Ceasefire Rejected, Tariff Ruling Overturned, Germany’s Gold Recalled
A lot has changed since yesterday’s Morning Brief: Let’s start with the Witkoff peace proposal. Hamas has said it will not accept the proposed Gaza ceasefire, and an appeals court has reinstated President Trump’s tariffs.
Hamas wants a permanent ceasefire, but Witkoff’s deal would apply for only 60 days. Releasing hundreds of terrorists in return for 10 hostages is bad enough—but at least the current deal allows Israel to get on with defeating Hamas after a couple of months. A permanent ceasefire, however, would leave Hamas in power. If the Trump administration pressures Israel to give way, it would be an even more significant betrayal of Israel. Our main story today gives the latest on the ceasefire.
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Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit lifted the block on tariffs, at least until June 9. The next hearing is scheduled for June 5. From a trade point of view, this is mostly a storm in a teacup. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act was a quick and convenient way for President Trump to impose tariffs, but there are several alternatives. If a court blocks it and Trump still wants the tariffs, he will be able to enact them, although it may involve a few more steps.
The story is probably more significant in terms of the conflict between President Trump and the judiciary. Personally, I think the court is on firmer ground here than in other rulings. The Constitution does give Congress “power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises” and “to regulate commerce with foreign nations.” They’ve delegated some of that power to the president—and the courts will now decide whether or not he’s overstepped that. It could quickly end up at the Supreme Court, and they could rule that the courts shouldn’t even be involved. But it’s happening in the context of a court system that let Barack Obama get away with many abuses and is now searching for any excuse to thwart President Trump’s actions. Watch for that battle to continue.
The kids are not all right—as graduation ceremonies across U.S. colleges demonstrate. MIT class president Megha Vemuri wore a kaffiyeh for her graduation address, in which she accused Israel of genocide and said “MIT wants a free Palestine.” At Harvard’s graduation another student dedicated her speech to Palestine. It comes as infamous climate activist Greta Thunberg pledged to sail to Gaza as part of a “freedom flotilla.”
Universities are churning out students who “hate Western civilization, and they hate the ethnic group responsible for the biblical virtues on which it was built,” wrote Stephen Flurry and Joel Hilliker last year. “They hate Judeo-Christian morality because they are being taught to hate it!”
Greta Thunberg is infamously uneducated, having left school to protest climate change. But she’s still held up as an icon by many young people.
“The effects of this catastrophe are graver than most people realize,” Mr. Flurry and Mr. Hilliker wrote. “These universities are educating our future leaders in politics, media, business, law, science and medicine, and they are filling their minds with ideological and moral poison.”
You can read more in their article “The Sickness in American Universities.”
Germany has lost trust in America. A powerful sign of this comes as mainstream figures once again call for the nation to bring its gold home. The German Taxpayers Federation sent letters to the Bundesbank and Finance Ministry saying they should demand their gold is returned. “Trump wants to control the Fed, which would also mean controlling the German gold reserves in the U.S.,” the group’s vice president, Michael Jaeger, told Reuters. Markus Ferber, a Christian Democratic Union member of the European Parliament, said America is “no longer the reliable partner it used to be.”
“Trump is erratic and one cannot rule out that someday he will come up with creative ideas how to treat foreign gold reserves,” Reuters quoted him saying. Germany’s public broadcasts have also been asking questions about the gold.
The gold issue first came up on Jan. 16, 2013, when the Bundesbank formally asked America to return its gold.
After World War ii, Germany’s gold was stored in New York, London and Paris—partly to keep it away from the Soviets, partly to make trade easier, but also to keep Germany under control and prevent it from launching another world war. “One way for the U.S., Britain and France to keep a leash on Germany was to keep ‘German’ gold under control outside of that country’s borders,” wrote Daily Resource Hunter at the time.
Germany has brought 300 tons of gold home after that announcement, but 1,236 tons—$120 billion worth—remain.
Bringing that home would be a powerful vote of no confidence in America’s honesty, remove a powerful lever over Germany, and ensure that the world’s second-largest bullion reserve was on German soil, ready for any emergency. It could help lay the groundwork for a new economic system dominated by Germany, not America.
IN OTHER NEWS
President Trump pardoned former U.S. Army Lt. Mark Bashaw on Wednesday. Bashaw was the first soldier court-martialed for refusing to go along with covid-19 restrictions.
Russia-India alliance: India is buying record amounts of Russian oil and wants to buy more of Russia’s S-400 air defense system. This demonstrates its close alliance with Russia, as our In Brief explains.
China is trying to boost trade ties with Latin America, as it deals with President Trump’s tariff threats. Another of our stories gives the rundown of China’s numerous diplomatic efforts.