May 15 2025

Trump Doctrine Unveiled In Riyadh: "Deals, Not Democracy" Signals Major Foreign Policy Shift

U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths See Record 27% Decline In 2024

Executive Vs. Judicial Power: Justices To Weigh Injunctions Blocking Trump's Citizenship Policy

Justice Department Probes Unitedhealth Group For Criminal Medicare Fraud

Uncertainty Looms As Ukrainian And Russian Delegations Arrive In Different Turkish Cities For Talks

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1. Trump Doctrine Unveiled In Riyadh: "Deals, Not Democracy" Signals Major Foreign Policy Shift

“We seek the end of tyranny in our world. Some dismiss that goal as misguided idealism. In reality, the future security of America depends on it.” That was George W. Bush in his 2006 State of the Union. Here was Donald Trump yesterday in Riyadh: “The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders,’ ‘neocons,’ or ‘liberal nonprofits.’ Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves.” It’s astonishing what a difference 20 years has made. Amid the huge news out of the Middle East over the past 48 hours—the release of Israeli hostage Edan Alexander; a $142 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia; the first trip by a U.S. president to Qatar; a meeting with Syria’s new president—what’s been overlooked is the speech delivered by Trump to rapturous applause in Riyadh. It is likely the most consequential speech of his presidency. Gone is talk about democracy, freedom, and interventionism. In: deals, deals, deals. According to Batya Ungar-Sargon, “Trump’s speech was a rejection of the idea, shared by Obama and Bush, that Western-style liberal democracy is essential to human flourishing in the Middle East.” Trump’s approach isn’t isolationism, she argues, but rather a foreign policy built on an appreciation of the world as it actually is—not as Western liberals wish it to be.

Editors note: this is a significant presidential foreign policy speech that has been under reported. This speech documents the “Trump Doctrine”, which is a sharp break from post-WW2 policy (with the exception of Nixon). He advocates for dealing with the world as it is, rather than as we want it to be - realism. Here is the full speech:

link

The FP

2. U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths See Record 27% Decline In 2024

There were 30,000 fewer U.S. drug overdose deaths in 2024 than the year before — the largest one-year decline ever recorded. An estimated 80,000 people died from overdoses last year, according to provisional Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released Wednesday. That’s down 27% from the 110,000 in 2023. The CDC has been collecting comparable data for 45 years. The previous largest one-year drop was 4% in 2018, according to the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics. All but two states saw declines last year, with Nevada and South Dakota experiencing small increases. Some of the biggest drops were in Ohio, West Virginia and other states that have been hard-hit in the nation’s decades-long overdose epidemic.

AP News

3. Executive Vs. Judicial Power: Justices To Weigh Injunctions Blocking Trump's Citizenship Policy

The Supreme Court will hold a special session Thursday morning to review a case involving President Donald Trump’s effort to ban automatic U.S. citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors. It is the first time the justices are hearing arguments related to one of the new administration’s initiatives and the last scheduled argument of the court’s term. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Thursday about birthright citizenship.² We explore the history of this right and unpack the new case. The question before the justices does not directly address the constitutionality of the president’s birthright citizenship order, which opponents say is at odds with the 14th Amendment, past court rulings and the nation’s history. Instead, the Trump administration has asked the justices to lift or narrow orders imposed by three lower-court judges that have blocked his policy from taking effect while its legality is tested in court. Presidents in both parties, members of Congress and several Supreme Court justices have long criticized such nationwide injunctions for putting too much power in the hands of individual judges to halt a president’s agenda.³

Washington Post

4. Justice Department Probes Unitedhealth Group For Criminal Medicare Fraud

The Justice Department is investigating UnitedHealth Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud, people familiar with the matter said.⁴ The healthcare-fraud unit of the Justice Department’s criminal division is overseeing the investigation, the people said, and it has been an active probe since at least last summer.⁵While the exact nature of the potential criminal allegations against UnitedHealth is unclear, the people said the federal investigation is focusing on the company’s Medicare Advantage business practices.⁶

WSJ

5. Uncertainty Looms As Ukrainian And Russian Delegations Arrive In Different Turkish Cities For Talks

An anticipated round of Ukraine peace talks in Turkey descended into bluster and confusion on Thursday as Ukrainian and Russian delegations arrived in different cities and left it unclear as to whether they would actually meet with one another. President Vladimir V. Putin skipped the talks, and instead sent a group of midlevel Russian officials to Istanbul. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine landed in Ankara, the Turkish capital, for a meeting with the Turkish president.⁷ As of midday in Istanbul, neither side had said whether the Ukrainians and Russians would in fact meet. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the talks had been postponed until the afternoon on Turkey’s request. Ukraine criticized Russia for sending officials “of rather low rank and with an unclear mandate.”

NYT

May 15, 1928: Before "Steamboat Willie," Mickey Mouse debuts in a test screening of "Plane Crazy."⁸ The six-minute silent short animation shows Mickey piloting a plane with Minnie, who escapes his advances by parachuting away using her bloomers.

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Sources

1. https://www.thefp.com/p/the-most-important-speech-of-trumps?r=1igrvg&utm_medium=email
2. https://apnews.com/article/us-overdose-deaths-opioids-1561a9f189255ad60c533462f10490a2
3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/15/supreme-court-birthright-citizenship-nationwide-injunctions-trump/
4. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/unitedhealth-medicare-fraud-investigation-df80667f?mod=hp_lead_pos1
5. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/world/europe/russia-ukraine-putin-zelensky-ceasefire-trump.html