Glenn delivers a 'truly horrifying' look at the origins of the Russian threat

All this week, Glenn is taking viewers on a journey to explore one of the biggest geopolitical threats to America: Russia and Vladimir Putin. In addition to the research for each segment, Glenn is also making the transcripts and key highlights from the episode available on GlennBeck.com.

15645036294_23611127e6_k

Tonight, I’m going to show you what’s coming in the next 12 or 15, 24 months, what’s over the horizon. This one is truly, truly horrifying. The information that is fed to you by politicians or the mainstream media or, God forbid, the think tanks never take us beyond the surface view. I believe it is critical to attack an issue on a much deeper level, pull it up from the roots like a weed. If you don’t, if you don’t get at the roots, the problems will continue to resurface time and time again, and you will see that what I’m going to show you tonight has repeated itself.

History is repeating itself right now. It was Aristotle that said it, and then history repeated itself, and Edmund Burke said it. And then history repeated itself, and then Winston Churchill. And depending on what time period you were born in, everybody always says…my generation, it’s Winston Churchill. It started with Aristotle. Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. If you don’t know history, you certainly won’t know the future.

The next three episodes we are going to show you what is going on with Russia, and I’m going to show you tonight, history. I’m going to try to answer these three things and show you these three things, that Russia is awake and rising and not to be messed with. Two, is it communist? Is it fascist? Is it religious? What is it? And three, when did this all start?

And this really kind of goes back to history. It’s a disturbing driving force behind their aggressive geopolitical aims and how it relates directly to you, because it does. But let me go into short-term history, because really it all goes back to this chalkboard which was the last year of my show on FOX, this chalkboard which caused me probably to lose more credibility than anything I’ve ever done. People said this was madness.

This was the caliphate. Did you notice that it was the cyber caliphate that hacked into the president’s speech and into our global systems today? It was the cyber caliphate. That’s this chalkboard. Well, we’re past the caliphate now. We are now to this point: radicals, Islamists, Communists, Socialists will work together against Israel…past it. Work together against capitalism…we’re there now. Work together to overturn stability…we’re there.

The protests become contagious. They cascade. They sweep the Middle East…past this. Begin to destabilize Europe…you’re now seeing this. And the rest of the world…this is where we are at tonight. We are going to show you this part. We’re going to show you in the next three days. Episode two, you’re going to meet Putin’s idea man, the architect designing maneuvers that we’re currently seeing play out in the international stage, and it is incredible once you know what he’s doing to see it all laid out on a table and what the signs point to, a rising red storm, the likes of which we haven’t seen in decades, and this time they’re playing for keeps.

But for it to all really crystallize, you have to take Edmund Burke’s advice. We have to learn the history first, the impetus of Russia’s recent international escalations. They go much deeper than merely a maniacal shirtless dictator who hunts sharks with his bare hands. I mean, that makes for good click bait, you know, and Putin’s machismo may be a, you know, good enough storyline to satisfy the casual observer, but I will tell you, as I talked about this show on my Facebook page, I actually had people in our audience say well, I like Putin better than I like President Obama. I like him because at least he’s doing something.

Oh, be careful. Putin is not just the self-absorbed thug the media portrays. His tactics are far more calculated than the average wannabe dictator, and his goals are far, far reaching. The brash military overreaches from the annexing of the Crimea to the pro-Russian militants who shot down MH-17, that’s just about Putin flexing his biceps for the rest of the world to see, but there is a deeply historical and deeply disturbing pattern that is playing out that reveals the endgame and opens Pandora’s Box almost quite literally of biblical proportions.

Tonight, we begin a three-day episode on the root of Russia’s coming red storm which went from 0 to 60 since Putin’s reelection in just the past year. Watch.

So the question is why? Why Ukraine? Why is this happening? What is his end goal? There’s also some disturbing news that came out last weekend about the anti-homosexual agenda in Russia that we will touch on here in just a few minutes and also what’s happening in France.

Now, prior to these aggressions, even the mere mention of Russia as a geopolitical foe or a geopolitical force was met with mockery. Remember?

VIDEO

President Obama: Governor Romney, I’m glad that you recognize that Al Qaeda is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not Al Qaeda. You said Russia, and the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back, because, you know, the Cold War has been over for 20 years.

Okay, this might have been amusing. The audience laughed. The line about the 1980s made people laugh but really only those people whose knowledge of Russia begins and ends with Rocky IV. The plain reality is and has been there is no humor in such a stunning display of ignorance. Dismissing the ambitions of what Putin has declared the new Russia without carefully examining what does he mean by “that could have disastrous consequences”?

