(Article and Maria interview witth Waltz, that Sundance posted on April 27, 2025, I will post the one he did today next. He called this in Nov. 2024)

Sunday Talks – Nat Sec Advisor Mike Waltz Discusses Geopolitical Issues with Maria Bartiromo

April 27, 2025 | Sundance |

I am trying to avoid my own confirmation bias, which is difficult in this case, because when Congressman Mike Waltz was announced as NSA to President-elect Donald Trump, immediately I thought he would be the first to exit the national security team; his ideology just doesn’t mesh right.

Following the fiasco with Signal and his Jeffrey Goldberg foul up, it looked like Waltz was pushed out of the immediate circle of influence and instead told to focus on restructuring the National Security Council. His proximity still exists, buthis immediate role appears -at least outwardly- to have shifted; he seems less influential as a direct emissary for President Trump to foreign intelligence peers and leaders.

I have this horribly annoying affliction to noticing small details and taking notes, and all indications point in that direction. When you start to notice this shift, what becomes evident is within the verbiage used as a proximity person begins describing events as if they were an observer, not a direct participant. [The “we” is lost.] Listen to how Mike Waltz describes current geopolitical events, he sounds like a pundit not a participant.

If my suspicion is accurate, President Trump has a National Security Advisor in name only.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/04/27/sunday-talks-nat-sec-advisor-mike-waltz-discusses-geopolitical-issues-with-maria-bartiromo/

https://youtu.be/9OQ8aSEOZtc

>>22979639

Nat Sec Advisor Mike Waltz and Deputy Alex Wong Fired

May 1, 2025 | Sundance1/2

CTH said in November 2024, I doubt he could succeed. I said in December 2024, he would be the first to get fired. I have said over the past several weeks it was obvious Mike Waltz was no longer in a position of National Security influence, and that President Trump had an NSA “in name only.”

Today, Trump fired National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and his deputy, Alex Wong….

VIA CBS – National security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts in the Trump White House, according to multiple sources familiar with their departure.

[…] One source familiar with the situation at the National Security Council said the president thinks sufficient time has passed since the Signal incident that Waltz and Wong’s departures can be framed as part of a reorganization. The president has been hesitant to oust Waltz over the perception that doing so could be seen as bending to outside pressure.

Wong served in the first Trump administration as deputy special representative for North Korea and also as deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the State Department. In announcing his appointment, Mr. Trump said that Wong helped negotiate his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (more)

I’m not going to repeat all the issuesthat made this outcome transparently predictablefrom the first day of then President-elect Trump’s announcement. You can read the background HERE and HERE and HERE.

Mike Waltz held a completely different worldview on the Intelligence Community. Like many others, heck, almost all others, MikeWaltz believes the IC system is inherently good, just under the control of bad actors. There are volumes of direct and specific evidence that this is not the correct perspective. The IC system is corrupt by design, the mandates and interpreted policies that formulate the mission statements of the bureaucrats within it are the problem, not just the corrupt officials carrying out the mission.

It is almost impossible to understand the scale of the corruption within the IC from a position inside the silos under the control of the IC, the “six ways to Sunday” group.It is only when you exit those silos and engage with the world that is not under the control of the IC that you fully grasp just how fraudulent the constructs are. (more)

“I suspect Waltz will be the first T-47 exit.” ~ 2024 Prediction

Look up Waltz’s wife, Julia Nesheiwat, the sister of Surgeon General nominee Janette Nesheiwat. Trace the background, and you likely end up looking atSusie Wiles being the person who recommended Mike Waltzfor the National Security Advisor position.

Julia, who -like all other people who work in DC silos- has never taken a married name. Julia Nesheiwat was born in Carmel, New York, in 1975 to Jordanian Christian immigrants and raised in Umatilla, Florida. She has a BA from Stetson University, an MA from Georgetown, and a PhD from Tokyo Tech.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/05/01/nat-sec-advisor-mike-waltz-and-deputy-alex-wong-fired/

>>22979663

2/2

Julia Nesheiwat became a military intelligence officer. She received the Bronze Star Medal during Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq. She departed the military as captain. Julia Nesheiwat served in several U.S. administrations. Under George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, she held senior national security and economic policy positions. Her most notable role was asTrump’s 10th Homeland Security Advisor from 2020 to 2021. Her Bush administration posts included State Department seniority and Office of the Director of National Intelligence Policy Chief.

Suffice to say their bedroom conversations are likely Intel Community shop talk.

While it’s interesting that Congressman Mike Waltz was selected to be President Trump’s National Security Advisor,it’s actually Julia Nesheiwat that carries the curriculum vitae that seemingly qualifies her for the job.

According to Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, she was “asked by a mutual friend” to travel to New York and meet with candidate Trump in “late December 2015.”

That timeline would be post-Fox Debate (Megyn Kelly attempted hit – Aug ’15) when President Trump was leading every republican primary poll and became the enemy of the professional Republican establishment.

I’m tired of playing these games.

Find the “mutual friend” who organized the December 2015 meeting

between Trump and Wiles, andwe likely find the personwho is in control of all theseinsufferable conflictions within the Trump administration.

