Secure Freedom Minute

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed Harvard yesterday that it can “no longer enroll foreign students” for “fostering anti-Semitism and violence” and “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.” The Secretary declared,“Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.” We must hope that this action will lead to the removal of over a quarter of a million Chinese students nationwide. After all, each of them has been approved to be here by the Chinese Communist Party. Often they are related to Party members.  And they are all subject to legal requirements to do the CCP's bidding if tasked with espionage or even sabotage – enforced by threats to their families at home and, in some cases, covert Chinese police offices in America. Such students are ticking time-bombs. They should be sent packing forthwith. This is Frank Gaffney.

The Conclave that made Cardinal Robert Prevost Pope Leo XIV was roiled by his predecessor's betrayal of Catholics and other people of faith in Communist China.  Pope Francis reportedly agreed to a toxic secret deal with the Chinese Communist Party – and ignored the CCP's intensified efforts to destroy religion – hoping he'd be allowed to visit the People's Republic. Question: Were the cardinals' votes cast with the knowledge that Prevost had actually visited China “multiple times” and would “gladly” continue Francis' direction? Or did they only learn it, as we did, eleven days later?  Saturday is the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China. Pope Leo must answer that prayer by breaking with the Chinese Communists – not continue “the direction” of abandoning the real Church and submitting to their lethal, so-called “patriotic” one. Weigh in at RepealtheDeal.org. This is Frank Gaffney.

Four decades ago, President Ronald Reagan declared that it would be better “to save lives than to avenge them.” For that purpose, he unveiled a “Strategic Defense Initiative.” Tragically, his vision for protecting our country and its population has not been fully actualized, even though the threat we face from enemy missiles has metastasized dramatically.   Yesterday, however, President Trump and Defense Secretary Hegseth outlined a “Golden Dome” anti-missile system reprising a plan known as “Brilliant Pebbles” that would have been in place thirty years ago if Bill Clinton had not cancelled it. It will include space-based sensors and interceptors – by far, the most effective way to dissuade attackers from launching missiles against us. Importantly, Mr. Trump has given the job of deploying the Golden Dome before his term is up to an operational commander, not a research agency. Let's roll! This is Frank Gaffney.

Yesterday, Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan and Brian Moynihan's Bank of America raised $4.4 billion for a Pentagon-designated “Chinese military company operating in the United States.” Most Americans might be astonished that there are any such companies – let alone that Wall Street is so indifferent to the national security implications that it is massively enriching one. The company in question is called CATL. It's the world's largest electric battery manufacturer and reportedly is putting them in Chinese submarines, increasing their lethality – meaning the death of Americans in the event of a shooting war. Messrs. Dimon and Moynihan are, thereby, not only aiding and abetting a “foreign adversary.” They have violated President Trump's vitally needed “America First Investment Policy” and created a precedent for doing so via Hong Kong that threatens to make a mockery of his commonsensical effort to end such underwriting of our enemy.  This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.  The passing of Dr. Michael Ledeen at any time would be a terrible loss for our country. His myriad brilliant books and countless essays on foreign policy amounted to a national treasure. Surpassingly invaluable were his analyses of the regime that has misruled the people of Iran and threatened ours for over four decades. He tirelessly argued against negotiating with, and thereby legitimizing and even propping up, the mullahs in favor of helping long-suffering Iranians remove them from power, often exhorting that we do so “faster.” Such counsel is especially needed now as the Trump team actively pursues yet-another “deal” with the ayatollahs. Michael would likely urge Israel to exercise the only option that can actually keep them from getting the Bomb: namely, disrupting the regime's security apparatus, enabling the Iranian people to liberate themselves, and do it faster.   So should we.

The atheistic Marxist Chinese Communist Party has long sought to destroy religion in China and, most especially, the Roman Catholic Church. In 2018, the Vatican became complicit in the CCP's crimes against Chinese believers and their clergy, churches and Bible – all of which Pope Francis studiously ignored.   The deal whereby this betrayal was institutionalized remains secret. But revulsion about its repercussions for persecuted Catholics in China, and other Christians, Falun Gong, Muslims and Buddhists rocked the Conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV instead of the odds-on favorite who negotiated the agreement, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.  On May 24th, the new pope will preside over the International Day of Prayer for the Church in China. He can answer the prayers of millions there, and countless more worldwide, by repudiating the odious accord that betrayed them and religious freedom. Join them at RepealtheDeal.org. This is Frank Gaffney.