What is Putin’s new Russia? What does it look like? Well, the best place to help make sense of what’s happening now, again, is history. Most people would trace the Western and Russia conflict back to the mid-1940s. World War II had concluded, and most nations were now focusing on how to reconcile, reconcile with this guy, Stalin.

I love this. This is actually a model of a very famous sculpture for Stalin from the Soviet Union after he died, and I love this because it looks like he was in a straitjacket, and that’s where this crazy man belonged, a straitjacket. Stalin’s Soviet Union, that was a scary place. One of the highest profile points of the dispute in the creation of the World Bank and the IMF is where we really started to see this conflict.

The U.S. played a leading role because leaders believed at the time the IMF, the institutions, the banking institutions would help prevent another Great Depression from happening and another great world war. Those things were on the high priority list, but Stalin refused to go along with it. Well, this confused so many people, because FDR had openly spoken of the spirit of friendliness and cooperation with Stalin.

16266621802_274ca65b0c_k

FDR admired Stalin. People thought Communism was neat and affectionately referred to Stalin as Uncle Joe. That’s what FDR used to call him. Stalin’s refusal to help prompted U.S. officials to start digging around and find out what is the deal with Stalin? Why isn’t he our partner? Why won’t he help on this? This is important. This is good for both of us.

Well, officials reached out to a U.S. diplomat named George Kennan. He was the head of the mission in Moscow. Kennan didn’t share FDR’s rosy view of the communist leadership and the Soviet Union. He knew what killers they were. He believed FDR’s fondness for Stalin was wildly misplaced. His response to Stalin’s request was stunning. He wrote it on February 22, 1946, and instead of a simple reply, Kennan unleashed a five-part, 8,000 word missive that would later be known as the Long Telegram.

In it, he pulled no punches. He explained, “I cannot compress answers into single brief message without yielding to what I feel would be dangerous degree of oversimplification.” Stalin’s unwillingness to help over some random policy hang-up was bothersome to people, but there were serious problems. It wasn’t just bothersome. It was serious, and Kennan explained in an article published in Foreign Affairs in 1947.

He called it the Sources of the Soviet Conflict, and here’s what he said: “The main element of any United States policy toward the Soviet Union must be that of a long-term, patient but firm and vigilant containment of Russian expansive tendencies.” Got it? “Soviet pressure against the free institutions of the Western world is something that can be contained by the…application of counterforce at a series of constantly shifting geographical and political points; corresponding to the shifts and maneuvers of Soviet policy, but which cannot be charmed or talked out of existence.”

What does that mean? It means you’re going to have to contain them, and they’re going to continue to try to get out of that box, and you’re going to have to continue to move. The solution? Take steps; block him at his expansion anywhere possible. So, who is Kennan? Kennan is now known as the father of containment. His message was the cornerstone of our Cold War policy against the Soviet Union, contain them at all costs.

Now, that’s when it’s commonly believed that it all started, competition born out of the ashes of World War II because of this guy. That is ridiculous. It doesn’t. It goes much, much deeper than that, and our researchers have now worked for four months on this program to try to show you. And this is going to be a lot of really heavy stuff to try to jam down in a, you know, an hour-long show, but all of these notes will be up at GlennBeck.com. You’ll be able to see this. You can watch it at will, but this is critical that you understand this, because this is the root.

Gotta take you back over 1,000 years to the split of the Roman Empire. Split of the Roman Empire in the late 1700s, the government power structure was in Constantinople, here. The religious center remained in Rome. Now, here’s how the power structure was divided at the time. There was the Eastern Roman Empire. The government was run, Constantinople, which was famous for its defense and large number of soldiers there.

Culture was heavily influenced by the Greeks, connected to the Byzantine Empire, the language, the customs, and everything else, and that’s all Hellenization comes from here. Gradually they move away from the Latin language, and they’re increasingly alienating themselves to Western Rome and the pope. The pope was based in Rome. That brings us to Western Rome.

The Christian pope based there in Rome became more and more alienated as they maintained allegiance to the pope. In the time of conquer or be conquered, Rome was a sitting duck because all of the troops were Byzantine. All of the troops were in Constantinople, and they were there to protect the pope, but the pope was in Rome. All of the defenses in Eastern, all of the spiritual in Western…that’s the way it was in the beginning and only a matter of time before somebody took advantage of the opportunity and attempted to take down Western Rome, because the pope was like a king at the time.

