President Donald Trump travels to Corpus Christi, Texas, for an energy briefing and delivers remarks on U.S. energy independence. President Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at approximately 4:30pm ET. Livestream Links Below.
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The Obama-Biden administration couldn’t get the votes needed in Congress to amend the Clean Air Act and regulate “greenhouse gases.” So, they both decided to ignore the law and create trillions in regulatory costs on the American people.
As noted by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, “The Trump Admin is proudly following the law, saving $1.3 TRILLION for the American people, lowering new car costs by over $2,400 per vehicle, and getting rid of the climate participation trophy for manufacturers to install Obama Switches that shut vehicles off at red lights and stop signs.” WATCH:
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Media questions begin at 19:31.
In the past few years people have heard the term “rare earth minerals” or “critical minerals” as they relate to the manufacture of component goods that are vitally important in the lives of everyone. However, the term “rare” is somewhat of a misnomer. The minerals themselves are not rare; indeed, they have been around for hundreds of millions of years in abundant supply. It is the processing of those minerals into stable second stage commodities that has become rare.
As a result of western environmental rules and regulations, U.S, EU and developed nations have outsourced critical mineral processing (the dirty stuff) to China and Asia. We then import the finished commodity after processing. This becomes a problem when you realize the processor can weaponize western dependency, as we have recently seen with China controlling the export of processed minerals needed for manufacturing.
President Trump has made a strategic decision to bring back the manufacturing of critical minerals to the United States and has made a policy decision to create a critical mineral reserve. Just last Monday President Trump announced a $12 billion strategic mineral reserve to combat China’s domination of critical mineral supply chains, a major step toward tackling China’s advantage in a crucial sector of the U.S. economy. The initiative is called “Project Vault.”
“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions,” President Trump said. “Just as we have long had a strategic petroleum reserve and a stockpile of critical minerals for national defense, we are now creating this reserve for American industry,” Trump said during the Oval Office announcement.
Today in Washington DC, Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio led a critical minerals discussion at the State Dept., where they are organizing an effort to get all nations to invest and create their own critical minerals strategic reserves. WATCH:
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President Trump holds a roundtable discussion with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and various farm state senators as he outlines $12 billion in support and subsidy for American farmers.
With energy prices lowered, the costs for natural gas, fertilizer, diesel and gasoline prices have fallen; however, food costs have remained high. President Trump announced with Brooke Rollins an initiative to help support American farmers with the intended objective to lower production costs from the field that will hopefully transfer to the fork.
Secretary Rollins and President Trump announce a $12 billion bridge subsidy to assist farmers with proactive planning for the 2026 planting season. The money is coming from revenue generated by tariffs, and row crop farming will be the first subsidies delivered. WATCH (media questions begin at 31:40):
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin appeared for a podcast interview with Miranda Devine where he outlined billions of EPA dollars that were transferred to various passthroughs as an outcome of the Inflation Reduction Act (aka Green New Deal).
As noted by Administrator Zeldin, various investigations are now underway to determine who structured the payments as the EPA begins clawing back the money. The numbers are staggering, $20+ billion. WATCH:
🚨 EPA Head Lee Zeldin Says His Agency Was Used to Funnel BILLIONS From the Inflation Reduction Act to Fmr. Obama & Biden Officials
“They decided to park $20 billion at an outside bank and … send the money through eight NGO’s … that were riddled with … conflicts of interest” pic.twitter.com/WDqXWUHIBh
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) August 20, 2025
The full interview is below.
Following a cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump and the various cabinet members hold a public press availability to outline fraud discovered within the budgets and spending of the agencies they head. Several examples of demonstrable fraud were highlighted by DOGE team lead Elon Musk, the Small Business Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Dept of Energy, the Dept of Veterans Affairs and others.
President Trump explains that targeting the governmental spending “fraud” is critical as his administration focuses on growing the economy and bringing in major U.S. investment. Most of the spending being highlighted is fraud within the business model of U.S. politics. As noted by President Trump, it is not waste or abuse, it is simply fraud.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlines his expectations in advance of April 2nd, economic liberation day. HHS Secretary RFK Jr outlined how the DOGE team is helping to streamline the goals and objectives of the healthcare system. President Trump guides the MAGAnomic conversation around the various cabinet secretaries.
Dept of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem outlined how border patrol now has almost complete control over the U.S. border, and how the deportation operation is now removing record numbers of illegal aliens.
The Q&A session with media begins at 23:14 of the video above.
President Trump asks for Secretary Marco Rubio [24:57 of video] to review foreign policy and the Ukraine-Russia negotiations that are underway in Saudi Arabia. President Trump also notes the mid-east policy program is restarting the Abraham Accords to bring more nations into the alliance to stop regional hatred and create peace.
Around the 28:00 moment, President Trump notes the MAGAnomic policy initiatives that are starting to reduce prices. The price of energy input products is dropping rapidly along with gasoline and core food ingredients. Around 31:30 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlines how Treasury is positioning policy to assist in economic growth.
