Donald Trump Is at War With the World — Find Safety Here

Donald Trump has always been combative.

But lately it seems like he sees enemies everywhere he looks. 

First, it was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who had to go. 

Moving in to swiftly abduct the communist dictator was a military success, but I think if you ask most Americans why it was necessary, they’d struggle to answer.

Sure, the country has diplomatic ties to Russia and China, to which it also exports oil. 

But is that really an issue?

Venezuela only produces 1 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), which is less than 1% of global output.

By comparison, the United States is the world’s top oil-producing nation, extracting more than 20 million bpd. That’s just a little bit less than the combined total of Russia and Saudi Arabia.

In fact, we produce so much oil that there’s currently a global supply glut that’s driven prices below $60 per barrel.

Nevertheless, after ousting Maduro, Trump said America’s oil titans would rush in spending $100 billion of their own money to exploit the country’s crude reserves. 

But last week, they said different.

Exxon’s president and CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela “uninvestable.”

“We’ve had our assets seized there twice,” Woods pointed out. “And so, you can imagine to reenter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we’ve historically seen here and what is currently the state.”

ConocoPhillips had its assets seized in 2007, as well, and like Exxon, is owed billions of dollars in outstanding claims from arbitration cases.

Even if the Venezuela’s government were to play ball, the country’s crude reserves are heavy, which makes the oil less valuable and harder to refine. 

That’s why our own energy expert Keith Kohl will tell you that sending Big Oil in to turn things around is “pure fantasy.”

OK. Well, if the juice isn’t worth the squeeze oil-wise, then surely the operation against Marudo will be good for the people of Venezuela…

Except Venezuela’s communist government remains intact. It’s just now being run by Maduro’s lieutenant. 

Meanwhile, a few months into Trump’s term, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem judged that conditions in Venezuela had so improved to the point that immigrants and refugees from the country no longer qualify for protected status.

This paved the way for hundreds of Venezuelans to be deported to a prison in El Salvador. A district judge recently ruled that they were denied due process and must be returned for a “fair hearing” but the Trump administration is fighting it and not likely to comply.

So what was this all for?

It doesn’t matter, because we’re already onto the next. 

Trump is now trying to leverage his sway over Venezuela to threaten Cuba.

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO!” the president blared on Truth Social. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

What kind of a “deal” he’s referring to is unclear. Equally unclear is what exactly the president means by “BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

I guess we’ll find out the same way found out about Venezuela — when we all wake up one day and see the headlines.

The same goes for Iran. 

Trump’s already attacked Iran on multiple occasions — once during his first term and again last year.

Now the country has been roiled by protests verging on revolution and Trump is as eager as ever to throw more gasoline on the fire.

“You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too,” he warned as the protests turned violent last week.

Of course, it’s not just America’s traditional enemies Trump is targeting. Longtime allies are in the crosshairs too — notably Denmark and the territory of Greenland.

Apparently an arctic rock with a population of 56,000 people is suddenly a must-have. 

Like Venezuela, Greenland has significant mineral deposits, but they’re not exactly easy to reach and would require billions upon billions dollars to extract. 

Furthermore, if that’s all we’re after, we could just acquire them through trade and development.

Of course, the president insists his obsession with Greenland is a matter of national security rather than mineral wealth. But the U.S. military already has unfettered access to the island nation, including the Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations.

And according to European officials, claims that Russian and Chinese forces are encircling Greenland have been vastly overstated. 

“It is simply not true that the Chinese and Russians are there,” one unnamed senior Nordic diplomat told the Financial Times. “I have seen the intelligence. There are no ships, no submarines.”

Nevertheless, Trump seems intent to make war our NATO ally.

“We are going to do something in Greenland, whether they like it or not,” the president said. “I would like to make a deal the easy way but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”

All of these bellicose threats come after Trump spent the first year of his second term fighting trade wars across the planet, slapping tariffs on more than 180 countries.

Of course, the president’s ire isn’t confined to perceived external threats but rather directed toward his fellow countrymen in equal measure.

Trump deployed the National Guard to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland last year. But the guards’ mission was unclear and last week the Supreme Court finally declared the act illegal and forced them out.

Trump also sparked an uproar by pushing ICE to raid and deport as many immigrants as possible — regardless of their legal status. This has resulted in numerous confrontations and now civilians (predictably) are being killed.

The Wall Street Journal has identified 13 instances in which immigration agents shot at or into civilian vehicles since July. 

Those incidents resulted in eight injuries and two confirmed deaths. That includes Renee Good, who was shot and killed in Minneapolis last week. 

Trump defended the killing with dubious claims that Good was a “domestic terrorist” attempting to run over a federal agent. But video of the incident and facts on the ground pretty clearly undermine that assertion.

Thus the torrent of condemnation and nationwide protests that proliferated throughout the weekend.

And on Monday, the stock market tanked when Federal prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell — the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Ostensibly, the investigation is related to the renovation of the central bank’s D.C. headquarters, which Powell testified to Congress about last year.

But we all know it’s really because Powell and the FOMC have remained committed to responsible monetary policy rather than blithely slash interest rates to bone as Trump has demanded.

Trump is set to appoint a new Fed chair in a matter of months, and whoever he picks will undoubtedly be more amenable to his demands. That means even lower interest rates are in the offing, but it’s coming at the cost of Fed independence which is unsettling to say the least. 

Hence the market’s decline. 

The dollar also weakened, with the dollar index — which tracks the dollar’s strength against six major currencies — tumbling 0.35%.

Conversely, gold and silver returned to the bullish trend that saw them dominate last year. Gold jumped 3% and silver 8%.

These trades are the ones that will continue to pay off not just in the next year — but the remainder of Trump’s already chaotic term.

Indeed, if this rundown seems overly thorough, it’s because I want to make clear that the driving force behind the gold and silver bull is President Donald Trump. 

His determination to use tariffs as an economic cudgel, his ceaseless effort to expand and exploit his presidential powers to punish his perceived enemies, his flippant and increasingly militaristic approach to foreign policy, his systematic dismantling of America’s independent institutions like the Federal Reserve…

All of it will continue to sow chaos and subsequently drive investors out of the dollar and into precious metals and other assets.

That’s why gold and silver remain must-own, must-hold, must-buy investments. 

I’d also suggest that defense contractors will continue to profit from Trump’s overseas adventurism and sky-high defense budgets. 

In fact, just last week Trump called for another massive increase to America’s defense budget — this time to $1.5 trillion. 

These sectors — precious metals and defense contractors — are the safest, most-profitable place to be right now and for the foreseeable future.