Those who followed the first-term trade negotiations will likely remember the challenges of dealing with the European Union and their entrenched dependency on retaining the Marshall Plan system; a one-way tariff process that enabled Europe to rebuild after World War II.

Unfortunately, as with all long-term financial subsidies, the beneficiary becomes dependent and retaining benefit is their only objective.

Former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross spent the majority of his time focused on trying to negotiate with the EU to remove these ridiculous trade benefits that have long exhausted their usefulness.  Enough is enough.

Term-two Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has the same regional assignment formerly held by Wilbur Ross, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in full support.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ASEAN nations as his primary regional focus, Lutnick’s primary region is the EU and President Trump is personally attentive to China and the USMCA.  USTR Greer then goes to the primary with the closest deal under consideration and organizes the paper construct, the technical aspects.  It’s an overall similar arrangement to term-1 only with a much bigger scope.

As would be expected from historic reference points in trying to break this insufferable one-way Marshall Plan system, the EU is once again operating in bad faith and will not give up their status.  When President Trump says the entire reason for the EU to form was to ensure their retention of this Marshall Plan benefit, he’s not wrong.  That’s the brutally honest background.

President Trump has announced today that a 50% tariff rate will be applied toward all EU imports until such a time as they come to the negotiation process willing to let go of their economic model dependent on the one-way benefit.  There really is no other way to break the Gordian trade knot, other than to cut it – forcefully.

President Trump (via Truth Social) – “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable. Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

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Earlier today President Trump held a 2-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The objective of President Trump is clear; however, he is battling against recent history and the domestic political environment within Washington DC.

President Trump provides a summary via Truth Social: “Just completed my two-hour call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. I believe it went very well. Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War. The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.

The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later. Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic “bloodbath” is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED.  Likewise, Ukraine can be a great beneficiary on Trade, in the process of rebuilding its Country. Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately.

I have so informed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of Germany, and President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, during a call with me, immediately after the call with President Putin. The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations. Let the process begin!”

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Nicușor Dan was the pro-EU, pro-war and pro-NATO Romanian presidential candidate supported by Brussels.

When Nicușor Dan came in second place in the first round of elections, CTH noted he was very likely to succeed because the stakes are just too high for the European Union.  The largest NATO military base in Europe is being built in Romania.

There was simply no way the collective assembly of the Intelligence Community, the military industrial complex, the pro-Ukraine elements, the anti-Russia NATO/EU alliance were going to allow defeat.   As expected, Dan won.

BUCHAREST — Romania elected a centrist president in a major surprise after an intense campaign in which voters looked likely to propel another hard-right populist to lead a large European country. 

Despite coming a distant second in the first round two weeks ago, the moderate mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, won by a decisive 8-point majority over his radical rival, George Simion, who conceded defeat early Monday after initially declaring himself the winner. 

With 99.8 percent of polling stations counted by 1:50 a.m. local time Monday, Dan had won 53.8 percent to 46.2 percent for Simion. Turnout was 65 percent, the highest since 1996.  (more)

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A meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin brings with it the focus of the entire world.  For a myriad of geopolitical reasons both domestically and abroad, there are ‘trillion-dollar’ interests who want to keep them apart.

Earlier today, fearing that President Trump might actually travel to Turkey, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte and Senator Lindsey Graham quickly arranged dispatch to intercept and participate.  The global intelligence apparatus wants to keep Trump and Putin apart, so too does the NATO alliance, the CIA, the U.K and every other influence agent in partial control of the USA proxy war against Russia using Ukraine.

A decade of carefully scripted narratives against President Trump and any forward leaning Russian foreign policy sits in the background, with an almost incalculable number of opposition elements aligned against President Trump forming any positive USA-Russia relationship.  There’s quite literally almost no place on the planet where President Trump and Vladimir Putin could meet without hearing the drumbeat of opposition against their assembly.  Almost….

For President Trump and Vladimir Putin to join in strategic interest is to disrupt the global order of things, and I do mean everything.  The military industrial complex, the global banking system, the World Economic Forum assembly, the multinational stock markets, the world trade system, the entire European continent, Asian continent, Australian continent, African continent and North American continent, as well as every conflict therein, could be impacted by joint decisions between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.  To say the stakes are high, would be to understate the scale of the dynamic.

In this interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio seems to nurture the seeds placed by President Trump in his earlier remarks about sitting down with Vladimir Putin to hammer out the details of a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia.  The entire world pretends not to know that all of the military engagement within Ukraine and around Ukraine, is essentially a proxy war between the USA and Russia. A potential meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin destroys that framework.  This is heavy stuff.  WATCH:

Keep in mind that President Trump has been speaking to Vladimir Putin directly via phone, and consequentially through his emissary Steven Witkoff.  Vladimir Putin has been speaking to President Trump through the same channel.

A face-to-face meeting was always going to happen, the only part of the dynamic we were awaiting was how the two presidents were going to coordinate the meeting of consequence, and how would President Trump ditch the U.S. control elements.

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Emphasizing the need for President Trump and President Putin to come together and cut the gordian knot, Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a press conference from Turkey explaining the background situation.  WATCH: 

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The talks between Ukraine and Russia on the neutral turf of Turkey turned into a geopolitical game of theatrics and narrative competition following the announcement that Vladimir Putin would not attend.

NATO Secretary Mark Rutte traveling to Turkey (a posturing participant) is yet another indication of the stupidity of it all.  Ukraine is not a NATO country and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, while it may be grounded in the origin of NATO encroachment, does not involve NATO unless you inject the ancillary issues into the equation.   All of this extraneous party posturing shows the reason why Russian President Putin did not attend.

After a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, Zelenskyy chose to leave for home announcing he would send a delegation as the Russian group sat waiting for their peers to arrive.  The back-and-forth between the two nations played out all day without any substantive negotiations or discussions.   Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg sat around in a holding pattern waiting to see if the two sides would eventually have representatives in place to talk to each other.

Making a statement from Air Force One, President Trump seemed to encapsulate the dynamic saying he did not think any progress was likely until he personally met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Look, nothing is gonna happen until Putin and I get together,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One en route to the United Arab Emirates. “And he wasn’t gonna go … He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there. And I don’t believe anything will happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we are gonna have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”

Later this afternoon Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemed to confirm that a Putin/Trump meeting was going to be needed to break the stalemate.

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Previously we watched Brussels organize pro-EU rallies in Great Britain (they lost), Hungary (they lost), the Netherlands (they lost), Poland (they won), Georgia (they lost), Moldova (they won) while Germany & France still in a state of flux.  Now the EU/NATO operation focuses on Romania.

With eurosceptic George Simion winning the first-round election and leading in the polls, the EU/NATO must increase their influence operation, or they lose position.

The largest NATO base is currently being constructed in Romania and Brussels cannot afford to permit the Romanian people to be an impediment to their militaristic progress.

The narrative is the same each time; if the citizens of the targeted country vote to support their own nationalistic interests, they are Russian sympathizers.

The pro-EU rally organizers are the same people who showed up in Warsaw, Prague, Budapest and Tblisi.

BUCHAREST, May 9 (Reuters) – Thousands of people rallied in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, and other cities in support of the European Union on Friday, one week before a presidential election run-off that could see a hard-right eurosceptic sweep into power.

Hard-right nationalist George Simion won the first round of the presidential ballot on Sunday, and an opinion survey earlier this week showed him leading ahead of the May 18 run-off vote against centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan.

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Vice President JD Vance appears on Fox News to discuss the current status of negotiations and contact points to engage both the Russians and Ukrainians in a ceasefire.

From the response by Vance, it appears the Russians have the intention to gain a slightly larger part of Ukraine before they decide to enter discussions about halting the operation. As a result, the administration is awaiting the conclusion.  WATCH (prompted):

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President Trump is scheduled to announce the first negotiated trade deal in the global trade reset with the United States.  The deal is between the U.K and the USA, which is interesting as a UK free trade agreement was being worked on at the time COVID-19 hit in 2020.

Back in 2019 President Trump and then Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were working two strategic trade negotiations at the same time that never materialized. The first was an FTA with the U.K and the second was with the EU.  The nuance of the U.K deal was favorable and structurally aligned to create leverage against the EU negotiations. It will be interesting to see how this one is structured.

From President Trump this morning on Truth Social: “The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come. Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement. Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!”

UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED

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Vice President JD Vance speaks at the DC session of the Munich Security Conference.   Inside the discussion JD Vance outlines the status of President Trump foreign policy in a host of regions.

The status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  The perspective of the Trump administration toward NATO and the EU.  The relationship between President Trump and the European leadership in Brussels.  The China issue.  The ongoing trade discussions.  The middle-east, Iran, Gaza and the upcoming President Trump trip to Saudi Arabia.

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