(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Justice Department has issued an arrest warrant for the woman caught on video appearing to spit on former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin.
The woman, who has not yet been publicly identified by law enforcement, was seen launching into a verbal tirade against Martin during his live interview with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt on Thursday. She then stormed up to him and spat in his face.
The assault was broadcast live on national television.
“Woah!” a stunned Martin said in the footage, as the woman fired back, “You’re a disgusting man.”
🚨 #BREAKING: An ARREST WARRANT has been issued for the woman who spit on US Attorney Ed Martin, Martin tells @VinceCoglianese
The woman could be looking at a Class D felony for assauIting a federal official, which comes with up to 8 years in prison and a $250K fine
Martin told radio host Vince Coglianese on Friday that U.S. Marshals were aware of the woman’s identity and that an arrest warrant was imminent.
Coglianese noted that Martin confirmed the woman had identified him by name before the incident, meaning she knew he was a federal official, one of the key elements in potential federal assault charges.
NEWS: Ed Martin tells me the US Marshalls do know who the woman is who spit on him yesterday during a Newsmax appearance. And if they haven't already, they will be making an arrest. Also, she clearly ID'd him as "Ed Martin," leaving no doubt that she was targeting a federal…
The attack occurred shortly after President Donald Trump announced Martin would serve as associate attorney general and pardon attorney following the end of his interim post later this month.
Trump had previously nominated Martin to permanently lead the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office, but the bid was derailed by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
Tillis told reporters he had notified the White House he would not support Martin’s nomination due to disagreements over the pardons of Jan. 6 defendants.
“Mr. Martin did a good job of explaining the one area that I think he’s probably right, that there were some people that were over prosecuted, but there were some, two or three hundred of them that should have never gotten a pardon,” Tillis said.
“If Mr. Martin were being put forth as a U.S. attorney for any district except the district where Jan. 6 happened, the protest happened, I’d probably support him, but not in this district,” the senator added.
To replace Martin, Trump tapped Fox News host, former prosecutor and judge Jeanine Pirro for the role.
(Money Metals News Service) In this episode of the Money Metals podcast, host Mike Maharrey chats with Dr. Nomi Prins in an engaging interview.
Dr. Nomi Prins kicked off the discussion by framing today’s gold rally as just the beginning of a much larger trend. She forecasted gold reaching $3,000 by the end of 2024, $4,000 in 2025, and $5,000 by 2026.
These numbers aren’t arbitrary—they’re driven by structural forces reshaping global finance. Gold’s momentum is fueled by central bank accumulation, rising distrust of fiat currency, and growing economic and geopolitical instability.
(Interview Starts Around 7:40 Mark)
Who Is Dr. Nomi Prins?
Dr. Nomi Prins
Dr. Nomi Prins is a former Wall Street executive turned geopolitical financial analyst, investigative author, and thought leader on central banking and monetary policy. She held senior roles at top financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Chase Manhattan Bank, before leaving the industry to expose its inner workings.
Prins earned her PhD in International Strategic Studies with a specialization in International Political Economy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Her academic background complements her real-world experience in global finance, allowing her to connect economic theory with geopolitical and market realities.
She is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including All the Presidents’ Bankers, Collusion, and Permanent Distortion, which examine the deep ties between global finance and political power. She now shares macroeconomic insights and field-based investment research through her platform, Prinsights on Substack, where she helps investors navigate long-term economic shifts.
Why Central Banks Are Loading Up
A core driver of gold’s surge is central bank diversification. Institutions across the globe are shifting away from U.S. Treasuries and into gold, which the Bank for International Settlements now treats as a Tier 1 reserve asset. China, for example, has halved its Treasury holdings since 2018 while steadily increasing its gold stockpile. Yet gold still only makes up 5% of China’s total reserves, indicating significant upside potential.