I’m glad Waltz is gone, and perhaps now a solid NSA can be selected (Trump has never had one).The biggest challenge was always going to be a confrontation with the Intelligence Community. Everything circles around that issue.

Warmest best and don’t forget to live your best life,

Sundance

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/05/01/nat-sec-advisor-mike-waltz-and-deputy-alex-wong-fired/

Trump’s national security adviser sent to UN amid ideological tensions

Shelby Talcott, Burgess Everett, and Morgan Chalfant

Updated May 1, 2025, 2:35pm EDT

In this article:Gossip and the sky is falling, and Trump's fault

The News

President Donald Trump on Thursday ousted his national security adviser, Mike Waltz — only to name Waltz as his next United Nations ambassador.

Waltz, a former Florida GOP congressman, has served as national security adviser for less than four months. He became embroiled in controversy in March, after he inadvertently added a journalist to a Signal group chat on which senior Trump officials discussed sensitive military plans.

He will now have to go through a Senate confirmation vote to take the spot that his former House Republican colleague, Rep. Elise Stefanik, initially planned to occupy. Stefanik withdrew from consideration in March as Republicans worried over whether they could hold her New York seat in a special election.

Trump announced the Waltz departure on Truth Social on Thursday afternoon and named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an interim replacement national security adviser. Trump’s moves came as a surprise to even some within his administration.

As for Waltz, the tensions that led to his remarkable shift in positions began before the so-called Signalgate affair, according to four people familiar with the situation.

One of those people told Semafor that Waltz’s traditionally hawkish views of national security created tension with more isolationist players in the White House — and said that the former Green Beret was on the outs in Trump’s network even before the group chat flap.

This person added, in a sentiment confirmed by two others Semafor spoke with, that Waltz’s style was seen as imperious and abrasive by White House colleagues.

A second of the four people described Waltz as too “neocon” for others in the administration and said White House chief of staff Susie Wiles had raised concerns about the ousted national security adviser to others in the administration.

Another Waltz critic who has made her displeasure very public, right-wing agitator Laura Loomer, celebrated his departure from the White House on X, as well as the expected ouster of Waltz deputy Alex Wong.

“SCALP,” she posted. It was an apparent reference to what Trump ally Steve Bannon described as a “no scalps policy” the president had embraced in recent weeks, keeping Waltz on the job in order to avoid giving his critics a victory after the Signal debacle.

Know More

Despite the internal clash that later prompted his exit, Waltz had a positive reputation on Capitol Hill that is expected to make his Senate confirmation somewhat smooth, despite Signalgate.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Semafor that Waltz “had a good background, so he had factual data, and we thought he was one of those guys who would make good decisions and recommendations based upon fact.”

“Here we go again,” Rounds added.

One subtle sign of Waltz’s imminent exit came earlier this week, when he was spotted with Trump at Joint Base Andrews but did not join the president’s Air Force One trip to Michigan. He didn’t take the trip after Trump told him not to, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Even before Rubio’s selection as a replacement became official, speculation was mounting about who might replace Waltz.

The news was met with bated breath in European capitals, where officials are waiting to make a judgment call on what it means until a successor is named. “Let’s see who is going to be there instead,” one senior European official said in a text message.

One potentially polarizing name in the mix: Ric Grenell, the current envoy for special missions who recently lost a foothold on US-Venezuela relations to Rubio.

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Wiles’ role in Waltz and Wong’s departure from the White House.

Notable

• The Pentagon has also been the scene of staff churn early on in the second Trump administration, with several aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth leaving their posts.

• Forty-six percent of US registered voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war in Gaza, while 52% said the same of his handling of Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an Emerson College poll out this week.

• Trump had four national security advisers during his first term. The first, Michael Flynn, was fired after less than a month.

https://www.semafor.com/article/05/01/2025/trump-ousts-national-security-adviser-mike-waltz

Republican senators pan proposed House changes to Medicaid as ‘cutting benefits’Burgess Everett Apr 29, 2025, 2:08pm EDT

In this article:

The Scoop

Two of President Donald Trump’s biggest allies in the Senate are sharply criticizing Medicaid policy changes under consideration in the House, a sign of further Republican friction ahead over the health insurance program for low-income Americans.

Sens. Bernie Moreno of Ohio and Josh Hawley of Missouri both warnedin interviews that proposalsto cut the federal government’s share of the costs in states that have expanded Medicaid, and to otherwise cap Medicaid expansion spending, could lead to coverage losses. Moreno bluntly told Semafor that both ideas amount to “cutting benefits.”

“We don’t need to cut benefits.And it actually really infuriates me to hear people here talking about that, because it stresses people out. This is life and death for them,” Moreno said.

There’s a growing consensus among Senate Republicans about paring back their party’s pursuit of Medicaid savings, limiting the changes to work requirements for able-bodied people who are eligible for expansion coverage and cutting off benefits from undocumented people. Moreno also said Congress can save money by improving technology and processes within the program and discouraging emergency room visits for relatively minor ailments.

But the current framework for the GOP’s tax cut bill directs the House committee in charge of Medicaid to find $880 billion in savings over 10 years, a difficult target to hit without directly cutting benefits.

Medicaid-protective Republicans like Moreno and Hawley appear to have a notable ally in President Donald Trump.

“President Trump said, ‘We’re not cutting benefits,’” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. “I just don’t think that that’s anything they’re going to contemplate. There could be reforms within the system. I think work requirements are probably the biggest and easiest target to go do.”

Hawley said he personally discussed Medicaid with the president before even supporting the budget blueprint for the tax bill, adding: “The House ought to listen to the president.”

Republicans predict there are more than a dozen senators on their side who are averse to anything that can be construed as a benefit cut.Moreno said “there’s not 50 votes for any kind of cuts in benefits. That’s just a fact.”

Know More

Many House members — and some senators — who are comfortable with cutting federal spending on the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion hail from states that did not expand the program during the Obama administration.

Among the 40 states that did, the federal government pays 90% of the share of the expanded program, which includes people who were not eligible for coverage before Obamacare.

“The toughest thing we have to do is figure out where we can save money. It’s interesting: When I’m back home, everyone wants us to balance the budget, but at the same time, ‘Don’t take away my subsidy,’” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., and other Republicans, like Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, have discussed gradually lowering the federal share of Medicaid costs. They argue that states could choose to spend more money to continue funding the program rather than see people lose coverage.

House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told Axios the GOP is also looking at capping federal funding in expansion states. House Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, sounded cool to the idea of cutting the federal share when Politico asked.

Moreno said work requirements, improving technology and innovation and waste, fraud and abuse need to be the focus on Medicaid.“We don’t need anything more than that. And, look, the whole point of the America First agenda is to make sure that we use your tax dollars to benefit American citizens. So there’s no need to take away benefits from Americans,” he said.

Notable

• Axios reported on the GOP’s latest Medicaid thinking.

•Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y. is sick of the “the same stupid f*cking question” about Medicaid, per The Hill.

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/29/2025/republican-senators-pan-proposed-house-changes-to-medicaid-as-cutting-benefits

>>22979841

They all sound very confused and chaotic, Johnson has been putting a budget together since the last year Joe was in office, they didn't deal with any of the same issues?

To many cooks in the kitchen.

>>22979771

There are so many child molestors in certain professions, coaches, usually schools, doctors, professional, cops, etc etc etc.

Who knows the list of top professions that are a magnet for them?

At a Dubai Conference, Trump’s Conflicts Take Center Stage

A deal for a state-backed Emirati firm to use a Trump-affiliated digital coin was announced in a panel that included the president’s son and his business partner, who promised, “This is only the beginning.” NYTs1/2

By David Yaffe-Bellany, Reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates May 1, 2025, 12:30 p.m. ET

Sitting in front of a packed auditorium in Dubai, a founder of the Trump family cryptocurrency business made a brief but monumental announcement on Thursday. A fund backed by Abu Dhabi, he said, would be making a $2 billion business deal using the Trump firm’s digital coins.

That transaction would be a major contribution by a foreign government to President Trump’s private venture — one that stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. And it is a public and vivid illustration of the ethical conflicts swirling around Mr. Trump’s crypto firm, which has blurred the boundary between business and government.

Zach Witkoff, a founder of the Trump family crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, revealed that a so-called stablecoin developed by the firm, would be used to complete the transaction between the state-backed Emirati investment firm MGX and Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world.

Virtually every detail of Mr. Witkoff’s announcement, made during a conference panel with Mr. Trump’s second-eldest son contained a conflict of interest.

MGX’s use of the World Liberty stablecoin, USD1, brings a Trump family company into business with a venture firm backed by a foreign government. The deal creates a formal link between World Liberty and Binance — a company that has been under U.S. government oversight since 2023, when it admitted to violating federal money-laundering laws.

And the splashy announcement served as an advertisement to crypto investors worldwide about the potential for forming a partnership with a company tied to President Trump, who is listed as World Liberty’s chief crypto advocate.

“We thank MGX and Binance for their trust in us,” said Mr. Witkoff, who is the son of the White House envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. “It’s only the beginning.”

Mr. Witkoff and Eric Trump were speaking on a panel at Token2049, a major crypto conference in the United Arab Emirates, where more than 10,000 digital currency enthusiasts have gathered for a week of networking. It was the latest stop in an international tour by Mr. Witkoff, who visited Pakistan last month with his business partners to meet the prime minister and other government officials. Eric Trump, who runs the family business, has spent the week in Dubai, where he announced plans to back a Trump-branded hotel and tower.

The president himself is set to travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.A.E. on a state visit in two weeks.

His son’s panel with Mr. Witkoff was the most anticipated event of the Dubai conference. The auditorium, inside a luxury resort on the shore of the Persian Gulf, was packed with crypto investors from around the world, many of whom had to stand in the aisles or lean on pillows propped against the walls to watch the conversation.

“This is just one incredible country,” Mr. Witkoff said from the stage. “One of the most innovative, if not the most innovative, country on planet Earth today.”