On August 15, 2016, then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered perhaps the most clear-eyed speech ever given by such a political figure about the grave threat posed by, and the necessity of countering, “Radical Islamic Terrorism.” He condemned its animating ideology rooted in “Sharia law,” which he promised to use “ideological warfare” to defeat. Mr. Trump pledged “a new approach, which must be shared by both parties in America, by our allies overseas, and by our friends in the Middle East…to halt the spread of Radical Islam.” That approach is especially needed now, following his trip to Qatar – the nation whose enormous wealth is relentlessly weaponized to spread Radical Islam and the Sharia-supremacism at its core. Ditto his sanctions-ending meeting with a Syrian president who was – until recently – a leader of al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Paging Candidate Trump. This is Frank Gaffney.

President Donald Trump is making a gigantic bet on a remade Middle East. The massive weapons sales he has announced to Saudi Arabia and others that may be in the offing with additional regional states, to say nothing of his termination of sanctions on and possible normalization of relations with Syria might make sense in a region transformed by two other developments. First, Iran has genuinely ceased to be a threat to all of its neighbors, and us, by being denuclearized, ending the regime's support for terrorism and terminating its proxy wars. And second, Israel has decisively defeated its enemies – and ours – and re-emerged as America's powerful, secure and valued ally.  As a practical matter, however, those two conditions can only emerge if the Iranian people have been liberated from the mullahocracy that brutally oppresses them and threatens the rest of us.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Overshadowed by news yesterday of progress by the Trump team in securing more reciprocal trade arrangements with the Chinese Communist Party were reports that top Wall Street firms are doubling down on the CCP's wildly unreciprocated access to our capital markets. At issue is fundraising that Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan and Brian Moynihan's Bank of America are determined to do for what the Pentagon has determined is a “Chinese military company operating in the United States.” Known as CATL, this conglomerate makes electric batteries for consumer vehicles. Its batteries are also making China's submarines more lethal. House CCP Committee Chairman John Moolinaar has explicitly warned Dimon and Moynihan to abandon the CATL deal. By refusing to do so, they must now be subject to extensive document disclosures and, ideally – given the harm they are causing to the national security – public repudiation, as well.  This is Frank Gaffney

Even as the United States was negotiating yesterday with Iranian diplomats to effect their country's denuclearization, Iran's regime was putting on a show of its undiminished enmity with mobs chanting “death to America.”  The man most especially, and quite literally, in the mullahs' crosshairs is President Donald Trump. They have for some time had assassination squads inside this country with orders to kill him and several of his former senior subordinates.  This week, incredibly, the President is scheduled to visit three Middle Eastern nations – Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar – that are awash with such Iranian operatives and/or Muslim Brotherhood-tied jihadists itching to murder him. What could possibly go wrong? In short, any single thing and Donald Trump is coming home in a box. Please call the White House at 202-456-1111 and urge the President to cancel his trip now.   This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. The election of Peruvian-American Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV is a fresh start for the Vatican. Or is it?  An early test of whether this papacy will amount to more of the same will be if the new pontiff continues the worst legacy of Pope Francis – namely, his toxic secret deal with the Chinese Communist Party. A damning documentary available for free at RepealtheDeal.org makes clear that the CCP has weaponized such legitimization by the Vatican to intensify its destructive domination of Catholics, their churches, their Bible and other people of faith.  In short, Pope Leo's decision will determine whether the Church will serve Jesus Christ – or a literal anti-Christ figure: China's dictator Xi Jinping, who is determined to be treated as a god, especially by faithful Christians. The world needs a new pope, not Francis 2.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.  Eighty years ago today, the Second World War in Europe ended. Amidst celebrations of the anniversary, there's widespread cognitive dissonance – psychologists' term for an inability to perceive what one doesn't want to see. European elites in particular profess concerns about the possibility of another invasion of their lands, this time by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. They bemoan President Trump's purported diminished commitment to Europe's security in light of Chinese preparations for war that our Indo-Pacific commander recently described as at a “rapid boil.” The truth is that Europe has already been invaded by millions of illegal immigrants best described as Sharia-supremacists for their attachment to Islam's totalitarian code which requires that its adherents engage in jihad and conquest. Europe's collective failure to address – and mitigate – this threat may mean the next victory there will be celebrated by freedom's enemies, not its friends. This is Frank Gaffney.

Bloomberg reports that two of Wall Street's biggest firms have doubled-down on their intention to help raise at least $7 billion dollars for a Chinese military company helping the People's Liberation Army prepare to kill Americans.  Jamie Dimon's JP Morgan and Brian Moynihan's Bank of America exemplify the indifference of too many in the U.S. financial sector about national security. Evidently, they're determined to help enable electric battery-manufacturer CATL's making Chinese conventional submarines a more lethal threat to our naval forces and personnel. House CCP Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar has warned the companies to drop the CATL deal and SEC Chairman Paul Atkins to stop such corporate enabling of our enemy in violation of President Trump's “America First Investment Policy.”  These material risks are not being properly disclosed to investors, greatly compounding the treacherous malfeasance of JPMorgan and Bank of America. This is Frank Gaffney.

