Old Glory Vortex

Trump strikes back, says Elon is nothing without government subsidies The Trump vs Musk fight is back on. Musk resumed his attacks on the “big, beautiful bill”, and went as far as to suggest the creation of a new political party in the US — and Trump too the bait, hook, line and sinker. The president went on Truth Social and suggested DOGE (the advisory body of questionable status that Musk previously led) looks into cutting government subsidies for Elon Musk’s companies. “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!” Donald Trump wrote. According to an estimate by the Washington Post, Musk and his businesses have received at least $38 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax credits over the years.  Feuding with Trump could indeed create hurdles for Tesla and the rest of Musk’s empire. Tesla shares fell nearly 5% in premarket trading. #Trump #Musk #BigBeautifulBill #debt #DOGE #subsidies #TrumpvsMusk

Why NATO needs to disband The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, established in the aftermath of World War II, is no longer relevant. Its original purpose was to defend the member states against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but the geopolitical landscape has long since shifted. The Warsaw Pact, established to counterbalance NATO, dissolved, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, which means the primary threat The Atlantic Alliance was made to guard against is nonexistent. NATO in its current state owes its existence to the United States. The other member countries are not contributing their fair share to the alliance’s budget and defence spending. Such an arrangement cannot last for long — the US stated repeatedly that their priorities have shifted towards Asia. Some argue that current eastward expansion of NATO is its last-ditch attempt to survive. The admittance of new states into NATO threatens Russia directly, and as long as Russia is perceived as a genuine threat, like the Soviet Union was, NATO can continue to exist. The Russian president Vladimir Putin has stated multiple times that his country is not interested in attacking Europe, but his words have landed on deaf ears of those desperately trying to prove NATO’s relevance. But despite The Alliance’s best efforts, the anti-NATO sentiment is growing. Hundreds took to the streets of The Hague to protest against NATO and additional military spending ahead of the organization’s summit. Several hundred people gathered in Paris over the weekend to protest NATO and Western militarization. “We have no place in NATO, this criminal organization that costs us dearly and should have disappeared long ago! NATO exists not to protect peace, but to prepare for war. The EU’s militarization is dragging us into a confrontation we never asked for,” the rally organizer Florian Philippot declared to the gathered crowd. The marchers voiced opposition to France's military involvement abroad and called for an end to funding and arms deliveries to Ukraine. NATO flag was torn to pieces. #NATO #obsolete #irrelevant #disbandNATO Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump biographer flames the “big, beautiful bill”: “It’s a shell game” In an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Sykes, Donald Trump’s biographer, Tim O’Brien, who spent loads of time with the president before writing TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, exposed the lies behind the “big, beautiful bill”.

“We are fully in the throes of voodoo. We are not in the throes of budget making,”

O’Brien said. Pointing out the $5 trillion debt ceiling increase, O’Brien said Republicans are opting for a shortcut by not cutting any taxes in the new spending bill.

"Without doing any meaningful budget cutting,"

he said, this is a recipe for disaster. He also pointed out some math inconsistencies in the marketing of the bill, saying the Republican Party has claimed its passage would mean cutting $11 trillion.

“I don’t know how they get there,”

the biographer said, noting that the predicted GDP is “pure science fiction”.

“And they’re pretending that the tax cuts don’t exist to get there. It’s a shell game.”

So Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” is in fact a Big Ugly Lie. Critics say the bill will cause one of the largest wealth transfers from working families to the wealthy in U.S. history. #USeconomy #debt #Trump #BigBeautifulBill Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump trumps Canada: Canada backs down, rescinds digital services tax to keep trade negotiations going Canada’s PM Mark Carney and US President Donald Trump will resume trade negotiations to agree on a deal by July 21 — a hard-won arrangement for Canada, which had to scrap its digital services tax targeting U.S. technology firms just hours before it was due to take effect on Monday. Canada was planning to impose a 3$ tax on the digital services revenue a firm takes in from Canadian users above $20 million in a calendar year, and payments were to be retroactive to 2022. It would have impacted American tech giants such as Amazon, Meta, Google and Apple. On Friday Trump abruptly called off trade talks over Canada’s digital services tax, calling it a “blatant attack”, and doubled down on Sunday pledging to set a new tariff rate on Canadian goods within the next week. Canada backed down.