Representatives for Binance, MGX and World Liberty did not respond to requests for comment.

Once a crypto skeptic, President Trump embraced digital currencies on the campaign trail last year as the industry poured tens of millions of dollars into the 2024 election. In September, he and his sons unveiled World Liberty, which they pitched as a new kind of internet bank that would allow people to borrow and lend money using cryptocurrencies.

Since then, World Liberty has sold $550 million worth of a new cryptocurrency called $WLFI, with a large cut of the revenue earmarked for a business entity tied to the Trump family. In March, the company also created a stablecoin — a type of digital currency designed to maintain a price of $1, making it convenient to use for large transactions because its value doesn’t swing like a stock’s.

https://archive.is/49EkC#selection-4391.0-4843.150

>>22979942

2/2

The company’s dealings have created conflicts of interest with no precedent in modern U.S. history. Some of the investors who bought $WLFI coins are foreign nationals who have been barred from supporting a president via campaign contributions or donations to the inaugural fund. And many of the firm’s corporate partners have clear incentives to curry favor with the federal government as they seek to expand in the American market.

Even the roster of panelists onstage in Dubai highlighted how much the Trump family’s business interests now blur with United States policy and regulation.

Sitting alongside Mr. Witkoff and Eric Trump was one of World Liberty’s top investors, Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who runs the crypto platform TRON. Mr. Sun bought $75 million in $WLFI coins after the election.

About a year earlier, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Mr. Sun, accusing him of manipulating the price of a TRON cryptocurrency. When Mr. Trump took office, the S.E.C. asked a federal judge to pause the case while the agency negotiated a settlement, which the judge did.

“I just got to thank you for the support, Justin,” Mr. Witkoff said. “TRON is just an incredible technology, and we’re lucky to be partners with you.”

Soon Mr. Witkoff delivered the panel’s big reveal.

In March, Binance announced that MGX, an investment fund backed by the government of Abu Dhabi, would invest $2 billion in the exchange using stablecoins. But which particular stablecoin it would use to do that had not been disclosed.

The coin chosen for the transaction was World Liberty’s USD1, Mr. Witkoff said. “Wow,” Mr. Sun responded.

Leaders of MGX and Binance have had high-stakes dealings with U.S. officials.

MGX is led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Emirati royal who serves as the nation’s national security adviser. In March, Sheikh Tahnoon visited the United States for meetings with President Trump and some of his cabinet members and advisers.

In 2023, Binance pleaded guilty to charges that it had violated U.S. anti-money-laundering laws and allowed criminals to transact on its platform. As part of a settlement with the Justice Department and other federal agencies, the company was placed under a Treasury Department monitorship to ensure that it would comply with the law.

In recent months, Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, has been seeking a pardon from the Trump administration, afterhe pleaded guilty to a money laundering violation and spent four months in federal prison.

The role of USD1 in Binance’s deal with MGX provides major financial support to World Liberty.

Stablecoin issuers like World Liberty make money by accepting deposits from investors, giving them stablecoins in return and then investing those deposits to generate a yield that the issuer keeps.

The precise details of World Liberty’s arrangement with MGX and Binance are unclear. But it appears that, with one deal, World Liberty now has $2 billion in deposits to invest. Those funds alone could generate tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue for the Trump family and its partners at World Liberty.

Ultimately, Mr. Witkoff said from the stage in Dubai, he expects the World Liberty stablecoin to grow even bigger, reaching “many billions of market cap.”

Someday, he continued, visitors to the United Arab Emirates might even use the USD1 coin to pay at the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi.

At that, Eric Trump broke in with a correction. “You’re not going to be walking into the Four Seasons using USD1,” he said. “You’re going to be walking into the Trump International Hotel and Tower.”

https://archive.is/49EkC#selection-4391.0-4843.150

What does this have to do with PDJT, they are trying to tie him into what his son is doing.

1 May, 2025 20:46

‘No free press’ in NATO states – British presenter on RT journalist ban

Chay Bowes was detained in Bucharest as he arrived to cover the Romanian presidential election

Neither democracy nor a free press exists in modern European NATO nations, journalist and ‘Going Underground’ host Afshin Rattansi has told RT.

In an interview on Thursday he was asked to comment on the deportation of RT correspondent Chay Bowes from Romania. The journalist was detained upon arrival in Bucharest as he was on his way to cover the Romanian presidential election.

The upcoming vote is a re-run, since last year’s election was controversially annulled following a shock win by far-right NATO skeptic Calin Georgescu, who ran as an independent candidate.

Bowes’ arrest and deportation highlight “the totalitarianism of Western Europe,” Rattansi said.

“The fact is: there is no democracy in these NATO nations because there is no free press. There is no free journalism,” he added.

The attacks on the press in Western Europe areaimed at controlling voters’ access to information, Rattansi said. “The importance of the European Union and Britain in clamping down on journalism is to prevent their publics from understanding the issues so they can’t cast a vote with an informed opinion,” he said.

On the other hand, media companies such as the BBC and Sky News are allowed in Russia, the journalist added.

