Trump 2.0

Several people this week have commented to me on the dramatic difference in Donald Trump’s governing style today as opposed to his first term.

In a way, it was good that Trump lost the 2020 election, one of them said. It gave him four years to plan out his second term.

While I don’t agree that Trump’s “loss” in 2020 was beneficial for America, it’s clear that the four years in the political wilderness, with all the powers of the Deep State arrayed against him, gave him an urgency and a purpose on January 20, 2025, that even his enemies have found remarkable.

Remember 2017, 2018, 2019? Even Republican “allies” of Trump berated him for his use of Twitter.

I have always believed that Trump used Twitter as a tool of strategic deception, leading the fake news media by the nose to fake news stories, while he quietly signed Executive Orders in the Oval Office.

But it’s true, he is no longer relying on social media nor is he so focused on the fake news media as he was during his first term.

Because now, he knows he has just four years to Make America Great Again. While that has always been his agenda, now he is making every day count.

Sitting in the south of France, I was amused to listen to French politicians this week as they tried to outdo each other’s outrage over the US-European Union trade deal Trump and his team negotiated.

French prime minister Francois Bayrou called it “submission.”

Conservative opposition leader Marine LePen (who hung out in the lobby of Trump Tower after Trump’s election in November 2016, hoping for a photo-op with the then president elect) called it “a political, economic, and moral fiasco.”

Former prime minister Dominique Galouzau de Villepin, a notorious Napolean-hugger, said the day the agreement was signed should be forever known as “European Dependence Day.”

I thought the tariff deal was both elegant and fair.

Elegant, because it sidestepped the thorny issue of Europe’s 20% Value-Added Tax, which the Europeans will never give up because it is so easy to collect.

Fair, because the VAT adds a 20% surcharge on imported products. French manufacturers recoup the VAT from the government tax authorities, foreign manufacturers don’t.

By way of example, I use US-made Stihl chain saws to maintain my property in the south of France. In the US, I can get a 20″ model for $300. In France, it costs over $800. So when I need a new one, I bring it in my checked luggage.

The next big trade deal, of course, will be China. Trump has given the Chinese another three weeks to come to the table, so we shall we see what that brings.

Trump signaled this week that he might impose huge punishment tariffs against both China and India if they continued to purchase Russian oil.

“We’re going to put sanctions. I don’t know that sanctions bother him,” he said, referring to Putin.

I found that comment remarkable. For the $100 billion plus that we spend on the US Intelligence Community, Trump didn’t know whether sanctions bother Putin? You would think that would be a top collection priority. Apparently not.

Also this week Senator Chuck Grassley, working with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, released the formerly classified annex to former Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report on Russiagate.

As I wrote here last week, Tulsi Gabbard has redeemed herself with Trump World by her zeal in declassifying documents detailing the utter perfidy of the Deep State assault on Donald Trump.

The Durham annex was the other shoe we were all waiting to see drop.

Remember how the formerly mainstream media greeted the public version of Durham’s report? No criminal referrals, nothing to see here.

Well, hold on. The now declassified annex shows that the FBI knew the whole Russiagate conspiracy had been hatched by Hillary Clinton campaign staffers.

Worse: the Clinton campaign knew their allies inside the FBI “will put more oil in the fire” by leaking the fake conspiracy to the media.

“This was a Hillary Clinton plan,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures this week, “but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to that fake Steele dossier … pouring oil on the fire, amplifying the lie, and burying the truth.”

I know you’re shocked. You’ve been hearing Sean Hannity and others say as much for years.

But now, we have the actual documents that prove it. Hillary Clinton and her staff invented the whole Russiagate hoax in an effort to distract voters from her own email scandal. It is now documented fact.

I discuss this, as well as the Russia-China military alliance and Trump’s plans for Russia on this week’s Prophecy Today Weekend.

As always, you can listen live at 1 PM on Saturday on 104.9 FM or 550 AM in the Jacksonville, Florida area, or by using the Jacksonville Way Radio app. Later, you can listen to the podcast here.

Yours in freedom.

©2025 Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.

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Ken Timmerman’s 14th book of non-fiction, THE IRAN HOUSE: Tales of Revolution, Persecution, War, and Intrigue, can be ordered by clicking here or by viewing my author’s page, here. 

Raising Olives in Provence, can be ordered by clicking here.

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