Earlier today Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a press conference at the White House to announce a new executive order constructed by the Trump administration that would deliver economic sanctions due to Turkish activity in Northern Syria.
“These are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don’t have to use them. But we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to,” Treasury Secretary Mnuchin tells reporters.
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Additionally, Secretary Mnuchin notes there has been “significant progress” in the U.S-China trade discussions over the past two days. Vice-Premier Liu He is schedule to meet President Trump in the oval office at 2:45pm.
[Transcript] SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Hello everybody. So, I just met with President Trump, and he has authorized and will be signing a new executive order giving the Treasury Department, in consultation with himself and Secretary Pompeo, very significant new sanctions authorities that can be targeted at any person associated with the government of Turkey, any portion of the government. This will be both primary sanctions and secondary sanctions that will be applicable.
The President is concerned about the ongoing military offensive and potential targeting of civilians, civilian infrastructure, ethnic or religious minorities. And also the President wants to make very clear: It is imperative that Turkey not allow even a single ISIS fighter to escape.
Again, I want to emphasize: At this point, we are not activating the sanctions. But, as the President has said, he will provide very significant authorities based upon the continuing efforts.
So he will be signing this. They will be active. We will be working in consultation with the Department of Defense and Department of State to moderating this very quickly. We are putting financial institutions on notice that they should be careful, and that there could be sanctions.
Again, there are no sanctions at this time, but this will be the broadest executive authorities delegated to us.
Q When you spoke with the President, was there any concern about the actions he took that led to this? And can you tell us when would you put the sanctions in? What would it take for you to actually activate?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Okay. Well, on — no, I don’t think he thinks his actions are what led to this. It is a complicated situation. It’s a situation that we’re all concerned about, and the humanitarian situation. And there are very clear discussions that will be going on between the Department of Defense and the State Department. I just got off the phone with the Finance Minister, and we will be communicating specifics that we’re not going to telegraph here.
Q Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Can you give us an update on the China trade negotiations that are ongoing today?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: I didn’t think anybody would be asking me about that. (Laughter.)
Q Could you give us an update on the China trade negotiations that are going on today? Is it possible that we get to the end of the day today with no new specific deals agreed to? Or are we definitely going to see something today?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Okay. So, I wanted to make sure everybody knew in advance I wasn’t talking about China, because I didn’t want to think I was calling a specific China meeting.
We have had productive two days of discussions. Ambassador Lighthizer and myself with the Vice Premier and others, we will be meeting with the President shortly. We will be updating the President on those. He’ll then be meeting with the Vice Premier. I wouldn’t be surprised if, like usual, he decides to invite a few of you in, but I’m not going to make any other comments in advance of us meeting with the President.
Q The stock market is very optimistic about what it sees over at the USTR’s office. Are they right to be optimistic?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: The stock market is always right. (Laughs.)
Q No, no. But is there — is there reason for optimism?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Again, I’m not going to make any more comments. I’ve said we’ve had productive two days of discussions. We’ll be making more announcements after we meet with the President.
Q So far, Turkey has not been dissuaded by anything this administration has done or the President has said. What makes you confident that the announcement that you just made is going to change Turkey’s (inaudible)?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Well, I don’t — I don’t agree with your premise. I’m not going to comment on specific confidential discussions that have been going on on different levels. So, I don’t think that’s a good premise.
But, again, these are very powerful sanctions. We hope we don’t have to use them. But we can shut down the Turkish economy if we need to.
Q Mr. Secretary, how does the threat of these sanctions help these U.S. allies who say they have been abandoned?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Again, it’s a complicated military situation that is ongoing. There are discussions. I think the President has had very specific discussions. As I said, the Department of Defense — we have expectations. This is a way of making sure that we protect the humanitarian issues and the other people on the ground.
Q As far as you know, have any plans specifically changed about Turkish President Erdoğan still visiting the White House? Are things still in good faith?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: I’m not aware of anything that’s changed. But, again, I’m not confirming that. I just haven’t heard anything one way or another.
Q Mr. Secretary, what kind of consultations are you having with lawmakers like Lindsey Graham, Senator Van Hollen — who have been really very critical of the pullout of U.S. troops from Syria?
SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Secretary Pompeo has been speaking to them daily. I’ve been speaking to the Secretary multiple times a day.
I think the message to Congress is — I know that people were contemplating sanctions. We’re on top of sanctions. The President will use them when necessary.