China’s Gold Strategy: Playing the Long Game
China’s increasing accumulation of gold—much of it off the books, according to analysts like Jan Nieuwenhuijs—is part of a broader strategy to de-risk from dollar dependency and position itself as a global monetary anchor.
Prins emphasized that China’s long-term strategy is about more than risk management—it’s about monetary independence. By accumulating gold, China is building a foundation for trade and financial stability and autarky.
Gold gives them leverage with trading partners and helps insulate the country from foreign sanctions and fiat volatility. Their endgame appears to be a more balanced global system with less reliance on the dollar through a tactic of de-dollarization.
The East Buys Gold While the West Sleeps
While U.S. physical demand for bars and coins declined last quarter, demand across Asia and Europe surged.
Prins recounted visiting the Vienna Mint, where lines of customers were buying gold by appointment—driven by memories of conflict and a desire for tangible security.
In the U.S., that urgency hasn’t fully taken hold, though signs of awakening are emerging. Major firms like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are now recommending gold allocations to private wealth clients.
Redefining the “Gold Bug”
Being called a “gold bug” once implied eccentricity. That’s changing. As Prins put it, today’s environment has transformed gold buyers into pragmatic investors.
Investors no longer need to purchase full ounce coins to participate—fractional ownership, digital platforms, and verified storage options have lowered the barrier to entry.
De-Dollarization Is Real—and Gradual
While the dollar remains the dominant global reserve currency, its supremacy is slowly eroding. Prins highlighted that U.S. debt has reached $37 trillion, and major foreign buyers—especially China—are reducing their exposure to Treasuries.
Even a marginal decline in global demand for the dollar poses serious long-term consequences.
Prins noted that gold’s role as a tool for geopolitical and financial sovereignty is increasingly evident—not just as a hedge against inflation, but as a strategic reserve for national resilience.
Why Silver Has Lagged—and Why That Will Change
Silver has underperformed compared to gold, frustrating many investors. Prins explained that silver’s dual role as an industrial and monetary metal makes it more vulnerable to economic narratives.
While fears of a global slowdown have weighed on silver, long-term demand—especially from green energy and infrastructure—remains strong.
She expects silver to catch up and climb to $45–$50 per ounce within the next one to two years as global industrial demand rebounds.
What Everyone’s Missing
In a media landscape obsessed with short-term headlines, Prins believes most analysts are missing the forest for the trees.
While GDP prints and consumer data grab attention, long-term trends in commodities like gold, silver, copper, and uranium tell a different story. These are real assets with real value, driven by supply chains, infrastructure, and energy demand—forces largely immune to short-term market noise.
Long-Term Thinking in a Short-Term World
Prins closed by urging investors to ignore the 30-second news cycle and instead focus on deep, structural shifts.
At Prinsights, her Substack-based research platform, she and her team conduct on-the-ground analysis of mining operations, supply chains, and emerging technologies. She emphasized that sustainable wealth isn’t built by chasing headlines—it’s built by understanding and acting on long-term trends.
Dr. Nomi Prins can be found on the following platforms:
The disgraced former president is reportedly eyeing a multi-million-dollar book deal alongside his wife, former First Lady Jill Biden.
Biden, fresh off defending his scandal-plagued legacy on the leftist show The View, is already drafting a solo book out of his Delaware home and Washington office. This book would be about his White House years.
However, the second book would be a joint piece of writing and could be contingent on Jill signing on. Her words could be worth $15 million on their own, the Daily Mailreported Thursday.
“She could write a very explosive book if she wanted to,” a former White House aide said in an interview with the Mail.
As reported by the outlet, publishers will demand behind-the-scenes details from Jill, including her account of Biden’s cognitive decline and his embarrassing debate performance against President Donald Trump.
But such a condition could be problematic for Jill.
“Jill Biden is her husband’s biggest defender, and, while a book of her own would allow her to shape the family narrative on a tour to promote it, she would be grilled about reports she covered up his decline,” the Mail reported.