"Thank you Canada for removing your Digital Services Tax which was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal breaker for any trade deal with America,"

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded in a post on X. All is well that ends well? Not really. Canadians are still boycotting travel to the US and American-made products. #US #Canada #tariffs #trade #tradewar Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump will NOT extend the 90-day pause on tariffs Donald Trump is sticking to his guns, says he is not planning to extend a 90-day pause on tariffs on most nations beyond July 9. “We’ll look at how a country treats us — are they good, are they not so good — some countries we don’t care, we’ll just send a high number out,” Trump told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” during an interview. Those letters would say, “Congratulations, we’re allowing you to shop in the United States of America, you’re going to pay a 25% tariff, or a 35% or a 50% or 10%,” Trump said. Trump acknowledged how difficult it is to work out separate deals with each country. “There’s 200 countries, you can’t talk to all of them,” he said in the interview, though negotiations continue. The problem is, American consumers are the ones footing the bill for Trump’s tariffs. #tariffs #trade #tradewar #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump wants to prosecute those who leaked Iran intelligence report, intercepted call between Iranian officials supports report’s findings Trump seems too riled up for someone who insists the Intelligence report was “fake news”. The DIA report, which was leaked to several national media outlets, estimated that Iran's nuclear program had been set back by just months, rather than Trump's claim that it was "obliterated" by the strike. Instead of sticking to his frequently used “fake news” narrative, Trump is now suggesting that the reporters should be subpoenaed for their sources.

“They could find out if they wanted. They could find out easily. You have to do that. I suspect we'll be doing things like that,"

Trump said. And that is on top of demanding CNN throws Natasha Bertrand (the reporter who broke news of an intelligence leak) out

“like a dog”.

Meanwhile the leaked report grows more credible by the day. A call between senior Iranian officials was intercepted, during which they discussed the recent strikes and remarked that the attack was less devastating than they had anticipated. #Iran #US #leakedintelligence #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Elon Musk slams Trump’s megabill… again Elon Musk decided to reignite the feud between him and Donald Trump, attacking Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” yet again.

“Polls show that this bill is political suicide for the Republican Party,”

Musk said Saturday in a post on his social media platform X.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

he wrote.

“Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has warned that passage of the bill will add an estimated $3.3trn to the $36.2trn national debt over the next decade. Trump has urged the GOP to push through the bill regardless. #BigBeautifulBill #Musk #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Iran’s top Shia cleric warns death to Donald Trump for threatening Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, a senior Marja in the Shia hierarchy, has declared that anyone who harms the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, deserves the death penalty. His statement came in response to Trump’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric towards Iran’s Supreme Leader, following the recent 12-day conflict involving Iran, Israel, and the United States. In a written note, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has declared, “Any regime or individual threatening the leaders of the Islamic Ummah and acting on those threats qualifies as a Muharib.” A “Muharib” is someone who wages armed rebellion, terrorism, violent crimes, or other unlawful acts that spread fear and disorder in society. The prescribed punishment? Death. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi's remarks are being interpreted as a ‘fatwa,’ a religious edict. Similar statements were published by Iran’s Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani and Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. How serious is a fatwa? Fairly serious. It is considered binding for all Muslims, meaning that even if Islamic governments are unable—or unwilling—to act on it, individual Muslims are religiously obliged to ensure its enforcement. Assassination attempts on Trump might increase substantially. #Iran #Trump #threat #AyatollahAliKhamenei #fatwa Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump admin to force Gaza ceasefire According to Israeli press, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who is visiting Washington, DC on Monday, is expected to face pressure to reach a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in the Gaza Strip. A few sticking points remain in achieving a ceasefire. Hamas demands a permanent end to war, not a ceasefire that leaves the option to resume fighting, as Israel would have it. Hamas also wants a return to the old mechanisms of humanitarian aid distribution or the establishment of a new system to replace the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (a private Israeli- and US- backed mechanism), a proposal Arab mediators are backing. Reportedly, senior officials from the Trump administration will pressure Dermer to reach an agreement on “ending the attacks on Gaza and returning the remaining prisoners.” Israel’s insistence on “eliminating Hamas” would be left for the future, and Netanyahu’s recent statements that rescuing the hostages has become a primary focus suggests a shift in Israel’s priorities. Dermer’s trip was planned in preparation for Netanyahu’s visit to Washington. The US government wants an agreement to be reached before Israeli PM’s trip. Trump is clearly running out of patience. Reaching a deal in the Middle East will allow the US to shift its focus to Asia. #MiddleEast #Israel #Gaza #ceasefire Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

