White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, National Security Adviser HR McMaster, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bosser hold an extensive press briefing to cover: Current events, Venezuela, Afghanistan, the debt ceiling and Hurricane Harvey.

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On Venezuela it is important to note the brilliance of the U.S. strategy and leverage.  The U.S. is the only remaining cash purchaser of Venezuelan oil for refinement. Both China and Russia purchase Venezuela oil, however their purchases are made via pay-downs to previous loans from China and Russia to the Maduro regime. Since the corrupt election the U.S. has not refined oil shipments from Venezuela putting massive financial strain on the regime.  (ie. economic leverage)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – A tanker carrying a cargo of about 1 million barrels of Venezuelan heavy crude has been stranded for more than a month off the coast of Louisiana for lack of a bank letter of credit to discharge, three sources have told Reuters.
[…] Major banks are cutting exposure to Venezuela as a result of political upheaval in the South American country. Some have closed accounts linked to officials of the OPEC member who have had sanctions leveled against them by the U.S. government and have refused to provide correspondent bank services or trade in government bonds.

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Being on the leading edge of history as it unfolds is a great deal of fun.  Everything is proceeding according to plan.  This is The Trump Doctrine playing out on the geopolitical stage and we all have references to smile about. Swimmingly.
Remember, when President Trump gave truthful, and rightful, ownership of the Muslim Brotherhood’s extremism to the Arab Gulf States? Their first response was to refute the position. Quickly they accepted reality; and now the GCC, led by Saudi Arabia, is confronting MB’s enabler, Qatar.
Remember, when President Trump gave truthful, and rightful, ownership of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions to China? The first response was Beijing refuting the position. Eventually they accepted reality; that process is ongoing.

On Monday President Trump gave truthful ownership of the Taliban to Pakistan. Well:

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan has rejected U.S. criticism of its efforts to fight terrorism, saying it should not be made a scapegoat for the failure of the U.S. military to win the war in Afghanistan.
U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his policy for Afghanistan on Monday, stepping up the military campaign against Taliban insurgents and singling out Pakistan for harboring them.

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There are Trillions of Dollars at Stake. CTH has been highlighting the hidden motivation for years.  Opposition is all about the economics folks.
Against President Trump’s promise to renegotiate trade deals, withdraw from TPP and TTIP, walk away from the fraudulent economic scheme within the Paris Climate Treaty, and renegotiate or pull out of NAFTA.  Well,… it’s called a strategy session folks:

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At the end of the first round of NAFTA renegotiations, Sunday, I shared a confidence level of “3” on a 10 point scale; as to whether a deal was likely. [Explained Here]
On Monday Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer debriefed President Trump the on the results of the first round (5 days).   USTR Lighthizer and Secretary Ross were both at the White House during the eclipse viewing.
On Tuesday, following that briefing, President Trump shares his opinion on NAFTA. WATCH:

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Remember, this statement follows the discussions with Ross and Lighthizer a day earlier.  It would appear that President Trump did not like the information they shared.  Knowing that POTUS Trump isn’t going to accept or compromise on an economic deal that doesn’t fix the issues; and knowing he’s wanted to walk away from NAFTA in favor of bilateral trade deals from the outset; I might need to lower my confidence to a “1” or lower…
Super-Mega-MAGA-Winning! (more…)

We are only posting this outline to highlight clear and convincing evidence of how the Trump Doctrine assigns ownership; and how to see it in play when broadcast by MSM.

Reuters Headline: “Pakistan must adopt a different approach to terrorism”…

It’s not accidental. This is a repeating pattern.  –EXAMPLES HERE– This is the “Trump Doctrine at work; yet for some reason the majority of media and news consumers cannot see the strategy.  President Trump, and team, have assigned responsibility for bringing the Taliban to the table of deconfliction in Afghanistan to Pakistan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday that Pakistan must adopt a different approach to terrorism and the United States will condition its support on Islamabad’s delivering results in this area.
“There’s been an erosion in trust because we have witnessed terrorist organizations being given safe haven inside of Pakistan to plan and carry out attacks against U.S. servicemen, U.S. officials, disrupting peace efforts inside of Afghanistan,” Tillerson told reporters in the State Department.

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In the multidimensional economic security approach of President Trump, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin plays a critical role.  Today the U.S. Treasury announces new sanctions on Chinese and Russian entities for enabling North Korea.
The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) announced additional people, businesses and entities added to the “Specially Designed Nationals” sanctions list. [Full List Here]

One note that must be underlined – SEVERAL of these sanctioned entities/organizations MAY also be part of the Washington DC lobbying apparatus, directly or indirectly.  As such, Secretary Mnuchin becomes a target of those financial interests.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is imposing new North Korea-related sanctions, targeting Chinese and Russian firms and individuals for supporting Pyongyang’s weapons programs, U.S. officials announced on Tuesday, but stopped short of an anticipated focus on Chinese banks.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated six Chinese-owned entities, one Russian, one North Korean and two based in Singapore. They included a Namibia-based subsidiary of a Chinese company and a North Korean entity operating in Namibia.

