“I wish I could work for an administration that could move that quickly.” This is what one Biden administration veteran admitted to Axios during United States President Donald Trump’s recent norm-shattering trip to the Middle East.

Love him or hate him, the president certainly is moving quickly. Even his enemies are impressed with his boldness.

One former Biden-era senior State Department official said Trump “has the ability to do things politically that previous presidents did not, because he has complete unquestioned authority over the Republican caucus.”

Rob Malley, who handled Iran talks under Presidents Obama and Biden, said, “It’s hard not to be simultaneously terrified at the thought of the damage he can cause with such power, and awed by his willingness to brazenly shatter so many harmful taboos.”

Call him the “disrupter in chief.”

In mere months, President Trump has aggressively pushed peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war and the India-Pakistan conflict. He has tried to coax Iran to the table, negotiated a truce with the Houthis while excluding Israel, and lifted sanctions on Syria. He has altered international economics by imposing tariffs, escalating a trade war with China, and punishing even allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union. He withdrew America from the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council and the Paris Agreement; stopped funding the UN Relief and Works Agency; and reduced America’s presence in nato. All the while, he is floating controversial ideas like taking over Gaza and annexing Canada and Greenland. He is provoking dramatic shifts in foreign elections, prompting nations to boost military spending, straining alliances, driving enemies into each others’ arms, and reshaping geopolitical dynamics.

Some of these moves were positive and necessary. Some are having their intended effect. President Trump is working to rebuild America’s strength and stature and to cement his own legacy as a peacemaker. But he does not realize that his decisions have far-reaching, unforeseen ripple effects. In fact, they are propelling major end-time biblical prophecies toward their fulfillment! World events the Trumpet and our predecessor, the Plain Truth, have warned about for decades based on biblical prophecy are accelerating faster than ever.

This is a spectacular example of the law of unintended consequences.

Among the ways that President Trump is transforming the world, here is the most consequential: He is unwittingly encouraging the rise of no fewer than five prophesied power blocs. And the truly remarkable thing is how these foreign alliances are prophesied to hasten America’s demise.

one A European Military Power

One of the Trump administration’s first international priorities was to rebuke Europe. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance toured EU capitals, exhorting nations to raise their military spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product—up from the 2 percent goal Trump had pushed during his first term. He was serving notice that the U.S. will no longer pay for Europe’s defense.

Germany got the message. Before he was even inaugurated as chancellor, Friedrich Merz managed to change the nation’s constitution to lift all restrictions on borrowing money for military spending. He opened discussions with France on sharing nuclear weapons. In his first speech after winning the election in February, he said, “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the U.S.A.” He used his inaugural speech to the legislature to promise “all the financial resources that the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe.”

Merz also promised stronger leadership for all of Europe. “Europe is looking to Germany today,” he said. “Europe expects something from us. The new German government accepts this responsibility.”

Add to this President Trump’s trade war. On April 2, he announced tariffs on Europe and virtually the rest of the world. The EU again responded by banding together, holding frantic high-level meetings to strengthen European unity and present a united front against the U.S.

EU leaders know they are currently at a disadvantage in trade talks. While the U.S. can sit down with Chinese government representatives and talk tariffs, taxes, regulations, exchange rates and industrial policy, this process is far messier with the EU, since these responsibilities are splintered between EU officials and national governments. President Trump’s tariffs focused European attention on the pressing need for a single government, led by one man, orchestrating the whole show.

Europe rearming, Europe uniting, the rise of a strongman—these are some of the Trumpet’s most prominent and consistent forecasts.

Back in January, Trumpet publisher Gerald Flurry wrote, “[P]ay close attention to events in Germany. This nation’s future is weak if something doesn’t change. But Bible prophecy forewarns us that Germany is about to shock the world with its power. To accomplish this, it needs a strong leader—something it sorely lacks right now.” He drew attention to Germany’s coalition government collapsing the day after America’s presidential election. “Donald Trump’s victory is certain to create more urgency in Germany to resolve its political crisis,” he wrote, pointing to a New York Times headline: “Missing in Europe: A Strong Leader for a New Trump Era.”

“I believe recent events in Germany will, in one way or another, open the door for this strongman,” Mr. Flurry explained. “This is a prophecy we really must pay attention to.”

President Trump’s second term has highlighted Europe’s weakness and its crying need for robust leadership. Watch for that void to be filled—soon.

two An Asian Alliance

Last summer, Japan sailed a destroyer into Chinese waters, and China responded by sending fighter jets into Japanese airspace—a first in its history.

