Badlands Daily: Feb. 18, 2025 – Ukraine Deal Without Zelensky, Musk’s Bureaucratic Purge, and the Fort Knox Question

CannCon and GhostofBPH break down the latest geopolitical shockwaves as Trump and Putin move forward with Ukraine peace talks...without Zelensky or NATO at the table. European leaders are scrambling, while Ukraine is losing its leverage faster than its foreign aid. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is emerging as the new power broker, now mediating not only Trump’s Ukraine deal but also nuclear negotiations with Iran and a post-war Gaza plan. The global order is shifting, and the neocons are panicking.

Back in D.C., Elon Musk’s DOGE operation is outpacing the courts, with bureaucrats being forced out so fast that Democrats can’t even figure out how to stop it. USAID officials and senior government executives are resigning in droves rather than face audits, and some of them are already running to the media, hoping for sympathy before their corruption gets exposed. Meanwhile, a mysterious gold transfer from London to New York is raising fresh questions about what’s really in Fort Knox and whether a financial reset is quietly in the works.

The swamp is scrambling, the courts are cornered, and Trump is moving faster than they ever expected.