Tonight U.S. time, the cardinals who currently collectively make up the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church will lock themselves away in the Sistine Chapel to make the most fateful decision of their lives – and, arguably that of the spiritual life of their institution.  They will not only be electing a new pope. They will be determining whether the Church will serve Jesus Christ -- or the man who is, arguably, an anti-Christ figure: Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, who aspires to be treated as a god, especially by faithful Christians. Unless the cardinals or the next pope repudiate a secret deal struck with Xi during the papacy of Francis, it will continue to legitimize, enable and make more devastating the Vatican's submission to the Chinese Communist Party. That must not happen. Please, learn more about the stakes and take action now at  RepealtheDeal.org. God bless you. This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.  In less than two days, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church will lock itself in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope. One of his first acts will be to mark on May 24th the annual day of prayer for China.  We need to know now whether he will answer the prayers of millions of Catholics, non-Catholic Christians and, for that matter, practitioners of other faiths in China by terminating the toxic secret deal his predecessor reached with the Chinese Communist Party. The cardinals are on notice: There's no more important determinant of the Catholic Church's future direction and faithfulness to Jesus Christ than whether it continues or abandons its betrayal of Chinese believers to the CCP's determined effort to destroy religion in China. Join us in calling on them and the pope they are poised to elect to RepealtheDeal.org.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Donald Trump's selection yesterday of Secretary of State Marco Rubio as his acting National Security Advisor is a God-thing.  It comes at a moment when the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church will for sure decide on its next pope. The cardinals also need to act on a direct threat to the institution, its clergy, faithful and future in Communist China.  Secretary Rubio is not only a Catholic. Throughout his career he has opposed the Chinese Communist Party and its bid to dominate the world. As the son of refugees from Castro's tyranny, he knows firsthand what is at stake. Catholics and others around the world are calling on the cardinals to reveal and terminate a toxic secret agreement between the Vatican and the CCP. We need Secretary Rubio to facilitate the Trump Team's joining us. You should, too, at RepealtheDeal.org.  This is Frank Gaffney.

It is a time of choosing for the Roman Catholic Church. Obviously, its cardinals will be making a choice of a new pope one week from today.  But an extremely powerful webinar yesterday revealed that they face an even more immediate and, arguably, more fraught choice in the meantime. The cardinals must decide whether the Church will stand with freedom, Judeo-Christian civilization and, yes, Jesus Christ. Or submit to a Chinese Communist dictator, Xi Jinping, who the Vatican has secretly empowered to supplant all three in China.  Underscoring the choice, Beijing yesterday announced that it had unilaterally appointed two new Catholic bishops – in direct violation of a secret deal negotiated by the reported frontrunner to be the next pope, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.  The cardinals must repudiate this odious deal. Learn more and urge them to do so at RepealtheDeal.org.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Last week, Pope Francis died. Starting this week, as Catholic leaders prepare to select his successor, a question that must be formally addressed is: Will a secret, and scandalous, part of the last papacy be laid to rest, as well? In 2018, an as-yet-undisclosed deal was struck by the Vatican with the Chinese Communist Party. Its principal architect was the Church's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is said to be a frontrunner to replace Francis.  Parolin's diabolical deal is still secret because it shamefully betrayed the Catholic Church, harmed countless believers and devastatingly impacted even other faith communities in China. In practice, it has effectively enabled atheistic Communist dictator Xi Jinping's claim to be God.   Today, we are launching a grassroots campaign calling for the Catholic Church to reveal and repeal the deal. Join us and take action at RepealtheDeal.org.  

On Monday, Spain, Portugal and part of France came, literally to a screeching halt for many hours. Millions are still without power.  What happened? And could it happen here?  The Portuguese grid operator blamed extreme temperature variation-induced “oscillations” in its high-voltage power lines. It may actually have more to do with the unreliability and attendant problems caused by so-called “sustainable” wind and solar power generation, on which the affected grid relies for over 50 percent of its electricity. Parts of the U.S. electric grid certainly face such so-called green energy-precipitated problems as solar and wind farms that work part-time replace coal, nuclear and gas-fired power plants that work continuously.  That's a formula for disaster here, too. Until it's reversed, our grid will go down, too – if not due to enemy action or solar storms, because of insane green energy policies. This is Frank Gaffney.   