These two nations have decades of bad blood. Japan killed 15 million Chinese in World War ii, many of them in brutal massacres. Japanese leaders still deny their war crimes, their textbooks glorify those who carried them out, and they have refused China’s requests for an official apology from Japan’s emperor. Both nations claim the Senkaku Islands. China claims Taiwan; Japan opposes this and wants it to remain independent. Japan has often spoken out against China’s human rights abuses and persecution of the Uyghurs, leading to diplomatic spats, trade sanctions and military threats.

South Korea has problems with both nations. It too was brutalized by Japan during World War ii and has received little apology. It too has argued with China over maritime rights as Chinese ships have turned South Korean ships away from what Korea regards as its territorial waters. It shares Japan’s concerns about Chinese ambitions in Taiwan and about its human rights abuses.

Getting these three countries to work together, strengthen trade and diplomacy, and make symbolic gestures of friendship is a major feat. Yet that is what is happening—thanks to Donald Trump.

Responding to President Trump’s tariffs, Japan, China and South Korea have been working on their own free-trade agreement. They are also enhancing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade agreement that they share with each other along with Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines and many others. Their three trade ministers met on March 30, just days after their foreign ministers met for the first time since 2023.

Trump’s tariffs are cutting these Asian nations off from American consumers, and they are looking for ways to get on without their biggest customer. The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard called it “one of the most striking economic defeats suffered by America that I have witnessed in more than 40 years covering international affairs” (April 1).

“For all intents and purposes, the U.S. is now a rogue nation when it comes to trade,” said the University of Sussex’s Michael Gasiorek. “I don’t think there is a global trade war going on. The U.S. is fighting a trade war with everybody, but the others are keen to cooperate even more” (ibid).

Russia and China are already as close as any two major powers in history. Now, thanks to Trump, the whole of Asia is beginning to coalesce around that nucleus. Even old adversaries are uniting.

As you watch this unfold, you are watching the formation of an alliance prophesied in detail in your Bible!

“Scripture prophesies two great military powers to arise in the last days,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote back in 1934—“one the revival of the Roman Empire by a federation of 10 nations in the territory of the ancient Roman Empire; the other … Russia, with her allies” (Plain Truth, June-July 1934).

The Bible describes this alliance as “the kings of the east” (Revelation 16:12). Other passages like Ezekiel 38 spell out exactly who will be involved. These passages discuss Russia and China in biblical language. The names “Gomer” and “Tarshish” refer to Japan and the peoples of Southeast Asia. Based on these prophecies, the April 1968 Plain Truth wrote: “Despite its many national, religious and political differences, Asia will ultimately be welded together into a common power bloc. It will ultimately send its military muscle into the Middle East at the return of Jesus Christ. This prophecy is recorded in Revelation 16:12 and 16. Japan will play a vital role in this battle.”

Our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy details what the Bible says of these Eastern “kings.” President Trump’s second term is rapidly accelerating the rise of this second major power bloc.

three A Mart of Nations

Trump’s tariffs aren’t just uniting Asia—they are bringing the world together. The EU responded by immediately pledging to work more closely with Latin America, South Africa and others. Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with the heads of Mercedes, bmw, Qualcomm and other corporations. He lifted sanctions on members of the European Parliament, which he had punished for speaking out against Chinese human rights abuses. Xi also met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, urging Europe to join forces with China to defend world trade.

End-time prophecy describes a European alliance led by a German strongman. This “king of the north” and the Asian “kings of the east” are rival powers destined to war against one another. Before these two blocs come to bitter blows, the Bible prophesies that they will work together to bring down America.

Isaiah 23 is a critical chapter prophesying that these blocs form a “mart of nations”—an economic alliance that encompasses distant powers trading across “seas” and “great waters.” This “mart” includes Tyre, a prophetic name for the commercial empire rising in Europe; Revelation 18 also describes the extravagant trade and immense wealth this European power will generate. This “mart” also includes Chittim, a reference to China, and Tarshish, a reference to Japan. Thanks to Europe’s economic and cultural links to Latin America, this continent will also feed into the power of this enormous economic bloc.

Consider the scope of this confederation: Europe, Latin America, China, Japan and the other kings of the east, all commercially interconnected—and blockading America!

Deuteronomy 28:52 prophesies that if America does not turn to God, it will be “besieged,” starved of world trade. That is exactly what this “mart” will inflict on the U.S. Of this prophecy, Mr. Flurry wrote, “If Europe finds a way to take advantage of key resources and strategic holdings of China, Russia and Japan—even for a short period—then it would have more than enough power to besiege the Anglo-Saxon nations” (Trumpet, July 2016).

