As guests of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Trump and First Lady Melania attend the “Namaste Trump Rally” at the massive Motera cricket stadium. The first family was serenaded along the route by artists and floats, depicting India’s diversity.
The massive stadium was filled with an estimated crowd of 125,000.  A transcript of President Trump’s speech below.

[Transcript] PRESIDENT TRUMP: Namaste! Namaste. (Applause.) And hello to India. This is such a great honor. Let me begin by expressing my profound gratitude to an exceptional leader, a great champion of India, a man who works night and day for his country, and a man I am proud to call my true friend: Prime Minister Modi. (Applause.)
The First Lady and I have just traveled 8,000 miles around the globe to deliver a message to every citizen across this nation: America loves India, America respects India, and America will always be faithful and loyal friends to the Indian people. (Applause.)
Five months ago, the United States welcomed your great Prime Minister at a giant football stadium in Texas, and today, India welcomes us at the world’s largest cricket stadium right here in Ahmedabad. (Applause.) It is a profound honor to be the beautiful new stadium, to be here with you — Motera Stadium. So beautiful. (Applause.) And joined by so many distinguished guests from all across your nation and all across the world.
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President Trump and First Lady Melania arrive in India for a two-day state visit.  The Trumps’ were greeted upon arrival with full pageantry and personal warmth by Prime Minister Modi.  WATCH:

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White House Trade and Manufacturing Advisor Peter Navarro has an interview with Maria Bartiromo to discuss potential U.S. supply chain issues and the need to reorient our medical equipment manufacturing back to North America.   As Navarro highlights the Chinese communist govt recently nationalized an American medical manufacturing company and commandeered all of their products. An important discussion.
Additionally, Navarro discusses the ongoing administration effort to combat incoming fake products from China still estimated to be over ten percent of all imports.

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National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on CNBC for an extensive interview on upstream economic issues.  With China’s economy at a standstill; and with the troubles of the coronavirus spreading outward; what does that mean for us?
There’s some good questions in this interview.  Domestically, as we noted yesterday, the U.S. economy is strong and growing. However, the Wall Street multinationals are very exposed to the China issues. On the bright side the overall China issues are helping to push more corporate decisions toward domestic investment and away from Beijing.

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Given these lessons being learned, I sure wish we didn’t have China involved in making our medicines and medical products.  The administration needs to look at this more.
Director Kudlow also appeared on Fox Business with Lou Dobbs.
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The potential for supply chain disruption as a result of China dealing with the Coronavirus, and almost a complete shutdown of their manufacturing economy, is looming heavy upon Wall Street multinationals invested in China.
However, tangentially related, as a result of USMCA we are now seeing signs of shifted investment into North America and increases in forecasts for U.S. manufacturing.

(Via CNBC) […] Early in the week, New York’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey for general business conditions posted a reading of 12.9, up 8 points from January and its best level since May. New orders surged to 22.1, the highest since September 2017, and shipments rose to 18.9, the best since November 2018.
On Thursday, the Philadelphia survey exploded 20 points higher to 36.7, the highest since February 2017. New orders hit their highest since May 2018. (more)

The Philadelphia FED tracks factory orders in eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware.  New orders in that region soared far higher than all expectations, reflecting a strong consumer-driven economy with ongoing purchases of durable goods.
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UPDATE:  Appointment Confirmed
Lots to unpack here.  Maggie Haberman is warning resistance allies in the Senate to prepare all defensive weapons against a possible Trump appointment of Ric Grenell as  Director of the Office of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Grenell currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.  He can serve as “acting” ODNI, but to become permanent ODNI he would need to survive confirmation railroading by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chair Mark Warner.  The SSCI is deep swamp and and participated in the coup effort against the office of the president.  The SSCI has a vested interest in controlling the ODNI position; hence their prior blocking of Representative John Ratcliffe.

[Via New York Times] … Mr. Grenell, whose outspokenness throughout his career as a political operative and then as ambassador has prompted criticism, is a vocal Trump loyalist who will lead a group of national security agencies often viewed skeptically by the White House.

