Earlier today President Trump traveled to North Carolina for a briefing by local, state and federal officials who are responding to the recovery efforts in North Carolina following Hurricane Florence. Following the briefing, President Trump toured some of the impacted regions and thanked those who are assisting in ongoing recovery efforts.

[Transcript] – Cherry Point, North Carolina – 10:47 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much everybody. We appreciate it very — the job you’ve done has been incredible. Incredible. They’re talking about it all over the world. And we want to keep it going that way, because some of the hard work is now. We’ve gone through very dangerous work, and still dangerous, but some of the hard work is taking place right now, even though its nice and beautiful and sunny.
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A few days ago, September 13th, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was given the Keeper of the Flame Award in Washington DC. Within his acceptance speech Chairman Nunes discusses the significance of this time in U.S. history.
In the days and months following Watergate, the HPSCI was given specific rules within their legislative branch oversight, which actually became the most significant tools -utilized for the first time- to uncover intelligence abuses by the former administration. Additionally, Chairman Nunes expands on the “next steps.”

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White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro appears on Lou Dobbs show to discuss the Trump administration’s round-two 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.  The percentage jumps to 25% on January 1st, 2019.

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Earlier today President Trump hosted a meeting with the key administration officials executing the workforce initiatives programs.  The programs include expanded vocational training, private-public partnerships for education, and expanded investment in skills training for a modern American workforce.
The National Council for the American Worker is the executive agency tasked with execution of the policies and working with various state and local officials to help increase the skills training for U.S. workers.  With a MAGAnomic expanding economy; and with all of the subsequent jobs growth; and with a revitalization of U.S. manufacturing; the workforce initiatives are keys to sustaining successful growth for American workers.

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A year ago it seemed almost impossible to see a trade agreement with Mexico that would facilitate the interests of both countries. However, with the successful election of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), a remarkable populist shift dramatically changed the landscape within the Mexican economic outlook and policy.

President Trump’s tweet today hints toward a much bigger picture we have recently been discussing.  Against the likelihood Canada will not join the U.S-Mexico trade agreement. The Mexican government is affirming their intent to go forward with a bilateral trade deal if needed because the U.S-Mexico joint agreement is in their best interests.  According to Mexico’s Chief Negotiator, Kenneth Smith-Ramos:

“We hope the U.S. and Canada will conclude their bilateral negotiation shortly. If that is not possible we are ready to advance bilaterally with the U.S … the agreement in principle that we closed with the U.S. is positive for Mexico because it preserves free trade and modernizes our trade agreement …”

Outgoing Mexican President Peña Nieto, structured his economic policy around accepting multinational corporate investment, facilitating the requests of Wall Street investment banks, and the predictable parasitic outcomes that follow. Exfiltration of wealth and exploitation of resources/labor are an outcropping of predatory multinational trade exploitation, ie. “globalism”.
Retention of the multinational schemes generally leads to massive corruption. In the U.S. this corruption is known as “lobbying”, in Mexico the process is called ‘bribery’; however, the activity is the same.
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According to a CBC article citing a “Senior Canadian Official”, the Trudeau government is completely “comfortable” missing an October 1st deadline to join the U.S-Mexico trade alliance:

…”The source who spoke to CBC News on background, due to the sensitivity of the talks, said the external political pressure “is not a good enough reason,” for Canada to be forced into a fast finish.”… (more)

This statement follows a series of actions by Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland and Justin Trudeau which highlights their intent to resist any trade agreement while counting on domestic politics to deliver electoral forgiveness.  Indeed for all intents and purposes it would appear Justin and Chrystia are willing to damage their economy for political benefit.
Meanwhile the Mexican government is affirming their intent to go forward with a bilateral trade deal if needed because the U.S-Mexico joint agreement is in their best interests.  According to Mexico’s Chief Negotiator, Kenneth Smith-Ramos:

“We hope the U.S. and Canada will conclude their bilateral negotiation shortly. If that is not possible we are ready to advance bilaterally with the U.S … the agreement in principle that we closed with the U.S. is positive for Mexico because it preserves free trade and modernizes our trade agreement …”

A year ago it seemed almost impossible to see an agreement with Mexico that would facilitate the interests of both countries.  However, with the successful election of Mexican President Lopez-Obrador, a remarkable populist shift dramatically changed the landscape within the Mexican economic outlook and policy.
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Bloomberg reported earlier today that President Trump was likely to pull the trigger on round #2 of tariffs against $200 billion in Chinese imported goods. Duh. Surprise fail. President Trump has not bluffed on a single tariff initiative since he started executing new U.S. trade policies to reset all trade relationships.
According to Jennifer Jacobs reporting (one of the few reliable) Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and Ambassador Lighthizer met Thursday to review the current status of ongoing trade deals. This is a good nugget, because it’s likely that same meeting contained the forward instructions toward Lighthizer for the Canada discussions.
According to the report, President Trump, Ross and Lighthizer are adjusting the specifics of the $200 billion Chinese products targeted based on the two-weeks of domestic feedback they received. I would actually anticipate a combination of increased tariffs on the Round #1 sector (25% on $50 billion), and the application of new sectors within the $200 billion Round #2 target.

• Reuters Article Here
• Bloomberg Article Here
• USTR Prior Notification Here

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The MAGAnomic Tri-fecta: Jobs growing; wages growing; inflation stable.
When President Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced tariffs on Steel and Aluminum, in combination with Round #1 tariffs on imported Chinese products, the Wall Street financial media went bananas with dire predictions of inflation.
Today the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the August measure of inflation in consumer goods.  Despite the doom-and-gloom predictions from the self-interested multinationals, the inflation rate is a low 0.2% the same result as July. Core inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food components, increased 0.1%.

As John Carney notes:

[…]  “Compared with a year ago, prices were up 2.7 percent, lower than the 2.9 percent gain in July and June. Core inflation was up 2.2 percent from a year earlier, down from 2.4 percent in July. This means the pace of inflation has slowed.”

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A column written by journalist John Ivison yesterday reflected how Justin and Chrystia from Canada appeared to be intentionally politicizing their trade negotiations in an effort to gain favor from domestic left-wing supporters.  In essence, Justin made a decision to advance his political interests even if it means destroying the Canadian economy.
Providing a stark example as evidence toward that motive Ivison wrote: “How else to explain [Freeland’s] appearance at Monday’s Women in the World summit in Toronto, on a panel entitled Taking on the Tyrant?”  Today Ezra Levant and Manny Montenegrino discuss the exact same example:

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Secretary Wilbur Ross is in North Carolina today touring the NOAA facility and listening to projections of how long Hurricane Florence may disrupt rail, road and shipping transport.  Mr. Ross then calculates the economic impact.

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