God's Work
Whatever ball Mr. Trump has his eye on, it ain’t the one that matters. In all the sound and fury of Trump’s executive orders and confrontations, there is scarcely any mention of the real challenge.
Wednesday, February 5th, 2025
Bill Bonner, writing from Baltimore, Maryland
So far, we’re only a couple weeks into Donald Trump’s second try at governing the USA… it’s everything we expected – and more!.
Getting rid of DEI… abandoning the Energy Transition… closing departments and firing federal workers… pardoning Ross Ulbricht — yes, there are bright spots.
‘It’s time for it to die,’ said Elon Musk of the USAID. The agency ‘promotes democracy’ by undermining elections, engineering regime changes, spreading propaganda…and funneling billions of dollars to its chummy crony contractors. It should have been put to death a long time ago. And there are many other agencies that should be terminated along with it.
But there are some dark spots too -- trade wars… drug wars…Panama, Greenland, and now Gaza! banning, prohibiting, sanctioning, tariffing…ignoring the Constitution… flights of fancy, doomed to crash…and lose-lose deals that make no real sense.
Here’s the latest:
Trump orders creation of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund
President Trump on Monday took the first steps toward his administration creating a government-owned investment fund, tasking the heads of the Treasury Department and Commerce Department with beginning the process to create an American sovereign wealth fund.
Uh…
Don’t you need some ‘wealth’ to create a ‘wealth fund?’ Norway did it with the money it got from North Sea oil. China’s trillion-dollar wealth fund comes from its trade surpluses.
Where will the US wealth come from? The government runs deficits… America’s trade balance is negative. And it has nearly $37 trillion in anti-wealth… aka debt.
Whatever ball Mr. Trump has his eye on, it ain’t the one that matters. In all the sound and fury of Trump’s executive orders and confrontations, there is scarcely any mention of the real challenge: avoiding a fiscal crisis.
But the nice thing about Donald Trump… the fresh air of his administration… is that he is so transparently rapacious. Almost everything he says is a lie,r a mistake, or plain nonsense. But it is not gussied up with taffeta talk of the ‘rule of law’… the Constitution… or the ‘dignity of the Oval Office.’ All the claptrap and cupidity of an aging empire… like the painting of Dorian Gray… is finally on display. Pearls and Irritations opines:
What Trump is announcing to Americans and the world contains more than elements of a new security, economic, political and human rights order. He is essentially proclaiming a new Pax Americana charter to replace the United Nations charter which he, and it should be noted, together with other US presidents have consistently violated since the charter was established in 1945 but which none until Trump has explicitly repudiated.
Until now, America’s violence was cloaked in the hypocrisy of the 20th century. We were ‘making the world safe for democracy.’ We were promoting the globalized ‘liberal’ order… and protecting the world from fascism… and then, from communism… and later from terrorists. Donald Trump ‘tells it like it really is.’ We’re in it for what we can get out of it. And now, the whole world knows it. The Guardian:
Trump demands rare earths from Kyiv in exchange for aid
US reportedly briefly paused weapon shipments into Ukraine…
“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths,” Trump said on Monday. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things.” Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said Ukraine was willing, adding that he wants “equalisation” from Ukraine for Washington’s “close to $300bn” in support.
Trump is bad. Trump is good. He is ‘destroying our democracy.’ Or, he is a genius, given to us (by God!) to make us great again.
Our own guess — an admittedly grandiose sweep of historical dot connecting — is that Mr. Trump is simply Mr. Trump…neither bad nor good…but just another one of history’s useful dupes. His real mission, of which he is entirely unaware, is not to save the empire, but to sink it.
God does not permit trees to grow to the sky… nor does He allow empires — no matter what their pretensions — to rule forever. All things made by man have a beginning…and an end. The Roman Empire needed its Augustus…and its Caligula.
And now, Donald J. Trump… Time’s ‘man of the year’…seems to be doing God’s work, hastening the end of American hegemonic power by turning much of the world against the USA.
This view is so out-of-step with the bulk of popular opinion…it must be either very wrong…or very right. Whichever. We’ll accept the verdict of history, when it is finally rendered.
Unless it goes against us.
Regards,
Bill Bonner
Research Note, by Dan Denning
Spot gold prices hit a record in Tuesday trading in the US. This morning, gold futures are knocking on the door of $2,900/ounce. Are refugees from the tariff wars fleeing to gold as a safe haven? Or is the gold price itself tired from winning so much in the last twelve months?
I’m headed to New York later today to talk to some old friends with strong views on the matter. Paid readers will hear more on Friday. In the meantime, the World Gold Council has just published its Gold Demand Trends report for 2024. See the image below.
Central banks are still big buyers (over 1,000 tonnes for the third straight year, according to the official figures.) ETFs were no longer sellers although they’re not yet big buyers either. And high prices discouraged gold jewelry consumption. Are you buying or selling at these prices? Leave a comment below.
I was a lifelong Republican before becoming an Independent in 2016. I voted for Trump once(2020) in his 3 runs. I would never vote for any candidate put forth by the Democratic Party. So what to think of Trump, and how to gauge his second term after just 2+ weeks in office? Certainly he is no Milei, as some would wish, but America is not ready for a Milei at this stage. And the fiscal crisis? It was coming no matter what Trump did, or does. Could the sinking of the Titanic been made worse? Certainly. It could have happened more quickly. Trump in his second term is most certainly a disruptive influence both in America and on the world stage, much more so than in his first term when he seemed constantly back on his heels defending himself from attack. I believe he is a different man now, who wouldn’t be given what he has been through. And the world we found ourselves in in 2024 certainly needed disrupting - badly. It has been fascinating to watch the reactions and global genuflections(perhaps more apparent than real) of a second Trump term, something surprising and completely absent from his first term. The WEF speech, the questions from attendees afterward and the tone were simply gobsmacking. Was it real or fake? In my opinion there was never so much Student Body Right in so short a period of time. Again time will tell, but DEI, among other things, was killing the worlds corporations and institutions and they knew it. They too, were ready if not desperate for change, or so it would appear at this very early stage. Do I believe the globalists and deep staters have changed their stripes? Absolutely not. But they may have switched horses, something that bears close and careful watching. All this to say I cannot judge a Trump second term harshly after only two weeks. The headlines are dizzying. I do not trust many of them, however I am very happy that the alternative did not come true last November.
I am a couple of years older than Bill living in the UK for most of my life. I have followed his financial advice for at least 20 years. Personally, although I often do not quite agree with his views I would not want him to stop commenting and very much enjoy the personal story that he and his colleagues give us every week. I was a dentist and therefore always appreciated the wonderful properties that gold has - never corrodes, fairly low melting point and easy to work with. Sill, in my view the best and longest lasting material with which to restore teeth. So I have always owned some gold. And Bill has encouraged me over the years to continue to invest in more. For that I would thank him and I do not agree with those who want him to stop posting on his own site.