White House Chair of the National Economic Council (NEC), Kevin Hassett, walked out to the press pool to discuss the latest excellent inflation figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics today {BLS REPORT HERE}.  However, the insufferable press pool wanted to talk about other things.

I’ll get to the BLS data below – with a gold nugget just for you, don’t share it.  But first, NEC Director Hassett also let something slip in his responsive comments that most will miss.

When asked about Trump’s decision to terminate all trade negotiations with Canada, Hasset noted the discussions were frustrating, and “The Canadians were very difficult to negotiate with.” Then comes the key point (03:28), “The fact that we are now negotiating with Mexico, separately, reveals that it’s not just one add, there’s frustration that has built up.”

What Hassett just confirmed again, as if we needed more evidence, is that the trilateral trade agreement -the USMCA- is not going to exist once Trump opens it up for renegotiation.  The USA team is already working on a separate bilateral trade agreement between the USA and Mexico, proactively.  The USMCA is dead – we just have not made it official yet.  WATCH (prompted):

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On the inflation data, the September inflation rate was 0.3 percent, much lower than all economists and pundits predicted.  The tariffs are having no impact on the rise of consumer prices.  In fact, the sectors with the most imported goods are the sectors with the lowest inflation.

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President Trump makes a statement from his Truth Social account that all trade negotiations with Canada are immediately terminated following the Canadian government purchasing ads to lie to the American people about tariffs.

PRESIDENT TRUMP – “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs. The ad was for $75,000,000. They only did this to interfere with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and other courts. TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” President DJT

At first review this might seem like an angered response to a fabrication by the Canadian government of Prime Minister Mark Carney. However, there is much more to this background story as CTH readers are well aware.

First, rather than make any substantive policy changes, Canada is organizing a new trade relationship with China as an offset to the trade conflict with President Trump. {GO DEEP} This will make Canada a dumping ground for cheap Chinese goods, which then becomes a problem for the U.S.

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Talk about prescient Trump.  Wow, this Truth Social post was stunningly accurate:

Senator Chuck Grassley has released a memo [SOURCE HERE – outlined below] showing FBI Director Chris Wray asking Attorney General Merrick Garland to authorize the FBI’s “Arctic Frost“ investigation that targeted all of President Trump’s supporters inside and outside government.

Knowing how these things work, it appears Deputy AG Lisa Monaco and FBI Director Chris Wray formulated the Arctic Frost strategy as the request memo sent by Wray was authorized through the office of DAG Monaco.

In the memo as released, DAG Monaco writes, “Merrick, I recommend you approve.”

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Having provided deliberate advice and counsel quietly on these matters, it is important to continue watching the developments as they unfold.  There are trillions at stake.

President Trump’s global trade and economic reset is well underway. It is not an overstatement to say the western world economic structures within trade, banking and finance are in opposition to his efforts.  Alas, as we have outlined extensively, part of the larger phase of this reset will come in the likely dissolution of the U.S. Mexico, Canada trade agreement (USMCA).

Canada is taking actions to replace their U.S. trade relationship by aligning more with the EU and China.  This is a very dangerous approach for the Canadian people, because in the short-term there may be benefits; however, in the longer term the downsides are quite severe. Remember, Xi Jinping wanted Mark Carney to win the parliamentary election.

[SOURCE] – Canadian Foreign Minister’s visit to China promotes the warming of relations and new opportunities for educational cooperation! This is the most high-level contact between the two countries since 2018.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand paid an official visit to Beijing and held important talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The visit not only commemorates the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Canada and China, but also marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the strategic partnership between the two countries. During the meeting, the two sides discussed issues such as trade, energy, environment and public health, laying the foundation for the “normalization” of Canada-China relations.

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Let’s put the events of the last 72 hours into context.

On Monday and Tuesday, Russian oil refineries in NATO countries Hungary and Romania suddenly, and simultaneously, have mysterious explosions and catastrophic fires {citation}}. On Wednesday, NATO head Mark Rutte comes to visit President Trump in the White House, and at the end of the day, the same Russian company, Lukoil, whose refinery exploded in Romania, suddenly becomes sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury {citation}. These events are not disconnected.

