear deal) to sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

The Rest Is History podcast’s recent episodes on Iran walk listeners through this dramatic arc — from a Western-aligned monarchy to an embattled theocracy whose revolutionary ethos still shapes its worldview — and help explain why Iran’s domestic politics and regional posture are not just artifacts of ideology but outcomes of a turbulent history. You can find the podcasts at this link.

Fatal Iranian Protests

As a result of economic collapse and deep public frustration, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in late 2025 and early 2026, demanding relief from economic hardship and political repression. The regime’s response has been brutal and widespread: Iranian security forces, including the Revolutionary Guard, have opened fire on demonstrators and imposed one of the most extensive internet blackouts in the country’s history, making accurate casualty figures difficult to verify. Estimates of those killed vary widely — from several thousand to potentially many tens of thousands — but all credible reports agree the crackdown has been extraordinarily violent and is now among the worst in modern Iranian history.

President Trump has declared that the brave Iranian protesters have not been forgotten by the United States and has ordered a substantial naval presence, including a carrier strike group, into the region as both a warning and a deterrent. At home, many Americans — including Trump’s political base — are deeply wary of entanglement in another foreign conflict, making the diplomatic and military calculus particularly fraught.

One thing is certain: whatever happens next, the turmoil in Iran will continue to ripple across the Middle East and pose serious challenges for Israel, the West, and the broader international order.

Articles That Caught My Attention

The U.N. Is Broke!

One of the good news stories that I read in The New American is about U.N. insolvency. Undoubtedly various globalists will mount a bail out operation but it may be that various big spending programs are curtailed. The New American reports:

“United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres reports that his organization is facing insolvency. With a record $1.57 billion in dues remaining unpaid, it could run out of cash as early as July of this year. The UN faces an “imminent financial collapse” from lost U.S. dues, said BRICS reports.

The announcement reveals a larger pattern, coming on the heels of the United States formally withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO) in January. This move, cited by the administration as a response to WHO’s alleged mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and undue influence from China, marks the culmination of a year-long process that included halting U.S. funding— previously about 20 percent of WHO’s budget — and redirecting resources to bilateral health engagements.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the decision endangers global health security, as the United States leaves a $260 million “debt” unpaid.

In his “America First” overhaul, Trump has defunded dozens of international programs deemed contrary to U.S. interests. His recent presidential memorandum mandated exit from 66 organizations, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The White House claims that the taxpayer dollars saved will support domestic priorities such as border security and industrial revival. Critics, including Amnesty International, decry it as a “vindictive effort to tear apart global cooperation,” impacting climate action, gender equality, and humanitarian aid.”

The New American warns us not to get our hopes too high in relation to the U.S. and the U.N. The post-Trump era will probably result in a return of the U.S. toward the U.N.’s globalist ideals. President Trump sees himself as a one-man conflict resolver. The New American cautions:

“Yet Trump may not be the hero patriots long for. Painting himself as a one-off, he told Politico, “I don’t think it’s appropriate. The U.N. is not leaving New York, and it’s not leaving the United States, because the U.N. has tremendous potential.... When I’m no longer around to settle wars, the U.N. can,” he quipped, saying that the organization has “tremendous potential.”

I’ve Had Enough - Rowan Dean

Rowan Dean is an Australian political commentator who edits the Australian Spectator magazine and stands up against the woke philosophy of our times. In a recent issue of the Spectator, he wrote an article titled: I’ve Had Enough. I’ve reproduced an edited version of Rowan’s article below because it captures how many people feel in our country - disenfranchised and confused. Rowan’s “rant” will be recognised and supported by many of my readers around the world:

“I have had enough of watching people whose ancestors did not cultivate this land, did not build this land, did not die for this land, telling me that I am an illegitimate resident of my own country.

I have had enough of watching the beautiful streets and landmarks of this country – which is mine – daily and weekly being sullied, defamed, denigrated, despised, demonised, trashed in reputation and – as the left are so fond of saying – disrespected………

I have had enough of knowing that if I send my children or grandchildren to our schools or universities they will be indoctrinated with poisonous, toxic Marxist teachings, designed to drive them into despair and hatred of their wonderful birthright.

I have had enough of switching on the telly to be harangued and harassed about my heritage, my culture, my upbringing, and my beliefs.

I have had enough of being embarrassed to say what I really think about the disappearance of the great Aussie larrikin spirit that once thrived in our suburbs, our supermarkets, at our bus stops, and in our servos – a community spirit that relied on no more than a wry comment, a thumbs up or a wink……..

I have had enough of not speaking my mind, of choosing my words ever so carefully, of over-thinking the potential meanings, of the potential ‘offence’ my words might cause to some miserable galah.

I’ve had enough of apologies, I’ve had enough of sorry, I’ve had enough of self-flagellating politicians and berating authorities and snotty, pompous shop assistants with ugly nose piercings.

I’ve had enough of ‘you can’t do this’ and ‘you can’t do that’ and ‘the council says no to this’ and ‘the council says no to that’ and I’ve had enough of ‘but on the other hand’ and I’ve really, really had enough of ‘but you can’t say that these days’.

I’ve had enough of pretending people who have certain sexual preferences or peccadillos are somehow magically lifted to a higher plane of morality. I’ve had enough of the dangerous and frequently grotesque mass self-delusions peddled to vulnerable young people in the name of progress, civil rights, and sexual self-identification…….

I’ve had enough of feeling menaced and a stranger in suburbs and places I once happily walked through without a care in the world and I’ve had enough of being told I must respect foreign values and alien practices that I have no time for.

I’ve had enough of hearing lies and reading little placards full of Woke BS in every museum and at every art gallery or exhibition I visit. I’ve had enough of random strangers on airlines, in townhalls, and at otherwise enjoyable events force-feeding me a fabricated reverence for a nonsensical historical proposition built on a ritualised and largely invented ceremony.

I’ve had enough on seeing my taxes, my money, squandered on a television and media empire full of loathsome presenters who clearly despise everything I stand for.”

Of course, while we all may have had enough, it is almost impossible to turn the tide. We may have had enough but what do we do? I suppose, like Rowan, a few small steps in not just accepting the woke nonsense of our times is a start.

The Politics and Pressure of Childhood Vaccination

The potential for negative health impacts of childhood vaccination has been lurking in the background of alternative health ever since Dr Andrew Wakefield published his paper in the Lancet in 1998. The suggestion of a possible link between childhood vaccination and autism caused such a furore that the paper was retracted and there has been debate about the significance of childhood vaccination ever since. Dr Wakefield is very articulate and credible. He has found strong support in the U.S. after being hounded out of the U.K.

Michael Knowles has an excellent interview with Dr Wakefield - link below. While it is long, it is detailed and provides context about the current changes in vaccine recommendations following the appointment of a “new sheriff”, Robert F Kennedy Jnr, to head up the Department of Health and Human Services.

World Affairs Brief - provides a helpful perspective about the recent lawsuit against the American Academy of Pediatrics. Conflicts of interest abound within the Academy and it is very challenging for parents to obtain independent medical counsel in relation to childhood vaccination. In the face of confusion, vaccination rates are falling dramatically in the West.

“The recent lawsuit by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) against the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) takes issue with the AAP’s infamous and bizarre claim that children can absorb over 10,000 Vaccines’ with no ill effects. Ph.D. Brenda Baletti has the story.

In 2002, as parents grew increasingly concerned about the cumulative effect of an ever-expanding vaccine schedule, Dr. Paul Offit claimed that “each infant would have the theoretical capacity to respond to about 10,000 vaccines at any one time.” Offit, then a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, made the claim in an article he wrote for the AAP’s journal, Pediatrics.

The lawsuit filed by (CHD) against the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is meant to force the AAP to prove the statement true, or retract it.

As the schedule grew, many parents began questioning whether the combined number of injections — given the increasing exposure to vaccine components like adjuvants — could be harmful to infants and young children.

-Which has recently been proven to be the single greatest cause of SIDS and vaccine damage to babies and young children.

The AAP, which promoted the expanding schedule, found itself under pressure to respond to parents’ concerns. In January 2002, the AAP addressed those concerns in an article it published in its own journal, Pediatrics. Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine inventor and then-member of the AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases, wrote the article.

The title of the article was: “Addressing Parents’ Concerns: Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm or Weaken the Infant’s Immune System?” According to the lawsuit, the article’s purpose was NOT to provide clinical safety evidence to providers and parents. Instead, it was about messaging — “public relations to reassure worried parents,” the complaint states.

Offit’s response focused instead [of safety] on whether the immune system has the capacity to generate antibody responses to multiple vaccines at once. His paper offered theoretical and modeling extrapolations, concluding that “each infant would have the theoretical capacity to respond to about 10,000 vaccines at any one time.”

-Which evades the safety question and diverts attention to their “ability to absorb” multiple vaccinations. But even then, the issue isn’t the body’s ability to discriminate between multiple vaccines, but whether a child’s body without a proper immune system is able to withstand the foreign substance onslaught without harm! Clearly, the high SIDS rate (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) shows vaccines can be deadly. According to the lawsuit:

“This is like answering ‘Is it safe to drink ten beers?’ with ‘The liver can theoretically process unlimited water,’ a response about organ capacity, but non-responsive to the actual safety question.”

In other words, Offit’s response said nothing about how toxic ingredients in vaccines might affect developing brains, inflammation, autoimmune activation or any of the issues parents were concerned about.

One of those totally unsafe ingredients in a lot of childhood vaccines is aluminum. This article by CHD.orgexposes that danger in detail. It begins with,

Aluminum adjuvants in vaccines can and likely do cause autism in genetically susceptible babies and children, according to a new scientific review of over 200 peer-reviewed studies. The review, led by Children’s Health Defense Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker, lays out the biochemical and physiological framework that explains how aluminum-containing vaccines can cause autism.”

The whole are of vaccination is politically fraught and impacted by Big Pharma and its widespread support of doctors, conferences and experts. It is very difficult to find a level playing field but the renewed focus by Robert Kennedy Jnr on objective data rather than opinion will provide more clarity over the next few years.

For a generation, the WEF chorus was disciplined, and the dissent frozen out in the Davos cold. Yet, the Bible reminds us that there are moments when the watchmen see the storm before the city hears the thunder. Davos 2026 may come to be remembered as one such moment — when the old hymns faltered, and the congregation realised not everyone was still singing. However, I have a feeling that the global high priests are simply regrouping and waiting for the end of the Trump era.

The rupture with the U.S. became unmistakable at the WEF when U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick spoke plainly — not in abstract language, but of borders, work, and allegiance. “Sovereignty is your borders,” he declared. “You’re entitled to have borders.” A nation, he warned, should not offshore its medicines, its semiconductors, or its industrial base until it is “hollowed out beneath you.” Nor should it make itself dependent on others “for that which is fundamental to your sovereignty — and if you are going to be dependent, it had better be your best allies.”

Lutnick went further, naming the unspoken heresy at the heart of Davos orthodoxy: “Globalisation has failed the West and the United States of America.” It was, he said, the very model the WEF had championed — “export, offshore, far-shore” — and it had left workers behind and created dependency. His warning on net zero cut deeper still: a Europe racing toward decarbonisation without battery manufacturing was not saving the planet, but choosing subservience — “deciding to be dependent on China.” The reaction was visceral. His speech at a private dinner was booed, and the crème anglaise, apparently curdled. A senior European central banker walked out. Shock therapy had done its work.

So — is globalisation out? Of course not. It is merely being re-formatted, stripped of its softer language and revealed for what it has always been: a contest of power conducted through supply chains, capital flows, energy systems, and regulation.

This reality was implicitly acknowledged in the much-lauded — if almost impenetrable — Davos address by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Beneath the managerial prose lay a simple message: that the so-called “middle powers” must bind themselves together to resist the coercion of larger, more assertive states. In Carney’s telling, the answer to great-power rivalry is not a return to sovereignty, but deeper coordination — shared standards, pooled resilience, collective discipline — a “rules-based international order” counterweight to what he cast as the emerging age of geopolitical bullying.

Yet this, too, is a confession of sorts. For all its talk of cooperation, Carney’s vision concedes that the old promise of globalisation — that open markets would dissolve power politics — has failed. The strong still coerce. The weak still comply. Stephen Miller, a senior Trump advisor, put this very clearly in an interview with Jake Tapper of CNN. Miller said:

“We live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time.”

Middle powers are now urged to survive not by independence, but by clustering together in carefully managed alignment. It is a vision of order without anchors, sovereignty without borders, and resilience without self-sufficiency. The Sons of Issachar might recognise the moment for what it is: not the end of globalisation, but but perhaps the end of collectivist consensus— and the unveiling of a system now struggling to hold together as the age of “agreed” consensus gives way to something far more elemental- raw power.

The Invisible Coup

This is the terrain into which a new book by Peter Schweizer: The Invisible Coup now arrives. There is a short podcast where Mr Schweizer talks about his that readers can access via this link.

Figure 1. Cover of Peter Schweizer’s new book: The Invisible Coup

Peter Schweizer is not writing theology , but anatomy — tracing how power is exercised quietly, and a global agenda for change is coordinated. Read alongside Davos 2026, Schweizer’s thesis feels less like provocation and more like diagnosis. When the guardians of the system bristle at plain speech, and when sovereignty itself is treated as a dangerous idea, the Sons of Issachar would do well to ask: what season are we in — and who truly benefits from the order that is now being defended so fiercely?

The Invisible Coup has just topped the New York Times bestseller list and I have been reading the book this week so that my readers could have a summary and overview. Even if you live outside the U.S., the book is important because it is clear that the same strategies are being used in many countries of the West.

Mass Migration as a Tool of Subversion

In his introduction, Mr Schweizer sets the scene in Los Angeles, but it could be a scene from any Democrat-controlled U.S. city.

A haze of smoke drifted across the street, where masses of protesters inciting violence waved foreign flags in the breeze. This was not a battle scene from a distant war, but Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles, and the defiant crowd waving Mexican, Salvadoran, and Palestinian flags was confronting a line of local and federal law enforcement officers.1 Similar scenes had been playing out across the United States, from Texas to New York, in recent months, as organized activist groups confronted not just the flesh-and-blood US officers called in to enforce immigration law, but, in fact, the American system of law and order itself, under foreign colors, for personal political purposes. On the surface, these scenes painted a jarring picture of the consequences of an open-border policy. However, a deeper look exposes something far more alarming: the weaponization of mass migration as a tool of subversion against the United States by foreign governments and organizations, as well as their domestic allies. As we will see, the LA and other violent protests were encouraged by foreign governments.

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. xi). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The central story of the book is that the invasion (around 20 million illegal immigrants) of the U.S. during the Biden years was controlled and manipulated by various foreign governments: China, Mexico and Palestine-supporting Muslim countries.

Mr Schweizer is a supporter of immigration and he is a child of Swiss immigrant parents. However, his basic thesis is that the immigration of yesteryear that established the U.S. in all its diversity, is not the immigration of the past decade or two. There is a sinister underside that almost certainly also applies to the U.K., Canada, Europe and even Australia. He notes:

“……foreign entities, both hostile and so-called friendly governments, as well as radical overseas movements and terrorist groups, are using the American tradition of welcoming immigrants against us to subvert our country. They are aided and abetted by domestic forces who help them either because they share their goals or seek an expedient political benefit. Half a century ago, people immigrated here to seek the freedom and opportunity that only America could provide. Today, mass migration is increasingly engineered to promote malevolent agendas against the United States, including the creation of powerful political networks inside our country designed to undermine us.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. xii). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Mr Schweizer has provided strong evidence in his book for his hypothesis which is well stated in the introduction of his book:

“The flow of people across the US border is not just a matter of immigration, economics, and crime. It is organized political subversion, with people being wielded as tools to undermine our country’s sovereignty. Traditionally, immigrants come to a new country to live and worship as they choose while embracing the norms of their host country. But now migrants are being steered to unravel the fabric of society and the culture that has welcomed them.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. xiv). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Mr Schweizer notes that as far back as 1974, the Algerian President, speaking at the U.N. declared that migration would be used to conquer the West and that “victory will come to us from the wombs of our women”. Mr Schweizer points out later in his book that China has organised a million or more women to come to the U.S. and have their babies who are then U.S. citizen. Now, reproductive technologies are being used to intensify this campaign. At some time in the future, these U.S. “citizens” will have the right to vote.