Over the weekend, Chinese military personnel unfurled the PRC flag on an uninhabited Pacific reef known as Sandy Cay, then claimed to have “maritime control” and “sovereign jurisdiction” over the tiny sandbar near a key Philippino outpost.  This isn't the first time the CCP has laid claim to such South China Sea features, some of which became bastions for power-projection and controlling their undersea resources. This is, however, China's first such incursion on Donald Trump's watch. If there's no push-back, there will surely be additional, and more fraught, acts of Chinese aggression in the region. Fortunately, the United States can penalize the Chinese Communists without force by ending a May 2013 Memorandum of Understanding that gave their companies uniquely privileged access to U.S. capital markets. This is a policy course-correction that needs to be taken anyway. Do it now.

A jihadist attack against mostly Indian tourists in Kashmir has precipitated a crisis that may see two nuclear-armed states go to war again. If that happens, it may be precipitated by the weaponization of water. India holds Pakistan responsible for this act of terrorism and responded by suspending a treaty governing the Indus River's waters. The Pakistanis say interfering with their access to such flows would amount to an act of war.  Ironically, Pakistan's patron and enabler, Communist China, initially denounced India's water warfare. That's particularly rich since the Chinese have diverted water from Tibet for years, creating drought conditions downstream in Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.  Beijing is now threatening India's access to river flows, as well.  If shared use of transnational water sources in South Asia is not restored quickly, war – and perhaps a nuclear one – may well ensue. This is Frank Gaffney.

Has Egypt switched sides? For over five decades, successive Egyptian governments have received enormous amounts of U.S. foreign aid and military assistance – essentially rewards for making peace with Israel and for remaining generally aligned with American regional policy and interests. We had a taste of what could happen to this arrangement when Barack Obama encouraged the toppling of longtime ally, President Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Fortunately, the Brothers' regime was overthrown before it fully imposed Sharia law and threw in with Israel's enemies.  Now, Egypt's government is violating the peace treaty with Israel by massing forces in the Sinai. It's recently conducted air and naval exercises respectively with China and Russia and improved relations with Iran. And it has released top Muslim Brothers from jail.  These manifest the strategic equivalent of tectonic shifts. Brace for impact.  This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday about “trade, Iran, etc.” and are “on the same side on every issue.” Hopefully, that means no further extensions of the U.S.-Iranian disarmament negotiations past this weekend.  Otherwise, there's a real risk the mullahs will succeed in foreclosing the only outcome with a chance of precluding them from acquiring and probably using nuclear weapons – namely, their forcible removal from power. More time invites the regime in Tehran to declare it's acquired such weapons, transforming the calculus of contending with the threat it poses. Alternatively, more time allows Iran's Chinese and Russian allies, fresh from military exercises with an increasingly problematic Egypt – to increase their regional presence, arguably making an attack on the ayatollahs too risky. Therefore, Trump and Netanyahu must stop the Iranian nuclear threat, without further delay.                                        This is Frank Gaffney.  

Pete Hegseth is a change agent in the Defense Department. Like most institutions, especially highly bureaucratic and hierarchical ones, the Pentagon is inherently resistant to major course-corrections. And few have been more dramatic than those being undertaken by the Trump administration after four years in which the military was subjected to unprecedented, highly politicized and debilitating “fundamental transformation.” The new Secretary of Defense has been tasked with restoring the warrior ethos to our armed services. That means eliminating the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion agenda that made promotions to leadership a function not of warfighting skills and achievement, but conformity with and championing of what amounts to cultural Marxism.  At a moment when the prospect of a shooting war looms large, Pete Hegseth needs our support in clearing the Pentagon's decks for action, not encouragement to those resisting the changes the times require.  This is Frank Gaffney.

The passing of Pope Francis prompts an examination of his legacy and what it portends for Catholics and other Christians. An illustrative facet was his diplomacy with the Chinese Communist Party. Since 2018, Francis has approved four deals with Xi Jinping's regime. While they remain secret, their effects have been unmistakable. In short, they legitimized the CCP's increasing domination, mutation and in some cases destruction of Catholic churches, icons, texts and doctrine.  As part of their “Sinicization” of Christianity, the Chinese Communists have also increasingly made Xi the object of worship, appointed his bishops, barred children from attending mass, and harshly punished those who seek to continue practicing their faith in so-called underground churches. Typical of Frances' political proclivities, his legacy in China will be one of a radical leftist makeover of the Catholic Church at the expense of tradition and religious freedom.  This is Frank Gaffney. 

