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Sunday, August 24, 2025

It Begins: Trump Responds To Leftist Maryland Governor After "Nasty" Comments

President Trump's Sunday morning attention centered on Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who on Saturday unleashed incendiary comments aimed at the White House. The far-left governor, just north of D.C., has watched his polling collapse as his party of leftist radicals drags Maryland into a power-bill crisis, fiscal turmoil, years of violent crime and chaos, and an ongoing sanctuary state mess. Cornered by failure, Moore's comments have now put Maryland squarely in the spotlight.

"For anybody, especially in Washington D.C., who might not hear me: If you are not willing to be part of the solution, keep our names out of your mouth.Donald Trump, if you're not willing to walk our community, keep our name out of your mouth," Moore said at an event on Saturday.

If President Trump were to walk our streets, stand with our people, and visit our community, he would see what I see: 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚. pic.twitter.com/yipidTBTLK
— Governor Wes Moore (@GovWesMoore) August 21, 2025

On Sunday morning, Trump fired back on Truth Social at Moore:

Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I "walk the streets of Maryland" with him. I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore?
As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a "walk." Wes Moore's record on crime is a very bad one, unless he fudges his figures on crime like many of the other "Blue States" are doing. But if Wes Moore needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A., I will send in the "troops," which is being done in nearby D.C., and quickly clean up the crime.
After only one week, there is NO CRIME AND NO MURDER IN DC! When it is like that in Baltimore, I will proudly "walk the streets" with the failing, because of Crime, Governor of Maryland.
P.S. Baltimore is ranked the 4th WORST CITY IN THE NATION IN CRIME & MURDER. Stop talking and get to work, Wes. I'll then see you on the streets!!! Also, I gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision??? Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT

Trump followed the post by citing the NYT's report about claims of Moore's stolen valor...

Moore's move to poke the bear - that being Trump - comes as the governor has just experienced a collapse in local polling data...

...as the crises in the state pile up due to failed Democratic Party leadership:

Everything you need to know about Moore smiling in this picture with Alex Soros.

Who does Moore serve? Marylanders or Soros?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/it-begins-trump-responds-leftist-maryland-governor-after-nasty-comments

US VP Vance says Russia has made significant concessions toward Ukraine peace deal

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Russia has made "significant concessions" towards a negotiated settlement in its war with Ukraine and was confident progress was being made despite the lack of clear advances towards ending the conflict.

Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker", Vance said Russian President Vladimir Putin has made several concessions, including that Ukraine will receive security guarantees protecting against future Russian aggression.

"I think the Russians have made significant concessions to President Trump for the first time in three and a half years of this conflict," Vance said in comments aired on Sunday.

"They've recognized that they're not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv. That was, of course, a major demand at the beginning. And importantly, they've acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that a group of nations including United Nations Security Council members should be the guarantors of Ukraine's security.

On Friday President Donald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there was no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine in two weeks, showing frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Putin in Alaska.

Vance said sanctions would be considered on a case-by-case basis, acknowledging that new penalties were unlikely to prompt Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.

Vance pointed to Trump's announcement this month of an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods as a punishment for New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil as the kind of economic leverage that would be used in pursuit of peace.

"He's tried to make it clear that Russia can be re-invited into the world economy if they stop the killing, but they're going to continue to be isolated if they don't stop the killing," Vance said.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/us-vp-vance-says-russia-has-made-significant-concessions-toward-ukraine-peace-deal/ar-AA1L7npb

IDF strikes Yemeni presidential complex after confirming first Houthi use of outlawed cluster munitions

Israeli Air Force hits Houthi missile bases, after confirming missile fired Friday carried banned cluster warhead—first such use by Iran-backed group; local media reports previously bombed power station also among targets.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bkjz0f00fle

The IDF launched airstrikes on targets in Yemen on Sunday, shortly after confirming that a missile fired by Houthi rebels on Friday toward central Israel carried an internationally banned cluster warhead. The IDF said it struck military infrastructure of the Houthi regime in the Sanaa area, targeting a military site housing the presidential palace, the Hizaz and Asar power plants and a fuel storage site.