Foreign governments and domestic actors inside the United States see migration as a strategic force to transform American government, culture, and values. As we will see, their strategy is intentional, openly expressed, well developed, and has been adopted by so-called friendly governments like Mexico, as well as hostile powers like China. Aided by partisan political actors inside the United States, the goal is to transform America and trigger a cultural revolution. Facilitating migration to the United States is only the first step, and the one that receives all the attention. Once migrants are in the US, foreign governments, political movements, and their domestic allies here work hard to keep them from assimilating and craft them into radical political change agents.

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. xvi). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Mr Schweizer provides good evidence for his introductory statements in each of the book chapters. He notes the “reconquest” of the U.S. by Mexico and the Mexican government’s role in organizing militancy. Democrats in the White House at the time of President Clinton saw the opportunity for illegal Mexican immigrants to be given citizenship with a resulting “harvest” of Democrat votes. This is the play book that has continued as Democrat administrations have encouraged increased illegal immigration, culminating in the veritable “invasion” during the Biden years.

China and Birthright Citizenship

Mr Schweizer highlights the way that China has used birthright citizenship - babies born in the U.S. and its territories are automatically U.S. citizens. He notes the way that the U.S. Territory of Saipan has been used for “birth tourism”.

This New Year’s baby was born in the US territory of Saipan in the Pacific. More than 70 percent of the newborns in Saipan have PRC birth tourist parents who utilize the territory’s forty-five-day visa-free visitation rules and the “Covenant of the Northern Mariana Islands” to guarantee that their children will have American citizenship. That little child’s parents are two of many who are taking advantage of America’s birthright citizenship policies, based on an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. How many is anyone’s guess. Birth tourism is a massive business in China alone, but how many such births are we talking about? No one really knows, least of all the US federal government, which does not directly track birth tourism.

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 77). (Function). Kindle Edition.

There are at least 100,000 Chinese babies being born in the U.S. each year and these babies are quickly taken back to China, ready at some time in the future to assert their U.S. “citizenship”. This practice has been in place, encouraged by the Chinese government, for decades. Now, surrogacy is being similarly used by wealthy Chinese as well in what Schweizer has described as a “surrogacy baby mill”.

Mr Schweizer outlines the central philosophy behind this Chinese “conquest” as a new “civilizational model”:

The Chinese Communist Party views itself not simply as a competing power, but as a superior civilization that must vanquish the decrepit, corrupt, and evil West. Just as the Mexican elite loathes key elements of Anglo-Saxon America, so too does the CCP. Jin Fenglin, a professor at the Central Communist Party School, the philosophical rudder of the CCP, says Western civilization only thrived because of “the brutal economic plundering of Africa, [North and South] America, Asia, and other countries,” and that the success of the United States is “inextricably linked to the long prevalence of a new model of slavery.” Beijing rejects the current system “based on Christian civilization, with individual rights as the starting point” and instead developed a superior civilization to “counteract, oppose, and transcend the Western civilization hierarchy,” says Jin. President Xi himself casts the CCP not just as a form of government but as “a new model of civilization.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 83). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The U.S. has unwittingly encouraged the Chinese strategy through what is known as the EB-5 visa - a visa program designed to encourage investment in the U.S. It was promoted in 1990 by someone who was probably a Chinese agent and enabled anyone who lived overseas and who invested US$1.05 million and created at least 10 American jobs to be given a green card to live in the U.S. While the visa program was meant to encourage international investment, 90 per cent of the applicants come from China. Most of the applicants do not live in the U.S. but live in China. Mr Schweizer notes that there has been significant Chinese political influence and corruption associated with the EB-5 visa program as money from China is injected into political campaigns.

The Chinese infiltration into the U.S. is multi-pronged and Mr Schweizer notes:

In August 2020, the FBI issued a classified internal information report concerning Chinese efforts to shift the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. According to the internal document, “the Chinese government produced a large amount of fraudulent US driver’s licenses that were secretly exported to the United States which would allow tens of thousands of Chinese students and immigrants sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party to vote for US Presidential Candidate Joe Biden, despite not being eligible to vote in the United States.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 101). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The naivety (or corruption) within the U.S. bureaucracy knows no bounds and incredibly, the U.S. helps to train Chinese pilots for the People’s Liberation Army.

The People’s Republic of China has a pilot problem. Beijing needs five thousand pilot cadets every year to meet the demand for both military and civilian pilots. Because the Chinese military tightly controls the country’s airspace, it can domestically produce only about 1,200 pilots a year. So, Beijing quietly erected a system to train three thousand of them a year in the United States. Across the US, at least sixteen flight schools, operating out of taxpayer-funded airports, are training Chinese cadets—sometimes without disclosing their foreign military ties. They do so by sending future military pilots to the United States posing as civilians to learn how to fly.

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (pp. 103-104). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Civilizational Jihad

Islamists also have been exploiting the U.S. to bring about “Civilizational Jihad” through a strategy that has been outlined by the Muslim Brotherhood in a memo as far back as 1991.

The strategic goals memo specifically addressed the “Civilization-Jihadist Process” for using migration as a weapon of subversion. Members “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated, and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” In the memo, Akram dictated the stages for achieving victory, including immigration, advocacy, consolidation of the Islamist movement, and, ultimately, the destruction of American civilization.

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 119). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Undoubtedly, a similar strategy can be observed across the wider West, as Islam advances its presence within societies marked by cultural and civilisational fatigue. In Texas alone, multiple mosques are being built each month, accompanied by the establishment of Muslim-only communities across different regions of the state.

Mr Schweizer quotes the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood whose philosophical position is direct opposition to the values of the West.

“Today the Muslims, as you know, are compelled to humble themselves before non-Muslims, and are ruled by unbelievers. . . . Hence it has become an individual obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare his equipment, to make up his mind to engage in jihad, and to get ready for it until the opportunity is ripe.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 120). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The West has been naive in welcoming “refugees” who have a core philosophy opposed to the the values of the West. However, politicians seem unable or unwilling to stem the immigration flow.

Islamists have long viewed immigration as a weapon to deploy against the West. “One of the goals of immigration is the revival of the duty of Jihad and enforcement of their power over the infidels,” declared Abu Basir, a radical Islamic scholar. “Immigration and Jihad go together. One is the consequence of the other and dependent upon it. The continuance of the one is dependent upon the continuance of the other.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (pp. 120-121). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The scandal of the day-care centres and rorting of the welfare system in Minnesota is an example of how the good will of the West is being used against it. Mr Schweizer notes that being dependent on public funds is seen by Muslim leaders as virtuous because it is a form of “jizya” - a tax placed on non-Muslims for the benefit of Muslims.

There is a well-organized and funded network of Islamic influence throughout the U.S., as Middle Eastern oil money is used to support a range of strategies, including tens of thousands of Muslim students on U.S. campuses and huge Middle Eastern financial support for university Islamic centres at major U.S. universities.

The political influence of Islam in the U.S. can be seen with the extraordinary rise to power of the Muslim New York Mayor and the alliance that was created with “progressive” groups that are in effect, communist.

“The political rise of Zohan Mamdani in New York politics is emblematic of radical Islam’s political network in the United States. His parents have ties to radical entities in the Middle East; his mother received millions in financing for her film projects from the government of Qatar. Mamdani was a politically inexperienced rapper who caught the attention of radical Islamists in part because of a rap song he performed in 2019, about his “‘love’ for the ‘Holy Land Five,’” the five men convicted for gathering $12 million for the terrorist organization Hamas. At the same time, he embraced the American progressive movement through the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), having attended his first meeting in 2017 and then working with local candidates tied to the DSA.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 131). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Mr Scweizer documents a range of elements to support the idea of Islamic dominance through political funding, alignment with the political Left and R-1 visas that allows mosques and religious bodies to bring in “religious workers” to the U.S.

Conclusions

When you consider all the elements that Mr Schweizer describes, there is nothing less than a clever pyramid scheme designed to bring about the gradual overthrow of the West. There is even strong support even within the mainstream Christian churches who see “mass migration as a mechanism for radical social change”.

There has been an attack on the U.S. from several fronts: from the southern border to China and to the Middle East. There is a shared philosophy to some degree and a systematic approach to ending U.S. dominance via a communist-Islamic alliance. This alliance is on shaky ground and in due course, the “infidels” will find themselves tried by Sharia courts.

As I read The Invisble Coup, I realized that the extent of the immigration coup was so vast and had so many elements that it seems impossible to defeat. Nonetheless, Mr Schweizer proposes a range of solutions that I have summarised below:

1. Ban the practice of dual citizenship;

2. Rigorous vetting of immigrants and refugees including “ideological scrutiny”;

3. Ban political donations from non-citizens;

4. Ban birth tourism and surrogacy as a pathway to citizenship;

5. Expel diplomats and close embassies that engage in political action in the U.S.;

6. Enforce laws that restrict foreigners and foreign organizations in U.S. politics;

7. Review student visas because these “students” may be working against the U.S.;

8. Better congressional oversight of the process for U.S. citizenship;

The Invisible Coup finishes with a call back to the Founding Fathers and the U.S. Constitution:

“The preamble to the Constitution reminds us that “We the people,” through our elective representatives, have a fundamental right to maintain our sovereign “Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility . . . promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” This includes our right to choose new citizens based on their good character and commitment to our constitutional rights.”

Schweizer, Peter. The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon (p. 202). (Function). Kindle Edition.

I recommend The Invisible Coup to Sons of Issachar readers. This brief overview can only sketch Schweizer’s argument; it is the accumulation of detail that gives his case its force, pointing to a disciplined but largely unseen transfer of power — a quiet coup not only underway in the United States, but increasingly evident across the wider West. The danger, he warns, is not immigration itself, but an organised process that has abandoned integration, bypassed democratic consent, and no longer assumes that the nation it is reshaping is meant to endure.

“Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” Daniel 11:32

The fast set and globocrats become excited each January as the private planes line up at Davos airport and the “escorts” anticipate a week of largesse. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has just finished in Switzerland, and President Trump dominated the show in his 24 h “hit and run” appearance.

Klaus Schwab has shuffled off the Davos stage after more than 50 years as the leader of this annual event, and Larry Fink, an even more influential globocrat, has taken control of the event, which had a new theme this year: A Spirit of Dialogue. An interesting choice because President Trump doesn’t seem very interested in dialogue.

Fink has signaled that Davos may have had its day. The annual event could be moved to Dublin or Detroit, but I imagine there is furious lobbying from the Davos crowd to keep the event in Switzerland.

Major themes advertised on the WEF website were:

• How can we cooperate in a more contested world?

• How can we unlock new sources of growth?

• How can we better invest in people?

• How can we deploy innovation at scale and responsibly?

• How can we build prosperity within planetary boundaries?

It is difficult to know what some of these themes mean (planetary boundaries?) but what is clear from the titles is that the ~3,000 participants saw themselves as those who control the levers of the world engine. Larry Fink appears to have pulled the pin on the Schwab favourites of climate change, and diversity, equity and inclusion perhaps to accommodate the star guest, President Trump, who has no time for these woke ideas.

Mr Fink is the co-founder and long-time chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, stewarding trillions of dollars through a web of passive index funds, sovereign wealth mandates, and institutional portfolios that quietly shape global markets. His annual letters to CEOs, with their emphasis on “stakeholder capitalism,” ESG metrics, and long-term systemic stability, have functioned as signals of an emerging governance model—one in which unelected financial “gurus” exert moral and strategic influence over states, corporations, and societies alike. Fink seems to have changed the focus from ESG and the climate crisis to “a spirit of dialogue”, perhaps to ensure that President Trump is inside the tent. Of course, Trump will never be in anyone else’s tent - only his own.

The WEF is much more than a talkfest and there was a significant focus and investment in arts and culture as outlined in an interesting article in Forbes magazine. Nel-Olivia Waga writes:

“The Forum’s own framing is bluntly practical. “Art reaches where policy papers cannot,” the Arts and Culture lead writes, arguing for creativity as a framework for understanding a shared present.

It started in the Plenary Hall with the Opening Concert. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra appeared with violinist Renaud Capuçon for a classical set, paired with an AI-generated visual installation by artist and technologist Ronen Tanchum that responded in real time to the musicians’ performance. The second half featured multi-Grammy Award winner Jon Batiste……

The Gallery hosts the programme’s most methodical piece: Forestate by ecological artist Thijs Biersteker, developed in collaboration with UNESCO and built on UNESCO-validated Global Forest Watch data. The work visualises forest loss and gain through leaves appearing and fading, with each disappearing leaf representing 100 square metres of forest lost “right now”, and each returning leaf marking the same area gained….

At the Main Entrance, JR’s Wrinkles of the City operates in a different register. The project, which began in 2008 and has travelled across cities including Cartagena, Havana, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Berlin and Istanbul, uses monumental portraits of older residents as a record of civic memory.”

This gives you a taste of this part of the program and I think that the organisers must have decided to spare President Trump from the arts and culture experience. Of course, it is what is not on the program - the backroom deals and networking that makes Davos such a valuable experience for the globocrats as they plot what has been called a “New Earth Order”.

The Board of Peace

On the sidelines of WEF, President Trump announced a U.N. rival - The Board of Peace! You would think that President Trump would have his hands full with Venezuela, Greenland and Minnesota but he always seems to want more. The White House described the Board of Peace as follows:

“Today, in an historic ceremony in Davos, Switzerland, President Donald J. Trump formally ratified the Charter of the Board of Peace — establishing it as an official international organization. President Trump, who is serving as the Board’s Chairman, was joined by Founding Members representing countries around the world who have committed to building a secure and prosperous future for Gaza that delivers lasting peace, stability, and opportunity for its people.

It’s another pivotal step forward in realizing President Trump’s vision of transforming Gaza from a region plagued by conflict and despair into one defined by opportunity, hope, and vitality. The Board of Peace stands ready to mobilize global resources, enforce accountability, and guide the implementation of the next critical phases of demilitarization, governance reform, and large-scale rebuilding.”

Dr Jacob Nordangård has written a detailed substack post in the last few days, outlining the implications of the Board of Peace.

The Pharos Chronicles – Jacob Nordangård, PhD

Will Donald Trump's Board of Peace develop into Great Transition Initiative's anticipated authoritarian New Earth Order?

Reality has now surpassed fiction and has evolved into something resembling a bizarre political satire…

Read more

6 months ago · 66 likes · 10 comments · Jacob Nordangård

“The Board initially got its mandate from a United Nations Security Council resolution, where all member states voted yes, including Denmark (!), UK, and France, or abstained (China and Russia)….

The executive committee includes former British prime minister Tony Blair (a 1993 WEF Global Leader of Tomorrow), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the President of the World Bank Ajay Banga, billionaire investor Marc Rowan, and US National Security Advisor Robert Gabriel.

The appointment of Rubio, Kushner, and Witkoff is no big surprise regarding their roles in Middle East politics. Kushner was a key player in the Abraham Accords as well as the Peace to Prosperity Plan, and he and Witkoff are the main architects of the recent technocratic development plan for Gaza (Project Sunrise)……

Blair heads the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which is heavily funded by Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison.6 One of the key players of the megalomanical Stargate Project. It just so happens that Blair is a big proponent of the same Big Tech solutions and Smart City development plans, with digital identification required to access essential services, which is what Ellison advocates. In 2020, Blair and former WEF-trustee Herman Gref promoted Digital ID solutions to counter COVID-19 and illegal migration in the Russian Cyber Polygon exercise………

According to the charter of the Board of Peace, it will have a broader mandate than just handling the Gaza Peace Plan.7 It states that the Board will be: “an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

It appears to be planned as a complementary (or perhaps rival) organisation to the UN Security Council. It will be commanded by Donald Trump (with veto powers) and each member state will be required to pay USD one billion (!) to obtain a permanent seat.

