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President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP
Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †
The Pentagon clearly outlines the reason for President Trump’s strategic and selected military response. The U.S. is stating evidence that Bashir Assad did launch chemical weapons from this exact airbase, and Russia was willfully blind in their complicity.
U.S. Pentagon – At the direction of the president, U.S. forces conducted a cruise missile strike against a Syrian Air Force airfield today at about 8:40 p.m. EDT (4:40 a.m., April 7, in Syria). The strike targeted Shayrat Airfield in Homs governorate, and was in response to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack April 4 in Khan Sheikhoun, which killed or injured hundreds of innocent Syrian people, including women and children.
The strike was conducted using Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. A total of 59 TLAMs targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars. As always, the U.S. took extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties and to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict. Every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield.
President Trump is anticipated to deliver remarks to the nation tonight:
– The targeted single airfield is Sharyat airbase in NW Syria, near Homs – The alleged source of chemical attack – Approximately 60 missiles fired – Russian military was informed in advance – Congressional Gang-of-Eight was notified in advance –
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WASHINGTON – The United States has fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week’s gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians, U.S. officials said.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife to a summit at Mar-a-lago, President Trump’s private Florida beach resort and residence.
President Xi and his wife were greeted by President Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate before making their way to dinner.
Ahead of the dinner, Trump said he and Xi already had had a long discussion and had “developed a friendship,” and then joked, “I have gotten nothing, absolutely nothing.”
The White House said the location was selected to give the two days of discussions a more relaxed feel. A number of Trump’s top advisers were in attendance, including his daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. (AP report)
According to ADP payroll processing U.S. private employers are estimated to have added 263,000 jobs in March. This is likely more than the number employers hired in February and well above economists’ expectations. This is the largest anticipated job growth in the past two years.
The earlier forecast by ADP National Employment Report estimated growth of 187,000 jobs, with median-range economic estimates spanning 110,000 to 225,000. The current report is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics.
The U.S. Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report comes out on Friday and will include both public and private-sector employment. Economists polled by Reuters were looking for U.S. private payroll employment to have grown by 175,000 jobs in March, less than the 227,000 in February – so the 263,000 estimate has caught them off guard. The ADP results are much stronger (100,000 more) than anticipated.
Secretary Rex Tillerson delivered very important remarks today in Palm Beach Florida ahead of ongoing discussions with the Chinese delegation and President Xi Jinping meeting with President Donald Trump.
Following the segment by T-Rex outlining the parameters for the meetings today and tomorrow, Tillerson communicated a position of the Trump administration that Syrian leader Bashir Assad should step down from power.
“With the acts that he has taken, it would seem that there would be no rule for [Assad] to govern the Syrian people.
The process by which Assad would leave is something that I think requires and international community effort, both to first defeat ISIS within Syria, to stabilize the Syrian country to avoid further civil war, and then to work collectively with our partners around the world through a political process that would lead to Assad leaving.”
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Neither Secretary Tillserson or President Trump are proposing military action to remove Assad. However, the remarks by Secretary Tillerson about Syria and Bashir Assad are a shift in approach, and were almost simultaneously communicated by President Trump (albeit with nuance) aboard Air-Force One en route to Palm Beach. See below: (more…)
The DC pantomime continues today following a VERY FAMILIAR UniParty pattern. Once you see the strings on the marionettes it’s impossible to go back to a time when you didn’t see them. Do not lose any of your peace over this. The DC UniParty is as predictable as the sunrise. Fugheddaboudit, and go MAGA.
There was/is never going to be an outcome of significance to the DC pantomime being conducted in front of the capitol building’s House Intel Committee Potemkin village and visitor center. It’s a show, a pretense, a charade, complete with scripts and roles to be played etc., countermeasures deployed.
Viewers and voters will tire of it. Just like the VA scandal; just like Fast and Furious; just like Benghazi; just like the IRS hearings; and the remaining visible corruption simply melts back into the swamp to reconstitute for the next public event du jour.
Left-wing activist groups ‘Democracy 21’ and ‘Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’ filed a lawsuit accusing House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes of ethics violations following Nunes’ public statements about President Trump and his transition team being targets of intelligence community surveillance by the Obama administration.
President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Karen Pence participate with Secretary Shulkin (VA) and Secretary Zinke in a White House tribute to the Wounded Warrior Project:
[TRANSCRIPT] 9:28 A.M. EDT – THE VICE PRESIDENT: To all the heroes who are gathered here, to their families, to the patrons of this great project, members of Congress, on behalf of my wife, Karen, it is my great honor standing beside the President of the United States and the First Lady to welcome you all to the White House. (Applause.)
We’re grateful to have so many who are of such great consequence to our armed forces with us today, as well as those who serve our veterans — our Secretary David Shulkin, Secretary Ryan Zinke — who serve in this Cabinet. But on behalf of the President and the First Family, a special thank you to Lieutenant General Michael Linnington and Deven Schei. The Wounded Warrior Project is a source of great comfort to our veterans across the country, and it is an inspiration to the nation. (Applause.)
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President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP
Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec