President Donald Trump delivered an defiant opening speech at the 2017 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Da Nag, Vietnam earlier today. Speaking to an Asia-Pacific audience consisting of over 400 top corporate CEO’s, international leaders, and key heads-of-state from the region, President Trump outlined his expectation for trade relationships with ALL member states.
Trump began by walking through a list of the primary regional nations, praising each for their history and culture and then highlighting their modern success and advancement in economics and trade.  Then President Trump shifted to economics and national security; delivering a strong and deliberate message that the era of unfair trade practices, and one-sided trade deals, with the U.S. was over.

…”We can no longer tolerate these chronic trade abuses, and we will not tolerate them. […] that is why I am here today. […] The current trade imbalance is not acceptable. […] From this day forward, we will compete on a fair and equal basis. We are not going to let the United States be taken advantage of anymore.”…

As noted by a tuned-in observer of the tone in delivery.  President Trump’s delivery to the audience was as bold and defiant as his presentation at the Al Smith dinner in 2016.  No punches were pulled, no ambiguity in motive. Trump dropped the atomic sledgehammer of economic truth upon the increasingly nervous audience. It was spectacular.  WATCH:

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[TRANSCRIPT] PRESIDENT TRUMP: What an honor it is to be here in Vietnam — in the very heart of the Indo-Pacific — to address the people and business leaders of this region.
This has already been a remarkable week for the United States in this wonderful part of the world. Starting from Hawaii, Melania and I traveled to Japan, South Korea, and China, and now to Vietnam, to be here with all of you today.
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If you haven’t followed the entirety of how the “Freedom Alliance” was assembled in the very early months shortly after the election of President Donald Trump, it’s hard to understand the scope of what is taking place in the middle-east.
The nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), led by Saudi Arabia, are on the cusp of transforming themselves into a modern and engaged era. The goals of the GCC allies, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) are to remove the influence agents who have supported extremism, the Muslim Brotherhood, and stimulated and/or enabled crisis for personal and ideological gains.
Because of the financial reach within the parties involved, the downstream consequences are being felt within the political bodies of most nations including our own. Specifically within Washington DC’s deep-state institutions, career politicians on foreign affairs committees, and within the upper and lower tiers of the aggregate U.S. State Dept.  A great realignment is taking place.

Caption: There will come a time when you will need to choose a side. Think wisely…

French President Emmanuel Macron said today he will make an unexpected trip to Saudi Arabia after leaving the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discuss crises in Lebanon, Yemen and the wider region.  This happens simultaneous to the UAE announcing they too are examining bank accounts for their own officials, officers and leaders within their nation.

DUBAI (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron is making a previously unscheduled trip to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to see Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman amid rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, notably over Lebanon and Yemen.

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President Trump and President Xi Jinping will be holding a joint press announcement from the Grand Hall in Beijing China tonight at approximately 11:30pm (U.S. Eastern time zone). There will be two statements delivered, one from President Trump and one from President Xi.
Because all Chinese broadcasts are controlled by the communist regime, the White House will not host a live stream. However, the joint statement as delivered should be carried on cable TV and possibly included in the Live Stream Options Below:
UPDATE: Video Added

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After an hour of scheduled “closed-door” one-on-one “private” discussion between President Trump and President Xi, the leaders of both nations reassemble with their delegations for discussions between the larger groups.
Beijing Schedule: At 10:40am (local) / 9:40pm (U.S. Eastern) President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping lead an expanded bilateral meeting with their respective emissaries of trade, finance and national security.  (Video of initial remarks)

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(Pool Report) The meeting took place in an elaborately adorned room in the Great Hall of the People.  The US and Chinese delegations faced each other at a pair of long tables. Trump and Xi sat in the middle of the table. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US ambassador to China Terry Branstad stay on either side of Trump. Trump and Xi both spoke for a few minutes.
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As CTH provides an overview of President Trump’s historic visit to communist China the majority of our review is toward the geopolitical aspects.  China is a communist nation; many people forget that.  China’s central command and control authority goals are to dominate the globe with a disposition that China is the world’s center.