Michigan Congressman John Moolenaar is a national treasure. He chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and works tirelessly to counter what the CCP calls its “unrestricted warfare” against us.  Yesterday, Chairman Moolenaar took action. He wrote two of our country's top financiers, JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Bank of America's Brian Moynihan, and demanded that they stop their investment banks' joint efforts to raise over $7 billion for a Chinese military and slave-labor exploiting company known as CATL.  It is, as the Godfather would say, “an offer they can't refuse.” Should Messrs. Dimon and Moynihan fail to disengage from thus “funding our own demise,” the chairman will require them to provide extensive documentation about this transaction that will expose the degree to which such “old friends” of China are knowingly betraying and endangering America.  Bring it! This is Frank Gaffney.

In less than a month, world government will be imposed on us indirectly, if not directly, thanks to a new pandemic treaty the World Health Organization finalized yesterday and plans to adopt and make legally binding in mid-May – with profound implications for public health, personal freedoms and national sovereignty. If you liked how the COVID-19 crisis was handled – in large measure thanks to the incompetence and malfeasance of the WHO and the insidious influence of the perpetrator, the Chinese Communist Party, and the principal beneficiary, Big Pharma – you're going to love this new world order.    Among its consequences will be: universal health IDs, vaccine mandates, obligatory censorship, technology transfers, open-ended financial costs and the proliferation of viruses with the potential to cause pandemics – all “managed” by greatly empowered and unaccountable international bureaucrats.  Sounds terrifying? Learn more and take action at SovereigntyCoalition.org. This is Frank Gaffney.

Yesterday, two senior advisors to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were physically escorted from the Pentagon and put on administrative leave, reportedly in connection with an investigation of leaks of sensitive national security information. Both are among a small number of individuals who previously worked for organizations funded by an anti-Trump libertarian billionaire named Charles Koch. Unsurprisingly, his employees have been associated, like him, with foreign policies described as “restraint.” In practice, they often amount to “retreat,” or even “defeatism.” Donald Trump resolved to avoid again hiring personnel opposed to his policies. Before returning to the White House, he actually declared that Koch alumni “need not apply” for jobs in his second administration.  It would be a good idea to revisit the decisions that ignored the president's sensible direction, and hire instead staff who – like his Cabinet – espouse robust America First policies.   This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute.  Have you heard about “the Maryland man” improperly deported to El Salvador? If you haven't, it's not because the media isn't working overtime to bring his case to your attention.  Unfortunately, such reporting is an information operation. It reflects a determined effort to obscure the status of not only Kilmar Abrego Garcia, but others like him unlawfully present in the United States.  Open-borders advocates and journalists have relentlessly transformed such illegal aliens into “undocumented immigrants,” then simply “migrants” and now residents of whatever American state they currently live in.  U.S. judges twice determined Garcia is a member of El Salvador's MS-13, which is a designated foreign terrorist organization, meaning he had to be deported. The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that a district judge here can't compel his return from El Salvador.  President Trump has a mandate to deport illegal aliens. Get it done.  This is Frank Gaffney.

It seems we have reached an inflection point in the fight to adopt what President Trump has called an “America First Investment Policy”: Last week, two influential Wall Street financiers appear to have broken with their colleagues' determination to continue investing in China first. Friday morning, Shark Tank personality Kevin O'Leary objected to the unfairness of Communist Chinese companies enjoying privileged access to U.S. capital markets. He demanded that Paul Atkins, the Securities and Exchange Commission's newly confirmed chairman, ensure that they instead comply with our laws and regulations – just as O'Leary's companies and everybody elses' must.  Later that day, BlackRock chairman Larry Fink declared that “nefarious” Chinese companies should be delisted from our capital markets. If he now walks the walk, and divests his company's vast holdings propping up Xi Jinping's regime, we may finally stop underwriting our enemy.    This is Frank Gaffney.

In May 2019, the Chinese Communist Party publicly declared a “People's War” on the United States after decades of “unrestricted warfare” against us. Throughout, it has been building up the power and reach of its military, incredibly with American funding and technology.  The CCP's aggressive response to President Trump's efforts to end its predatory trade practices have further underscored an insight millions of Americans gleaned from Xi Jinping's COVID biological warfare attack: His regime is willing to use physical violence against us, as well. That prospect compels us to take urgent stock of ways in which it might do so, and emerging vectors of attack. A PresentDangerChina.org webinar today will examine preparations the Chinese and their Russian allies are making to exploit the Arctic for this purpose – and President Trump's urgent focus on the role played by Greenland and Canada in countering such threats.      This is Frank Gaffney.

Public health officials insist that very young children and the elderly should keep being jabbed with so-called COVID-19 “vaccines.” If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it is that there are real and still-metastasizing problems with putting such mRNA gene therapies into our bodies and that authorities who tell us to do so may have the best interests of Big Pharma in mind but not ours. A crowd-sourced examination of Pfizer documents confirmed that COVID vax's manufacturer knew it had serious – and sometimes deadly – design, quality control, and testing defects. Now, a growing number of states are actively considering bringing criminal charges against former officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci for their diabolical roles in the pandemic and the associated, needless loss of life. Making America Healthy Again requires, among other things, accountability for those responsible for doing the opposite. This is Frank Gaffney.

