Steve Bannon appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the pros and cons of a partisan impeachment.  Bannon was one of the early political observers who identified the likely entry of Mayor Michael Bloomberg into the 2020 race.
Bannon notes that Bloomberg has enough money to outlast the field; however, I doubt Bloomberg can fill a venue. If there’s no connection to the base party voter, candidate Bloomberg just can’t win the primary.

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The U.S. multinationals on Wall Street do not want the USMCA to pass because they don’t want President Trump to have leverage that allows him to continue the fight against China and the EU. It is a simple dynamic, USMCA ratification makes the Wall Street prior investments in China worth less.
In all of these efforts U.S. multinational corporations, big companies on Wall St, are heavily opposed to President Trump because they have invested in those overseas operations. Those companies facilitated the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Remember, in 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that non-union members cannot be forced to pay for union representation.
That decision led to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declaring support in 2019 for illegal aliens having rights to U.S. jobs and collective bargaining.
There is also now a clear alignment between Wall Street multinationals, and democrats like Nancy Pelosi. Wall Street’s ability to pay Pelosi and political leadership to protect their multinational interests; in combination with corporate promises of funding to Pelosi’s party; has created the unholy alliance of united interests.
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Earlier today President Trump traveled to Austin Texas to participate in the grand opening of a new Apple Inc. manufacturing facility.  President Trump has worked closely with Apple CEO Tim Cook to promote America-First manufacturing.
During the visit President Trump delivered remarks on current events and took questions from the traveling press pool.  [Partial Video and Full Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] –  THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. It’s an honor to be here. We’re seeing the beginning of a very powerful and important plant. And anybody that followed my campaign, I would always talk about Apple — that I want to see Apple building plants in the United States. And that’s what’s happening. And having — Tim Cook is somebody that I greatly respect — a great leader, a great businessman. And it’s a very special day. For me, this is a very special day.
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White House trade and manufacturing policy advisor Peter Navarro appears on Fox News to discuss two key economic and trade issues: (1) the current status of U.S-China trade discussions “round one”; and (2) the status of USMCA ratification (Pelosi’s delay).
Nothing in the China trade discussion is solid, until everything in the China trade discussion is settled; this is one of the key aspects to President Trump’s directive to USTR Robert Lighthizer.  No deal is a more favorable outcome than the construct of a trade deal that cannot be enforced.
On the USMCA ratification, again it all falls upon the politics of Pelosi.  The agreement would pass tomorrow if it were put up to a vote; there is no controversy.  Speaker Pelosi is holding back the ratification vote for pure political purposes.

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USMCA ratification is the first domino in long-chain of ‘America First’ economic benefits. As soon as USMCA passes a wave of North American investment will surge. The downstream consequences includes leverage for U.S-China, U.S-Europe, U.S-India and U.S-U.K trade agreements.
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Earlier today Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appeared for an interview with Maria Bartiromo on the status of phase-one for the U.S-China trade deal, Huawei and ZTE national security concerns, and Speaker Pelosi blocking ratification of the USMCA agreement.
Secretary Ross cautions the Chinese deal is contingent on some very particular and important enforcement details. Additionally Ross discusses the potential national security issues with 5G network and AG Bill Barr having strong concerns about Huawei and ZTE.

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A very strong jobs market, and wage growth for the middle-class at the highest rate in decades, continues to benefit Main Street USA.  As noted within the sales and earnings report from Walmart today, the U.S. middle-class continues to thrive in a MAGA-driven U.S. economy.

