It must be pointed out; it is up to us to do so. The corporate media are hopelessly deficient in their coverage and explanations of how strategic objectives for national security are being delivered through a geopolitical Trump Doctrine via economic leverage. The results are stunningly effective, yet few have noticed and even fewer seem willing to articulate; perhaps their inability is because they simply just don’t get it.

It must be said, the U.S. is a long way from success in the goal of a denuclearized Korean peninsular; however, where we are today is closer to achieving that goal than ever before. And ultimately where we are is entirely because of President Trump’s strategic economic approach toward national security.  The U.S., heck the entire world, is positioned for a BIGLY security victory; and the anti-Trump media apparatchik continues to ignore how we got here.

What President Trump was able to do with the approach he took with North Korea is jaw-droppingly smart. Stunningly so.  Economic leverage works.  We have been led by “stupid people” who never applied economic leverage in a way that would ultimately matter to secure the best interests of the United States.

President Trump and his team did.  And they are winning… and as a consequence, we are winning…. and the ‘Deep State’ institutions along with their media cohorts are desperate to stop the American electorate from seeing and understanding the path to victory.

The professional global policy think-tanks will never give President Trump credit for securing a national security victory, via strategic policy initiatives that are fundamentally against the 50+ year worldview of U.S. foreign policy “experts”, ie. elites.

President Trump, his strategic economic policy and national security team has done something every think tank said was impossible.  Look at the narrative from the pundits and policy officials in the past year.  At the beginning of 2017 the ‘experts‘ all said China and Russia would be thorns in the Trump approach toward North Korea and they could not be moved.  In essence, they said President Trump would  never succeed.

But Trump did succeed.

Bigly.

“The impossible is just the starting point”.

What CTH wants to emphasize here is how the ‘Deep State’, and their media co-horts, are positioned against the Trump administration, and by extension against the America people, regardless of the scale of accomplishment – no matter what.  Bastards.

Again, for emphasis, here’s how President Trump did it. Here’s how Trump pulled it off:

♦ First, any review of the enhanced sanctions against N-Korea should be incorporated with the larger issue of policy toward the DPRK’s enabler, China.  From the outset President Trump, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Ross positioned a severely consequential trade reset between the U.S. and China.

♦Second: The enhanced U.S. energy export initiatives, in conjunction with lower oil prices, an outcome of U.S. energy policy and a mutually beneficial relationship between President Trump and Arab states in the GCC, severely weakened the economic position of Russia.

Russia’s energy export economy is dependent on energy prices remaining high. President Trump brilliantly worked the geopolitical economic relationships to leverage influence over a large portion of the Russian economy.

♦Third: By focusing on the utilization of economic influence over Russia and China, President Trump set the stage for U.S. led United Nations sanctions that would isolate Kim Jong-Un and cut off his previously utilized financial escape routes.

♦Fourth: While no-one was paying attention to the real end-goal; President Trump instructed Defense Secretary James Mattis to send the largest ever U.S. naval fleet into Southeast Asia in preparation for a naval blockade around North Korea.  The U.S. military is not the leverage, the military helps create leverage. The leverage itself is economic. Financial interests are always the best leverage to use because inherent within the fundamental principles of economics is “self-interest”.

Each of these four elements was independent; each of these moves was a long-term strategy; each of these four elements built upon the step that preceded it.  When we combine these four strategic points we discover the leverage President Trump created (economic), and the enforcement mechanism he deployed to ensure success (sanctions).

President Trump began by creating a situation where China and Russia’s best economic interests were enmeshed with supporting U.S. sanctions against the DPRK.  The Bear (Russia) and Red Dragon (China) were drawn into an economic battle space controlled by entirely the Eagle (Trump-USA).

We have often noted that President Trump is seemingly one man, yet he finds a way to surround multiple enemies simultaneously.  China, Russia and North Korea is one such visible example.

Ultimately President Trump offered a ‘better’ trade outcome (definitions variable, yet all defined by him) for China if they complied with Nikki Haley’s sanctions. Similarly President Trump positioned negotiations with Russia on ‘better’ or “more favorable’ terms (again, definitions variable) for U.S. energy shipments to Eastern Europe, if Russia complied with Nikki Haley’s sanctions.

You might remember President Trump visited Poland and the Three Seas Summit (Baltic, Black and Adriatic Sea States), on the sideline of his engagements with France (Emmanuel Macron) and the G20 members.  President Trump and Wilbur Ross established economic relationships and agreements for energy export between the U.S. and Eastern Europe.  In essence, Russia’s exploitative energy influence over the EU was diminished.

Immediately after taking office President Trump began establishing a positive relationship between his administration and the Mid-East Gulf Cooperation Council.  This set the cornerstone for the larger geo-strategic economics.  Add the EU positioning to the relationship with Trump and the GCC and you see the leverage needed over Russia on issues unrelated to the EU, vis-a-vis North Korea.  Trump’s foresight on this was incredible.

The Outcome – China and Russia holstered their U.N. Security Council veto power, and actually supported sanctions against N-Korea because it was in their economic interests not to oppose the U.S. led sanctions. Brilliant strategy.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/894653195112378368

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/894984126582972416

 

To complement the August 2017 U.N. sanctions, in September President Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin structured an executive order in such a way that the downstream consequences from any economic engagement with the DPRK effectively cuts off that entity or nation from engaging in ANY commerce or economic activity with the United States.  The result was immediate:  Beijing took action with their central bank instructions and told all institutions to stop engaging in any financial transactions with North Korea.

Five days later President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin used the newly constructed sanctions authority to punish eight North Korean banks and 26 bank workers living abroad.

The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctions {deep dive} relied on the executive order President Trump signed to target North Korea’s access to the international banking system. The Trump/Mnuchin action came as as a separate outcome from the United Nations sanctions package targeting North Korea.

When it comes to the use of economic leverage to create U.S. national security outcomes, well, we are learning at the knee of an economic master player. The media will now do everything they can to stop people from realizing how effective President Trump is…

…”complicated business folks,…. complicated business”…

 

 

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