Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The real reason why President Donald Trump went to the trouble to fly in Air Force One all the way to Alaska to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin is still a mystery the American press corps can’t seem to solve. Like everything Trump does, there is a distraction behind every public utterance.
Why Trump said he wanted to meet with Putin in person, and it was reported by every news outlet in the land as if it was valid, was that he wanted to bring about an end to the war in Ukraine. He even claimed he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize for it. But after it was all over, this was clearly not the reason. He has no chance at the prize.
After a brief press conference in which Trump gave the green light for Russia to continue fighting its war with Ukraine, he met with Putin in secret in a limo. There’s been much speculation about what they may have discussed.
At the top of the list is the possibility that Putin is in possession of some damning information about Trump’s sexual peccadillos from his days running the Miss Universe Pageant in Russia. Could there be a Trump-Epstein pedophile tape? The inquiring QAnon MAGA crowd demands answers.
Maybe they discussed how Trump was going to continue paying his debt to the Russian Mob for bailing out his Atlantic City casino when no American bank would loan him money?
Or just maybe they discussed their partnership in about the only company left in the world mining, manufacturing and selling the most deadly form of asbestos, and how to get rid of those pesky E.P.A. regulations so they can sell it in the U.S. market?
While the administration of President Joe Biden had moved to finally ban all use of the deadly carcinogen asbestos in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump is reconsidering that ban, telling a federal appeals court it plans to end the ban on the last type of asbestos used in the U.S. Investigators are now wondering what might be behind the move to reconsider in addition to the sweeping autocratic anti-science stance on the part of Trump on many fronts. Could there also be a financial conflict of interest involved?
As it turns out, and it is not being reported anywhere else except the Guardian in 2018, Trump’s face appears on a Russian mining company brand of asbestos. Uralasbest, one of the world’s largest producers and sellers of asbestos, markets a product using Trump’s image and a brand stamped with his endorsement: “Approved by Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States.”
This clearly shows he has a financial interest in the company and product, as his family has become known for brand names on a host of products, from fragrances to watches, sneakers, vodka, whiskey and even Bibles. His greed and corruption knows no bounds.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington revealed that the Trump Store online launched at least 168 new products costing over $13,803 between Election Day 2024 and Inauguration Day 2025. “Trump seems determined to make merchandising the presidency seem normal,” the group said. “It’s up to us to remember that it is not.”
In a Facebook post, Uralasbest published pictures of its Trump-adorned chrysotile asbestos, saying: “Donald is on our side!” The company is located in the mining city of Asbest in the Ural Mountains, thus the product name, and is reported to have close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, who Trump just met with in Alaska in public and private. Asbest was once known as the “dying city” due to its high rate of lung cancer and other asbestos-related health problems.
“Vladimir Putin and Russia’s asbestos industry stand to prosper mightily as a result of the Trump administration’s failure to ban asbestos in the U.S.,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, during Trump’s first term. “Helping Putin and Russian oligarchs amass fortunes by selling a product that kills thousands each year should never be the role of a U.S. president or the E.P.A., but this is the Trump administration,” he said sardonically.
Asbestos was once widely used in the U.S. for insulation and roofing but was classed by the federal government as a “known carcinogen.” Studies show that, when disturbed, asbestos fibers can become lodged in the lungs and cause mesothelioma and other cancers of the lung, larynx and ovaries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before Trump took office and hired lackeys to run it, about 2,500 Americans die from mesothelioma each year.
Yet Trump called it “100% safe, once applied” in his 1997 book The Art of the Comeback. Back in 2012, the future president tweeted that the World Trade Center “would never have burned down” after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks if asbestos hadn’t been removed from the building. But of course you can’t believe a word Trump utters. None of it is true. It’s all lies layered over lies like nothing even Orwell could have imagined.
“By allowing asbestos to remain legal, the Trump administration would be responsible for a flood of asbestos imports from Russia and other countries into the U.S., as well as the wave of illnesses and deaths that will continue for years to come,” said Linda Reinstein, co-founder and president of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization.
The bulk of asbestos exports to the U.S. used to come from Brazil before it joined about 60 other countries in banning it, leaving Russia as the major source of asbestos shipped to the U.S. Trump branded asbestos! Let that sink in.
According to the U.S. Navy, the government has grappled for generations with the devastating legacy of asbestos, a mineral previously regarded as indispensable to military operations throughout much of the 20th century due to its tenacity and affordability. Yet what was once deemed beneficial has since been recognized as a deadly occupational hazard, with mounting research strongly associating it with a myriad of severe diseases, including lung cancer.
Initial restrictions on most asbestos-containing materials were not enforced in the U.S. until 1989. By then, thousands of service members and shipyard workers had already been exposed. Chrysotile asbestos was still being legally imported for more than two decades, putting service members at risk. In 2002, mining operations for asbestos officially ceased in the U.S. due to numerous lawsuits. Under President Biden, the E.P.A. finally prohibited all mining and importation in 2024.
These protections are once again hanging in the balance. In June 2025, the Trump E.P.A. said in a court filing it would reconsider the chrysotile ban.
“While this decision may be good news for some chemical manufacturers, it risks dismantling hard-won safeguards and reopening the door for asbestos to infiltrate military supply chains and affiliated industrial hubs again,” said a spokesperson for the Navy, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution.
Glynn Wilson is editor and publisher of New American Journal (NewAmericanJournal.net).