President Trump then disputes a Wall Street Journal report {citation}, further saying he did not give approval, nor does he know where NATO long-range missiles are coming from that were launched from Ukraine into Russia {citation}.

Alarmingly, both the Wall Street Journal and President Trump are seemingly correct.

President Trump did not give authorization; however, he did cede authority to NATO to make independent decisions about long-range missiles. The U.K. provided the British storm shadow missiles, and Ukraine launched them with NATO support for targeting deep into Russia.

President Trump saying, “wherever they may come from,” is alarming in itself.  We all know that British PM Starmer, French President Macron, German Chancellor Merz and NATO Secretary Mark Rutte are all in alignment to push NATO into a direct conflict with Russia using the non-NATO state of Ukraine to do it.

The frustrating part is not the obtuse deflection by President Trump – perhaps he really doesn’t know – but rather the alarming issue of questioning whether President Trump is getting accurate information from the U.S. intelligence apparatus to make sound decisions.  President Trump has abdicated the conflict decision-making to the NATO “coalition of the willing”, while the USA remains in NATO as a sideline observer.

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NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte visits President Trump while Trump and Secretary Bessent increase sanctions against Russian energy companies.

Check the body language.  Secretary of State/Nat Sec Advisor Marco Rubio does not seem to be in alignment with the conversation today.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is heading to Israel prior to reconnecting with President Trump for the trip to Asia.  Vice-President JD Vance is departing Israel at the same time.

President Trump has instructed the top level of his administration to be highly engaged and in place in Israel as the tenuous peace agreement between Israel and Hamas still holds.  The U.S. led the effort, and the U.S. is remaining focused on the first steps in the peace agreement at the request of the regional partners who are participating.

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We have discussed at length how the EU/NATO intelligence apparatus will do anything to keep U.S. President Trump and Russian President Putin in conflict against each other. As a consequence of tracking the datapoints around this issue, these events in Romania and Hungary cannot be perceived as coincidental.

Remember, what the EU intelligence apparatus did in Romania to control the election result. Remember also, the largest NATO base is being built in Romania. We understand the EU/NATO (CIA) agenda for Romania with clear eyes.

Now, two simultaneous oil refineries explode. One of them a Russian-owned refinery in Romania, the other a refinery in Hungary that processes Russian oil.

According to Daily News Hungary, the Romanian explosion happened in Ploiești, in the Wallachian region, the refinery is one of Romania’s largest, with a capacity of over 2.5 million tonnes. the refinery is owned by the Russian company Lukoil.

The refinery in Hungary at Százhalombatta refines Russian oil. It erupted in flames on Monday night. “The fire broke out on Monday night at the Dunai Refinery’s AV3 unit. It was swiftly contained, and firefighters have remained on site since, MOL stated in a press release issued last night.” […] “According to information obtained by index.hu from industry insiders, the entire oil refinery faces the possibility of a complete shutdown. Prime Minister Orbán Viktor, in his morning post, has promised the strictest investigation into the fire.”

In related news, the Budapest summit in Hungary between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump has been delayed.

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The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared the way for the Trump administration to send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. The 9th CCA lifted a lower court’s temporary restraining order that previously blocked the deployment. [Ruling Here]

[SOURCE]

A three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to stay a district court order that had prevented the deployment of National Guard troops to the city. The majority opinion found it was likely that the president had lawfully exercised his statutory authority.

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Earlier today, U.S. President Donald Trump held a bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the White House.

The media were invited to the first segment of the discussions, and an impromptu press conference took place.  WATCH:

Australia represents one of the intelligence operations known as the Five-Eyes network.  Unfortunately, as noted during the COVID-19 fiasco, Australia is also the petri dish for global intelligence services to test the limits of government power and control over the citizens in western nations.

After an Australian reporter asked President Trump if he had any concerns with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s administration, including Australian Ambassador Kevin Rudd’s past comments about him, President Trump said “I don’t know anything about him.” Ambassador Rudd replied that the comments were made “before I took this position, Mr. President.”

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