How Snopes Buried the Truth About Ilhan Omar's FatherMar 18, 20251/5Long but Must Read

fact checkers covered up his high-ranking role in a genocidal regime, helping democrats avoid a scandal that could have taken down the squad

For most of the past decade,the misinformation complex— a decentralized, ideologically aligned network of fact-checking sites, media outlets, NGOs, government agencies and social media companies — ruled our information ecosystem. Today, the archives of this ancient régime are being opened. What they show is how,with shockingly little effort, the misinformation complex could shut downinvestigations into even the most clear-cut claims that threatened the Democratic party’s great narratives.

This was precisely the case with= one of the most prominent progressive politicians in the US today, Ilhan Omar==. In 2018, Omar rode a wave of identity politics into high office as representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district. The media was not just jubilant but triumphant. Along with the nascent Squad, this Trump-taunting black female politician and former refugee became an instant icon of the new color-bound progressive politics.

But there was a catch: Omar herself would not be shoved into this cardboard cutout of a squeaky clean, infinitely tolerant diversity figure. In her very first weeks in office, she made a series of comments about Israel that fell well within the discourse of antisemitic speech as the Democratic Party itself had long since defined it. Then, far more damagingly, allegations that Omar had married her own brother to secure his visa to the US exploded in the conservative media.

There was,however, another claim that was overshadowed by allegationsof (to coin a term) fratrimony. This was thatOmar’s father had been a “terrorist” or had served the Somali government in a capacity that could have made his entry into the United States illegal. While it didn’t have the tabloid qualities of brother-marriage, if corroborated the story could have been just as damaging.

To be clear, the following does not show, or attempt to show, that Ilhan Omar bears responsibility for decisions made by her father when she was a child.But what it does show is how the fact-checking industry was able to quash a burgeoning political crisiswith just two articles and one threadbare source, and, in doing so,protect Democratic party interests in ways that not even the best, and most expensive, political crisis management agency could even dream of.

On July 25, 2019, Snopes published its assessment of the claim, “Is Rep. Omar’s Father a ‘Somalian War Criminal’ Living ‘Illegally’ in U.S.?”Under a big red triangle featuring an “X” and the text“Mostly False,” the site broke down its finding under three headings. Under the heading “What’s True,” Snopes stated,=“Ilhan Omar’s father is living [sic] the U.S. legally. The family was cleared to enter the country in 1995 and successfully secured asylum status.” Under “What’s False,” Snopes found, “Omar’s father is not in the U.S. illegally.” And marked“What’s undetermined” the site ruled, “Omar’s father was responsible for, or even credibly accused of, any wrongdoing in Somalia.”

In the first sentence of itsfact-check, Snopes reported the various “firsts” Omar had achieved: one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, first to “don a religious headscarf,” first Somali-American and naturalized citizen from Africa in Congress. The site then noted that these many “milestones,” however, hadbeen accompanied by “conspiracy theories and racial or religious-themed hoaxes targeting Omar.”

Snopes reported that the claimthat Omar’s father was a Somali war criminal who had come to the US illegally originatedfrom a rightwing blog called Gateway Pundit, which Snopes called a “junk news site.” Gateway Pundit had reported less than a week prior,on July 16, 2019, that Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, was “connected to the former dictator inSomalia, Said Barre.” Thesite comparedOmar with another Somaliin a similar situation, former Somali NationalArmy colonel,Yusuf Abdi Ali, who was found to havecommitted human rights abuses by a U.S. civil juryin May 2019 and waseventually deportedin 2024 for similar crimes during the same time period.

