June 6, AD2025

The Germans Learned the Lessons of D-Day that the Americans may have Forgotten

Dear Readers,

1. D-Day Commemoration in Normandy
Le Monde – D-Day Veterans Return eighty-one years after the Allied landings. Veterans returned to Normandy to honor fallen comrades. The ceremonies emphasized remembrance amid the growing geopolitical tensions between Europe, Canada and the United States. Speaking of which…

2. ICC Targeted by US Sanctions, EU Urged to Act
While the US administration has pushed Europe to pull its own weight, that continues to appear to be a mistake now due to American ICC Sanctions. The European Union is being pressured to push back after US sanctions targeted International Criminal Court officials. The sanctions come amid ICC investigations into alleged war crimes by US ally Israel, and triggering accusations of Western double standards, where punishing war crimes is dependent on who does it, rather than the action itself. Either way, an empowered Europe will be in a position to undercut American efforts to shield Israel.

3. Germans Losing Trust in US and Israel
In a shock, a new German Trust Survey shows declining public trust in the United States and Israel, with a generational divide fueling skepticism about both countries’ foreign policies and moral leadership. The shift is supporting European divergence from America in geopolitics.

4. Ukraine Presses for Stronger Western Support
DW – Kyiv Bombing Response Sought. Ukraine inflicted a major surprise defeat on Russian airbases deep inside the Russian Federation. Russia had to retaliate. After another round of Russian missile strikes on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials called for "decisive pressure" on Moscow. Perhaps Ukraine will hit back harder to make the point.

5. Trump vs. Musk
The Bromance is Over. Elon Musk left Washington, and soon began an online dispute with Donald Trump. The world’s richest man is now well and truly out of government. Major speculation over why Trump and Musk are fighting. The American president has openly criticized Elon Musk, and who has returned the favor. Musk has called on Republicans to join him in opposing the Trump agenda. That is a bold move for someone heavily dependent on government contracts.

6. Salvadoran, Abrego Garcia finally back in US. Could Face Charges
Deported and now recovered migrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia may face charges now that he is back in US custody. He is now accused of being a involved in human trafficking. The episode has tested the power of the US judiciary, in ways not seen since the 19th century.

7. Paul Kagame Must Work Hard to Secure Legacy in Shifting Global Order
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, hailed as a stabilizer and example of how an African strongman can bring peace to his country, is now thought to have put it all at risk with his recent intervention in the Congo. The Economist considers whether Kagame’s gamble may pay off, but observers are not sure what position the US administration may take given the biases and inclinations of top US officials toward Africa.

8. Canada’s Liberals Push Economic Overhaul Bill
The newly elected Carney government introduced a sweeping bill aimed at “building one economy.” The Liberal Economic Bill aims to break down the internal trade barriers that Canada has maintained between provinces, in the hope of creating an American style unified domestic market. This is part of a plan to build Canadian independence from a threatening America.

9. Mexico’s Judicial Elections Raise Rule-of-Law Alarms
For the first time, Mexicans voted directly for its justices. While hailed as democratic progress by some, others fear the ruling party is stacking the court system threatening judicial independence.

10. D-Day -1 Germany’s Merz Has “Extremely Satisfying” Trump Talks
Merz Meets Trump. New Chancellor Friedrich Merz, head of Germany’s CDU-led government, reported a very positive meeting with Donald Trump. Trump mentioned that D-Day, June 6 1944, the date of the Normandy Landings that brought western forces to France to crush Germany, was not a good day for Merz’s nation, which is ironically the ancestral home of the Trump family. Merz, responded that ultimately D-Day was good for Germany because it led to the end of the Nazi regime. In the clear moral sense, D-Day was good for the Germans.

Top Highlights: Mexico Commits Political Self-Sabotage Again. And Musk versus Trump

The biggest news is the breakup of the relationship between centibillionaire, triple-citizen (US and Canada), South African-born Elon Musk and US President Donald John Trump, and the decision of Mexico to subject the entirety of its judiciary to popular election.

The election of Mexican judges will likely be another of the routine, generational political mistakes made by Mexican political elites who, throughout their history as an independent country, since liberating themselves from Spanish rule, have failed to act systematically in the arrangement of their constitutional system.

Though it is popular to blame the US for Mexican problems—especially consequences of losing the war of 1846–48 to America—the reality is that Mexico habitually creates political problems for itself. Mexico has long suffered from the inefficiency of having all representatives serve only one term in their Congress, which made it easier for parties to stifle independent initiative from newly elected politicians and for bureaucrats to evade political control.

Now Mexico, a country with longstanding and globally infamous problems with organized crime, has removed one of the few forms of insulation protecting its already strained judiciary. Think of cartels running their own candidates and using threats to influence elections. The move is unwise and completely by choice.

To the north, in the USA, the MAGA movement has now lost both Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who were supposed to lead DOGE—the executive agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency.

Under Musk’s leadership, DOGE was supposed to cut $2 trillion in “waste, fraud, and abuse” from the federal government. It has failed, falling 90% short of the mark, leading many to accuse Musk of fraud and of conning the US president. Meanwhile, many dedicated federal employees have been harassed and intimidated out of their jobs. Chaos has affected programs that benefit Americans of all political affiliations, and fewer competent people are seeking government employment. American soft-power has been eroded.

As Donald Trump approaches the tenth anniversary of his political career, the news cycle will now be dominated by Musk, who has—without offering proof—accused the president of being involved in the controversy and potential crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 during the first Trump administration. That is something Musk cannot just take back or untweet. The American president must hit him back and show he is unafraid of Musk and not being blackmailed over anything related to Epstein. President Trump must show he, and he alone runs the US executive branch and that he is only leader of the Republican Party.

The fight between Musk and Trump may not split the MAGA movement, as its nationalist core was already souring on Musk and other “tech-bros,” who opposes their desire to limit H1B and other foreign worker programs. This is a feud that will test whether Musk’s billions and his control of the X social media platform can undercut Trump’s popularity with the American right. But the political and social media landscape of the American right just got remade.