(Reuters) […] Consumer spending going in to the crucial holiday season remains healthy, Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Retailers earn a sizeable chunk of their annual revenue during November and December.
“The consumer remains in pretty good shape, employment situation is good, fuel prices are low … wage growth is pretty good,” he said. (more)

It is easy to forget how two-years-ago the doomsayers and financial pundits were claiming President Trump’s tariff policies were going to create massive price increases.  They were completely wrong in their predictions.  The latest U.S. inflation reports show low inflation at 1.8 percent year-over-year.
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Funny stuff amid headlines discussing the likelihood of President Trump postponing a 25% tariff on European autos.  What the pundits are missing is how President Trump has positioned a myriad of trade dynamics that make EU action unavoidable.   This is the fun stuff, so let’s enjoy the details.
The current headlines surround President Trump “postponing” a 25% tariff on EU automobiles as an outcome of the major EU manufacturers (mostly Germany) promising increased investment in their U.S. operations.  By itself this would be considered a win for President Trump, but that’s not the whole picture, not even close.

What the more broad trade and manufacturing dynamic includes will explain what EU economists are only just now starting to realize.  Yes, the major European auto-makers will put more investment into the United States (thereby lessening the EU industrial economy); however, the auto decision is not because they are presenting a magnanimous benefit of sorts, but rather it is a foregone conclusion; an unavoidable reality due to a previous trade agreement construct.
Within the USMCA agreement President Trump negotiated a win-win-win for Mexico, Canada and the U.S. through a requirement that 75 percent of North American auto content must originate from manufacturing within North America.  Failure to reach that threshold means the auto company will be subject to a 25 percent tariff to bring the product to the U.S. market.
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The major industrial economies of the European Union (U.K., France, Germany) have been the beneficiaries of a decades-long system which allowed one-sided benefits -via tariffs- against U.S. products.
With President Trump demanding reciprocity, and with less industrial purchasing from China, the EU is now starting to contemplate a dramatically different economic future.

(Reuters) – Persistent weakness in euro zone manufacturing raises the risk of other sectors of the economy being infected, extending the currency bloc’s recent downturn, European Central Bank policymaker Yves Mersch said on Monday.
“The longer the weakness in manufacturing persists, the greater the risk that other sectors of the economy will be affected by the slowdown as well,” Mersch told a conference.
“Risks to the growth outlook remain on the downside overall.” (read more)

I think it is safe to say the majority of American voters have no idea how deeply the global economy is dependent on systems of trade that are based on the U.S. trade deficits.
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President Trump held an impromptu presser prior to departing JBA for Alabama.  This is one of those mini-pressers that reveals important aspects to the *direction* of the U.S-China trade discussion from the POTUS perspective.  The financial pundits always miss these little tell-tale remarks.  President Trump is managing the trade and economic program at a granular level; this is his priority… every little part of it, he is directing.
President Trump notes the value of the tariff strategy, and infers (not so subtle) that no deal is preferred within his ongoing plan: “you’ll see what I’m going to be doing.”  This is what the financial pundits ignore. President Trump has gamed this out, he’s stringing the process slowly to keep boosting the stock market…. but his goal does not include a deal.
[Video and Transcript below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: I look forward to seeing a lot of things. But on Monday, in particular, our stock market has just broken another record, as you see. Our economy is doing phenomenally well. Our jobs numbers just broke yet another record. They’re higher than ever before. Our country is doing better than it’s ever done. Our military is rebuilt. It was a mess when I took over.

And a lot of good things are happening, and now I’m going to watch Alabama-LSU, and that’ll be a lot of fun. So, we look forward to it.

Do you have a question? Go ahead.

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Earlier today President Trump held an extensive chopper presser with the White House press pool on a variety of topics.  Here is the REAL NEWS transcript:
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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: I just told them, “I’ve got to come over and see the fake news.” Let’s go. What do you have, John?

Q Mr. President, what do you think of the testimony of the deposition that has been released so far? And are you concerned about public hearings next week?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m not concerned about anything. The testimony has all been fine. I mean, for the most part, I’ve never even heard of these people. I have no idea who they are. They’re some very fine people; you have some Never-Trumpers. It seems that nobody has any firsthand knowledge. There is no firsthand knowledge. And all that matters is one thing: the transcript. And the transcript is perfect.

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