Secure Freedom Minute

On Saturday evening, I will be joining two of the world's most knowledgeable authorities on the threat posed by “enemies within” in an extremely timely conversation sponsored by Karen Siegemund's American Freedom Alliance. The subject is the “Red-Green Axis” – the increasingly dangerous alliance between Communists and Sharia-supremacists in America. Trevor Loudon and Robert Spencer understand deeply that these totalitarian elements are working together, even though they seek very different end-states – respectively, a world run by Communist China and a global Caliphate ruling according to Islam's Sharia code.  What they have in common – as, for that matter, does yet another, allied force, namely those seeking world government dictated by the United Nations – is the immediate objective of taking down the impediment to all their ambitions: the United States. Learn what we must do to thwart these enemies within AmericanFreedomAlliance.org. This is Frank Gaffney.

In recent days, Syria's formerly designated terrorist group known as HTS has conducted murderous attacks against Christians and Druze communities and seems set on destroying the survivors and what remains of that long-suffering country's other minorities.  Unsurprisingly, the group's erstwhile leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, claims to oppose such crimes against humanity. He has, after all, to keep up appearances of having moderated his historic Sharia-supremacism, for which he was rewarded by President Trump with legitimacy and sanctions relief.  Israel cannot afford such illusions. She has come to the aid of her own Druze population's relatives in Syria and Christians seeking refuge in their midst. And the Israelis have threatened to destroy al-Sharaa's regime if it persists in striking them.  It's time to reconsider the support Washington has given Syria's jihadist regime and stand, instead, with our friends whom it is determined to kill.  This is Frank Gaffney.

For over three decades, the Chinese Communist Party has waged what it calls “unrestricted warfare” against the United States. Currently, its myriad, devastating lines of attack include what amounts to chemical warfare involving the covert manufacture and dissemination of toxic drugs that are poisoning -- and even killing – large numbers of Americans. The CCP is not just weaponizing deadly fentanyl. Increasingly, it's wielding lethal marijuana grown illegally inside this country, as well.  A powerful interview and documentary by Tucker Carlson featuring Maine investigative journalist Steve Robinson describes secret Chinese grow houses in that state and others producing potent dope, laced with potentially deadly pesticides and ravaging our homeland – both physically and societally.  It's “high time” we treat such predations as what they are – acts of war on America – by rolling up the Chinese Communists' chemical warfare operations here, and finally holding them accountable. This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has commendable understood – and rejected – efforts by champions of “global governance” like the World Health Organization to foist upon Americans international agreements that would crush our sovereignty and personal freedoms.  To his great credit, Mr. Trump has given notice that the U.S. is withdrawing from the WHO. But it won't be effective until next January.  In the meantime, the globalists are hoping he won't formally reject their bid to advance world government via a pact giving the organization's leader the right unilaterally to declare international public health emergencies – and dictate what must be done about them. Think the WHO's disastrous COVID-19 response on steroids.  An international summit to encourage the rejection of such gambits will take place at 11 a.m. Eastern Time today. Register at antiglobalist.net. And encourage President Trump @POTUS on X to reject the IHR amendments right away. This is Frank Gaffney.

Donald Trump is continuing to ramp up threats to impose high tariffs on imports from nations around the world. Most of those being targeted are allies or at least friendly trading partners. One that has yet to receive the President's intensified pressure, however, is actually a mortal enemy: Communist China.  CCP propaganda outlet Global Times reports that in just four recent days, American consumers spent $24 billion online with much of it purchasing Chinese goods via Amazon, Walmart and Target.  Retired Navy Captain James Fanell points out that Mr. Trump “needs to take to the bully pulpit and…explain [that] if Americans keep buying goods made in the PRC, they will be responsible for arming an enemy who is prepared to destroy America….If we do not decouple, then no amount of tariffs or other measures will save this nation.” Amen. This is Frank Gaffney.

