‘I Am Pleased to Announce’

Good morning!

“I am pleased to announce,” President Trump posted on Truth Social yesterday, “that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of high quality, sanctioned oil, to the United States of America.”

[BRIEF]

This is not a bilateral deal with Venezuela’s assent. This is a unilateral announcement on social media of America’s intent. (But as Richard Palmer reports this morning, carrying out that intent is complicated.)

“I have asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan immediately. It will be taken by storage ships and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States,” the president wrote. Mission accomplished.

“I am pleased to announce” aptly summarizes President Trump’s approach to many things. He announced, for example, that other nations would invest $18 trillion into the U.S. (by White House reckoning, other nations’ vague pledges amount to about half that). He announced that drug prices would drop by “400, 500, even 600 percent” or up to 1,000 to 1,500 percent (a 100 percent drop would mean they were free). He announced that the Middle East is at peace for the first time in 3,000 years (Hamas is still armed; Israel is still battling; hostilities elsewhere persist).

Trumpet publisher Gerald Flurry blasted former President Barack Obama for ushering in “a dangerous new age of worshiping the will.” “Will worship” means that rather than relying on reason, intelligence, reality, absolute truth or God, we exalt human will, believing we can simply create reality. One can will something into existence regardless of facts. The Obama-Biden years provided plenty of prominent examples: manufacturing money and fake prosperity, racial grievances, “trans” men and women, election results, an illegitimate presidency and much more.

But President Trump is proving to be just as much a promoter of will worship. America is moral and righteous; its economy is stable and strong; the nation is feared and respected globally; the world is at peace—simply because he says it is. The collision with reality is going to hit hard.

Read Mr. Flurry’s article to understand this profound subject.

The hunt for Red oil tankers: Did the U.S. just attack Russia? American forces have been hunting for the Bella-1 for a fortnight. The tanker departed Iran in August, bound for Venezuela to collect oil. The U.S. tried to interdict it on December 17, but the ship fled. Since then, the Panama-registered tanker re-registered in Russia, changed its name to Marinera, and had a Russian flag painted on its hull. A Russian submarine is in the area, and other Russian ships are rushing in to defend it.

That didn’t stop the U.S. from boarding it this morning.

America’s efforts to track it down, and Russia’s to keep it safe, have left many to wonder if there’s more to the story than simply an empty oil tanker. Was it carrying weapons from Russia or Iran to Venezuela?

This is just the latest and most dramatic in an ongoing hunt for Venezuelan tankers. At least 16 have fled and “gone dark.” A dozen have around 12 million barrels of oil, worth about half a billion dollars.

“The blockade of sanctioned and illicit Venezuelan oil remains in full effect—anywhere in the world,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted this morning.

It’s unclear if Nicolás Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, is defying President Trump and having her tankers try to break through the blockade to generate more cash, or if other elements in the government are in charge, or if the Trump administration approved the departure of some tankers.

But it is clear that oil is a major prize, and the Trump administration doesn’t yet control it.

This is also about far more than Venezuelan oil. Many of these tankers are part of a “shadow fleet” network that carries Russian and Iranian oil in defiance of U.S. sanctions. Successfully hunting them down would be a major blow to Russia and Iran.

“For the first time since returning to office, Donald Trump has just swatted Vladimir Putin aside in a most humiliating fashion,” wrote the Telegraph as the seizure of the Bella-1 was underway. “Russia had staked its reputation and geopolitical credibility on conferring official protection on the shadow-fleet oil tanker U.S. forces are now attempting to board in the North Atlantic.”

When nations finally stand up to strongmen like Putin, they tend to be less fearsome than imagined.

“One consistent message of Bible prophecy is that when we obey and serve God, we receive blessings; and when we disobey and reject Him, we receive curses,” wrote Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry. “Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, which specifically list those blessings and curses ….” One of those curses is that America’s pride in its power will be broken.

“However, prophecy shows that some of these curses are going to abate under Donald Trump’s leadership. We can expect this to happen,” he wrote.