Thank you everybody.
Boom! We don’t need to send our kids to die, we can shut down their economy! I like this guy. A little pompous and his wife is a snob, but he is loyal to Trump.. One of just a few, unfortunately.
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Nobody is perfect. Mnuchin is not pretty…but he sure is smart.
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but have you seen his WIFE???
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Justme, I just looked her up, what a stunner!
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They only married a short time ago. Mnuchin looked supremely happy at the wedding. He is brilliant, discrete and committed to making America great again. His press conferences on economics have been very informative.
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They have both (Mnuchin and bride) been married a few times- such is life 😇
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Let us hope for them that this will be a life match.
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Yes 😊😇
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Mike Pence married Mr. And Mrs. Mnuchin!.
Cute photo.
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Beautiful photo, thank you.
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He told us before he was elected that he will appoint killers, “killing” for America, and not necessarily “nice” people.
This conflict in N-Syria can set a great precedent for how good sanctions can be, especialy in a rather complex situation like this.
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Trump is pretty clever. Set up the situation for Turkey to fail. Let Turkey get it’s foot wet. Then throw on the threat of sanctions if they misbehave. Trump sets himself up with the high road positions. Turkey can be an example of what happens when you mess with Trump.
Perfectly done.
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It’s not just the Turks who will fail.
The war-mongers in Congress and media whores will fail also.
Not to mention the EU, UN and MIC.
“I just love when a plan comes together”.
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I have said it many times before, Trump loves fighting ECONOMIC WARS. That saves our young people from dying. The NEOCONS hate it, but they can dress up and go fight if they like to.
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I’ve always liked Mnuchin but that’s the actor in me…he has been Producer/Executive Producer (read $’s) behind an impressive list of movies…Sully probably being my favorite of his productions.
By the by (as Kudlow often says interviews), I’m done giving any of my money to Hollywierd…give me a good b&w (think The Thin Man series or Sherlock Holmes) or just about any John Wayne movie and I’m all in. :))))
Here is the Mnuchin list from IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6518391/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
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Who knew? If we elected a brilliant businessman we could fight different kinds of wars, dollars instead of America blood. What kind of war was the Obama adm. going to fight with no ammo?
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It gets even better:
We’re fighting with OTHER nations’ dollars.
As President VSG advised,
“TAKE the MONEY” 😎
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PDJT has a long-range sniper rifle with a round-the-clock scope. Good enough.
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Sundance: Your thoughts on “no China Trade Deal”?
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Based on what information available, China won the first round. China gave up nothing outside of buying more agriculture products and scrap joint venture requirement which China needs to buy and need foreign investment. We gave up tariff and currency manipulation. The tariff increases would accelerate supply chain out of China. It is a sad day. I am very disappointed
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It’s just a continuation of the previous strategy. Trump signed an interim agreement with China previously, if you recall. It said that if the Chinese didn’t comply with the terms of the interim agreement, Trump would jack tariffs, which they didn’t and he did.
No change here. The Chinese are agreeing to do certain things, which will likely be beneficial to us, if they do them. If they don’t…
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I thought currency manipulation was mentioned during the conference? I’ll need to rewatch without the kids playing around me 😊
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China has been conducting economic warfare against the West since they bought the Clintoons in the 90s along with major politicians all over the world.
President Trump has turned their economic weapon against them. China has been an economic paper tiger from the beginning. Only by fraud, coercion and corruption of western officials did they become seemingly powerful. However, it was an illusion; President Trump has pulled back the curtain and revealed the trick.
China bribed the western politicians to sell out their own countries and make them weak by destroying manufacturing – the very thing that allowed the USA to defeat the Nazis. President Trump has been strengthening the USA from the moment he took office. The Eagle is real, the dragon is an illusion, the traitor politicians days are numbered. JMO
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Very well-said, FL_GUY.
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It’s interesting watching the China come to the realization that they can’t just get away without buying anything from us.
They knew it didn’t matter to Obama/Biden. Biden and his son Hunter visited China in December 2013. Joe Biden now says he’ll stand up to China for American farmers, but he didn’t when he had a chance.
UKRAINE TO FILL CHINA’S CORN NEEDS, REPLACING U.S. PRODUCT
UKRAINE’S CORN OUTPUT REMAINS WAY BELOW U.S. PRODUCTION.
By Andrey Sizov Jr.
