Donald Trump vs. Thomas Massie & A Potential Ceasefire In Ukraine
A Weekly News Update Through The Christian Lens.
The News Last Week
Is Gavin Newsom abandoning the Democratic platform or just gearing up for a 2028 Presidential run?
Last week the sitting Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, had Charlie Kirk on his podcast. As some of you may know, Kirk is the co-founder of TurningPoint USA and travels around the country convincing young people to turn from their liberal ways and accept the truths found in conservatism. This duo, of Newsom and Kirk, was unexpected and, in my opinion, very lame. This conversation went as you would expect; Gavin Newsom pivoted on every Democratic policy that lost Kamala the 2024 election and Kirk hit on every main Republican talking point (good for him, seriously).
What surprised people mostly was Newsom’s “new” opinion on boys playing in girls sports. When Kirk pushed him on the issue Newsom responded saying,
“Well, it’s I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness.”
Did you read that? It’s a miracle! Gavin Newsom, one of the most popular Democrats in the country says that boys playing in girls sports (and dominating them) is “an issue of fairness”. Obviously, Gavin. I am going to go out on a limb here and say two things:
First, nobody believes that Gavin actually thinks that it’s an issue of fairness because in California right now, there are still many boys competing against girls in sports. I’ve always said that I would have been a WNBA superstar if this idiocy was popular in my high school days.
Second, Gavin is obviously gearing up for a 2028 Presidential campaign. With the Democrats in utter desolation right now (with no apparent leader or platform), Newsom is viewing this moment as his opportunity to seize power in the Democratic Party. How is he going to do this? By pretending to be a moderate. It’s the same playbook as Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. Biden ran as a centrist who was going to bring “decency” back to the White House. This was an obvious lie as the Biden administration put in place some of the most radical and progressive policies like “forgiving” $169 billion in student loans and opening the borders for millions of illegals to flood the country (two of many, many progressive agendas that Biden put into play).
The big question will be: will this actually work with Newsom like it did with Biden? I say no - for several reasons. One is that when Biden ran in 2020 we were on the verge of a supposed world apocalypse with the rise of COVID-19 and the demolition of American cities by BLM Marxists and thugs. Many Americans were genuinely afraid and most of us had no idea what was going to happen next. The Democrats took that opportunity to take what Emperor Palpatine calls “UNLIMITED POWER!”.
Many Governors shut down their states for years and Dr. Fauci forced us to stand six feet away from each other for no reason while wearing masks that didn’t work. Anyway, the point is that the world was in a weird spot politically and Democrats had a huge opportunity (that they created) to get Trump out of office, replacing him with a decrepit, old shell of a human, Joe Biden.
Now, unless the Democrats plan on creating a new bioweapon and using it on the American people, I’m not sure the situation will be so favorable to Newsom. It seems that Trump is doing really well so far and I think most Americans are just sick and tired of the Marxist Democrat agenda and continual lying and gaslighting coming from the left.
Canada’s new Prime Minister says he’s ready to fight with Trump.
Here we go again. Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, recently said this in a press conference;
“America is not Canada. And Canada never, ever, will be part of America in any way, shape or form… We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves.”
This obviously is in response to President Trump saying that he would be interested in making Canada the 51st state. I’m not entirely sure that Trump was serious though. Regardless, Prime Minister Carney’s remarks about being willing to fight seem flippant and void of any true meaning. How on earth is Canada going to fight? They don’t have any power - literally!
Canada has, in recent years, set out a brilliant goal of eliminating its only serious chance of becoming an economic superpower by reducing its use of natural gas. What makes this goal even worse is this: Canada is ranked 18th in the world in natural gas reserves but leaders like Justin Trudeau and now Prime Minister Mark Carney are utterly captured by the climate catastrophe ideology. Thus, they won’t use their own natural gas reserves.
I suppose Canadian leaders should focus first on keeping the lights on before trying to “fight” in retaliation to the worlds largest superpower. But how should Christians think through this? I don’t know, maybe we shouldn’t think about it because it’s not really a problem. But liberals will find a way to turn this story into a triumphant stand against the tyranny of Donald Trump. If you hate Trump, you will certainly turn this into a moral problem. Or, if your main theological aim is to “stop climate change” (whatever that even means) like Gavin Ortlund, you will absolutely find solace in Canada’s unwavering resolve to eliminate its own power sources and make its people suffer… because it’s loving, right?
