Trump’s crypto play ‘thinly veiled attempt’ to mimic’s FDR’s gold standard strategy

President Trump is “clearly fearful of the BRICS idea to create their own trade settlement currency” and the threat posed by China in particular to the dollar’s supremacy, veteran economist Marc Ostwald told Sputnik.

“The fact is that China now settles around 51% of its trade in CNY, and there is a lot more bilateral trade in Asia, the Middle East and Africa which is also moving away from the USD, thus threatening the USD’s reserve currency status in the long run,” Ostwald, chief economist at ADM Investor Services, explained.

Meanwhile, Trump’s attempts to strengthen the US dollar through cryptocurrencies, besides creating “a big risk of a crypto bubble,” also threatens to crash the economy, if it’s combined with new financial deregulation, Ostwald fears.

That’s because “less stringent regulation gives greater scope for ‘bad actors’ and financial innovation to create illiquid instruments, which attract leveraged investments that see forced sellers in a major risk off event,” he said. Prime example? The derivatives time bomb unleashed during the 2007 financial crisis.

Overall, Ostwald sees Trump’s crypto push as “a rather confused and thinly veiled attempt to mimic what Franklin Roosevelt did in 1933, when in a bid to pull the country out of the Depression, he depreciated the US dollar in relation to gold, effectively annulling all debt contracts.”

Trump hinted as much on the campaign trail, saying the US could use crypto could help pay off its gargantuan $35 trln debt.

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New Jersey state Governor Phil Murphy is now hosting illegal immigrants in his home – because why stop at policy when you can personally offer a cozy spot for them to dodge deportation?

A real hands-on approach!

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❗️Trump says "great progress" has been made in resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

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⚡️Donald Trump suggests exchanging Ukraine's rare earths for US aid.

👉 For some helpful background information about Ukrainian natural resources, check out our explainer here

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Chaos at the Pentagon: Where are the weapons promised to Ukraine?

The DoD is facing tough questions amid revelations that only half of the US arms aid promised to Ukraine for 2024 was actually delivered by last November.

According to a new Reuters report citing informed sources, only 30% of armored vehicles promised Kiev were on the ground by December, despite assurances by the Biden Pentagon made as late as the summer that everything was on track.

The culprit? Apparently, different branches of the military couldn’t agree on what counts as a "delivered" weapon.

Tracking the shipments has been a nightmare, according to GAO reports, with smaller packages arriving in a week or two, but bigger ones sent in bulk—and taking up to 4 months, especially if they needed repairs.

The Pentagon has reportedly updated its manuals with a unified definition of “delivered,” but it’s unclear if the new rules are being followed.

One official blamed delays for Ukraine’s string of setbacks at the front, while a soldier complained that receiving just 10 shells for a mortar every 24 hours is "simply nothing"—and has led to casualties.

What was the US supposed to send to Ukraine?

Heavy weapons:

🟠M1 Abrams Tanks
🟠Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles
🟠M270 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS)
🟠Stryker Armored Vehicles

Artillery & missiles:

🟠M777 Howitzers
🟠High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)
🟠155mm Artillery Shells
🟠Javelin Anti-Tank Missiles
🟠Patriot Missile Defense Systems

If the missing weapons aren't in Ukraine, where are they?

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📹 THROWBACK: US Senator Lindsey Graham admits the conflict in Ukraine is about money, "so Donald Trump is going make a deal, to get our money back, to enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals."

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◼️ How is USAID linked to secret bioweapons research?

◼️ USAID: Soros' secret cash cow

◼️ The REAL reason USAID was kicked out of Russia

◼️ USAID's billion-dollar support for Ukraine’s color revolutions

◼️ USAID: Deep state's color revolution machine – Dugin

◼️ Families demand answers from Ukrainian commanders who leave troops stranded

◼️ Tariff-linked crypto crash could get worse if THIS happens

◼️ US import tariffs on Mexican goods SUSPENDED for a month

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💰 Is the US dollar’s global power at risk?

The shift towards national currencies and a multipolar world is here to stay, Lillie Ferriol Prat, a research assistant at the South African DUT BRICS Research Institute tells Sputnik.

