In hindsight it is quite clear the professional political class had two approaches toward candidate Donald Trump:
♦ Approach #1 was to eliminate him: see spygate, surveillance, FBI, DOJ and CIA operations to destroy the threat etc.; the Special Counsel Mueller investigation is an ongoing continuance of that primary approach.
♦ Approach #2 was an effort involving the republican side of the deep state apparatus, who could be deployed as a controlling influence, on the inside.  [These would be the same people who earlier constructed the failed 2016 campaign ‘splitter strategy’ to help nominate Jeb Bush.]  Ongoing decepticon turnover, in opposition to the Trump policy implementation, seemingly reflects the consequences of the secondary approach.
While in charge of the transition team, Vice-President-elect Pence relied heavily on former Bush Secretary of State Condi Rice for cabinet and administration recommendations:

(Link)

Condi Rice recommended: Rex Tillerson, HR McMaster, Nikki Haley and James Mattis.
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The New York Times is quick to the typeset to explain how Brussels is desperately offended because President Trump and Secretary Pompeo have lowered the importance of the EU.   Officials from the European Union are apoplectic that U.S. officials have downgraded their status amid the official registry of diplomatic protocols.

BRUSSELS — The Trump administration downgraded the diplomatic status of the European Union’s delegation to the United States last year without making a formal announcement or informing the bloc about the change, a European official said on Tuesday.

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White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp discusses the partial government shutdown over the border wall funding and the most recent call by Democrats’ to raise taxes.

Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the strength of the U.S. economy, the partial government shutdown and the Trump administration’s trade talks with China.
Mr. Hassett, a happy warrior, walks through the recent economic data and jobs report.

House Judiciary Committee, ranking member Doug Collins, together with Jim Jordan (ranking member Oversight), and Representative Mark Meadows, begin questioning U.S. Attorney John Huber in their effort to expose the biggest current DOJ con job.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney John Huber (full pdf below), Collins, Jordan and Meadows begin the formal process to expose a widely believed fraud.

A misinformation campaign has been waged to give the appearance of an investigation that does not exist.  There is ZERO factual evidence of any investigative action underway by U.S. Attorney Huber, beyond speculation and supposition.
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The timing here is subtle as a brick through a window.  As the U.S. and China sit down for the first preliminary trade discussions…. simultaneously, Chairman Kim Jong-un arrives in China for a pre-scheduled meeting with Chairman Xi Jinping.

Those who follow the strategy of Beijing will note China’s historic approach has been to leverage antagonism by their proxy province of North Korea to gain economic leverage over their U.S. adversary. It would appear Xi Jinping is sending exactly that message, yet again.  China controls the DPRK and they will deploy that leverage as needed.

(BNO News) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in China for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, making it his fourth visit in less than a year, the Chinese government announced on Tuesday.
Kim arrived in China on Monday and will be staying until Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the ruling Communist Party, who added that the visit is taking place at the invitation of Xi.  Other details about the visit were not immediately known.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discusses the ongoing U.S. -vs- China trade confrontation and the current status of China’s economic contraction.
Secretary Ross outlines that China has now internally admitted their reliance on access to the U.S. market; and Team Trump’s continued willingness to deliver death by 1,000 cuts to Beijing if needed.
Secretary Wilburine is one of the top targets for Wall Street, GOPe, Democrats and the collective group of beneficiaries from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He is effective; he is unrelenting; they want/need him to be removed.   The inability to influence the White House economic policy team is the biggest threat to the corporate lobbying community.

President Donald Trump has announced a public address from the Oval Office tomorrow at 9:00pm EST about the current “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The address comes amid a partial government shutdown caused by Democrat insistence that border barriers are immoral and the Southern border must remain unsecure. CNN is reporting that network executives are debating whether to show the speech; or defer to the requests of their political allies in the Democrat party and refuse to air the broadcast.
President Trump has requested $5 billion to build additional fence/wall on the border and congressional Democrats are refusing to fund any aspect of homeland security that includes a fence or wall.
Additionally, the White House has announced that President Trump is planning a trip to the southern border on Thursday, to highlight the security and humanitarian crisis.

The official, albeit preliminary, U.S.T.R. delegation from the United States is on the ground in China to begin initial discussions of “technical details” surrounding the ongoing trade dispute.  The preliminary talks are today (Jan 7th) through Wed (Jan 9th).

The prior notice from USTR announced the delegation: •Ambassador Jeffrey Gerrish, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (pictured above – center); •Ambassador Gregg Doud, USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator; •Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney, U.S. Department of Agriculture; •Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Gilbert B. Kaplan, U.S. Department of Commerce; •Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg, U.S. Department of Energy; and •Under Secretary for International Affairs David Malpass, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The delegation will be accompanied by senior officials from the White House, USTR, and the U.S. departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, State, and Treasury. (link)

Tu Xinquan, director of the China Institute for World Trade Organization Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing is quoted as saying Beijing’s first phase will be focused on technical details before more important voices “make hard political decisions.”
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Appearing on Face the Nation, Republican Senator Lindsey ‘Marcus Junius Brutus‘ Graham (U-DC) discusses his bold support for President Trump and the need for a physical border barrier.
Senator Brutus, a beneficiary of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee [think lobbying – example here], connects his support for President Trump’s border position with his concerns about a withdrawal of a U.S. military presence in Syria. Quote: …”the president is slowing down and he is reevaluating his policies”…

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.” ~ Cicero

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