Happy Monday.
Today is Monday the 12th.
I'm happy to be back.
I got into the office early today — it's 5:50 a.m. as I'm recording this — and I'm just grateful to be back with you. I'm really looking forward to what I think is going to be a very interesting, very consequential 2026.
I'll tell you something — a lot happened last week.
The last video I recorded, that same night, the Venezuelan president was effectively taken out of power. A dramatic moment. A presidential kidnapping, for lack of a better phrase.
But here's the thing: what happened over the past week has massive implications, and I want to talk about that for a moment.
Think about it.
Trump toppled the Venezuelan dictator — not the entire government, but a clear regime change at the top. And despite what the press keeps saying, this wasn't about drugs.
This was about China. And oil.
China and Russia had military assets in Venezuela. We weren't sure what kind of staging activity they were setting up, or what their long-term intentions were. There were real concerns about potential footholds close to U.S. territory. That also ties into broader border and homeland security issues.
There's a lot of very sensitive, very complicated national security activity going on there — things friends of mine who work in that world have talked to me about off the record. I can't get into details, but make no mistake: Venezuela was about China.
Then, on top of that, you had Elon Musk begin the process of deorbiting roughly 4,400 Starlink satellites. That started last week and will continue this year. Imagine that — thousands of satellites slowly coming down.
At the same time, all of a sudden, there's renewed attention on Greenland. A serious push.
And then, last but not least, Trump comes out and says we're going to boost U.S. military spending to $1.5 trillion, up from about $1 trillion today.
Each of these things, taken on their own, might seem disconnected.
But together, they paint a very clear picture.
They point to a country preparing for confrontation with China.
If not a hot war, then a very sharp, very serious cold war — a new phase in the geopolitical contest between the United States and China.
Make no mistake about it: we have entered a new phase.
Those of you who've been with us for a while know this is something I've followed closely for years. We've written reports on it, done videos on it. Frankly, a lot of people know me for this topic.
And we published it way before it was mainstream news.
If you haven't read it yet, I recommend you read it here.
In it, I go into detail about the major threat coming from China and what this means for your retirement…
I give you my "Red Flag List" plus two major profit opportunities.
So make sure to read my report today.
Now we're entering a much sharper-elbowed phase of this competition.
You'll remember that Xi Jinping has mandated that China's military be ready to take Taiwan by 2027. That countdown has already begun.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
What Trump is likely trying to do now is dissuade China from making that move.
Venezuela, for example, is a strategic choke point. It cuts off oil flows to China and weakens Russia at the same time. From a realpolitik perspective, it was a very shrewd move.
I know some of my friends — especially diehard MAGA folks — are furious about it. "We're not doing regime change," they say. "We're not fighting wars over oil."
And I get that reaction.
But this is realpolitik. This is great-power politics. This is how the world actually works.
Others say, "Oh my God, this gives China permission to take Taiwan."
And I say back: China was never going to ask for permission. There's no international rulebook they were waiting to consult.
We're entering an era where the old niceties and formalities of superpower behavior are fading. It's becoming more like a schoolyard pecking order.
I grew up in Queens in the 1970s. There was no ideology about it. The toughest kid ran things. If you weren't in that circle, you felt it.
That reality unmasks a fiction a lot of people are uncomfortable with — that power doesn't matter.
Power matters. A great deal.
Many people are alarmed by how openly and aggressively Trump exercises power. And honestly, that alarm isn't irrational. It's not pleasant to watch.
But I see the world very much the way Trump does. Very much the way Nixon did. Very much the way Kissinger did — through the lens of history and great-power competition.
As the Athenian statesman Thucydides famously said: the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.
It's a hard way to look at the world.
But that's the phase we're entering now — a real Cold War–style competition with China. And 2026 is going to be one of the most decisive years yet.
So we're going to buckle up for this ride, and we're going to deal with it together.
That's all I have for you this Monday.
Have a great day.
I'll see you tomorrow.
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