This alliance is forming before your eyes. The very powers described in this prophecy are united on the issue of trade, and trade makes superpowers. This trend has dramatically accelerated since Trump returned to office.

four The Psalm 83 Alliance

President Trump is also single-handedly rewriting America’s Mideast policy. His trip in May to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—and not Israel—prompted praise from some corners, concern from others, and real fear from Israelis.

The revolutionary nature of his intentions was clear in his first speech in Riyadh. Trump praised Arab leaders for the material advances visible in their capital cities, and he criticized “the so-called nation-builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits” for their failures. Thus he rejected decades of futile Middle East policy—and promptly began laying out a new policy that is destined to prove even worse.

On his trip, President Trump signed the “largest defense cooperation deal in U.S. history” with Saudi Arabia, amounting to nearly $150 billion. Specifics are unknown but are said to include state-of-the-art military hardware for air force and space, air and missile defense and maritime security. The deal not only locks in a supply of some of the world’s most advanced military hardware, but it also legitimizes the Arab monarchy, which is trying to shake off its image as a breeding ground for terrorism.

Trump is showing himself more than willing to overlook those terrorist associations—not just with the Saudis but also with Qatar, with the murderers of Hamas, with the Houthis in Yemen, even with the Islamists of Iran. Treat him with enough deference, offer him enough economic incentives, gifts and promises, and he is convinced the radicalism is past and that all is well.

Trump has prioritized economic deals over traditional diplomacy. He is leveraging Gulf wealth to boost U.S. interests, treating these nations as business partners and buddies. The Saudis promised to invest some $600 billion in America. Trump encouraged them to join the Abraham Accords and to mediate in conflicts like Russia-Ukraine, elevating their global role. He also made an economic agreement in Qatar worth $1.2 trillion.

On the same whirlwind trip, Trump also stunned the world by announcing he would lift all U.S. sanctions on Syria. To the delight of the Saudi crown prince and the Turkish president, he said he wants to support Syria’s economic recovery and stabilize the region, “to give them a chance at greatness”—even if it means overlooking the new government’s ties to terrorism. “It’s their time to shine,” he said. “We’re taking [the sanctions] all off. Good luck, Syria; show us something very special.”

Trump then met personally with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Five months ago, the U.S. had a $10 million bounty on this man’s head due to his fighting with al Qaeda against American forces in Iraq. But since he led the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in ousting the dictator Bashar Assad last December, Sharaa has been wearing a suit and saying nice things. Many suspect his moderate rhetoric is just a tactic to gain legitimacy, not a genuine departure from his decades-long record of extremism, but Trump brushed these concerns aside.

There is much to be concerned about with the Trump administration cozying up to these Muslim states. Potential conflicts of interest abound, with Qatar gifting a luxury jet to the president (article, page 25), and Trump’s family company building a new luxury golf resort in Qatar. Syria’s president, a former al Qaeda and Islamic State figure, offered to permit a Trump Tower in Damascus. Meanwhile, there is concern that AI deals with Arab Gulf states could inadvertently enable China to access sensitive American technologies, potentially compromising U.S. national security.

Most importantly, such dealing places enormous trust in the hearts of unstable and dangerous men. There truly is no bright line between the butchers of Hamas and the Gulf princes; they are merely different expressions of a culture hostile to the West, cunningly feigning friendship to serve its ends.

These moves are extraordinary when viewed in light of Bible prophecy.

We expect Europe, particularly Germany, to move into Syria. Assad’s fall created a perfect opening. Germany immediately began working with the new government despite all the concerns about extremism. It has wanted to help Syria rebuild, but America’s sanctions made this difficult. Trump lifting those clears the path for major German investment and a diplomatic beachhead in the Middle East.

The prophecy in Psalm 83 describes an alliance of several Arab states, including Syria and Saudi Arabia, with Germany and Turkey. The change in Syria is emblematic of the whole nature of the alliance. This is a confederation marked not only by enmity toward Israel, but also deceit. Its nations feign friendship with the very peoples they despise while planning to attack.

Trump’s moves in the Middle East, particularly his overtures to Syria, advance this prophecy astonishingly. Turkey was directly responsible for Sharaa’s success in deposing Assad. Saudi Arabia backs Turkey’s man and facilitated the meet-and-greet with Trump. Syria—until recently a bosom ally of Iran—is ingratiating itself with other Arab states and even the West. They are all working together in ways unthinkable just months ago. And Germany is eager to join the party.

Prophecy warns that the extremists and terrorist-sponsoring sheikhs President Trump is glad-handing are going to prove to be treacherous friends indeed.

five The King of the South

One of the most stunning initiatives President Trump has pushed during his second term is his effort to strike a nuclear deal with Iran. He is the one who, rightly, killed the nuclear agreement President Barack Obama made. But something has changed in his second term. He now seems intent on creating another deal that could be even worse.

