Good morning!

It took the United States 205 years to borrow its first trillion dollars. It has borrowed 10 times that in the last 4½ years. On Tuesday, America’s national debt crossed $40 trillion. Let’s try to comprehend this incomprehensible number.

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• $40 trillion works out to about $117,000 for every man, woman and child in the country—about $297,000 per household.
• America’s debt now roughly equals the world’s five next-largest economies combined (China, Germany, Japan, Britain and India). No government in history has ever owed anything close.

This freight train to oblivion keeps picking up speed.

• Forty-five years ago, the nation’s debt crossed a disconcerting milestone: $1 trillion. A thousand billion dollars.
• Over the next 17 years, that sum increased 10-fold, surpassing $10 trillion during the 2008 financial crisis. It doubled again within a mere nine years: $20 trillion by 2017.
• The spending spree during covid-19 helped balloon the debt to $30 trillion in just five years, by 2022.
• Somehow, we’ve dug ourselves $10 trillion deeper into the hole during the 4½ years since.

Where’s the money going? One expense is waste. In fiscal year 2025 alone, federal agencies made $186 billion in payments known to be improper—money sent in error, in the wrong amount, or to someone not entitled to it—and roughly $3 trillion since 2003.

• The Government Accountability Office estimates outright fraud costs $233 billion to $521 billion every year.
• That’s a lot of money—but hardly the main problem. Take back every errant and fraudulent dollar, and you’re not even close to erasing the $1.8 trillion the government added to its overall debt last year.

Two thirds of federal spending now run on autopilot—Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest—locked in by law and untouched by the annual budget fight.

• A generation ago, most federal spending was discretionary: Congress debated and voted on it each year. Now, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other mandatory programs have swelled from 45 percent of the budget in 1980 to about 60 percent.
• Add interest on the debt, and nearly three quarters of all spending is now locked in by law, beyond the reach of annual budget talks.

Social Security alone consumes 22.5 cents of every federal dollar; Medicare, another 14. Yet these programs are going broke.

• Social Security’s retirement trust fund is on track to run dry in about seven years. Medicare’s hospital fund is not far behind.
• Americans have voted themselves entitlements more generous than they are willing to pay for.

Then there’s the interest. It’s the fastest-growing and the second-largest item in the budget, behind only Social Security. Washington will spend around $1.2 trillion servicing the debt this year—more than it spends on defending the country with the most advanced and expensive military in world history.

• We are borrowing to pay the interest on what we already borrowed. That’s a scandalous reason our indebtedness keeps accelerating.
• It’s why we’re going nearly $8 billion deeper into debt every day. $329 million per hour. $5 million every minute. $91,549 every single second, 24/7.

Thirty-four centuries ago, Moses warned Israel about this curse for breaking God’s laws: “He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail” (Deuteronomy 28:44).

• A nation that turns from God doesn’t fall in a dramatic stroke: It borrows and slides and becomes servant to its creditors. “[T]he borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).

That is what $40 trillion shows you. The fact that a nation that once lent to the world now lives on credit is evidence of a spiritual curse.

U.A.E. Halts Trade With Iran

The United Arab Emirates announced yesterday that it is halting all trade and financial dealings with Iran, claiming this was in response to Iran launching missiles toward it (though there has been no confirmed strike against the U.A.E. since May). The government accused Iran of “regional escalations that undermine regional and international peace and security.”

• The United Arab Emirates was reportedly struck by more Iranian missiles and drones in the active fighting of the Iran war from March to April than any other Middle Eastern country, even Israel.
• The U.A.E. and Israel have had a close relationship since the Abraham Accords were signed in 2020. During Iran’s bombardment, Israel reportedly lent the U.A.E. an Iron Dome battery.
• Analysts interpret Iran’s targeting of the U.A.E. as “punishment” for working with Israel.

The United States, which brokered the Abraham Accords, also has strong links to the U.A.E. The U.A.E.’s announcement reportedly came hours after U.A.E. President Mohammed bin Zayed spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump.

• The often-violated U.S.-Iran ceasefire expired this week, and although President Trump initially said he would resume military strikes against the terrorist regime, over the past four days he has, instead, emphasized applying additional economic pressure against Iran.
• Trump posted on Wednesday that he plans to launch “the most crushing operation ever taken against any country,” without mentioning specifics.
• The Wall Street Journal says the U.A.E.’s announcement “follows weeks of Trump administration cajoling of the U.A.E. to crack down on Iranian financial networks operating in the country.”