Gateway Pundit wrote that Omar’s father “and otherSomalians [sic] like YusufAbdi Ali, who killed thousands for Barre, escaped to the West andwere not vettedproperly before entering the country.”

https://www.piratewires.com/p/how-snopes-buried-the-truth-about-ilhan-omar-s-father

>>22789990

2/5

Snopes misconstrued this claim. In its fact check it wrote, “Instead of providing proof[that Omar’s father was a war criminal], Gateway Pundit simply dropped the name of a different and unrelated Somali man, Yusuf Abdi Ali, into the mix,conflatingMohamed and Ali without making any substantive connection between the two men.” Gateway Pundit, however,never claimed there was a connection between the two men. This is clear from the text.Nevertheless, Snopes fell back on racism to make its main point, writing that the alleged connection between the two men — a connection made not by Gateway Pundit but by the Snopes writer — was rooted in racism.

The mistake made by Snopes of assuming Gateway Pundit said something it didn’t is, in itself, a trivial issue of editorial errata. The real problem is that in its somewhat strident — and, on the face of it, unfounded — allegation of racism, Snopes made a far more substantive accusation: that claims about Nur Omar Mohamed’s possible ties to the Barre regime were “based quite literally on nothing but race.”

But other than commonality of being from Somalia, neither Omar nor her father has any known connection to Ali. The claim that Nur Omar Mohamed was “connected” to Siad Barre or that he committed war crimes in Somaliaseems to be a leap made by Gateway Punditbased quite literally on nothing but race — the assumption that two people of the same ethnicity are automatically linked to each other.

In other words, in its fact check, Snopes committed a serious (and quite ironic) error. By falsely alleging that Gateway Pundit had “conflated” the two men, Snopes actually conflated two separate issues: the claim that these men were associated and the separate claim that Nur Omar Mohamed was “connected” to the Barre regime. Doing so allowed the Snopes writer, through a little bit of logical sleight of hand, to claim that because the first claim was racist, so was the second.

But the most serious error in the fact check was still to come. To support its claim about Omar’s father,Snopes cited a local Minneapolis news sitecalled City Pages, which had reported that Omar’s father had worked in Somalia“training teachers,” offering no more detail or substantiation than those two words. About a week later,Politifact ran a similar debunking article, with its “Truth-O-Meter” pointing to false. That article, citing the same City Pages report, also claimed that Omar’s father trained teachers.

Snopes did not respond to requestfor comment. Politifact also did not respond to request for comment.

Over the subsequent years (right up till today), the issue of whether Omar had married her brother in a bid to secure him a US visa would crop up again and again — and with it,allegations that her father had entered the US illegally, namely by covering up his affiliation with the genocidal Barre regime, which ruled Somalia until the civil war in 1991.

Each time the issue arose, the Snopes and Politifact fact-checks were relied on as proof that the claim had been debunked. This continued into 2021, when Reuters issued its own fact check about Omar, which referenced the Snopes article. When Omar’s father died of COVID complications in 2020, the claim about his job as a teacher (or “teacher trainer”) was repeated by the New York Times, Time magazine, The Cut, Buzzfeed, Chicago Tribune and others.

The notion that claims thatOmar’s father was a “teacher trainer” who had come to the country legallyhad been glazed into hardened fact. But as the media was repeating the claim about the recently deceased man,another outlet— this one very different from the mainstream media dominated by elite progressives —told a completely different story.

https://www.piratewires.com/p/how-snopes-buried-the-truth-about-ilhan-omar-s-father

>>22789998

3/5

Weeks after the death of Omar’s father,Sahan Journal, a non-profit news organization that covers minority communities in Minnesota, ran an obituary of Omar’s father. Founded byaward-winning journalist Mukhtar M. Ibrahim, a former reporter for the Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio, Sahan Journal has received national recognition for its reporting and has collaborated with major outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post.

While long and detailed, the obituary’s very first sentencemade an astonishing claim: “Nur Omar Mohamed was anesteemed senior officerin the Somali National Army well before the country plunged into anarchy following the fall of the Siad Barre regime in the early 1990s.” In case there were any doubts about his identity, the slug of the Sahan obituary states,“Best known in the U.S. as Ilhan Omar’s father, Nur was a prominent Somali military officer who encouraged his children to succeed.” (The Somali National Army was the primary military force of the Barre regime during its rule from 1969 and 1991.)

