President Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo participate in a working lunch with the Prime Minister of Israel, the Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation of the UAE and the Foreign Minister of Bahrain.

“Today, nations across the region and throughout the world are joining together, united in their determination to build a better future.” – President Donald J. Trump

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SECURING HISTORIC AGREEMENTS: President Donald J. Trump hosted the official signing ceremony for the historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab nations.

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Today President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will participate in an Abraham Accords Signing Ceremony to celebrate the historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Anticipated start time 12:00pm.

President Trump helped broker a historic agreement between the UAE and Israel to normalize relations in August. Last week, Trump announced that Bahrain had also reached a deal with Israel to normalize relations. The parties will sign the agreement, dubbed the “Abraham Accords,” at this White House ceremony, marking a notable diplomatic achievement for President Trump and mid-east partners.

UPDATE: Video Added

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And absolutely stunning day for the White House, Israel, the Arab peace coalition and the larger international community as peace begins to settle across the middle-east. Incredible.

President Trump holds an oval office meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and takes questions from the press pool. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: (A ceremonial gold key is presented.) This was a special token of affection, given by myself and the First Lady to the Prime Minister and the First Lady of Israel. And it’s a key — we call it a key to the White House. And it’s a key to our country and to our hearts. And you’ve been an amazing leader for a long period of time. And this is — this is, in many respects, the big day, because this is something that’s very special.

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“Peace is the prize.” – Truly a remarkable diplomatic accomplishment and very apropos considering the timing of the events.  Today the Kingdom of Bahrain and Israel formalize peace and diplomatic ties between the two nations.  Bahrain now joins with the United Arab Emirates in a larger peace initiative.  [Video of White House Announcement]

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The White House provides background information for next weeks historic signing of a peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

[Transcript] – MR. VASQUEZ: Hey, good afternoon, everybody. I have here Senior Advisor to the President, Jared Kushner.

He will give updates on the latest on the Middle East peace efforts, namely next week’s historic signing between the United Arab Emirates and Israel of the Abraham Accords, and today’s great development of President Trump being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

This call will be on the record, and with that, I will turn it over to Jared.

MR. KUSHNER: Thank you very much, Eddie, and thank you all for joining us today.

So, first of all, it was — President Trump was very, very honored to be nominated this morning for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in bringing the Middle East closer together and the peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

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“Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald Trump

White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner discusses three years of diplomacy culminating with a historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

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Earlier today President Trump announced a significant development toward long-lasting peace in the middle-east. [Video and Transcript}

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. This is very important. This is a big event. And I want to just congratulate all of the people standing behind me because they have done an incredible job. This is something that hasn’t been done in more than 25 years.

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Apparently excerpts from former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s dossier have been released to the media.  The Bolton dossier makes some of the most outlandish claims imaginable; and only the most incredibly silly media would ever believe them.  So yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening.

One example within the Bolton Dossier comes from John Bolton himself as he wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal.  Before citing the Bolton article it’s worth remembering CTH was following every detail of the Osaka G20 meeting closely. We took notes on every background and foreground contact and meeting, because the U.S-China Osaka meeting was at a very critical juncture.   [My favorite picture from Osaka, Japan]

Bolton puts this goofball framework to the Osaka, Japan, G20:

(Wall Street Journal) […] In their meeting in Osaka on June 29, Xi told Trump that the U.S.-China relationship was the most important in the world. He said that some (unnamed) American political figures were making erroneous judgments by calling for a new cold war with China.

Whether Xi meant to finger the Democrats or some of us sitting on the U.S. side of the table, I don’t know, but Trump immediately assumed that Xi meant the Democrats.

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Though the U.S. and Canada are not part of the “OPEC Plus” group, President Trump has  been leading negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia to broker a deal and stop their price war.  Today President Trump announces an agreement between the major petroleum exporting countries to curb oil production by approximately 10 million barrels per day:

Additionally, there was a loggerhead within the negotiations as Mexico did not want to cut their production by the requested amount of 400,000 barrels daily.  Mexico relies on oil as a large part of their economy. AMLO stated his economy could not withstand such a significant drop in state revenue.  Economic security is, after all, national security.

President Trump broke the OPEC+ stalemate by agreeing to decrease U.S. production by 300k/barrels allowing Mexico to drop a more manageable 100k/barrels.  Trump and AMLO reached an undisclosed agreement where Mexico will reimburse the U.S. later on.

I suspect the “reimbursement” will be more, well, strategically geopolitical than financial.  [*nudge-nudge*, *wink-wink*, *say-no-more/say-no-more*]  President Trump has an uncanny knack of collecting leverage for later, more strategic, purposes.  Just sayin’.

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Earlier today U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr announced the results of a criminal investigation into the December terrorist attack at Pensacola Naval Air Station.  The AG answered press questions at the end of his remarks.
Accompanying AG Bill was FBI Deputy Director David Bowditch.  Interestingly, Mr. Bowditch, as SanFran field office head, was the lead investigator of the San Bernadino terrorist attack prior to returning to Washington DC. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – BILL BARR: Good afternoon, and thank you for coming.
We are here to discuss the results of the investigation into the shooting that occurred on Dec. 6, 2019 at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
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