Therefore the optics and presentations from Beijing contain more audiences, and more nuance, than what is customary in a state visit with a non-adversarial free society.
China, Xi Jinping and Beijing’s communist old guard, approach the U.S. presidential visit from a dynamic unfamiliar to most U.S. observers and political watchers.  There are multiple audiences, internally and externally for China, being managed in this visit.   Additionally, the engagement with President Trump and First-Lady Melania Trump is both cultural and political.
Despite the complexity of the dynamic it is possible to locate indicators within this controlled script that later allows us to analyze the U.S. and Chinese engagement as future events present.   These important reviews of how Beijing is controlling the visit are not related to personal relationship dynamics or disrespect toward the U.S. President. The considerations are about the politics not the personality.
The personality of the participants may change; but the dynamic of the politics, the geopolitical face, presented by Beijing toward their ongoing goals and objectives, will remain constant for many years.  For our endeavors, it is the dynamic of the geopolitical face that becomes more important.  We are looking beyond the mask; whether it’s a panda mask or a dragon mask, it matters not. It’s always a mask. [Hope that makes sense.]
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Those who have followed the Chinese strategy of President Trump will note strong signals of success therein amid an advanced visit ground report from Reuters News Service.
BACKDROP – From the outset the Trump administration displayed a very specific strategy where respect toward China’s leadership was coupled with visible praise for their business acumen and kind words toward the culture of the Chinese people.
This became evident in Mar-a-largo when Prime Minister Xi Jinping and President Trump spent a weekend getting to know each other.
While the surface impression of the relationship is geopolitical adversaries, President Trump has also positioned himself inwardly toward the Chinese people as a modern counter cultural figure not concerned with political correctness and not ashamed of his business success.   This approach is intensely well received in the bamboo forest.
In a culture where the political and sociological influences have historically presented an outlook of affluence and influence as the measure of success, the image of unabashed and unapologetic opulent Trump represents the external personification of this perspective.
Quite simply, it becomes impossible for China’s control authority to ridicule a successful businessman -now influential politician- when they have been selling that image as an honorable goal for decades amid their own culture. The timing is remarkable in consequence.
Simultaneous to this impression, and in a very methodical plan to counter the expansive influence of China, President Trump has used the scale of the U.S. economy to create massive changes in geopolitical economic landscape.
While Trump’s Grandkids sing sweet Mandarin Chinese songs to Xi Jinping and Peng Liyaun (Xi’s wife and herself a cultural icon), he has simultaneously cultivated a powerful counter-leverage position with India’s Prime Minister Modi. In essence, President Trump has positioned himself -and as a consequence the United States- as a powerhouse to be courted by both sides.
India and China are direct and consequential economic adversaries.  President Trump has maneuvered our own U.S. economic policy into the position where that competitive dynamic is now leverage for U.S. economic engagement, trade deals, national security and long-term interests.
It is not coincidental that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson first injected the term “Indo-Pacific” into the geopolitical lexicon of U.S. policy.   It’s a brilliant strategy and paying huge dividends. Bigly.
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As any interested geopolitical observer will undoubtedly note, the Trump administration is systematically deconstructing the capability of multinational corporate interests to continue their decades-long exploitation of political and economic control.
Within that geopolitical battle President Donald Trump assembled a team of the sharpest, smartest and most patriotic U.S. economic insiders any administration has ever put together.  These are, quite frankly “the killers” President Trump talked about during the campaign.
The killers, dragon slayers amid the big and consequential battles, are, as an outcome of their intended objective, an existential threat to the influence of globalists who have held exclusive multinational economic control and influence for the past 30+ years.
Chief among the team is Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; a multi-billionaire in the strata of trade and finance, who, like Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, set aside his own life of wealth accumulation and went to work on behalf of team ‘America-First’.  The goal of Ross is to deconstruct and restructure international trade agreements which have been killing the American middle-class for decades.   In that role, Wilbur Ross is a preeminent threat.
It cannot be overstated how effective the America-First team are in carrying out their strategy.  USTR Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross are crushing their globalist opponents.
On virtually every continent the state actors within the multinational systems are reacting to the tectonic changes in geopolitical economics. India, China, Russia, the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Mexico, South America, Africa, Australia and the larger economies within the ASEAN nations are all changing or reversing their economic positions specifically because there’s a new head at the table of influence commanded by President Donald J Trump.
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President Trump and First Lady Melania depart Hawaii at 7:20am (local) / 1:20pm (EST) Saturday for their flight to Japan.  This should be an enjoyable portion of the 12-day trip as President Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are good friends, and Mrs. Melania Trump and Mrs. Akie Abe have met several times and have a good relationship.

On Sunday morning, President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will arrive in Tokyo, Japan. The President and the First Lady will participate in a Yokota Air Base event. In the afternoon, the President will have lunch with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and professional Japanese golfer Mr. Hideki Matsuyama. The President will then golf with Prime Minister Abe and Mr. Hideki Matsuyama. In the evening, the President and the First Lady will have dinner with Prime Minister Abe and Mrs. Akie Abe.
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United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was interviewed by Fox News host Laura Ingraham ahead of his important participation in the Asia trip.
Within the interview Ambassador Lighthizer shows his wolverine attitude toward the ongoing trade deals and his role within the larger geopolitical strategy of the Trump Doctrine.  There’s solid, affirming and unwavering economic insight within this interview.
Interestingly Lighthizer mentions the national security aspects inherent within the administration’s economic trade strategy. He details how his role, within the larger policy, is to focus intensely on achieving the best ‘America-First‘ trade deal possible. “Killers”.
Secretary Wilbur Ross (commerce), Secretary Steven Mnuchin (treasury), Secretary Rex Tillerson (state) and Secretary James Mattis (defense) then collate the outcome and ultimately President Trump makes the final decision.  Working in concert, together they map how to use the leverage within the Lighthizer’s deals to achieve national security objectives.

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At the invitation of Prime Minister Abe, President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump speaks at the World Assembly for Women in Japan about female participation in the economy. [Transcript Below]

Thank you very much Prime Minister Abe, for that kind introduction. And thank you for your gracious hospitality to my family.
This is my first visit to Japan, and the warmth you have shown us, the beauty of your landscape, and the vibrancy of your culture are truly incredible gifts to all who come to this country. Yesterday evening, as I arrived in Tokyo, I was struck by the magnificence of the skyline – and this morning I was awed by the ancient beauty of the Imperial Palace. The wonders of this land are a testament to the creativity and resilience of the Japanese people.
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