This week, the Trump administration took the first, long-overdue step to put America on a war-footing.  That's the upshot of a new “National Farm Security Action Plan” explicitly aimed at reducing the very considerable threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to our food supply, related production operations and farmland across the country.  The Action Plan's roll-out highlighted collaboration between the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security and Justice. Their efforts will all be needed to defeat such dangerous Chinese threat vectors as: stealing our intellectual property; acquiring land within striking distance of key military installations; smuggling in crop-destroying pathogens; and operating at least one covert biological warfare lab in this country. A more comprehensive war-footing must now be adopted to protect our people and communities, including by: deporting all Chinese students, soldiers and other potential operatives; rebuilding our military; and not underwriting theirs.  This is Frank Gaffney.

On the eve of his first election, Donald Trump warned about the threat posed by an ideology he described as “radical Islamic terrorism,” sharply criticizing those who ignored that reality – and committing to counter it comprehensively.  Today, President Trump is surrounded by official and unofficial advisors convinced that deals can be done with devoted adherents to that ideology. Its financial enablers in Qatar, an al Qaeda leader now president of Syria, the surviving Hamas leadership and their Iranian sponsors are now the focus of various U.S. diplomatic and commercial engagement initiatives. Unfortunately, the radical Islamic ideology of Sharia requires its adherents to use temporary truces to deceive infidels as part of a strategy of destroying them. Mr. Trump urgently needs a second opinion, informed by those who know he was right nine years ago – lest he encourage, and enable, the Sharia-supremacists' jihadism. This is Frank Gaffney.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the latest high-profile victim of an illegal impersonation enabled by artificial intelligence. Several nations' foreign ministers, a state governor and a U.S. senator received voice messages apparently from him. It's hard to overstate the damage such seemingly official communications involving senior government leaders with national security responsibilities could cause. And that is before further, pell-mell evolutions of artificial intelligence fed by a technology race with Communist China create what amounts to “FrankenAI.”   The Trump administration wants no regulatory interference impeding that race. In its absence, the U.S. Senate just voted nearly unanimously against an amendment that would have precluded statesfrom regulating artificial intelligence for ten years.  Secretary Rubio's experience is but the latest warning that oversight and some regulation is required to warn of, and hopefully minimize, truly FrankenAI. This is Frank Gaffney.

On February 21st, President Trump issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum making it the policy of the U.S. government to stop underwriting the Chinese Communist Party.  Three months later, Jamie Dimon's JP Morgan and Brian Moynihan's Bank of America flouted that “America First Investment Policy.” They helped arrange for Americans and others to invest over $4.6 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering of a Pentagon-designated “Chinese military company.” The Financial Times reported yesterday that 47 other Chinese corporations are now in the process of following the lead of that company known as CATL – one involved in providing advanced electric batteries to make Chinese submarines more lethal threats to our Navy and sailors. We must stop financing our mortal enemy and hold accountable those like Messrs. Dimon and Moynihan who profit from selling out America.  This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump famously promised that we would “get tired of winning.” The question occurs: Has he gotten tired of winning?  That appears to be the case in the wake of Mr. Trump's declaration that Israel's war with Iran is over. Today, he is expected to follow up that ceasefire with another one in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.  While some perceive such imposed ends of hostilities to be evidence of the President's power to make peace and, perhaps thereby, win a Nobel prize, such achievements are certain to prove fleeting, at best.  At worst, they guarantee more, truly endless war will be conducted against Israel, the United States and Western civilization more generally at the hands of Iranian and other Sharia-supremacists emboldened by their survival at our hands. That is the sort of “win” of which we will become very tired. This is Frank Gaffney.

Today we celebrate the founding of our nation and those who fought to realize the vision of an America free of British misrule to which they courageously pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.  As it happens, but for the intervention of another foreign power, all might well have been lost. In 1777, France formally announced its recognition of the United States of America, backed by arms shipments, diplomatic support and military forces like those that helped secure our victory at Yorktown. It behooves us to remember that crucial help as we hear reports of the Iranian mullahs murdering their people to prevent a revolution from giving rise to a Free Iran. Israel is ready to finish the job by rendering the regime unable to cling to power. All we need to do is get out of the way.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Einstein Was Right – Try The Sane Alternative to a Ceasefire in Gaza! Albert Einstein famously said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Compelling Israel once again to pull back from a decisive victory in Gaza seems to fit that description. President Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week and is expected to press his guest to accept a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas. The predictable result would be to give Hamas what their patrons – the Iranian mullahs – got from the last one in Iran: namely, a new lease on life. Compelling the Israelis to withdraw from parts of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to Hamas simply means the war there will resume in due course – and under circumstances significantly less favorable to both the Israelis and us. The time has come to try the sane alternative: Let Israel finish the job.   This is Frank Gaffney

