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.
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. (more…)
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:
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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. (more…)
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 —
After a round of trade discussions with the Trump administration, China has decided to emphasize the panda face. It must be noted, as we review this decision, the second largest exporter of soybeans is Brazil…. that would be the same Brazil that just elected another economic nationalist, Jair Bolsonaro.
The U.S. is the #1 exporter with harvests exceeding 108 million metric tons. Brazil just happens to be the worlds #2 exporter, with harvests exceeding 86 million metric tons.
Imagine what could happen if nationalist President Trump and nationalist Jair Bolsonaro had a phone call and actually coordinated a unified and nationalist trade position toward China? {{{nudge, nudge – wink, wink – say no more, say no more}}} Wait… wha?
According to multiple media reports, Beijing is agreeing to an initial purchase of 5 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans as a show of good faith:
WASHINGTON – China has agreed to resume purchases of U.S. soybeans following talks Thursday between President Trump and Beijing’s top trade negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He. It will start off by purchasing 5 million metric tons.
Earlier today President Trump delivered extensive remarks on a variety of issues during a White House meeting to discuss border security and human trafficking.
The Trump administration sets the bar on government transparency by allowing media to review these ongoing policy discussions. Additionally, President Trump answers all of the media questions on current events and issues of public interest. WATCH:
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[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much, everybody. We appreciate it. The jobs numbers just came out and we added 304,000 jobs, which was a shocker to a lot of people. It wasn’t a shocker to me. The country is doing really well. We have the strongest economy anywhere in the world, by far. And we’re the strongest nation in the world. So that was really good. But those numbers were very, very impressive. (more…)
Attendees for the Oval office meeting include: President Donald J. Trump; Mick Mulvaney, Acting White House Chief of Staff; John Bolton, National Security Advisor; Larry Kudlow, Director of the National Economic Council; Peter Navarro, Assistant to the President for Trade & Manufacturing Policy; Matt Pottinger, Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asian Affairs; Clete Willems, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.
U.S. Administration team members: Secretary Mike Pompeo, Department of State; Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Department of the Treasury; Secretary Wilbur Ross, Department of Commerce; Ambassador Bob Lighthizer, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Chinese Delegation: Liu He, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China; Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.
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[Transcript] 3:43 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to have the Vice Premier of China with us, and also the Vice Minister of Trade of China. We have had long discussions. This has been going on for quite some time. It will be, by far, if it happens, the biggest deal ever made — not only the biggest trade deal ever made. It will be the biggest trade deal by far, but it’ll also be the biggest deal ever made. The two largest countries doing a trade deal. There won’t be anything that will match that. And we’ll see what happens.
We’ve done very well. We’ve had a very, very strong relationship, as my relationship is with President Xi. (more…)
President Trump delivers remarks [transcript below] while signing an executive order to support American Workers and American Manufacturing. The executive order emphasizes enhanced strength for “America First” during U.S. infrastructure projects.
The president delivered comprehensive remarks on a myriad of issues. [There’s a fun little (off central focus of the camera) moment at 05:43 as President Trump gives the copy of his printed remarks to an attendee when the room’s focus is on Navarro. It really highlights Donald Trump.] This is the Heartbeat of MAGA!Must watch/read.
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[Transcript] 11:59 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. I’m honored to be here with many of the great American workers as we take historic action to accelerate the incredible revival of American manufacturing. It truly is a revival. Nobody thought it was possible, actually. And not only is it possible, but we’re thriving.
We’re also grateful to be joined by Secretary Acosta, Administrator McMahon, and Representative Robert Aderholt, Mario Diaz-Balart. And we’re working on a lot of interesting projects in your neck of the woods, aren’t we, huh? How’s that all going? (more…)
