In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

President Trump Twitter @POTUS / Vice President Pence Twitter @VP

Stephanie Grisham Twitter @StephGrisham45

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

Carter Page appeared on Fox News today with Maria Bartiromo to discuss his work as an informant for the FBI in the Evgeny Buryakov case.  The case involved Buryakov in New York and two other SVR agents, Igor Sporyshev and Victor Podobnyy. [See Here]

.
It never made sense that U.S. Person Carter Page was an FBI witness from 2013 through to March/May 2016 and yet in October 2016, to achieve a FISA warrant, the FBI called him an agent of a foreign government.  [FISA APPLICATION]
It never made sense until we realized the FBI didn’t use Carter Page to gain a FISA warrant (that was an outcropping); the FBI used Carter Page to get the Steele Dossier into official investigative status.  What they needed was the Dossier, Page was irrelevant other than he checked all the boxes needed to fabricate the illusion of “an agent of a foreign power.”
(more…)

The traditional G7 Family Photo event took an unusual twist on Sunday as leaders from Africa, India, South America and Australia joined the G7 assembly for the photo and leadership dinner at Hotel du Palais in Biarritz, France.
The backdrop is the grand plage (main beach) at the Hotel du Palais.  The photo-op is the last event available to media before dinner [media were not allowed to the dinner].
In addition to the G7 leaders [Macron, Merkel, Conte, Johnson, Trudeau, Tusk (EU), Abe and Trump] you will note a large delegation from Africa, PM Modi (India), PM Morrison (AU), President Sisi (Egypt) President Piñera (Chile); along with David Malpass (World Bank) and others.

At the end of the video Chilean President Sebastian Piñera along with his wife, Celia Morel, join Mr and Mrs. Macron along with Mr. and Mrs. Trump, on the riser for a set of photographs which seemed to be requested by President Donald Trump.
(more…)

The structure of the global trade reset is visible.  The China decoupling is underway; the scale of this geopolitical dynamic is incredible.
KORUS  (Korea-US) is in the books; the North American USMCA is complete, pending ratification; the EU has agreed to purchase U.S. beef exports; and effective today the Japan-US deal is agreed in principle (sans auto and industrial products TBD).  Now  President Trump is working on a post-Brexit UK-US bilateral package.

(more…)

It does not take a deep geopolitical weed-walker to see the background for inviting the African delegation to the Biarritz summit.  Here we see the the G7 working session group on ‘partnerships with Africa‘:

What we don’t see in this picture is the main reason for the meeting, the 800lb panda in the room. All of these non-G7 members and meeting participants have been previously exposed to the One-Belt One-Road influence of Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.
Combine World Bank President David Malpass into the equation, a direct U.S. nomination by President Trump now in place; mix in the visibility of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison; and then recognize the sudden appearance of Sebastian Pinera from Chile and Prime Minister Narendra Modi from India; and the picture of a multi-continental meeting to discuss the potential downstream ramifications of President Trump confronting China becomes visible.
(more…)

Frances’ First Lady Brigitte Macron took the spouses and partners of the G7 Summit leaders on a tour of a traditional Basque village near Biarritz, in the South of France.
First Lady Melania Trump and the entourage visited the Village of Espelette, the flower gardens of Villa Arnaga and the church of Saint-Etienne while their spouses were holding meetings and discussions at the G7 summit.

(more…)

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow discuss the ongoing trade and economic discussions amid the G7 summit in  France.  The G7 was originally formed to address economic issues amid the top industrial economies. President Trump has been trying to return to that focus.
Secretary Mnuchin did a good job knocking back the narrative gnats.

(more…)

U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan announced the terms of a new U.S-Japan trade agreement have been reached.  This part of the trade agreement was visible for some time; confirmed today. U.S Ambassador Lighthizer and Japanese Minister Motegi have worked this for a while. [Video and Transcript]

.
[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, thank you very much. We’ve been working on a deal with Japan for a long time. It involves agricultural and it involves e-commerce and many other things. It’s a very big transaction, and we’ve agreed in principle. It’s billions and billions of dollars. Tremendous for the farmers.
And one of the things that Prime Minister Abe has also agreed to is we have excess corn in various parts of our country, with our farmers, because China did not do what they said they were going to do. And Prime Minister Abe, on behalf of Japan, they’re going to be buying all of that corn. And that’s a very big transaction. They’re going to be buying it from our farmers.
(more…)

President Trump and Justin from Canada hold a bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Biarritz, France.   No-one is exactly sure why Justin from Canada is there; both leaders talked about the USMCA, again; and the media did not have any questions for anyone about Canada. [Video and Transcript Below]

.
[Transcript] – PRIME MINISTER TRUDEAU: Well, it’s always a pleasure to sit down with President Trump. We’ve had some good conversations already, particularly on the global economy. The Canadian and American economy are doing well, partially because of the trading relationship we have and the great work we did.
(more…)