At the time, it was common for barbarian tribes to attack various targets. There was a tribe called the Lombards. They saw the Byzantine troops were spread too thin. They were all around Constantinople, and where they were, there was no real army, so they decided to take a chance, and they invaded what is now known as modern-day Italy with the intention of conquering and ruling Rome.

Well, the Byzantines were tied up in various other battles. They didn’t have the resources to protect them. Desperate, the pope turned to somebody else, to Charlemagne. Charlemagne was the new king of the Frankish Empire. He agreed to help the pope, so Charlemagne comes in, and he swoops down, and he crushes the Lombards. He liberates Rome but in turn also ended up uniting most of Western Europe.

Word During Charlemagne

Christmas day, year 800, Pope Leo III is sitting on his throne. He crowns Charlemagne emperor, and his empire would stretch as far east as the Slavic lands, and this is really important, Charlemagne all the way over here. Let me show you a look. This is Charlemagne’s Europe. If you see, the Slavics to Charlemagne, that is the orange up here. The gray or the brown down here, that’s the caliphate. I’m telling you, this is all playing out now, the caliphate at the bottom, the Byzantine Empire, the Slavic Empire, and then the West.

Now, let me show you another map, the Cold War. Do you notice the division of power in Charlemagne’s Europe and Cold War Europe is nearly identical? After Charlemagne’s death, his empire was split among his sons. France and Germany’s beginnings stem from this moment, and from here on out, Rome is the spiritual center, and Carolingian Christianity would dominate Western Europe. The way the region is constructed today stems from this, this ancient division.

Understanding this helps make sense of what is happening there today, because…do we have the new map? The world today…Ukraine, what’s happening in Ukraine? Some of Russia’s seemingly strange actions that had most Americans and most people around the world going what the heck? What does he care about that? If you know the past, you will know the future.

[break]

All right, so how does Charlemagne and his rescuing of Western Rome over 1,000 years ago matter to anybody today? It’s all about values or the stated values. I want you to look closely at what Putin values in his new Russia. There has been a trend now of events that indicate Russia is attempting to be one of the highest profile international defenders of global Orthodox Christianity.

Religion is playing a role, and pay attention here. It’s all about religion, just as it was in Hitler’s Germany at the very beginning before he really seized power. He cloaked himself as a defender of all that is good and decent and Christian.

You’ll recall that it was Vladimir Putin who beat Obama to the national stage when denouncing the violence against Christians in the Middle East. Remember? We looked like we were cowards. All of a sudden he was defending, and he said, “This pressing problem should be a subject of close attention for the entire international community. It is especially important today to make efforts to prevent intercultural and interreligious conflicts, which are fraught with the most serious upheavals.”

Well, everybody loves that, right? Except that’s a little strange, considering that the guy kills journalists. Journalists in Russia who pen a negative word about politicians, especially Putin, find themselves victims of freak accidents like falling out of a nine-story window, falling into an elevator shaft, suddenly being stabbed and thrown off a roof, consuming poison-laced drinks. That doesn’t exactly square with good Christian tenets, does it?

Nevertheless, the pattern is now here. Putin himself was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. He had a high-profile meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2002. I want you to know, I am not claiming that he is a religious guy at all, but I am telling you that he has made strong religious allies, such as one powerful bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow.

Leading up to the Olympics, Russia championed the fight against what they deemed as the West’s slide into immorality and greed, critical to pay attention to, most notably taking an overzealous opposition to the pro-gay activist movement. I talked about this two years ago on CNN because I found this abhorrent at the time, and it has only gotten worse. Watch.

VIDEO

Glenn: I said on the air this week I will stand with GLAAD. I will stand with any, anybody who will stand up and say that’s crazy, that’s dangerous, that’s hetero-Fascism. That’s what that is. And we’re talking about Duck Dynasty? Really? Really?

Really important…he banned gay propaganda, and here he is defending this law. Watch.

VIDEO

Vladimir Putin: Two is that I’d like to ask our colleagues, my colleagues and friends, that as they try to criticize us, they would do well to set their own house in order first. I did say, after all, and this is public knowledge, that in some of the states in the U.S., homosexuality remains a felony.