“Any publisher would want all the behind-the-scenes details, particularly for a seven-figure deal,” the outlet added.
Another angle could be for Jill to unload on the Democratic figures who mounted what Republicans have described as a “coup d’état” to force Biden out of the 2024 presidential election in exchange for a much younger candidate.
The book would target actor George Clooney, former President Barack Obama, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, all of whom urged Biden to exit the race.
The Mail’s scoop comes as Hunter Biden finds himself $15 million in debt following legal fees in his criminal cases.
“Given the financial state that her son is in and the lack of interest in paid speaking engagements for both of them, they could be forced to think twice about her personal and specific they get in their books,” a former Biden aide stated.
Garlin Gilchrist, the first in line to succeed Whitmer, expressed concerns that she has seemingly sinnedby meeting with Trump on bipartisan Michigan issues.
His remarks came in response to a student’s question at a May 3 campaign event, as he runs for the 2026 Democratic nomination. Whitmer is term-limited.
“I do like Governor Whitmer, but I am a little concerned with her cozying up to Trump recently,” the student asked Gilchrist, according to the New York Post.
“I think it’s terrible,” Gilchrist declared in response.
He claimed that if elected, he would “show up” for Michigan and “confront” the administration for investigating several state universities.
His comment came after Whitmer was photographed meeting Trump in the Oval Office about reversing plans to close Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base.
Whitmer and Trump also discussed the need for federal aid for ice storm victims and securing the Great Lakes.
Whitmer’s willingness to meet with Trump paid off when the president said he would save the Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Whitmer had said the move would boost the state’s economy.
She even hailed Trump’s plans during an event at the base.
“Well, I hadn’t planned to speak. But on behalf of all the military men and women who serve our country—and serve so honorably on behalf of the state of Michigan—I am really damn happy we’re here to celebrate this recapitalization,” Whitmer said.
In remarks to the Post, Gilchrist’s team appeared to walk back his criticism, with spokesperson Danya Rafiqi claiming his comments were “taken entirely out of context.”
“What the Lieutenant Governor believes is terrible is Donald Trump slashing critical healthcare programs, raising costs, and putting Michigan jobs and families at risk,” Rafiqi said. “Governor Whitmer and Lt. Governor Gilchrist will continue working together to deliver for Michigan despite the chaos.”
(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) The Pentagon moved ahead with plans Thursday to begin the voluntary separation process for about 1,000 service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria after a Supreme Court ruling earlier this week.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to ban transgender military service while a legal challenge moves forward in the lower courts.
“The Secretary is encouraged by the Supreme Court’s order staying the lower court’s injunction, allowing the Department of Defense to carry out its policies associated with ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,'” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Defense will issue guidance to the Military Departments and Services “ending the accession of individuals with a current diagnosis or history of, or symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria and all non-medically necessary treatment.”
About 1,000 service members self-identified as being diagnosed with gender dysphoria, according to the Pentagon.
The department will extend the voluntary separation period for 30 days for Active Component Service members, and 60 days for Reserve Component Service members, and proceed with processing for involuntary separations after those periods, according to a memo.
Shortly after taking over at the Pentagon, U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria would be processed for separation by their respective military branches, according to a memo.
Hegseth spoke about the issue at Special Operations Forces Week on Tuesday.
“Everything starts and ends with warriors, from training to the battlefield,” Hegseth said. “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses, we’re done with that [expletive].”
(Headline USA) Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested Friday at for allegedly breaking into a federal immigration detention center as an apparent act of protest.
Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, said on the social platform X that Baraka committed trespass and ignored warnings from Homeland Security personnel to leave Delaney Hall, an detention facility run by private prison operator GEO Group.
Habba said Baraka had “chosen to disregard the law” and added that he was taken into custody.
The Mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this…
Baraka, a Democrat who is running to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy, has embraced the fight with the Trump administration over illegal immigration.
He has aggressively pushed back against the construction and opening of the 1,000-bed detention center, arguing that it should not be allowed to open because of building permit issues.
Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join a scheduled tour of the facility with three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.
When federal officials blocked his entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.
“There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that as a bus of detainees was entering the detention center, “a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”
🚨 #BREAKING: MULTIPLE Democrat members of Congress have BROKEN INTO an ICE facility in New Jersey, and the Mayor of Newark has been ARRESTED by DHS
They waited for the busses to open the gates, and they stormed in.
It said the two members of Congress, Reps. Robert Menendez Jr. and Bonnie Watson Coleman, and a number of protesters were currently “holed up in a guard shack” at the facility.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin was quote in the statement as calling it “beyond a bizarre political stunt” and saying it put agents’ and detainees’ safety at risk.
“Members of Congress are not above the law and cannot illegally break into detention facilities. Had these members requested a tour, we would have facilitated a tour of the facility,” McLaughlin said.
The department said the facility has the proper permits and inspections have been cleared.
An email and phone message left with the mayor’s communications office were not immediately answered Friday afternoon. Kabir Moss, a spokesperson for Baraka’s gubernatorial campaign, said, “We are actively monitoring and will provide more details as they become available.”
The two-story building next to a county prison formerly operated as a halfway house.
Then in February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to run the Newark detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, which is an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.
The announcement was part of President Donald Trump’s plans to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from a budget of about 41,000 beds this year.
Baraka sued GEO Group soon after the deal was announced.
Geo touted the contract with Delaney Hall during its earnings call with shareholders Wednesday, with CEO David Donahue saying it was expected to generate more than $60 million a year in revenue. He said the facility began the intake process May 1.
Hall said the activation of facility and another in Michigan would increase total capacity under contract with ICE from around 20,000 beds to around 23,000.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) An illegal immigrant born in Saudi Arabia was arrested last month for sending threats to the Justice Department. According to court records, the migrant told agents she sent the threats “because they tried to set her up to take blame for the New Orleans attack.”
The April 18 criminal complaint against Saudi national Sitameriam Nurai Ibrahim states that she was ordered to be removed from the country more than 20 years ago in 2002. When President Joe Biden took power in 2021, Ibrahim appealed the removal order—but her appeal was denied after days after President Donald Trump won the election last November. Ibrahim then submitted a corruption complaint last December to the DOJ’s Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), but that was denied, too.
It was after her corruption complaint was denied that Ibrahim sent threats to the DOJ, according to an April 18 criminal complaint against her.
On Feb. 19, Ibrahim allegedly wrote an email to the DOJ, stating: “I have reached a point of exhaustion with my efforts to seek justice, as it seems that such as concept no longer holds any genuine value in today’s system.”
An illegal immigrant from Saudi Arabia was arrested for allegedly sending bomb threats to the DOJ — but that's not the interesting part. When agents asked her why she threatened the DOJ, she told them she did it because "they tried to set her up to take the blame for the New… pic.twitter.com/EE1SMz1qRV
Three days later, Ibrahim’s rhetoric turned violent.
“Big fucking mistake. All yall gone die now,” she allegedly wrote. “I’m sending my killers your way bitch office of professionalism unit. Ima have em spread out bombs all across your EOIR offices. Everyone one of your immigration judges will be dead.”
Federal agents interviewed Ibrahim at her apartment on March 18. There, she told them the reason for her threats.
“Ibrahim stated, ‘I sent all that stuff after I was so sick about something I saw in the media about an 11-year-old girl getting bullied about her immigration status then committed suicide,’” the criminal complaint against her stated.
“She was also asked who she was referring to in her threat to send people to the DOJ to spread out bombs. Ibrahim mentioned she doesn’t know anybody and stated she made the threat because she was really upset because they tried to set her up to take blame for the New Orleans attack.”
