Glenn Beck interviewed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week.  Within the interview USTR Greer walks through some of the current geopolitical issues surrounding trade and MAGAnomics beginning with Iran, oil and gas prices, the diesel fuel agreement with Russia, then ongoing trade friction with Canada and a perspective on European industrial manufacturing.  Well worth watching:

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Fox News morning program to discuss the current status of the U.S. economic targeting of Iran and the U.S. control of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

At 05:49 of the video below, Secretary Scott Bessent outlines the hypocrisy of the EU-NATO countries as it relates to purchases of energy from Russia.  Secretary Bessent notes the same hypocrisy applies to voices in the U.S. congress who passed HR-5334, the Lindsey Graham Russian Sanctions Bill, authorizes the President to lift and/or impose sanctions related to Russia. {GO DEEP}

Many EU-NATO countries continue to purchase oil and gas from Russia, yet those same EU-NATO countries feign outrage at President Trump making a deal with President Putin to supply diesel fuel to the world market and USA to the benefit of consumers.

In fact, the EU is buying more energy from Russia this year than ever before, which is interesting because congress has authorized President Trump to deliver up to 500% tariffs against those same EU-NATO countries for purchasing Russian energy products.

EURONEWS – Europe paid around €7.88 billion for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Arctic energy project in the first nine months of 2026 despite Brussels’ efforts to phase out gas from Moscow, according to the campaign group Urgewald.

The figures, compiled by Urgewald using data from the market intelligence firm Kpler, expose just how reliant the EU remains on Russian energy, with a record of 12.18 million tonnes reaching European ports between January and September this year.

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According to the latest data from Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy lost a net of 68,300 jobs in September. This follows a loss of 41,700 positions in August and wipes out all job gains for the entire year 2026.

The alarming results come after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has led all provincial premiers in a coordinated effort to confront U.S. President Donald Trump through an “elbow’s up” program of political antagonism and trade conflict.

Based on economic scale, Canada losing 68,000 jobs in a month would be the U.S. equivalent of losing 500,000 jobs.  The “elbow’s up” program may be politically beneficial to Prime Minister Carney, but the economic consequences are crushing the northern neighbors.

The Canadian dollar immediately weakened after the jobs report and was trading down 0.44% at C$1.4287 to the US dollar, or 69.99 US cents. Yields on the two-year government bonds reversed early moves and were trading down 9.5 basis points to 2.410%.

Initially, when the trade war was announced, CTH anticipated a bottom for the CAD at 50¢/USD under the trade reciprocity program.  50¢ remains the forecast target when the termination of the USMCA (CUSMA) is announced, and analysts have the opportunity to gauge the outcome.

Meaning, if the Canadian trade surplus with the USA was eliminated, and if all the non-tariff barriers were removed, and if full trade reciprocity programs were instituted, and if Canada has to stand on its own economic footing with NATO spending requirements, current domestic tax rates and GDP growth factored, $1 CAD will be worth around 50¢ USD.

Remember, the Bank of Canada has already run the numbers on this. ……”A cascading series of events could cause a sharp loss of investor confidence and lead to a spike in demand for liquidity or rapid asset sales”… {MAY ’26}

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Portugal on the third stop of his NATO alliance tour.  Portugal is very strategic and holds as strong intelligence network through its well-regarded diplomatic corps. [Listen to what Rubio says about the narcotrafficking operation that Portugal and the USA conduct together.]

Secretary Rubio held a press conference with Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel. Video and Transcript below: 

[Transcript] FOREIGN MINISTER RANGEL:  Welcome to Lisbon, Secretary Marco Rubio.

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Many of us have watched each step in the process as President Trump executes a deliberate strategy to reindustrialize American manufacturing.

In this video Mike Steger examines plans for new shipyards, submarine production, and advanced manufacturing at Sparrows Point and across the country. He contrasts this rebuilding effort with the collapse of Bethlehem Steel and Baltimore’s industrial economy, arguing that restoring basic industry is essential to America’s future.

The discussion then turns to Henry Kaiser, whose World War II shipyards transformed American production through workforce training and new construction methods. Mike connects that history to today’s shipbuilding ambitions, steel investments, and the industrial foundation needed to support both naval strength and space exploration.

From American shipyards to SpaceX’s stainless steel rockets, Mike makes the case that industrial growth can renew the confidence and purpose of Western civilization. Drawing on Marco Rubio’s remarks in Athens, the symbolism of Prometheus, and John Paul Jones’s refusal to surrender, he argues that America’s greatest achievements may still lie ahead.  WATCH:

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appears on CNBC to discuss details of a new G20 sideline agreement with 14 other major economies to crack down on global factory overproduction, targeting excess manufacturing.

The discussion about the issues with Canada is around the 5:00 mark of the video below.  As previously noted, President Trump and USTR Greer are happy with the current status of tariffs against Canada, they are having the desired effect, and meanwhile the U.S. is negotiating a ¹bilateral trade deal with Mexico.

¹♦ $30.76 billion in remittances reached Mexico in the first half of 2026 — a lifeline tethered to U.S. manufacturing employment, which depends on whether both governments can reach a durable trade framework. {source} Mexico, the govt, the economy, their internal stability, cannot afford to risk losing that influx of financial support.

