Trump Calls Xi A Good Friend As China’s Communist Strongman Invokes The Thucydides Trap And Places Taiwan Squarely In The Crosshairs

Xi Jinping did not casually mention the Thucydides Trap, he chose it like a dagger wrapped in silk. The very mention of it is a taunt to the American president. That phrase describes the moment when a rising power challenges an established power and the pressure between them makes war more likely. Xi knows exactly what that means. In that framework, China is the rising power, America is the aging empire, and Taiwan is the tripwire. So when Xi raises the Thucydides Trap in front of Trump, while Taiwan is sitting at the center of the talks, he is not merely warning against conflict. He is showing open aggression to Washington with the possibility that China’s rise may now be unstoppable.

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Psalms 2:1 (KJB)

That is what makes Trump’s “it’s an honor to be your friend” language so dangerous and so revealing. Xi is not Trump’s friend. Xi is the Communist ruler of a nation that believes Taiwan belongs under Beijing’s control, and he is reminding the American president that history has a pattern: the old power resists, the new power presses, and somewhere between fear and ambition the shooting starts. China wants America to “manage” the rivalry by backing away from Taiwan. America wants to preserve its Pacific order without triggering war. But Taiwan cannot be both surrendered and defended at the same time.

Taiwan becomes flashpoint of Trump-Xi summit as Rubio warns Beijing of ‘repercussions’ for invasion

FROM THE NY POST: President Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, were all smiles and full of public praise for each other at the start of their much-anticipated summit meeting here Thursday. A very different story began to emerge behind closed doors after Xi continually pressed the issue of Taiwan, the self-governing, democratic island that China claims as its own. The mid-morning sit-down ran long — about 40 minutes over its scheduled time. Trump was notably quieter at the leaders’ next stop, the 15th-century Temple of Heaven. He ignored shouted questions, and the body language of both presidents was noticeably stiffer. The Chinese quickly put out their version of the reasons why.

“President Xi stressed to President Trump that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning wrote on X soon after the meeting broke up. “If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy. “Taiwan independence’ and cross-Strait peace are as irreconcilable as fire and water,” Mao went on. “Safeguarding peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is the biggest common denominator between China and the US.”

The White House did not release its own readout of the bilateral meeting for several hours — and that statement made no mention of Taiwan. Communications director Steven Cheung refused to talk about the topic when reporters for The Post and other outlets saw him at the state banquet, instead directing them to the official statement. READ MORE

China issues ‘veiled threat’ over Taiwan to Trump and the United States

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

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When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Reading Room Turns 3.5 Million Pages Of Buried Elite Corruption Into A Midterm Weapon Against Trump

The timing could not be more explosive. America is watching a sitting president entangled in a Middle East war, gas prices are biting voters at the pump, the midterms are coming like a freight train, and right in the middle of it all sits a pop-up shrine to the Epstein files in New York City called The Donald J Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room.That is not just an exhibit. it’s a political omen.

“Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.” Daniel 5:24,25 (KJB)

The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Reading Room reportedly contains roughly 3.5 million pages of Epstein-related Justice Department files, bound into 3,437 volumes, with a display on the long-running relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. CNA reports that public access to the actual files is limited because DOJ failed to properly redact some victim names, but the visual impact is unrelenting and unmistakable – row upon row of Epstein Files bound records, a public spectacle of what the ruling class would rather keep buried.

If Donald Trump thought that starting a war with Iran would get people to stop talking about the Epstein Files, he was way off. Take a look at what just opened in New York City – The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room. And no, it’s not AI, it’s goodbye. pic.twitter.com/71l4xOUdWc

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) May 12, 2026

And here is the problem for Trump and MAGA:Epstein was supposed to be their issue. For years, the Epstein files were held up as proof that an elite network of predators, fixers, financiers, politicians, intelligence assets, media gatekeepers and untouchable power brokers had operated above the law. MAGA voters were told that Trump was the man who would expose the rot. But now, with Trump back in the White House, the files are not functioning as a weapon against the Deep State nearly as much as they are becoming a mirror held up to the entire system — including Trump’s own proximity to it. That is politically devastating, beyond politically devastating, actually.

The White House position, as reported by WIRED, is that Trump has been “totally exonerated” on anything relating to Epstein, and Trump has denied wrongdoing. That distinction matters. But politics is not a courtroom, and the midterms will not be decided by evidentiary standards alone. They will be decided by perception, turnout, trust, anger, fatigue, gas prices, and whether the base believes the man they followed is still the outsider taking on Babylon — or has become another administrator of it. The Iran war makes this much worse. Reuters/Ipsos polling reported by Military Times found that 66% of Americans said Trump had not clearly explained the goals of U.S. military involvement in Iran, including one in three Republicans. That is a brutal number heading into a midterm year, because wars become political poison when voters cannot answer the simplest question: Why are we there?

Marist’s May 2026 polling is even more dangerous for Republicans: 60% disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, 61% say U.S. military action in Iran has done more harm than good, and Trump’s overall approval sits at 37%, with Democratic congressional candidates holding a “healthy lead” on the generic ballot. FiftyPlusOne’s May 11 generic ballot average showed Democrats ahead by 5 points, 47.3% to 42.0%. There’s your ‘midterm trap’, right there.

Trump won by turning politics into a loyalty test. But midterms are not presidential rallies. Midterms are about intensity, annoyance, protest, and whether your voters are still willing to stand in line for you when your name is not on the ballot. If even a small slice of MAGA voters stays home because they feel betrayed on war, the Epstein files, inflation, or “America First,” Republicans could lose the House in a wave that becomes a referendum on Trumpism itself.