That is exactly what we’re seeing in Venezuela and with these tankers. “Is this because the nation is becoming more righteous and pleasing to God?” continued Mr. Flurry. “Actually, Scripture is clear that there are times God blesses despite the sins of the people.”

Those sins remain, and so although the curses have abated, they’re not gone altogether. President Trump has some better principles than his predecessors, but he is not ruling God’s way. We see the results in his inconsistent foreign policy—sometimes strong, sometimes appeasing. It will take national repentance to lift those curses entirely, as Mr. Flurry explained in that article, “Why God Is Saving America Through Trump.”

Germany to defend Europe from Russia … and the U.S.: At a summit in Paris yesterday, a “coalition of the willing” of mainly European nations pledged to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. Unlike previous agreements, the proposal also had the support of the United States. Russia has not agreed to a ceasefire, but this agreement demonstrates that European nations are preparing to guarantee their own security. And Russia is not the only threat they seek to counter.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz indicated that Germany could contribute to multinational forces monitoring a ceasefire in Ukraine with troops based in neighboring territory. He added that, for now, Germany is “not ruling anything out.”

Germany has already established a permanent military base in Lithuania and has a temporary deployment of fighter jets in Poland, as well as various other military missions in Europe, including Romania, the Balkans and Greece.

During his visit to Lithuania on January 5, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, “We must counter the threat posed by Russia through strong European unity. To this end, it is crucial that we prepare to defend ourselves and our freedom more independently.”

“More independently” means without the help of the U.S., and in some cases even against the U.S.

In light of the U.S. president’s threats to seize Greenland, Merz, along with the leaders of Denmark, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK, signed a joint statement that reads: “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

The British Guardian called it “a rare European rebuke to the White House.”

None of this would be possible without Germany’s recent drastic military transformation. From 2023 to 2024, Germany rose from seventh to fourth place among the world’s largest military spenders, behind only the United States, China and Russia. This year, the government unlocked hundreds of billions of dollars in additional funding by removing the debt cap on military spending.

Germany is, by far, the largest military spender in Europe. And Bible prophecy shows that its military presence in Europe will be different from that of the U.S. Revelation 17 prophesies that Germany will lead a European military unification. The Bible refers to this emerging empire as a “beast,” and it is prophesied to destroy many nations.

IN OTHER NEWS

China’s Seoul focus: Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping hosted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Beijing on Monday, just one week after Chinese Communist Party forces conducted military drills around Taiwan. South Korea and Taiwan are U.S. allies, but Myung said he is aiming for a “new phase” in South Korea’s relationship with China and is seeking “feasible alternatives together for peace on the Korean Peninsula.” This is a significant open door to China and a mild rebuke of the U.S. Xi said he wants to “increase exchanges and maintain frequent communication” and for the two countries to “further align their development strategies … and achieve more cooperation results in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence.” Cooperation between Asian powers is prophesied in the Bible and explained in Russia and China in Prophecy, which states: “Watch for coming agreements between Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and others to harness the maverick North Korea and muscle the U.S. out of Oriental diplomacy in Korea and Taiwan.”

China builds Algerian railway: Africa’s first heavy-haul desert railway was completed on December 30, part of China’s global Belt and Road Initiative, Business Insider Africa reported, the “largest single infrastructure built by a Chinese firm in Algeria.” Some 360 miles of rail will now enable the transportation of an estimated 22 million tons of iron ore per year. China is buying economic power in developing countries like Algeria, part of an intensifying economic cold war that will soon turn deadly.

Teens use smartphones during class: High school students spend 70 minutes on their phones during school, according to a study published by JAMA on Monday that analyzed 640 student phones from September 2022 to May 2024. Most of those 70 minutes were lost to social media and video games, despite nearly all schools claiming to have rules against such smartphone usage. Students with “problematic behavior” spent an average of 80 minutes on their phones during school. This is yet another study showing the negative fruits of smartphones, which the Trumpet has warned against for years.