Germany should look for new trade partners, Chancellor Merz says

Germany should look beyond a trade deal between the United States and the European Union that slaps 15% tariffs on EU goods by finding new trade partners in coming years, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday.

"How do we handle world trade if for example the Americans are no longer prepared to play by the rules of the World Trade Organisation? " Merz said at a government Open Day, an event where people can visit Berlin institutions and participate in discussions.

"We should search for partners in the world that share our thinking," added Merz , leader of the conservative CDU party whose approval rating stands at 25% - level with Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) - according to an INSA poll published by newspaper Bild this weekend.

The July 28 framework trade deal was brokered between U.S. President Donald Trump and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

"We need good economic relations with the U.S., and we may have got off lightly," said Merz, noting that trade possibilities might open up in South America, Asia and Africa, and should be of mutual benefit.

"We must consistently go down that road," he said.

Merz also said basic questions regarding social security systems needed to be addressed by the end of the year, arguing that the government must rein in welfare spending on employment, pension and health benefits.

"We have to make our social security systems fit for the future," he said.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-middle-class-t-afford-050000474.html

Trump's redistricting push could bring decades of Republican rule to the US House

President Donald Trump's push for Republican-led states to redraw their U.S. House of Representatives districts to protect their majority in next year's midterm elections could set the stage for Republicans to dominate the chamber in decades to come, political analysts and experts said.

Republicans hold a 219-212 House majority and Trump is looking to break the streak of midterm House losses for the sitting president's party -- as happened to him in 2018 and to Democratic President Joe Biden in 2022 -- by pushing states starting with Texas to aggressively redistrict.

Democratic states, led by California, have threatened to retaliate by redrawing their own districts for partisan gain, a longstanding feature of U.S. politics known as gerrymandering that has grown far more potent thanks to modern data analysis tools.

But Republicans hold the advantage, with control of the state legislatures and governorships of 23 states, compared with 15 for Democrats. Further, independent analysts say, population shifts could create as many as 11 new congressional seats in Republican Southern and Western states after the 2030 U.S. Census.

Democrats enjoyed 40 years of unbroken House control beginning in 1955 and ending in 1995 as conservative Southern Democrats defected to the Republican Party in earnest.

The current redistricting battle has raised concerns about a new era of gerrymandering, with Republicans and Democrats jockeying for advantage and further dividing an already polarized nation.

"I feel like it's cheating," said Adam Kinzinger, a Trump critic and former Republican congressman who lost his Illinois seat to redistricting after the 2020 census. "Every time we break a norm in politics now, that norm never comes back. It'll be an avalanche of constant redistricting. I worry about that."

The Republican-controlled Texas state legislature last week passed a new map meant to provide five more Republican seats. The Democratic-led California legislature responded by proposing a map that would give Democrats five more seats, though the state's voters will have to approve that move in a November special election.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this month found that most Americans oppose partisan gerrymandering, to the degree that many worry about American democracy itself being in jeopardy.

FEW COMPETITIVE SEATS

Nonpartisan election analysts currently rate just three dozen of the nation's 435 House districts as competitive in the 2026 midterm elections, pushing the real contests to party primaries that select more partisan lawmakers less interested in compromise.

"That would be another way of saying that the will of the voters is not being reflected in the outcome of the election," said Thomas Kahn, acting director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.

"If Republicans build institutional advantages, whether through fundraising ... or through gerrymandering, then essentially they will be creating a lock on the House. And I don't think that's good for democracy," he added.

Democratic strongholds including New York and California are already losing population to Florida, Texas, Idaho and other Republican-led states, a trend that many Republicans view as an endorsement of their party's policies.

"A lot of the voters who are moving from California - the Bay Area - to Austin or Dallas or Boise, Idaho, are the more conservative-leaning folks who want to live in a red state for a variety of reasons: cost of living, laws and regulations, how the state's run, business environment, stuff like that," said Will Kiley, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the House Republicans.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 21% of Republicans and 14% of Democrats have considered moving to a different state where taxes are lower.

