The White House announces the primary trade negotiators who will be heading to China next week for another round of trade discussions.  In the background, yesterday President Trump announced there was no planned meeting between himself and Chinese Chairman Xi, which would indicate there is still a considerable distance between the trade delegations.
USTR Robert Lighthizer is the tip-of-the-spear, and has been very direct about his approach.  Lighthizer stated that without very specific, actionable and measurable deliverables included in the terms of agreement, the March 1st tariff increase will proceed without impairment.

[White House] Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the members of an official United States delegation to China to discuss the trade relationship between the two countries. United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin travel to Beijing for principal-level meetings that will take place from February 14 through February 15, 2019. These meetings will be preceded by deputy-level negotiations that will begin on February 11, 2019, led by Deputy United States Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish.

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“W-GDP” is the Women’s Global Development Prosperity initiative. Today President Trump signed the W-GDP initiative designating priority spending to empower women’s economic initiatives in the U.S. and globally. [Details of W-GDP Here]

[Transcript] Oval Office – 1:59 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. We’re here today to launch the first-ever, U.S. government-wide initiative focused on economic empowerment for women in developing countries. A lot of people have worked very hard, especially some of the people behind me.
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It’s an interesting exercise to consider just how much national economic policy shifts can impact U.S. workers and industry.  Only a few years ago the ‘best play‘ for auto executives was shifting manufacturing overseas or to Mexico.
Today, with the advent of a comprehensive energy policy, enhanced U.S. investment incentives, re-prioritized trade expectations, focused tariffs, lowered regulations, and expanded  economic freedom allowing consumer demand to drive investment decisions, the entire landscape of a massive industry shifts.

Now the ‘best play‘ is for multinational firms to focus on expanded investment directly in the U.S.A.  Simple, yet stunningly consequential:

CHICAGO – Ford said Thursday it will hire 500 workers and invest $1 billion in its Chicago assembly operations to help keep up with booming demand for sport and crossover-utility vehicles.

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Two Canadian political and economic observers, Ezra Levant of The Rebel.media and lawyer and consultant Manny Montenegrino, discuss how the USMCA grants special consideration to Mexico that Canada doesn’t receive.

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Historians will note the trilateral negotiations, including the U.S. and Canada, broke down in a series of events between October 2017 and January 2018; culminating with USTR Robert Lighthizer and President Trump deciding to focus on a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that Canada was later forced to join.
The intransigent demands by Canada, which would have forced the U.S. to accept any Canada-China trade deal, was the fracture point.  [SEE HERE] This strategic mistake by Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland created the downstream consequences now beginning to surface.
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ACTION ALERT: The Decepticon caucus inside the senate, under the control of U.S. Wall Street’s primary CoC Lobbyist and Big Club President Tom Donohue, are assembling to launch a full frontal assault against President Trump’s trade policies. Seriously watch out for Senators Pat Toomey, Rob Portman and Ron Johnson:

Toomey said reining in Trump’s tariff powers also has strong backing from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable and dozens of other trade associations. “There’s clearly a lot of momentum, but only time will tell whether it’s enough to get over the goal line.” (link)

National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appeared on Fox Business today to discuss President Trump’s State of the Union address and the Trump administration’s economic policies.

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One of President Trump’s more strategic messages within the State of the Union speech last night surrounds his statement toward China, Chairman Xi, and the proxy province of North Korea, Chairman Kim.  Emphasis mine:

[…]  “As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Our hostages have come home, nuclear testing has stopped, and there has not been a missile launch in 15 months.”
“If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea. Much work remains to be done, but my relationship with Kim Jong Un is a good one. And Chairman Kim and I will meet again on February 27 and 28 in Vietnam.”

Beyond announcing the dates and location for the next summit between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un; many domestic political opponents, and even some allies, might criticize the highlighted part of the statement from the position of self importance.
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The front-story is that Mitch McConnell organized his Decepticon coalition to warn President Trump not to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Syria.  However, the more true back-story is McConnell warning President Trump that he has assembled his impeachment coalition.
The Senate passed a “sense of the senate” resolution today demanding that President Trump keep troops actively engaged in perpetual war.
The resolution passed the cloture vote by a margin of 68 to 23.  When you understand the background of the ‘Senate Cloture Scheme’ (see Trade Promotion Authority and TPP), today’s Senate vote essentially highlights the Decepticon caucus. [The Big Club]
Here’s how they voted:

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Those who have followed Mitch McConnell for a long time will immediately notice the republican names in his coalition.  They are the identical recipients of direct payments made by U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.
Notice also that Senator McConnell timed his rebuke against President Trump to take place just prior to the State of the Union address.
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The Chairman of the White House CEA Kevin Hassett appears on CNBC to discuss the strong January jobs report and economic indicators that were released last week.
Hassett is valuable, very valuable, because he is one of the few bean-counters who reviews current analysis through the prism of what is factually happening around him; as opposed to economic theory.  Because he accepts what I call ‘fluid-currentism‘ Hassett is one of the few analysts who (early on) started recognizing that under MAGAnomics (Main Street centric policy) inflation was no longer connected to the FED engagement.
To say acceptance of this ‘new dimension‘ puts Hassett on the cusp of leading economic review would be an understatement. Additionally, it makes his commentary exceptionally more valuable [listen to the segment at 02:50].  Hassett is pragmatic, positive, open to accepting all fact-based evidence, on point, and more importantly, accurate.

…”The booming economy is giving us the social justice that people want”… ~ Kevin Hassett

Unfortunately, most financial pundits are prone to talking down the strength of the U.S. economy. It’s maddening. They spend all day mining for coal nuggets while currently surrounded by diamonds.
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The heartbeat of MAGAnomics is Main Street USA.  Keeping in mind we have suffered through three decades of economic and financial policy that was specifically structured to the benefit of Wall Street (globalists) over Main Street (nationalism); back in 2015 and 2016 when Candidate Trump started to put specifics on his economic proposals we were able to map out some likely possibilities.

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All significant economic changes take years to fully mature.  However, because it was easy to identify where nationalist economic policy would run into conflict with the prior globalist data-trends, we were able to predict a series of economic disconnects.
The primary disconnect is where Main Street inflation, wage growth and GDP growth, would be disconnected from the Federal reserve monetary policy.  Any Fed action would impact Wall Street results (sad trombone); but the disconnect that was caused by 30-years of diminished Main Street value (U.S. investment went overseas), and would mean MAGAnomic policy would grow the internal U.S. economy regardless of the Fed action.
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One of the reasons we highlight the full transcripts of President Trump’s comments, when available, is because within any back-and-forth you can often notice a signal.  This past week was no different.
The day after President Trump hosted a meeting between U.S. and Chinese officials in the Oval Office, he answered a question during an unrelated White House meeting on human trafficking.
Here’s the off-topic transcript:

Q Mr. President, are you thinking of adding on a meeting with Xi Jinping on the back end or the front end of the meeting with Kim?
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, I’m thinking about it.
Q How close are you —
THE PRESIDENT: I mean, some of you were there yesterday. We had an incredible meeting yesterday with the Vice Premier of China — a very powerful man, highly respected. Very strong. Very respected, also, by the President — President Xi. And we had an amazing meeting on trade — mostly on trade. Actually, also on fentanyl. China has agreed to criminalize fentanyl. That’s going to have a huge impact on fentanyl coming into the country.
There is a possibility we’ll meet somewhere, whether it’s there — I’m over in a certain location. I’ll be over in a certain location there, as you know.
Q So you might do —

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