Even as the U.A.E. has worked with Israel and the U.S., it has remained a major economic partner of Iran. The war has shown the U.A.E. that it can’t be friends with both. But the recent announcement doesn’t mean the U.A.E. is on the side of freedom and democracy now, either.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry commented after Israel and the U.A.E. opened relations:

We all want peace. But sadly, these recent peace pacts have a deadly flaw.

Biblical prophecy gives us deep insight into these agreements. It actually foretells that moderate Arabs will unite, somewhat like we are now seeing. But they are prophesied not to cooperate with the United States or Israel!

A prophecy in Psalm 83 exposes a hidden reality behind these peace deals. We are already in the beginning stages of its fulfillment.

Learn what Psalm 83 says about this “hidden reality” by reading Mr. Flurry’s article “Deadly Flaw in Mideast Peace Deals.”

Germans Frustrated With Their Leaders

Fifty percent of Germans see politics as one of the country’s biggest problems, second only to economic woes, according to a Forsa Institute survey published Tuesday. That’s an all-time high in the survey, up from 36 percent in 2005 and 41 percent in 2024.

Bible prophecy warns this dissatisfaction will bring about a German king of “fierce countenance,” not unlike Germany’s last dictator.

The attitude of the average German is more open than it might seem to such a radical and revolutionary political change.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s disapproval rate hit 78 percent in an August 14 insa survey of 1,003, indicating that he is one of the least popular chancellors since 1949.

While support drops for Merz and other mainstream politicians, many Germans are turning to drastic alternatives. Recent voter polls indicate:

• 21 percent still support Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union alliance.
• 12 percent support the center-left Social Democratic Party (a rival to the center right and a current coalition partner).
• 14 percent support the center-left Greens.
• 12 percent support the leftist Die Linke.
• 28 percent support the Alternative für Deutschland, a 13-year-old former fringe group that has become Germany’s most popular party.

Even if Merz leaves office, the German people won’t be satisfied with any of the current alternatives. According to Forsa, as reported by Bild:

• 84 percent of Germans think the political parties are indifferent to their issues.
• 56 percent believe no single party can fix Germany.

It’s a no-win situation. To whom will Germans look for a solution?

Daniel 8:23 prophesies that a “king of fierce countenance” will rise in Europe in the end time.

• As Gerald Flurry wrote in 2024, “I believe recent events in Germany will, in one way or another, open the door for this strongman. This is a prophecy we really must pay attention to.”

This data shows that Germany’s political scene is vulnerable to hijacking by such a “king of fierce countenance.” To learn who this man could be and what his rise will mean in your life, read A Strong German Leader Is Imminent.

IN OTHER NEWS

North Korea summit? United States President Donald Trump is trying to organize a summit with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un “as soon as this fall,” the Wall Street Journal reported August 18. President Trump has had little success solving crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Iran and elsewhere, so he may be trying to create a foreign-policy success before the November midterm elections. Yet Trump’s foreign-policy problems are bigger than “not speaking with the right guy.”

South Korea requests China’s aid as Trump tilts north: South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Seoul yesterday to ask China to facilitate dialogue between the leaders of South Korea and North Korea. The meeting came as U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly scaled back military drills with South Korea and called for a new summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, touting Kim as “unthreatening and respectful.” Wang is scheduled to meet with South Korea’s president today. The growing distance between America and South Korea, along with warming China-South Korea relations, could help bring about the China-South Korea alignment the Trumpet has long expected.

Drone attack on Romania foiled: A Romanian F-16 fighter jet destroyed a naval drone loaded with explosives today. The drone was struck near the Neptun Deep gas field in the Black Sea, Romania’s defense minister announced on social media. Romanian President Nicușor Dan wrote, “I strongly condemn the escalation of such irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation.” Incidents like this continue to strike fear in Europeans, causing them to unite and militarize.

France to expel Iranian diplomats: On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats after France claimed Iran detained and beat two French Embassy workers in Tehran on July 19. This diplomatic tension foreshadows much greater hostilities described in Bible prophecy.