8/14/2019
https://www.agriculture.com/markets/your-world-in-agriculture/ukraine-to-fill-chinas-corn-needs-replacing-us-product
-snip-
Even before the trade war, China started to switch to other corn suppliers, mainly to Ukraine.
In 2013, the first vessel of Ukrainian corn reached China. This year, Ukraine has become the largest supplier of corn. In 2018/19, Ukranian corn exports to China are expected to be around 160 million bushels (4 MMT) and account for more than 80% of total Chinese imports.
-snip-
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Joe “Payola” Biden: “ As president, I’ll stand up to China and help working families.“
Gee Joe. You only had eight years as VP to do that, but didn’t even bother. You did however let China sit you down (or go lower) and accept $1.5billion in bribe money. ‘Splain that, big mouth.
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Mexico uses a lot of corn.
We could sell them more corn.
Democrats should pass USMCA.
That’s how you stand up to China and help working families.
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I’ll stand tall-as long as somebody greases my palm- and if they grease my palm and tell me to sit down, I’l sit right down.
I’m a man of principle-just show me the money!
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Still, no one from the Warparty/ Uniparty can make a convincing case- at least one I’ll accept as to why we should involve ourselves with a thousand year old ethnic war. These types of conflicts are the worst scenarios to involve ourselves. Putting our military in the role of referees and donut dollies. Our Armed Forces have one mission: Destroy the enemy in the most horrible way possible, inflicting battlefield terror so that the enemy quits the field. PERIOD
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I have been trying to wrap my mind around the Syria Turkey thing. Did Trump just reset the chess board from stalemate to a whole new game where Erdogan became the focus, saw an opening and moved his pieces without thinking? Erdogan now owns the issues.
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Yes … Ownership transferred to ALL of
• Erdogan
• EU
• Mideast Alliance
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They have to take responsibility. The whole world. We propped up and kept alive a lot of nonsense around the world.
The EU socialist ideas after ww2 were only possible cause we paid for it indirectly taking over other responsibility they have. The Chinese are only so strong thanks to us buying their shit.
They all can’t act reciprocally cause they have to carry around huge waste that doesn’t work in an economy that isn’t propped up by us.
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And Shepard Smith resigned from Fox just now. Last broadcast today. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
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No shit! Heard his cell phone has a direct dial number to CNN hiring and Human Resources. Will just have to wait and see at which network this scumbag crawls out of his hole.
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LOL! Love it. Guess they told him to stop feuding with the REAL network talent and money makers like Tucker, and he either got mad and quit, or they decided to show him the door.
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Here is the Dailywire Shep Smith Fox love fest article:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-left-wing-fox-news-anchor-shepard-smith-resigns-effective-immediately
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I am delighted! And I can’t wait to see who replaces him.
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He ought to take that Trump hating legal crack pot Judge Nap with him.
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…and use the other hand to grab Cavuto.
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Ditto with Leland and Gasbag.
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PDJT and Erdogan spoke—probably more than once—before his move last week.
Turkey has a PKK (Maoist) Kurd problem. Not a YPG (US ally) Kurd problem. The ~20 mile security buffer Erdogen wants has only a minor effect on YPG (most of whose population is further south). But it has a major affect on PKK who move from their far eastern mountain redoubts down to Syria then West that back into Turkey to attack.
The zone also gives Turkey a place to resettle its million or so Syrian refugees in Syria.
The danger is that Erdogan goes deeper into Syria to attack YPG. PDJT already publicly put Erdogan on notice not to do so, and this presser says the sanctions weapon is now locked and loaded if he does.
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I believe President Trump is testing Erdogan.
As a NATO ally, Trump accepted Erdogan’s explanation of the situation with the PKK and his assurances of their goals in this invasion.
Now he’s watching to see if Erdogan is going to keep his promises.
This is Erodgan’s only chance with President Trump, if he breaks any deals then that’s it, there’s no going back, and Trump drops the economic hammer.
I don’t think the president is liking what he’s seeing and hearing over the past few days.
So today, we get Mnuchin out front twirling his pistols and saying “I’m your huckleberry.”
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Good post. People are led to believe that “the kurds” are monolithic somehow, and they’re not. There is just as much tribal structure in that region as in Afghanistan, another quagmire we’re still involved with. You will never end tribalism unless you’re willing to kill everybody in one tribe or another, so best to let the interested parties sort it out. Just let it be known that anybody attacking us will be dealt with harshly.