Among the 26 countries that have accepted the invitation to join the board are Argentina, Belarus, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi-Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, while most of the traditional allies to the United States have declined participation.”

I note that Australia hasn’t been asked to participate but perhaps the one billion dollar entrance fee was a step too far even for our big spending socialist government.

One of the highlights of the WEF, according to the stewards of the prevailing narrative, was Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister’s speech. I watched the speech in full last night and to me it sounded like a high-class Kamala Harris word salad. However, I did note the idea of a “rupture” of the old rules-based order and the rather clever phrase that if, as a nation, you were not sitting at the table, then you were probably on the menu!

Mr Carney is cuddling up to President Xi and clearly moving away from the U.S. President Trump will not be slow in treating Carney to a banquet of consequences.

Carney and his friends may be seeking to provide opposition to Trump’s Board of Peace. Dr Nordangård provides this interesting analysis:

“The Board of Peace just happens to have some remarkable similarities with the so-called “New Earth Order” (or “Alliance for Global Salvation”) which Paul Raskin from Great Transition Initiative anticipated in his dystopian Fortress World scenario, that I wrote about in my New Years Letter as well as in my book The Global Coup d’État…

As Raskin wrote in his 2002 essay The Great Transition: The Promises and Lures of the Times Ahead:

The Alliance included a motley group of global actors from the corporate world, the security community and right-wing political elements. Concerned that the crisis could spiral out of control, they came to the conclusion, many reluctantly, that the vacuum of international control must be filled, and that they were the ones for the job.

According to the Fortress World scenario, the Alliance will declare a state of emergency with the aim of installing a World Authority, which will use “high-tech surveillance and old-fashioned brutality to control social unrest and migration, and to protect valued environmental resources”. This definitely sounds like Trumpian problem solving.

However, in Raskin’s favoured scenario, NEO is countered by a Global Citizens Movement that removes NEO and replaces it with an “enlightened international governance”.

My take on it is that NEO will act as a kind of war time cabinet to effectively manage the transition to a global technocracy before a highly conditional and controlled form of “freedom” returns.

The players pulling the strings behind NEO and the “enlightened international governance” are essentially the same. It is only the methods of power (hard versus soft) that differ.

At this critical time, they must act decisively and with full force, with Donald Trump as a willing front figure doing the dirty work.

When he and his henchmen are overthrown (or no longer useful), the real masters plans to install their envisioned technocratic regime with a renewed focus on the old sustainability agenda.”

There does seem to be some type of tectonic shift in world affairs and President Trump is asserting U.S. dominance. The E.U. leaders are confused and are attempting to regroup but have no power and Europe is broke. The U.K. is in a complete mess and the ruling Labour Party is trying to find a way to oust Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. The U.K. government has suspended many local elections due in May but Labour will be routed where citizens are allowed to cast their votes. Still - the next U.K. elections do not have to take place until August 2029. A lot is going to happen before then.

Who knows what will happen next? What is certain is more tools for surveillance and control. The Board of Peace could have come right out of a script for the antichrist, and perhaps, Donald Trump may just be a funny version of this terrifying future figure.

Articles That Caught My Attention

The American Cultural Revolution

The New American Magazine always provides interesting perspectives about what is happening in the U.S. and this week General Michael Flynn has outlined what he terms the American Cultural Revolution.

“The American Cultural Revolution is distinct from the one that ravaged China under Mao Zedong. It did not coalesce around a single, charismatic revolutionary figure. Instead, it spread along the arteries of bureaucracy, higher education, corporate structures, and activist networks……..

To better understand how the American Cultural Revolution is being carried out, it is necessary to examine its operational structure. There is a constellation of fully unded, professional activist groups that present themselves as fighting for separate causes, when in reality they form a single revolutionary bloc. Over the last decade, organizations under the banners of anti-fascism, racial justice, radical feminism, abortion on demand, certain LGBTQ+ factions, environmental extremism, and gun-control advocacy have shown remarkable cohesion. They share donors, staff, narrative frameworks, and street-level tactics. Their membership overlaps. Their messaging is synchronized. They rapidly support one another’s campaigns and protests.

While these groups present themselves as grassroots movements, they function much more like a professional revolutionary caste. Their core is composed not of ordinary volunteer citizens, but of trained activists who treat agitation as a full-time occupation. They are funded by a mix of private foundations, wealthy donors, and, in some cases, federal and state resources. They serve as the street and digital arm of a broader ideological project whose goal is not reform, but transformation. They are bound together by a worldview that is explicitly revolutionary and implicitly Marxist, even if many of their foot soldiers do not use that language.”

General Flynn’s article provides an important perspective in what is happening in states like Minnesota with violent protests against immigration officers. This is no spontaneous uprising but a well-funded Marxist playbook to cause chaos and overthrow an elected President. Similar chaos is being fostered across the West.

The U.S. is teetering on the brink of civil war and there is no possibility of reconciling competing philosophies. President Trump is very responsive to public sentiment and undoubtedly is aware of recent polls - one of which is shown below (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Recent poll reported by The Sunday Times of President Trump’s approval

President Trump’s support is wavering and he needs to turn his attention from Venezuela and Greenland to the streets of Minneapolis St Paul and Chicago.

Europe Is Going In the Wrong Direction

I think that most Europeans believe that Europe is going in the wrong direction and that the bureaucrats have taken over and made it almost impossible to do anything. I was amused by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant who was asked what he thought the Europeans would do in response to President Trump’s threatened imposition of tariffs if the U.S. didn’t get Greenland. Mr Bessant said that the Europeans would probably “form a working group”! Touché!

The Epoch Times provided a helpful series of “take aways” from President Trump’s speech to the WEF. Here is the summary of the section of his speech on Europe:

‘“Trump began his speech with a strong message for European leaders. As in previous years, he criticized European nations for their energy policies and heavy reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind power. He also raised concerns about cultural changes and mass migration.

“Certain places in Europe are not even recognizable, frankly, anymore, they’re not recognizable,” Trump said.

“And I love Europe, and I want to see Europe go good, but it’s not heading in the right direction.”

He criticized European countries for increasing government spending, permitting unchecked mass migration, and depending on foreign imports, which he said led to job losses.

He also noted that they are replacing affordable energy sources such as oil and gas with what he called the “green new scam.”’

“The United States cares greatly about the people of Europe,” Trump said, touting his Scottish and German heritage.

Sons of Issachar readers may not have seen the excellent 2016 documentary that was released prior to the Brexit vote being taken. The movie provides helpful detail in understanding the E.U. morass and why the British voted to leave. It is more than one hour long but worthwhile viewing to understand the nature of the E.U. maze and bureaucratic quagmire. I have included a link below:

President Trump’s Possible Future Interventions

Joel Skousen provides a weekly newsletter that I subscribe to and he provides a helpful analysis of world affairs. You can subscribe at www.worldaffairsbrief.com

I have reproduced below a section of his newsletter that relates to possible future international interventions by President Trump. His analysis is thought-provoking and we also need to keep our attention on what is happening in Israel.

“Despite his constant talk of peace, Trump isn’t through with intervention. News surfaced this week that US warships have moved into Cuban waters. As Jim Ferguson stated on X,

Cuba

In a stunning development, the United States has deployed two major amphibious assault ships — USS Iwo Jima and USS San Antonio — to waters just miles north of Cuba. These are not routine patrol vessels.

These are power-projection platforms designed for rapid deployment of Marines, aircraft, and heavy equipment. When amphibious strike groups reposition this close to a hostile or unstable region, it usually means one thing:

Washington wants options on the table.. Whether this is pressure, deterrence, or preparation — the message is unmistakable: America is watching, America is ready, and something has changed.

...Or is about to. We’ll be watching to see what kind of pressure is made on the Cuban leadership, or whether a snatch-and-grab is also planned for Cuba. If it is, it won’t change anything inside Cuba because it will also leave the entrenched communist regime intact.

Mexico

According to the Epoch Times, the United States is placing pressure on Mexico to hasten a crackdown on drug cartels, saying that gradual improvements are not enough to slow the flow of deadly fentanyl into American communities.

The directive came during a Thursday phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente, part of a series of high-level discussions aimed at increasing bilateral security efforts.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs underscored a firmer stance in a post on X. “The United States made clear that incremental progress in facing border security challenges is unacceptable,” it said.

“Upcoming bilateral engagements with Mexico will require concrete, verifiable outcomes to dismantle narcoterrorist networks and deliver a real reduction in fentanyl trafficking to protect communities on both sides of the border.” The U.S. will strike drug cartels in Mexico! Trump Says

Iran

Trump called for regime change in Iran in the wake of violent protests that have engulfed the country in recent weeks. “It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told Politico in an interview on Jan. 17. I agree if it can be done honestly and with the right leaders.

As I pointed out last week, Trump has ordered a lot of aircraft and military equipment to redeploy away from Iran’s conventional retaliatory capacity, as he moves the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier task force into position into the Arabian sea.

Iran countered the US threat this week by successfully testing their first ICBM–an intercontinental range ballistic missile, capable for the first time of hitting the US East Coast. This sudden success—if followed up by an operation fleet of missiles—will put Iran in the category of a nation capable of retaliating against the US mainland.

I’ve suspected that the current wave of violence and protests within Iran are not simply based only on domestic dissent, but upon outside provocations from Iran’s only local enemy, Israel. Here’s the evidence for the connection between Israel’s Mossad and the Iranian protests by Max Blumenthal:

As deadly riots burn Iranian cities, Western media ignores the shocking wave of violence, turning instead to US government-funded NGOs for data. The one-sided portrayal has helped push Trump to the brink of authorizing renewed US attacks.

Western media has ignored a growing trove of video evidence showing terrorist tactics deployed across Iran by protesters... The Israeli spying and assassination agency known as Mossad issued a message from its official Farsi language account on Twitter/X urging Iranians to escalate their regime change activities, pledging that it would be supporting them on the ground.

“Go out together into the streets. The time has come,” Mossad instructed Iranians. “We are with you. Not only from a distance and verbally. We are with you in the field.”

According to the Iranian government, over 100 police and security officers have been killed during the unrest. However, a pair of Iranian NGOs based in Washington and funded by the US government has set the death toll on the government’s side at a much lower figure. These groups have become the go-to source for Western media on the protests.

Regime change lobbyists set the agenda

In assessing the death toll in Iran, outlets throughout the US and Europe have depended on two NGOs based in Washington and funded by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy: the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran and Human Rights Activists in Iran.

By spreading clearly inflated death tolls, regime change activists and Trump cronies are apparently goading the notoriously gullible president into launching another military assault on Tehran...

Now, Trump is reportedly mulling an attack, considering options ranging from cyber-warfare to airstrikes. However, the pace of the anti-government protests appears to have slowed, with relative calm returning to major cities.

As the dust clears, millions of Iranian citizens are pouring into the streets of cities from Tehran to Mashhad to express their indignation at the riots, to denounce the foreign elements that helped spur the regime change rampage, and to proclaim their support for the government. But in newsrooms across the West, giving voice to these masses of Iranian demonstrators seems forbidden.

In Blumenthal’s appearance on the Jimmy Dore show, he gives evidence that Israel has shipped a lot of weapons into Iran for use by Israeli agents and protestors, which is the only thing that can account for the number of Iranian police and military shot. Iran does not allow any private arms in the country for its own citizens.

So, while I do think there needs to be regime change in Iran, Israel is clearly intervening to foment violence for its own benefit, and Trump risks getting the US military involved in a quagmire in Trump’s efforts to do Netanyahu’s bidding. Defense News has significant coverage of how the US Central Command (CENTCOM) is preparing for a war with Iran and is currently on 24/7 readiness posture.

According to officials cited by The Washington Post, senior planners at CENTCOM have been instructed to maintain high-level staffing 24 hours a day “for the next month,” a directive that effectively places the command on a sustained war-planning footing. The order, officials say, is not symbolic. It reflects active preparations for scenarios ranging from limited strikes to a broader regional campaign should diplomatic efforts collapse.

U.S. defense officials stress that the current lull in public rhetoric should not be mistaken for de-escalation. A senior Pentagon official told the Post that the U.S. president will face another clear decision point within “the next two to three weeks,” when additional American military assets now en route to the Middle East are expected to be fully in position.”

Conclusions

It feels as though we are caught in a battle between good and evil - and we are. It is an existential battle that has gone on since the Garden of Eden and will culminate in the return of Jesus. There have, and will be, many twists and turns but the Prince of Peace will restore the Earth to God’s original intent. Sounds crazy - but true!

We need to be prepared for clever use of the Hegelian dialectic - thesis-antithesis-synthesis. It also has been described as problem-reaction-solution. Problems are created (another pandemic anyone?) and then as the people cry out (reaction) - a solution magically appears. You can guarantee in advance the solutions: bigger government, less freedom, more surveillance and more control.

You can see this at work with the recent Bondi Islamic terrorist attack in Australia. The shocking event resulted in citizens demanding a response from the government. Of course, Australia’s immigration policies with their focus on importing adherents of “the religion of peace” were ignored and so the government proposed new laws to regulate “hate speech” and gun control. Problem solved!!

We live in interesting times and we need to not lose heart because while the forces of darkness seem to hold all the cards, God is always in a majority.

It seems timely to leave my readers with Psalm 27 of King David:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
² When the wicked came against me
To eat^[ up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
³ Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

⁴ One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the ^[beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
⁵ For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.”

Large language models have become dominant in our race toward digital enslavement and the acceleration has happened at a greater rate than I suspected.

I was suspicious back in January this year when every “Big Tech Bro” was seated prominently at President Trump’s inauguration (Figure 1). Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sudar Pichai (Google), Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX) and Tim Cook (Apple), appeared to have crossed to the dark side as they vied for Trump’s attention. Could they have suddenly become proponents of “Make America Great Again”?

Figure 1. Some of the Tech Bros at President Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Source.

No - of course these guys hadn’t had a road to Damascus experience; they had read the tea leaves and decided to back self-interest. They each splashed cash around Trump’s inauguration and undoubtedly have contributed to the funding of the new East Wing ballroom. The payback period was not long:

President Trump signed an Executive Order in April 2025:

“to create new educational and workforce development opportunities for America’s youth, fostering interest and expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) technology from an early age to maintain America’s global dominance in this technological revolution for future generations.”

It was notable that the order requires promotion of AI from “an early age” - you can see toddlers in child care centres being hooked up to computers. Of course AI is using the acquisition of large amounts of data to train itself, and it is unlikely that this well be in our best interests.

The Genesis Mission

Now we have the announcement by President Trump of “The Genesis Mission”. There is no doubt that Trump is a branding guru - who could be against “The Genesis Mission”? It evokes creation itself and a new pathway for mankind.

However, Elon Musk warned about the dangers of AI in 2024 and there was a headline in Business Insider: “Elon Musk says there could be a 20% chance AI destroys humanity — but we should do it anyway”. I suppose that is encouraging but in the horse racing industry, lots of horses with odds of 51 get up.

The amount of AI investment is staggering and new data and power centres are springing up all over the U.S.. It is likely that the expenditure will move from the hundreds of billions to the trillions of dollars in the next few years.

So what is the Genesis Mission? To quote from the preliminary section of President Trump’s Executive Order of 24 November 2025 (my emphasis):

“Today, America is in a race for global technology dominance in the development of artificial intelligence (AI), an important frontier of scientific discovery and economic growth. To that end, my Administration has taken a number of actions to win that race, including issuing multiple Executive Orders and implementing America’s AI Action Plan, which recognizes the need to invest in AI-enabled science to accelerate scientific advancement. In this pivotal moment, the challenges we face require a historic national effort, comparable in urgency and ambition to the Manhattan Project that was instrumental to our victory in World War II and was a critical basis for the foundation of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories.”