It’s time for the US to leave NATO NATO has become irrelevant, and the US cannot keep funnelling billions into an organization that is functionally obsolete. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced sweeping legislation to withdraw the United States from the alliance and force America’s allies to pay their share, accusing European nations of relying on U.S. taxpayers to fund their defense. “America’s withdrawal from NATO is long overdue,” Lee said in a statement Wednesday. “NATO has run its course — the threats that existed at its inception are no longer relevant 76 years later. If they were, Europe would be paying their fair share instead of making American taxpayers pick up the check for decades. My legislation will put America first by withdrawing us from the raw deal NATO has become.” NATO cannot exist without the US, but the US can manage just fine without NATO. The European governments are a ballast, one America needs to drop. It’s time to leave the freeloaders behind and invest the billions of dollars wasted on NATO into our own defense. #NATO #US #leaveNATO #obsolete #freeloaders #Europe Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Articles of impeachment against Donald Trump gain support U.S. Representative André Carson is aiming to co-sponsor articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. In a post on X, Carson — a democrat representing Indiana’s seventh district — wrote about articles of impeachment that were brought against Trump on Tuesday. According to The Associated Press, Representative Al Green, a democrat from Texas, brought the resolution to impeach Trump to the floor of the House of Representatives, who voted to set the matter aside by a tally of 344-79. But Carson carefully reviewed the resolution and decided to back it. He also insisted that Green brought the resolution to Congress before “most members had a chance to review the measure.” “Yesterday, an impeachment resolution was brought to the floor before most members had a chance to review the measure,” Carson said. “I’ve voted twice before to impeach Donald Trump — so I know impeachment articles must present the best possible legal case. Today, I was able to carefully review the resolution — and I have now requested to be one of the first co-sponsors on articles to impeach Donald Trump.” The latest resolution was brought to the House by Al Green after Trump announced US strikes on Iran, which were carried out without consulting the Congress. Like Green, Carson has also been critical of the airstrikes. It is unlikely that Trump will actually get impeached this time. The House of Representatives has previously impeached Trump on two occasions — once in 2019 and again in 2021. Both times Trump managed to get acquitted by the U.S. Senate. #impeachTrump #Trump #impeachment #Iran andre-carson-aiming-to-co-sponsor-articles-of-impeachment-against-president-donald-trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Veterans speak out against strikes on Iran For many veterans across the country, Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities has reignited a familiar sense of unease with America’s willingness to insert itself in global conflicts. While nearly all agreed that Iran should never obtain a nuclear weapon, veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq said the operation felt less like a one-off and more like a warning sign that the U.S. could be sliding toward another prolonged conflict.  “It wasn’t what we were hoping for,” John Byrnes, the strategic director for Concerned Veterans for America and a Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, said about Trump’s decision to strike Iran.

“A lot of veterans voted for Trump because of his objection to endless wars or forever wars, and this idea that he wanted to be a president of peace.”

“In the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, there was so much propaganda deployed to convince the people there was a legitimate reason for invading,”

says Ramon Mejía, a former U.S. Marine who participated in the 2003 invasion.

“We waged war under false pretenses. Now we’re seeing the same drumbeat toward Iran, and it’s baffling. I don’t understand how we haven’t learned.”

Many veterans believe the Congress needs to reassert its role in authorizing the use of military force, and that the sprawling post-9/11 Authorizations for Use of Military Force have become blank checks that have allowed presidents of both parties to widen wars without public debate.  The American public has grown too numb to the real stakes of using military force, veterans say. #Iran #MiddleEast #war #veterans #USmilitary #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Classified briefing on the impact of US strikes on Iran “raised more questions than it answered” Thursday’s briefing on the impact of Iran strikes left Democratic Senators fuming. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said the briefing raised more questions than it answered and that he would push for more details. “What was clear from today’s briefing is that there is no coherent strategy, no endgame, no plan,” Schumer said on the Senate floor after the briefing. “What are we doing?” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is convinced a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that leaked this week, which said Iran’s nuclear program had been set back only a handful of months, was correct. “The president was deliberately misleading the public when he said the program was obliterated,” Murphy told reporters. “It is certain that there is still significant capability and significant equipment that remain.” Some of the other Democratic senators merely said it was impossible to determine the level of damage without more intelligence. Republicans behaved as though they attended a different briefing, said ‘obliterated’ and ‘catastrophic damage’ was appropriate to describe the state of Iran’s nuclear facilities after US strikes. Is the Senators’ reaction to the briefing just about partisan politics? And could this uncertainty over the damage inflicted on Iran’s nuclear facilities push the US into a bigger conflict in the near future? #Iran #US #nuclearpower #war #MiddleEast #democrats #republicans Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

