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RFK Jr’s powerful speech to America explaining his dramatic political journey

Published

6 months ago

6 minute read

From LifeSiteNews

By Calvin Freiburger

RFK Jr. is throwing his support behind Donald Trump over agreement on ‘existential issues,’ including free speech, and over his concern about the Democratic Party ‘dismantling’ democracy and rejecting its previous ideals.

Democratic environmental activist turned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has withdrawn from the race and endorsed the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, following Democrats’ replacement of incumbent President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris as their presumptive nominee.

Kennedy made the announcement in a speech live-streamed across social media, opening by recalling that he considered the Democratic Party of his youth a party of workers, free speech, transparency, and democracy, but left when it became clear to him that was no longer the case. He then thanked his team for their strenuous work to collect the signatures necessary to get on the ballot.

“I will leverage your tremendous accomplishments” to advance his and his supporters’ shared values, he went on, claiming he believed he would have won the election in a fair system and independent media, and without social media censorship.

But “in the name of saving democracy, the Democratic Party set itself to dismantling it,” he said, describing the Democratic National Committee’s legal challenges to his own bid, “rigging” of the Democratic primary on behalf of Biden, and eventual replacement of him with Harris, as well as the government’s various prosecutions of Trump.

At the same time, he took solace in his ideas “flourishing” over the past year, particularly among young people, thanks in large part to alternative media.

In keeping with his desire not to become a “spoiler” with no path to the White House himself, and considering his internal polling showing that remaining in the race would have thrown the outcome to Harris, Kennedy announced that he is suspending his campaign and endorsing Trump over the issues of “free speech, war in Ukraine, and war on our children,” including chronic disease.

Notably, he stressed that while he is having his name removed from the ballots of 10 battleground states where he could impact a close race, it will remain in solid red and solid blue states, where he gave his blessing for supporters to vote for him on the outside chance nobody else won enough support for an outright victory.

Kennedy added that over the past two months, he and Trump have had a series of productive discussions about working together on “existential” issues on which they are aligned, while continuing to disagree on issues where they differ. By contrast, he says he tried to initiate similar discussions with Harris, but was rebuked.

Video Note: RFK Jr speaks at 41:10 of this video.  Skip ahead to 41:10

 

As a longtime Democrat, Kennedy held and continues to hold left-wing views on most issues, but enjoyed support along non-traditional lines and even among some conservatives for his strong criticism of COVID-19 lockdowns, mandates, and shots, to the point that there is some overlap between fans of Kennedy and fans of Trump, whose administration initially backed the lockdowns before changing course and who embraces the shots to this day while criticizing mandates.

Few expected Kennedy to actually become president, but he generated significant speculation as to whether he would draw more votes from Trump or Biden (who has since stepped aside in favor of nominating Harris) and was embraced as a symbolic protest vote for many dissatisfied with the major parties.

However, Kennedy blunted much of the enthusiasm for himself in March when he announced as his running mate tech industry insider Nicole Shanahan, whose background as a Democratic donor disappointed many who had expected a more outside-the-box pick.

Rumors first surfaced last month that Kennedy was planning to drop out and endorse Trump, which he called “FAKE NEWS” at the time. The same rumor returned this week, but instead of denying it Kennedy announced only that he would “address the nation live on Friday about the present historical moment and his path forward.”

Further adding credibility to the speculation was Shanahan expressing unusual candor in a Tuesday interview about the campaign contemplating whether to “stay in the race and run the risk of a Kamala Harris and [Tim] Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump” or “walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump.”

It remains to be seen whether Kennedy’s support will impact the trajectory of the race. National polling aggregations by RealClearPolitics and RaceToTheWH currently show a close but persisting lead for Harris in both popular vote and Electoral College projections.

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Trump walks back tariffs on Mexico, Canada for another month

Published on March 6, 2025

By

From The Center Square

By 

Stocks sunk Thursday afternoon despite President Donald Trump’s decision to grant major exceptions to the 25% tariffs he put on Mexico and Canada earlier this week.

All three major U.S. market indexes were in the red by the time of Trump’s afternoon bill signing. Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office that steel and aluminum tariffs were on track for next week without modifications.

Trump shrugged off the stock losses, blaming the decline on “globalists.”

“I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country is going to be and don’t like it,” he said.

Trump has promised that his tariffs would shift the tax burden away from Americans and onto foreign countries, but tariffs are generally paid by the people who import the products. Those importers then have a choice: They can either absorb the loss or pass it on to consumers through higher prices. He also promised tariffs would make America “rich as hell.” And he’s used tariffs as a negotiating tactic to tighten border security.

Trump granted temporary tariff relief to both Canada and Mexico on Thursday by exempting goods under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement from tariffs until April 2.

On April 2, Trump plans to announce broader reciprocal tariffs against countries that impose tariffs on U.S. goods or keep U.S. goods out of their markets through other methods.

Since imposing his latest round of tariffs on top of trading partners this week, Trump has been paring them back. On Wednesday, Trump said the Big Three automakers – Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV – would be exempt from his tariffs for a month.

In February, Trump took a step forward on his plan to put reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners by signing a memo directing staff to come up with solutions in 180 days. Trump previously said he would put those tariffs in place on April 2 to avoid any confusion on April 1.

In his joint address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said all countries would have to either make their products in the U.S. or be subject to tariffs.

“Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them,” Trump said. “If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, governs trade between the U.S. and its northern and southern neighbors. It went into force on July 1, 2020. Trump signed the deal. That agreement continued to allow for duty-free trading between the three countries for products largely made in North America.

