Trump

• FOX News Channel’s (FNC) chief political anchor Bret Baier will present an exclusive interview with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Special Report September 20th at 6 PM/ET.
• This is bin Salman’s first interview with a major American news network since 2019.
• The pre-taped no-holds-barred interview will cover a range of topics about the future of the kingdom and relations with the United States.
• These interviews will air on Special Report prior to the exclusive sit down with the crown prince.

• Under the deal, the U.S. unfreezes US$6 billion in Iranian oil revenue so the Iranian government can purchase humanitarian goods, such as food and medicine.
• The money was frozen in a restricted South Korean bank account in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated strict U.S. sanctions against Iran.
• The U.S., Russia, China, the U.K., France and Germany had reached the deal with Iran in 2015.
• As part of the hostage agreement, Iranian officials can use the funds only under “strict oversight” of the U.S. Treasury Department.
• Yet, in the world of global politics, matters are seldom as simple or straightforward as they may appear.

1. Iran has been a long-standing issue in US domestic politics

• As soon as President Joe Biden’s deal with Iran was announced, foreign policy hawks in Congress, mostly from the Republican Party, such as senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, issued dire warnings.
• The deal, they argued, would only give Iran incentives to imprison many more Americans on false charges in order to get U.S. ransom payments, which the Iranian regime could use to sponsor international terrorism.
• Iran may also use American money to support its nuclear program, they contended.
• I’d argue, however, that the administration could have communicated the terms of the deal to Congress earlier to better prepare members.

2. The protest movement in Iran

• After the 2022 ban on iPhone sales in Iran, people began buying used iPhones on the black market for much higher prices.
• Many of those young people are participating in the civil unrest and protest movement that is largely led by women.
• The movement erupted in Iran after the September 2022 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini.
• While it has given hope in the western world that political changes in Iran are happening, Iran has executed seven protesters and arrested thousands to put the movement down.

3. The future of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and global stability

• This is a crucial basis for the reopening of formal nuclear negotiations, which the European Union intends to begin in the next few months.
• In the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, the Iranian regime agreed not to develop a nuclear bomb in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.
• But ever since the Trump administration withdrew from the deal, Iran has been ratcheting up its enrichment of uranium close to the 90% purity level needed to produce nuclear weapons.
• Nevertheless, according to media reports, during indirect U.S.-Iranian talks in Oman in May 2023, the U.S. and Iran reached an understanding on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
• This would stabilize the entire Middle East by preventing an Israeli attack on Iran if Iran were to further develop a nuclear bomb.

• During an address in Maryland, the president contrasted Bidenomics with Trumpian “MAGAnomics” that would involve tax-cutting and spending reductions.
• He decried trickle-down policies that had, “shipped jobs overseas, hollowed out communities and produced soaring deficits”.
• Changing voters’ minds about the economy is one of Biden’s biggest challenges ahead of the 2024 election.
• Even 60% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning respondents were “seriously” concerned he would lose in 2024.

What is Bidenomics?

• His answer, repeated in his Maryland speech, is to grow the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up”.
• To this end, Bidenomics is centred on three key pillars: smarter public investment, growing the middle class and promoting competition.
• On investment, Biden’s approach fundamentally challenges the argument by the right that increasing public investment “crowds out” more efficient private investment.
• Bidenomics argues that targeted public investment will unlock private investment, delivering well paid jobs and growth.

The results so far

• Over 13 million new jobs have been created, though much of this can be perhaps attributed to workers resuming employment after COVID.
• Total US jobs The IMF predicts the US economy will grow 1.8% in 2023, the strongest among the G7.
• The US also has the group’s lowest inflation rate, although it rose in August.
• On the closely watched core-inflation metric, which excludes food and energy, the US is mid-table, though improving.
• One consolation to the Democrats is that voters’ gloom is partly related to interest rates, which are probably close to peaking.

• Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SALM) announced today that Regnery Publishing signed a book deal with Liz Truss, the 56th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• Liz Truss said, “After more than ten years as a British government minister, I’ve seen up close the threats posed to global democracy.
• Regnery Publishing, a Salem Media Group company, is the country’s preeminent publisher of conservative books.
• More recently, Regnery has published bestsellers by Mollie Hemingway, George Gilder, Dennis Prager, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and David Limbaugh.