She believes that "the current dollar monetary mechanic is in need of urgent reform as their persisting debt ceiling crisis indicates."

Current trends:

🔸 Nations are exploring alternative payment methods, including Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs);

🔸 The Atlantic Council’s CBDC Tracker shows 134 countries, covering 98% of global GDP, are exploring CBDCs, including BRICS nations;

🔸 Since the freezing of Russia’s sovereign assets in 2022, cross-border CBDC projects have more than doubled – which the Kremlin says is because of shattered trust in the dollar and euro;

🔸 US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on January 23 banning CBDCs in the US, with some experts suggesting that other nations' digital currencies could also be targeted;

🔸 Trump threatened 100% tariffs on BRICS countries if they replaced the US dollar with a common currency, but Russia has dismissed that warning, stating no such plan is currently in place.

Ferriol Prat points out that sanctions are often ineffective – especially with BRICS+ representing over 50% of the global population – and believes Trump’s rhetoric is mainly targeted at the domestic audience.

"I think it is a matter of preserving confidence and national self-esteem," she says. "The Biden administration has left the US thoroughly unstable. To mitigate chaos, it is highly desirable to increase domestic confidence and unity."

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⚡️ Trump appoints Marco Rubio as USAID Acting Administrator

The official statement from the US State Department also declared that "it is now abundantly clear that significant portions of USAID funding are not aligned with the core national interests of the United States".

📹 This statement confirmed Marco Rubio's earlier revelation of his new position.

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❗️ USAID on the chopping block, Department of Education next?

Donald Trump's advisors are considering dismantling the Department of Education or significantly reducing its functions, the Wall Street Journal reports.

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⚡️ Trump puts tariffs on hold after phone call with Trudeau

The Canadian prime minister announced a $1.3 billion plan to beef up Canada's border with intelligence, new helicopters and 10,000 personnel to fight drug trafficking. Trudeau also promised to appoint a fentanyl czar and list cartels as terrorist organizations.

As a result, he said, the US president will pause the promised tariffs for 30 days.

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🥴 This is what the beginning of dictatorship MELTDOWN OF THE US DEEP STATE looks like

Speaking to USAID employees, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar went off the rails.

"It is us, the taxpayers, who are being ripped off," she said, calling President Trump a "dictator" for shutting down the corrupt agency.

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💸 Meet USAID’s European little sister

As USAID faces an uncertain future after being branded a "criminal organization" by Elon Musk, the EU’s use of "development assistance" to advance its interests takes on new significance. Here’s what to know:

🔶 The EU coordinates bloc-level foreign aid via the ‘Directorate-General for International Partnerships’, (DG INTPA). This agency complements, but doesn’t replace, bilateral aid agencies of individual EU states.

🔶 DG INTPA is the product of several reorganizations, including a 2011 merger of EuropeAid (AIDCO) and DG DEV. In policy circles, it’s sometimes still called EuropeAid, no doubt to copy its American cousin.

🔶 Brussels touts its aid agency’s role in promoting UN development and poverty alleviation goals. But its true mission is serving as a soft power tool for EU economic, political, and security interests.

🔶 EuropeAid manages much of the €67 billion in EU aid sent to Ukraine, aimed at preventing that country’s economic collapse amid NATO’s proxy war with Russia.

🔶 Reorganizations have made managing the nearly €100 billion in annual EU foreign aid rife with potential corruption and mismanagement.

🔶 In the mid-2000s, the EU’s anti-fraud watchdog uncovered “complex and well-organized” financial abuses, from falsified cost reports and duplicate funding requests to declaring projects complete when they weren’t.

🔶 In 2023, independent journalists uncovered DG INTPA and other EU agencies’ hopeless dependency on consulting firms, some of them under investigation for fraud and cronyism.

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🏒 Trump calls for Russian hockey player's place in Hall of Fame

At a White House event for the Florida Panthers, Trump praised Russian goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, calling him a future Hockey Hall of Famer.

Bobrovsky, a 36-year-old native of Russia’s Novokuznetsk, led the team to the 2024 Stanley Cup championship, showcasing his remarkable skill.

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