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The poll among prospective voters between the ages of 18 and 29 found Trump trailing Joe Biden by only two points at 47 percent to Biden’s 45 percent. Another poll conducted by the Quinnipiac Polling Institute found Trump leading with registered voters in the 18 to 34 age group by one point.

A new poll has found that former President Donald Trump could end up winning the youth vote in the upcoming presidential election.

Former President George H.W. Bush was the last Republican to win the youth vote during a presidential election back in 1988. But a new New York Times/Siena poll believes Trump is very close to ending the 36-year reign of Democrat over this demographic.

(Related: Forecast model predicts Donald Trump will win back White House, Republicans to take Senate and maintain House majority.)

The poll among prospective voters between the ages of 18 and 29 found Trump trailing Joe Biden by only two points at 47 percent to Biden’s 45 percent. Another poll conducted by the Quinnipiac Polling Institute found Trump leading with registered voters in the 18 to 34 age group by one point.

In 2020, exit polling showed that Biden won the 18 to 29-year-old vote by 24 percentage points. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won this same demographic by 19 points in 2016.

Trump offering policies that cater to preferences of younger American voters

Analysts are suggesting that Trump is offering policies that cater to the preferences of younger voters even if those proposals don’t map neatly to the conservative consensus within the Republican Party. Axios journalist Neal Rothschild is suggesting three key policy proposals that have made Trump stand out among his colleagues in the GOP: TikTok, cryptocurrency and tipping.

Firstly, after a proposal to ban TikTok received bipartisan support in Congress and got the approval of Biden’s White House, Trump baffled conservative China hawks by coming out against a unilateral ban.

The electoral upside of such a stance is clear given TikTok’s popularity among younger Americans, and support for a ban is lowest among the young voter demographic. Trump himself is attempting to appeal to young voters by going on TikTok himself and posting content on the platform.

Secondly, Trump has increasingly embraced the world of cryptocurrency. He has promoted Trump-themed NFTs (non-fungible tokens), vowed to end the federal government’s regulatory hostility to crypto and endorsed the possibility of the U.S. government mining bitcoin as a way to help America become “energy dominant.” This stance is in contrast with the Biden administration’s posture toward the industry.

Finally, Trump has recently vowed to get rid of tip taxation in comments made at a recent rally in Las Vegas.

“For those hotel workers and people that get tips, you’re going to be very happy. Because when I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips,” said Trump.

“You do a great job of service. You take care of people. And I think it’s going to be something that really is deserved,” he added. “So those people that have jobs in restaurants, whatever the job may be, a tipping job, we’re not going after for taxes anymore.”

As much as 43 percent of all adults in the U.S. have personally worked in a job where their income relied on tipping. The allure of having a significant portion of their income not subject to taxation is a clear one, especially since service industry workers like those in hotels and restaurants skew young.

Learn the latest developments from Trump’s presidential campaign at VoteRepublican.news.

Watch this clip from Fox News reporting on how Trump may take back another demographic that the Democrats have dominated for decades – Black voters.

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Pope Francis faces a United Nations human rights investigation for allegedly authorizing illegal wiretaps on British financier Raffaele Mincione during a Vatican embezzlement trial involving the sale of luxury London real estate.

(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis faces a U.N. investigation for allegedly authorizing illegal wiretappings of phones during the Vatican embezzlement trial linked to the sale of luxury London real estate.

The Telegraph reported on Sunday that lawyers of British financier Raffaele Mincione, who is accused of defrauding the Vatican in a London real estate deal, filed a complaint to the United Nations for alleged human rights abuses committed by the Pope during the trial.

According to the Telegraph, the complaint is addressed to the U.N. special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, and lists the Pope as a “perpetrator” of human rights abuses.

Leading human rights lawyer Rodney Dixon, who represents Mincione, has accused Francis of personally authorizing illegal wiretaps of Mincione’s phone during investigations into the investor’s alleged wrongdoing.

“This unreasoned authorisation to prosecutors by an absolute monarch greenlit the undertaking of surveillance without the articulation of definite reasons, ongoing judicial or other independent and impartial supervision, or a mechanism by which to challenge the implementation of the surveillance before an independent and impartial tribunal,” Dixon argued.

During the Vatican embezzlement trial, which began in 2021, reports emerged that the Roman Pontiff authorized phone wiretaps during investigations into the financial scandal.