A Kenyan news outlet, The East African, citing another Kenyan paper, Nation,made the same claim, writing, “Omar’s father had served as a colonel in Barre’s army but he had to flee with his family via Kenya before settling in the US in 1995.” A then-Twitter account that identifies itself as belonging to Omar Shamarke, theformer prime minster of Somalia, tweeted days after Nur’s death, “May Allah have mercy on Colonel Nur. May Allah grant patience and faith to his family, relatives, and the Somali National Army, of which he was a longtime member. I especially extend my condolences tohis daughter, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and all the children he left behind.” (Translation: ChatGPT.)

According to the Sahan Journal obituary, after training in the Soviet Union, Nur returned to Somalia where “he began his climb in the military hierarchy, eventually becoming a colonel. During the 1977-1978 Somali-Ethiopian war, he led a regiment.” A fellow colonel who served with him recalled in the obitthat “Nur played a significant role in the war… He was one of the officers who were recognized for their work.” Omar’s Wikipedia article similarly states that her father “served with distinction in the 1977-78 Ogaden Warbetween Somalia and Ethiopia, and also workedas a teacher trainer.”

For Americans today, Siad Barre is an unfamiliar figure. But from the late 1960s until his fall in 1991 (when Omar’s family fled the country),Barre led a ferocious revolutionary regimecharacterized by Marxist-Leninist principles. But because Somalia lacked a history of economic class structure, internecine clan dynamics were substituted in its place.This led to one of the Barre regime’s many crimes, the slaughter of up to 200,000 members of the Isaaq clan, which is sometimes describedas genocide. It was forthis reasonthat high-ranking officials, particularly from the military,were generally barredfrom seeking asylum in the United States under provisions prohibiting individuals implicated in human rights abuses, persecution, or material support for a repressive regime.

(Cases like that ofYusuf Abdi Ali, the former Somali Army colonel discussed above whowas deported last year, illustrate this policy in action.)

This was a bombshell — but one that fell in a proverbial forest. Neither Snopes nor Politifact updated their fact-checks about Nur Omar Mohamed. No news organization went back to re-report the story or examine the claims they had previously made. In the parallel universe of the mainstream media, Nur is (and likely will forever remain) a “teacher trainer.”

https://www.piratewires.com/p/how-snopes-buried-the-truth-about-ilhan-omar-s-father

>>22790012

4/5

Ilhan Omar’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

That may have been for good reason. Like the story of her possible brother-marriage,outrage over Omar’s allegedlyantisemitic tweets obscured a far bigger issue:Omar’s deep ties to the Somali government. According to journalistDavid Steinberg, in 2016Omar, then newly elected to the Minnesota state assembly,flew from Nairobito Mogadishu with a Somali politician named Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.Weeks later, Mohamed (known as Faramajoo, or “Cheese”) — a US citizen then on the payroll of the New York Department of Transportation —was elected president of the countryin what the New York Timescalled “one of the most fraudulent political events in Somalia’s history.” Weeks later, a beaming Omar was filmed on a stage at a party celebrating the win where she stood behind a podium with Faramajoo’s face on it wearing a pin with his likeness.

According to Steinberg, before Omar spoke,her first husband(whom she would divorce in 2012 and remarry shortly after the party for Faramajoo, where she spoke)gave his own speechin which he praised the Somali politician who would become President Faramajoo’s prime minister. Two days later,Omar’s brother-in-lawbecame permanent secretary to the prime minister.

Omar’s network of relationshipswith a government as corrupt as Somalia’s would have been problematic enough for a first-term congresswoman freshlyappointed to the Foreign Affairs Committee. Still, that could be put aside — American politicians frequently meet and campaign with foreign leaders as part of their job.

But a tie between Omar’s father and the Barre— a tie that could have violated multipleprovisions of the Immigration and Nationality Actconcerning members of regimes responsible for the persecution of minorities and also concerning membership in communist parties — would constitute a wholly different matter.