Seventy countries have responded to President Trump's insistence on reciprocity in bilateral trade relations by seeking to negotiate with the United States. Communist China is not among them. While the Chinese Communist Party left the door to negotiations open a crack, its overwhelming response is belligerent retaliation. Obviously, it hopes to avoid humiliating submission – and, if possible, to induce U.S. trade partners to join instead China's exploitative mercantilist arrangements. There's another explanation: The CCP is at war with America. It makes no secret of seeking our destruction using pre-kinetic “unrestricted warfare,” notably including predatory trade.  President Trump is right to apply high tariffs to accelerate our needed economic disengagement from such a foe and its weaponized supply chains. He must also enforce his “America First Investment Policy” and prevent Wall Street from further underwriting our mortal enemy, the Chinese Communist Party.  This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has set the stage for further, dramatic tariffs on a recalcitrant Chinese Communist Party, possibly exceeding 100% on its imports. He is catalyzing an economic disengagement from that mortal enemy that is long overdue. As it happens, the President has another source of leverage in the form of an “America First Investment Policy” he unveiled on February 21st. The essence of that policy is to reduce both dangerous “inbound” Chinese investments here and “outbound” U.S. investments that prop up the CCP, enable its military build-up and underwrite its totalitarian repression of the people of China. Four Wall Street firms are intent, however, on maintaining their China First investment policy by raising over $7 billion for CATL, one of Beijing's military and slave labor-exploiting companies. If you order them to stop, Mr. President, you will get Xi Jinping's attention for sure.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a confirmation hearing for the man President Trump has selected to be the Nation's top military officer: Lieutenant General John Caine. This warrior's replacement of Joe Biden's Joint Chiefs Chairman, General C.Q. Brown, couldn't be more welcome – or needed. General Caine, known by his Air Force pilot's call sign “Raizin,” was not only selected over myriad active duty four-star officers. He was also pulled out of retirement to take on this key job at a particularly fraught moment. In contrast to the previous chairman, he has focused on war-fighting, rather than promoting divisive, cultural Marxist “Woke” agendas.  The Trump team of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman Raizin Caine promises to provide the reboot of our military we urgently need. Let us pray they have time to reestablish the practice of “peace through strength.” This is Frank Gaffney.

Just when it seemed the Chinese Communist Party's penetration of America couldn't get worse, it has. What could be more perilous than having, for example, 400 of China's transformers in – and endangering – our electric grid and tens of thousands of PRC soldiers at large in our country?  Well, decorated Green Beret veteran and newly minted Congressman Pat Harrigan has just revealed that there are GNC stores owned and operated by the CCP on eighty of our military bases. Every day, they purvey nutritional and other products that could be used to poison our servicemen and women.  At a minimum, the Chinese are collecting detailed personal information on them that can be weaponized in various ways. We may soon find ourselves in a shooting war with the Chinese Communist Party. Every one of these potential attack vectors must be addressed, and terminated, forthwith. This is Frank Gaffney.

Donald Trump has staked his presidency on the proposition that the United States must once again be a manufacturing superpower, both for its economic and national security. Yesterday, he compellingly laid out the case for doing so and what it will entail in terms of reversing decades of trade policies that have imperiled both. Specifically, the President is ending the practice whereby trading partners around the world impose tariffs and many other restrictions on American exports that have, heretofore, gone unreciprocated. He enumerated many of the most egregious examples of such unfair trade, and assigned U.S. tariffs that would “kindly” only partially level the field. It remains to be seen how many countries will opt to close their markets further, rather than open them. My guess is that Donald Trump's bet will substantially pay off, and help make American manufacturing great again. This is Frank Gaffney.

Today, the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history concludes in Wisconsin. The prime reason is the expectation that, if the leftist candidate being supported by immense amounts of money from George Soros and other Democrat donors, Susan Crawford, prevails she will inject herself in deciding congressional redistricting. It would give the term “activist judge” a new meaning.  Crawford appealed to donors at a January event billed as “a chance to put two more House seats in play in 2026,” supporting electoral maps designed to make those Republican districts into ones favoring Democrats, possibly impacting control of the federal House of Representatives. While various courts across the country have injected themselves into redistricting disputes, it's astounding that a judicial candidate is so nakedly selling her seat to interested partisans. That's a precedent that should not be set in Wisconsin today.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Like the Minutemen at Concord almost exactly 250 years ago, patriots in Michigan have successfully pushed back an invading enemy – in this case the Chinese Communist Party set on establishing a toxic electric battery manufacturing plant in the state's rural north. Faced with concerted and sustained local opposition strongly  supported by House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, the CCP's Gotion High-tech has suspended its application for facility construction.  This project also breaches restrictions on “foreign adversary inbound investing” in the U.S. energy sector laid out in President Trump's new “America First Investment Policy.”  Ditto one being pursued elsewhere in Michigan by yet-another PRC battery manufacturer – a Pentagon-designated “Chinese military company” called CATL, for which Wall Street is hoping to raise $7 billion, flouting presidential inhibitions on outbound investment to China, too. Attention Minutemen! We must now stand against CATL's fundraiser.  This is Frank Gaffney.

On Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth marked the 80th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, liberated from Imperial Japan in World War II at a cost of 26,000 killed. This occasion, like the rest of Pete's travels across the Western Pacific last week, offered a most-needed reminder of the importance of the vast region's strategic islands – and the magnitude of the folly of allowing Communist China to dominate any of them. Simply put: We risk having to pay again in blood and treasure to reverse another totalitarian foe's imperialism – and the attendant threat to our vital interests in what the great strategist Cleo Paskal described in a recent PresentDangerChina.org webinar as America's “Pacific heartland.” We must now actualize Secretary Hegseth's highly visible, and most welcome, commitments to support our allies there and counter our mutual enemy, the Chinese Communist Party.

It's a bad time for official Washington to be consumed with a Signal group chat involving top national security officials and a highly partisan journalist. After all, Russia and China appear poised for military aggression that, if not deterred, could prove catastrophic. Reportedly, there are multiple divisions worth of Russian troops massing in Belarus near its borders with NATO members Poland and the Baltic States.  And the Chinese Communists are now exercising – without prior notice – the use of air and sea forces against Taiwan, the latest incremental step towards surprise attacks there, and perhaps far beyond.  Regrettably, our ability to dissuade these “no limits” partners from engaging, presumably jointly, in aggression is largely locked in for the short-term – and probably seriously discounted. Therefore, we must ensure our adversaries are not further encouraged to strike by our perceived internal divisions and distractions.    This is Frank Gaffney.

For a dozen years, millions of U.S. investors have unwittingly had their pensions, college savings and other funds used to underwrite companies working for the Chinese military. That means they've helped our mortal enemy buy the weapons that may be used to kill them – and countless other Americans.  President Trump has announced an America First Investment Policy to end this insane practice. But top Wall Street leaders like Jamie Dimon, Brian Moynihan, Ted Pick and David Solomon are helping to raise at least another $7 billion for one such company called CATL. Their “China First” policy subverts Mr. Trump's, and threatens our national security. Today, Paul Atkins will have his nomination to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission considered in a Senate Banking Committee hearing. We need to know: Will he help enforce America First investing – or further enable the Chinese threat?    

Yesterday saw a potential breakthrough in the conflict in Gaza. It wasn't the result of diplomacy. Or thanks to the renewed Israeli offensive there, although it surely was a contributing factor. Rather, for the first time since the war began when Hamas and not a few Gazan civilians murderously invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, Gaza saw large public demonstrations against – wait for it – HAMAS!  Protesters waving white flags and denouncing the terrorists who have long oppressed, brainwashed and weaponized them and relentlessly used them as human shields, causing thousands of needless casualties and destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques and other infrastructure. Unless Hamas kills more of its own people, they just might be able to terminate the jihadists' reign of terror – and create conditions for finally ending the war in Gaza and allowing them to live far better lives elsewhere.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Last month, President Trump rolled out an “America First Investment Policy.” It explicitly seeks to end Wall Street's longstanding practice of investing Americans' funds in Communist Chinese companies – especially those tied to the People's Liberation Army. Four U.S. financial leaders – Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan, Morgan Stanley's Ted Pick and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon – however, are determined to continue their China First investing. They hope shortly to raise $7 billion or more for what the Pentagon calls a “Chinese military company” named CATL. It's also accused of exploiting slave labor. Those helping finance what President Trump calls a “foreign adversary” need to be held accountable for making China ever more dangerous. They are imperiling our families and communities.  China's U.S. financial Four Horsemen may not care about yours. If you do, say so at PresentDangerChina.org.  This is Frank Gaffney.