Okay, this is not actual Christianity. Putin is attempting to appeal to his Orthodox core of the country. Why? Because he knows trouble is coming, and he’s got to cobble together an army, and it appears to be working. Russia has aggressively sought far right allies wherever he can get them, and if you don’t pay attention to what the history is and what he’s really doing, you might think I’ve looked into pooty-Put’s eyes, he’s a good guy.

16266633002_1f3a7d4fe6_k

There is one disturbing partnership with a group called the World Congress of Families. I know very little about this group. I don’t think they’re a bad group. They are very pro-family, but they are not doing what Putin is doing. And this group has a lot of well-known Christian organizations among its partners. Again, seems to be a good group.

They were set to have a conference in Moscow until the military conflicts with Ukraine forced cancellation, and sanctions by the U.S. then forced the WFC to suspend their partnership, but it seems to me, and this is only one group, that there are groups around the world that have bought Russia’s salesmanship that they are the new global champion of Christianity.

I warn you, be careful. Let me give you a quote. “Now Christian Russia can help liberate the West from the new liberal anti-Christian totalitarianism of political correctness, gender ideology, mass-media censorship and neo-Marxist dogma.” That one comes from Putin’s favorite businessman, a 40-year-old multimillionaire who recently started the Charitable Foundation of St. Basil the Great, $42 million. The charity became one of WCF’s official partners at a similar conference.

He did a talk on traditional values, the future of the European principles, and said “Civilization is on the verge of deconstruction, and only Russia can become a center of consolidation of all the healthy forces and resistance to the sodomization of the world, that is why the whole Europe is looking at it with hope.” I am telling you that our multiculturalism, our lack of any values, is leading us to exactly the same place Western Europe was in in the 1930s.

Examples of Putin attempting to appeal to the Orthodox Church: Moscow State University received the largest scientific grant ever, $19 million, to fund a project called Noah’s Ark, the case against an all-female punk rock band, Pussy Riot, who was charged with the severe crime of doing a performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It was wildly, wildly inappropriate. It was vile, yes, but these women got seven years in prison, and people cheered Putin on.

The pattern is very clear, and it begs the question why? This is not a religious guy. Why is he doing this? Why is Russia attempting to become the so-called voice of the Orthodox Church? The disturbing answer comes from history when we come back.

[break]

The world is on a collision course, and we have to find out what the root of this is and what comes next. When Vladimir Putin first got into office, he described himself, and he was described by everybody as a pragmatist. He was a secular nationalist whose religious stances were separate from how he governed. He didn’t really care.

We just showed you he’s going at 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Why? Well, let’s start where it really started to happen with him, the economic crash of ’08. It caused major economic pain, and Putin’s popularity began to slip. So, what did he do? He had to appeal to the nationalism of his people and also to the religious aspect to garner popularity. It worked in his first term, but the downturn has taken that option off the table now, and the Kremlin’s new plan is a dangerous concoction of anti-Western sentiment, Islamic xenophobia which you’re going to see play out in the West, and we’ll tell you about that tomorrow, and Orthodox Christianity.

So, all of a sudden this guy is becoming a religious leader. Well, has he had a come-to-Jesus moment? No, not in his faith, but he has come to Jesus as the best weapon at his disposal to keep people in the palm of his hand. It’s the oldest trick in the book. Now, what makes him think that will work? History, again…that’s what tonight’s episode is about, but you have to go further back than Rome. You have to go all the way back to the Roman Empire, passed that to the days with Jesus and his disciples.

The Apostle Paul, we know he went west towards Rome to preach, but meanwhile, Ukrainian historical accounts claim the Apostle Andrew had preaching that took him north over the Black Sea and even further north along the Dnieper River, all the way making converts to Christ. The name of the cities he visited, you have become reacquainted with in the news lately thanks to Vladimir Putin, Crimea and Kiev. As you will see, Crimea plays a very important role.

It was in Kiev where Andrew first predicted a great Christian city would someday arise. Some 800 years later, the prediction would appear to come true when Prince Oleg of the Rus arrived. He landed precisely where Andrew made his prediction, and today in that exact spot stands this, St. Andrews Church.

Now, for the Kievan Rus, the new location proved fruitful, made them incredibly powerful, even more powerful or powerful enough to attack Constantinople on multiple occasions. So, now it was the Byzantines. The Byzantines with all their power and their troops, they were sitting ducks and outgunned and out of options. The Byzantines found a different way. They thought we will fight a different way. We’ll fight by culture.

