An Election Defeat for Donald Trump?
Is another crusade coming? Our feature story this morning, from Josué Michels, shows how the Roman Catholic Church is moving into the Middle East, “forming new churches, ordaining bishops, negotiating with religious leaders, and pressuring world governments.” Read “A Renewed Crusade for the Holy Land” to see how the Vatican is again focused on Jerusalem, and why this is prophetically significant.
It’s tariff day: U.S. President Donald Trump is set to announce new tariffs in a ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. local time. There’s no news on this front yet, though stock markets are already jittery in Europe.
The EU has placed tariffs on U.S. goods for years, with little response. They have a 10 percent tax on American cars, while the U.S. placed only a 2.5 percent tariff on European-made cars, and a 25 percent tariffs on light trucks.
Now the U.S. is promising much stiffer taxes, and the EU is promising to retaliate. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday, “We have the power to push back.” And she aims to work with the rest of the world to do that. “Europe already has trade agreements in place with 76 countries,” she said. “And we are now growing this network. We just concluded trade deals with MERCOSUR, Mexico and Switzerland. We launched the first-ever Clean Trade and Investment Partnership with South Africa.”
Other nations are also getting together. Yesterday, we described the way three long-time enemies—China, Japan and South Korea—are talking together about how to respond to the tariffs. Today our InBrief articles include stories about a new declaration of friendship from China to Russia and China and India putting aside their differences.
The Bible warns about the world uniting against America in a global “mart of nations” that shuts America out from world trade. Our article “Trade Wars Are Here” shows how this mart is under construction right now.
Germany’s first permanent foreign troop deployment officially began yesterday, as the 45th Armored Brigade held an activation ceremony outside Vilnius in Lithuania. Its permanent base isn’t built yet, and it won’t be fully operational until 2027, but 150 soldiers are already stationed in Lithuania, and this will increase to 500 by the end of the year.
This base marks the end of one of the final taboos on German militarism. It will need to set up the logistics and supply chain necessary to sustain such a deployment. Germany will have to get better at supplying its troops abroad, making the military much more agile.
It is also a sign that within Europe, Germany is taking on the role America once had. A permanent military base was a “tripwire”: Attacking West Germany would mean attacking America because America had a base there. Lithuania is looking to Germany in the way Western Europe once looked to America.
Another crucial taboo could soon fall: Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote last week that Germany must pull out of the “Two Plus Four Treaty,” which paved the way for the reunification of Germany but banned the country from having weapons of mass destruction or an army of more than 370,000. Our In Brief has more.
After Vladimir Putin invaded Georgia, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in October 2008:
Mr. Armstrong often taught that a political or economic crisis would spark these “10 kings” to strongly unite very quickly. The fact that Russia has launched a war shows just how easily such a crisis could occur! Will the Georgia strike actually spark European unification? Will a crisis occur over Ukraine? That area is the breadbasket of Russia, and surely it is willing to wage war over that as well.
This deployment in Lithuania shows that happening—Europe is unifying and looking to Germany to protect it.
Yet the story has little attention. In a world keen to see Germany rearm, no one seems concerned about this taboo. The Bible warns about the rise of a strong, militaristic Germany. So does history. But our latest Trumpet issue, “Up in Arms,” is about the only place you’ll read that warning today.
Greece is the latest European country to join that rapid military turnaround: Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced today the “most drastic transformation in the history of the country’s armed forces.” Greece already spends 3 percent of its GDP on defense, well above the NATO minimum of 2 percent. Mitsotakis announced the country would spend €25 billion (US$27 billion). Reuters reports this money will last until 2036, and Greece will buy submarines and air-, sea- and underwater-drones, and it will get its own communication satellite. It also plans to develop a new antiaircraft dome, “Achilles Shield.” Given what the ancient hero is famous for, that seems like a terrible name. Greece has a military much stronger than you would think of for a nation its size, thanks to its decades-long rivalry with Turkey. This will help bring it up to date and make it a major asset for Europe.
Meanwhile Britain got the green light from President Trump to retreat: Britain is working to surrender the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay Mauritius reparations. This is despite the fact Mauritius has never owned the islands and has no historic ties to them. These islands host the Diego Garcia military base, which is shared with the U.S., giving America a veto over the deal. Many hoped Donald Trump would step in and stop it; however, a Downing Street spokesman announced yesterday that Mr. Trump has signed off on it. Our In Brief has more.
What do ordinary Americans think of Mr. Trump’s presidency? Votes in Florida and Wisconsin yesterday give a conflicted picture: The race for the Wisconsin Supreme Court received unusual nationwide attention, as it became the most expensive court race in history. Elon Musk and George Soros spent large sums of money supporting opposite candidates. Musk used X to support former State Attorney General Brad Schimel. Former President Barack Obama hasn’t been very active on X since Mr. Trump’s election, but he tried to drum up support for Schimel’s rival, Susan Crawford.
In this battle of Musk vs. Soros and Obama, Musk lost badly. Crawford received 55 percent of the vote. A U.S. House byelection in Florida also went badly for Republicans. They held Matt Gaetz’s old seat, but lost 22 percentage points.
“Extrapolate those House results across competitive 2026 races—and you’re likely to get a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and lots of close races on a very favorable GOP Senate map,” wrote Axios.
Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker set a new record for the longest ever Senate speech: 25 hours and 4 minutes. This was no filibuster—it was a stunt to draw attention to his opposition to Donald Trump. It sets up Booker as a major leader for the Democrats.
Yet one part of yesterday’s elections point in a different direction. A Wisconsin state law that requires photo ID to vote was enshrined in the State Constitution after a popular vote. Twenty-three organizations, included the ACLU, Common Cause and many minority groups, urged voters to reject the amendment. Yet 62.7 percent approved it. Even for people who voted left in other races, election integrity and voter ID is important.
America received a lot of curses under Barack Obama. “Ultimately, this is not caused by a bad president,” writes Mr. Flurry in his book America Under Attack. “It is not even caused by the wickedness of the radical left. It is caused by God cursing us for the sins of the whole nation.”
“President Trump’s return will ‘save America’ briefly,” he writes. “But he will have to hear God’s message and realize that God saved America through him—and that he and this nation must repent, believe and obey. If the American people do not repent and turn back to God during Trump’s second term, then God will allow America to become ‘desolate’ and ‘laid waste.’”
A major plank of Crawford’s campaign was abortion. She represented Planned Parenthood when working for a liberal law firm and spoke against the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade. Two cases challenging Wisconsin’s abortion ban could soon come before the State Supreme Court.
America needs repentance—which means rejection of great evils like the murder of unborn children. Yet millions of voters continue to support politicians because they would allow these murders to continue. If we don’t repent of these things, we’ll be right back where we were before Donald Trump came along. In fact, it will be worse as God moves swiftly to correct the nation.
