President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have arrived home in Washington DC.

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President Trump’s political opposition, including Most Swamp Media (MSM), have claimed he went too far in calling out NATO members for their lack of funding their own military and security apparatus.

During President Trump’s latest trip to NATO he stated publicly they needed to improve and do it quickly.  The media expressed a position that President Trump was too direct; however, what the media never shows is how far out of balance the entire financial system is for NATO.

The members of NATO agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on their own internal defense and security.   Most people are probably familiar with a graphic such as below which appears on CNN website explaining the dynamic:

However, what is rarely added to the discussion is the scope of the U.S. GDP in comparison to other nation states.  For us to spend 3.61% of our massive GDP ($18.5 Trillion) is actually $670,344,000,000  That represents 76.11% of the entire NATO budget.

In the graphic below I’ve added the GDP and extended the math to show how much the United States actually pays in whole dollars in comparison to the top 10 NATO member nations:

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As the British Police make two more arrests they are asking for help filling in the timeline of activity for Manchester Bombing terrorist Salman Abedi (22).

MANCHESTER – British police on Saturday released surveillance-camera images of the Manchester concert bomber on the night of the attack as they appealed for more information about his final days.

[…]  The photos released by police show attacker Salman Abedi on the night of the bombing, wearing sneakers, jeans, a dark jacket and a baseball cap. The straps of a knapsack are visible on his shoulders.  Authorities said they had made major progress in unravelling the plot behind the concert bombing but acknowledged there were still gaps in their knowledge.

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Those who followed the 2016 presidential campaign might remember when Senator Ted Cruz was discovered to have hidden $1.3 million in campaign “loans” from Goldman Sachs and Citibank during his 2012 campaign for the senate.

At the heart of the issue was a failure of Ted and Heidi Cruz to list Wall Street “loans” on the required Federal Election Commission financial reports.

Beyond the financing was the most likely reality that Goldman Sachs insiders were actually financing Senator Cruz and using “loans” as a tool to skirt campaign finance laws.

During the heat of the 2016 primary campaign the Cruz Team, and the legions of supporters therein, vociferously defended the revelations and stated there was no issue with their campaign filings.

In response to the issue the Ted Cruz campaign said they’ll go through the enforcement mechanism of the FEC instead of the compliance division for resolution.

By going through the “enforcement division” (took over a year) they would delay any damaging information from discovery until after the 2016 Presidential Election.

Well, the enforcement division of the FEC finally made a decision as to the entire construct of the dubious campaign financing: (more…)

Leaders of the G7, a finance-centric geopolitical group of international leaders, issued their joint summit statement on Saturday.  U.S. President Donald Trump refused to align the United States with the joint declaration pledging commitment to the Paris accord on climate change.

[Page 6 pdf below] …”The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics.  Understanding this process, the Heads of State and of Government of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom and the Presidents of the European Council and of the European Commission reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement, as previously stated at the Ise-Shima Summit.”

President Trump tweeted at the conclusion of the G7 Summit:

The full summit agreement is below:

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After the conclusion of the G7 summit, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump deliver remarks to U.S. military personnel at Naval Air Station Sigonella before leaving Italy and returning home to the U.S.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Reuters/Washington Post Puts a Slice of Kushner Cheese on Russian Nothingburger and simultaneously prove the Obama Administration was spying on the Trump campaign.

The extent of the U.S. media’s straw-grasping is boundless, but this one is going to backfire. HOPEFULLY.  For the most recent example consider the Washington Post and Reuters claiming President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner participating in a proposal to set up a back-channel with Russia for communication after the November 8th election.

Firstly, Reuters and The Washington Post are idiots in their claimed “exclusive” bombast, etc.  UPI reported on the nothingburger back-channel Russian construct on April 3rd.  This “breaking” news is old news, and old nothingburger news at that.

Of course President-elect Trump’s staff would consider a back-channel set up for communications with Russian government officials in November and December 2016, just about everyone with a tinge of common sense was saying that exact construct was needed.

Why?

Well, you must remember the atmosphere after the November 8th election during the time period being discussed.  President Obama, in close coordination with his U.S. media allies, was filling the airwaves with toxic anti-Russian narratives in an explicit attempt to make any structural positive relationship between the pending Trump administration and Russia impossible.

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While it doesn’t come as a significant surprise the latest development in the Manchester bombing shows the financiers for the terrorist attack were U.K. taxpayers.

Yes, the British people actually paid Salman Abedi to kill themselves and their children:

Telegraph –  Salman Abedi is understood to have received thousands of pounds in state funding in the run up to Monday’s atrocity even while he was overseas receiving bomb-making training.

Police are investigating Abedi’s finances, including how he paid for frequent trips to Libya where he is thought to have been taught to make bombs at a jihadist training camp.

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