A Byzantine monk named Cyril developed a written language and translated the Bible and other Byzantine prayers. The Christianization of the Slavs had begun. By the way, Cyril, Cyrillic language, if you see above on our set, that is the language of Russia. They’re still using it today.

In 988, Vladimir the Great…Vladimir Putin? No, Vladimir the Great, in 988 was baptized in Crimea, and Kievan Rus became a Christian state. Just as Rome was the spiritual center of the Western Europeans, this became the Christian center. Is Ukraine and why he is paying so much attention to it, why he wants Ukraine and Crimea so important to him? Why does he want it? Because it is the center of Christianity for the Rus.

In the mid-1400s, Ivan the Great began a campaign once again to unite all of the Rus under one banner. Ivan may have been the first Russian ruler to realize the power and influence of Orthodox Christianity and what it had on the Rus. Knowing that this had real power, he commissioned the building of the Kremlin, and in the middle of the fortress, he placed the Assumption Cathedral of Moscow.

It was the grandest Orthodox Church in all of Rus’ lands at the time, and it still stands there right in the middle of the Kremlin. In fact, you go to the Kremlin for a tour today, they pretty much bypass all of the Cold War stuff. They take you right here, the United Rus. Ivan the Great, he united the Rus, and he conquered the mongrels and forged a Russian Empire. With him, the entire way was Orthodox Church.

Ivan declared Russia the third Rome. He adopted the Byzantine double-headed eagle as the official symbol of Russia, and it still is the coat of arms in Russia, a constant reminder to all Russians of their responsibility as a successor to the Byzantines. Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy would become fused into the DNA of every single Russia, deep in their roots, and places such as Kiev and Crimea peninsula, they are considered the holy sites. In fact, we just heard a speech from Putin just a couple of months ago where he said that that is as important to the Russian people as Jerusalem is to the Jewish people.

The legitimacy of that place traces all the way back to the apostle of Jesus. When the Byzantine Empire effectively collapsed, the Russians saw it as their holy succession to establish the third Rome. The Russian Orthodox Church provided divine legitimacy for Russia. The medieval Iron Curtain line was drawn.

The Roman Catholic Church officially split from the Eastern Orthodox Church. Western Europe continued to look to Charlemagne and France as their protector and leader. Eastern Europe looked to Russia as their champion and preserver of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. That’s what’s happening. He is now saying that West and the Western Christianity has failed the world. We need to restart Eastern orthodoxy, and it will save the world.

16081328709_09e6157e43_k

Russian nationalism, it has always centered on the Orthodox Christian Church, and this is the power that Putin is after. It’s the Holy Grail. This fracture in history is critical to understand, because an ongoing dispute in the region is not about anything other than who’s going to be the third Rome, the modern-day successor of ancient Rome. Putin is talking about it in speeches now.

The offspring of this divide, both believe they are the rightful successor. Putin is appealing to the historic roots of the Russian people when he aligns himself with Russian orthodoxy. He is rallying them to a greater call than just his power, just his ego, just to oil or anything else. He’s calling them back to God. And it wasn’t until the dawn of the 20th century that a certain leader there tried to change the Russian struggle from cultural to class, but the root of this conflict began over 1,000 years ago, and now the bare-chested Putin is posed to claim the mantle of orthodoxy, the centuries-old, tried-and-true way to stoke nationalism.

Why is it that the media is so afraid of people like me or people, anybody on the right? Because they will always say anybody who calls for nationalism and religion you should run from. No, do your own homework. This should send a chill down the spine of every living human being on planet Earth, because the red storm is just beginning to rise.

Trump's 3 BIGGEST border victories

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

The Southern Border is healing!

Just hours after his inauguration on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border. A little over a month later, the tide of migrants pouring into the United States has been significantly stemmed. Trump is delivering on his major campaign promises: stopping illegal crossings, rolling back Biden-era border policies, and using every available resource to fortify the border against future challenges.

In his recent congressional speech, Trump highlighted these border security successes—achievements often overshadowed by the flood of other news stories this past month. To spotlight this monumental progress, we’ve compiled a list of Trump’s three most significant border victories.

1. Significantly reduced border encounters

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Contributor | Getty Images

When Trump took office, it was clear—the sheriff was back in town. According to the Department of Homeland Security, daily border encounters have plummeted by 93 percent since his inauguration. Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ramped up its efforts: in the past month alone, ICE doubled arrests of criminal aliens and tripled apprehensions of fugitives at large. This dramatic shift stems from reinstating strict border policies, restoring common-sense enforcement, and unleashing the full capabilities of ICE and Border Patrol.