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An interesting article in the Washington Times poses a possibility of President Trump holding a deconfliction summit with North Korea –SEE HERE– And that begs a question of whether or not it’s actually plausible. I would state unequivocally yes, and here’s why.
If you have followed the foreign policy pattern of President Trump you immediately recognize he does not restrain himself to DC political customs or DC political norms. Indeed as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi optimistically noted, President Trump can accomplish many things because he brings a unique perspective to the world of policy and diplomatic engagement. Later repeating: “He Can Do The Impossible“.

Additionally since we originally outlined the likely scenario for a restart of the ‘six party talks‘ (China, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the U.S.), on August 13th, there has been some visible activity providing further evidence toward that end.
•Japan (Shinzo Abe) has stated they have “great confidence” in President Trump’s Asian national security approach. •South Korea (President Moon Jae-in) has stated they are “confident there will not be war again on the Korean peninsular“; •and they are willing to send a special envoy to North Korea to begin talks. •In addition, China has quietly removed the 71-year-old veteran diplomat, Wu Dawei, from the position of negotiator toward the DPRK, and replaced him with 58-year-old Kong Xuanyou. Kong is a long time Chinese diplomat in charge of Asian affairs and he speaks Korean.
All of this generally under-reported diplomatic activity has taken place within the past week while the American media was busy pushing Charlottesville narratives.  But more importantly this activity took place while President Trump directed USTR Lighthizer to begin a section 301 trade investigation into China.  POTUS Trump is ramping up the pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping, but more specifically this action targets Beijing’s communist old guard who control both their economy and the DPRK behavior.
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NAFTA negotiations enter day #4 today.  The final Round 1 summary day is tomorrow, Sunday.   Information as to specifics is hard to find.  Much of the ongoing negotiation is clouded in secrecy.
However, that said, one of CTH mouses (with wolverine teeth) shares a negotiation aspect that drew a great deal of conseternation from the Mexico and Canada side.
The issue revolves around government contracts, specifically U.S. federal contracts for goods and services.  President Trump has initiated a “Buy American, Hire American” policy for government contracts; meaning if the U.S. government has to spend money for a product or service, it should be spent on acquisition of American products made by American workers.
Mexico and Canada want access to these lucrative contracts.  President Trump’s “America First” procurement process is against their interest.  Canada is especially upset about this dynamic.  Canada wants to be able to bid on U.S. Federal Government contracts; and Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland referred to the buy-local rules as “poor public policy.”
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The ‘big ugly’ is inevitable. We all know it.  The only thing yet to be determined is the timing.  My spidey hunch tells me there are multiple possible detonation moments depending on sequencing.
Today, President Trump violates Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer’s golden rule regarding incumbent Senators.  President Trump tweeted support for a challenger:

Think about it.  President Trump has quietly placed triggering policy around the base of several UniParty issues:

♦China Trade Imbalance and North Korea Denuclearization; ♦the ongoing NAFTA renegotiations and future trade deals; ♦the fiscal year 2018 budget and associated MAGAnomic policy; ♦the southern border wall and immigration enforcement; ♦infrastructure and prioritization of spending; ♦no more stupid wars; ♦the repeal of ObamaCare and tax reform to benefit the middle-class workforce. 

These are not Bannonisms, these are core and central issues important to President Trump on an inherently personal and intrinsic level.
With some nuanced adjustments to reflect the current international challenges (ie. adding DPRK to the China objectives), these are essentially the fundamental reasons why candidate Trump came down the escalator in 2015.
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President Donald Trump has cancelled the Manufacturers Council and the Strategic Economic Advisory Board.  There are trillions of dollars at stake.  The members of the boards, and their representative companies, were being targeted by left-wing groups like Move-On.Org with boycotts and opposition.

There are massive international corporate and financial interests who are inherently at risk from President Trump’s “America-First” economic and trade platform.  Believe it or not, President Trump is up against an entire world economic establishment.
I will outline how it works below; and when you understand how it works in the modern era you will understand why the agents within the system are so adamantly opposed to U.S. President Trump.
The biggest lie in modern economics, willingly spread and maintained by corporate media, is that a system of global markets still exists.
It doesn’t.
Every element of global economic trade is controlled and exploited by massive institutions, multinational banks and multinational corporations.  Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank control trillions of dollars in economic activity.  Underneath that economic activity there are people who hold the reigns of power over the outcomes.  These individuals and groups are the stakeholders in direct opposition to principles of national economics.
The modern financial constructs of these entities have been established over the course of the past three decades.  When you understand how they manipulate the economic system of individual nations you begin to understand understand why they are so fundamentally opposed to President Trump.
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