Looking forward to 2025!

Today we learned that Bill Gates is the latest of the Deep State billionaires to beg an invitation to Mar-a-Lago to meet with President-elect Donald Trump.

For sure, he has a scheme to sell the once and future president. US government support for vaccinations in Africa, or some other pet project of the Gates Foundation? Or perhaps a seat on the Artificial Intelligence panel? I am sure I am not alone in wishing the incoming president will greet Gates with all the skepticism he has earned.

The man who sponsored a pandemic war gaming exercise just two months before the Covid outbreak deserves an audience — and then, the door.

Another pretender jockeying for position in Trump World is Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister. Fico was in Moscow to meet with Putin this week, offering his services as a neutral arbiter for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

Fico is one of Europe’s odd men out, who has rejected the neo-con War Hawk Party who think Europe can only survive if Russia is crushed.

Like Lindsay Graham here in the US, they seem to have forgotten five hundred years of European history, during which Russia has always been a Great Power. (Until the Bolshevik Revolution, the rest of Europe either allied with Russia or allied against Russia, depending on which of their own rivals they wanted to best).

“We are not opposed” to talks hosted by Slovakia, Putin said, giving Pico a boost.

Zelenskyy has yet to comment on the Slovakian offer, but has repeatedly criticized Fico for not openly supporting Ukraine in years past. But in an interview this week with the French daily Le Parisien, he admitted that Ukraine did not have the force to remove Russian troops from Crimea the Donbas, both of which have effectively been under Russian control since 2014.

Clearly, both Zelenskyy and Putin are waiting for the Sheriff to return to the White House.

So far, mum’s the word from the man Trump has appointed as his special envoy to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Lt. Gen. (ret) Keith Kellogg. (I have had the privilege to work under Kellogg this past year as a senior fellow at the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute).

China, of course, is another major challenge the incoming president and America will face in 2025.

The Chinese foreign ministry hurled invective at the Biden administration this week, saying it was “playing with fire” for sending more military aid to Taiwan. The aid in question, a modest $571 million defense assistance package, certainly didn’t “undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” as the Chinese claimed. But it gave them an opportunity to remind the incoming administration they aren’t going to roll over.

Some believe Trump will cut a “grand bargain” with China, sacrificing military aid to Taiwan for a gigantic trade deal. And while Trump could indeed lead the Chinese to believe they could be so lucky, my guess is his end goal is quite different. Peace through strength is his underlying defense strategy. A strong Taiwan, capable of resisting Chinese communist aggression, fits into that.

Trump is also making progress with the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas since October 7, 2023, merely by threatening there will be “all hell to pay” if they are not released by the inaugural. My prediction is that Hamas will play this one right down to the wire, and when their efforts to retain some of the hostages as further bargaining chips fails, they will cave at the last minute.

In Syria, evidence is emerging of mass graves of Assad’s victims, with new estimates that the former Syrian dictator tortured and murdered as many as 100,000 of his fellow citizens.

Where is Pope Francis faced with such a massive assault of basic human rights? Oh yes, I forgot. He is criticizing the Jews. In a forthcoming book, called Hope, he reportedly is calling for an investigation to see if israel is committing a “genocide” against Palestinian Muslims in Gaza. Meanwhile, he has remained silent as the Catholic Church is being wiped out in Communist China, and jihadi Muslims target Christians in Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Mali, Niger, Mozambique, and elsewhere in Africa.

As I have said many times, the jihadi Muslims don’t care what sect you belong to. You can be Syrian Orthodox, Catholic, Presbyterian, or Evangelical, the jihadis are equal-opportunity murderers of Christians. For them, there is no “church” other than the Persecuted Church, as I report in several chapters of my latest book, The Iran House.

For now, the new Syrian regime led by the Islamist HTS has been making nice to minorities, including both Kurds and Christians. This past week, for example, after foreign jihadis torched a Christmas tree in a Christian village in Central Syria, the new regime had them arrested.

Will this example of tolerance last, or is it just taqqiya, the traditional Muslim practice of lying to delude the infidels? Time will tell.

2025 will be a year of momentous change around the world. So far, most of the augurs look good.

I discuss these topics in more detail in this week’s edition of Prophecy Today Weekend. As always you can listen live at 1 PM on Saturday on 104.9 FM and 550 AM in the Jacksonville, Florida, area, or later by using this link to the podcast.

Happy New Year!

Yours in freedom.

©2024 Kenneth R. Timmerman. All rights reserved.