The New York Post pointed out that in April 2021 Pope Francis amended Vatican law to facilitate prosecutions for cardinals and bishops. Days later, the Pontiff reportedly ordered “the adoption of technological tools suitable for intercepting fixed and mobile devices, as well as any other communication, including electronic ones,” according to leaked documents.

Shortly thereafter, Vatican officials and Italian police officers reportedly seized Mincione’s phones and computer while the businessman was on vacation.

READ: Pope Francis authorized wire-tapping phones in financial scandal investigation: report

In December of last year, a Vatican tribunal convicted Mincione, alongside Cardinal Angelo Becciu and several other defendants, sentencing him to five-and-a-half years in prison.

In his complaint to the U.N., Dixon argued that Mincione cannot be sentenced by a Vatican court on the basis of canon law for a “secular transaction.”

“It is not appropriate for religious tenets to be imposed on the regulation of a secular transaction without the consent of those involved in the transaction,” Dixon said in the complaint.

Dixon also criticized the alleged surveillance of Mincione’s lawyers while they were in Rome for the trial in front of the Vatican tribunal. He said the lawyers seemed to be “victims of interference if not intimidation” at the “instigation” of the Vatican.

Mincione told the Telegraph:

My basic rights have been trampled on and been ignored. How can it be correct that I have been handed criminal penalties for breaches of spiritual law which only applies to members of the Church, which don’t seem to apply to anyone else that handles the Vatican’s investments, and which I didn’t know anything about?

The Telegraph report states that Mincione is appealing his conviction by the Vatican court “on the basis that he was actually cleared of the criminal offences from the original indictment and only convicted of new offences introduced at the 11th hour and based on the Vatican’s canonical – religious, not criminal – law.”

The Vatican has maintained that it acted lawfully. The Telegraph quotes a Vatican spokesperson who said, “The legitimacy of the investigations and the correspondence of the Vatican judiciary system to the principles of fair trial has been recognised by various foreign courts.”

The Vatican trial around the luxury London flat

The Vatican embezzlement trial involving Mincione, Cardinal Becciu, and other defendants chiefly centered on a Vatican property investment in London, which Becciu authorized as Substitute for General Affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State. In 2014, Becciu bought a stake in 60 Sloane Avenue, a luxury London real estate development using charitable funds from the Vatican as collateral for loans of 200 million euros (around $260 million using conversion rates at the time) that were then funneled through a fund operated by Raffaele Mincione.

Mincione joined Becciu in the dock, was found guilty of “embezzlement” and money laundering, and was handed the same sentence of five-and-a-half years in jail, an €8,000 fine, and a permanent ban on public office.

Mincione’s company had purchased the property in 2012 and sold a stake in it to the Vatican. When the Vatican finalized its buyout in 2018 – courtesy of Becciu and Monsignor Mauro Carlino, Becciu’s former secretary – Mincione made around £128 million from the Vatican in the process.

It was these transactions that Becciu is believed to have “personally authorized” and to have kept them hidden from attention of Cardinal George Pell, then-Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.

As controversy and scandal grew around the property in late 2020, the Vatican initiated its own corruption investigation into Becciu’s dealings in late 2020 – by which time he was prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and had been since 2018. Francis at this point accepted Becciu’s resignation, when the cardinal renounced his cardinal privileges, while retaining the title.

READ: Cardinal Becciu given 5 and a half years in jail by Vatican court for financial crimes

Becciu was then indicted July 2021 by the Vatican Tribunal with Mincione and eight others also indicted for corruption. Becciu was personally charged with “embezzlement and abuse of office, also in collaboration, as well as subornation.”

In July 2022, the Vatican sold the London building at the heart of the ongoing investigation, with a reported loss of $200 million, as the AP estimated the Vatican had spent around €350 million (around $359 million) in purchasing the building initially.

In December 2023, the Vatican court sentenced nine of the 10 defendants, including Mincione and Becciu, to financial penalties and jail time.

Becciu and his lawyers have maintained his innocence and claimed that Pope Francis himself had supported the London investment deal.

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LGBTQIAAP2S+ is a dangerous religious cult.

A trio of teenagers from Spokane, Wash., is facing felony charges after the boys were caught making their mark on a giant LGBT flag mural on the street.

Ruslan Turko, 19, along with two other teenagers who are underage allegedly rode their scooters over a freshly painted LGBT street mural, leaving marks all over it. They were arrested and charged with first-degree “malicious mischief,” the penalty for which could be up to 10 years in prison.