2. Major policy changes

John Moore / Staff | Getty Images

President Trump has also made sweeping strides in border policy. He reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy, requiring immigrants to wait in Mexico during their immigration proceedings instead of being released into the U.S. He also terminated the controversial “catch and release” practice, which had allowed millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country pending court dates. Additionally, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act, mandating detention for all illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes.

Another key victory was designating cartels like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as terrorist organizations. This classification empowers law enforcement and border agencies to tackle these ruthless gangs with the seriousness and resources they demand.

3. Deployed major muscle

John Moore / Staff | Getty Images

Trump is doubling down on border security—and he’s not holding back. He deployed 1,500 U.S. troops to secure the southern border and restarted construction of the border wall. Among the forces sent is a Stryker Brigade, a rapid-response, high-tech mechanized infantry unit equipped with armored ground and air vehicles. This brigade’s mobility and long-range capabilities make it ideal for patrolling the rugged, remote stretches of the border.

Fort Knox exposed: Is America's gold MISSING?

Christopher Furlong / Staff | Getty Images

President Trump promised that we would get a peek inside Fort Knox, but are we ready for what we might find?

In this new era of radical transparency, the possibility that the Deep State's darkest secrets could be exposed has many desperate for answers to old questions. Recently, Glenn has zeroed in on gold, specifically America's gold reserves, which are supposed to be locked away inside the vaults of Fort Knox. According to the government, there are 147.3 million ounces of gold stored within several small secured rooms that are themselves locked behind a massive 22 ton vault door, but the truth is that no one has officially seen this gold since 1953. An audit is long overdue, and President Trump has already shown interest in the idea.

America's gold reserve has been surrounded by suspicion for the better part of a hundred years. It all started in 1933, when FDR effectivelynationalized the United States's private gold stores, forcing Americans to sell their gold to the government. This gold was melted down, forged into bars, and stored in the newly constructed U.S. Bullion Depository building at Fort Knox. By 1941, Fort Knox had held 649.6 million ounces of gold—which, you may have noticed, was 502.3 million ounces more than today. We'll come back to that.

By 1944, World War II was ending, and the Allies began planning how to rebuild Europe. The U.N. held a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, where the USD was established as the world's reserve currency. This meant that any country (though not U.S. citizens) could exchange the USD for gold at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce. Already, you can see where our gold might have gone.

Jump to the 1960s, where Lyndon B. Johnson was busy digging America into a massive debt hole. Between the Vietnam War and Johnson's "Great Society" project, the U.S. was bleeding cash and printing money to keep up. But now Fort Knox no longer held enough physical gold to cover the $35 an ounce rate promised by the Bretton Woods agreement. France took notice of this weakness and began to redeem hundreds of millions of dollars. In the 70s Nixon staunched this gushing wound by halting foreign nations from redeeming dollars for gold, but this had the adverse effect of ending the gold standard.

This brings us to the present, where inflation is through the roof, no one knows how much gold is actually inside Fort Knox, and someone in America has been buying a LOT of gold. Who is buying this gold? Where is it going and for what purpose? Glenn has a few ideas, and one of them is MUCH better than the other:

The path back to gold

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

One possibility is that all of this gold that has been flooding into America is in preparation for a shift back to a gold-backed, or partial-gold-backed system. The influx of gold corresponds with a comment recently made by Trump's new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, who said he was going to:

“Monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people.”

Glenn pointed out that per a 1972 law, the gold in Fort Knox is currently set at a fixed value of $42 an ounce. At the time of this writing, gold was valued at $2,912.09 an ounce, which is more than a 6,800 percent increase. If the U.S. stockpile was revalued to reflect current market prices, it could be used to stabilize the dollar. This could even mean a full, or partial return to the gold standard, depending on the amount of gold currently being imported.

Empty coffers—you will own nothing

Raymond Boyd / Contributor | Getty Images

Unfortunately, Glenn suspects there is another, darker purpose behind the recent gold hubbub.

As mentioned before, the last realaudit of Fort Knox was done under President Eisenhower, in 1953. While the audit passed, a report from the Secretary of the Treasury revealed that a mere 13.6 percent was checked. For the better part of a century, we've had no idea how much gold is present under Fort Knox. After the gold hemorrhage in the 60s, many were suspicious of the status of our gold supply. In the 80s, a wealthy businessman named Edward Durell released over a decade's worth of research that led him to conclude that Fort Knox was all but empty. In short, he claimed that the Federal Reserve had siphoned off all the gold and sold it to Europe.

What would it mean if America's coffers are empty? According to a post by X user Matt Smith that Glenn shared, empty coffers combined with an influx of foreign gold could represent the beginning of a new, controlled economy. We couldstill be headed towards a future where you'll ownnothing.

Glenn: The most important warning of your lifetime—AI is coming for you

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

Artificial intelligence isn’t coming. It’s here. The future we once speculated about is no longer science fiction—it’s reality. Every aspect of our lives, from how we work to how we think, is about to change forever. And if you’re not ready for it, you’re already behind. This isn’t just another technological leap. This is the biggest shift humanity has ever faced.

The last call before the singularity

I've been ringing this bell for 30 years. Thirty years warning you about what’s coming. And now, here we are. This isn’t a drill. This isn’t some distant future. It’s happening now. If you don’t understand what’s at stake, you need to wake up—because we have officially crossed the event horizon of artificial intelligence.

What’s an event horizon? It’s the edge of a black hole—the point where you can’t escape, no matter how hard you try. AI is that black hole. The current is too strong. The waterfall is too close. If you haven’t been paying attention, you need to start right now. Because once we reach Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI), there is no turning back.

You’ve heard me talk about this for decades. AI isn’t just a fancy Siri. It isn’t just ChatGPT. We are on the verge of machines that will outthink every human who has ever lived—combined. ASI won’t just process information—it will anticipate, decide, and act faster than any of us can comprehend. It will change everything about our world, about our lives.

And yet, the conversation around AI has been wrong. People think the real dangers are coming later—some distant dystopian nightmare. But we are already in it. We’ve passed the point where AI is just a tool. It’s becoming the master. And the people who don’t learn to use it now—who don’t understand it, who don’t prepare for it—are going to be swallowed whole.

I know what some of you are thinking: "Glenn, you’ve spent years warning us about AI, about how dangerous it is. And now you’re telling us to embrace it?" Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Because if you don’t use this tool—if you don’t learn to master it—then you will be at its mercy.

This is not an option anymore. This is survival.

How you must prepare—today

I need you to take AI seriously—right now. Not next year, not five years from now. This weekend.

Here’s what I want you to do: Open up one of these AI tools—Grok 3, ChatGPT, anything advanced—and start using it. If you’re a CEO, have it analyze your competitors. If you’re an artist, let it critique your work. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, have it optimize your budget. Ask it questions. Push it to its limits. Learn what it can do—because if you don’t, you will be left behind.

Let me be crystal clear: AI is not your friend. It’s not your partner. It’s not something to trust. AI is a shovel—an extremely powerful shovel, but still just a tool. And if you don’t understand that, you’re in trouble.

We’ve already seen what happens when we surrender to technology without thinking. Social media rewired our brains. Smartphones reshaped our culture. AI will do all that—and more. If you don’t take control now, AI will control you.

Ask yourself: When AI makes decisions for you—when it anticipates your needs before you even know them—at what point do you stop being the one in charge? At what point does AI stop being a tool and start being your master?

And that’s not even the worst of it. The next step—transhumanism—is coming. It will start with good intentions. Elon Musk is already developing implants to help people walk again. And that’s great. But where does it stop? What happens when people start “upgrading” themselves? What happens when people choose to merge with AI?

I know my answer. I won’t cross that line. But you’re going to have to decide for yourself. And if you don’t start preparing now, that decision will be made for you.


The final warning—act now or be left behind

I need you to hear me. This is not optional. This is not something you can ignore. AI is here. And if you don’t act now, you will be lost.

The next 18 months will change everything. People who don’t prepare—who don’t learn to use AI—will be scrambling to catch up. And they won’t catch up. The gap will be too wide. You’ll either be leading, or you’ll be swallowed whole.

So start this weekend. Learn it. Test it. Push it. Master it. Because the people who don’t? They will be the tools.

The decision is yours. But time is running out.

The coming AI economy and the collapse of traditional jobs

Think back to past technological revolutions. The industrial revolution put countless blacksmiths, carriage makers, and farmhands out of business. The internet wiped out entire industries, from travel agencies to brick-and-mortar retail. AI is bigger than all of those combined. This isn’t just about job automation—it’s about job obliteration.