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Earlier on Tuesday, President Donald Trump received a briefing from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Los Angles 2028 organizers.
Participating in the briefing was President Donald J. Trump; Jared Kushner, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor; Daniel Scavino, Assistant to the President and Director of Social Media; Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Department of the Treasury; Acting Secretary Chad Wolf, Department of Homeland Security; Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina; and Representative Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, California’s 23rd
External Participants: Casey Wasserman, Chairman, Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee; Sarah Hirshland, CEO, United States Olympic Committee; John Harper, COO, Los Angeles 2028; Danny Koblin, Commercial COO, Los Angeles 2028; Dean Christopher, Senior Advisor for Finance, Los Angeles 2028; and Doug Arnot, Senior Advisor for Games Operations, Los Angeles 2028

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Oh this is sketchy as hell.  The notorious activist DC Judge Amy Berman Jackson announced today she will deliver the sentence for Roger Stone on Thursday; however, she will immediately postpone execution of that sentence until the issues around the request for a new trial are resolved.   Here’s what appears to be happening….
Judge Amy Berman-Jackson doesn’t want to deal with; and doesn’t want the optics of; the serious issue surrounding the activist jury foreperson, Tomeka Hart, prior to delivering her sentence.

Within the process to deal with Stone’s motion for a new trial, judge Berman-Jackson knows the petition would involve bringing in Tomeka Hart to her courtroom for questioning.  The judge doesn’t want that damaging political optic prior to delivering her sentence.  Obviously, such an appearance begs the question of how poorly Judge Berman-Jackson handled jury selection.  This CYA is a seriously political and sketchy decision.
Judge Amy Berman-Jackson will pass her sentence on Stone, and then take up the issue of a new trial *AFTER* the sentence is announced.  As a consequence the judge will not carry out execution of the sentence until the Tomeka Hart issues are addressed.  FUBAR.

WASHINGTON – […] In a 12-minute conference call with the defense and prosecution teams on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she will still hand down Stone’s sentence at Thursday’s hearing, but indicated she plans to defer the execution of the sentence until the court addresses Stone’s request for a new trial.

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The media PR firm for the FBI and DOJ objectives is the New York Times.  The media PR firm for the State Department is CNN.  The media PR firm for the CIA is The Washington Post.  This pattern has existed for several years.
The Washington Post is very concerned about a growing possibility the investigation into the origin of intelligence community work may expose the fraudulent nature of the entire ‘Russian Election Interference Collusion-Conspiracy‘ narrative.  Very concerned.

The WaPo/CIA express concern by stating that President Trump is attempting to “rewrite history”; disingenuously skipping the part where Trump isn’t attempting anything.  For more than three years President Trump has simply pointed out the obvious. It is is the media and the intelligence apparatus that set up a fictitious narrative for political needs.

WASHINGTON POST – […] As his reelection campaign intensifies, Trump is using the powers of his office to manipulate the facts and settle the score. Advisers say the president is determined to protect his associates ensnared in the expansive Russia investigation, punish the prosecutors and investigators he believes betrayed him, and convince the public that the probe was exactly as he sees it: an illegal witch hunt.

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Presidential candidate and billionaire Michael Bloomberg is coming under scrutiny for his elitist comments about farmers not being smart enough to add value in the era of technology.   In some ways it’s predictably sad, in other ways his condescension simply reflects the outlook of modern Democrats.

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While it is angering to watch this pontificating condescension; at another level it is entirely predictable. Both the old school Fabian socialist outlook and the modern Democrat ideology is based on superiority.
George Bernard Shaw, a founder of modern socialist thought, famously said at some point each citizen should be required to stand before a tribunal and explain their value. If the community does not find value in that person, then society would be better off eliminating them. You can extend that same perspective into almost every policy advocated by the current political left.  It’s a short walk from Bloombergs’ speech to the cattle-cars.
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