During the Cold War, American experts would scrutinize every shred of evidence – including who stood where on Lenin's tomb during military parades – for clues about Kremlin leadership struggles and their implications for our security.  A similar phenomenon is underway at the moment regarding  China's secretive Communist hierarchy. Purges of senior military officers believed to be loyal to the current Chinese “emperor,” Xi Jinping, his recent, protracted absences – both physical and from the state-controlled media, and rumors of his ill-health are feeding speculation he may soon be toppled from power. A timely webinar today will assess whether Xi's days as absolute dictator are indeed numbered. And, either way, whether the advanced state of his preparations for a shooting war means that we are at a moment of acute danger – and what's our appropriate response.  Join us at noon Eastern Time at PresentDangerChina.org. This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has declared “the 12-Day war is over.” But what about the truly “endless war” perpetrated by the Iranian mullahs against us and Israel when they came to power forty-six years ago?   It would be more accurate to say hostilities have paused, consistent with Islam's Sharia doctrine. It dictates that adherents like Iran's leaders can only interrupt the jihad they must wage to achieve Sharia's triumph worldwide if defeat is imminent and to buy time to regroup, rearm and renew the fighting when they can prevail.  A VictoryCo.org briefing at noon Eastern Time today will scrutinize the Iranian regime's ongoing bellicose rhetoric and actions – including a top ayatollah's religious order to assassinate President Trump. To actually end its endless war, Israel must finish the job by eliminating the mullahocracy, thus affording the Iranian people a chance to Free Iran. This is Frank Gaffney

Five years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party “fundamentally transformed” Hong Kong from a relatively free and economically thriving territory into just another enslaved city within the People's Republic of China.  With Beijing's imposition of a draconian national security law, the CCP finished off the last vestiges of the “one-country, two-systems” arrangement it promised Great Britain would apply for fifty years when she surrendered the colony in 1997.   Dissent has been crushed, with its champions like Jimmy Lai and Joshua Wong cruelly imprisoned. The mainland's totalitarian social credit system enforces the Party's edicts. And Hong Kong's capital market now serves as a financial Trojan Horse, a vehicle for Wall Street to fundraise for Chinese military companies like CATL.  An even worse fate awaits Taiwan if the Chinese Communists can next acquire it, one way or another. That must not happen. This is Frank Gaffney.

The ongoing debate about the damage inflicted by U.S. and Israeli forces on Iran's nuclear weapons program is obscuring a larger – and deeply concerning – reality: What's been described as the end of “the 12-day war” has left the mullahs still in power in Tehran, their instruments for repressing the Iranian people still operating and their Communist Chinese allies still able to infuse the regime with cash, know-how and military hardware. Thus, as long as the ayatollahs remain in control, they can always simply buy nuclear weapons. They can use their surviving missiles, or newly manufactured ones, to attack our forces in the region and/or Israel. And they can activate jihadist cells in this country – including teams tasked with assassinating President Trump.  Without decisive victory and a Free Iran, what we have is not peace, but more endless war with the Sharia-supremacists.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Following the U.S. military strike that devastated key parts of Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure, President Trump effusively thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his own and his country's help in ensuring the mullahs do not get nuclear weapons. He added, “We worked as a team like perhaps no other team has ever worked before.” Last night, Mr. Trump went even further in a Truth Social post, describing his partner as a WARRIOR. “We were fighting, literally, for the Survival of Israel, and there is nobody in Israel's History that fought harder or more competently than Bibi Netanyahu.”  A veteran of politically motivated lawfare himself, the President called for an immediate end to an ongoing “TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE” afflicting the prime minister. The same should apply to political warfare against Bibi being waged by some influential Trump allies here.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Yesterday, New York City Democrats chose a so-called “progressive” Muslim, Zohran Mamdani, to be their next mayor. Will his candidacy prompt at last scrutiny of what authoritative Islam's Sharia doctrine entails – a truth largely suppressed in this country since its adherents attacked us on 9/11?  Sharia requires faithful Muslims to strive to achieve its totalitarian triumph worldwide. Wherever possible, that is to be accomplished through violent jihad, or holy war, as practiced by the “perfect man”: Islam's prophet Mohammed.  When violence would be counterproductive, however, Sharia demands that jihad be pursued by other means. As we have seen in Britain especially, Sharia-supremacist Muslim Brotherhood-engineered block-voting has elected Muslim mayors in London and some twenty other cities. As Charlie Kirk recently courageously observed, “Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization.” And stealthy “electoral jihad” poses a threat to it here. This is Frank Gaffney.