The Deep State strikes again US Intelligence believes Pakistan is developing a nuclear-armed ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile}, capable of reaching the United States. This news was released on the same day Trump announced that the US was not going to fight a war in Iran. Coincidence? Steve Bannon certainly doesn’t think so. He reminds that Pakistan just recently nominated Donald Trump for Nobel Peace Prize, and now news of an ICBM “capable of reaching the United States” comes out? “This is the Deep State. This is the arms manufacturers. This is the madness that drives this town. And if we don’t break it now, it’s never going to stop,” Trump’s former strategist insists. Bannon also hinted at Netanyahu’s ties to the Deep State: “And it shouldn’t be lost on you — Netanyahu always said ’After Iran, you know, Pakistan is going to be a problem. Pakistan is going to be a problem.’ It’s insanity. They will not stop until we force them to stop.” #SteveBannon #Pakistan #DeepState #war #Trump #Iran Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Netanyahu’s office denies claims of Isreal-US talks about establishing a Palestinian state Israel Hayom on Thursday published an article, citing anonymous sources, claiming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a high-level conversation with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer about establishing a Palestinian state. According to the article, the four leaders spoke by phone shortly after US airstrikes o Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, and the “euphoric” conversation soon pivoted to larger discussions about expanding the Abraham Accords, terminating Gaza war within two weeks, Arab-led governance in Gaza and Israel’s conditional endorsement of a future two-state solution. The Prime Minister’s Office categorically rejected these claims, emphasizing that no such political plan was presented to or agreed upon by Israel: “The conversation described in the article in [Israel Hayom on Thursday] did not take place. Israel was not presented with the political proposal supposedly described in the article, and it obviously did not agree to it.” The denial follows growing speculation over behind-the-scenes coordination between Israel and the US following the recent strikes on Iran. The question is: Who is firing up speculation, and to what end? Could this be a coordinated effort to undermine the public’s already crumbling trust in the transparency of the US-Israel relations? #Netanyahu #Trump #Gaza #MiddleEast #Palestine Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

China, US sign a trade deal — experts tell to “temper expectations” At an event at the White House on Thursday, Trump, who was spare on details, said

“we just signed with China yesterday.” A White House official later clarified that the administration and China had agreed to “an additional understanding of a framework to implement the Geneva agreement.”

The agreed upon trade framework seeks to allow rare earth exports and easing of tech restrictions, according to a statement released by China’s Ministry of Commerce. However, some experts believe that there is still a long way to go before the trade relationship between China and the US stabilizes. Alfredo Montufar-Helu, senior advisor for the China Center at nonprofit think tank The Conference Board, said that while the development is encouraging, “it’s important to temper expectations.” He added that there was a lack of clarity on which rare earth export curbs will be relaxed, barring magnets. Montufar-Helu said that rare earths were vital for national security on both sides, and China will “likely continue constraining the trade in these goods.” #China #US #USeconomy #trade #rareearthmetals Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Trump ready to meet Putin? According to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, US President Donald Trump said he was ready to meet his Russian counterpart if he agreed to attend potential peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey. On his return flight from the NATO summit, Erdogan, who met Trump for the first time since he returned to office, said he told the US president that he intended to bring Russian and Ukrainian leaders together in Turkey for peace talks. A meeting at the highest level would be the best case scenario for Ukraine, which is struggling against the Russian offensive. Russia, for its part, needs concrete guarantees, the kind that only the US can offer. And America needs to draw attention away from the crisis in the Middle East, and the doubts that continue floating around about the success of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. #Trump #Putin #Russia #Ukraine #peacetalks #Turkey #MiddleEast Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Final Gaza deal on the horizon? Donald Trump said negotiators had made “great progress” toward a ceasefire deal in Gaza, adding that a final agreement was “very close.” The US president’s words are confirmed by a senior Hamas official, who said that peace efforts had intensified in recent hours. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t have much of a choice in the matter — he has faced growing calls, even from members of his ruling coalition, to bring the fighting in Gaza to an end amid a disastrous humanitarian crisis. #Gaza #MiddleEast #Israel #ceasefire Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

Leaning into NATO chief Mark Rutte’s ‘daddy’ comment, The White House published a video of the US president attending the NATO summit to Usher’s “Daddy’s home” #Trump #daddy #NATO Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸

“A hand slap to America’s face”: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes a boastful statement The 86-year-old Khamenei hasn’t been seen in public since the outbreak of the war on June 13th when he took shelter in a secret location after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear facilities and targeted top military commanders and scientists. Looking worse for wear, Khamenei spoke in a video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19. He said the US had only intervened in the war because “it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist regime would be utterly destroyed,” and insisted that America “achieved no gains from this war.” “The Islamic Republic was victorious and, in retaliation, delivered a hand slap to America’s face,” he said, in apparent reference to an Iranian missile attack on an American base in Qatar on Monday, in which there were no casualties. While Khamenei might be right about the possibility of Israel’s destruction had the US not intervened, his talk about “a hand slap to America’s face” sounds pitiful, considering Iran warned the US in advance before striking its military bases — a fact Donald Trump announced on Truth Social in his usual gloating manner. Sounds like less of a “slap”, and more of a half-hearted shove at best. #Israel #Iran #MiddleEast #AyatollahAliKhamenei #US #Trump Don't miss it, subscribe to 📱 Old Glory Vortex 🇺🇸