Trump Has Steel in His Veins

The focus right now is all on trade war after Wednesday’s tariffs announcement from Donald Trump. But pay close attention to nuclear proliferation—it foreshadows war far deadlier than trade war. Last night’s Trumpet Brief from our editor in chief was a preview of the coming Trumpet issue, which we sent to press yesterday—his lead-off article. And our feature story this morning is about the dangers of a nuclear-armed Germany. Not only is the world unconcerned with Germany’s rearmament and quest for nukes, it is applauding it. Josué Michels explains why this is a mistake.

[BRIEF]

Wow—President Trump is going big. I mean, yuge: His new tariff plan is disregarding economists and academics, freaking out investors, and infuriating foreign leaders. He aims to single-handedly reshape America’s economy and, by extension, disrupt the global economy.

Clearly, Trump is done listening to the experts. They proved catastrophically wrong over COVID. Their incompetence has been borne out by events, and their deceit and corruption continue to be exposed by DOGE. The president sees that big changes are needed to fix a broken system, and he is going with his gut on how hard and fast to make them.

The stakes are huge. If his plan succeeds, it will energize American manufacturing, stimulate investment and job creation, rein in national debt, recover America’s economic and political leverage internationally, and cement the power of his political movement for years to come. If it fails, inflation takes off, Americans suffer and get really angry, the MAGA movement is cooked permanently, and—worst case—the rest of the world rallies together and then dances around the bonfire engulfing the U.S.

And really, Trump is betting that the positive results will be here within the next year and a half—before the 2026 midterm elections. Because if they are not, furious voters will punish him hard. Today’s Americans aren’t exactly known for patient endurance through hardship for delayed gratification. We want it all, and we want it now.

I marvel at the colossal confidence President Trump has in himself—to go so big despite such fierce resistance. And I’m uneasy that he’s not doing more to invoke God’s help.

We don’t know exactly how this will play out, but given the Bible’s prophecies on the resurgence Trump will oversee, I would expect things to trend toward success. Yes, this is sure to unite the world against America in ways that accelerate the fulfillment of other end-time prophecies, but it seems likely that nations will also try to preserve some semblance of economic accord with the world’s largest market in the short term. We shall see. God is most certainly shaping these events, and time will make clear how they align to serve His purposes and fulfill His prophecies. We are already seeing eye-popping prophetic effects from President Trump’s second term that we didn’t anticipate just a short time ago.

What phenomenal times we live in. Keep your seatbelts buckled!

Houthis remain defiant: America has been pummeling the terrorist group in Yemen—having spent $200 million on munitions over the past three weeks destroying military infrastructure, killing Houthi leaders, and enforcing freedom of navigation in Operation Rough Rider. But the unrest at the southern end of the Red Sea shows no sign of abating. The Houthis have retaliated by attacking U.S. warships and firing ballistic missiles at Israel (all of which have been intercepted). Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the Houthis yesterday claiming they will keep fighting: “Our military operations against the American enemy will continue, targeting their warships in the declared operational zone with increasing intensity.”

America pushing back on radical Islam’s control of this vital maritime trade corridor could temporarily hinder the power Iran and its Houthi proxy have over the area. But the Trumpet expects Iran to ultimately gain the upper hand in controlling the Middle East’s trade routes. Gerald Flurry’s article from last year, “Is the Red Sea Crisis About to Fulfill Bible Prophecy?”, explains why.

The AfD will soon be Germany’s strongest party … Recent surveys of voter intentions have the far-right Alternative für Deutschland just a whisker (at most 3 percent, or even just 1 percent) behind the February election winner, the CDU/CSU. In just two months, the AfD has almost closed the 8-percentage point gap.

The obvious cause is voter disappointment with the current coalition negotiations between CDU/CSU and SPD. But how are these mainstream parties responding to the surge in support for the right?

… unless it is banned: A draft paper from the potential new government, presented to the press last week, aims to ban far-right politicians. The Bavarian daily Münchner Merkur printed an article today wondering whether key AfD leader Björn Höcke will suffer the same fate as Marine Le Pen, the popular right-wing French leader who was just banned from running for office and faces imprisonment. Merkur.de wrote:

The coalition paper of the likely future government partners CDU and SPD points in this direction: “As part of strengthening the resilience of our democracy, we are regulating the withdrawal of the right to stand for election in the event of multiple convictions for incitement to hatred. We want to combat terrorism, anti-Semitism, hatred and agitation even more intensively and, in particular, tighten up the offense of incitement to hatred.”

Höcke is apparently already getting nervous about the new lawsuit and the plans of the CDU/CSU and SPD: “The incitement-of-the-people paragraph is being completely redefined in the coalition agreement between the CDU and SPD. The opposition is to be criminalized and ultimately eliminated by depriving them of the right to vote,” he wrote on X. He continued: “This is the desperate rearguard action of a dying, power-obsessed party cartel.”

There is good reason to ban some AfD politicians from office. However, excluding them also means restricting legitimate criticism against an increasingly undemocratic German system. The AfD condemns, but does not fully understand, Germany’s goal to subject the whole EU to its suppressive regime. Once all the critics of the authoritarian German-led EU are silenced, we will see its true ambitions emerge.

Another government falls: South Korea’s president was removed from office yesterday after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment from December. The new president could move the country away from its Western allies toward the East. Read the details of this prophetic trend in our InBrief below.

Floods and tornadoes hit America: A powerful spring storm unleashed a barrage of tornadoes and severe flooding across the central and southern United States, leaving a trail of destruction from Texas to the Ohio Valley. The National Weather Service reported at least seven deaths, with over 30 tornadoes confirmed the past two days, flattening homes, damaging infrastructure, and injuring dozens in Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri. Forecasts predict heavy rain through the weekend, threatening catastrophic flash flooding in already battered regions. We always want to be attentive to what God may be communicating through such life-upsetting disasters.

Hold the fries … and maybe the burger too: A new study published yesterday in Nature Medicine shows how quickly the Western diet destroys health. Research based on a randomized crossover trial conducted in Tanzania showed that just two weeks of switching from a traditional African diet—rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes and fermented foods—to a Western diet high in processed foods, saturated fats and sugars led to significant inflammatory changes—more inflammatory proteins in the blood, weakened immune responses to pathogens, and changes linked to chronic diseases like cardiovascular issues and diabetes. And those who transitioned from a Western to an African-heritage diet had reduced inflammation and improved metabolic markers. These findings persisted even weeks after going back to normal eating habits.

Such evidence that we’re eating ourselves to death keeps mounting. It’s up to us to do something about it.