National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hasset; Senior Policy Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller; and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz join White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for daily press briefing in the Brady room of the White House.
The three senior advisors to President Trump join Leavitt to celebrate the first month of anniversary of the inauguration. WATCH:
I enjoy Kevin ‘Sid‘ Hassett very much. He was awesome in Trump’s first term as an economic advisor, and he’s even better in term two as the Director of the National Economic Council (NEC).
When the people who controlled Joe Biden lost the 2024 election, they were angry. They wanted to leave President Trump with as big a mess as possible and all actions were taken to create chaos that Trump would have to deal with. Intellectually honest people noticed.
Part of their chaos operation was to drive up the cost of food, intentionally create inflation that Trump would have to handle. The “bird flu” issue was part of the plan. After the 2020 election the U.S. Dept of Agriculture ordered millions of chickens to be killed. Simple quarantine process was dismissed in favor of a ridiculous slaughter.
During a CBS interview today, Margaret Brennan asked Kevin Hassett what the Trump administration was going to do about food inflation, and specifically the astronomical cost of eggs. Hassett outlined the plan by first reminding Brennan that regarding spread, chickens don’t fly; ducks and geese do. I almost spit out my coffee. I enjoy Kevin Hassett. Video and Transcript Below:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We want to turn now to the economy and inflation, which, compared to last January, ticked up about 3% last week. Kevin Hassett is the director of the National Economic Council, and he joins us now. Good morning to you, Director.
KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Good morning, Margaret, good morning.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, I don’t have to tell you, but the rest of the country saw their egg prices at the grocery store go up. We’re now at a record high due to that bird flu outbreak, but also labor costs, and that’s contributing to food costs overall. When will the administration get that outbreak under control?
I have written about the Trump Doctrine for several years; however, as we enter this critical inflection moment perhaps a revisit is worthwhile to consider.
What you will notice from President Trump’s responses to questions during foreign leader engagements is the unique nature of his honesty. In the most consequential of ways, President Trump is the most consequential foreign policy leader in generations. We forget that during Trump’s first term in office, the headlines about North and South Korea were not about conflict, but rather about the possibility of unification on the Korean peninsula.
President Trump executes a unique 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 using economics to achieve national security objectives and global peace is a fundamental paradigm shift. Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference for the effective outcome.
President Trump doesn’t just represent an office or title, nor does he simply represent the majority of the American people; President Trump’s voice is the voice of every ordinary person, what the non-English speaking world defines as “simple people,” and he channels a global message from the majority to the top of the highest power structures.
Today, President Donald J Trump signed an executive order triggering the first ever system of “reciprocal trade tariffs,” a seismic change in U.S. trade policy that will also consider the respective nation’s VAT (Value Added Tax) tariff.
Within the executive order [as outlined], the Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative will consider foreign industry subsidies, and non-monetary tariff barriers as part of the determination of the tariff levied. This is a stunning shift in U.S trade agreements that will cut through all the angles being deployed to avoid U.S. tariffs and block U.S exports into their country.
The policy will pressure foreign nations to lower their trade barriers to U.S. goods and eliminate disparity in foreign trade agreements. One big example will be the impact on the EU through the continuing Marshall Plan. The EU will now face reciprocal tariffs and no longer benefit from one-way tariff acceptance. There are obviously no tariffs on products made inside the USA.
With “reciprocal tariffs” the Commerce Dept and USTR will now determine the trade imbalances with each individual country and will evaluate each FTA (Free Trade Agreement), one-by-one to deconflict the trade imbalance. Direct tariffs, subsidies, regulatory hurdles, non-monetary trade barriers and hidden export subsidies will be addressed as part of the reciprocity evaluation. This is a completely new dynamic in the era of modern global trade and economics.
During the executive order signing event, President Trump took questions from the media. WATCH:
Between now and April 1st, each individual trade agreement will be evaluated with consideration for all facets of the cost for American companies to export to the evaluated nation. Direct tariffs, Value Added Taxes (VAT), state subsidies and non-monetary regulatory tariff barriers, will be determined for each nation. That nation will then be made aware of the tariff against each sector within their export system to the United States.
Effective April 2, 2025, President Trump will then have the tariff data provided by the USTR and Secretary of Commerce. President Trump will determine when the reciprocal tariff will be triggered and will likely engage in discussions with the leaders of the foreign nations.
These fireside chat-style impromptu pressers during executive order signings are awesome. The revolutionary change in government transparency and communication is, well, quite literally historic and stunning. The media can ask questions in real-time as the specific policy is implemented and explained, while simultaneously the ability of the media to shape an anti-Trump policy narrative is removed.
If you have followed the arc of Tech, Peter Thiel recruiting JD Vance, the creation of Palantir, the funding of Vance’s senatorial run, and eventually the roadmap to connect Vance to Trump, this is a video speech you absolutely must not miss. JD Vance was sent to the AI Summit for a reason.
JD Vance talks at the AI summit in Paris, France, about his core mission, his core purpose inside current political influence. This is the very origin of his legacy, unfolding in real time. Vice-President JD Vance talks about Artificial Intelligence, the future and the Trump administration position.
Vice President JD Vance warned European leaders against heavily regulating U.S. tech companies and said excessive efforts by the European Union to regulate artificial intelligence could stymie its growth, during an AI summit in Paris Tuesday that marks his first foreign trip since taking office. WATCH:
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Do you feel more or less confident about the future, having watched these remarks?
U.K Pundit Neil Oliver provides a platform for a very important conversation.
Two researchers, Sasha Latypova and Debbie Lerman, appear with Mr. Oliver to discuss the “COVID DOSSIER.” An extensive research document that outlines how the origin of the COVID-19 response originated from within the military and intelligence community and not, NOT, from public health officials.