South Korea's Constitutional Court took a crucial step away from national suicide today. It rejected the impeachment of the county's acting president approved by the country's communist-dominated parliament.  It remains to be seen if the Court will do the same for the actual, elected president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached for declaring martial law in the face of parliamentary subversion. As the South Korean people have recognized the threat to their freedoms posed by the so-called Democratic People's Party that now dominates and weaponizes the legislature, they have launched massive demonstrations calling for President Yoon's exoneration. The Chinese Communist Party's fingerprints are all over this constitutional crisis. Its threat to the Western Pacific would metastasize enormously if a vital American ally is taken out. Let us pray that the Constitutional Court stands in the gap once again and with President Yoon.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Elon Musk is going to the Defense Department today, but not as the “fake news” New York Times breathlessly reported, to get briefed on top secret plans for war with Communist China.  Let's pray it's for Elon to take on yet-another immense service to the country – one he is arguably uniquely suited to render.  President Trump wants a “Golden Dome” to protect America against missile attacks. Unfortunately, the Pentagon's plan for doing so is virtually certain to take too long and pay too much for defenses that are insufficiently effective to reduce an attacker's confidence in conducting a decisive strike – the essence of deterrence. Fortunately, with Trump's trust, a White House office and Elon's record of swiftly and affordably getting big things done in space, we could deploy the defense we need there before the President leaves office.  Make it so!  This is Frank Gaffney.

Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rivaled the likes of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Iran's Ayatollah Khameini and Syria's Bashir Assad for the length of his rule, its ruthless dictatorship at home and its aspirations for imperial power abroad.  In particular, in keeping with his Sharia-supremacist ideology, Erdogan has long sought to reconstitute the Ottoman empire and  become its ruling caliph. His recent success in replacing Assad with a murderous jihadist puppet seemed to clear the way for not only destroying our Kurdish and other friends in Syria, but running the table in the wider Mideast. Suddenly, though, the would-be caliph is reckoning with violent revolts at home and relying on foreign jihadists to keep him in power. Official Washington's reflexive response would likely be to try to prop us this supposed “NATO ally” who hosts key U.S. bases. We should resist the temptation. This is Frank Gaffney.

The new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent affirmed yesterday the Trump administration's determination to stop underwriting the growing threat posed by our greatest “foreign adversary”: Communist China.  Thus, a U.S. CFO has finally supported an “America First Investment Policy” that will screen “outbound investment” to respect American investors' commonsensical unwillingness to facilitate the CCP's military buildup, human rights abuses and surveillance-state oppression.  A dynamite PresentDangerChina.org webinar yesterday confirmed J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are nonetheless trying to sluice over $7 billion to a Chinese military company accused of using slave labor without transparently disclosing such material risks – let alone the dire implications for its securities' value of President Trump's America First policy. Secretary Bessent: Screen out the CATL China First fundraiser. Now. This is Frank Gaffney.

Last month, President Trump told his administration to implement an “America First Investment Policy” to stop Wall Street's underwriting – and greatly intensifying – the threat we face from Communist China. This month, four prominent U.S. investment banks are defying his executive action by ramping up their China First investment policy. J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are helping a Chinese military company called CATL raise $7 billion dollars or more from American and other investors.  They have so far failed to mention President Trump's directive, let alone its potential negative impact on the value of this foreign adversary's corporation and its securities. The Trump team must make an example of CATL's Initial Public Offering by disallowing its enabling by U.S. banks. It should also require prominent warnings about any such future deals that they put China, not America, First.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Britain's hard-left government has temporarily entrusted its Office of Standards in Education to Sir Hamad Patel. If allowed to stand, this appointment would appear to mark a tipping point in Western submission to Sharia supremacism. Sir Hamad is ranked among the 500 top Muslims worldwide, a list dominated by adherence to authoritative Islam's totalitarian doctrine known as Sharia. It obliges faithful Muslims to engage in stealthy if not violent, jihad to achieve global Islamic rule. Fortunately, not all Muslims follow Sharia or seek to impose it worldwide. The bad news is that Sir Hamad isn't among them. Only a nation that is suicidally irresponsible about Sharia and the mortal threat it poses to Judeo-Christian civilization would entrust to an individual who is Sharia adherent the job of standard setting for its educational system. Others, including ours, must not indulge in similar delusions. 

President Trump recently unveiled one of his most important initiatives called the “America First Investment Policy.” It's supposed to end Wall Street's insane practice of using U.S. retail investors' retirement and other funds to help the Chinese Communist Party threaten our people – and repress those of China. Yesterday, Ronald Reagan's financial warfare expert, Roger Robinson, told Maria Bartiromo's audience that J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have doubled down.  They intend shortly to use our money to raise at least $7 billion for a Chinese electric battery manufacturer known as CATL. The Defense Department says the company supports our mortal enemy's military. And five key legislators – one of whom is now Secretary of State Marco Rubio – have denounced CATL for using slave labor. President Trump, keep Wall Street from putting China First, again: Say “No” to CATL. This is Frank Gaffney.