No journalist who cited the Snopes piece, which leaned on the City Pages article that made a passing reference to Nur’s “teacher training” credentials as its sole source for the claim,ever bothered to corroborate the claim. The problem is that thesingle sourcethey relied on was not entirely reliable.

In 2017, an education technology company calledNexus Solutionssued City Pages for a series of articles written byCory Zurowski, the reporter who wrote the original story about Ilhan Omar later referenced by Snopes and Politifact, a suit that Nexus settled with City Pages later that year. The suit alleged thatZurowski had made a number of false statementsand misstated amounts of money related to a contract between Nexus and a Minnesota school district.

“These false statements were made in spite of the fact that the terms of these contracts and the payment amounts are public record and were accessible for fact-checking by City Pages,” a Nexus press release stated, theTwin Cities Pioneer Press reported at the time. According to the report, before bringing suit Nexushad asked City Pages to correct the false statementsand retract the relevant articles, which the paper hadrefusedto do.

What’s noteworthy in this context is that the Pioneer Press reported this two years before Snopes relied on the reporting by the same journalist, in the same outlet. This is not to imply that a single mistake should invalidate the reporter’s other work. However, for Snopes and Politifact to rely solely on this single un-sourced fact (that Omar’s father was a “teacher trainer”) reported by a journalist who had fairly recently been the subject of a lawsuit concerning the accuracy of his reporting and unwillingness to address clear-cut factual claims is troubling.

But this isn’t the only major credibility issueinvolved in this chain of events. In 2021, less than two years after the Snopes report about Ilhan’s father,BuzzFeed News reportedthat the company’s co-founder and CEO hadplagiarized no less than 60 news articlesbetween 2015 and 2019, copy-and-pasting text into Snopes articles to improve the site’s SEO.

https://www.piratewires.com/p/how-snopes-buried-the-truth-about-ilhan-omar-s-father

>>22790029

5/5

This, of course, is anethical and legal breach. But it also raisedserious questionsabout the editorial procedures in placeat Snopes, which the Times-described as the “premier” fact-checking site. Snopes’ legitimacy as a fact-checking organization is rooted in the idea that theeditorial proceduresit employed were sufficiently stringent, and managed by enough strong oversight, to be able to accurately and consistently confirm facts and debunk falsehoods on topics that its writers generally lack domain expertise in.

Butif such safeguards were in place,it’s hard to understandhow such a practice, carried out by the company’s CEO, could have persisted over a period of years.

If this had been about a city council official or a private citizen, there would be little to say. But, then again,it’s unlikelythat the media, with the help of the fact-checking industry, would havepounced on it the way it did. Either way,this was not a passing issue. Rather, the question ofher father’s career cutsto the very core of Omar’s story — whether she’s a refugee who fled violence in Africa to bring a message of multicultural enlightenment to America,or the child of a war criminalwho used his powerful connections to cheat the system — andthen grew up to do the very same thing as her father.

It’s this that explains the media’s inabilityto investigate relatively clear-cut claims about Nur Omar Mohamed. By mixing in verifiable claims about him with somewhat murkier claims about Omar’s possible marriage to her brother, along withoutright false claims about her being arrested “23 times,” themedia— with the willing help of the fact-checking industry — was able to create what I call aninformation stew, a mix of fact and fiction, ludicrous allegations and truth, that serves toobscure an undesirable reality.

And all of it was fired by the work of glorified blogs that,amid the Democrats’ declaration of an “epidemic of fake news,” had anointed themselves fact-checkers. That the entire endeavor was premised on the notion that thisflimsy epistemological jury-rig could not be corruptedor, worse, could not itself becomean instrument of corruption is truly beyond belief.

—Ashley Rindsberg

(Finale: Kick Omar out along with that Maine political leader that claims she’s only here to serve Somalia, and everyone like them. Clean the decks of terrorists in the U.S.)

https://www.piratewires.com/p/how-snopes-buried-the-truth-about-ilhan-omar-s-father

19 Mar, 2025 19:51

Trump wants US ownership of Ukraine’s energy facilities – White House

The president has told Vladimir Zelensky it would be the best way to protect the country’s power plants

US President Donald Trump has proposed an American takeover of Ukrainian power plants, suggesting it would be the best way to protect the infrastructure, the White House has revealed.