Doctors, lawyers, engineers—people who thought their jobs were untouchable—will find themselves replaced by AI. A machine that can diagnose disease with greater accuracy, draft legal documents in seconds, or design infrastructure faster than an entire team of engineers will be cheaper, faster, and better than human labor. If you’re not preparing for that reality, you’re already falling behind.

What does this mean for you? It means constant adaptation. Every three to five years, you will need to redefine your role, retrain, and retool. The only people who survive this AI revolution will be the ones who understand its capabilities and learn to work with it, not against it.

The moral dilemma: When do you stop being human?

The real danger of AI isn’t just economic—it’s existential. When AI merges with humans, we will face an unprecedented question: At what point do we stop being human?

Think about it. If you implant a neural chip that gives you access to the entire internet in your mind, are you still the same person? If your thoughts are intertwined with AI-generated responses, where do you end and AI begins? This is the future we are hurtling toward, and few people are even asking the right questions.

I’m asking them now. And you should be too. Because that line—between human and machine—is coming fast. You need to decide now where you stand. Because once we cross it, there is no going back.

Final thoughts: Be a leader, not a follower

AI isn’t a passing trend. It’s not a gadget or a convenience. It is the most powerful force humanity has ever created. And if you don’t take the time to understand it now, you will be at its mercy.

This is the defining moment of our time. Will you be a master of AI? Or will you be mastered by it? The choice is yours. But if you wait too long, you won’t have a choice at all.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Trump's Zelenskyy deal falls apart: What happened and what's next?

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump offered Zelenskyy a deal he couldn’t refuse—but Zelenskyy rejected it outright.

Last Friday, President Donald Trump welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington to sign a historic agreement aimed at ending the brutal war ravaging Ukraine. Joined by Vice President J.D. Vance, Trump met with Zelenskyy and the press before the leaders were set to retreat behind closed doors to finalize the deal. Acting as a gracious host, Trump opened the meeting by praising Zelenskyy and the bravery of Ukrainian soldiers. He expressed enthusiasm for the proposed agreement, emphasizing its benefits—such as access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals for the U.S.—and publicly pledged continued American aid in exchange.

Zelenskyy, however, didn’t share Trump’s optimism. Throughout the meeting, he interrupted repeatedly and openly criticized both Trump and Vance in front of reporters. Tensions escalated until Vance, visibly frustrated, fired back. The exchange turned the meeting hostile, and by its conclusion, Trump withdrew his offer. Rather than staying in Washington to resolve the conflict, Zelenskyy promptly left for Europe to seek support from the European Union.

As Glenn pointed out, Trump had carefully crafted this deal to benefit all parties, including Russia. Zelenskyy’s rejection was a major misstep.

Trump's generous offer to Zelenskyy

Glenn took to his whiteboard—swapping out his usual chalkboard—to break down Trump’s remarkable deal for Zelenskyy. He explained how it aligned with several of Trump’s goals: cutting spending, advancing technology and AI, and restoring America’s position as the dominant world power without military action. The deal would have also benefited the EU by preventing another war, revitalizing their economy, and restoring Europe’s global relevance. Ukraine and Russia would have gained as well, with the war—already claiming over 250,000 lives—finally coming to an end.

The media has portrayed last week’s fiasco as an ambush orchestrated by Trump to humiliate Zelenskyy, but that’s far from the truth. Zelenskyy was only in Washington because he had already rejected the deal twice—first refusing Vice President Vance and then Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It was Zelenskyy who insisted on traveling to America to sign the deal at the White House. If anyone set an ambush, it was him.

The EU can't help Ukraine

JUSTIN TALLIS / Contributor | Getty Images

After clashing with Trump and Vance, Zelenskyy wasted no time leaving D.C. The Ukrainian president should have stayed, apologized to Trump, and signed the deal. Given Trump’s enthusiasm and a later comment on Truth Social—where he wrote, “Zelenskyy can come back when he is ready for peace”—the deal could likely have been revived.

Meanwhile, in London, over a dozen European leaders, joined by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, convened an emergency meeting dubbed the “coalition of the willing” to ensure peace in Ukraine. This coalition emerged as Europe’s response to Trump’s withdrawal from the deal. By the meeting’s end, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a four-point plan to secure Ukrainian independence.

Zelenskyy, however, appears less than confident in the coalition’s plan. Recently, he has shifted his stance toward the U.S., apologizing to Trump and Vance and expressing gratitude for the generous military support America has already provided. Zelenskyy now says he wants to sign Trump’s deal and work under his leadership.

This is shaping up to be another Trump victory.