IT’S MATH TIME: In 2024 Donald Trump Jr. said that the “only people who would want to stop the Epstein Files from coming out are people who are protecting pedophiles”. Today his father the president stopped the full release of those same files. Do the math. @POTUS @PressSec pic.twitter.com/5pQilqOF1M

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) December 19, 2025

And this is where the Epstein files cut deeper than ordinary scandal. Epstein is not just a name. Epstein is a symbol. He represents the black heart of elite corruption: money, sex, power, secrecy, intelligence shadows, compromised politicians, and a justice system that seems to protect the powerful while crushing the powerless. The average MAGA voter does not need a law degree to smell a cover-up. They have been trained for years to distrust official narratives. So when the files come out slowly, awkwardly, incompletely, or in ways that appear politically managed, the base does not simply blame Democrats. Some of them begin asking the forbidden question: Why isn’t Trump blowing the whole thing open? That question is radioactive, to say the least.

The Iran war may rally the most loyal parts of the base for a season, but it also exposes the contradiction at the heart of modern MAGA. “America First” was supposed to mean no more endless Middle East wars. No more nation-building. No more blank checks for foreign entanglements while Americans suffer at home. Yet now the movement is being asked to defend another Iran conflict while gas prices, war fatigue and unresolved Epstein questions all collide. A Quincy Institute/TAC poll of 2024 Trump voters found 58% opposed sending U.S. troops into Iran, 55% were worried about rising gas prices from the war, and support among younger Trump voters was far weaker than among older ones.

This is exactly how the world system works. It doesn’t matter which party is in power, the machine protects itself. The faces change, the slogans change, the color of the hats change, but the machinery of deception keeps grinding. War abroad, scandal at home, files released but not fully usable, truth displayed but not fully accessible, and the people told to keep clapping for the show.

So yes, if the Iran war was ever intended by anyone in Trump’s orbit to draw oxygen away from the Epstein files, it may do the opposite. It may fuse the two stories together into one larger indictment in the minds of voters: a president who promised to drain the swamp now presiding over war, secrecy, rising costs, and unanswered questions about one of the darkest scandals of modern American life. That is the danger for MAGA heading into the midterms. Not that Democrats suddenly become beloved, they absolutely are not. The danger is that Trump’s own voters begin to feel that the revolution became another rerun, another managed production, another deal cut behind closed doors. And once a political movement built on exposing betrayal starts feeling betrayed itself, the reckoning can come fast. And indeed, that reckoning may already be here.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

• HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

Christian MAGA Pastor Mark Burns Dedicates Towering Golden Trump Statue At Doral While Insisting The Political Graven Image Is ‘Not A Golden Calf’

There it is, standing under the Florida sun at Trump National Doral, a towering golden image of Donald Trump, raised up on a pedestal, unveiled with a public dedication ceremony, and then explained away by a Christian MAGA pastor who had to immediately assure everyone that this was “not a golden calf.” When you have to begin your ceremony by saying “this is not a golden calf,” you have already told us what it looks like. This is total preparation for lost people to be decieved when the man of sin is revealed, and the worship of his image will begin.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” Revelation 13:15 (KJB)

The statue called “Don Colossus,” reportedly stands 22 feet high including its pedestal, depicts Trump with his fist raised after the Butler assassination attempt, and was dedicated by Pastor Mark Burns at Trump National Doral in Miami. Burns insisted that the statue was not worship, saying it was about honor, resilience, freedom, patriotism, courage, and the hand of God over Trump’s life. My dad used to tell me when I was a kid, “don’t pee on my boots and tell me it’s raining”, and we can certainly apply that here. What do the Roman Catholics say about Mary? “We don’t worship her, we venerate her”. As Doc Ruckman used to say, “Oh yeah, man, that’s the business”.

BREAKING NEWS: Evangelical and Jewish religious leaders gather today in South Florida to pray over a golden statue of President Donald Trump called ‘Don Colossus’. This is IDOLATRY that needs to be both called out and condemned. Total preparation for the coming Antichrist. Flee… pic.twitter.com/wNc6LwL7fX

— Now The End Begins (@NowTheEndBegins) May 8, 2026

But this is not merely about a statue. It is about the Christianization of political personality worship, where patriotism is treated like piety, a political leader is framed in near-messianic language, and pastors who should be preaching Paul’s gospel are standing beside golden images explaining why it is not really what your Bible-trained eyes tell you it resembles. The issue is not whether God spared Donald Trump’s life. God is sovereign, and every man’s breath is in His hand. The issue is what men do with that mercy afterward. Do they point sinners to Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Saviour? Or do they build a golden monument to the man, gather a crowd, dedicate it with religious language, and call it a movement? That is where the line is crossed.

NOW WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TO REFRESH YOURSELF WITH THE WARNINGS IN THIS BOOK, CLICK TO ORDER!!

This is the Laodicean church in full bloom: rich, political, image-driven, self-celebrating, and completely unable to discern how far it has drifted from New Testament Christianity. The Bible-believing Christian can thank God for preserving a life without turning that life into an icon. We can pray for rulers, as the Scripture commands, without polishing them into golden symbols. We can love our country without confusing America with the kingdom of God.

What happened at Doral is a warning sign. It shows just how deep the merger of evangelicalism, nationalism, celebrity politics, and end-times delusion has become. The pastor says it is not worship. Fine. But the optics are not neutral, the symbolism is not innocent, and the Bible is not silent. A golden image, a political strongman, a religious dedication, a crowd of admirers, and a pastor insisting it is not idolatry. We who believe The book have seen this movie before.

The Dedication Of ‘Don Colossus’ Golden Idol

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

• HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB