This is disturbing: “This is the third case in less than a year in which a former US intelligence officer has pled or been found guilty of conspiring with Chinese intelligence services to pass them national defense information.”

VIA DOJ –  A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer pleaded guilty today to conspiring to communicate, deliver and transmit national defense information to the People’s Republic of China. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director for Counterintelligence John Brown of the FBI and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement after Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III accepted the plea.

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China, Russia and Cuba are financing and supporting the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.  Russian and Chinese military equipment was previously shipped into the country and military members from Cuba are fighting on the ground.
In response to the violence and presence of the Cuban military, President Trump is now threatening a full and complete embargo of Cuba by the U.S.

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Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow, discusses the booming U.S. economy, the future outlook and why he supports the USMCA deal.

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A tale of two contrasting sets of economic priorities. The U.S. economy continues to outpace all economic forecasts.  Recently U.S. retail sales, wage growth and housing starts have exceeded all expectations.  Tomorrows announced U.S. GDP growth is positioned to exceed all previous doomsayer predictions from the professional financial back-bench.
However, the economic results in Canada are going in the opposite direction.  The Bank of Canada cut their GDP forecast from 1.7% to 1.2% today.  A forecast drop of half a percent is a massive drop considering the prior rate of growth was meager at best.

Two full years into the advancement of America-First priorities, the international community is now admitting they can only find growth and value in U.S. investments.

(Via Reuters) […] The [Canadian] central bank now expects economic growth in the first half of 2019 to be lower than anticipated in January, when it released its last monetary policy report, due to a slowdown in Canada’s oil sector, the negative impact of global trade policies and a weaker-than-expected housing sector.

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[U.S. DOJ] […] Candace Marie Claiborne, a former employee of the U.S. Department of State, pleaded guilty today to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States, by lying to law enforcement and background investigators, and hiding her extensive contacts with, and gifts from, agents of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in exchange for providing them with internal documents from the U.S. State Department.
[…] According to the plea documents, Claiborne, 63, began working as an Office Management Specialist for the Department of State in 1999. She served overseas at a number of posts, including embassies and consulates in Baghdad, Iraq, Khartoum, Sudan, and Beijing and Shanghai, China. As a condition of her employment, Claiborne maintained a TOP SECRET security clearance. Claiborne also was required to report any contacts with persons suspected of affiliation with a foreign intelligence agency as well as any gifts she received from foreign sources over a certain amount.
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White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Kevin Hassett appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the strength of the U.S. economy and the U.S-China trade negotiations.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will head to Beijing for talks that start on April 30:

(White House) At President Donald J. Trump’s direction, United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin will travel to Beijing for continued negotiations on the trade relationship between the United States and China. The talks will begin on April 30, 2019. Vice Premier Liu He will lead the talks for China. The Vice Premier will then lead a Chinese delegation to Washington for additional discussions starting on May 8, 2019. (link)

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The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reports a much lower trade deficit than all economists predicted.  This is good news for the upcoming GDP growth report because the value of imported goods are deducted from GDP.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced today that the goods and services deficit was $49.4 billion in February, down $1.8 billion from $51.1 billion in January. (read more)

The smaller overall trade deficit was primarily driven by a decrease in the deficit with China. The deficit with China decreased $3.1 billion to $30.1 billion in February.  As noted by Reuters: ““It sounds like pencils are being sharpened in order to revise up first-quarter GDP forecasts,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.“
With little inflation in the U.S. economy it appears Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods are essentially invisible to the consumer; likely being absorbed overseas in an effort to keep their prices low upon delivery. As the Trump administration negotiates on the world’s first ever Free Trade Agreement with China, the willingness/ability to execute additional tariffs provides ongoing leverage.
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The Chinese woman who tried to lie her way into Mar-a-Lago appeared in court today to plea ‘not guilty’.  However, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman ordered her continued detention and pointed out the obvious:  “It does appear to the court that Ms. Zhang was up to something nefarious when she unlawfully attempted to gain access to Mar-a-Lago”…

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – A Chinese woman charged with bluffing her way into U.S. President Donald Trump’s Florida resort last month was denied bail on Monday by a federal judge who said he believed she was “up to something nefarious.”
Yujing Zhang, who was carrying multiple electronic devices when arrested, pleaded not guilty at her arraignment and detention hearing on Monday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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President Moon Jae-in the the Korean equivalent of Barack Obama.  Today President Donald Trump and First-lady Melania Trump welcome President Moon and Mrs. Kim Jung-sook to the White House.  During the oval office meeting President Trump took questions from the press corps [Video and Transcript below]

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[Transcript] – 12:19 P.M. EDT – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to have President Moon of South Korea with us and a very, very great privilege to have Mrs. Kim. Thank you very much. Very much. We hope you enjoy your stay.
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Put this into the geopolitical file labeled: “Things that make other things make sense”…  You only need to watch the first minute and fifteen-seconds of this announcement to see the bigger BIG picture.  WATCH:

[Transcript Snippet] … “This is the first time that the United States has designated a part of another government as an FTO. We’re doing because the Iranian regime’s use of terrorism as a tool of statecraft makes it fundamentally different from any other government. This historic step will deprive the world’s leading state sponsor of terror the financial means to spread misery and death around the world.”

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