It’s all connected.  The “Big Ugly” is underway.  Intellectually honest people know the CEO boards and advisory council members were on the White House team to shape and protect their collective stakes in the upcoming America First economic trade reset.  Nothing more.
The intents of the prior participants were to protect their interests, period. There was no ideological American altruism within any of the motives.   Globalists, multinationals and the participating leaders, who make their livelihoods on globalist economic expansion, were simply protecting their interests.  Fortunately for the livelihood of the American middle-class they ran into economic granite, the Monolith that is Donald Trump.  Faced with the futility of their self-interested endeavor, they exit under false pretense.  C-Ya.
With NAFTA ongoing, and freed from the original concern about undermining America-First MAGAnomics by domestic industrial leadership, which was the entire premise of assembling them in the first place; in conjunction with Big Panda telling their bag-man in the DPRK to stand down, President Trump now positioned to fire-at-will:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Friday formally launched an investigation into China’s alleged theft of U.S. intellectual property, a widely expected move following a call from President Donald Trump earlier this week to determine whether a probe was needed.
The probe is the administration’s first direct measure against Chinese trade practices, which the White House and U.S. business groups say are bruising American industry.

“After consulting with stakeholders and other government agencies, I have determined that these critical issues merit a thorough investigation,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, the nation’s top trade negotiator, said in a statement.
Trump repeatedly railed against Chinese trade practices on the campaign trail, but as president he had not taken significant action until this week.
China had rebuffed attempts by previous American presidents to take action against its IP practices. Administration officials have said that China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property could amount to as much as $600 million.
The probe will likely further complicate the U.S. relationship with China, the country’s largest trading partner. The Trump administration has been pressing Beijing to take steps to encourage North Korea to curb its nuclear and missile programs.  (read more)


Remember, this is Trump.  Looking out for U.S. economic interests is the baseline for trade “leverage”, a tactic and skill uniquely evident in this administration’s trade team.  Section 301 is a tool, actually a massive atomic sledgehammer, to force compliance.
Historically S-301 trade investigations are considered so scary to the receiving country that almost every nation just complies with USTR requests and the investigations became moot.  The sanctions which follow the 301 investigations are rarely needed.
When trade negotiations are carried out on behalf of lobbyist interests, there’s not much need for strategy and leverage. This is the historic reference for the U.S. in the past 30 years.
In the modern era, almost all U.S. trade agreements have been constructed for political benefit and special interest lobbyists, not necessarily tied to the U.S. economy.
The results of these decades-long special interest approaches are visibly evident across most of the U.S. rust belt states. Additional reference points can be found in the historic North-American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA – Mexico/Canada), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP – Asia), and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP – Europe).
Much to the angst of the lobbying team within the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Trump has dispatched both the TPP and TTIP schemes in favor of bilateral trade deals with individual nations; and NAFTA renegotiation has started.
Last week President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a previously scheduled phone call. No doubt the keenly instinctual negotiator President Trump would give the respect of advance notice to Xi Jinping if 301 investigations are going to be announced.
Again, what is often forgotten is that modern China has never seen the U.S. launch a 301 trade investigation against it, or anyone else.  China’s rise to economic power has been within two prior decades where prior U.S. administrations’ were selling out the American economy using the World Trade Organization (WTO), created in 1995.
This is why launching a series of 301 Trade Investigations is such a big deal.  The conclusions are drawn from facts, there’s no way to skewer the data or hide the tariff that China applies to U.S. goods.  If China applies a 35% import tariff on something, Section 301 allows the U.S. to apply the same tariff to the import of that something from China.
When you grasp how much this 301 equalizer can impact trade opponents, and recognize how one-sided our trade deals are with China, you begin to grasp how devastating it will be for China if 301’s are utilized.  This is atomic sledgehammer type unidirectional leverage.  China has nothing they can do, other than the silly threats they have already made.
Now you know why China was/is using North Korea as their only bargaining chip.
Even the announcement of deploying the S-301 investigations is enough to move markets once the young traders teach themselves what the end ramifications are.
For those who think President Trump will blink on these core economic issues, or doubt the severity of his commitment to follow through on them, you only need to look upon the amount of grief he is willing to endure from opposition to stay focused on it.
If the economic council needs to disband, ok – go.  If the CEO board needs to be removed, ok- so be it.  Anything or anyone who anticipates being able to modify President Trump’s 30-year-long position and commitment to these economic issues at the heart of the core erosion of U.S. interests, finds themselves in the position of a gnat looking into a thermonuclear furnace.   Don’t be surprised to see Gary Cohn removed if he’s not part of the solution.
POTUS Trump ain’t flinching on the economic stuff.
Transgenders, bathroom policing, identity politics et al – POTUS Trump could care less what anyone agrees -or disagrees- to do in political consensus.  Send him whatever the damned thing is and he’ll sign it…. moving on.  POTUS Trump isn’t that kind of Republican; and it drives some people nuts.
POTUS Trump is looking at a much, much bigger picture than who is wearing high-heels, labels and definitions of today’s biggest PC offender.
Economics is survival.
Economics is the big stuff.
Remember these words:

…”Either we have a country or we don’t.”…

MAGA is essentially President Trump defining 2009 Tea-Party Economic outlooks in modern day 2017.
The constitution doesn’t mean much without a country within which to apply it.
Trump is seemingly one guy, yet he has them surrounded.
And he’s fighting for Big Stuff.
POTUS Trump is the Monolith, and those who oppose him be like:

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