It is fascinating that the order promotes an equivalence to the Manhattan Project, the development of the nuclear weapons program in the 1940s that itself could destroy mankind. The Executive Order goes on to describe the project (my emphasis in bold):

“The Genesis Mission will build an integrated AI platform to harness Federal scientific datasets—the world’s largest collection of such datasets, developed over decades of Federal investments—to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs. The Genesis Mission will bring together our Nation’s research and development resources—combining the efforts of brilliant American scientists, including those at our national laboratories, with pioneering American businesses; world-renowned universities; and existing research infrastructure, data repositories, production plants, and national security sites—to achieve dramatic acceleration in AI development and utilization.”

President Trump is a low tech guy but clearly he has been sold on going all out for AI, and any possible concerns have been brushed away - presumably with large amounts of cash. At its heart, the mission is about the purloining of the large datasets in government databases and using them for the benefit of the AI companies and government.

I have followed AI developments closely over the past year or so and thought that I would provide some overview and hopefully, some context for my readers because this is definitely one of the signs of the times.

Trump’s “One Rule” AI Policy

The New American magazine has been ahead of the curve in relation to the dangers of artificial intelligence and has rightly discerned the dangers of its use in promoting technocratic control. The 9 December issue highlights the path ahead in relation to President Trump’s “Genesis Mission” executive order. Veronika Kyrylenko writes:

“President Donald Trump is doubling down on a “one-rule” national policy for the AI industry. After Congress refused to include provisions that would override state AI regulations in the National Defense Authorization Act or in standalone bills, Trump announced he will impose that policy by executive order.

The move is framed as necessary for winning the “AI race” with China. Yet Trump’s announcement also coincided with his decision to allow Nvidia to continue selling advanced AI accelerators, including its H200 data-center chips, into the Chinese market. Those chips power large-scale AI model training and inference. Their export directly strengthens China’s domestic AI capacity at the same time Washington publicly casts Beijing as its primary strategic rival in artificial intelligence.

The announcement also follows Trump’s “Genesis Mission,” launched quietly during Thanksgiving week. The initiative seeks to unleash federal scientific and research infrastructure on large-scale AI development.”

The Genesis Mission and the associated “one rule” process for AI, to effectively prevent individual U.S. states from having their own regulatory mechanisms, aim to speed up the implementation of AI. However, just as with “Operation Warp Speed” bypassing vaccine safety requirements for COVID-19, this approach comes with significant risks. According to Ms Kyrylenko (my emphasis):

“As massive amounts of data, research infrastructure, private industry, and federal authority converge around AI, power pools rapidly at the center. In practice, it serves state bureaucracies and tech corporations with global reach. In that arrangement, AI becomes an engine of mass surveillance, behavioral manipulation, and algorithmic control without historical precedent.

It is no coincidence that the United Nations treats artificial intelligence as a central instrument of Agenda 2030, with the World Economic Forum (WEF) as its primary partner in implementation. For decades, the body used its concentrated capital to shape policy by “penetrating cabinets.” Under Trump, that capture has continued apace. ……Those same technical systems are now well suited to supplement a centralized AI governance model.

Notably, since taking office, Trump has moved aggressively to embed AI and sweeping digitization into finance, healthcare, education, defense, immigration enforcement, government operations, and government identity systems. Early in his second term, he also launched the Stargate Project, a $500 billion public-private effort to build next-generation AI infrastructure.”

We are heading into uncharted territory and the end result is not only subservience of the human population but a virtual slave state as algorithms and digital monitoring limit ever aspect of our freedom. Patrick Wood has warned about the technocratic state for the past 40 years. I interviewed him for the Sons of Issachar Newsletter in November 2023 and have included the link to the interview below for readers who missed this newsletter.

Mr Wood has written a number of books about technocracy, which can be summarised as: “a systemic shift toward a new global “resource-based” order in which all production, consumption, and resource distribution are centrally controlled by elites using scientific/technical management”.

Mr Wood has just published a new book “The Final Betrayal: A cautionary tale: how technocracy destroyed America”. I have provided an overview and some quotes from the book below.

The Final Betrayal

The new book (see Figure 2 below) is phrased in the past tense. Mr Wood is no longer simply warning about the threat of technocracy, he now sees the situation of a scientific dictatorship having progressed beyond the point of no return.

Figure 2. Cover of “The Final Betrayal” by Patrick Wood and Courtenay Turner

The book is described by the authors as follows:

“The dark horse of the New World Order was never Communism, Socialism or Fascism: It has always been Technocracy! Started in the 1930s, re-introduced by the Trilateral Commission in 1973 as the “New International Economic Order,” Technocrats have staged a sweeping coup d’état in plain sight in Washington, DC. during the Trump presidency.

The Dark Enlightenment wants to turn us into a monarchy. Tokenization is flipping us into an asset-based economic system where you “will own nothing”. AI is shoving us into a digital Gulag. Like it or not, you must face this beast, either to destroy it or learn to live with it.”

The authors note that Elon Musk attended Trump rallies in October 2024 with a Black MAGA hat and he said: “I’m not just MAGA but Dark MAGA”. Many have suspected Mr Musk as being a potential agent of the dark arts and the authors highlight the significance of Dark MAGA, as related to the Dark Enlightenment:

“The Dark Enlightenment is the polar opposite of the MAGA movement. It is anti-democratic, anti-freedom, anti-liberty, anti-human, and thoroughly technocratic. Behind it is a twisted philosophy created by a TechBro from Silicon Valley named Curtis Yarvin. Since he started writing in 2007, he has captured the mind and soul of Silicon Valley — and in particular, those of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk. Consider some highlights:

• Views Democracy, Constitutional Government, and Populism as inherently flawed and must be overthrown

• Endorses rule by an unelected centralized sovereign, i.e., a CEO, or a Monarch

• Promotes Technocratic governance by unelected and unaccountable officials 

• The government should be run as a profit-seeking “Sov-Corp” that would own or control all the assets in society

• Promotes Accelerationism: The existing system is not worth reforming and should be allowed, or even forced, to unravel quickly to make way for a new order.

As a block, all the Technocrats in Washington, DC, embrace Dark Enlightenment philosophy.”

Wood, Patrick; Turner, Courtenay. The Final Betrayal: How Technocracy Destroyed America (p. 9). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Mr Wood and Ms Turner believe that there has been, in effect, a coup d’état, with the technocrats having taken over Washington D.C. that none knew about before the November 2024 elections.

At the heart of the AI revolution, is a technocratic view of the world. Technocracy is a termed coined by engineers and scientists at Columbia University in the 1930s and a special Technocracy Study Course was created. Ultimately, the movement failed because it had sinister overtones of fascism and dictatorship. It is interesting that its ideas have been resurrected in the past few years. As the authors state:

“Their clear plan was to take over biology, climate, natural resources, and industrial equipment. This is the modern essence of the United Nations’ programs of Agenda 21, 2030 Agenda, and Sustainable Development.”

Wood, Patrick; Turner, Courtenay. The Final Betrayal: How Technocracy Destroyed America (p. 16). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The new technocrats are the intellectual progeny of David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzenzinski, who founded the influential Trilateral Commission in 1973. This group was influential in the development of the U.N.’s Agenda 21 and now Agenda 2030 to “transform our world”. These folks may be megalomaniacs but they are serious and with AI tools behind them, who knows how we will be “transformed”.

The authors devote a chapter of their book to Peter Thiel, who has been a long-term supporter of President Trump and also very influential with JD Vance, in effect Thiel’s protégé. Mr Thiel has outlined 10 hidden rules for absolute domination:

1. Make up your own rules;

2. Rules must be hidden;

3. Motives must be disguised;

4. Redefine the language eg redefinition of competition as “destructive”;

5. Insert a trusted mole;

6. Place players in strategic positions;

7. Balance the playing field;

8. Never compete;

9. Plan 5 steps ahead before making a move;

10. Always seek a monopoly.

It’s interesting to see how effectively these strategies have been used to maneuver President Trump into his “one rule” AI policy and plan for a “national effort comparable in significance to the Manhattan Project”.

The Final Betrayal delves into a number of areas that are relevant to readers:

• The death of capitalism - the role of Curtis Yarvin and Nick Land and the Neo-reactionary movement;

• The rise of state religion - scientism and the AI “god”;

• The algorithmic coup - America’s AI Action Plan. The AI Action Plan is titled “Winning the Race” - but it is certain that we won’t be the winners; also the surveillance state;

• The scientific dictatorship: There is a warning about what have previously seemed like a good approach to health via Robert F Kennedy Jnr and his Make America Health Again (MAHA) movement. However, the authors warn that behind the banner of MAHA lies a potentially sinister Make America Biotech Accelerate (MABA) to cloak biotech deregulation;

• The new international economic age with a focus on Islamic finance and banking and sharia law. Islamic finance and banking has reached US$3.9 trillion in assets. President Trump’s son-in-law is heavily involved in this sector;

• The key 41 players are also outlined in the book and about half of these have current or previous positions in the Trump administration.

Conclusions

The Final Betrayal is highly recommended to Sons of Issachar readers because we all need to be up to speed on the challenges we are facing as a society in relation to AI. The authors write that societal fallout from the AI coup will be surveillance, unemployment and control. Be careful when you give all your information to ChatGPT!

Mr Wood and Ms Turner conclude with a stark summary:

“The greatest betrayal in human history has just taken place. It has strip-mined our rights as free citizens, while delivering us into a digital gulag.”

Wood, Patrick; Turner, Courtenay. The Final Betrayal: How Technocracy Destroyed America (p. 183). (Function). Kindle Edition.

However, so we all don’t become completely depressed, they offer some useful strategies for how to cope:

“Decisive action is required. Start by wrapping a guard around your mind. Repudiate mechanistic thinking. Take everything as propaganda until proven otherwise. Speak up; your voice is your only voice. Only you can think for yourself. If you sleep, you will soon become a casualty.   Don’t fall into Peter Thiel’s trap: “Whenever people think you can just muddle through, you’re probably set up for some kind of disaster.” (Tyler, 2024) Technocrats are not invincible. Exploit their vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and blind spots wherever you can. When you are in a doctor’s office, talk about abuses of AI in claim mismanagement. When you attend church, true your faith by pointing out extra-Biblical doctrines. When you are at work, tell your bosses and co-workers that AI delivers “slopwork,” where passable work done by AI increases the workload for others.   When you sense that someone above you wants you to play a role in their technocratic narrative, dig your heels in and don’t do it! 

Think Local, Act Local

Your audience and most significant influence is local - not state, regional, or national. Be that influence.  Most towns and cities have multiple boards and city councils. These are your neighbors, subject to local influence and direction. Engage with them with practical discourse, appealing to them to put protective barriers around your home, local businesses, and the broader community.  When you see outside consultants brought in to manage projects like General Plans, Sustainable Development projects, or Climate Action plans, run them out of town. You are paying your city leaders to do the planning for your city or town, not out-of-town consultants who don’t know anything about where you live, and couldn’t care less.”

Wood, Patrick; Turner, Courtenay. The Final Betrayal: How Technocracy Destroyed America (pp. 184-185). (Function). Kindle Edition.

I took particular note, as a local councillor, to be aware of outside consultants under the banner of “sustainability”.

The key thing is that “only you can think for yourself”.

It will be challenging to resist the ongoing rise and technocratic dictatorship of AI. We have been warned. I won’t be checking what ChatGPT thinks!

The New South Wales State government, which controls all regional councils (128 in the state), mandates a resource-intense planning process with so many plans to be completed that it is difficult to get any real work done. The process is outlined below in Figure 1 and almost impossible to understand. Only yesterday, I discovered another key document of more than 100 pages - The Local Strategic Planning Statement. There are so many plans that no-one who lives in the area could possibly understand what they are, which may be the whole point of the exercise.

Figure 1. The Office of Local Government in New South Wales, Integrated Planning and Reporting Process. Source.

This is a new season in my life - a season of attempting to influence council to be accountable for spending the funds of hard-working local residents and ratepayers within a system that is bureaucratic and notoriously unresponsive. As I have been considering the season I am in, I have returned to the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible - a book that has great wisdom for any time.

The Book of Ecclesiastes is traditionally attributed to King Solomon and thought to have been written around 950 BC. It is a work of hard-earned wisdom—recognising that there is nothing new under the sun and that human striving, no matter how heroic, eventually achieves very little. Below are the first nine verses:

“The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

³ What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
⁴ Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
⁶ The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
⁸ All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”

The words of the teacher: “Meaningless, meaningless! Everything is meaningless” take on a new dimension as I battle through the thousands of pages of the Local Government Act.

In one of its most famous passages, Ecclesiastes reminds us that “to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). It is important for all of us to understand the season we are in. My season seems to be one of attempting to make a labyrinthine system more transparent and accountable. So far, my wins are few. Cunning, bureaucratic systems have a way of beating even the most focused individuals.

Reflecting on my own bureaucratic labyrinth led me back to Ecclesiastes—because the principle of ‘seasons’ applies not only to councils but to empires, leaders, and global movements.

I have been reminded recently of the “there is a season” verse in Ecclesiastes as I reflected on the extraordinary impact of President Trump in the twelve months since his 5 November 2024 election win. It is evident that neither he nor his advisors spent the years between 20 January 2021 and 20 January 2025 idly sipping mocktails at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump returned to office with disciplined intent—signing 26 Executive Orders on Day One of his second administration and 217 in the 11 months since his inauguration. In that period, his administration has been far more focused than Trump 1.0: fewer leaks, tighter coordination, and a willingness to overturn entrenched assumptions about the global order. That is why the leak of the conversation revealed last week between President Trump’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff and the Kremlin advisor, Kirill Dmitriev, was so shocking. It has been reported that:

“The leak revealed that Witkoff coached Ushakov on how to communicate with Trump, while Dmitriev provided Washington with a list of Russia’s conditions for initiating a peace settlement with Ukraine.”

It seems that there are many forces at work trying to derail the Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations and given that there was a complete transcript of the conversation leaked, it appears as though Mr Witkoff may not have been as careful as he could have been about his phone security.

The story reminds me that when you have a maverick like President Trump seeking to upend the “rules-based international order”, you make many enemies. Trump has been successful in the last year because of the sheer force of his personality and “flooding the zone” with multiple high-profile projects all launched at the same time to overwhelm the press, Democrats, and even his supporters.

President Trump has had a huge impact nationally and internationally, and yet, Ecclesiastes’ wisdom should be noted. Seasons turn. Even the most forceful political movements encounter entropy. As we survey the political landscape today, a series of early indicators suggests that the Trump effect, while still powerful, may now be entering a waning phase. Strangely enough, it is linked to a peripheral issue: the Epstein files.

Trump’s seeming attempt to cover-up information held by the FBI into the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, has upset many of his supporters and this issue has dogged him for the last six months. Perhaps President Trump is not completely covered in teflon and one wonders if his impact may be waning?

In this newsletter, I explore some of the signs of the possible loss of influence and potential impact of the Trump phenomenon.

President Trump has dominated European leaders and has inserted himself into every international conflict, as well as closing the southern U.S. border and rounding up illegal immigrants domestically. He is a force of nature and it is likely that we will never see another politician of his ilk in our lifetime.

I still think that President Trump is the most gifted, if blunt, communicator of our generation. If they weren’t filled with Left wing agitators, all schools of communication would study Trump’s communication genius. I remember a funny moment in 2016 when Trump was running for president and visiting the UK to open his new golf course in Scotland. The Mayor of London, Saddiq Khan, had been very critical of Mr Trump and as Trump landed in the U.K., he tweeted that Khan was “a stone cold loser”. You would never have heard this from another politician and I noted the comment at the time: it was brief, memorable and accurate. Who would ever have thought at that time that Trump would be elected U.S. President - twice in a 10 year period!