Mr. Flurry has identified Iran, the leader of Shiite Islam and the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism, as the “king of the south” prophesied in Daniel 11:40. Prophecy shows that this bloc will include Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia and other nations. (Request your free copy of Mr. Flurry’s booklet The King of the South.) This alliance is the counterweight in the Middle East to the Psalm 83 alliance and will likely split roughly along Shiite-Sunni lines. For years we have tracked Iran’s efforts to infiltrate and dominate these nations, as well as to acquire nuclear weapons to exert and to project its power.

Over the past 25 years, Iran’s radical regime was weakened and vulnerable to collapse more than once—and American leadership threw it a lifeline. Obama did so by supporting the mullahs during the Arab Spring rather than siding with Iran’s oppressed, disaffected and unruly populace. Then he did it with a nuclear deal that unlocked millions in cash and a path to an unrestricted nuclear weapons program. Now President Trump is doing it by offering to remove sanctions and to begin treating Iran as a business partner.

President Trump has alternated between brash threats against Iran and honeyed promises. In a Fox News interview at the end of his Middle East trip, he said, “Iran wants to trade with us, OK? If you can believe that, I’m OK with that. I’m using trade to settle scores and to make peace. But I’ve told Iran, we make a deal.” He announced that Iran and the U.S. “sort of” have a nuclear agreement. “Iran has sort of agreed to the term,” he said, adding: “We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran.” But Iran has repeatedly rebuffed these offers and has said it will only accept a nuclear deal better than what Obama gave.

The notion that the head of the Islamist terrorist snake will abandon its long-held radical ambitions is hopelessly naïve. But that is what is driving Trump’s approach.

This makes America’s one true ally in the Middle East, Israel, extremely vulnerable. Iran has repeatedly stated its genocidal ambitions to wipe Israel off the map. The Israelis have an existential need to keep Iran in check.

As the Trump administration goes hunting for peace deals, it is increasingly showing impatience with Israel’s resistance. It unilaterally made a deal with Hamas to get an American hostage released with no regard for Israel’s hostages, and it has pressured Israel to end its war against Hamas. It unilaterally agreed to halt attacks on the Houthis in exchange for security guarantees in the Red Sea, despite the Houthis’ continued missile strikes on Israel. And then someone in the Trump administration leaked information to cnn that Israel was planning to attack Iran without America’s blessing. It is an ominous sign of how unhappy they are with Israel and how they are pressuring Israel to leave Iran alone. As Trump is rewriting the rules in the Middle East and shifting the region’s balance of power, Israel isn’t at the discussion table.

Israel had hoped that the transition from Joe Biden to Donald Trump would bring much more support and security. It looks instead like its most formidable enemy, Iran, is somehow going to emerge even stronger. Despite all hopes to the contrary, Trump’s moves appear to be hastening the rise of the prophesied king of the south.

Great Again

In Great Again, Mr. Flurry shows that President Trump’s time in office was prophesied. Based on these prophecies, he writes: “The Bible has a lot to say about the state of America today. It explains the inspiring reason why this nation was so great, and why it has been so richly blessed.

“The Bible also prophesies that these blessings will be removed in our day—replaced by terrible curses—because of the sins of the people. Yes, as a consequence of deep and multiplying materialism, selfishness, lust, immorality and idolatry among the American people, those prophesied curses are descending rapidly!

“America’s problems are spiritual—and solving them requires spiritual solutions, starting with repentance! But Americans are too entrenched in their sin to do that. So the national curses are going to get far worse before the situation ever gets better.

“When you understand this spiritual dimension, it becomes far easier to understand why President Obama did the things he did, and why the damage he caused will not be reversed by putting a different man into his office.”

That is the reality now. Mr. Trump has confronted some of Mr. Obama’s evil, but he has not led the nation to repentance. So God is allowing American power to be compromised, and hostile foreign powers to rise, militarize, cooperate and affiliate. He allows for the rise of an Islamic confederation that is destined to catalyze a world war. He continues to prepare a United States of Europe that will punish the U.S.—and an Asian alliance that will end up confronting that empire.

It is truly stunning how President Trump’s actions are driving all of these end-time prophetic trends forward—trends that, for all Mr. Trump’s strength and fervor for America, will contribute to our catastrophic fall.

But that is not the end of the story. As Mr. Flurry also writes in Great Again, “[T]he Bible also explains God’s ultimate purpose for allowing these curses to descend on the U.S. Whenever God punishes, He does so to turn people back to Himself. Scripture prophesies that the curses America is experiencing today are actually a prelude to national revitalization and restoration!

“America will, in fact, one day soon become great again!”