The idea was floated by Trump during a phone conversation with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on Wednesday, described by the US president as a “very good” call.

“President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants.He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” according to a statement by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz released shortly after the call.

The Trump-Zelensky phone call comes a day after the US president held a conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. They discussed the Ukraine crisis, with Trump floating the idea for Moscow and Kiev to halt long-range strikes on energy infrastructure.Putin backed the proposal and ordered a halt to such strikes immediately. The Russian military said it had to shoot down seven kamikaze drones en route to Ukrainian energy facilities when the order was issued.

Ukraine’s leader has publicly backed the idea as well, albeit expressing concerns about how exactly the truce would be implemented and monitored. Following the phone talk with Trump,Zelensky appeared to offer a broader definitionof targets that should be avoided during the period, includingunspecified “civilian infrastructure.”(because the use civilian infrastructure to hide their foreign mercenaries and meeting with other countries soldiers)

“One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it,” Zelensky said in a statement. (Kiev started it and will continue to do it with FFs to blame Russia)

Overnight, Kiev attacked an oil pumping facility in Russia’s south with three fixed-wing drones. The strike sparked a massive blaze at the site, the Russian military said. The attack was “yet another provocation deliberately staged by the Kiev regime to derail the peace initiativescoming from the US president,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.

(https://www.rt.com/news/614513-us-ukrainian-energy-takeover/

(Anons, what is Trump’s plan. Do this for now to replace the hierarchy to get “honest” leaders, if anyone are honest there, to stabilize the country? Can’t understand the logic unless he’s trying to prove Kiev is sabotaging their own country and it’s not Russia!)

19 Mar, 2025 20:19

Erdogan rival arrested days before becoming presidential candidate

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has been detained on charges of corruption and alleged terror links, with his party calling it a “coup”

(Erdogan has done this for at least 14 years. He has to finish his world Caliphate)

Turkish authorities detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on Wednesday,accusing him of corruption and connections to terrorist organizations. The arrest comes just before the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was set to nominate him to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2028 election.

Imamoglu, a leading figure in the CHP, gained prominence after winning the Istanbul mayoral election in 2019, ending over two decades of control by Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the city of 19 million.Recent opinion polls have indicated that Imamoglu could defeat Erdogan in a presidential vote.

On Wednesday morning, as authorities arrived to detain him, Imamoglu shared a video on X declaring, “We are facing great tyranny, but I want you to know that I will not be discouraged.”

CHP leader Ozgur Ozel condemned the arrest, describing it as “a coup against our next president.” Despite the detention, CHP plans to proceed with its scheduled primary on March 23.

The Turkish government has denied opposition allegations of political interference,asserting that the judiciary operates independently.(yeah like the U.S.)

The arrest has sparked protests across Istanbul. Authorities have responded by banning demonstrations in the city for four days and reportedly restricting access to social media platforms.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office stated thatapproximately 100 people, including journalists and businessmen, had been taken into custodyon suspicion of criminal activities related to municipal tenders. They also said a separate investigation had resulted in charges against Imamoglu and six others, accused of aiding the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization in the country.

The arrest followed the revocation of Imamoglu’s degree by Istanbul University, citing “nullity” and “clear error” in his 1990 transfer from a private institution in northern Cyprus.Imamoglu has said he will challenge the move in court. If upheld, the cancelation effectively disqualifies him from running for president, asTurkish law mandates that candidates hold a valid university degree.

In a show of solidarity, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas announced on Tuesday that he is suspending consideration of his own run. Yavas stated, “I am announcing to the public that I am suspending my decision to evaluate my presidential candidacy…until this unlawfulness is eliminated.”