On top of that, prosecutors are asking for $15,000 bail, this despite the fact that the boys harmed nobody – all they did was speak their truth in a public place atop a gargantuan shrine to perversion that quite frankly has no business being painted on a public street in the first place.

Keep in mind that there are no penalties for burning or defecating on an American flag, nor can someone get in trouble for spitting on a veteran (unless the veteran can successfully argue that the spitting constituted assault).

“In America, you can spit on Vietnam veterans, defecate on the U.S. flag, threaten the lives of U.S. Supreme Court Justices, mock Christianity, and burn entire cities to the ground in the name of a career felon,” reported Revolver.

“But if you dare to trample on the rainbow flag, oh, there will be serious hell to pay, mister.”

Freedom is dying

The massive street mural devoted to “the kinky homosexual lifestyle” and other LGBT perversions is a centerpiece in downtown Spokane. Visitors are expected to honor it at all times or else face charges of a “hate crime.”

When witnesses at nearby O’Doherty’s Irish Grille on Spokane Falls Boulevard and Howard Street saw the boys riding around on Lime scooters purposely making skid marks on the LGBT flag mural, they called the police. From there, the boys were arrested and taken in for questioning.

A similar incident occurred back in February when a Florida teen was arrested and charged with felony criminal mischief for leaving tire burnout marks on a perversion flag painted in the middle of an intersection in that state.

Again, it is perfectly okay in America today to burn the American flag near the White House on Independence Day:

It is not, however, okay to ride your vehicle, bike or scooter in a “mean” way across a giant perversion flag painted on a public right-of-way funded by taxpayers, many of whom oppose LGBT perversion.

“This type of forced, government-mandated behavior is akin to Taliban-level religious tyranny,” Revolver warns about the double standard for LGBT. “It’s the left’s version of Sharia Law and should be called ‘Rainbow Law.’”

“That’s how incredibly dangerous and stifling the LGBTQ+++ movement has become – all by design. It was never about just ‘holding hands in public’ and tax breaks. The LBGTQ+++ movement, like everything on the left, is about power, control, and regulating thoughts and behavior, much like your typical run-of-the-mill Islamic radical.”

LGBT is a dangerous religious cult. Learn more at Gender.news.

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Elon once again states he’s on Team Humanity.

On the Monday show Alex Jones broke down statements by Elon Musk regarding his opposition to the depopulation agenda.

It now seems clear that these reports of an alleged formal petrodollar “contract” did indeed get several key facts wrong. First of all, the Saudis’ turn toward embracing currencies other than dollars is not new.

Earlier this week, those of us who follow news about the US dollar’s global status noticed numerous claims that the US-Saudi petrodollar agreement had “expired” and that the Saudis would now sell oil for many currencies other than dollars. Some versions of the story even claimed the Chinese yuan would replace the dollar. 

The reports appear to have originated either in India or in publications that cater to crypto investors. Fervor over the story was large enough that economist Paul Donovan at UBS felt the need to clarify that there have not actually been any big, new developments in Saudi-US currency relations. 

It now seems clear that these reports of an alleged formal petrodollar “contract” did indeed get several key facts wrong. First of all, the Saudis’ turn toward embracing currencies other than dollars is not new. Moreover, there is no known formal treaty or contract between the US and Saudi Arabia—least of all one with an expiration date. 

One could reasonably argue, however, that these reports of the decline of the petrodollar are only wrong in their particulars. The reports do reflect a real-world trend, however, and that’s likely why the stories about the end of petrodollar may seem plausible to many. The Kingdom of Saudi Araba (KSA) has been increasingly moving further away from the US orbit in recent years, and this is reflected in an increased willingness to settle oil deals in non-dollar currencies. There are also other indications that the Saudis are more and more willing to embrace Washington’s adversaries—such as China and Iran and Russia—in spite of Washington’s objections. While short run changes may seem minor, the current trend in US-Saudi relations points to an overall and significant decline in US global influence.

What Is a Petrodollar? 

So, what is this petrodollar “deal” that is under threat? It’s an informal deal—dating from 1974—between the US and Saudi Arabia under which the Saudis agree to sell oil only for dollars. The deal also stipulates that the Saudis will invest their excess dollars in US Treasurys. Why does this deal exist? From the American perspective, the deal helps to prop up the US dollar. It is not a coincidence that the deal dates form the early 1970s in the wake of the 1971 Nixon Shock and the closing of the gold window. Moreover, the deal maintains a ready market for ever-growing amounts of US Treasurys as federal deficit spending continually grows.

