Wow. Sorry to drop so much substance into a single news day, but there’s so much going on around the geopolitical world it’s, well, stunning.
[And we still haven’t been able to even catch up with T-Rex’s multi-nation shuttle diplomacy over Qatar yet…. sheesh.  –> CLICK HERE FOR QUICKIE  LOL]
U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert delivers a press briefing to highlight a great deal of what is going on. Video and Transcript below:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears on This Week with democrat swamp guardian George Stephanopoulos.  Once again it takes half the interview to get past the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative to the larger more substantive issues of Trade Policy, Tax Reform, Budgets, Debt and Healthcare.

The Big Panda is positioned to feel the Big Hurt if they don’t take action…

First Lady Melania Trump wore a purposeful red jacket today as she was seated at the G20 during President Trump’s remarks to the summit leaders with Chinese President Xi Jinping seated next to him.

While in Warsaw Poland last Thursday President Trump was asked about possible action against North Korea:

“I have some pretty severe things we’re thinking about. Doesn’t mean we’re going to do them. I don’t draw red lines.” …  “It’s a shame they’re behaving this way and they’re behaving in a very dangerous manner, and something will have to be done about it.” (link)

Today during a bilateral meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping President Trump reinforced the message:

President Trump, at the start of his meeting Saturday in Germany with Chinese President Xi Jinping, called the Asian nation a “great trading partner” and said the increasing North Korea nuclear threat will eventually be resolved “one way or the other.”  (link)

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The left-wing media are trying desperately to put their best-face-spin on their concessions to President Trump surrounding climate change and free/fair trade provisions included within the G20 Communique.
However, the verbiage directly and specifically paves the way for the U.S. team to begin leveraging economic market power with unilateral trade agreements.

Hamburg (AFP) – US President Donald Trump won key concessions on climate and trade Saturday from world leaders at the most fractious G20 summit to date, in exchange for preserving the unity of the club of major industrialised and emerging economies.

In a final statement agreed by all 20 economies, 19 members including Russia, China and the European Union acknowledged Trump’s decision to go his own way on taking the US out of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

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The upcoming NAFTA trade discussions between the U.S., Mexico and Canada will be more interesting, and far more consequential, than any trilateral trade discussion in our lifetime.  We can anticipate dozens of congressional masks to drop each day as the tentacles of their financial interests and corporate donors will gain a level of sunlight never before seen.

For the first time in our lifetime the corporatist’s within the U.S. CoC lobby will be neutered, and Republicans owned by Wall Street will have no choice but to openly rail against America while embracing their friends in the MSM.

White House – President Donald J. Trump met today with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico during the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. President Trump emphasized the strong bilateral relationship that the United States enjoys with Mexico and noted the importance of renegotiating NAFTA to help workers in both countries.

President Trump thanked President Peña Nieto for Mexico’s partnership on the Central America Conference last month. The leaders also discussed regional challenges, including drug trafficking, illegal migration, and the crisis in Venezuela. (link)

Video Below

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin outline the past 48 hours of diplomatic discussions within the framework of the G20.

**Remember** as you read this transcript, e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g eventually boils down to economics and the seismic geopolitical shifts currently underway.  (See Bottom for Important Detail)

[Transcript] 7:18 P.M. CET – SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Hi, everybody. I just want to highlight very briefly, and then Secretary Tillerson will go on, and then afterwards we’ll both answer a few questions.

But President Trump has had a very, very significant few days. I think, as you know, we went to Poland on Wednesday. In Poland, he met with 12 different leaders. We had bilats with Croatia and with Poland, as well as 10 other leaders at the Three Seas Conference where we talked about energy — the importance of the energy markets, the importance of supplying independent energy, infrastructure and opportunities there. I think, as you know, the speech which was just incredibly well-received, is part of our “America First But America Not Alone.”

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson hold an off camera press conference to debrief media on the sideline discussions within the G20 meetings.   T-Rex outlines the content of the Trump/Putin meeting at length.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met for 2 hours and 15 minutes extending their conversation by four times the length anticipated.  Both leaders covered a lot of geopolitical ground. The length of the meeting has U.S. media in meltdown mode.

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*Note* Until today virtually no-one was emphasizing the important role of Secretary Mnuchin amid all of the international issues. Again, we remind everyone, against international finance issues -including economics- Mnuchin plays the largest national security role in the cabinet. Tillerson, Mnuchin, Ross, Mattis, Kelly et al are all in sync with the larger President Trump approach toward ‘America-First’ policy and security.

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A “SME” (pronounced ‘smee‘) is a Subject Matter Expert.   President Trump’s entire cabinet is an assembly of specific SME’s for a specific economic purpose.

The entire landscape of modern geopolitics is an assembly of various nations specifically focused on their economic interests.  Fundamentally, the economics of a nation is the cornerstone for their ability to hold, advance, influence and present their ideology.

Without the underlying economic capability to provide sustainability and stability, the nation, any nation, cannot maintain itself regardless of the underlying political outlook.  In short, as the old verse presents: “money makes the world go ’round“.  Everything boiled down to it’s essential core – is about economics.

The shock to the system of modern multinational financial interests was created by an earthquake known as Trump; which created a seismic shift via the 2016 U.S. presidential election outcome.

The tectonic political and economic shift was so unsettling to the global elites -who created a decades-long system of global financial interests- they have been thrashing around desperate to regain footing ever since.

All modern political alliances are based on this economic reality, and every single action taken by every member within each grouping is based on their affiliated and interconnected self-interest in the underlying economic equation.

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Sharing only because CTH readers have a more thorough understanding than most; and we are entering a phase of extreme consequence.

Donald Trump doesn’t bluff.

Bluffing is for those who accept they may or may not win.  The outcome is based on an unpredictable response from the opponent.

In business or in life, go review the decades of available information and you will see that Donald Trump, now President Trump, doesn’t bluff.  It’s one of the reasons he so openly owns the downsides.  It’s also the reason he has never engaged in the stock market.

President Trump controls outcomes.

Donald Trump the person, doesn’t wait for an entity, ally or opponent to enter his orbit. He greets them at the perimeter.   Trump doesn’t sit with his back to the door, he positions to see all upon entrance.   Donald Trump doesn’t try to hide his interest, he’s quite open about any engagement he is focused upon.

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For those who cannot see the multi-dimensional strategy here, an approach assembled for years in the aggregate and fine-tuned in the last several weeks, President Trump is reinforcing our prior analysis of his strategy:

A day before he meets face-to-face with Xi Jinping, President Trump is highlighting the enabler to North Korea.  President Trump is smartly setting up a spotlight for the entire world to see who is creating the problem, China.

President Trump will never start a military war because it’s antithetical to his entire constitution.  However, within the field of economic combat – watch out.  Not only will Trump engage in economic warfare, he’s built an armory for decades, he’s positioned to win against any opponent.  As such, the long-term adversary in this equation is not North Korea, it’s China.

To understand the longer and larger strategy, we must first remember the underpinning of all leverage, economics.  Every single aspect of national wealth and national security boils down to economics.  The true economic adversary to the United States is China.

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