The U.S. Census data that underlies redistricting expectations shows that nearly all of the population growth in states such as Texas and Florida since 2020 has occurred in minority communities.

In Texas, which is expected to pick up three to four House seats after 2030 according to party redistricting committees, nearly 97% of newcomers are Hispanic, Black or Asian. In Florida, which could add two to four seats, the same groups account for more than three-quarters of the growth, U.S. Census data shows.

"What we know to be true is that growth is almost completely within communities of color. And those are the very communities that these changes are attempting to curtail," said Kareem Crayton, vice president at New York University's nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice.

Minority voters have shifted toward Republicans in recent elections. Trump won the national Hispanic vote 51%-46% last November, a 14 percentage-point improvement from his 2020 performance.

The new congressional map unveiled by Texas Republicans at Trump's behest appears to cater to Hispanic voters. But Democrats say Republicans have eroded the group's electoral power in some Hispanic-majority districts by minimizing the number of voting-age Latinos and adding high-turnout white conservative communities.

Partisan rancor in Congress has intensified since Trump began his second term in January, driving out moderate Republicans including Representative Don Bacon, who drew Trump's ire after disagreeing with the administration over proposed funding cuts and security gaps at the Pentagon. Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, once seen as a rising Republican star, left office in early 2024 after a firestorm of criticism for opposing the impeachment of former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

"We have major issues to solve. We're not solving them," said former Representative John Duarte, who was rated the least conservative House Republican by Heritage Action for America before losing his California seat to Democrat Adam Gray last year. "We can do a lot. But right now, everyone's running away from the ball."

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/analysis-trumps-redistricting-push-could-100315117.html

Lavrov: new condition for any Putin-Zelensky summit: ‘There is no meeting planned'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov threw up yet another roadblock Sunday to direct talks between his leader, Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — suggesting that a a summit is still far off.

Despite President Trump’s efforts, Lavrov said Sunday that Russia has an “agenda” in mind that must to be agreed before the two sides can sit down together.

“There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The summit to end the war will only happen if it has a “presidential agenda” that pleases Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said — but that agenda is “not ready at all.”

The list of preconditions, Lavrov added, includes Ukraine agreeing to no NATO membership, “the discussion of territorial issues,” and Zelensky “cancelling legislation prohibiting the Russian language.”

Trump first met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska on Aug. 15 for a “listening session” on the Russian leader’s demands, and then turned to hosting European leaders, along with Zelensky at the White House on Aug. 17.

The next step, Trump insisted last week, would be to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin and Zelensky — which has not happened since the start of the war in February of 2022.

Lavrov claimed Russia relayed their preferred agenda to Trump in Anchorage, who then brought Russia’s points to the European leaders at the White House, but “Zelensky said no to everything.”

Ukraine has long desired to be included in NATO, and have official security guarantees under Article 5 that would deter further Russian aggression. Trump has indicated NATO would not be an option, but the president’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff claimed Russia had agreed to Ukraine having Article-5 like agreements with Western countries to intervene if Russia attacked again.

Russia has since rubbished Witkoff’s claims and expressed anger about Western guarantees for Ukraine being discussed without Moscow at the table. Instead, Lavrov suggested on Wednesday, Russia should be able to have veto power over what agreements Ukraine comes to with Europe and the US over its security.

Zelensky, meanwhile, has indicated he wants to meet with Putin one-on-one, and Trump remained hopeful on Friday.

“We’re going to see if Putin and Zelenskyy will be working together,” Trump told reporters.

“It’s like oil and vinegar a little bit. They don’t get along too well for obvious reasons. But we’ll see. And we’ll see whether or not I would have to be there. I’d rather not, I’d rather them have a meeting and see how they can do.”

But Trump renewed threats of imposing sanctions on Russia after their military hit an American factory in Ukraine.

“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said Friday at the White House.

https://nypost.com/2025/08/24/us-news/russias-foreign-minister-throws-up-a-new-conditions-for-any-putin-zelensky-summit/

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