Glory to Ukraine!
Glory to the defenders of Ukraine and all modern civilization!
- On the war with Iran and trading stocks and futures on oil
- Trump retreats: nominated for the position of new Director of National Intelligence
- Inflation in the USA is rising and reached 4.2% in May. The President stated that he loves inflation
▶ On Wednesday, the 47th President ordered strikes on Iran. As reported by CENTCOM – the Central Command, which is directly overseeing military operations against Iran, Iranian air defenses, missile, and drone installations in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked.
During another TV show in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump stated that the US is secretly escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and that millions of barrels of oil have already passed through it. There is no evidence of these millions of barrels. But there are real data reported by American media indicating that in May, about two hundred tankers and other cargo ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz, with a risk of being attacked by Iran, under American protection. For comparison: before the war with Iran began, when the strait was open and navigation was free, about three thousand tankers and other cargo ships passed through it monthly.
And on Thursday, the President posted two tweets on his social network approximately 5 hours apart. The first tweet appeared at 8:22 AM:
“THIS EVENING, the USA will deliver the MOST POWERFUL STRIKE on Iran (since its Navy, Air Force, radars, air defenses, and all other defense means, along with most of the offensive potential, have already been DESTROYED!) In the near future, we will take control of Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure facilities, as well as completely dominate their oil and gas markets – similar to what we did with Venezuela (which is yielding brilliant results for both Venezuela and the United States of America). Thank you for your attention to this matter! President Donald J. Trump”.
The whole world began to discuss the President’s tweet. The price of oil, which had risen after the latest exchanges of blows between the US and Iran, began to rise even further – a barrel of American WTI oil at 6:45 AM was $89.17, and by 12:35 PM it was $91.25.
The American stock market opened with a decline. The Dow Jones index, a weighted indicator of the stock prices of 30 largest American companies, fell by almost 1000 points at the opening of the exchange on Tuesday – about 2%. A drop of even 1% is always considered a crash.
And at 1:28 PM, five hours and three minutes later, Trump published a second tweet:
“Considering that the negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran were elevated to the highest level of Iranian leadership and received approval, as President of the United States of America, I have canceled the planned strikes and bombings of Iran scheduled for this evening. The course of the negotiations and the final terms—both in general terms and in detail—were agreed upon by all participating parties, including the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and other countries. The naval blockade remains in full force until this deal is finalized; the time and place of signing will be announced shortly.
DONALD J. TRUMP
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”
The price of oil immediately began to fall after this tweet from the president and dropped to $85.32 (approximately 5%) per barrel of American WTI oil by the end of the working day.
The American stock market immediately soared. The Dow Jones index by the end of trading almost returned to where it was on June 9, before the last exchange of strikes, rising more than 2%.
And now—attention! A math problem. How much money could you have made trading oil futures and stocks if you knew at least a few minutes before the publication of each of the two tweets by the 47th president that he would publish them?
To accurately solve this problem, one would need to know how many people knew these tweets would appear and what reserves of money, stocks, and oil futures they had to play this game.
But it will not be surprising if an investigative piece appears in a leading newspaper sometime later about strange operations involving the trade of stocks and oil futures just minutes before the president’s tweets about the war with Iran with mutually exclusive, diametrically opposed content. Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported on such strange operations in its investigation. We discussed it here. It is clearly time to proceed to the next stage of this investigation and publish another article.
Essentially, this correlation between today’s presidential tweets and the behavior of the oil and stock markets is all that one really needs to know about what is happening today concerning the war with Iran. Because the real purpose of these tweets and statements is likely to be found only in the trade of oil futures and stocks.
Almost “tangentially” during a TV show in the Oval Office on Thursday, after publishing his second tweet, Trump stated that the new Supreme Leader of Iran supports an agreement under which Tehran has “in principle” agreed to allow the US to take control of nuclear materials and abandon the development of nuclear weapons.
“They will not have nuclear weapons – they have agreed to that; it will not happen,” Trump declared.
The spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry shortly after the tweets and Trump’s statement denied that an agreement between the US and Iran had been reached.
▶ On Thursday morning, the 47th president unexpectedly announced (as usual, in a tweet) that he would nominate Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as the Director of National Intelligence on a permanent basis.
About ten days ago, he announced that he would appoint Bill Pulte, a loyal MAGA supporter and head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting Director of National Intelligence. This appointment faced categorical disagreement not only from all the Democrats in Congress but also many Republicans.
The first result of this disagreement was the failure of the vote in both chambers for the extension of the FISA law, which allows intelligence agencies to monitor foreigners suspected of espionage and terrorism. The law is set to expire next Friday. Democrats stated they would not vote to extend the law if Trump does not rescind Pulte’s appointment. Many Republicans, even if they did not say so publicly, took the same position. And in the Senate, 60 votes are needed to advance the law.
Therefore, the second result of the lawmakers’ opposition was that Trump effectively abandoned Pulte’s appointment. The president’s plan, which he outlined publicly, was to assign Pulte the task of reducing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by dismissing everyone who worked under previous administrations.
Although Trump did not withdraw Pulti’s candidacy, intending for him to work until Clayton takes office, it seems Pulti might not start working. Senators from both parties speak highly of Jay Clayton’s candidacy and plan to confirm him as soon as possible. Hearings on his appointment are scheduled in the Senate Intelligence Committee for June 17. According to Trump’s order, Pulti is supposed to become the Acting Director of Intelligence on June 19, the day when Tulsi Gabbard officially leaves the position after retiring. In principle, the Senate could confirm Clayton on the same day, and Pulti might not even begin his “activities.”
▶ On Wednesday, the Bureau of Statistics released official inflation data for May. Inflation in the U.S. for May was 4.2%. In April, it was 3.8%. Prices are rising; they are increasing for everything. The current inflation rate is the highest since 2023, but back then it was decreasing, whereas now it is growing.
Note that the Federal Reserve System considers 2% inflation to be normal. If inflation exceeds this threshold, it is considered above normal. Inflation has been rising for the third month in a row since the start of the war with Iran. In February, before the war, it was 2.4%.
Commenting on the inflation news at the request of journalists during a television show on Wednesday in the Oval Office, Donald Trump said: “I love it. I love the inflation.”
This publicly spoken statement gave Democrats an excellent plot for an election video ad. What could be better for a Democratic election ad and a Republican anti-ad than the president’s statement, which will surely now be replicated in hundreds of videos against the backdrop of price tags in stores, gas stations, and electricity bills today and a year or two ago.
It’s likely that this statement by the president could only have caused horror among Republican members of Congress who are up for re-election in November.
Well, what can be done? The leader said what he said.
There are 954 days left in the story called “Fear: Trump in the White House” © (the title of Bob Woodward’s book published in 2018).
Thank you to everyone who read. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Take care of each other, help each other. Good health to all.
Ultimately, what happens in the world depends on us. Whether we fight against evil, do good, remain observers, wait passively, and believe that someone somewhere will decide something for us, or fight evil and do everything possible for good to prevail.
We must not allow evil to win. The victory of evil would mean the end of the world we live in. We cannot allow this. Especially now.
Ukrainian Friends, I embrace and love you all. Take care of each other, I urge you very much.
Ukraine exists and will always be.
And evil will be defeated and punished. And it will inevitably happen.
