Prior to departing for Hanoi, Vietnam, President Trump delivered breakfast remarks to an assembly of our nation’s governors.  [Video and Transcript below]  POTUS is confidently on top of his game; and the humor is priceless.
For those who have followed the granular details of the Trump-Kim relationship closely, one early remark about Kim Jong-un (off-the-cuff and not part of the prepared speech) is very interesting (emphasis mine):

“I’m now — right after this meeting, I leave for Vietnam, where I meet with Chairman Kim and we talk about something that, frankly, he never spoke to anybody about. But we’re speaking, and we’re speaking loud”….

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[Transcript] State Dining Room – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you very much.
As governors, we all sort of get together and we have a good time. But we also — we’re going to accomplish a lot. This going to be a very good meeting. Tremendous things are happening for our country.
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President Trump has been executing a foreign policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”
The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a fundamental paradigm shift.  Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference.

“Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald Trump

The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.
There have been clear examples of this doctrine at work. When President Trump first visited the Middle-East he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”
Toward that end, as Qatar was identified as a financier of extremist ideology, President Trump placed the goal of confrontation upon the Gulf Cooperation Council, not the U.S.
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Tonight President Donald Trump, First-Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Second-Lady Karen Pence, together with the cabinet, attend the 2019 Governors’ Ball in Washington DC.
President Trump delivers remarks to the audience:

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[Transcript] “This has been really a great couple of days. We’ve had a lot of fun together. We’ve gotten to know each other, we’ve gotten to like each other in almost all cases. Let’s see – one or two cases – every case. [Laughter] Every single case.
“I just want to thank Vice President Mike Pence and our Second Lady, Karen, thank you very much. And I especially want to thank our really great Cabinet for being here. We have most members of the cabinet and our great new Attorney General, Bill Barr, and Mrs Barr, thank you very much.
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Multiple media outlets are reporting that North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un has departed Pyongyang en route to Hanoi Vietnam by train.  It’s approximately a two day train ride for the journey.  The summit with President Trump is scheduled for February 27th and 28th.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Sunday confirmed for the first time that its leader Kim Jong Un will hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, days ahead of the high-stakes nuclear meeting set to take place in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi.
Kim left Pyongyang by train on Saturday afternoon for the Feb. 27-28 summit accompanied by senior North Korean officials, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.

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Today in presidential history is a day when the import of consequence doesn’t surface until historians apply hindsight.  However, those who carry the longest-lens are enjoying these moments in history…. We make with our support of Trump such a sound as all history from these days forward are forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.  And when we are gone, our beneficiaries will sing of these deeds in forbidden songs while tending the flickering flame of liberty; for we few lived in the era of Trump.

[Transcript] Oval Office – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with the Vice Premier of China, a very highly respected man in China. And we’re negotiating trade and the trade agreement. And we have many representatives from China and — as you’d know, and most of you know who they are — many representatives from the United States.
I think we’re getting along very well. Ultimately, I think the biggest decisions and some even smaller decisions will be made by President Xi and myself. And we expect to have a meeting sometime in the not-too-distant future.
And I can only say talks are going along well, but we’re going to have to see what happens. I think there’ll be some points that this group won’t agree on because maybe they’re not supposed to agree on, allowed to agree on. And I think President Xi and I will work out the final points, perhaps. And perhaps not.
So I just want to say, Mr. Vice Premier, it’s a great honor to have you.
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This is the best video to adequately review the full nuance and scale of consequence within the oval office meeting between the Chinese trade delegation and the U.S. team.  As previously noted, President Trump delivered brutally honest remarks about expectations to both teams that likely, strategically and purposefully, caught Chinese Vice Premier Liu completely off guard.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, AG Secretary Sonny Perdue, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Brandstad, Trade Adviser Peter Navarro with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, and multiple Chinese vice ministers/senior officials were all in the Oval Office for a discussion of current trade status…. and the outcome was epic.
ENJOY:

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With about a week left before the second phase of U.S. tariffs is scheduled to hit Chinese imports both the U.S. and China trade delegations met today in an ongoing effort to hammer out details about enforcement mechanisms.   The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife…

Beijing’s Red Dragon team is focused on putting together a six step Memorandum of Understanding, the Panda MOU, they hope will convince President Trump to delay any tariff action.  This cunning procedural approach is China’s historic tactic when confronted about the reality within their trade behavior and economic duplicity.   However, USTR Robert Lighthizer is well aware and unwilling to follow the path of historic failure.
These talks are intense; it is difficult to appropriately frame how consequential these negotiation sessions are. Because the trillion dollar stakes are so high; and because China is unfamiliar negotiating with a government delegation they have not purchased; this is the type of hard-line negotiation that could never be attempted by any other administration other than President Donald Trump.  It is rather epic when you stand back and consider the larger landscape.
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Asia expert Gordon Chang discusses the U.S.-China trade negotiations with Lou Dobbs and why President Trump should consider raising tariffs on Chinese imports on March 1st.
Massive pressure is being applied by Chinese purchased interests including Wall Street, the multinational corporate lobbying groups; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and all of the global financial elite, to oppose President Trump’s confrontation with Beijing.

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President Trump Yesterday:
Q How confident are you that it will be finished by March 1? Or are you considering extending that deadline?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they are very complex talks. They’re going very well. We’re asking for everything that anybody has ever even suggested. These are not just, you know, “let’s sell corn or let’s do this.” It’s going to be selling corn but a lot of it — a lot more than anyone thought possible. And I think the talks are going very well — with China, you’re referring to?
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Earlier this afternoon President Donald Trump met with Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz [Video and Transcript below] Additionally, the president answered questions from the White House media on current events and issues including the section 232 auto-tariffs, the upcoming visit to the DPRK, AG Bill Barr and Andrew McCabe.

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[Transcript] – Oval Office 1:52 P.M. EST – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Hello, everyone. Thank you very much. And it’s great to be with the Chancellor of Austria. We have a tremendous relationship, long term, with Austria. And we’re going to be discussing numerous things — immigration — today. But we’re also discussing trade. We have a very big trade presence and a very good relationship on trade. We do a lot of business with each other.
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has completed the section 232 investigation on the auto industry, reviewing the sector as a vital economic interest for continued national security.

The content of the investigative finding is unknown. The Commerce Department has privately delivered the 232 report directly to the White House. However, with the possibility of the report empowering President Trump to implement 20 to 25% import auto tariffs industry executives are proactively going bananas.
An important aspect here is that the USMCA (U.S., Mexico and Canada) agreement exempts the trilateral North American pact from any auto tariff fear. If the vehicle consists of 75% North American (USMCA) content, there’s no tariff.
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