As Sasha, Debbie and Neil discuss, regardless of the SARS-CoV-2 origination, what really matters is what the apparatus of the global intelligence community did in the aftermath of what was called a “global pandemic virus.”
“It is crucially important to understand that COVID was a globally coordinated response based on legal frameworks intended for biodefense/biowarfare situations. The attack that initiated the global COVID response could have been real, perceived, or invented—regardless of the trigger, the lockdown-until-vaccine paradigm originated in the military/intelligence biodefense playbook, not in any scientifically based or epidemiologically established public health plan. [ref]
This means that nothing about the response—masking, distancing, lockdowns, vaccines—was part of a public health plan to respond to a disease outbreak. Rather, every aspect of the response was intended to induce public panic in order to gain compliance with biodefense operations, culminating with the injection of unregulated mRNA products, which were legally treated as biodefense military countermeasures (MCMs), into billions of human beings.”
In a strange way, the timing of this research publication release aligns with my current concerns about DOGE revelations within the USA about the USAID and CIA activity.
In short, I worry the “old system of control” mechanisms are no longer needed. The Western global intelligence apparatus, driven primarily by the USA intelligence community, is moving on from public influence operations that required widespread convincing and propaganda. I fear a “new system of control” will be technologically driven and triggered by newly created technological mechanisms.
This is where Real ID, Facial Recognition, Palantir AI and govt funded technological interfaces could come into play.
Get ready for a key geopolitical battle; the fight to end the Marshall Plan.
Since the end of World War II, the USA has permitted a system of one-way trade rules that allowed Europe to rebuild on the backs of the American economy. A series of trade tariffs against U.S. goods was imposed to raise funds for the reconstruction. Those tariffs never ended; the Marshall Plan continues through today.
Additionally, as a measure to allow the EU to focus internally, the USA provided most of the national security protection for the entire region and the American taxpayer funded U.S. military operations throughout Europe so the EU could spend defense money on their rebuilding. Again, that never really ended; and the USA maintains the largest majority of NATO military spending.
President Trump has stated his intention to reset both dynamics. To lower the USA footprint within NATO, demand every NATO member meet its financial obligations, and to reset the trade and tariff system to create equity and reciprocity; thereby effectively ending the Marshall Plan.
The aggregate European Union does not like this Trump trade agenda, nor are they willing to spend more on their own defense. Today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held a press briefing where she spoke about the looming negotiations with President Trump, and stated the EU will never permit financial, economic or military equity. The EU will fight any effort to stop the Marshall Plan. WATCH:
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There are trillions at stake.
It is always, always, about the economics of the thing.
Big Panda has a problem, and his name is President Donald Trump.
CTH went (proactively) directly into the heart of the Chinese Potemkin Village, much like my trip to Russia, to specifically see what the reality is on the ground in the region of all Beijing influence. Where the East meets the West you will find a hot mess of propaganda, kept in place by widespread geopolitical pretending.
Never was that reality clearer, than in the example of the retaliatory tariffs announced in response to President Trump’s trade tariffs.
(Via AP) – China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday. {link}
First, tariffs on energy products are pure propaganda. Coal, LNG and crude oil are fungible. In the case of China the energy products arrive from a global market, there is no identifiable way to tariff American energy products. This is not like Canada where the Candian energy products are entirely dependent on pipelines into the USA, and therefore unavoidably easy to tariff by Trump.
Chairman Xi gets most of the Chinese imported energy resources from Russia, specifically Coal, LNG and Crude Oil. So, this subset of tariffs against American energy products is pure propaganda, essentially moot.
You know who buys USA-made “large-engine cars” (Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Ford Raptors) in China? People well connected to the Chinese Communist Party, that’s who. If you are not a member of the elite ruling class in China, you do not buy large-engine cars. So, what exactly is the intent on this one? The target is a domestic internal political apparatus, in combination with narrative creation that Beijing believes will create the biggest splash headlines in the West. That’s it. Again, pure political propaganda.
Oh, this is a little funny. The vertically challenged Ukrainian president who dresses like a UPS driver, is now likely to make a deal with President Trump where Ukraine puts up their “rare earth minerals” as collateral for taxpayer funds received by the United States.
Previously President Trump remarked that U.S. leadership were “stupid” for not securing Afghanistan future mineral contracts in exchange for U.S. military operations. Talking about the Ukrainian expectation from the oval office earlier today, President Trump outlined his expectations that Volodymyr Zelenskyy put up the rare earth minerals as collateral for continued financial support. WATCH:
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday indicated that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth materials as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Russia.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump complained that the U.S. had sent more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine than its European partners, adding, “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”
Knowing the severe ramifications likely and taking a proactive approach toward root-cause analysis, CTH attended the ASEAN summit to gauge how Asia was likely to respond to Trump term-2 and the looming possibility of a severe nationalist approach toward a renewal of USA manufacturing. The untangling of the Beijing Belt & Road initiative was a key topic of interest noted. [Watch Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.]
Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Panama this weekend to express the position of President Donald Trump as it pertains to Chinese influence over the maritime transit gateway known as the Panama Canal. Following the meeting with President José Raúl Mulino, the government of Panama has announced they will no longer support China’s Belt & Road initiative.
STATE DEPT – Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino and Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha today in Panama City to address critical regional and global challenges. Secretary Rubio informed President Mulino and Minister Martínez-Acha that President Trump has made a preliminary determination that the current position of influence and control of the Chinese Communist Party over the Panama Canal area is a threat to the canal and represents a violation of the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal. Secretary Rubio made clear that this status quo is unacceptable and that absent immediate changes, it would require the United States to take measures necessary to protect its rights under the Treaty.
