Rod D. Martin Profile picture
Aug 15, 2025 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
🚨 TRUMP, PUTIN & THE BERING STRAIT 🚨

Forget Ukraine for a second. The summit in Alaska isn’t just about peace talks—it's about one of the most strategically valuable chokepoints on Earth.

And it's one you've probably never thought about.

🧵🇺🇸🌎 Image
2/ The Bering Strait is just 55 miles wide.

On one side: Alaska, USA.
On the other: Russia.

It’s the gateway between the Pacific & the Arctic—and control of it could come to mean control over trade, energy, and military movement in the northern hemisphere. Image
3/ In 1867, the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million—mocked at the time as “Seward’s Folly.”

It turned out to be one of the best real estate deals in history: $180+ BILLION in oil revenue alone, plus priceless strategic location. Image
4/ Now, the Northern Sea Route is becoming a new shipping superhighway.

Believe or don't in global warming. Modern icebreakers make it work.

It shaves 10+ days off trips from Asia to Europe. It bypasses hotspots like the Red Sea.

That means BIG profits. And security needs. Image
5/ Russia has been militarizing the Arctic for over a decade:

✅ New bases & airfields
✅ Arctic-proof drones
✅ Expanded naval presence

They see the Arctic, including the Bering Strait, as a single strategic domain—from Norway to Kamchatka. Image
6/ The U.S. has likewise fortified Alaska:

• Ballistic missile defenses
• Air bases closer to Moscow than D.C.
• Aleutian Islands stretching toward Russia’s Pacific Fleet

The Strait is the narrow door between two nuclear superpowers. Image
7/ Trump knows real estate. He also knows leverage.

He has a chance to make a joint development deal that might be too good for Putin to refuse.

Navigation aside, the Strait also has vast oil reserves.

8/ Bottom line: the Bering Strait controls a growing chunk of the world’s trade, energy, and security.

Alaska matters more than you think. It's vital to growing global trade. It has oil that can supply allies like Japan.

And it may be the key to peace halfway around the world. Image
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More from @RodDMartin

May 15
🧵 Xi Jinping just invoked the Thucydides Trap with Trump.

Most assume this is a threat. But what if Xi is signaling something else — that he recognizes China is now in a weakened position against the United States and thus needs to avoid a war?

The historical record and current realities both suggest he has reason to worry.

Thread 🧵Image
2/ So what is "Thucydides Trap"?

Graham Allison documented 16 cases of rising powers challenging established ones.

Four ended in peace. But in the twelve that led to war, the established power defeated the rising power 7-5.

If Xi knows this history, he understands the odds are stacked against China — especially right now.Image
3/ China faces severe structural weaknesses.

Its economy depends heavily on exports to the U.S. market, and imported energy through straits it can't control.

Its demographic collapse is roughly a decade from becoming catastrophic.

Constant leadership purges reveal a brittle regime.

These are not the conditions of a confident rising power.Image
Read 7 tweets
May 15
🧵Europe’s Green Deal is unraveling.

Centrally planned climate targets have delivered higher energy costs, industrial decline, and political revolt instead of the promised green utopia.

While Europe stagnates under mandates, America shows what market-driven progress looks like.

Thread 🧵Image
2/ Electricity in Europe now costs two to three times more than in the U.S. or China.

Taxes make up nearly a quarter of the bill. Binding net-zero rules, nuclear phase-outs, and unreliable renewables have created volatility and strangled industry.

Energy can be 30% of production costs. The result: deindustrialization.Image
3/ The auto sector reveals the damage.

It represents 7% of EU GDP and 14 million jobs. The 2035 combustion engine ban is forcing a rushed EV shift.

86,000 jobs lost since 2020. Up to 350,000 more at risk. Mercedes CEO warned they’re driving “full speed into a wall.” Image
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May 15
🧵Cuba is America’s Taiwan.

CIA Director Ratcliffe flew to Havana yesterday and laid out Trump’s terms: $100M in immediate aid, embargo relief, and massive U.S. investment — but only if Cuba accepts real democratic reforms and boots China, Russia, and Iran off the island.

While the world watches Iran, this is happening 90 miles from Florida. 🧵Image
2/ Trump’s Western Hemisphere doctrine is already working.

Gulf of America. China squeezed in Panama. Maduro removed from Venezuela with zero American casualties.

Cuba is the last major hostile foothold on America’s doorstep — perfectly positioned to threaten the Gulf and Panama Canal approaches.

That changes now.Image
3/ The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world has come to nuclear war.

Cuba then became a Soviet proxy exporting revolution across Latin America.

Today the regime is a failed, frozen asset. The economy has collapsed, protests continue, and the old guard is dying off.

70 years of unfinished business ends here.Image
Read 7 tweets
May 14
🧵The Democrats may not survive the Callais ruling.

The Supreme Court’s decision to curb race-based congressional districts strikes at the structural foundation of their House power.

I've been counting 21 such districts. But by the American Spectator's count, 122 of Democrats' 212 seats sit in majority-minority districts engineered along racial lines.

This is not a small correction. It is an existential threat to their current model.Image
2/ Those 122 districts are more than half of Democrats' entire caucus.

Every majority-Black district is represented by a Democrat. Most Hispanic-majority districts too.

Their coalition was built on racial mapmaking, not organic support. Image
Image
3/ They achieved this by twisting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act through relentless litigation before leftist judges.

Justice Alito made the correction plain: Section 2 was designed to enforce the Constitution — not collide with it by authorizing racial discrimination. Image
Read 7 tweets
May 14
🧵222 years ago today, America launched one of its boldest geopolitical moves.

On May 14, 1804, Lewis and Clark left St. Louis into the complete unknown.

This was not adventure for its own sake. It was strategy.

Few understand how close it came to deciding whether the United States would become a continental power — or stay a vulnerable coastal republic. 🇺🇸🗺️

🧵👇Image
2/ America had just 5.5 million people.

The Louisiana Purchase had doubled our size overnight, but we knew almost nothing about it. No maps. No roads. No forts.

European rivals watched from every direction.

An expedition to Mars today would be less daunting.

Jefferson sent them anyway.Image
3/ Geography decided everything.

The Mississippi River system is North America’s ultimate advantage — unmatched internal highways that connect fertile heartland to the sea at a fraction of the cost of anywhere else on Earth.

Control the Mississippi, and you control the continent.

New Orleans was the jugular.Image
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May 14
🧵Trump has unlocked Venezuela’s massive oil reserves.

After U.S. forces removed Maduro in January, Exxon, Chevron, Shell and other majors are rushing into Caracas. The country with the world’s largest proved reserves is suddenly open again.

Socialism wrecked it. American strength is reopening it.
🧵Image
2/ Before Chávez and Maduro, Venezuela produced 3.5 million barrels per day.

Socialist policies, asset seizures, and incompetence crashed output to as low as 500,000 bpd. The nation with the most oil on Earth became a textbook case of resource mismanagement and poverty. Image
3/ The reversal is happening fast.

Trump’s pressure produced a new hydrocarbon law giving companies more operational control, cutting royalties, and improving dispute resolution.

Oil executives who called Venezuela “uninvestable” weeks ago are now sending teams and signing deals.Image
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