President Trump has revoked the special white house access privileges of CNN, MSNow and Politico.  Those outlets and all of the other self-centered media allies who make everything about themselves, have promised to file lawsuits.

The media claim that President Trump has removed their First Amendment rights by revoking their special White House access cards, seats on Airforce One and privilege tents on the white house grounds.  Apparently, if the media don’t get the luxuries of influence they claim their rights are removed – or something equally stupid.

JD Vance is asked about it as he departs Joint Base Andrews for a campaign rally in North Carolina.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins CNBC ‘Squawk Box’ this morning to discuss his 12-hour meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.  Within the interview Bessent details the ‘U.S.-China AI Dialogue’, the calls for a slowdown in AI development and whether regulation is needed.

Secretary Bessent notes President Trump is not going to deliver liability immunity to AI frontier labs and existing legal frameworks within the U.S. will remain as protective pathways as development moves from AI labs into engineering outcomes.

This is the core of the issue. The investors that poured money into the AI labs, now support immunity from legal liability that doesn’t exist in any other sector other than Big Pharma. AI wants the same protection as Big Pharma, and President Trump is not going to allow the shift in responsibility from AI developers to government. WATCH:

Also below is the full debriefing from Secretary Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer that followed the Sunday meeting between the U.S. and Chinese counterparts.

As CTH has noted, the pace of these critical economic developments is going to speed up over the next several days and weeks.  It becomes increasingly important to stay tuned-in to the granular issues as they unfold in order to fully appreciate the landscape that surrounds us.   It can be challenging to absorb information as the pace increases, yet it is critical to remain aware so that each building block in the nationalist policy making remains in context.

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Perhaps due to timing, or maybe content combined with the pragmatic answers dropping all pretense; or maybe, it’s just the two interviewers representing the globalist opposition and Greer facing them both down with easy dispatch. I’m not sure why, but this is one of the best discussions/interviews with USTR Jamieson Greer ever.

Soup to nuts Greer explains the policy, issues, friction points and pragmatic approaches that apply to economic adversaries like China.  Greer just cuts to the chase, you cannot truly negotiate with China because nothing about them is going to change, ever.  So, you manage your relationship with them, limit your exposure and limit as much risk as possible. Greer is exactly correct and makes no excuses. Pure economic pragmatism.

The same outlook applies to Canada.  Again, Greer isn’t playing the pretending game, and the panelist inquisitors are left jaw-agape while trying to frame a headline capture.  Listen to the conflict issues as outlined by Greer.  Canada is “doubling down on globalism”, the USA is not. That means we can never reach agreement, period – full stop, end of it!

Greer comes back to this point several times, including at the end when he outlines all the reasons why President Trump will terminate the USMCA trade pact.   This is a must watch interview:    

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This interview is like kryptonite to Canadians who are so caught up in their pontificating arrogance (Bloomberg) that they just cannot fathom the weakness of their position.  Canadian’s have bought the lies and nonsense from Carney, and it is very challenging to remain respectful of the Canadian position.

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Days after President Trump asks Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, Zelenskyy takes the attacks up a notch and brags about all of the different NATO country missile systems being used to attack Russian oil refineries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X, “One of Russia’s key oil industry facilities and the aggressor’s logistics facility were hit. These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine. The systems used included FP-1, RZ-100, MICH-2000, Palianytsia, Vendetta, Liutyi, Bars, Flamingo, Sichen, and Pelican.”

Everyone can see this game for what it is.

Everyone can see it.

After weeks of various European/NATO countries hyping pending attacks from Russia, Zelenskyy now begins to name the missile systems being provided by those countries to target Russia.  Zelenskyy and the EU-NATO group are intentionally trying to draw a Russian military response against the support the European countries are providing to Ukraine.

Zelenskyy is naming the missile systems as part of that antagonistic effort, and his NATO allies do it on the last day of the Russian elections.  Specifically timed and coordinated for maximum propaganda use.

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We can expect the pace of things to become increasingly fast in the next few weeks.

To our north, a small percentage of Canadians are just beginning to realize what the term “Associate Member” really means when it comes to a Canada joining with the European Union on strategic objectives.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has been selling a sovereignty argument to his constituents within his political package of antagonisms toward the U.S. trade team and President Trump. However, Europe has far greater restrictions and regulations on trade autonomy than the USA.  If Canada is to be partnered to the EU, then suddenly Canada has to adhere to a higher level of trade restrictions.  The EU makes the rules.

With Europe dictating trade standards, rules of production, manufacturing, access etc. Canada is no longer in alignment with the USMCA.  This plays right into the hands of President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who would prefer two distinctly different bilateral trade agreements; one with Mexico and one with Canada.

The question then becomes, when do Trump and Greer announce the termination of the USMCA.  The most reasonable answer is after the U.S. and Mexico finalize a bilateral trade agreement.  With the U.S. and Mexico agreement confirmed, the Canadian leverage evaporates.

Carney had previously tried to pressure Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum not to reach bilateral terms.  However, again return to what Carney just did with Europe.  Telling Mexico to sit on their hands while organizing a separate side deal with Europe is more than a little hypocritical; in fact, it is really, really insulting.

This opens the door for Trump and Greer to exploit Carney’s self-centered political duplicity, and when you understand that dynamic you have context for why there’s suddenly a warmer embrace of such an agreement by Sheinbaum.  Any hope that Carney had to rely on Mexican favor toward them, was just eliminated by the gleeful backslapping in Strasbourg France witnessed by everyone.

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This is big.  Through this executive order President Trump is defining fraud, corruption and abuse within the H1B visa system as a “national security threat.”  That designation gives DHS and State Dept officials an elevated power-set to immediately introduce corrective action.

….”The systematic and organized abuse of the H-1B program is also a national security threat”…

Many of us have wanted urgent action on this matter.  President Trump has addressed forcefully. [EXECUTIVE ORDER HERE]

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. The H-1B nonimmigrant visa program was created to identify uniquely skilled and highly specialized foreign temporary workers to strategically supplement the United States economy. Instead, the program has been widely abused by certain employers, third-party placement groups, and outsourcing firms to undercut and displace the supply of skilled United States labor. The large-scale, systematic abuse of the H-1B program to obtain non-qualifying foreign labor has undermined the additive purpose of the program and harmed the wages, working conditions, and job opportunities of skilled American workers.

The abuse of cheaper H-1B labor places downward pressure on domestic pay. H-1B visa holders earn far less than comparable United States-born workers, despite the statutory mandate that H-1B workers be paid equally to their domestic peers, with the estimated wage gap starting at $9,000 and climbing as high as $20,000 in H-1B reliant industries. One company even warned its shareholders that restrictions on cheap H-1B labor could force the company to use “local” workers, which “may only be available at higher wages.”

Many employers have laid off large numbers of highly skilled American workers, only to promptly hire large numbers of H-1B workers who are often lower-skilled and lower-paid. For instance, technology sector employers have collectively requested H-1B visas for hundreds of thousands of workers, yet have also laid off somewhere between 800,000 to 1.3 million American employees from 2022 through 2026. Employers have even forced laid off American workers to train their foreign replacements.

Many jobs held by H-1B workers eventually leave the United States entirely. Employers with outsourcing business models use teams of H-1B visa holders to replace United States workers at third‑party client businesses and liaise with other individuals working off-site from their country of origin. As soon as practicable, much of their own work is transferred offshore. In Fiscal Year 2026, the top six users of the H-1B program operating with this outsourcing business model accounted for over 25,000 H-1B cap registrations. One foreign country’s foreign minister even publicly admitted that H-1B “has become the outsourcing visa.”

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**Bumped By Request**

I have written, deleted, remained quiet and also absorbed frustration likely similar to many of you.  Now, perhaps, it is worth presenting the brutal truth of the matter; or, as was said in my family, it’s time to call the baby ugly.

Since the resignation of Joe diGenova as counsel to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche there have been many opinions shared. diGenova himself has given statements to some media outlets {NBC, non-paywall}. Other outlets have encapsulated with their customary spin {Citation}, and diGenova has also talked to others we might consider closer allied to a presentation of truth {source}.

As with all matters of significance, there are points missed, context missing, structural understandings that go beyond quick articles or soundbites. This is one of those examples.  It’s highly likely the White House and Main Justice had a strong opinion about the pace of the South Florida effort and the lack of substantive action; I mean, aren’t we all?  However, the root of the issue is one I am very familiar with, and with that in mind here’s the part that very few really understand.

If I had to give you the cliff notes version it would sound like this:  Yes, the slowness is the problem, but the context is not entirely accurate. One of diGenova (and anyone else’s) problems, is that they don’t know the background material well enough.  I have personally encountered this so much I no longer get frustrated; it just is what it is. 

The investigators, prosecutors, inquisitors et al, spend too much time trying to figure out the storyline, and it is the storyline that is critical.  Because, well, in brutal honesty, they don’t know it. They know it in a cursory fashion, at a high level; at a level of political talking points, media hits, clickbait headline discussion; but unfortunately, that’s not good enough for this case.

A granular level working knowledge of the specifics of Spygate and Russiagate are needed. That level of learning, understanding takes up so much time that it becomes almost impossible for them to act decisively and quickly. It is the complexity of the matter that becomes a self-fulfilling defense. Joseph diGenova was/is no exception. This is the central problem with all of these guys; they just don’t know the material well enough.

I’m not making excuses, I’m stating facts.  Facts that are based upon my personal experience after almost a decade deep inside this issue.

That’s the cliff notes.  If you want the full understanding, keep reading.

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All of the datapoints on this event look sketchy.  I’m not saying there was intentional foul play at work, but the appearance of foul play in combination with the obtuse descriptions therein, cannot be avoided.  It just looks sketchy.

Exxon’s key refinery in Joliet, Illinois, produces gasoline and diesel fuel.  The facility handles 275,000 barrels of crude per day, producing about 11 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel every day. {SOURCE}

The refinery operation has been offline for a week following a power disruption “found on ComEd’s primary and secondary power lines feeding into the Joliet refinery.”  The company made the statement on Thursday, adding that power to the refinery was fully restored.  However, with the power turned off floodwater overwhelmed a pumping station leading to flooding around the refinery which has compounded the outage.

The timing of this; the type of problem, together with the location (40 miles southwest of Chicago, Ill, near the intersection of Interstate 55 and the DesPlaines River) are aligned datapoints in a review of the consequence.  Given the nature of geopolitics right now and the intention to politically weaponize the price of gasoline and diesel, everything just looks too coincidental.

NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil said floodwater overwhelmed a pump at its 275,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Joliet, Illinois, according to a filing on Thursday.  A containment boom had been deployed as part of the cleanup effort, the filing shows.

Exxon took the Joliet refinery offline on Sunday after a power outage triggered the facility’s safety flare.

The source of the outage was found on ComEd’s primary and secondary power lines feeding into the Joliet refinery, the company said in a statement on Thursday, adding that power to the refinery was fully restored.

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President Trump held a press availability in the oval office earlier today.  At 24:30 of the video below President Trump takes questions from the assembled press pool. WATCH:

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This afternoon, President Trump announced via Truth Social that he is banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House press pool.

(Via Truth Social) – “I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW (who recently changed their name from MSNBC due to lack of viewership and credibility!), and Politico (The recipients of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription, an All Time Record, directly from the United States Government, under Crooked Joe Biden, in order to keep them “alive.” Seems like corruption to me!), from the White House as a result of their constant “reporting” FAKE NEWS! Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America. Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter! ~President DONALD J. TRUMP

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