This evening President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host the 2019 White House Historical Society Association Dinner.

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[Transcript] East Room – THE FIRST LADY: Good evening. Please, sit down. The President and I are delighted to be with you, all of you, this evening as we celebrate the incredible work of the White House Historical Association over this past year and prepare for our continued work to preserve and restore the People’s House in the years to come.
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The overall strategery here is brilliant.  After two years of rope-a-dope…. Trump exits the corner for the championship rounds in the trade fight: First the body blow, China boxed-in with trade confrontation and consequences of retreat from agreement (Mnuchin and Lighthizer);… Then whammo, the roundhouse XO placing telecom under national security review (Navarro and Pillsbury); then upper-cut, Wilburine places Hauwei and affiliates on Commerce Dept. trade blacklist…  Lions and Killers and Strategists, oh my.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday it is adding Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and 70 affiliates to its so-called “Entity List” – a move that bans the telecom giant from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval.
U.S. officials told Reuters the decision would also make it difficult if not impossible for Huawei, the largest telecommunications equipment producer in the world, to sell some products because of its reliance on U.S. suppliers.
Under the order that will take effect in the coming days, Huawei will need a U.S. government license to buy American technology. Huawei did not immediately comment.

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Here we go….  President Trump is laying the groundwork to ban telecommunication companies based on identified risk to national security (ie. Huawei).  Nations who engage in 5-G technology agreements are on notice they may be cut-off from communication partnerships with the U.S.A.

[I think Wall Street just pee’d their pants a little..]

[Executive Order] By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and services, which store and communicate vast amounts of sensitive information, facilitate the digital economy, and support critical infrastructure and vital emergency services, in order to commit malicious cyber-enabled actions, including economic and industrial espionage against the United States and its people.
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Earlier today President Trump delivered a speech during the 38th annual National Peace Officers Memorial tribute.  During remarks President Trump invited the family of slain police officer Ronil Singh to the podium. Singh was shot and killed in Newman, California during a traffic stop in December 2018. The accused gunman was in the US illegally and had previously been arrested twice for DUI.

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[Transcript] U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. – 11:50am EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. Please, thank you. What a beautiful day. Third time. And I have to say, this is the most beautiful weather, so that brings us a little luck and it brings us a little happiness.
Chuck, I want to thank you for the great job that you’ve done. Your devotion has been incredible. I’ve known you a long time. We work together. And congratulations, really, on doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Chuck. (Applause.)
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Good discussion between Tom Friedman and Steve Bannon on the ‘big picture’ of the U.S. -vs- China geopolitical trade confrontation.   Friedman is an insufferable prog on methods, but he recognizes the President Trump approach is necessary.  Worth Watching:

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Where academic Friedman is helplessly naive is on the key point of how a coalition approach toward China is a pipe-dream.  When it comes to economics each entity has unique self-interests.  Put fifty self-interested governments together (ie. TPP) and you end up with paralysis of analysis and no action; as each entity fights to hold their own interest over the group interest….. While China grows in the background.
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Devin Nunes appears on Fox News to discuss why the origin of the Russia narrative is important.  The scale and scope of the fraudulent construct is now a strongly enmeshed narrative, toxic to the systems of cohesive government:

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If you read the Weissmann/Mueller report carefully one aspect stands out strongly; the Mueller investigation was fully committed to The Steele Dossier. An inordinate amount of the report is focused on justifying their investigative validity and purpose in looking at the claims within the Steele Dossier.
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The exit door begins to close.  According to the latest leak provided to John Solomon the State Department information -deconstructing Chris Steele- was presented to FBI Agent Peter Strzok a week before they used Steele’s sketchy dossier to prop up the FBI FISA application on Carter Page.

John Solomon – […] The officials declined to say what the FBI did with the information about Steele after it reached Strzok’s team, or what the email specifically revealed. A publicly disclosed version of the email has been heavily redacted in the name of national security.
While much remains to be answered, the email exchange means FBI supervisors knew Steele had contact with State and had reason to inquire what he was saying before they sought the warrant. If they had inquired, agents would have learned Steele had admitted to Kavalec he had been leaking to the news media, had a political deadline of Election Day to get his information public and had provided demonstrably false intelligence in one case, as I reported last week. (read more)

It’s almost guaranteed the reason Kavelec’s email to the FBI was redacted is specifically because Ms. Kavelec used her State Dept. portal to check on travel records and noted the “Michael Cohen in Prague” story was false.  Kavalec would have easy access to State Dept. travel records.
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Against the backdrop of media reports surrounding U.S. Attorney John Durham, and an investigation into potentially corrupt 2016 investigators, perhaps it’s worthwhile to pause, evaluate, reset the outlook and review the backstories.
There’s room for cautious optimism, but there’s also reason to temper expectations. First within the latest Fox News report, the following is noted:

Fox News – […] Durham, known as a “hard-charging, bulldog” prosecutor, according to a source, will focus on the period before Nov. 7, 2016—including the use and assignments of FBI informants, as well as alleged improper issuance of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants. Durham was asked to help Barr to “ensure that intelligence collection activities by the U.S. Government related to the Trump 2016 Presidential Campaign were lawful and appropriate.”

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Today President Trump will be touring a Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export facility in Hackberry, Louisiana before he delivers a statement on energy sector infrastructure and the economy.  The president is expected to deliver remarks at 3:10pm EDT.
UPDATE: Video Added

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Chopper pressers are the best pressers. President Trump delivers remarks to the press as he departs the White House for an energy policy speech in Louisiana.  The president answered multiple questions about current events including China, Bill Barr, John Durham, Iran, Don Jr., and immigration.  [Video and transcript below]

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[Transcript] 11:21 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: So, the economy is doing very well by every measure. We’re having probably the greatest economy that we’ve had anywhere, anytime, in the history of our country.
We’re having a little squabble with China because we’ve been treated very unfairly for many, many decades — for, actually, a long time. And it should have been handled a long time ago, and it wasn’t. And we’ll handle it now.
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