The ceasefire between Israel and Iran President Trump announced yesterday came amidst signs that the cumulative effects of recent Israeli and U.S. military actions were putting the Iranian regime in extremis. The right response to the impending demise of an enemy government that has explicitly pursued for forty-six years “Death to Israel,” “Death to America” and the destruction of Judeo-Christian civilization is: “Do Not Resuscitate.” By contrast, what amounts to a hudna – a pause that allows the ayatollahs to regroup, rearm, repress their people and resume  jihad when expedient – would be strategic defeat for their intended victims, including us. President Trump has brilliantly teamed with Israel's Bibi Netanyahu to make possible a decisive victory in the truly “endless war” with Iran. Join us at VictoryCo.org for an emergency briefing today at 2 p.m. ET for what needs to be done now.   This is Frank Gaffney.

On Saturday, U.S. military forces impressively devastated Iran's nuclear weapons infrastructure. Unfortunately, some targeted enriched uranium may have been moved beforehand, assuring the Iranian regime remains a dangerous threat. So do its active options to close the Strait of Hormuz, kill U.S. troops in the region, continue attacking Israel and activate sleeper cells inside the United States.  Yet, we're insistently told we must negotiate a “peace deal” with the ayatollahs, leaving them in power, able to continue  repressing the Iranian people and actively threatening Israel's – and ours. Fortunately, President Trump seems to have opened the door to “regime change” in a social media post yesterday. Indeed, Israel must be free to finish the job by making that possible and we must stop negotiating with the mullahs, thereby legitimating them and discouraging their people from bringing about a Free Iran.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Remember the TV game show called “Let's Make a Deal”? Contestants would choose one of three doors, hoping it concealed a great prize.  The present churning on Iran feels like that show. President Trump has faced two unpalatable options: Door One: Do nothing and, effectively assure the mullahs' regime remains in place – including its covert nuclear weapons program. Or Door Two: Bomb a very hard Iranian nuclear target and become engaged military in another Mideast war.  Instead of giving the ayatollahs two more weeks to agree they won't “get the Bomb,” which amounts to Door One, he should take Door Three: Require the mullahs' true “unconditional surrender,” meaning the liberation of the Iranian people.  Anything less means victory for the Sharia-supremacists and ensures much more of the truly “endless war” they have waged against us from Iran for over forty years.  This is Frank Gaffney.