This whole ISIS scam was just a pretext to overthrow Assad, anyways. Obama invaded Syria, then told Assad “It’s time for you to go”. This was after his previous overthrow of Khadaffi, and while he was illicitly spending $1.5B to foment a war in Ukraine. Obama was an even bigger neocon hack than the Bushes and Clintons, and that’s saying something.
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OK so it’s becoming more clear what PDJT is thinking and doing.
Erdogan has been telling anyone who’ll listen that he will go 20 miles into Syria in order to (if it can be believed), secure the area and return 2.6 million of the 3.6 million refugees who’ve been living near the border in refugee camps in Turkey for over 5 years now.
No one supported his decision. Not the Europeans, not Obama/Kerry and not PDJT. The 50-100 US soldiers on the ground had prevented Erdogan from going in but lately he insisted he will go in.
PDJT knew that if an errant Turkish bullet killed a US soldier, it would end up a tragedy for all involved. An unintended consequence if you will.
So PDJT first cleared the area of ISIS, then trained the Kurds. These Kurds had gained a lot of extra territory since the defeat of ISIS. PDJT told them that moving out of a 20 mile strip along the border was a good compromise.
The Kurds, specifically the YPG, PKK and PYD (all Marxist commies by the way. Not all Kurds are good guys. These groups are recognised terrorists) didn’t agree so PDJT said he’s moving his US soldiers out of the area.
I think this was a smart and fair move by PDJT. He is not allowing the US to get into another quagmire. Not like the idiots GWB and The Kenyan.
p.s. If a new Kurdistan was established across parts of Syria, Iraq and Turkey, the Kurds would immediately get into a civil war of their own between about 4 – 5 factions.
Not all Kurds are good guys. Amnesty International documented war crimes committed by the YPG and PYD as bad as any committed by ISIS.
I think this is a great move by PDJT with American interest first and foremost (at long last).
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The problem is people’s cultural values and history is a function of elevation, not based on imaginary boundaries on a 2-dimensional representation of land.
Most borders are rivers and mountain peaks where culturally and value systems of people are similar in the entire river basin, not left side, and similar at an elevation range, say 1,000ft to 2,000ft, not a certain side of the mountain, although, leeward and windward sides will vary.
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Article on foxbusiness.com. “Trade Trifecta: USMCA, Japan, now China”. Even establishment news outlets are starting to recognize what POTUS is accomplishing!
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And all of a sudden liberals care about HK rights 🤣🤣
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Turkey or Syria??? Like whats the difference?
Kurds had the chance for independence but they supported the losing side in WWII…
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The shrill condemnations of President Trump’s solution were in effect approvals of the USA going to war against Turkey.
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Steve looks pretty happy in that still photo.
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The first one where the video starts just to clarify.
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Mnuchin has really turned out to be one of President Trump’s best cabinet picks.
Loyal, smart, and dutiful.
Handles the press easily.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a promotion in the future.
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I agree. Mnuchin is smart, accomplished in his own right, and has connections everywhere yet seems to fully support the President’s agenda and does not try to act superior.
Steve also handles the press pretty well, and for whatever reasons they don’t appear to get snarky with him.
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He’s very disciplined. He doesn’t get sucked into their pettiness. He finishes what he wants to say, sifts out the bits of a question that allow him to repeat what he just said, then when he’s done communicating what he wants to say he cuts it off and leaves the room. He leaves the politics to others. I was mistrustful of him simply because he came out of the Wall Street crowd, but so far he’s been fine.
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Yes, Mnuchin has impressed me. I really wasn’t expecting much from a Hollywood producer/financier type, but man did he pull through.
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There are no promotions up from Treasury Secretary, except maybe Secretary of State, and that is more a lateral than a promotion. To get higher, he would have to run for president.
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Presidential Apprentice, no?
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A promotion in the sense of moving closer to the White House. Chief of Staff, possibly.
But Secretary of State is what I had in mind.
If Trump wins a second term I could see Mnuchin over at Foggy Bottom. I think he’d make a great SoS.
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Gotta love the smiles of the Trump cabinet. The terrible harassment they and their families must endure from these low life and they still can smile. The left says this and that, does this and that and when these men and women are confronted all you see are smiles..like “makes no difference, it is what it is, get over it.” They see what they are doing is groundbreaking and simply wondrous for the common guy, their American fellow countrymen. That’s just glorious.
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