Following the arrest, the country’s financial markets experienced significant turmoil. The Turkish lira depreciated by up to 14.5% against the US dollar, while the BIST 100 equity index dropped 5.9%.

The next Turkish presidential election is scheduled for 2028.Erdogan has reached his two-term limitand is ineligible to run again unless the constitution is amended or an early election is held. In the 2019 municipal elections, Erdogan’s AKP party suffered significant losses, with the CHP winning major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara.

Erdogan himself began his political career as mayor of Istanbul. He also spent time in jail in 1999 for reciting a poem that a court ruled incited religious hatred.

https://www.rt.com/news/614512-turkey-imamoglu-arrest-erdogan/

Erdogan in some ways worse than the CCP!

19 Mar, 2025 21:13

New Russia-US talks set for this weekend – Trump envoy

The two powers will continue Ukraine peace negotiations, according to Steve Witkoff

Top American and Russian officials are set to meet on Sunday in Saudi Arabia to continue negotiations aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, US special envoy Steve Witkoff has said in an interview with Fox News.

The US delegation during the upcoming talks in Jeddah will beled by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will work with their Russian counterpartsto finalize the details of a potential ceasefire, he revealed.

Commenting on Tuesday’s phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Witkoff said that part of the conversation focused onestablishing a ceasefire that includes a mutual commitment to refrain from attacking energy infrastructure.

“We’ve got to figure out those details. The point is that up until recently, we really didn’t have consensus around these two aspects: the energy and infrastructure, and the Black Sea moratorium on firing. And today, we got to that place,” he stated.

When asked aboutRussian concerns over Ukraine rearmingduring the proposed 30-day truce, Witkoff acknowledged the complexities involved. The envoystated that the details would be discussed during the meeting in Saudi Arabiathis weekend and expressed optimism about the direction of the negotiations.

“The devil’s in the details, but I think it’s a relatively short distance to a full ceasefire from there,” he said.

Witkoff also described his recent discussions with Putin as productive and said progress had been made toward halting the conflict. “I had two meetings with President Putin. The first one lasted close to three and a half hours, and the second was nearly four hours. They were both compelling. I thought we accomplished quite a bit,” he said.

The next round of Russia-US talks in Jeddah follow meetings last month in Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, where it was agreed to work towards ending the Ukraine conflict and improving diplomatic and economic ties. Both Saudi negotiations have followed lengthy phone conversations between the US and Russian leaders.

(Hit them with a one two punch, like flood the zone. Kek. I love this acceleration cycle. This is freaking out Kiev, they are never in the room.)

https://www.rt.com/news/614514-us-russia-talks-saudi-arabia/

19 Mar, 2025 12:07

Trump looking to give up US command of NATO – NBC

The American president has repeatedly criticized the bloc, accusing its European members of not paying enough

US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering giving up Washington’s exclusive role in leading NATO’s military command, NBC News has claimed, citing defense officials.

The outlet saidTrump is exploring the possibility of relinquishing control of the office of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), which has been held by a US four-star general since the bloc’s foundingin 1949.

The SACEUR is tasked with overseeing NATO military operations in Europe. The position is currently held by Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, who has also been in charge of NATO’s coordination of military assistance to Kiev throughout the Ukraine conflict.If the US does give up ownership of the role, it would likely be filled by one of NATO’s European member states.

According to NBC, Trump weighing the move is part of a broader effort to restructure US military commandsand reduce defense expenditures. The report states that his administration has been looking into cutting costs within the Department of Defense.

Over the years, Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO. Following his inauguration in January, he urged European bloc members to increase their defense spending and warned that the US would not be responsible for defending NATO countries that do not meet their financial obligations.

Trump has alsoclaimed that NATO’s expansion and its outreach to Ukraineunder former US President Joe Bidenwere among the factors that led to the current conflict.

Russia has consistently condemned NATO expansion towards its borders, describing the bloc as a threat to its national security. Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have also repeatedly stressed that NATO’s push to include Ukraine was one of the root causes behind the escalation of the conflict in 2022.