“They want to detain people like Chay Bowes, who reports for RT, has a show on RT. They want to detain him because they want to stop free press,” Rattansi said.

https://www.rt.com/news/616641-rt-journalist-romania-detained/

1 May, 2025 16:15

RT journalist detained in Romania

Chay Bowes has landed in Bucharest to cover the presidential election

RT journalist Chay Bowes has been detained by the Romanian authorities upon arrival in Bucharest on Thursday, where he had traveled to cover the country’s upcoming presidential election. According to the Irish reporter,police boarded the plane immediately after landing and were specifically looking for him. “They only wanted me. Came onto the plane, asked who is Chay Bowes, and six of them took me from the plane,” he said.

The officers reportedly told Bowes thattheir “superiors” wanted to interview him and questioned him about the purpose of his visit to Romania.Following the brief detention,Bowes – who is an EU citizen – was deported from Romania. According to his wife, he was put on a plane bound for Istanbul.

Bowes has worked with RT since 2023. Prior to that, he co-founded the Irish investigative journalism website The Ditch in 2021 and helped to run it until his resignation in 2022. He previously helped expose a leak of sensitive documents by then-Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. The story sparked an uproar and led to a criminal investigation against Varadkar that was later dropped.

The presidential election in Romania is scheduled to take place over two rounds, on May 4 and May 18. The dates were set in January after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the results of the initial vote held in November 2024.

The original first round had been won by Calin Georgescu, a vocal NATO critic and opponent of supplying weapons to Ukraine. Running as an independent candidate, Georgescu secured 23% of the vote. However, the court invalidated the outcome, citing alleged “irregularities” in his campaign and intelligence reports claiming Russian interference – allegations that Moscow denied.

It later emerged that a TikTok influencer campaign had been paid for, not by the Kremlin, but by the pro-EU Romanian National Liberal Party (PNL), which has governed the country for much of the last three decades. Its most prominent member, Nicolae Ciuca, was a losing candidate in the November election.

https://www.rt.com/news/616631-rt-journalist-detained-romania/

>>22980022

Not Kellogg, he's more of a Neocon than Waltz

Death metal pioneer Brian Montana killed in shootout with California cops

By Jared Downing Published May 1, 2025

Police shot and killed a death metal pioneer in San Francisco this weekafter an argument with a neighbor over tree clippings turned violent.

Brian Montana, 60, guitarist for theband Possessed, died in a shootout with cops after he pulled a gun on a neighbor during an argument, the South San Francisco Police Department said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

One neighbor sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the shootout, during which Montana took cover behind parked cars and landscaping and used three different guns to shoot at cops for almost half an hour, according to authorities, per CBS Bay Area.

“[Montana] fired multiple times at officers using a handgun, shotgun, and rifle… Officers used patrol cars as cover and returned fire. The suspect was struck and ultimately pronounced deceased at the scene,” SSFPD said.

The argument began over tree clippings from a neighbor’s yard, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. At 5:52 p.m. police received a 911 call about a man brandishing a gun at his neighbor, cops said.

Montana was an early guitarist for Possessed, a pioneer of the 80s death metal whose peers included Metallica, Death Angel and Testament.

Montana is the second member of the band to be shot. Its vocalist Jeff Becerra was shot twice in a 1989 robbery that left him paralyzed from the waist down, according to Livewire.

https://nypost.com/2025/05/01/us-news/guitarist-for-death-metal-band-possessed-brian-montana-killed-in-shoutout-with-california-cops/

Over tree clipplings?The name of the band says it all.

Gold ETF investors may be surprised by their tax bill on profits

Published Thu, May 1 202510:24 AM EDT Greg Iacurci@GregIacurci

Key Points

• The IRS treats gold and other precious metals as collectibles for tax purposes. The same is true of exchange-traded funds backed by physical gold.

• Collectibles have a 28% top federal tax rate for long-term capital gains. Stocks have a maximum rate of 20%.

• Many investors in popular gold funds — like SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), iShares Gold Trust (IAU), and abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF (SGOL) — may be surprised to learn they face a higher tax rate.

Gold returns are shining — but investors holding gold exchange-traded funds may get hit with an unexpectedly high tax bill on their profits.

The Internal Revenue Service considers gold and other precious metals to be “collectibles,” similar to other physical property like art, antiques, stamps, coins, wine, cars and rare comic books. That’s also true of ETFs that are physically backed by precious metals, according to tax experts.

Here’s why that matters: Collectibles generally carry a 28% top federal tax rate on long-term capital gains. (That rate applies to profits on assets held for longer than one year.) By comparison, stocks and other assets like real estate are generally subject to a lower — 20% — maximum rate on long-term capital gains.

Crowded gold trade: Will the precious metal hit $4,000 this year?

Investors in popular gold funds — including SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), iShares Gold Trust (IAU), and abrdn Physical Gold Shares ETF (SGOL) — may be surprised to learn they face a 28% top tax rate on long-term capital gains, tax experts explain.

