Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report.

What will Trump find in the Middle East this week?

President Trump's return to the Middle East this week,

since his first term 2017 visit, will take place amidst great turmoil.

It is a region that bears little resemblance to the Middle East of 2017, and it appears, at least from the media reporting

this past week, that the Trump administration has some understanding of this reality.

Syria has been overrun and is now controlled by the same al-Qaeda that the U.S. government

supposedly spent 20 years fighting in the war on terror.

Violence against religious and ethnic minorities has, predictably exploded under the rule of self-proclaimed Syrian president, who until very recently, was on the U.S. most wanted terrorist list.

After the October 7, 2003, Hamas raid, Gaza has been reduced to rubble and turned into a humanitarian catastrophe.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and perhaps another million-faced starvation.

U.S. bombs and financial aid have facilitated the utter destruction of Gaza. Iran has made peace with Saudi Arabia thanks to Chinese

mediation and is deepening its ties with its kingdom. Thus, the U.S. has little leverage

in talks with the two former enemies. Israel is conducting military operations against several

countries in the region, simultaneously as the world increasingly condemns its aggression against its

neighbors. After tearing up the JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran, in his first term, President

Trump is pushing for a new deal with Iran while threatening to attack if negotiations do not produce the results he demands.

Massively increased U.S. military action against the Houthis in Yemen started in March, did not result in their capitulation to U.S. demands.

Despite attempting to put the best spin on things, it is clear that the U.S. retreated from the region in the face of a series of successful Yemeni actions in defense of their homeland.

Biden and then Trump launched attacks against Yemen on behalf of Israel,

but in the end, the U.S. president wisely removed U.S. military assets from the area and called off the bombing.

In short, President Trump will be waiting into a minefield this week, but it is a peril that the U.S.

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