Moveable Feast

Jesus strode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey on Palm Sunday AD 33, being hailed as a king by the crowds, an occasion which this year coincides with a speech called “Liberation Day.” Designed to eradicate a $1.4 trillion trade deficit, the United States levied a universal 10% import duty on all goods; escalated then reversed reciprocal tariffs on select countries; which peaked with an unprecedented 145% tariff on China. The PRC replied with a 125% tariff on the United States.

As to the betrayal of Jesus on Holy Wednesday, Stanford undergrad, Harvard MBA and Goldman Sachs trained Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev arrived in Washington DC on Spy Wednesday. CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Dmitriev has been commissioned to reinvest a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund back into the Russian economy. It’s mandate to “co-invest alongside the world's largest institutional investors” saw "positive dynamics” Wednesday, according to Dmitriev. “With the Trump administration, we are now in the realm of thinking about what is possible.”

All as climate change is making strategic shipping routes more accessible in the Arctic; 1/4 of the planet’s undiscovered oil and gas ever more desirable; and rare earth elements (REE’s) increasingly critical, “it would be foolish to dismiss U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for control of Greenland,” says Vladimir Putin.

“You can’t annex another country,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen replied, who, wrapping up a three-day visit to the world’s largest island, contradicted the U.S. Secretary of State. “Copenhagen,” says Marco Rubio, “should focus on the fact that the Greenlanders don’t want to be a part of Denmark,” seemingly unawares that Greenlanders’ neither wish nor want to be a part of the United States, either.

It’s China, for clarity, that has the world's largest reserves of REE’s in which to create the world’s batteries, mobil phones, computers, flat screens, electric vehicles, wind turbines, electric vehicles, MRI machines, cancer drugs, satellites, guidance systems, aircraft structures, and semiconductors. *Buy now, save later.

Which brings us to the Last Supper (Maundy Thursday) and US employers cutting 275,240 jobs in March. While the government sector dominates the March numbers, other sectors like technology (15,055) and retail (11,709) also experienced elevated job cuts, according to the Challenger Report.

The Passion of Jesus or final bearing, suffering, and enduring of the crucifixion will commemorate Good Friday, atoning, in part, for the October 7, 2023 Hamas led invasion of Israel and current death toll at 50,000 casualties of the Gaza War. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aircraft — veering 400 kilometers off course to avoid an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court — landed safely in Washington for hastily arranged talks on war and tariffs. Despite effusive praise, Netanyahu returned to Israel empty-handed.

Christ's own death and harrowing descent into hell on Holy Saturday coincides with China’s countermeasures to raise retaliatory tariffs 125% on the United States; the U.S. Supreme Court correcting the executive’s misuse of due process; foreign investors dumping their U.S. government bonds; and the reinstatement of banned journalists to the White House. Trump appointed U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden explains:

Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.

Jesus Christ’s resurrection from death is scheduled to be observed on Easter Sunday just as an insider trading inquiry gets underway for and in behalf of the U.S. Congress. The investigation will seek to understand why Trump posted "IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT." to 3.3 million followers a mere 4 hours before announcing a 90-day pause on most retaliatory tariffs except China, leading to substantial gains for the world's richest individuals, and significantly increasing the wealth of existing billionaires.

They’ll investigate the hour by hour yields and capital losses of the administration and U.S. Congress who walked the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 8%, rode the S&P 500 to 9.5%, and broke away entirely when the Nasdaq surged by 12%. It was the largest point gain for all three indexes in their 50+ year histories.

“Who in the administration knew about Trump’s latest tariff flip-flop ahead of time?” the U.S. Congress asked. “Who bought, sold, and profited at the public’s expense?”

And on that note and the last leg of Lent comes Iran. In a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Trump recently proposed negotiations on a new nuclear deal with a two-month deadline. Sometime in May 2025, that ultimatum was set to expire and a reckoning occur between the United States and Iran.

One year ago, the dominant power in the Middle East wasn’t the US, western-aligned Egypt, Saudi Arabia or even Israel. It was the Houthis' main ally, Iran. While the second Trump administration balances diplomatic engagement with military deterrence, and Israel favors preemptive action and sustained pressure, neither strategy has ever produced lasting peace in the Middle East.

In his second inaugural address, Trump confirmed that he would measure his success in foreign affairs by “the wars we never get into.” Conversely, Netanyahu has reportedly instructed his military to prepare to strike Iran by mid-2025. Will crisscrossing signals over war and peace undermine alignment, policy, or principle?

The week’s tariff mayhem offers insight. Almost 244 years ago, the great American experiment of a republican form of government began with 56 patriots. They mutually pledged their fortunes, citizenship, and lives when declaring independence from a powerful king.

On the surface, both Trump and Netanyahu project a power alliance. However, let us not forget that “Israel was going to do this with us, and it was being planned and working on it for months,” Trump said, rehearsing the 2020 assassination of Iran’s Gen. Qassem Soleimani. “We had everything all set to go, and the night before it happened I got a call that Israel will not be participating in this attack.”

“They didn’t tell us why,” Trump continued. “But I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down.” History confirms that temporary peace can be achieved by coercion and force, but that lasting peace is the inexorable consequence of understanding. As Jesus made his Triumphal Entrance into Jerusalem, he wept and confirmed the same. “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace.”