“The IRS treats such ETFs the same as an investment in the metal itself, which would be considered an investment in collectibles,” wrote Emily Doak, director of ETF and index fund research at the Schwab Center for Financial Research.

The collectibles capital-gains tax rate only applies to ETFs structured as trusts.

Gold prices soar

Investors have racked up big profits on gold over the past year. Spot gold prices hit an all-time high above $3,500 per ounce last week, up from roughly $2,200 to $2,300 a year ago. Gold futures prices are up about 23% in 2025 and 36% over the past year. A barrage of tariffs announced by President Donald Trump in early April fueled concern that a global trade war will push the U.S. economy into recession. Investors typically see gold as a safe haven during times of fear.

Long-term capital gains are different for collectibles

Investors who hold stocks, stock funds and other traditional financial assets generally pay one of three tax rates on their long-term capital gains: 0%, 15% or a maximum rate of 20%. The rate depends on their annual income.

However, collectibles are different from stocks.

Their long-term capital-gains tax rates align with the seven marginal income-tax rates, capped at a 28% maximum. (These marginal rates — 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37% — are the same ones employees pays on wages earned at work, for example.)

More from Personal Finance:

Here’s an example: An investor whose annual income places them in the 12% marginal income-tax bracket would pay a 12% tax rate on their long-term collectibles profits. An investor in the 37% tax bracket would have theirs capped at 28%.

Meanwhile, investors who hold stocks or collectibles for one year or less pay a different tax rate on their profits, known as short-term capital-gains. They generally are taxed at the same rate as their ordinary income, anywhere from 10% to 37%.

Taxpayers might also owe a 3.8% net investment income tax or state and local taxes in additional to federal taxes.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/01/gold-etf-investors-may-be-surprised-by-their-tax-bill-on-profits.html

At Butterworth’s, the food knows no party affiliationWAPO

Chef-partner Bart Hutchins wants diners to judge his new Capitol Hill restaurant on the bistro menu, not the politics of the customer base.

Review by Tom Sietsema1/2

So few restaurants make their own french fries, Butterworth’s in Washington deserves a shout-out for the paces its potatoes go through.Using sliced Kennebec potatoes, chef-partner Bart Hutchins blanches and freezes them, then blanches and freezes them again before frying them in beef tallow, a fat enjoying 15 minutes of fame with the MAGA crowd and, honestly, discerning taste testers.

The hot fries shine with just a shake of salt, although they come with a pot of aioli for gilding what’s already gold.

French fries aren’t the only reason people are talking about Butterworth’s. When a restaurant backed by well-known names opens two blocks from the Capitol, headlines follow. Introduced in October, Butterworth’s is named for co-owner Alex Butterworth, senior legal counsel at Uber, and backed by investors including Raheem Kassam, a former Breitbart News London editor.

Early coverage of the two-story Butterworth’s led me to believe I’d be walking into a bespoke Trump rally that served food and drink. So I did what any food critic with acquaintances on both sides of the aisle would do and invited two Republicans to join me for my debut dinner.

First surprise: There’s a minder at the entrance. He smiled when I approached but didn’t ask for identification (or open the door, for that matter). Initially worried about guests being harassed, as occurred several times with high-profile Republican diners during the first Trump administration, Hutchins says, the attendant, who works Fridays and Saturdays, has yet to encounter any problems.

Second surprise: The foyer looks like some Victorian grandmother had a hand in the design. Mismatched old fabric chairs and a rug that looks as if it’s had decades of soles walk across it resemble props from “Oh, Mary!” on Broadway.

Illumination comes by way of old chandeliers and a single candelabra tilting dangerously close to a scarred wall.

A few steps in, Butterworth’s takes on the air of a bistro, with spindly chairs, porthole-shaped mirrors on white tiled walls and a bar lit with fetching fringed lamps suspended from a white pressed-tin ceiling. Assorted greenery softens the borders.

At the table, I’m handed a menu that shoots holes in the idea that conservatives tend to gather around steak and liberals eat more adventurously. Yes, there’s grilled beef on the list, but also bone marrow, pheasant pâté and pork cheeks. Butterworth’s opened with a different chef and a longer script and has evolved under Hutchins, who previously cooked at Le Mont Royal and the nearby Beuchert’s Saloon. He says he sees Butterworth’s as the American equivalent of “the French bistro, English pub and Italian trattoria.”

The chef dreams big. Hutchins says he wants Butterworth’s to become a “D.C. institution” like the Monocle or Old Ebbitt Grill.

The lamb tartare could facilitate a long run. The dish comes with traditional jolts of seasoning but over-the-top lacy onion rings and near-melting foie gras, garnishes that double the fun. Another memorable appetizer is the pheasant pâté fashioned from pheasant trimmings: breast, legs and liver seasoned with the almond-flavored liqueur Prunelle de Bourgogne.