There's a secret weapon in the campaign to end the mortal threat the Iranian regime poses to Israel, America and Western civilization: namely, the people of Iran.  After all, the mullahs' Sharia-supremacist totalitarian misrule has impoverished, isolated and murdered them for over four decades. In addition, the ruling ayatollahs believe they must bring back their messiah by initiating the Apocalypse, which would kill untold millions of Iranians, among others.  If empowered to liberate themselves, Iran's people can do more to end the regime's doomsday nuclear weapons program than any external power. So, we need to encourage and enable them to rise up.  Understandably, they'll only take the immense risks of doing so if convinced Western deal-making with the regime won't sell them out again. That means no further negotiations with the mullahs for any purpose other than their unconditional surrender.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Israel's successful campaign to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program, prevent its ballistic missiles and other weapons from attacking the Jewish State's population centers and decimate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, military and intelligence leadership has given rise to an historic opportunity.  For the first time since 1979, when the ayatollahs imposed their apocalyptic and totalitarian Sharia-supremacist regime on the country's highly cultured, capable and pro-Western population, the people of Iran have a real chance to liberate themselves.  That prospect increased immeasurably with President Trump's immortal, two-word social media post yesterday. He said simply, “Unconditional Surrender.”  By signaling an end to negotiations with the mullahs for any other purpose, the Iranian people now can, and will, bring them down. They'll need, of course, support in rejoining the civilized world. But that decisive victory is finally possible, at last.  Praise the Lord! This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump abruptly left the G-7 meeting to work on the conflict between Israel and Iran's mullahs. Thankfully, he has explicitly said it's not to pursue a ceasefire, whose practical effect would be to deny the decisive victory Israel's security – and ours – requires.   Instead, Mr. Trump has said he's working on “something bigger” and that he wants a real end to the Iranian nuclear threat,  meaning Tehran “giving up entirely.”  Our superb “emergency briefing” yesterday showed why: The Iranian regime is committed to our destruction, not just Israel's. It's compelled by faith to lie in any negotiation. And it'll use anything short of complete defeat to regroup, rearm and resume its war on Judeo-Christian civilization.  I pray the Trump team, and you, will go to the video tape at VictoryCo.org and help Israel achieve the only acceptable outcome – namely, decisive victory.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Israel and the Iranian mullahs are at war, precipitated by the prospect nuclear weapons might soon feature in ongoing strikes on Israeli civilian targets.  Will the United States do what it has done repeatedly in previous Mideast conflicts, namely, insist that the Jewish State suspend its military operations before achieving a decisive victory?  To his great credit, President Trump has thus far resisted calls to do so again to avoid a new “endless war.” In fact, the most endless war in memory is the forty-year one the Iranian mullahs have waged against Western Civilization. It will continue and intensify if they and their nuclear weapons program survive.  An emergency briefing at 2 p.m. today will explicate why Israel is absolutely right to insist on finishing the job and why it is in America's vital interest that's accomplished. Join us at VictoryCo.org This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. Literally overnight, the Mideast was transformed. Israeli forces conducted air and missile attacks against Iran, having determined that its regime – which had long declared the intention to destroy Israel and had repeatedly tried to do so, both directly and through myriad proxies – was poised to “go nuclear.”  Most importantly, Israel's preemptive, defensive strikes destroyed not only key parts of Iran's vast nuclear weapons infrastructure, but the IRGC security apparatus that ran it and kept the mullahs in power. It's, of course, too early to declare a permanent victory. But we can say now: Praise the Lord!  Israel has validated, yet again, that she has not only the power but the will to crush her enemies, and ours. And so has been the Trump Doctrine, whereby America wants our allies to play such a role, and will help defend them when they do.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Welcome to perhaps the most consequential grassroots-driven public policy initiative in U.S. history. On June 1st, the Texas state legislature became the fifth in the nation to exercise a little-noted constitutional authority to make gold and silver coin legal tender and “functional money.” The instigator of the Transactional Gold and Silver movement is my friend, Kevin Freeman, the author of the best-seller that launched it, Pirate Money: Discovering the Founders' Plan for Economic Justice and Defeating the Great Reset. Will Governor Greg Abbott now enable Texans and others to have an alternative to paper dollars that are worth ever-less and the totalitarianism-enabling Central Bank Digital Currency the Federal Reserve wants to foist upon us?  Or will he surrender to banking lobbyists indifferent to this mighty blow for freedom and, interestingly, even the opportunity for their industry to benefit from it, too? This is Frank Gaffney.

Communist China and the United States have just agreed in principle to ease trade frictions. Ostensibly, it will mean back to business-as-usual with respect to our insane dependence on Chinese exports of rare earth minerals. Unfortunately, the Chinese Communist Party's “business” is to destroy this country. For example, a third Chinese national has just been charged with smuggling here biological materials capable of devastating our agricultural sector and harming consumers. Worse yet, the unrest seen in recent days – and far more widespread agitation scheduled for the next ones – bear the fingerprints of CCP-tied donors and front groups committed to our national demise.  Of particular concern is the fact that among the millions of illegal immigrants Joe Biden let in whom Donald Trump has promised to deport are tens of thousands of apparent Chinese soldiers. Their “business” is our mortal peril. This is Frank Gaffney.