When the Americans conceived of the petrodollar arrangement, the KSA was the largest oil-producing country and a dollars-only trade ensured continued prestige for the dollar. For the Saudis, this close relationship brings certain implied security guarantees from Washington. That is, the Saudi regime knows that so long as it remains an important component of dollar policy, the US will intervene militarily, if necessary, to ensure the continued existence of the Saudi state. 

New Threats to the Petrodollar System

Over time, however, geopolitical realities evolve and Saudi willingness to engage in non-dollar oil trades finally became a publicly-stated policy of the KSA regime in January 2023. As we reported here at mises.org last year, the Saudi finance minister stated that “There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the US dollar, whether it is the euro, whether it is the Saudi riyal.” At the time, this was indeed a new development, and it was the end of a multi-year period during which there were persistent rumors that the Saudis would move away from the dollar. In 2019, for example, Arab News reported that Riyadh “has rejected the suggestion that it is considering selling oil in currencies other than the traditional US dollar.” By 2023, things had apparently changed. 

Further changes in Saudi policy continued throughout the year. In mid-2023 the Saudis began to import record levels of fuel oil from Russia, further solidifying trade relations between the two countries. Given how Washington has attempted to cut Russia out of the dollar economy, growing trade between the Russians and the Saudis further drives a need for trade in currencies other than dollars. Then, in November of 2023, The KSA and Beijing signed a currency swap agreement designed to “expand the use of local currencies”—i..e, non-dollar currencies. 

Breaking Free of the US Axis

Taken by themselves, these developments might seem like no big deal. After all, the Saudi riyal currency is still pegged to the dollar—for now. Taken in the larger context, however, these recent developments illustrate how the Saudis are moving away from the established monetary and geopolitical order that the US has imposed on nearly the entire world since the end of the Cold War. 

In March of 2023, the Saudis participated in a China-brokered deal to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran. The KSA had long been at odds with the Iranian regime as the two states vied for dominance in the Persian Gulf region. Naturally, Washington has encouraged the Saudis to help the US isolate Iran. Although the US publicly praised the China-brokered deal when it became public, the deal is clearly a blow to US influence in the region. Moreover, if there is any doubt that Washington privately disapproves, we need look no further than the fact the Israeli regime opposed the deal. 

Six months later, a September 2023 report from the foreign policy think-tank Stimson concluded that Saudi movements away from the dollar were not mere bluffs from Riyadh. They were, rather, part of a larger diplomatic effort by the Saudis to gain more flexibility in dealing with major global powers like the Chinese and the Russians. Or, as the authors put it, the “Saudis are demonstrating that they have other options in the new multipolar world order.”

From the Saudi perspective, the US has provoked Riyadh’s disenchantment with its American “partner.” US criticism of the Saudi regime over the Jamal Khashoggi murder and the Saudi blockade of Qatar have not been forgotten in Riyadh. Moreover, some members of the US Congress continue to publicly raise uncomfortable questions about the Saudi regime’s connections to the 9/11 attacks. The fact that the Washington foreign-policy establishment mostly looks the other way on frequent human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia—while selling immense amounts of arms to the Saudi regime—is not enough to keep the Saudi regime complacent.

Other recent developments suggest this trend isn’t going away. For example, after receiving an invitation to the G-7 summit for the first time ever, the Saudi regime declined the invitation with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman claiming that he had to personally oversee Hajj pilgrimage activities in Mecca. Days later, the Crown Prince was nonetheless sure to send his foreign minister to Nizhny Novgorod in Russia for this week’s BRICS summit. 

High-level personnel in Riyadh can apparently make time for BRICS—which Saudi Arabia was invited to join last year, and which has become a de facto anti-US bloc—but not for the G-7.

The cooling relationship between Riyadh and Washington does not prove there will be an immediate and major change to the dollar economy or to the US’s continued dominance in the Middle East. The trend is nonetheless continued evidence of an ongoing relative decline in US control over global currency markets and the geopolitical order. 

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Don NOT miss this! Watch & share!

Dr. Judy Mikovitz joined Alex Jones live in-studio Monday to break the latest on Covid & how the next ‘plandemic’ will unfold:

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