White asparagus signals spring. The kitchen cooks the stalks on a yakitori grill and pairs them with crushed hazelnuts and romesco. Vegetarian options are greater — more evident, more interesting — each visit. Chopped red and yellow beets piled on a raft of toasted bread, slathered with labneh, was another recent crowd-pleaser, spurred along by harissa crisp and roasted peanuts in the mix.

https://archive.is/53sf0#selection-245.0-904.0

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The menu changes every few days. Hutchins asks his farmers and growers what they’ve got before he creates dishes, and he prefers to buy whole animals, breaking them down in the kitchen.Pork cheeks, their flavor intensified with pork stock, rosemary and verjus, have been on the list every time I’ve dropped by. Tender chunks of braised meat with filings of horseradish atop a swirl of buttery pureed potatoes are a keeper. Grilled, head-on shrimp atop a scattering of peas were brighter for a crimson and sweet Jimmy Nardello pepper on the plate and lesser for an underliner of dry sliced fingerling potatoes.

You should know going in, the appetizers are all shareable, the “plates” that follow on the menu are medium-size portions — a detail I applaud— and your entire order might show up all at once unless you tell your server otherwise from the start. Dishes including the dry-aged flat iron steak (sometimes bavette) seasoned with crushed black peppercorns deserve to be eaten in leisurely fashion. Dessert fans will dig the decadent chocolate mousse with whipped cream.

Hutchins spends time in both the kitchen and dining room, where he once gifted my party of wine drinkers an unfinished bottle of red left over from a tasting. The owner says he doesn’t know when I’ve been in, and our brief interaction suggested as much.

“THE CROWD, TOM! THE CUSTOMERS!” Or so I imagine some people are asking about now.

The first three times I ate at Butterworth’s, I never got the sense that it tilted right. I didn’t spot anyone wearing a MAGA cap, for instance, or Secret Service standing watch outside. Only on a fourth visit did I see anything that signaled red: “Free Ross Day 1,” read a sticker on a young diner’s laptop, referring to the founder of the dark web commerce site Silk Road whom Trump pardoned in January. A GOP dining companion of mine let me know that on his maiden visit, the first three people he spotted at the bar were Democrats.

I also didn’t go on a night Steve Bannon or another Republican bigwig hosted a party upstairs, so your mileage might vary.

Mindful of both his business partners and a city that overwhelmingly votes Democratic,Hutchins says he hopes customers make decisions about visiting his restaurant based on “their palate rather than an electoral map.” Honestly, the roar of the crowd some nights might be enough to dissuade some folks.

Given the competition around town, I might not fight traffic to eat here, but neighbors in search of a reliable bistro experience will find what they want. And ultimately, neighbors will determine the restaurant’s fate.

My Republican acquaintance with no dog in the fight went back to Butterworth’s on his own recently. “I didn’t see anything that would lead me to think that it is some kind of a MAGA hangout,” he texted me, “and their playing of Sylvie Vartan and other old school French pop over the speakers doesn’t scream Freedom Fries.”

I agree to agree.

Butterworth’s restaurant by day.

Butterworth’s

319 Pennsylvania Ave. SE. 202-621-7525. butterworths.club. Open: 10 a.m. to midnight daily (kitchen closes at 10 p.m.). Prices: Shareable appetizers $17 to $20, main courses $22 to $37.Sound check: 75 decibels/Must speak with raised voice. Accessibility: No barriers to entry; ADA-compliant restroom.

https://archive.is/53sf0#selection-245.0-904.0

Tom Sietsema, Washington, D.C. Food critic

Tom Sietsema has been The Washington Post's food critic since 2000. In leaner years, he worked for the Microsoft Corp., where he launched sidewalk.com; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer; the San Francisco Chronicle; and the Milwaukee Journal. A graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, he has also written for Food & Wine, Gourmet, GQ, Travel & Leisure and other national publications. In 2016, he received an award from the James Beard Foundation for his series identifying and rating the "10 Best Food Cities in America" the previous year. Education: Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service

Bolsonaro: “The Establishment Of Brazil Wants To Kill My Father”

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>>22980253

Eduardo Bolsonaro: “If Bolsonaro Could Run He Would Easily Have 55-60% Of The Vote”

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Eduardo Bolsonaro Predicts Mass Exodus From Brazil If Father Is Robbed From Election

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LINDELL: Eduardo Bolsonaro Warned Us In 2021 They Would Steal The Brazilian Election

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2 HOURS AGO1/2

NATHAN SIMINGTON AND GAVIN WAX

ANALYSIS

SIMINGTON & WAX: Trump vs CBS is Just the Start. Here’s How to Hit the Fake News Where It Really Hurts…

President Donald J. Trump has once again thrown down the gauntlet against the corporate media—this time by taking CBS to court. His bold litigation has exposed what millions of Americans already know: the mainstream media is not a neutral institution but a political weapon used to silence, smear, and control. But we must go beyond the courtroom to move from outrage to reform. It’s time to hit fake news where it hurts most:financially.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should cap reverse retransmission fees (revenue that local TV stations pay back to their affiliated broadcast networks) at 30 percentto protect local broadcasters, lower consumer costs, and strike a decisive blow against the corrupt media cartel.

Excessive reverse retransmission fees are among the least understood but most abused levers in the modern media economy. Reforming them concretely realigns our communications infrastructure with the public interest and President Trump’s America First agenda.

HOW THEY WORK.

These fees (and ad sales) generate revenue for broadcasters that they use to run their operations and produce local journalism. However, media conglomerates like Paramount Global, the parent company ofCBS, have begun charging what’s known as “reverse” retransmission fees to broadcasters. The networks demand a share of broadcasters’ revenue for the right to use their content. This practice was once unheard of, but some networks now regularly require more than one hundred percent of broadcasters’ retransmission fees as “reverse” fees, leaving broadcasters to sustain themselves solely on whatever ad sales they can make with their limited inventory (also capped by the networks, and often amounts to only a few minutes of airtime per hour).

This funnels more and more money out of local markets and local journalism and into the hands of mega media corporations, who threaten broadcasters with content blackouts if they don’t get sky-high payouts.

This problem gets even worse with providers like YouTube TV and Hulu Live. Under their affiliate agreements with the networks, local affiliates can’t even negotiate for online providers to carry the content. The networks do it for them and pay the affiliates whatever they deem reasonable (sometimes, nothing). This gives the networks total control over streaming distribution while robbing local stations of revenue and autonomy in the rapidly growing online video space.

What was once a mechanism to support hometown news is now a corporate racket. Instead of investing in local reporters, meteorologists, and producers, local broadcasters’ funds are siphoned to bloated national newsrooms that churn out anti-Trump propaganda and woke talking points. Meanwhile, higher cable bills pass the cost to everyday Americans.

HIT ‘EM WHERE IT HURTS.

President Trump’s lawsuit against CBS underscores the ideological warfare these media giants are waging. They’ve abandoned any pretense of objectivity, acting instead as political operatives with studios. Capping reverse retransmission fees at 30 percent is not just a technical tweak; it’s a strategic strike on these bad actors’ financial foundations.

https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis-post/simington-wax-time-to-hit-fake-news-where-it-hurts-their-wallets-and-heres-how/

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We must return power to the communities and stations serving the people.

Local broadcasters provide vital coverage—emergency alerts, school board meetings, small business spotlights—that you’ll never find on CNN or MSNBC. They reflect the values of the towns and cities they serve.

However, the incentives shift when a national corporation owns the local affiliate. Content becomes homogenized. Narratives are imported. Local journalists lose editorial independence, and viewers get New York news with a local logo slapped on top.

We limit these national behemoths’ ability to weaponize local stations as bargaining chips and ideological delivery systems by capping reverse retransmission fees. We restore breathing room for independent broadcasters and stop the endless consolidation cycle that has gutted journalism in rural and working-class communities.

The FCC can solve both of these issues.

It has the authority to cap reverse retransmission fees and rein in Big Tech and network dominance by eliminating their unfair advantage over local broadcasters. Whether through traditional cable or streaming platforms, the Commission must act decisively to level the playing field.

This reform is in the same spirit as President Trump’s efforts to break up Big Tech, bring back American manufacturing, and take on the pharmaceutical lobby. It’s a populist solution to a top-down problem. It reduces costs, decentralizes power, and reorients the system to serve the needs of regular Americans, not just media executives and political elites.

THE PUBLIC FIGHT.

Critics will claim this is “government interference.” That’s nonsense.The airwaves are public property to which the government grants broadcast licenses to companies that serve the public interest. When national corporations abuse that privilege by hoarding retransmission profits, forcing the slashing of local news staff, and pumping out politicized content, it is not only appropriate for the FCC to step in; it is necessary.

Just as President Trump stood up to China on trade, he now stands up to CBS on the truth. His lawsuit has opened a vital lane for real reform. Capping reverse retransmission fees gives that legal challenge policy teeth. It weakens the media’s monopoly, strengthens local stations, and ensures that taxpayer-owned airwaves serve the public, not the D.C. cocktail circuit.

Make no mistake: this is a fight for the soul of the American media. National networks have shown they cannot be trusted. They’ve censored stories, smeared dissenters, and openly campaigned against conservative candidates. The only remaining check on their power is at the local level, and even that is slipping away under the weight of retransmission extortion.

If we want a media that informs instead of indoctrinates and represents communities instead of manipulating them, we must go upstream to the funding model. Capping reverse retransmission fees is the cornerstone of that effort. And if the networks try to make an end-run by demanding an unfair cut in ad sales, restricting available airtime for local news and weather, or prohibiting broadcasters from trying to reach new audiences through alternative distribution channels, then the FCC should be prepared to step in and stop it.

President Trump was elected with a mandate to put the American people back in charge. Capping reverse retransmission fees does just that. It ensures your local news stays local, your cable bill stays lower, and your country remains free from corporate media control.

Let’s follow President Trump’s lead, end the fake news grift, and get to work capping reverse retransmission fees for the good of our country, our communities, and our future.

https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis-post/simington-wax-time-to-hit-fake-news-where-it-hurts-their-wallets-and-heres-how/

Nathan A. Simington is a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Gavin M. Wax is Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to Commissioner Simington and the co-author of ‘The Emerging Populist Majority’.