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

The Rubio Doctrine, neocons are back.

According to several recent news reports, the two major Trump foreign policy shifts last week

are the handiwork of Marco Rubio, the President's Secretary of State

and Acting National Security Advisor. As with all neocon plans, they will be big on promises and small

on delivery. First up, according to Bloomberg, it was Rubio who finally convinced President Trump

to take ownership of the U.S. proxy war on Russia and for the first time placed sanctions

on Russia.

Up to this point, President Trump chose to portray himself as a mediator

between Ukraine and Russia. But with this move against Russia's oil sector, he can no longer

credibly claim that this is Joe Biden's war. The Trump move follows a confusing

few weeks since the Trump-Pooten Alaska summit in August. After that meeting, Trump dropped

the neocon position that a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war must occur before

any peace negotiations. It was a sign that Trump was looking more realistically at the war.

He also said he did not think Ukraine would win, which is pretty obvious. A surprise call to Putin,

the day before Ukrainian president Zelensky, was to arrive in town just over a week ago,

reinforced that position, and Zelensky left Washington empty-handed. He was seeking

tomahawk missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory. Then, out of the blue, President

Trump last week, announced through his Treasury Secretary Scott Besant that the U.S. would be sanctioning

Russia's two largest oil companies until Russia declares a ceasefire in the war before negotiations.

That won't happen, but what it does mean is that Rubio and the neocons have successfully gotten Trump to step on the escalation escalator.

That is what they always do. It will be much harder to back down now.

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