Methinks Maria Bartiromo is the only media person who has caught on to “the secret“.
Within her wording and presentation today, inside this interview Fox News Maria Bartiromo hints toward her understanding of the Trump trade strategy as it pertains to Mexico, Canada and ::cough:: NAFTA ::cough::

 Nudge/Nudge – Elbow/Elbow – Wink/Wink – Say no more/Say no more!

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After the end of Round #6 (January 2018), it was obvious to POTUS Trump a NAFTA renegotiated deal was impossible.  In March, 2018, Team Trump stealthily began moving in a different direction.  In June,2018, Canada accidentally made the admission there were no ongoing talks between the U.S. and Canada.  The reasoning is simple yet stunning.
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Former short-term White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman is attempting to stir up interest in a new book by delivering audio that she secretly recorded in the White House situation room when she was fired by Chief of Staff John Kelly.  Ms. Manigault released the audio to NBC for use in a Sunday broadcast of Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.
There is a strong possibility Ms. Manigault has committed several violations of federal law with a secret electronic recording within a SCIF (Situation Room); however, any action therein would only further provide fuel for her already discredited self-promotion. The fact Ms. Manigault made the recording speaks to her duplicitous intent and lack of integrity.
Here’s the audio:

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Interestingly, Ms. Manigault and NBC did not release the continued audio portion where WH attorneys outlined the legal and ethical violations that led to her firing; and the legal risk upon her departure.
Here’s the Transcript: GEN. JOHN KELLY: Hi.
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In an interesting set of tweets today President Trump highlights the institutions of the DOJ and FBI with separate and blunt emphasis.
Toward the DOJ, President Trump notes the relationship between Deputy AG Bruce Ohr, his wife Nellie Ohr as a Fusion GPS contractor and Christopher Steele the author of the “phony and discredited Dossier”, also a Fusion GPS contractor.  All of the entities were paid by Hillary Clinton through her legal representation.
Additionally, President Trump highlights the lack of DOJ leadership (specifically AG Jeff Sessions) to address the institutional corruption which led to “spygate” and a fraudulent application for an unlawful FISA application.

In the second set of tweets, President Trump noted how officials within the FBI are continuing to obstruct oversight and refuse to turn over evidence of institutional corruption.  In a pointed question President Trump asks: “What are they hiding”?
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In what can only be described as the nonsensical rantings of an ideologue who refuses to even fathom the geopolitical Trump changes around him, Turkish President Recep Erdogan writes an op-ed in the New York Times to tell Americans POTUS Trump, and like-minded allies, are bullying/destroying the Turkish economy because his authoritarian regime has imprisoned an American pastor.
DUH!

This is not difficult to figure out.  Release American pastor Andrew Brunson, and President Trump will consider stopping. Keep the U.S. citizen detained and President Trump will continue destroying the Turkish economy.  This is not hard to figure out once you accept the United States is unapologetically going to target any nation that targets American citizens.
President Erdogan is finding out that Brunson is the most expensive hostage in the history of hostage taking; however, with POTUS Trump in command it’s the kidnappers paying the price…. funny how that happens.
Further into Erdogan’s diatribe he warns: “a failure to reverse this trend of unilateralism and disrespect will require us to start looking for new friends and allies.” Again hilarious.
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While another phase of the White House remodel is underway, President Trump conducts national business from his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey.

[Transcript] Bedminister, New Jersey – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, everybody, for being here in Bedminster. We’ve had a lot of work. We’ve done a lot of work. They’re renovating the White House. It’s a long-term project, and they approved it years ago. And I said, well, I guess this would be a good place to be in the meantime. So they’re doing a lot of work at the White House. I miss it. I would like to be there. But this is a good way of doing it.
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Representative Mark Meadows has announced on twitter that DOJ official Bruce Ohr has been scheduled to testify on August 28th, this month.

According to additional details provided to the Daily Caller, Ohr will testify to the same joint committee that previously heard testimony from Lisa Page.  The joint committee is a blend of House Oversight (Trey Gowdy, Chairman) and House Judiciary (Bob Goodlatte, Chairman).  If the same process is used, Chairman Goodlatte will determine which committee members will conduct the questioning.
The August 28th Bruce Ohr testimony will be closed; however, it is possible another open hearing may be held at another date.  In recent days a great deal of information has surfaced from communication between Bruce Ohr and participants in the 2016 FBI/DOJ and Fusion GPS operation against candidate Donald Trump. John Solomon –SEE HERE–  Sara Carter –SEE HERE– Byron York –SEE HERE– and Chuck Ross –SEE HERE– have each written articles about the issues surrounding Bruce Ohr.

Earlier today U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer messaged a warm birthday greeting to Mexican Foreign Secretary Louis Videgaray during ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Mexican trade teams (video below).

Canada is FUBAR. No-one quite knows how FUBAR Canada is, because no-one has  followed the brilliant Wolverine crew closely enough to spot the strategy.
At the strategic direction of President Trump; and it is a really brilliant workaround strategy; the U.S. and Mexican teams are approaching the current NAFTA negotiations from a position of bilateral trade.   Trade watchers, Wall Street experts, financial pundits and the entire media apparatus are missing what Team USA are doing right in front of their faces…. they’ve obviously never followed or studied Trump’s out of the box problem solving when it comes to complex deals.
I won’t rehash the NAFTA flaws; familiar CTH readers know them well.  However, the bottom line is NAFTA is NOT, repeat N.O.T being renegotiated. I was going to remain silent, but I think it’s safe, Lighthizer is close enough to a deal to explain what’s happening.
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{{{snicker}}}  Best President Ever:

The original Glenn Simpson conflict was actually noted on February 2nd, 2018, when HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes released the House memo outlining the conflicting statements between Glenn Simpson’s testimony, Christopher Steele, and the evidence of Bruce Ohr notes reviewed by congressional investigators.  However, until recently the public never had the actual Ohr notes.

Using the recently released Ohr documentary evidence Daily Caller journalist Chuck Ross now draws attention to the conflict:

(Via Daily Caller) Newly released Department of Justice records appear to conflict with testimony that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson gave to Congress in 2017 about the timeline of his interactions with top DOJ official Bruce Ohr.
Simpson claimed in testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Nov. 14 that he did not have contact with any FBI or DOJ officials regarding the infamous Steele dossier until after the 2016 election. But Ohr’s emails, which have been provided to Congress, show that he and Simpson were in contact as early as August 2016.

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Interestingly, anyone who has followed Turkish geopolitics closely will likely note a confrontation on ideology was bound to happen.  The triggering event has become the Turkish imprisonment of American Pastor Andrew Brunson.
Turkey has always been a tenuous NATO ally.  The totalitarian behavior of Turksih President Recep Erdogan has generally been antithetical to freedom and U.S. interests.  There have been many examples of sketchy Turkish interests in the past decade – SEE HERE – including Erdogan’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and providing safe-harbor for the exiled Brotherhood leadership.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey on Friday “implored” U.S. President Donald Trump to return to the negotiating table on tariffs, saying the trade rift between the NATO allies should be resolved through dialogue.

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