Signs of a Waning Season

Despite the early momentum of Trump’s second term, I have sensed that the political climate is beginning to shift, and as the economists would say, there have been some lead indicators.

The Epstein files and the controversy surrounding Trump’s involvement or non-involvement has become the kryptonite of the Trump presidency. When Attorney General Pam Bondi assembled a group of right-wing influencers at the White House to unveil the long-anticipated Epstein files, supporters expected explosive revelations that would vindicate years of concern about elite corruption. Instead, nothing new emerged, and the gap between expectation and delivery became a sharp warning sign about Trump’s grip on the movement—raising doubts about whether he was still willing, or able, to challenge the system he once vowed to expose. For many of his core supporters, that moment marked the first serious crack in the armour.

After the first anti-Trump rumblings from his supporters in February 2025, related to Epstein, the next warning signs came from the ballot box. The 5 December 2025 special elections—all lost to the Democrats—show that the Republican brand is not converting presidential energy and foreign policy accomplishments into electoral outcomes. Then there was the election of the “Commie” mayor of New York, Mr Mamdani.

Mind you, Republicans had shunned President Trump and tried to distance themselves in the various election campaigns. However, there are signs that independents and suburban voters, who voted for President Trump in 2024, and resulted in him winning the battleground states, appear to be drifting away again. This kind of early electoral slippage has historically been a reliable predictor of trouble in the midterm elections, scheduled for November 2026. Trump will need to pull some rabbits out of his MAGA hat to change the current momentum.

Cracks are also emerging within the Republican Party itself. One of Trump’s most loyal allies, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, has now publicly broken with him—an extraordinary moment that signals permission for other restive factions to become anti-Trump. Ms Taylor Greene has been critical that President Trump has lost focus on “America First” and has been distracted by the globalists and foreign entanglements.

Congressional Republicans in marginal districts also appear to be increasingly nervous about defending their seats under the Trump “brand” in 2026, and some are quietly distancing themselves from the White House’s more confrontational strategies. Even donors appear to be hedging their bets and spreading their contributions across a wider field of conservative contenders.

Institutional resistance is also sharpening. Courts—including judges appointed during Trump’s first term—are showing a greater willingness to curb executive actions. A clear battle has emerged between the judiciary and the executive branches of government with the Supreme Court being drawn into the political minefield. A range of commentary, some even on the Right, suggests that President Trump may have overreached in a number of areas.

Republican senators are scrutinising appointments and legislative proposals that would previously have sailed through under party control. These shifts do not amount to rebellion, but they do indicate a recalibration: Trump’s influence is no longer assumed; it must be actively maintained.

Of course, President Trump’s demise has been predicted numerous times and he has overcome issues that would have destroyed most politicians. After calling New York mayor-elect Mamdani a “100% Communist lunatic”, he praised him at a recent meeting in the Oval Office. This may be part of the clever 3-D chess that Trump’s supporters praise him for and just when you think that you have President Trump figured out, he throws in a wild card.

Culturally, there are subtle but telling indicators as well indicating that President Trump’s influence may be on the wane. Conservative media figures who once echoed Trump’s every word are carving out more independent positions. Alternative conservative leaders—governors, senators, and influential commentators—are positioning themselves as heirs to a post-Trump future. And polling reveals a familiar pattern of public fatigue: voters increasingly signalling a desire for stability, predictability, and a reprieve from constant political conflict.

Recent opinion polls look very troubling for Republicans as attention turns toward the mid-terms in November 2026. It is possible that Republicans could lose the House and Senate. Undoubtedly, there would be an immediate rush by the Democrats to impeach President Trump, and much of his agenda would be sidelined. The key issue for voters seems to be the rising cost of living and economic pressures facing families. Despite President Trump having been responsible for a dramatic decrease in oil prices, voters are not giving him credit. Additionally, some of his policies related to tariffs and expansion of U.S. manufacturing, may not deliver jobs and growth before the midterm elections in 2026.

I also wonder if President Trump’s “flood the zone” strategy, with action on multiple fronts may have had a wearying impact on the electorate: international peace strategies, border closure, illegal immigrant roundups, revamping oil exploration, reforming universities, cutting waste, raising tariffs, attacking “woke” ideologies and many other action areas. President Trump has signed 217 Executive Orders in the last 10 months. In contrast Joe Biden signed (or at least his autopen did) 162 Executive Orders in four years!

Taken together, these are not signs of collapse but perhaps of transition. Trump remains a dominant figure—but the season of unstoppable momentum that defined his second term may now be passing. As Ecclesiastes reminds us, even movements that reshape the world eventually enter a time of testing, refinement, and change.

Globalism - the Continuing Season That Follows the Trump Season

The Trump era will pass and one wonders what will happen next? Trump’s successor is likely to be J.D. Vance but there is a long way to go until the Republican presidential primaries in early 2028, and who knows - little Marco may get the nomination. Whoever gets the Republican nomination, they are unlikely to be able to have the impact of President Trump who is a unique political figure.

On the Democratic side of politics, no natural leader has emerged yet but Californian governor, Gavin Newsom, is attempting to position himself for Democratic Party endorsement. However, he doesn’t have the charisma of a Zohran Mamdani and there is time for such an Obama-like figure to emerge. The Democrats have tried a candidate who didn’t stand for anything apart from “joy”, and it is unlikely that they will go down that road again.

If the Democrats regain control of the House and Senate in November 2026, many of President Trump’s initiatives will stall and the cost-of-living issue, which took Mr Mamdani to the top, will continue to drive voters’ behaviour. The well-know quote of President Clinton’s advisor, James Carville during the 1992 presidential election campaign: “It’s the economy, stupid” - still resonates today. No one cares about peace prizes if they can’t afford a home or buy groceries.

In the meantime, while President Trump repeatedly promoted the idea of America First, his actions as a globalist have been widely noted - particularly how influenced he is by the Big Tech leaders.

The G20 countries are totally opposed to “drill baby drill” and in their recent gathering in South Africa (Figure 2), re-affirmed their commitment to the the economically devastating “net zero”.

Figure 2. Photo of G20 leaders - excited about Net Zero - from G20 website

Globalism has a trajectory that is unassailable and for the past 70 years, the climate has gradually become the rallying point for the claim that “global problems need global solutions”. An army of organisations and foundations has bound itself to the climate narrative; and having joined the procession, they will not allow mere facts to interrupt the march.

The tools for global control will be increasingly available and with AI and digital IDs, monitoring and surveillance will become part of day-to-day life. Digital IDs will become mandatory and at some time in the future, the U.S. will fall into line with the collectivists who dominate the United Nations. It is difficult to see this trajectory being resisted and I don’t think that there is another figure who will emerge to take on the globalists - except the antichrist himself- the ultimate globalist!

President Trump has been a great disruptor but for how much longer? He has 37 months of his presidential term left but he is at an age where a major health challenge could emerge at any time. Trump will be almost 83 years old at the end of his current term, the oldest president ever in office, and one of the few sustained and strengthened on a diet of Big Macs!

In contrast, President Reagan, considered by many to be too old for a second term, was only 77 years old when he left office in January 1989, and Joe Biden was 82 years old when his presidential term expired, and certainly Biden is no advertisement for over the 80s continuing in office.

There are definitely many warning signs for the Trump presidency and some of the problems he is now experiencing may be due to the the extraordinary speed and variety of areas that Trump has “attacked”. Voters may be worn out by the constant change and the upending of the established norms.

Conclusions

Yet one truth stands out from Trump’s decade on the political stage: his extraordinary ability to confound predictions and overturn the forecasts of the political elite. He has survived every politically-driven legal assault—more than 700 years of potential prison time arrayed against him—and still shapes the global conversation in a way no contemporary leader can match.

But even so, the trajectory of the next 37 months is impossible to chart. Trump has governed through disruption, velocity, and sheer personal force—and seasons shaped by such intensity rarely last forever. Ecclesiastes reminds us that “to everything there is a season,” and the season of Trump, remarkable as it has been, will in time give way to another. The question is not whether the season will change, but what follows it?

Globalism, far from retreating, continues its long march; the technologies of control grow stronger; and the international consensus on climate and digital governance accelerates. Trump has delayed that trajectory, but no one—except the final global figure foreshadowed in Scripture—appears capable of reversing it. The Book of Revelation describes a coming world leader who demands allegiance and enforces compliance through a mark—an image once unthinkable, now chillingly plausible in the age of digital IDs and ubiquitous surveillance.

Trump’s impact may not be fully understood until years after his presidential library opens in Florida, built (perhaps fittingly) on the proceeds of his victories over the media. But this much is clear: we will never see another Trump. His season has been singular—defiant, disruptive, impossible to ignore. And as that season eventually passes, we would do well to discern the signs of the one that follows.

I have been puzzled that the ongoing failure of socialism/communism and its history of oppression and genocide never deter what appears to be an increasing number of supporters, particularly among younger people. A recent Australian YouGov poll found that 53% of 18- to 24-year-olds want more socialism, and similar results have been found in a number of countries in the West.

At its heart, what seems to be an increasingly popular worldview tells us that by nature, many people are inclined toward the concept of equality. One would have to think that this is a good thing. However, lived experience (as the social workers say) tells us a different story. In seeking to make people more equal, human nature intervenes and backs the story of self-interest.

This is chillingly noted toward the end of George Orwell’s famous novel Animal Farm where he wrote: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

The outcomes of the forced application of an extreme Left wing viewpoint can be seen in countries like North Korea where President Kim Jong Un leads a trans-generational cult that has brought death and suffering to millions of North Koreans. There seems to be no realisation that the results are a direct outcome of the long-term collectivist philosophy and oppression of the population by his father and grandfather. He is more than just a bad guy - he oversees a bad system. You can see that it is bad from the official title of the country: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Any country that has “democratic” and “people” in the title is almost certain to be an authoritarian dictatorship!

It seems that if there is sufficient “investment” in surveillance and control of populations, the “more equal” can survive in power a long time but eventually, as seen in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the 1990s, there is a day of reckoning. To date, Communist China, has been able to avoid the reckoning day by delivering increasing prosperity to the broader population, and ruthless purging of “corrupt” senior leaders who could be a threat to President Xi.

As we survey the political world, there is a battle between the collectivists and the free market/libertarians and it does seem as though the collectivists are winning. In the U.K., Sir Keir Starmer is leading a collectivist, Big Government toward bankruptcy and civil war, and he has four more years to completely destroy the country. Similar issues are in play in Australia and Canada where Big Government is seeking to tax its population into oblivion, sabotage national energy security and and dismantle national borders.

Of course, the ultimate collectivists, the United Nations, are seeking control of the whole world through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Myriad organisations are promoting these goals, including many local councils.

What Do We Mean by Right and Left?

The familiar labels Right and Left in politics go back to the French Revolution, when those who supported the monarchy and church sat to the right of the Speaker, and those who sought to overturn them sat to the left. Ever since, these two words have described not merely political positions, but opposing views of human nature.

The Left begins with faith in the perfectibility of man — the belief that, given enough education, regulation, and government guidance, society can be improved and human flaws can be corrected. It sees inequality as the great injustice of life and seeks to remove it through social engineering, redistribution, and state control. Because people are viewed as products of their environment, the Left insists on reshaping that environment — by intervention, taxation, and bureaucracy — to produce a better human being. It is the politics of progress by compulsion.

The Right, by contrast, begins with a recognition of the limits of man and the sovereignty of God. It believes that freedom, not control, allows virtue and responsibility to flourish. Governments exist to secure rights, not to bestow them — those “inalienable rights,” as the American Founders wrote, “endowed by their Creator.” The Right therefore upholds small government, individual liberty, private property, faith, family, and the rule of law. It accepts that human nature is fallen and imperfect, and so designs systems that restrain power rather than concentrate it.

In short:

• The Left seeks to perfect mankind through government;

• The Right seeks to protect mankind from government.

One dreams of building heaven on earth through policy.
The other remembers that heaven is not of this world — and that freedom, once surrendered, is rarely returned.

The two core political philosophies clash on a daily basis in the West but most people have no frame of reference to compare the ideas. Politicians have honed the art of providing “free stuff”, and this was the essence of Mr Mamdani’s successful campaign for Mayor of New York. His promises included: free childcare, free buses, rent freezes, and city-run grocery stores. These policies were very popular with younger voters. Now, the policies have to be delivered and Mr Mamdani will discover the maxim of Margaret Thatcher: ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.’ Wealthy people are already leaving New York city for Florida and Texas.

The Fracture of the Right

In recent days, the political right seems to have divided in ways not seen since the Cold War. Where the old conservative consensus united around free markets, Western alliances, and a shared opposition to socialism, today those assumptions are being challenged from within. The dividing line is no longer simply economic policy or moral values, but questions of sovereignty, identity, and global power. Many of the figures now labelled “far right” by the media — from Tucker Carlson in the United States to Nigel Farage in Britain — are not extremists at all, but rather national conservatives who reject endless wars and the subordination of national interest to global institutions.

The term “extreme right” is often used carelessly to describe anyone critical of mass immigration or global governance, yet in its true sense it refers to movements that are authoritarian, anti-democratic, or racially exclusionary. Most of those now castigated with that label are instead articulating a populist or traditional conservative defense of borders, faith, culture, and economic independence. Their scepticism toward the global order has been intensified by disillusionment with political elites who claim to be conservative yet embrace progressive cultural agendas and foreign entanglements that ordinary citizens no longer support.

The fracture has become most visible over Israel and the war in Gaza. For decades, support for Israel was a near-unquestioned plank of Western conservatism. Yet a new generation of right-leaning thinkers — more isolationist, sceptical of neoconservative wars, and wary of dual loyalties within Western foreign policy — has begun to challenge that orthodoxy. This is not necessarily hostility toward Israel, but a reaction to what many see as the misuse of foreign policy in the name of ideology rather than national interest.

For those who cherish small government, individual freedom, and the moral inheritance of Western civilisation, this is a time for discernment rather than division. It is vital not to be drawn into polemical debate or personal vitriol that fractures those who broadly share the same foundational values. Israel, once again, has become a dividing point — yet this is not new.

Antisemitism has been a recurring theme throughout the past two thousand years, often revealing the spiritual fault lines within nations. Many forget that Jesus was a Jew, who came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets — found in the Hebrew Tanach or what we call the Old Testament.

There is deep contention over what “Israel” means in the Old Testament, yet Genesis 12:3 still speaks with enduring relevance: “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The verse refers to Abraham and his descendants, notably Jacob (Israel) and his 12 sons, which became the 12 tribes of Israel.

Whatever our political views, this remains God’s perspective. While the world may look to New York, London, or Beijing as the great centres of power, from God’s point of view, His gaze is fixed on Jerusalem — the Holy City — and it is there, not in the capitals of men, that the true story of the age is unfolding.

Conclusions

Conservative political ideas require courage to uphold because they are anchored in reality — in how people actually live and behave, not in utopian theories about how they should behave. President Trump, whether admired or despised, has offered a practical template for Western nations seeking to restore the trust of their citizens: protect national borders, put national interests first, withdraw from unaccountable global institutions such as the WHO and the Paris Climate Accord, secure reliable energy by rejecting the economic folly of net zero, and demand accountability from education systems and the media. The latter is crucial, given the dominance of state-funded broadcasters like the BBC, ABC, and CBC, whose cultural bias continually reinforces left-wing narratives.

The task before the West is not to imitate Trump’s personality but to recover the principles his movement has reawakened — national sovereignty, energy independence, free speech, and faith in the worth of one’s own people. Reasserting these timeless foundations, and standing firmly against the fashionable collectivism and identity politics of the age, remains the surest path to renewal and liberty.

Articles That Caught My Attention

If You Want to Move Somewhere - Don’t Go to Dubai!