U.S. goods and services trade with USMCA totaled an estimated $1.8 trillion in 2022. Exports were $789.7 billion and imports were $974.3 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with USMCA was $184.6 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

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International

Pursuing world peace: Trump’s secret peace talks with Hamas a stunning break from decades of neocon policy

Published on March 6, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Frank Wright

The Trump administration is pursuing a clean break with the approach of the last 70 years. Perhaps the only hope for peace lies in breaking the rules of the old rules-based order.

As Donald Trump publishes a stark warning to Hamas, news emerges that his administration is also engaged in direct negotiations with the militant group to secure a lasting peace deal in Gaza.

A statement released on Trump’s Truth Social account and by the White House reads:

“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted! I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

The statement followed Trump’s meeting at the White House with some of the Israeli hostages released following a deal brokered by his initiatives and led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.

 

“We believe you have been sent by God to save us,” Trump was told. Israel media reported hostage relatives asking, “Why does Witkoff (Steve Witkoff, US Envoy to the Middle East) answer us but not our own ministers?”

Trump is credited by the released hostages and their families with saving their lives, whilst Israeli leader Netanyahu has been accused of having “sabotaged” every hostage deal for the past year, with his own national security minister saying Netanyahu “sacrificed the hostages for his own personal interests” in January. The deal to release the hostages was secured because Trump “pressured” Netanyahu into accepting it, Israeli sources say.

Donald Trump’s message to Hamas and to the people of Gaza was stark:

Yet an exclusive report from Axios yesterday showed the Trump administration is also engaged in secret and direct negotiations with Hamas.

“The Trump administration has been holding direct talks with Hamas over the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.”

The White House confirmed the historic move.

Direct talks with Hamas were described by Reuters as having broken a “long- standing diplomatic taboo,” with their report also noting the Israeli response to the news.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying: ‘Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.’ It did not elaborate but Israel, which along with many other countries considers Hamas a terrorist organization, refuses to negotiate directly with the group.”

The pursuit of direct bilateral talks with the “enemy” here mirrors the approach pursued by the U.S. in reopening and normalizing diplomatic channels with the Russians – suspended by the Biden administration for around three and a half years.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week it was notable that “normal conversation” had resumed between his nation and the U.S.

 

The return of direct diplomacy is a signal that the Trump administration is serious about peace, and whilst stressing its power to respond with overwhelming in force in both theaters of war, has been willing to engage with the Russians and with Hamas to break the deadlock.

This is a significant departure from the decades of policy which produced escalation, emergencies, and periodic wars in place of rational compromise and peace.

Israeli commentator Ori Goldberg, a former academic in Middle East Studies, framed the situation as a choice between a leader who is for peace, and another who is for war.

 

Trump’s direct threats in public are partnered with direct negotiations in private, with the goal seemingly to return hostages and remove the leadership of Hamas from Gaza. It is likely these negotiations will feature the vastly higher number of Palestinian hostages held by the Israelis, whose appalling treatment has included rape with metal rods – a practice endorsed in the Israeli parliament and discussed favorably on Israeli daytime TV.

The ultimatum to Hamas follows Trump’s “Mar-A-Gaza” plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip along the lines of a holiday resort, which would seemingly entail the mass expulsion of the Palestinian population.

In response to this proposal, which has been met with widespread condemnation and outcry, Arab leaders have produced an Egyptian-led counter-proposal for the future of Gaza, involving $35 billion of Arab-led investment. This plan, rejected by the Israelis, would see Egypt assume security supervision of Gaza in place of Hamas, and would permit the Palestinians to remain in Gaza as reconstruction is undertaken. U.S. national security spokesman Brian Hughes said the plan, which will be presented to Trump in the coming weeks, did not recognize that Gaza was now “uninhabitable.”

Meanwhile, the crisis flowing from Netanyahu’s actions – and inaction – undertaken to consolidate his grip on power continues to develop. Controversy over the failings of the Israeli government and army to prevent the October 7 attacks continues to deepen.

The new IDF (Israeli army) chief of staff, ignoring Netanyahu’s strong opposition, has ordered a “re-examination” of the army’s actions during the October 7 attacks. The previous army chief, Herzi Halevi, has resigned – citing his and the Netanyahu government’s failure to protect Israelis.

Netanyahu “dismissed” a warning from Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, issued five months in advance of the attacks, as Haaretz reports. Whether Netanyahu deliberately sabotaged the hostage deal, or refused to act on warnings about October 7, the Israeli leader is beset with questions he refuses to answer.

He is increasingly being seen, inside and outside Israel, as the main problem, being implacably opposed to any attempts to find solutions that would give several decades oppressed Palestinians any new rights and their own state.

Having been in power for most of the last 16 years, Netanyahu can be charged not only with corruption, but with having managed Israel into what has become an existential crisis the tiny nation has never before experienced to this degree. His political future, very similar to that of also corrupt, Jewish Ukrainian president Zelensky, appears to be staked on making any lasting peace impossible.

The reality behind the headlines once again reveals the development of a new geopolitical order beneath the sensational chaos of the current news cycle.

The Trump administration is pursuing a clean break with the approach of the last 70 years. That consistent pattern of repeatedly broken agreements, war crimes, propaganda, atrocities, and ruinous regime change has been part of the process intended to sabotage any chance of peace through periodic escalations and a permanent state of emergency punctuated by all-out war.

After decades of politics dominated by an ongoing death machine, perhaps the only hope for peace lies in breaking the rules of the old rules-based order and placing the protection of ALL innocent human lives as the top priority.

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