At approximately the 34:00-minute mark, President Trump asks Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about air safety and the goal of a new Air Traffic Control system. Secretary Duffy outlines the importance of DOGE to deliver solutions and assist with identifying problems.
Attorney General Pam Bondi who is primarily in position to keep the administration -and Trump himself- defended from Lawfare attacks, outlines how the DOJ is taking investigative referrals from the various cabinet members and will review identified instances of fraud for prosecution when warranted.
President Trump concludes the press availability by defending Elon Musk and his DOGE team from the attacks against him and his companies.
For many of us who walk the deep weeds of honest economic analysis, this is the moment we have been waiting for.
Second only to the elimination of the U.S-Marshal Plan, which is scheduled to end April 2, 2025, the structural implementation of North American tariffs against Mexico and Canada provides the most significant opportunity for GDP expansion, jobs, wage increases and massive economic gains in the United States.
Simultaneous to the tariffs scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, President Trump notes U.S. food prices are positioned for major supply-demand changes that will benefit all American consumers. What President Trump notes in the Truth Social message below, is a reality we experienced in 2018/2019 as the result of national agriculture supply.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC on Monday that the inflationary impact from any tariffs would be “second-order small, so I don’t see the president wavering on any of this, because he knows in order to get to a world in which America is strong and prosperous, with real wages going up and (more) factory jobs. This is the path that he’s chosen.” (more)
CTH outlined the prediction for ’18/’19 back in 2016 when we discussed what happens when the American food supply equation is modified to focus on domestic production to the benefit of domestic consumers. The food supply chain will shift, slowly at first and then ultimately by around Thanksgiving of this year (fall harvest) we will see major price drops in the American food basket.
There are going to be major opposition forces, notably related to decades of Big Ag exfiltration, screaming that U.S. consumers will see higher prices. However, as previously experienced/outlined these claims are entirely false. We will see major drops in food prices as a result of a more balanced U.S production-import/export dynamic.
Senate confirmation hearings for President Trump cabinet nominations continue today.
10 a.m.: Scott Turner, secretary of housing and urban development. Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Doug Burgum, interior secretary. 10:30 a.m.: Scott Bessent, Treasury secretary.
♦ Scott Turner, a former football player who served as a midlevel official in the first Trump administration, has been elevated as Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
♦ Former Representative Lee Zeldin of New York previously made an unsuccessful run for governor in the state in 2022. Now he has been tapped by President Trump to carry out his environmental policy and remove excessive climate regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency.
♦ Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum made a $1 billion fortune in the tech industry before running for governor. Burgum, who has longstanding ties to oil and gas companies will seek to fulfill the “drill baby drill” energy independence policy expressed by candidate Trump. Burgum would be in charge of managing vast swaths of federal land and coastal waters in the Interior Department, as well as leases of those lands for oil and gas drilling.
♦ Scott Bessent is a billionaire hedge fund manager who has been a central economic adviser to Mr. Trump as the president-elect created a campaign agenda centered on raising tariffs on imported goods. Mr. Bessent, who will oversee some of America’s most powerful economic levers in the Treasury Department, has called for rolling back government subsidies, deregulating the economy and raising domestic energy production.
Burgum and Bessent will get the majority of attention from the ‘resistance’ democrats and the Moonbats amid their climate change base.
Big Agriculture and Big Pharma were both preparing for a serious battle over food, chemicals, drugs and various health matters they control, with RFK Jr appointed to lead Health and Human Services (HHS). With that many trillions at stake, the scale of political capital needed to confront Big Ag and Big Rx was going to be astronomical.
If these reports are accurate, today Big Ag and Big Rx will breathe a collective sigh of relief, and President Trump will not have to worry about RFK Jr creating distractions from other priorities. All in all, an expected approach.
This has not yet appeared on Truth Social, however, apparently, Susie Wiles is expected to announce the nomination of Kelly Loeffler for Secretary of Agriculture.
[Source]
Former Senator Kelly Loeffler is the wife of Jeffrey Sprecher. Kelly Loeffler was approved by the Sea Island control group, then appointed by Georgia Governor Kemp because Loeffler is married to Jeffrey Sprecher; a GOPe party insider, mega-donor, and multi-millionaire CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
Jeffrey Sprecher (formerly from the Bush administration) is the founder and CEO of ICE, which now owns the New York Stock Exchange. Kelly Loeffler’s company, the financial platform Bakkt, is a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange. Bakkt is currently in the process of creating a Crypto exchange, with hopes of making Bakkt to U.S. Crypto what the NYSE is to stocks.
Kelly Loeffler purchased her recent Trump insiders’ ticket from Susie Wiles by leading the inauguration committee. Where ‘leading’ is essentially financing it with her circle of friends. On the upside, with this level of attachment to the Wall Street multinationals, the likely nomination of Loeffler to protect corporate food interests should settle down the opposition to RFK Jr in the Senate nomination process.
Appearing on Fox News, Venture Capital Chairman Kevin O’Leary outline the anticipated impact of RFK Jr. as HHS secretary on businesses, President Trump’s plan to reducing government costs via Elon Musk, and what to expect with Doug Burgum as interior secretary. WATCH:
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