As the collectivists take hold of the U.K. and try to tax the rich out of existence and ensure that family farms are destroyed and private education is outlawed, the wealthy have been looking for other locations to live. Some in the U.S. have decided to move to Russia. Last year the Moscow Times reported in August 2024:

“President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree allowing foreign citizens and stateless individuals to apply for temporary residency in the country if they share “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” even in cases when a person does not speak Russian.

The decree states that those who oppose the “destructive neoliberal ideological agenda” in their home country can seek “humanitarian support” from the Russian authorities by applying for a temporary residence permit.”

For many, the combination of the cold climate and concern about health challenges related to tall buildings in Russia, has resulted in alternate locations being sought. Dubai is popular with U.K. citizens and the U.K. Standard reports that ~240,000 U.K. citizens live in Dubai.

Tanya Gold, a U.K. Standard reporter, who visited Dubai recently, provided this assessment:

“When I went to Dubai I found it disorientating, above all things — capitalism meets tyranny, and I can’t fathom anything worse. They have astounding things — the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building; the Palm Jumeirah, an artificial archipelago created in the shape of a palm tree — and this seems to blind credulous westerners to its reality. Dubai is a dictatorship under Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and he preserves his absolute power as dictators always do: with the repression of all potential threats.

A Human Rights Watch spokeswoman says Dubai has “a zero-tolerance policy towards dissent and no respect for basic freedoms”. There are “grave crimes committed against migrant workers, as well as an extremely abusive foreign policy”. The UAE finances brutal militia in Yemen and the Sudan.”

Ms Gold interviewed a number of people including those concerned about the human rights of workers who have limited protections. Dubai is in effect, a dictatorship, under the control of the ruling family. The wealthy can do well in Dubai but even the wealthy have found themselves in legal difficulties when there are disputes with Emiratis.

The article concludes with a warning for all of us in the West:

“It’s a truism: in a tyranny you can’t know your own countrymen. Sometimes you can’t even know your own family. Dubai isn’t just a place, it’s a metaphor, and that is why it is so fascinating: what will we do for money, and what will it cost us in the end? Do the British people flooding it know that?

My fear is that we, in our rotting democracies, will become like Dubai, because to value this is to value tyranny, whatever name you give it, and there’s a word for that. Decadence: always the final age of empire.”

COP30 - Brazil - Another Climate Junket!

Probably because there have been interesting stories about President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, and various political crises around the world, we have been spared a lot of publicity about the destruction of humanity and the end of the world coming out of COP30. This talk-fest is underway in Belém, Brazil from 10 to 21 November 2025 and there are reports of more than 50,000 delegates! I hope that at least it is positive for the the local economy in Belém. The city is often described as the gateway to the Amazon and one hopes that the local piranhas don’t have the opportunity to feast on the climate bureaucrats.

Dr Robert Malone provided a helpful perspective on COP30 in his recent substack post:

Malone News

COP30 - Psyops in Action

The 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, dubbed COP30, is taking place in Belém, Pará, Brazil, from November 10 to 21, amid the Amazon rainforest. The optics being that this meeting is being held in a vital natural resource that sequesters massive amounts of carbon and supports global ecological balance, which requires the globalists to provid…

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8 months ago · 302 likes · 89 comments · Dr. Robert W. Malone

Dr Malone notes:

“The Trump administration is rightly focused on energy independence and economic growth, so it has almost completely boycotted COP30 and closed its climate diplomacy office.

However, California Governor Gavin Newsom is attending “unofficially” to signal support - whatever the heck “unofficially” means, as he was one of the keynote speakers. The summit features leaders warning about the rising threat of disasters and emphasizing the 1.5°C limit as humanity’s “red line.” They also called for sweeping economic changes that could harm industries, increase energy prices, and add burdens to working families, all to promote unproven green policies.

There are no dissenting voices at COP30. Groupthink has taken over these government officials, who are determined to ruin their economies in the name of climate change.”

COP30 has used local indigenous groups to traumatise the consciences of participants and has enabled these groups to protest and even “storm” the conference. It is all part of a globalist agenda, and the Trump administration should be applauded for withdrawing the U.S. from this collectivist shindig. Dr Malone concludes:

“Ultimately, climate change initiatives reinforce globalism by seeking to limit bilateral agreements and national sovereignty. Globalism relies on shared responsibility, technology transfer, and financial flows to enable smooth business operations. WEF corporate members have gained notable benefits from this push for climate initiatives, achieving substantial returns from investments in wind turbines, solar power, land acquisitions, investment funds, and more. The UN has used climate change to expand its international authority.

The United States is paving a new path, one devoid of multilateral agreements that lead to vast sums being spent on boondoggle projects that work to build the international power of the United Nations and not much else. Thank goodness for Trump.”

The BBC - Not a “Trusted News Source” but a Left Wing Propaganda Organisation Funded by U.K. Taxpayers

The British Broadcasting Corporation has long seen itself as the purveyor of trusted information and a shining light in the world of misinformation. In 2019, the BBC—once the standard-bearer of public trust in journalism—quietly launched what it called the Trusted News Initiative (TNI). Partnering with major global broadcasters, wire services, and tech platforms, the TNI claimed to protect the public from “harmful misinformation,” especially during elections and the COVID crisis. Yet what emerged looked less like open inquiry and more like a digital priesthood of approved truth. Under the banner of safety, an international network of media gatekeepers began determining which voices could be heard and which would be silenced. The irony was not lost on those who still prize truth over narrative: in seeking to defend trust, they destroyed it. As Isaiah warned, “Truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14).

Now, the BBC has been caught red-handed, dramatically editing a speech of President Trump’s in 2021, as well as many other indications of providing broadcast material that seeks to promote a Left wing viewpoint rather than impartial information. A leaked 19-page memo, from Michael Prescott, a former BBC journalist and independent reviewer, to the BBC Board is scathing about a culture of denialism and group think within the BBC. You can read the memo details here. It is worthwhile reviewing the entire memo because what is clear is that the BBC has a cultural and systemic problem that won’t be solved by resignations from the BBC Director-General and the Head of News.

Allister Heath writing in the U.K Telegraph has provided a scathing assessment of the BBC and I recommend that Sons of Issachar subscribers read the entire article. Here are a few paragraphs from Mr Heath’s article, published on 5 November 2025:

“Britain is a decaying, dysfunctional society, and the BBC is complicit in our decline. Our national broadcaster is not merely dishonest, biased and prone to cover-ups, as a Telegraph investigation reveals; it has also been wrong about almost everything that matters.

Fuelled by billions of pounds extracted via the licence fee, the BBC has spent 40 years shrinking the Overton window, waging war against centre-Right dissidents, bullying politicians into following destructive orthodoxies and promoting an anti-Western, anti-capitalist, anti-conservative worldview.

Its output, riddled with groupthink, lapped up by our decrepit establishment, reeks of oikophobia, economic illiteracy, soft socialism, suicidal empathy and luxury beliefs. Seduced by critical theory, the BBC backs the “anywheres” against the “somewheres”, supports global institutions, from the European Union to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and barely conceals its disgust at those who prefer power to be located at the national level.”

The BBC Director General has had the good grace to resign but clearly there is institutional decay and a culture of non-accountability. A more drastic approach is needed but the U.K. government will lack the resolve to take action. Mr Heath concludes as follows:

”We need private Left-wing media, and we need private Right-wing media, but it is madness to force taxpayers to underwrite the warping of our polity. Enough is enough.”

Note: Licence fees levied on U.K. households provide £3.66 billion to fund the BBC. In Australia, more than A$1 billion is provided to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a mirror left-wing organisation. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation similarly receives CAN$1.38 billion. It is extraordinary that these mouthpieces of the Left continue to function without restraint but change may be in the wind. Let’s see what happens with the BBC. U.K. Labour will try their best to protect their fellow-travelers.

The People’s Republic of New York

The election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York has caught the attention of the world. Sam Faddis, who writes an excellent substack that I cite frequently in this newsletter, has provided an interesting overview of the likely path ahead for this young man who has promoted the idea of sending social workers rather than police officers to certain emergency calls in New York city.

AND Magazine

The People’s Republic Of New York – Step One - Eliminate The Police

Zohran Mamdani has named his longtime advisor, Elle Bisgaard-Church, to be his chief of staff. She is the principal architect of Mamdani’s proposal to have social workers respond to certain 911 calls in New York City. Her appointment is viewed as an indication that Mamdani will shift significant power in regard to public safety away from the New York Po…

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8 months ago · 50 likes · 3 comments · Sam Faddis

Mr Faddis notes that a key platform in Mr Mamdani’s policy options is to defund the police, an ideological view that will have serious downstream effects. It may be wise to plan your future trip to another U.S. city after January 2026., when Mr Mamdani is sworn into office.

“Mamdani and the Communist Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are not really focused on matters of efficiency or public service. They are focused on power. The police in their view, represent the state. They must be attacked, because the revolutionaries need to seize power, and the police are in the way…….

As with so many aspects of Mamdani’s platform, the public and the press remain unwilling to confront the true nature of what he and his supporters intend. These are not reformers who believe they can craft a more efficient and humane approach to policing. These are revolutionaries who are dedicated to the proposition that the United States is an illegitimate, oppressive regime that must be toppled.”

It is important to keep our eyes on what happens in New York because undoubtedly the policies espoused by Mr Mamdani and his revolutionaries will be exported to other cities internationally. One hopes that it won’t take too many dramatic events to force a policy change in New York City. Unfortunately, true believers are wedded to their collectivist beliefs and real world data seldom persuades.

Digital Technologies and Climate Change

Dr Jacob Nordangård has written an interesting post this week that also focuses on COP30 but particularly the application of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and digital technologies, which are part of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. DPI is also one of the key areas outlined in the U.N.’ s Summit of the Future and provides a mechanism for ongoing surveillance.

The Pharos Chronicles – Jacob Nordangård, PhD

COP30 proposal: "Global Public Digital Infrastructure for Climate" guided by a UN Climate Change Council

As usual around this time of the year, it is time for the United Nations Climate Summit. About 50 000 conference attendees have flown to Belém in Brazil from all over the world to discuss how “to accelerate and expand climate action” at COP 30…

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8 months ago · 51 likes · 8 comments · Jacob Nordangård

As usual with the U.N., the communiqués released are almost incomprehensible. Dr Nordangård reports in his Pharos Chronicles:

“A couple of days before the summit started, the Brazilian presidency presented a “groundbreaking proposal” for “transparent, interoperable and rapid coordination” of climate action called Global Public Digital Infrastructure for Climate (Climate DPI).

The proposal is an answer to the DPI for People and Planet Innovation Challenge which was launched in June this year by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Co-Develop, the Gates Foundation, the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI), and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in partnership with the COP30 presidency.

The mission is to “to design, prototype, and present transformative solutions that leverage DPI to address pressing planetary environmental challenges” and “spark a global wave of experimentation, nurture a new generation of climate-tech builders, and surface solutions that are ready to scale - or already scaling - worldwide.”

In plain terms, this means the climate agenda is shifting toward a global digital control system — a network to track, measure, and coordinate every aspect of environmental policy and carbon use. Beneath the talk of “innovation” and “transparency” lies the drive to build the digital backbone of global governance, extending the technocratic reach of the surveillance state under the banner of saving the planet.

Dr Nordangård also draws attention to what is becoming a very serious issue for governments that embrace the whole climate agenda: “misinformation”. Even in Australia, government bodies such as the Human Rights Commission have started to promote the problem of misinformation from those who are sceptical of the impending global catastrophe from climate change. Dr Nordangård writes:

“One of the partners in the initiative is the global coalition Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) assembling “90 leading climate and anti-disinformation organisations”.

Their definition of climate disinformation and misinformation is that it “undermines the existence or impacts of climate change, the unequivocal human influence on climate change, and the need for corresponding urgent action.”

Figure 1. Home page of the 90 countries participating in Global Action Against Disinformation

We are going to hear a lot more about “misinformation” and “disinformation” in the days ahead. Governments will increasingly attempt to shut down alternate opinions and pressure social media companies to censor what governments regard as “misinformation” or “disinformation”.

It will be increasingly difficult in the future to find views that provide an alternative to “Big Brother”, particularly when you are required to log in to the internet with your digital ID.

Be aware - the noose is tightening!

The fact that the attack happened at all is one of the greatest failures of Israeli intelligence and has led to speculation that the attack was permitted to enable Israel to mount a massive campaign against not only Hamas but all Israel’s enemies. It will be difficult to ever establish the truth but the attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023 changed not only Israel but the world.

When major events happen such as the overwhelming attack by Hamas in the region of Gaza despite Israel’s famed intelligence capability, it does lead to questions about whether it was incompetence or some deeper conspiracy. I covered these ideas in my newsletter in May 2023, focusing particularly on the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese (see below)

Why Israel?

It continually amazes me that Israel, a country, just a little more than 20,000 km² in total area (for comparison, the Snowy Monaro Regional Council in Southern Australia where I live is around 15,000 km² and Wales around 20,000 km²), has such an outsize influence on world affairs. This small country dominates the news and the history of conflict in this region goes back thousands of years. It is not because of its amazing resources or even strategic location. Israel with God’s own city of Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3) have a spiritual significance that extends back to the time of Abraham and God’s promise to him, as recorded in Genesis 15:18 and Genesis 17:7:

“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates”” (Genesis 15:18)

I will always keep the promise I have made to you and your descendants, because I am your God and their God. ⁸ I will give you and them the land in which you are now a foreigner. I will give the whole land of Canaan to your family forever, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7).

A little later in the Bible (Numbers 34:1-12) God provides more details of the geographic area. I have attempted to demonstrate this with a current map of the region.

Figure 1. Schematic of approximate boundaries of land given to Abraham and his descendants as outlined in the Books of Genesis and Numbers

The region has always been contested and there have been wars between Abraham’s descendants and the tribes in the region of modern-day Israel since Joshua took the children of Israel across the Jordan River and drove out the inhabitants.

The modern state of Israel was created by U.N. decree with Resolution 181 on 29 November 1947, known as the U.N. Partition Plan for Palestine. This plan proposed dividing the British Mandate of Palestine into two states — one Jewish and one Arab — with Jerusalem under international administration. Jewish leaders accepted the plan; Arab leaders rejected it.

On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the State of Israel, invoking the authority of the UN plan but effectively establishing independence unilaterally, as Britain ended its mandate. Within hours, five Arab armies (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq) invaded. Miraculously, Israel survived the 1948–49 war and actually expanded its territory beyond the UN plan’s proposed borders — gaining control of about 78% of Mandatory Palestine, including West Jerusalem. Israel’s territory increased further in 1967 and 1973.

The Six Day War in 1967 resulted in Israel taking control of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip (from Egypt), the West Bank and East Jerusalem (from Jordan), and the Golan Heights (from Syria).

This war dramatically expanded Israel’s area of control — roughly tripling it.Most of these territories remain at the heart of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict today. It should be remembered though that had the Arab armies been successful in the various wars, Israel in its current form would no longer exist.

The Yom Kippur War in October 1973 resulted from Egypt and Syria launching a surprise attack on the Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur, considered the holiest day in Judaism. Israel initially suffered heavy losses but ultimately repelled the attacks and regained the upper hand militarily.

This war did not produce major long-term territorial expansion, but it led to later peace treaties:

• The Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty (1979) — Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

• The Jordan–Israel Peace Treaty (1994) — affirmed current borders.

In the period after 1948, Israel was virtually a socialist state but one that put in place the means for self-defense. The kibbutzim (collective agricultural communities) were lauded by the political left as a testament to socialist principles. Israel’s massive defeat of its enemies during the Six Day War received accolades and support from the West.

However, in more recent years the plight of the Palestinians has become a focus of the political left, with support by Muslims who have migrated to a range of countries where previously there was only a very small representation of Islam. Today, Israel is seen as a colonial occupier and Israel has found itself with a dwindling group of supporters.

It is fanciful to think that a long-term peace treaty can be achieved between Israel and supporters of Palestine because this is not a situation where economic benefits can deal with the root cause and simply set aside the spiritual battle between Muslims, Christians and Jews. This spiritual battle has raged since the time of Mohamed in the 7th century and the determination of groups like Hamas to eliminate the current state of Israel has prevented any of the many peace measures being successful.

The October 7 Attack

Since Israel handed over control of Gaza in 2005, Hamas, a terror organisation committed to elimination of Israel, has gradually gained control of the territory and there have been ongoing challenges associated with attacks on Israel being launched by Hamas. Materials for Gaza reconstruction have been used to build hundreds of kilometres of tunnels. These tunnels permit weapon storage, house communication centres and also enable surprise attacks into Israeli territory. There have been ongoing attacks from Gaza since 2005 and most Israelis believe that it was the wrong decision to hand Gaza back.

This brings me to the surprise and massive attacks of 7 October 2023.

I have just read a new book called While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot (see Figure 2) , which provides many of the details about how Israel was subjected to this devastating attack, apparently without the knowledge of Israel’s famed intelligence services.

Figure 2. Cover of While Israel Slept by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot.

Steve Bannon interviewed Yaacov Katz about his book last week and I have included the podcast link below. For interested readers, the interview is a quick way of understanding the key points of the book.

While Israel Slept begins with the shocking scene of the women soldiers at the Nahal Oz military base, very close to the border with Gaza. Fifteen of the tatzpitaniyot (Hebrew for observers) had been killed when their base was overrun by Hamas terrorists and seven had been captured. The tatzpitaniyot were all 19 and 20 year women who were completing their two-year compulsory military service. They were stationed close to the border where they watched screens inside the base because they had superior visual and observational skills to their male colleagues.

The tatzpitaniyot had been warning of unusual activity near in Gaza for some days before the attack but these and other warnings went unheeded by most of the senior Israeli intelligence. According to Katz and Bohbot, the failure was due to a paradigm or mindset among the intelligence leaders that the main threats were from Lebanon and Syria. There was a belief that Hamas leaders were more interested in economic stability than war. There appeared to be a frame of reference that did not allow key leaders to understand the risk of a full-scale assault across the Gaza border, and so crucial information was ignored.

Billions of dollars had been spent on the border wall and a range of surveillance devices. The wall provided a false sense of security. Unfortunately, what was missing was the “human intelligence” of spies embedded within Hamas who could have provided warnings.

Around 6:30am on 7 September, the border was breached by land, sea and air in many places and the message “Turkish horsemen” went out signaling a massive border infiltration. There was a shocking failure by the military to respond quickly and many lives were lost and hostages taken because of long delays in getting troops to the border. The authors write:

“At this point, as hundreds of rockets rained down on Israel—from Nahal Oz in the south to Tel Aviv in the center—thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of Hamas’s elite Nukhba fighters, were blowing holes in the border barrier on their way to commit an unprecedented massacre inside Israel.”

Katz, Yaakov; Bohbot, Amir. While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East (pp. 3-4). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The soldiers were sitting ducks because noone imagined an attack of this scale.

“Due to the sirens sounding because of the rocket and mortar fire, the tatzpitaniyot had gathered unarmed in the designated protective space in the middle of the base, and when the Hamas fighters broke in, they shot anyone who was in their way, killing more than fifty soldiers in the small outpost.”

Katz, Yaakov; Bohbot, Amir. While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East (p. 4). (Function). Kindle Edition.

The shocking scenes that unfolded in the areas adjacent to Gaza were described by the authors as follows:

“As the female soldiers were being taken hostage, thousands of Israelis were fighting for their lives in the towns, kibbutzim, and fields along the border. Hamas terrorists had blown dozens of openings in the border fence and infiltrated almost all of the neighboring communities, including two of the nearby larger cities of Sderot and Ofakim. Everywhere they went, they raped, murdered, and abducted. No one was immune, and in the fields near Re’im, where the Nova Music Festival was taking place with the participation of some 3,000 partygoers, Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 360 people.”

Katz, Yaakov; Bohbot, Amir. While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East (p. 6). (Function). Kindle Edition.

In summarising the impact of what happened in the early hours of 7 September 2023, the authors note:

“The Hamas attacks on October 7 were like nothing Israel had seen before. They were atrocities that the Jewish people thought were no longer possible, or at least—since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948—could no longer be perpetrated against it. After all, Israel had the mighty IDF, one of the best-trained and technologically advanced militaries in the world. It had Mossad and Shin Bet, two of the world’s most advanced intelligence agencies, believed to be capable of instilling fear in the hearts of their adversaries. Israel is even said to possess nuclear weapons. But despite all of this, more than 1,200 people were killed that day and another 251 were taken hostage by Hamas. It was, as Israeli president Isaac Herzog later said, the single day that the most Jews were killed since the Holocaust.”

Katz, Yaakov; Bohbot, Amir. While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East (pp. 8-9). (Function). Kindle Edition.

Katz and Bohbot outline a range of important information that failed to be acted on in the period leading up to the invasion. It is difficult to believe that this was simply arrogance or complacency, which is why many analysts have posed the idea of a “false flag”, where an attack was allowed by military intelligence so that an overwhelming response could then be sanctioned.

Mossad, Shin Bet and Aman - the Key Israeli Intelligence Agencies

It does appear that as in the U.S. with the 9/11 attack where there was little or no coordination between different intelligence agencies, a similar problem occurred in Israel. There are three key intelligence services in Israel and I have briefly outlined their roles below:

1. Mossad (Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations)

Mossad is Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, roughly equivalent to the CIA or MI6. Its core functions are espionage, counterterrorism, and covert operations abroad, including the recruitment of agents, sabotage, and targeted assassinations. Mossad’s primary focus is external threats to Israel, especially those involving Iran, Hezbollah, and other regional threats. It operates under the direct authority of the Prime Minister and is renowned for its global reach and operational daring — from capturing Adolf Eichmann in 1960 to cyber operations against Iran’s nuclear program.

2. Shin Bet (Shabak – Israel Security Agency)

Shin Bet is Israel’s domestic intelligence and internal security service, similar to the FBI or MI5. Its responsibilities include counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and protecting key state officials and infrastructure. It operates mainly within Israel and the Palestinian territories, monitoring militant groups, preventing attacks, and maintaining internal security. While Israel Slept outlines the agency’s failure to anticipate or intercept Hamas’s preparations before October 7, 2023. There still has been no major official inquiry examining intelligence failures.

3. Aman (Directorate of Military Intelligence – IDF Intelligence Corps)

Aman is the military intelligence branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It focuses on strategic and battlefield intelligence, including electronic surveillance, signal interception, and satellite reconnaissance. Aman produces threat assessments, oversees military intelligence units (such as Unit 8200, the elite cyber and signals intelligence division), and provides operational intelligence to the IDF. It was Aman’s responsibility to analyze Hamas’s military intentions — an area where there appears to have been systemic failure due to overconfidence and misinterpretation of intelligence patterns.

Summary of the 7 September Failures

1. Advance Warnings Ignored
Israeli intelligence had fragments of Hamas’s attack plan—codenamed Jericho Wall—about a year in advance. Analysts in Aman and Shin Bet reviewed it but dismissed it as “aspirational,” believing Hamas was deterred by Israel’s strength. This mindset, which the authors called the Conceptzia, echoed earlier misjudgments before the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

2. Multi-Layered Intelligence Breakdown
All three agencies—Mossad, Shin Bet, and Aman—shared pieces of a larger puzzle but failed to integrate them. Border surveillance systems were left lightly manned, electronic warnings were discounted, and Hamas’s training drills were misinterpreted as posturing.

3. Political and Strategic Overconfidence
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government prioritized containing Hamas and expanding West Bank settlements over confronting Gaza militarily. The strategy of “managing” Hamas as a divided Palestinian authority contributed to complacency at the top. Netanyahu even accepted and facilitated the hundreds of millions of dollars coming into Gaza from Qatar.

Recommendations by the authors of While Israel Slept

The authors, both very experienced journalists and commentators with deep sources with the Israeli military and intelligence services provide some recommendations in the final chapter of their book, titled Preventing Another October 7. Here is a summary:

• Israel must break the cycle of “containment” and assume a posture of decisive deterrence — recognising that waiting for others to act first invites surprise.

• Intelligence agencies (military, domestic, foreign) must fuse into a single, connected system: shared data, shared analysis, shared accountability — so blind spots disappear and threat vectors don’t fall through the cracks.

• The alliance with the United States must be renewed and strengthened, not just militarily but diplomatically: Israel cannot afford isolation or weakened strategic backing when threats multiply.

• Israel’s public diplomacy must shift gear — not only defending actions but explaining strategic purpose clearly in global forums, because open societies lose credibility when perceived as reactive rather than proactive.

• Social cohesion at home is a strategic asset. Internal division weakens alertness. Military preparedness is hampered when the national fabric is frayed — therefore Isra­el must restore unity of purpose across its society.

• Israel must prepare for different kinds of wars: not just large conventional wars but asym­metric, tunnel-based, hybrid threats. That means investment in under­ground defence, rapid response, and society resilience.

• The leadership must adopt humility — acknowledging past mis-reads, publicly owning failure, and setting transparent benchmarks for improvement. Leadership that hides error invites future disaster.

All these recommendations seem valid but may be hard to enact. By their nature, intelligence services are secretive and it is unlikely that an acknowledgment of areas of failure is feasible. It is difficult to know what the intentions of Hamas leadership were in launching such a brutal and barbaric attack on Israeli civilians but the attack succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Hamas leadership are prepared to use their own people as human shields and this has been well documented by journalists who note that weapons are often placed in schools and hospitals. The outcome is great sympathy for Palestinians and condemnation of Israel.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

One could have imagined that faced with the barbarity of the Hamas attacks, Israeli leaders would have had some confidence that Israel would have strong support from the international community. However, what happened is that even in the early stages of the attack, Western leaders started warning Israel not to retaliate and that any response should be “proportional”.

Within 24 hours, Muslim protestors and left-wing sympathisers had taken over the streets of major capitals around the world, condemning Israel and there were chants of “from the river to the sea”, a call for extermination of all Jews in Israel. Authorities in the West were flummoxed and were caught in a “freedom of speech” trap, where such chants, and others such as “kill the Jews” were permitted.

Well-funded protests spread to major college campuses around the West and high-profile universities such as Columbia and Harvard allowed tent cities to be erected. University authorities were unable to implement what should have been simple measures to ensure the safety of Jewish students and Rep Elise Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents demonstrated the ineffectiveness of these university leaders. I have provided a short clip of a section of the hearings below:

There were real-world consequences and many of these university leaders stepped down or were dismissed after their ineffectiveness was demonstrated. Subsequently, President Trump’s administration has removed billions of dollars funding because universities failed to respond effectively to antisemitism.

Nonetheless, international sympathies, almost from 7 September 2023 onward, have been with the Palestinians and Hamas. The Hamas leaders must have understood that despite the barbarity of the 7 October attack, there was a rich vein of antisemitism to be tapped into. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to attempt to eliminate Hamas by virtually destroying Gaza, has been a public relations disaster and President Trump reportedly told Netanyahu recently that the attacks in Gaza must stop.

Conclusions

The 20 point peace plan put together by President Trump and his advisors seems to have produced a short-term cessation of hostilities and undoubtedly we should all be pleased that there is a truce.

I wrote about the peace plan in last week’s post. Unfortunately, the root causes of the conflict have not been, and can’t be addressed. Islamists believe that it is their role to bring about the Islamisation of the world. This has even been expressed by the current leading New York mayoral candidate with a call to “globalise the intifada”.

The Middle East conflict is not one that can be solved with cash or diplomacy. The Bible tells us that a “man of peace” will arise and bring about peace as part of a bigger picture of world peace. However, as President Trump may say, it will be a “fake peace” and a prelude to a world dictatorship.

One often thinks about the centre of the world being in Beijing or New York but the spiritual centre is Jerusalem. It is good for Sons of Issachar readers to keep their eyes on what is happening in Israel and the surrounding region so that we can understand the times.

Just a few weeks after President Trump’s 2025 inauguration, he signed an Executive Order to establish The White House Faith Office. The idea of a White House Faith Office seems to have originated with President George W Bush who signed an Executive Order to created a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) in January 2001.

President Trump’s The Executive Order to establish a White House Faith Office is quite detailed (see this link) and I’ll highlight a few of the major items from the Executive Order below. Clearly, the idea of a Faith Office had been in the planning process for quite some time. The reason for establishing the Faith Office is:

“…to assist faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship in their efforts to strengthen American families, promote work and self-sufficiency, and protect religious liberty”. This will be done via:

• Funding - “The executive branch wants faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs, and other Federal funding opportunities.”

• Administrative changes - amendments to various Executive Orders implemented between 2001 and 2010 that relate to faith-based initiatives of the White House.

• White House Faith Office accountability - is directly under the executive office of the president. It will have, “lead responsibility in the executive branch to empower faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship to serve families and communities.”

• Consultation and focus of activity - the Executive Order requires the Faith Office to: “consult with and seek information from experts and various faith and community leaders …, including those from outside the Federal Government and those from State, local, and Tribal governments. These experts and leaders shall be identified based on their expertise …., including protecting women and children; strengthening marriage and family; lifting up individuals through work and self-sufficiency, defending religious liberty; combatting anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and additional forms of anti-religious bias; promoting foster care and adoption programs in partnership with faith-based entities; providing wholesome and effective education; preventing and reducing crime and facilitating prisoner reentry; promoting recovery from substance use disorder; and fostering flourishing minds.” There is almost no area of activity that the Faith Office doesn’t cover!

• Policy changes - the Faith Office will recommend policy changes to the president to the administration’s policy agenda related to “faith-based entities, community organizations and houses of worship”.

• Meetings and training - convene meetings with faith leaders, training concerning religious exemptions, and working with the public and private sector.

• Legal issues - working in conjunction with the Attorney General to ensure that religious liberty is protected.

• Centers of Faith - are suddenly mentioned in the Executive Order and it appears that each government agency will have a Center of Faith to “assist the Faith Office”.

The White House Faith Office hasn’t received a lot of attention and I was surprised to find how far-reaching were the office’s responsibilities and the lack of any definition of faith. The assumption seems to be that all faith is good and that all faiths are equal. Of course. there is a constitutional impediment for promoting one faith above another but by definition, all faiths cannot be equal because most are mutually exclusive.

The terminology used repeatedly throughout the Executive Order is: “faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship” to serve families and communities.” It’s difficult to know what the President has in mind but I don’t think it involves support for the Islamists, ISIS or Hamas, even though these are “faith-based organizations”.

U.S. Christian leaders have been buoyed by the establishment of the White House Faith Office but there seems to be an assumption that all faiths are equal and that the White House Faith Office means all types of organized religion. Perhaps this includes satanism?

I am concerned about the Faith Office and the potential it has to go off on a wrong tangent. There is a potential for this office, which has great influence with President Trump, to try to bring about a one world religion, in the name of world peace!

Fortunately, we were warned about this a few thousand years ago in the books of Daniel and Revelation. However, despite the warning, such is the power of deception that we could all walk into a trap. It is interesting to note the way we are being maneuvered by governments into trading surveillance for convenience.

A universal religion could be the “solution” to achieve world peace, and there are indicators of the significance of this strategy, when examining documents from the United Nations and the World Economic Forum to the newly-established White House Faith Office.

Paula White-Cain Appointed as Senior Advisor to the White House Faith Office

As soon as the Faith Office was established by the White House, it was announced that Paula White-Cain would be appointed to run it as a “Senior Advisor” and “Special Government Employee”. A Special Government Employee is a formal category created under 18 U.S.C. § 202 to allow people to work for the government in a temporary or advisory role while continuing other employment. This was the designation under which Elon Musk ran DOGE. A Special Government Employee typically is appointed for no more than 130 days of service in a 365-day period.