The criminal complaint against the Saudi national, Sitameriam Nurai Ibrahim, doesn’t reveal any more details about her statements on the New Orleans attack, which occurred on New Year’s Day when U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar allegedly drove his truck with an ISIS flag into a crowd of people in the famed French Quarter of New Orleans, killing more than a dozen of them.
The FBI continues to say that Jabbar acted alone. However, last month an ISIS official was reportedly detained in Iraq on the grounds that he may have incited the attack.
Iraqi officials have not released the man’s name only saying that he is an Iraqi citizen. The officials said the man will be put on trial in accordance with the country’s anti-terrorism law, adding that Iraq is committed to international cooperation in fighting terrorism.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) It’s no wonder people don’t understand inflation. High school students are only being taught half the story.
A friend ran across this lesson for International Baccalaureate (IB) high school students. The IB program is “a rigorous, two-year high school curriculum (Grades 11 and 12) that emphasizes intercultural understanding and global awareness.”
Note the definition of ‘inflation’: the increase in the general price level in the economy.
That’s a perfectly good definition of price inflation, but it leaves an important question unanswered: what causes a rise in the general price level? Why do we have “inflation” to begin with?
That seems like an important part of the lesson, doesn’t it?
A student taking this class will be left to assume that it’s magic.
Prices just rise.
Too bad, too sad.
What Causes Price Inflation?
All kinds of things drive prices up—increased demand, shortages, natural disasters, wars, government policy, etc. Sometimes, price increases can ripple through the economy, causing other prices to follow suit. For instance, oil prices spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine. But this wasn’t technically “inflation.” It would be better described as a price shock. Price shocks do, in fact, raise prices. And those price increases can cascade through the economy, causing other prices to rise with them.
But again, this isn’t “inflation” in the historical and technical sense of the word. There is only one thing that causes price inflation (defined as a general rise in the level of prices) – monetary inflation, or more precisely, an increase in the supply of money and credit.
As economist Milton Friedman put it, “[Inflation] is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. It’s always and everywhere a result of too much money.”
You don’t get that part of the story from the IB lesson plan, do you?
I think that’s by design.
After all, who causes the money supply to increase?
Governments and central banks.
And the political class would rather you not realize they are causing the pain you’re feeling at the grocery store and gas station.
Words Mean Things
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when inflation was more precisely defined.
A 1970s dictionary described it this way:
“A sharp increase in the amount of money and credit, causing advances in the price level.”
Economist Ludwig von Mises defined it this way in his essay “Inflation: An Unworkable Fiscal Policy“:
“Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check.”
Price inflation (or “inflation” as the IB lesson plan calls it) is one symptom of this government-created monetary inflation. In other words, a rise in the general price level isn’t inflation. It is caused by inflation.
Henry Hazlitt is best known for his brilliant book Economics in One Lesson. In another essay titled “Inflation in One Page,” he explained why using a more precise definition of inflation is crucial.
“Inflation is an increase in the quantity of money and credit. Its chief consequence is soaring prices.
“Therefore inflation—if we misuse the term to mean the rising prices themselves—is caused solely by printing more money. For this the government’s monetary policies are entirely responsible.” (Emphasis added)
Mises expounded on this.
“People today use the term `inflation’ to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise.
“The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation… As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it.
“Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar.
“As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation.” [Emphasis added]
Over the years, the political class, along with their apologists in the mainstream financial media and academia, intentionally muddied the definition of inflation to suit government purposes. The standard definition of inflation you hear during White House press conferences, at a CNBC roundtable, or during an IB high school class is nothing more than government propaganda.
By obscuring the fact that price inflation (a general rise in all prices) is the result of monetary inflation, government and central bank officials can blame “inflation” on all kinds of things. After all, there are a lot of reasons certain prices go up and certain prices go down.
This is precisely why so many people believe “inflation” is caused by greedy corporations, Putin’s price hikes, or voodoo.
The real culprit is government.
Sadly, your highly educated IB graduate will probably never realize this.
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) This is the stuff of dreams. Scientists have turned lead into gold!