Peace deals and transgender dance parties!
On Tuesday the United States began to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia and as of Tuesday afternoon, Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. But the official deal is a little more complicated and also requires Russia, and more specifically, Putin, to agree to the terms. And, as you would guess, Russia seems skeptical.
On Wednesday morning, Russia said that they were waiting to receive more details about the deal before making any official statement. We know that the deal would require the United States to begin sending military supplies and intelligence information to Ukraine again. This could be a turn off for the Kremlin or it could deter them from making any serious advancement towards Ukraine during this time of negotiations - it’s a toss up right now as to how Putin will respond.
At the moment, it’s highly uncertain whether Russia will accept a ceasefire on these terms. As for Christians, we have to be hoping for an end to this war. I understand the nature of this conflict and the desire from many to hold their ground when it comes to negotiations with dictators like Putin. That said, Russia has all of the power right now and Ukraine has lost over 1 million soldiers in this war already, compared to Russia’s 100,000 (these numbers are estimates, no matter what source you look at, the number fluctuates).
From a political standpoint, we (Americans) should be interested in getting ourselves out of this conflict for now. The United States has too much corruption to fix on its own borders and within its own borders to be worrying about and sending billions of dollars overseas to fix Ukraine’s problems. The idea here is simple; America has to be focused on the interest of the American people, and fighting a proxy war with Russia is not in American interest. For too long the left (and many Republicans) have emotionally manipulated Americans into thinking that it is our responsibility to police the world.
This sentiment would be believable if America wasn’t an utterly immoral and vile country itself. If we weren’t sending money overseas to fund transgender dance festivals in Bangladesh to destabilize their country, maybe we would be in a position to lecture the world on morality and police its every move. But seriously, what are we doing funding trans dance parties overseas?
Dems threaten to shut down the Government over GOP spending bill.
Here we are on Thursday afternoon and it seems clear that the Dems are going to shut down the government due to its, you guessed it, hatred of Donald Trump. Before we get into the details here, we have to remember that the Democrats have been the loudest in criticizing Republicans for government shut downs in the past. In 2023 the brilliant Congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, blasted Republicans over government shut downs saying,
This is only one of many instances in which the Dems have been critical of those nasty government-stopping Republicans. One of the many talking points used by Dems is that when the government shuts down, many people working within the government don’t receive their paychecks (oh-no). You know, people like Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren. Luckily, Pelosi has a backup plan for when the government shuts down; she can just pull some cash from her $252 million net worth or her $161 million worth of investments.
Anyway, let’s take a look at why the Democrats want to shut the government down this time. On Wednesday, the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that most Democrats will not pass the House-passed Republican bill to fund the government through September. Schumer said,
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their [continuing resolution] without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,”
We know that Schumer is blowing smoke though because of the countless bills he and his party have been willing to pass without the input of Republicans. The Democrats really just don’t want to see the Republicans succeed in anything they do (even if the bill being passed is almost identical to the last one passed under Biden).
Of course, to make things make even less sense, on Thursday night Schumer came out and said the following;
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse … Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down”
See? I said he was blowing smoke.
Donald Trump vs. Thomas Massie
The interesting part of the above debacle is that the Republicans aren’t even in agreement on this bill. On Monday night President Trump took to Truth Social to attack the Congressman from Kentucky, Thomas Massie, saying,
“Congressman Thomas Massie, of beautiful Kentucky, is an automatic “NO” vote on just about everything, despite the fact that he has always voted for Continuing Resolutions in the past. HE SHOULD BE PRIMARIED, and I will lead the charge against him. He’s just another GRANDSTANDER, who’s too much trouble, and not worth the fight. He reminds me of Liz Chaney before her historic, record breaking fall (loss!). The people of Kentucky won’t stand for it, just watch. DO I HAVE ANY TAKERS??? Anyway, thank you again to the House Freedom Caucus for your very important vote. We need to buy some time in order to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. Unite and Win!!!”
This “truth” has caused much frustration and dissension within the Republican Party. You may not know, but Rep. Thomas Massie is loved by many Republicans across the country and within Kentucky. This move by Trump just makes no sense and makes him look just a little bit narcissistic. And it seems to have caused some backfire as Rep. Massie announced on X that he has received $261,000 in the last three days from over 3,000 supporters right after Trump made his attack. It’s also important to note that Rep. Rand Paul also plans to vote “no” on this bill passing as well. Rand took to X to say,
“Despite @DOGE’s findings of loony left-wing USAID programs, the Republican spending bill continues to fund the very foreign aid @elonmusk proposes to cut! The bill continues spending at the inflated pandemic levels and will add $2T to the debt this year. Count me as a hell no!”
I happen to agree with both Thomas Massie and Rand Paul… Didn’t we vote Donald Trump into office to get rid of the useless government spending? Didn’t he and Musk promise to cut these worthless and destructive programs? I think so. So why does Trump want to fund this trash to stop a government shut down? I am certainly fine with bureaucrats and useless administrators missing out on their paychecks if it means we can pass a better bill with less spending and less immorality.
The most interesting thing about all of this is the lack of logic from the Democrats. It seems, if I’m following this correctly, that the Democrats don’t want to pass the bill because it would show as a win for the Republicans and Trump because there wouldn’t be a shutdown even though the bill is an extension of the Biden administration agenda from the past four years? That’s insane. The Dems hate Trump so much that they won’t even pass their own agenda? Weird. And Thomas Massie and Rand Paul won’t vote for this bill because it’s the continuation of the liberal nonsense from Biden and now Trump is mad at them even though he has stated that Biden was the worst president in American history. Can someone please make this make sense?!
Ceasefire on the horizon or is Putin asking too much?
On Thursday the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, responded to the proposed ceasefire deal brokered by President Trump. Putin said,
“We agree with proposals to cease hostilities [in Ukraine], but this cessation must lead to a long-term peace and eliminate the root cause of the initial crisis,”
It’s not certain what exactly Putin means by the “root cause” of the initial crisis but he continued in saying,
“We also want guarantees that Ukraine will not mobilize, train soldiers, or receive weapons during the 30-day cease-fire,”
This is not exactly what Trump had in mind during this 30-day ceasefire and Putin doesn’t indicate that Russia will also be held to the same standard. The messaging from Putin is a bit confusing and not exactly what the United States was hoping for (and not what Ukraine was hoping for). President Trump responded by saying,
“Putin made a promising statement, but it was not complete — I would like to see a ceasefire from the Russian side,” and “We hope that Russia will do the right thing,”
We do hope they will do the right thing. This negotiation is getting trickier and tricker by the day. If Putin backs out of peace talks, Trump has threatened that it will not be good for Russia. Will Putin put this threat to the test? This could be an opportunity for Putin to humiliate Trump on the world stage if he doesn’t follow through with his threats. On the other hand, if Trump does follow through, this could be the beginning of a much more serious conflict. It’s hard to know what will happen here, we’ll have to keep watching and praying.
What to read…
We’re going political this week. Over the past couple of years I’ve been looking into what it means to be a Christian as it relates to politics and political philosophy. I’ve read up on Robert P. George, Yoram Hozony, and many others - all great thinkers and all with brilliant Conservative insights. But, in my opinion, none of them come close to Patrick Deneen and his postliberal philosophy. In his book, Why Liberalism Failed, Deneen makes the argument that liberalism has failed because it has actually succeeded. In doing what it set out to do —allow for anyone to do what they want, whenever they want, however they want, with whomever they want (as long as they don’t hurt anyone)— liberalism has imploded and failed. This is obviously because human nature is not good— in fact, human nature is evil and when we do whatever we want, we do evil things. Deneen argues for a postliberal political order and, I would say, his assessment of the modern American political system is nothing short of genius. For those of you who want to be able to think clearly as a Christian about political issues, skip Russell Moore and those liberal shills at Christianity Today and read Why Liberalism Failed.
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