Good morning!

President Trump overthrew Venezuela’s dictator. Then he began beating the drum for absorbing Greenland into the U.S. The New York Times asked him if there were any limits on his global powers. His answer:

Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.

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Donald Trump says a lot of things for effect. But this stunning statement seems to express precisely the way he is exercising the presidency during his second term.

Imagine America’s first president expressing anything remotely similar. The pattern for the national executive set by George Washington was extraordinarily modest. In his Farewell Address, he warned about the “love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart.” Had Washington thought that the only thing that could stop him was his own heart, America would be a different country.

After Trump said that his only constraint is “my own mind,” one Times reporter asked, “Not international law?” He responded:

I don’t need international law. I’m not looking to hurt people.

“International law” is a complicated subject. It is a favored weapon of globalists seeking to undermine national sovereignty. One could make a good argument for extricating America from many burdensome international entanglements.

But President Trump isn’t casting aside international “laws” in favor of constitutional limits. He just wants to do as he pleases. He trusts himself to always make the right move. He is thus stretching presidential powers to un-American dimensions.

Washington also warned about taking power “by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.” This wisdom helps us see that Trump is trusting in not only his own judgment but also that of his successors who will inherit the powers he is seizing.

Having studied the Bible and history, America’s Founding Fathers understood the evils of the human heart. The very same Constitution, political principles and moral ideals that “conservatives” like President Trump are supposedly “conserving” exist specifically to constrain those evils.

Their efforts reflected wise King Solomon’s prayer that every man would come to know “the plague of his own heart” (1 Kings 8:38). Such recognition drives a man to subject himself to God, to His morality, to His commands and constraints. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10).

For 250 years, American presidents have been straining at those limits imposed by the founders, stretching and at times busting through them, expanding presidential powers. President Trump’s immodest self-assessment represents the alarming apex of that trend.

The Bible, history and our own founders have warned of the curses that follow when we do what is right in our own eyes. Woe to any whose only restraint is his own morality and his own mind.

EU approves mercosur trade deal: After more than 25 years of negotiations, a massive trade agreement between the European Union and four South American countries overcame one of its final obstacles today. Representatives from 21 of the EU’s 27 nations voted to pass the EU-mercosur Partnership Agreement, a big step toward creating a new trade zone comprising more than 700 million people, the largest of its kind on Earth.

This Interim Trade Agreement is just part of a much wider partnership the EU and mercosur are developing. The full EU-mercosur Partnership Agreement will require unanimous consent from all 27 members of the EU and ratification by more than 30 national parliaments.

The mercosur trade bloc consists of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. The agreement must still be approved by the European Parliament and the four South American national parliaments. With this deal, the European Commission says:

• EU exports to South America could rise by up to 39 percent and support more than 440,000 jobs across Europe.
• The automotive, mechanical engineering and pharmaceutical industries would profit most as, for example, mercosur ends its 35 percent tariff on imported cars.

Germany has pressed for the agreement for decades. Other EU countries view the agreement as a threat to European agriculture, since products such as beef can be produced more cheaply in Latin America. The agreement was made possible by concessions to European agricultural concerns, such as providing extra funds out of the EU budget.

The agreement will not only bind EU nations further into a common policy but also help the EU diversify away from trade with the United States and China. It is particularly relevant considering President Trump’s efforts to align Latin America with the U.S.

“We are sending a different message than the United States, which, with its intervention in Venezuela, is not only promoting the law of the strongest, but also deliberately seeking to further undermine the fight against climate change by gaining access to oil sources,” Bernd Lange, chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, told nTV.de.

The Bible reveals that Germany’s interest in this trade agreement goes far beyond beef, automobiles and other economic considerations. Deuteronomy 28 reveals the curses prophesied to come upon modern America for disobeying God’s law. Verse 52 warns of an economic siege orchestrated by a “nation of fierce countenance” (verse 50).

Based on this prophecy and a parallel prophecy in Isaiah 23, the Plain Truth under the late Herbert W. Armstrong warned: “The United States is going to be left out in the cold as two gigantic trade blocs, Europe and Latin America, mesh together and begin calling the shots in world commerce.” This prophecy and its dramatic consequences are explained in Gerald Flurry’s article “America Is Being Besieged Economically.”

German intelligence was spying on Obama: German federal intelligence agents eavesdropped on President Barack Obama’s phone calls aboard Air Force One, according to details from a new book by German journalist Holger Stark. This revelation is especially rich because back in 2013, when the Obama administration was caught spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, it was a major scandal in Germany, and the cia station chief was kicked out of Berlin. We now know that Germany’s outrage was complete hypocrisy—at least at the highest levels.

• Transcripts of Obama’s calls were placed in a secret folder and sent to the bnd’s president. This folder was brought to light in a parliamentary inquiry committee in 2014 and 2015. However, the bnd managed to conceal the fact that they targeted President Obama specifically—until now.
• According to Stark, the bnd learned that some phone calls on Air Force One were unencrypted and monitored the frequencies often enough to overhear several conversations by the president and other officials.

“Eavesdropping on the president, even if only occasionally, had the potential to become a foreign policy scandal of considerable proportions,” Stark wrote.

Many Bible prophecies indicate Germany is not the friend America thinks it is. In the Plain Truth, predecessor magazine to the Trumpet, Herbert W. Armstrong warned that Germany would lead a European alliance against America, basing this forecast on Bible prophecy. To learn more about the bnd’s dark past and how it relates to the future of German-U.S. relations, read “Germany’s Secret Service Scandal.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Russia fired a hypersonic, nuclear-capable missile at Ukraine, near Poland: A Oreshnik missile struck western Ukraine this morning, only the second time the powerful weapon has been used in four years of warfare. The strike was part of a night of air attacks that killed several and knocked out power to the capital Kyiv and other areas. The Oreshnik is categorized as an intermediate-range ballistic missile and flies at up to 10 times the speed of sound. This one carried conventional explosives, but it is also designed to carry nuclear warheads. “It is absurd that Russia attempts to justify this strike with the fake ‘Putin residence attack’ that never happened,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha posted on X. “Putin uses an irbm near EU and nato border in response to his own hallucinations—this is truly a global threat. And it demands global responses.” As Russian aggression intensifies, watch for Europe to increasingly unify and militarize.

Iran protests intensify: Iranians are heading toward a third week of unrest, as tens of thousands or perhaps millions continue to protest the regime, resulting in massive shows of open defiance, arson, violent clashes, thousands of arrests and dozens of deaths. Demonstrations have taken place in all 31 of the nation’s provinces, with protest sizes expanding in Kurdish-majority areas. The regime has blocked the Internet across the country and taken the rare move to deploy troops from its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. These protests could be a turning point in Iran’s political system, but the Bible prophesies that Iran will remain radically Islamic and forcefully belligerent.

Hezbollah disarmed: The Lebanese military announced yesterday that the terrorist group Hezbollah has been completely disarmed in southern Lebanon and that the military now has operational control throughout the region, except for places controlled by the Israel Defense Forces. In a statement, Israel expressed concerns that “Hezbollah is rearming faster than it is being disarmed,” but called the Lebanese government’s actions “encouraging.” Hezbollah, backed by Iran, dominated Lebanon for decades, but Bible prophecy foretold its collapse. Expect Iran’s grip on Lebanon to continue to loosen—and for another power to seize even more power in Lebanon and to display even more aggression.

German political angst, local edition: Reports have emerged this week that the long-standing leader of Saxony-Anhalt will resign. Reiner Haseloff, a member of the Christian Democratic Union, has led the German state since 2011. If the coalition agrees on Monday, his proposed successor, Sven Schulz, could succeed him as state premier. State legislators were slow to support Schulz, but that has changed due to fear of the far-right AfD party, which is now polling at nearly 40 percent in Saxony-Anhalt. Many fear the AfD could win the September election. Germany’s intractable state and federal political chaos is contributing to the emergence of a strong German leader.

Pope Leo spoke out against the persecution of Christians during his annual meeting of ambassadors to the Vatican. Christian persecution is affecting 380 million people, he said. “I would especially call to mind the many victims of violence, including religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, in the Sahel region and in Nigeria, as well as those of the serious terrorist attack last June on the parish of Saint Elias in Damascus,” he said. “Nor do I forget the victims of jihadist violence in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.” He also expanded his warning beyond violent persecution: “At the same time, we must not forget a subtle form of religious discrimination against Christians, which is spreading even in countries where they are in the majority, such as in Europe or the Americas.” Watch for the Vatican to push Europe to become more Catholic and even more outspoken and belligerent as global religious conflicts intensify.

Australia is experiencing a brutal heat wave, with some southern cities recording temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Meteorologists say conditions are the worst in six years, when bushfires destroyed wide swaths of southeastern Australia in what became known as the Black Summer. Several fires are burning now, and three people are missing. Such temperatures are common in northern Australia, but relatively infrequent in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. For the significance of environmental disasters, read Why ‘Natural’ Disasters?

Trump to pay Greenlanders greenbacks for Greenland? Reports have emerged that White House officials are currently discussing offering lump sum payments to Greenlanders to convince them to secede from Denmark and join the United States. According to four anonymous sources speaking to Reuters, White House aides have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 for each of the territory’s 57,000 people. Denmark, which technically controls the semiautonomous and strategically important landmass, has repeatedly told Donald Trump that Greenland is not for sale, but the Greenlandic people are working to organize an independence referendum for 2029. For more information on this trend, read “Buying Greenland Is Not as Crazy as It Sounds.”

Another federal agent-involved shooting in Portland: A United States Customs and Border Protection agent wounded a detained motorist and a passenger in Portland, Oregon, yesterday, after the motorist reportedly tried to strike him with the vehicle. The Department of Homeland Security identified the female passenger as a Venezuelan who was in the U.S. illegally and connected to a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring. This comes after Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen who was part of an anti-federal “ice Watch” group, was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent while in her vehicle in the middle of an enforcement action. Thousands of protesters have demonstrated in Minneapolis, New York City, Phoenix and Portland, with some burning American flags and some chanting, “Save a life, kill an ice.” The Bible prophesies rioting, looting and civil war-like conditions in cities if Americans continue to rebel against God (Isaiah 1:7; Ezekiel 5:12). These incidents are warning signs of much greater internal conflicts to come.