Paula White-Cain usually uses the simplified name, Paula White. She has been married three times, most recently to Jonathan Cain, the keyboardist and songwriter for the rock group Journey. White is a somewhat controversial figure, being linked to prosperity theology and having had some association with the “Moonies” cult in South Korea (more details below).

Christianity Today describes Ms White’s faith journey as follows:

“A neighbor in her trailer park led her to Christ, then White-Cain married Randy White, a Pentecostal preacher. The newlyweds scraped together enough resources to start a church in Tampa, Florida, that eventually became Without Walls International Church. They divorced in 2007, just before a Senate Finance Committee investigation found they had spent tax-exempt donations on a lavish mansion, a private jet, and exorbitant salaries for family members….”

In the early 2000s, she launched her show Paula White Today, and by 2006, she appeared on a half-dozen stations including Trinity Broadcasting Network and Daystar. During that time, Donald Trump saw her on TV and invited her to a meeting at Trump Tower. It is reported that Ms White has had a 24 year relationship with Donald Trump and his family. Clearly, she has had great influence in the Trump orbit and in a recent article with the Christian Broadcasting Network it was reported that Ms White said: “God saved him”.

Christianity Today described Ms White as the “Oprah of the evangelical world” and writes that in her ministry she: “platforms wellness experts, instructs followers on weight loss (repent and stop eating sugar), and offers beauty tips.” It seems that she has a holistic approach to faith!

Trump Tells White She Has the “It” Factor

“So, he calls me up, I get on the phone, he says, ‘You’ve got the ‘it’ factor,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘Oh, sir, we call that the anointing.’”

Trump then referenced a series White-Cain had preached at her church, showcasing he was familiar with her pastoral work. After that call, the two met in New York, and a friendship subsequently bloomed.

Over the years, White-Cain said she came to make a commitment to “never take a dime from him.” She continues this tradition in her White House role, where she said she declines to take a salary.

“I’ve kept that covenant with God,” White-Cain said. “I’ve never received a dime from President Trump. I won’t take a penny here … because it’s connected to President Trump.”

Years before Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, he spoke with White-Cain and told her he wasn’t a fan of how the country was moving.

“And he said, ‘I’m thinking about running for president. What do you think?’” she recalled. “I told him what I thought, and he turns around and goes, ‘What is God saying?’”

White-Cain told Trump she would need to take it to prayer, and she brought 30 pastors to Trump Tower in New York City, where they prayed for six and a half hours. Trump would come in and out of the meeting throughout the day and ponder what the Lord was telling the group.

“I looked at him … and I said, ‘Sir, you’re gonna be president, but I hate the price you’re gonna pay,’” she said, citing some of the political issues that have unfolded in recent years, including impeachments, claims of Russian interference and what supporters of the president have called “lawfare.”

But White-Cain said the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvannia, last year was the toughest price she believes Trump encountered. The presidential advisor became emotional as she recounted where she was when she heard Trump had been shot.

“I just said, ‘We’ve gotta pray,’” she said. “No one knew what was happening — if he was dead, if he was alive.”

White-Cain made phone calls to check on what was happening in real time, as the event had clearly had a profound impact on her. She was relieved when she learned he survived.

Ultimately, White-Cain believes the attempted assassination has had a deep impact on the president as well.

“He knows without a shadow of a doubt that God saved him and believes, like I do, that God saved him for a purpose and that he is now fulfilling that purpose,” she said.”

I found this a fascinating insight into President Trump’s journey of faith and the concept of God saving Trump for His purpose. Certainly, President Trump has stepped up several gears since the start of his second term and is juggling many complicated balls: shutting down illegal immigration, changing the economy and bringing back manufacturing, reforming education and the military, getting rid of “woke” in government entities, taking over Canada and Greenland, “drill baby drill” - and on the side - bringing about world peace!

The Trump Show brings about new surprises each week and this week it was the potential Israel and Hamas peace agreement. Is Trump a force for good or the antichrist? Time will tell but there never has been a U.S. president who has attempted a takeover of almost every government institution and has hit the ground at such a frenetic pace. You can imagine that it must be having an impact on his health but perhaps his cheeseburger diet is sustaining him.

President Trump grew up under the tutelage of Norman Vincent Peale, the famous New York Presbyterian pastor who authored the best-selling book: The Power of Positive Thinking. You can see that President Trump has taken up this philosophy with a vengeance! Any bloke who has enough chutzpah to even think that they can solve the Gaza crisis has cornered the market in positive thinking.

Undoubtedly, Paula White as the most consequential person in the Office of Faith is very influential with President Trump but it does seem as though Ms White may be promoting a multi-faith agenda. The Faith Office could be like a Trojan horse and may lead directly or indirectly to a One World religion, which already has gained some credence via the Abraham Accords. I wrote about these issues a few months ago and have included a link below:

Links Between the White House Faith Office and The World Peace Movement (South Korean Unification Church)

The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) was originally founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC). It is more widely known as the Unification Movement and after Mr Moon’s death in 2012, his wife Hak Ja Han Moon (often referred to as “Mother Moon”) became the leader.

While this movement may seem distant from Washington, it has recently intersected with the U.S. government through the leadership of Paula White, head of the White House Faith Office.

Paula White from the White House Faith Office seems to have close links to “Mother Moon” and in 2021 she attended the Cheongshim World Peace Center (see Figure 1 below) interfaith rally for world peace in South Korea where she is reported by Faithfully magazine in December 2021 to have called “Mother Moon”:

“…a jewel from God” during an event described by organizers as the “likely the largest and most diverse interfaith gathering ever” on December 5 in South Korea.

“I want to take a moment and honor as well as encourage Mother Moon for her great work as a spiritual leader who loves the Lord and seeks to carry out and to comfort the heart of God in all the areas of conflict in the world,”

Ms White has spoken a number of times about “Mother Moon” and lauded her in an address to the Universal Peace Summit for:

“her great work as a spiritual leader and as the Mother of Peace who loves the Lord and seeks to bring comfort to God’s heart and to all those that are under duress and distress around the world.”

These statements, documented in Universal Peace Foundation archives, indicate a degree of theological sympathy that extends beyond routine interfaith courtesy.

Figure 1. Inside the Cheongshim World Peace Center in South Korea. Source

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon also founded the Universal Peace Federation in 2005 in New York. A communication arm was also established: The Washington Times .

The Universal Peace Federation (UPF) seems very influential and the Unification Church and UPF have cornered the market for interfaith meetings and promotion of world peace (Figure 2). Its true financial reach is opaque, though credible reports suggest assets and expenditures in the billions.

The UPF functions not only as a religious NGO but as a diplomatic platform hosting heads of state, clergy, and media affiliates such as The Washington Times.

Figure 2. Photo from 2025 Universal Peace Federation conference for interfaith leaders. Source.

The group’s foundational philosophy is based on The Divine Principle, a text written by Sun Myung Moon. In summary, Mr Moon’s ideas include:

• God’s Ideal of the Family: God’s purpose is fulfilled through ideal families embodying true love.

• The Fall: Adam and Eve’s fall was both spiritual and physical (involving sexual sin).

• Restoration / Indemnity: History is a process of restoration, requiring humanity to make conditions of indemnity (sacrificial efforts to repair wrongs).

The Unification Church believes that Jesus came as the Messiah but was crucified before fulfilling his intended mission of establishing a perfect family and kingdom on earth. A “Second Advent” Messiah would come to complete this mission - and Sun Myung Moon is that person!

Such doctrines place the movement outside mainstream Christianity, yet they have proven remarkably effective in mobilizing a disciplined global network.

A key tenet of the Unification Church is that marriage is sacred, and the Blessing Ceremony (mass weddings involving tens of thousands of couples) allows couples to join God’s “true family” lineage. It is certainly big and beats Las Vegas by a long way!

Figure 3. Unification Church mass wedding ceremony in South Korea. Source.

Followers believe Sun Myung Moon was chosen by God to be the Second Advent of Christ. His marriage to Hak Ja Han (“True Mother”) established the position of “True Parents”, seen as the spiritual parents of humankind. Through them, fallen humanity can be “reborn” into God’s sinless lineage. Families, not individuals, are the basic unit of salvation and peace.

In September 2025, “Mother Moon” was arrested in Seoul in connection with alleged bribery involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee and a South Korean lawmaker. Prosecutors say she is accused of directing church officials to provide luxury gifts (Chanel bags, diamonds) to influence political favor. She has denied wrongdoing.

The Unification Church and the Universal Peace Federation are big and there are direct links via Paula White to the White House Faith Office.

What Has the White House Faith Office Been Doing?

The White House Faith Office has been busy and it has been reported in Christianity Today that the office has hosted more than 1,000 faith leaders in the fist 100 days of the Trump presidency.

One of the early Executive Orders (6 February 2025) was one for Eradicating Christian Bias. The Executive Order seems to have been a direct response to the Biden administration’s targeting of Christians. The Executive Order states:

“the previous Administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians, while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses. The Biden Department of Justice sought to squelch faith in the public square by bringing Federal criminal charges and obtaining in numerous cases multi-year prison sentences against nearly two dozen peaceful pro-life Christians for praying and demonstrating outside abortion facilities….”

In May this year, a Religious Liberty Commission was established. This Executive Order states:

“It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce the historic and robust protections for religious liberty enshrined in Federal law. The Founders envisioned a Nation in which religious voices and views are integral to a vibrant public square and human flourishing and in which religious people and institutions are free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or hostility from the Government….”

The Religious Liberty Commission is based in the U.S. Justice Department has thirteen commissioners as well as an Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, an Advisory Board of Legal Experts, and an Advisory Board of Lay Leaders. In total, there are 42 people involved in the four groups

The Religious Liberty Commission

The Commission has a number of luminaries and I have included edited details below, taken from the White House website.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (Chair)

Dan Patrick was first elected Lt. Governor of Texas in 2014 and then re-elected in 2018 and 2022. He previously spent over 40 years in the media as a television anchor, conservative talk show host, and successful radio station owner. Lt. Governor Patrick led the Texas Senate in passing legislation to end the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, abolish DEI practices in our universities, place “In God We Trust” in the Texas Senate, and add “Under God” to the state pledge of allegiance.

Dr. Ben Carson (Vice Chair)

Rising from poverty to become one of the most renowned pediatric neurosurgeons in the world, Dr. Ben Carson served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the first Trump Administration. Dr. Carson is the founder of the American Cornerstone Institute. His most recent book, The Perilous Fight, outlines what needs to be done to restore the foundations of family in America.

Ryan T. Anderson

Ryan Anderson, Ph.D., is the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author or co-author of five books, including several related to religious liberty. ..In addition to leading the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Anderson serves as the John Paul II Teaching Fellow in Social Thought at the University of Dallas.

Bishop Robert Barron

Author, speaker, and theologian, Bishop Robert Barron reaches millions of people around the world through his Word on Fire ministry, a Catholic media nonprofit that produces podcasts, videos, books, articles, and Gospel meditations.

Carrie Prejean Boller

Former Miss California USA and Miss USA first runner-up in 2009, Boller is the author of Still Standing: The Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate, and Political Attacks.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is the Archbishop of New York. A member of the Board of Trustees of The Catholic University of America, Cardinal Dolan previously served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops...

Pastor Franklin Graham

Pastor Franklin Graham is the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and of Samaritan’s Purse, an organization that provides disaster relief and medical aid around the globe.

Allyson Ho

Partner at Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher, Allyson Ho has established herself as one of the United States’ premier appellate lawyers. She has presented over 100 oral arguments in federal and state courts nationwide, including five cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dr. Phil McGraw

The longtime host of Dr. Phil and bestselling author, Dr. McGraw holds a doctorate in psychology. His most recent book, We’ve Got Issues: How You Can Stand Strong for America’s Soul and Sanity, encourages Americans to reclaim the principles of hard work, independence, faith, and ingenuity.

Eric Metaxas

Writer, speaker, and radio host, Eric Metaxas has written dozens of books, including the national bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer was so beloved by readers that it was made into a major motion picture.

Kelly Shackelford

President and Chief Executive Officer of First Liberty Institute, Shackelford is a constitutional scholar who has argued before the United States Supreme Court, winning numerous landmark religious liberty cases. Shackelford has testified before Congress on religious liberty issues and served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas Law School.

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is Rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel—the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He also serves as the Director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, and as a Senior Scholar at the Tikvah Fund. Rabbi Soloveichik has lectured internationally on topics relating to faith in America, the Hebraic roots of the American founding, Jewish theology, bioethics, wartime ethics, Jewish-Christian relations, and more.

Pastor Paula White

Pastor Paula White is the founder and president of Paula White Ministries and the National Faith Advisory Board. She is the overseer and a teaching pastor at StoryLife Church in greater Orlando, Florida.

Pamela Bondi

Attorney General of the United States, ex-officio member

Scott Turner

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, ex-officio member

Vince Haley

Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, ex-officio member

The White House Religious Liberty Commission has some Christian luminaries, a famous talk show host plus a former beauty queen and a rabbi. I think the term is eclectic! The composition underscores a deliberate ecumenical breadth—evangelical, Catholic, Jewish, and secular conservative voices—but few Islamic or Eastern representatives.

At the next level down (Advisory Board of Religious Leaders), Catholics are well-represented, together with an Orthodox Archbishop, and a number of rabbis. Interestingly, the only Islamic scholars associated with the commission appear in the Advisory Board of Lay Leaders (two of the nine appointees).

President Trump’s Top 100 Victories for People of Faith

President Trump loves to win and said that his supporters would become tired of winning! The White House Faith Office has recently published his “top 100 victories for people of faith” which are worthwhile reading through. Most people would be satisfied with a “top 10” but not President Trump!

Conclusions

The White House Office of Faith is a very influential group within the White House, and it is clear that Paula White has had a very significant impact on President Trump’s journey of faith. The attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania has had a profound impact on President Trump who perhaps now has a deep sense that God saved him to save the world, as well as Make America Great Again. He may not yet realise that there is only one saviour and that they killed Him!

History provides warnings about seeking to embed faith in government and the Church of England’s history, as well as the period around the Reformation with Catholic vs Protestant battles in Europe should be a warning to all.

The warning lights of history are flashing once again. The struggle to keep church and state distinct is not confined to the past—it now meets a new and very different challenge. Most Western observers treat Islam as one religion among many, yet it functions as a total social, legal, religious and political system.

Islam is currently exerting enormous influence across the West and will do so even more significantly in the future as demographics indicate that perhaps one in four Europeans will be Muslim by 2100, given a continuing high immigration scenario and high Muslim birth rates.

So - is the White House Faith Office, some type of Trojan Horse for a one-world religion and one-world government? Who knows but it is definitely worth keeping an eye on amidst all flurry of activities in President Trump’s “flood the zone” approach to governing. I have a sense that the role of the Faith Office could be more prominent in the remaining years of the Trump presidency.

A number of Christian leaders have raised some concern about Paula White, who is the spiritual leader of the Faith Office. There are a few warning flags, notably her apparent close ties to the Unification Church and her promotion of a form of prosperity theology. However, she must have a good track record with President Trump because people who are not useful to him are quickly fired.

I will keep a watch out for announcements from the White House Faith Office, and the likely future links to the Abraham Accords, themselves a potential progenitor of a push towards world peace and one world religion.

Interfaith dialogue and agreement are superficially attractive but, in essence, you are trying to reconcile worldviews that are irreconcilable. It is notable, for example, that Islam means submission. This is at the heart of the so-called anti-Zionist protests being coordinated around the Western world.

A ‘man of peace’ will one day arise promising unity and harmony. The White House Faith Office may be another small step in that direction. Perhaps, as Neil Armstrong would say, if he was alive today: “one small step for faith, one giant leap toward syncretism!”