Since ancient times, people have been trying to figure out how to transform common metals such as lead or iron into gold.
Alchemy originated in Egypt in the first century. It became a popular endeavor in the Middle Ages. At the time, people believed there was a “Philosopher’s Stone,” an elusive substance with transformative powers, including the ability to transform or purify metals.
Of course, nobody ever discovered that substance, but people did learn physics, and that has led to the transformation of lead into gold.
It happened at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, where the ALICE collaboration (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detected the transmutation of lead into gold.
ALICE’s central mission is to study the quark–gluon plasma (QGP)—a state of matter believed to have existed microseconds after the Big Bang, where quarks and gluons were not confined within protons and neutrons. The LHC particle accelerator is a vital tool in this collaboration.
I don’t know what any of that means, but that’s how the interwebs described it, and I thought it was important to include for any sciency folks who might read the article.
Anyway, alchemists back in the day primarily focused their efforts on turning common substances into gold using chemistry. Needless to say, they never figured it out. However, with the advancement of physics, scientists discovered that heavy elements do transform into other elements naturally or through radioactive decay — or in a lab under a bombardment of neutrons or protons.
According to Phys.org, scientists have created gold in this way before, however, the ALICE collaboration has now measured the transmutation of lead into gold by a new mechanism involving near-miss collisions between lead nuclei at the LHC.
I have to admit, it wasn’t until today that I realized this was a thing. But it’s pretty cool, right? We can literally make gold! We’re all going to be rich!
Well, not so fast.
According to Phys.org, “the LHC currently produces gold at a maximum rate of about 89,000 nuclei per second from lead–lead collisions at the ALICE collision point.”
Yeah. That was meaningless to me as well. But according to AI calculations, it would take about 33.9 billion years to create one ounce of gold at that rate.
In other words, don’t hold your breath. As Phys.org put it, “While the dream of medieval alchemists has technically come true, their hopes of riches have once again been dashed.”
Here’s the thing: even if we could produce large amounts of gold in a lab, what would be the point? If gold suddenly became commonplace, it wouldn’t be as valuable. Lead is about 12,700 times more abundant than gold in the Earth’s crust. That’s why nobody is running around with lead coins in their pockets. (That and the whole lead-poisoning thing.)
Gold’s rarity is one of the features that makes it so valuable.
So, if you do figure out how to turn lead (or something else) into gold on a large scale, you might want to keep it to yourself!
Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.
(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump on Thursday called for a 30-day “unconditional” ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened sanctions if it is not “respected.”
Trump made the call in a post on Truth Social shortly after holding a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Talks with Russia/Ukraine continue. The US calls for, ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire,” the president said.
“Hopefully, an acceptable ceasefire will be observed, and both Countries will be held accountable for respecting the sanctity of these direct negotiations. If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions,” Trump added.
The president’s call with Zelensky came after the Ukrainian parliament ratified the US-Ukraine minerals deal, although there was contention about two technical agreements that still need to be signed to fully implement the deal.
Zelensky’s government hasn’t shared the details of the two technical agreements, leading Ukrainian MPs to add an amendment to the ratification. According to POLITICO, the extra paragraph says “that ratifying the main economic agreement does not mean lawmakers will automatically approve another the two technical side deals that they have not yet been shown.”
After speaking with Trump, Zelensky said they “welcomed the Ukrainian Parliament’s ratification of the Economic Partnership Agreement — a truly historic document that opens up many new opportunities for cooperation.”
The Ukrainian leader said he also welcomed the idea of a 30-day ceasefire. “I also informed him that Ukraine is ready for a 30-day ceasefire, starting even today. We are waiting for Russia to support this proposal,” he wrote on X.
The Trump-Zelensky call came after Russia declared a three-day ceasefire for Russia’s celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union defeating Nazi Germany in World War II. Zelensky rejected the truce, and the two sides have accused each other of violations.