China is reportedly developing high-speed torpedoes that will use artificial intelligence to overcome the use of decoys and other techniques in order to destroy our submarines. Should that happen, it would negate one of the few remaining advantages our navy enjoys over the Chinese Communist Party's considerably larger and increasingly well-armed one. It would also compound the betrayal JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Bank of America's Brian Moynihan inflicted by raising $4-plus billion for a Pentagon-designated “Chinese military company” called CATL. It's extending the lethality of Chinese non-nuclear attack submarines with advanced lithium ion batteries.  Those CEOs need to be held personally accountable for increasing the danger to American sailors with funds supplied by American investors. In so doing, they have violated President Trump's vitally needed “America First Investment Policy” and created a diabolical precedent for further underwriting our enemy via Hong Kong. This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump has deployed National Guard units to the streets of Los Angeles in response to what are not “peaceful protests,” but riots organized by powerful Communist and aligned groups.  Their goal isn't merely preventing the implementation of Mr. Trump's electoral mandate to deport millions of illegal aliens. It's the precursor to likely violent nationwide resistance to his presidency apparently planned to begin in earnest on June 14th.  Predictably, California Governor Gavin Newscom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, who recently allowed wildfires to destroy large swathes of Los Angeles, object to such efforts to end the mayhem. In fact, the Homeland Security Department says they are contributing to it. President Trump is right to nip in the bud this prospective insurrection, rather than contend with its desired consequences – which will make those of 2020's so-called “Summer of Love” pale by comparison.  This is Frank Gaffney.

On June 6th, we honor those who fought and died to liberate France from foreign invaders who brutally imposed a totalitarian ideology on her people and their continent. Tragically, France today is among the European nations now increasingly occupied, not by Nazis, but by adherents to the Islamic doctrine of Sharia. The current occupation is not yet complete. But the French government has previously acknowledged that over 700 areas of its country are effectively “no-go zones,” where repressive Sharia is the law and first-responders and non-Muslims dare not enter.  A new Middle East Forum report warns that governmental acquiescence to Sharia-supremacism is now underway in this country, too. It documents how Plano, Texas is actually paying millions of tax dollars to Islamic organizations espousing wife-beating and other affronts to Judeo-Christian civilization for which Americans have sacrificed everything.  Shut them down now.  This is Frank Gaffney.

President Trump yesterday reinstituted a travel ban he initially ordered early in his first term. It's worth recalling why.  One reason is that there is no way to vet people from many countries across the Middle East and Africa. As he noted in a seminal speech in Youngstown on August 15, 2016, admitting their citizens risks letting in adherents to the ideology of “radical Islam” known as Sharia, which requires its adherents to engage in jihad to impose Islam worldwide. Sharia is the law of the land in most of the countries included in the new executive order. Recent terrorist attacks remind us that we must prevent more jihadists from coming here. They also underscore the necessity of removing Sharia-supremacists already here, in many cases illegally – and, as he promised in Youngstown, “stripping out” the networks that support them.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Two Chinese students have been accused of sneaking into the country a potential “agroterrorism weapon.” It's a biological pathogen that could be used to devastate America's agriculture and food supply and harm those who consume it. The question occurs: How many others among the 270,000 PRC nationals studying in this country might be engaged in similar missions? Or, for that matter, the tens of thousands of suspected Chinese soldiers now here? The truth is no one knows. But what is certain is that all of them are obliged to engage in such activity – or worse – if the Chinese Communist Party orders them to do so.  The Trump administration is trying to send the students home. The President needs to inform the public about the danger posed by – and enlist its help in finding and enabling the removal of – the soldiers, too.   This is Frank Gaffney.

Last week, polymath Mike Benz described a decisive moment early in the Cold War when the fledgling CIA covertly intervened to ensure the election of a pro-Western government in Italy. The rest is history. By preventing Communists from using ballots rather than bullets to take over a key Western European nation, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's bid to conquer the entire continent was confined to the enslavement of just its eastern half.  Unfortunately, in the election this week in South Korea, it has been the Chinese Communist Party assiduously intervening, using democracy to destroy it in South Korea. While the final results are not yet in hand, the absence of countervailing efforts by the United States, let alone the decisive ones we mounted in Italy nearly 80 years ago, may thrust a key ally behind an ominous CCP Iron Curtain in Asia. This is Frank Gaffney.

On Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Communist China there would be “devastating consequences” if it invaded Taiwan – a prospect that “could be imminent.” That warning was extremely important, as far as it goes.  Unfortunately, while the Chinese Communist Party has widely denounced Pete's remarks, its dictator, Xi Jinping, may be inclined to discount them – unless accompanied by actions that credibly deter the kind of blockade or invasion for which China's military has been “rehearsing.” Such steps should include: enforcing Trump's “America First Investment Policy” to stop U.S. underwriting of the Chinese military; implementing a counter-mafia strategy to root out the CCP's “old friends” here; securing the Panama Canal and moving significant elements of the Atlantic fleet through it ASAP; issuing a presidential statement today opposing the CCP's threat to freedom in South Korea; and finding and removing Chinese soldiers inside America. 

The U.S. government has recently served notice on Harvard and other academic institutions: They must stop ignoring the national security implications of having Communist Chinese and pro-terrorist students on campus.  In explaining steps being taken to restrict or terminate visas for such individuals, the State Department is rightly noting that they can put at risk public safety, proprietary information or other, vital American interests.  Harvard is accused, among other things, of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.” Many other schools, if not similarly complicit, have turned a blind-eye to the CCP's influence and even espionage operations on theirs.  This must stop.  The Trump team deserves credit for taking action to that end. And its ability to do so must not be denied by federal judges as indifferent to national security as have been far too many in the academy.  This is Frank Gaffney.

Donald Trump prides himself on being a deal-maker. And he aspires to be a peacemaker.  Consequently, he is pursuing an agreement whereby Iran's mullahs would actually abandon their ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons – and thereby prevent another “endless” Mideast war.  Mr. Trump's courtiers insist that he'll succeed where his predecessors have consistently failed. For that to occur, however, the mullahs must faithfully forswear their determination to trigger Armageddon, thus bringing back the Shiites' messiah and ushering in their own Golden Age, in which all the world submits to Islam.   Ain't gonna happen. That being the case, the only realistic hope for peace lies with the end of the Iranian regime. A true master deal-maker knows when to cut his losses. This is that time and Israel is prepared to do the heavy lifting.  Let that be your legacy, Mr. President. This is Frank Gaffney.

This is Frank Gaffney with the Secure Freedom Minute. Suddenly, a rising chorus of Western nations is insisting that there must be a Palestinian state, right now. And the United Nations is pressing forward with a meeting next month to discuss this initiative, adding further legitimacy to what is, truly, a harebrained idea.  Why the sudden furor? And why the rush? Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, a world-class Israeli-American information warfare practitioner, has just produced a short video explaining that the reason for this diplomatic push has nothing to do with the merits of such a state being more compelling than heretofore.  Incredibly, these nations – from the United Kingdom to Australia half-a-world away – appear panicked that the existing Palestinian terror-state in Gaza is about to be vanquished by Israel, and with it the odious, terrorist regime that seeks explicitly to destroy both the Jewish State and ours.  I say, “Good riddance, Hamas.” This is Frank Gaffney

During his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump pledged to defeat what he called the ideology of “radical Islamic terrorism.” Of late, his administration has been signaling a willingness to embrace its enablers and practitioners. That's the unmistakable take-away from Mr. Trump's visit to Qatar this month. After all, his hosts bankroll Sharia-supremacism worldwide, including by funding toxic influence operations and Muslim Brotherhood terrorists. Speaking of such terrorists, the administration recently appointed a convicted one along with another Sharia-supremacist to an advisory board on religious liberty. It's not clear whether Qatar had a hand in these ominous selections. What is certain though, as former spy Sam Faddis powerfully warns, jihadis and their Communist allies are now openly advocating violent action here at home. This is a time for rolling up radical Islamic terrorists – not enabling, let alone emboldening, them.

Today we recognize and honor the sacrifice of all those in uniform who gave their lives for our country. It is impossible to overstate the debt we owe those men and women. Without their willingness to serve and die, the rest of us surely would not be living in the land of the free and the home of the brave. I would like on this occasion to thank as well the nearly 900 members of the Israel Defense Forces killed since October 23, 2023. They have perished in defense of their own country, of course.  But they did so in fighting Sharia-supremacist enemies who explicitly seek the destruction of our nation, too. Their loss in advancing what we pray will be Israel's ultimate victory will help keep such foes from murdering Americans on foreign battlefields, or here at home.  This is Frank Gaffney.

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.