Mexico’s Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard came out of the G20 Trade Ministerial in Milwaukee last week sounding the most optimistic he has in months. He had just spent nearly an hour across the table from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and his message was direct: “We are getting closer on many things — moving forward, narrowing positions, resolving issues. Every day we are closer to having new agreements,” Ebrard told reporters from Milwaukee.

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I don’t want to focus too much on this, because there are multiple angles still at work.  However, against the backdrop of the non-coincidental coincidences that followed the August 2025 Alaska Summit, the Lukoil story looks strategically interesting.

The New York Times is looking at Lukoil from the perspective of President Trump organizing financial gains for people close to his administration, specifically Witkoff and Kusher.  {GO DEEP}

That aspect is nonsense, total nonsense; however, if you pull back and look at the background story without the Trump derangement overlay, there’s a potential here for something very good to come out of it.

As the story is told, Russian President Vladimir Putin has inquired about the potential for the U.S. to remove sanctions against Lukoil, a quasi-private energy company based out of Russia.  Before, getting too weedy about it, remind yourself of the statements that surfaced during the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, August, 2025.

You might remember that both the U.S and Russia spoke of strategic partnerships surrounding the energy sector.  Obviously, this makes sense when we consider the “west” is actually fractured on the topic of energy.  There are two competing interests that overlap in the financial side of the issue, the ‘trillions at stake’ aspect.

On one side you have the “climate change” team, those who are fully invested (literally) in the financial mechanisms of the climate change, green new deal, build back better talking points.  The Green Energy team in the west.  The Paris Climate Treaty and carbon-trading proponents et al.

On the other side you have the pragmatic energy team in the west.  These are the Trump-minded and aligned western perspectives that look at oil, natural gas (LNG), clean coal and nuclear technology.  These are the “all the above” aligned voices in the more pragmatic view of low-cost energy production and development.

In the middle, between both sides of the fracture, are the banking and finance systems.  This is the BIG MONEY play, with the Climate Change team supported by banking ideology inside the city of London, while the Carbon Use team is constantly having to assemble finance and insurance from outside the banking control mechanisms.

The Climate Change team have support based on ideology within the finance system.  However, the Carbon Use team have the advantage of low-price outputs, global dependency and actual profits as leverage.  This is a fight essentially inside the larger energy sector, and we are all very familiar with it because it has been happening for decades.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is currently the main tool deployed by the Climate Change team on behalf of the London finance system.  Carney’s main opponent is U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Today, President Donald Trump is visiting Peterbilt Motors Company factory in Denton, Texas, to emphasize the economic wins within the jobs and manufacturing industries.

Current economic growth is anticipated to exceed five percent GDP as the prior investments now materialize in jobs and production outputs.  Simultaneously, trade deficits are declining as the U.S produces ever-increasing amounts of domestic goods needed within the U.S. economy.  This domestic activity expands jobs and the economy at rapid rates.

President Trump is anticipated to begin his remarks around 4:30pm ET with Livestream Links Below:

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The United States is hosting the G20 Summit this year.  As part of the G20 Process various ministers and ambassadors from all of the G20 ministerial sessions, attend summits in the lead-in to the political leader summit in Miami this December.

During the opening session of the G20 trade plenary session, Greer outlined four strategic priorities that President Trump is bringing to the center of the G20 trade group this year. “There are four workstreams the U.S. Presidency has focused on over the course of the year: (1) the weaponization of food, (2) structural excess capacity and production, (3) the Most-Favored-Nation principle, and (4) forced labor in global supply chains.” [READ MORE] These were the directed topics at the beginning of the summit.

Speaking from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the G20 Trade Ministerial Session, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer gives important remarks and answers questions from the media at the conclusion of the two-day event. WATCH: 

Within one question from an EU/Canada media stenographer, there’s a rather brutally obvious statement from USTR Greer. Absolutely epic. Both Canada and Europe are missing a very key something from their economic model, CONSUMERS!

Instead of focusing on growth within their domestic economies, both Canada and Europe rely on the USA to provide the CONSUMERS for their goods. Negotiating from that position is not too difficult.

ESSENTIALLY, currently Canada sends their overproduction to the USA (hence their trade surplus). Currently the EU send their overproduction to the USA (hence their trade surplus). Block those inbound surpluses and what exactly is Canada and the EU going to do with their newly acquired excess?

The two lowest growth economic systems, that are both missing the critical component of ‘consumers’, are going to send their excess products to each other?  Think about it.

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U.S Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer, is attending the G20 Trade Summit in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and appars on Bloomberg News to outline some of the current issues and events being discussed during the assembly.

Greer notes the U.S. energy team is talking to the European energy ministers about using part of their diesel reserve supply to supplement the global refining shortage that might relieve some of the pricing pressure on the energy sector.

Additionally, Greer is questioned about the dumping issues of steel and aluminum that is part of the larger G20 trade discussion.  Greer notes the EU needs to take some action to address the issues on their end, which is part of the ongoing talks at the plenary session.  As to the discussions with Canada and the USMCA, Greer notes the bilateral trade negotiator, Dominic LeBlanc from Canada is not present at these discussions, so no forward activity is noted.  WATCH:

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