The NBC report did not specify whether Trump has made a final decision on relinquishing the SACEUR position, and the extent to which the proposal is under consideration remains unclear. The US Defense Department has also not commented.

(This is called, “The Big Bang Theory”, the final warning! He really knows how to freak out the EU, if they are responsible for NATO they cannot dole out money to Ukraine and every stray dogs that finds a home there. Honestly, he’s warned them for 9 years. They won’t budge, but they might now.)

https://www.rt.com/news/614489-trump-give-up-nato-command/

Exclusive–‘Could Be $100 Trillion’: Doug Burgum Says U.S. Natural Resources Could Be ‘Triple’ the National Debt

Olivia Rondeau19 Mar 2025

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said the natural assets of the U.S.could be worth triple the country’s $36.6 trillion national debt during a Wednesday policy event hosted by Breitbart News.

The conference, just blocks away from the White House in Washington, DC, featured fiery statements fromBurgum as he was interviewed on stage by Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle:

“You’ve heard more than once or twice or 10 times that we have 36 and a half trillion dollars of debt. I mean, it’s in advertisements. We hear it,” Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, said. “We hear it, and and I would invite anybody here from the media side [to] do what I did when I was going through my Senate hearings.”

Describing how he has only moved to Washington, DC recently to join President Donald Trump’s cabinet, Burgum said he started off by asking anyone “in a position of authority or experience” about the national debt.

“I said, you know, ‘What’s our debt?’ 36 and a half trillion. ‘What are our assets?’ I mean, I challenge anybody to go try to find a current balance sheet for the United States of America,” the secretary said incredulously.

“And if you come up with one, it might be some financial assets,” he continued,before bringing up national land that could be used as an “asset” to offset the debt:

… I can tell you, as the head of Interior, where just in Interior, we’ve got 500 million acres of surface. Brook Rollins has another 200 million in the U.S. Forest Service, in U.S. grasslands. So 700 million acres of surface, there’s 700 million acres of subsurface that we have the mineral rights, critical minerals, oil and gas, you know, metallurgical and thermal coal resources.

And there’s 2.5 billion acres of offshore, many of which have not been even explored. All of which represent huge, huge assets for us. =So if you take our forests, our lands, our grasslands, our lands that are near urban areas, our mineral resources or offshore resources, I think the number is… Double, triple==, what our national debt is. It could be a 100 trillion.

According to Burgum, Americans would feel more secure about the looming national debt if they knew what the country’s natural assets are.

“You know that announcement might lower the 10-year rate on interest rates because people [would] say ‘Wow, these guys got it covered and they have a plan on how they’re going to be able to pay down this debt and they’re actually in really good shape.'”

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2025/03/19/exclusive-could-be-100-trillion-doug-burgum-says-u-s-natural-resources-could-be-triple-the-national-debt/

PS: don’t you think Vance has done more work than any VP since the 60s. Excellent choices by PDJT

Natalie Winters BLASTS Globalists For Pushing Forever War Agenda On Piers Morgan

4:25

https://rumble.com/embed/v6op1g4/?pub=4

>>22790518

OMG Christopher Steele dressed down by Natalie Winters

Alex Jones Reveals Murdered InfoWars Employee Was Targeted By UkraineVery Interesting, Really!

11:41

https://rumble.com/embed/v6oozli/?pub=4

>>22790550

Ukraine is involved in the doxing of MAGA and murder

>>22790550

SWATTED: Alex Jones On Murder Of InfoWars Employee And Continued Harassment From LeftistsBannon says his whole team is being doxxed.

12:42

https://rumble.com/embed/v6ooz8o/?pub=4

DEVELOPING: Massive Police Presence Near CIA HQ

0:45

https://rumble.com/embed/v6oof6y/?pub=4

Natalie Winters On Left-Wing Group Funding Anti-DOGE Protestors To Pressure Congress

13:06

https://rumble.com/embed/v6op11o/?pub=4