Yesterday the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions against two Chinese shipping firms for violating ongoing sanctions against North Korea [TREASURY HERE].
With USTR Robert Lighthizer and Secretary Mnuchin set to travel this weekend to Beijing for ongoing trade discussion, the sanction timing complicates the dance with the dragon. Subsequently President Trump sends the following tweet:

Slamming China with sanctions (over DPRK dragon activity) while Beijing is showing the Panda mask (during Beijing trade negotiations) is not wise. If the Panda mask drops during trade negotiations to reveal the Dragon face, then ok. However, the majority of the West, driven by a misunderstanding of the China-DPRK relationship, does not know how directly a manipulative Beijing controls Pyongyang.
Taking aggressive sanction action against China could backfire with Beijing ordering those around Chairman Kim to test a missile.
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Earlier this morning President Trump delivered remarks to the White House press pool as he departed for Mar-a-lago.   [Video and Transcript below]

[Transcript] – South Lawn – 9:45 A.M. EDT
Q Mr. President, do you expect the Mueller report to be submitted today?
THE PRESIDENT: I have no idea about the Mueller report.
I’m going to Florida. We have meetings with the five Caribbean leaders. That’ll be at Mar-a-Lago. We have a lot of other meetings set up for this weekend on trade. We have a lot of talks with China. And a lot of things are happening. We’ll be doing it from Florida. And a lot of very important things are happening.
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Shortly before the president signed an executive order on affirming first amendment rights on college campuses yesterday, President Trump sat down for an extensive interview with Maria Bartiromo.
The interview covers a wide range of topics with a primary focus on the U.S. economy, ongoing trade discussions and issues that impact the U.S. workforce. One of the granular issues that surfaces is a subject we discuss frequently, the value of the ‘chicken tax‘; the 25% tariff on imported trucks and SUV’s.   WATCH:

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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

Sarah H Sanders Twitter @SHSanders45

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 †

The club sure is testing this one hard:

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The pontificating, smug, condescending and sanctimonious former FBI Director; who appointed himself the arbiter of all moral virtue; is apparently attempting to steer his high-horse toward the exit of a Mueller narrative he created.
In typical leftist fashion, James Comey now attempts to distance himself from the damage he created; and position his sheeple followers to accept the lack of actual substance behind his prior snake-oil promises.
What an absolute fraud this guy is.
It is stunning to think he once was the Director of the FBI… Then again, the 2.0 version in Christopher Wray isn’t much of an improvement.  I digress.

JAMES COMEY […]  But not everyone knows what it “must” say. Even though I believe Mr. Trump is morally unfit to be president of the United States, I’m not rooting for Mr. Mueller to demonstrate that he is a criminal. I’m also not rooting for Mr. Mueller to “clear” the president. I’m not rooting for anything at all, except that the special counsel be permitted to finish his work, charge whatever cases warrant charging and report on his work.

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The left-wing media in Canada is doing everything possible to shape, defend and protect Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from a corruption scandal created by his pressure to stop a criminal case against SNC-Lavalin. {Background Here} and {Update Here}.
The depth of the corruption is evidenced by the level of manipulation deployed by the Canadian state-run media, and yet they are still unable to bury the issue for him.

In the latest development….

OTTAWA (Reuters) – A Canadian cabinet minister, who had quit in protest over the government’s handling of a corruption scandal, said she and others had more to say about the matter, indicating more pain to come for embattled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trudeau has been on the defensive since Feb. 7 over allegations that top officials working for him leaned on former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould last year to ensure that construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc avoided a corruption trial.

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As they say… things get clearer with more data. The activity behind the curtain starts to make more sense.
Thanks to an article from Newsmax we now get to see the fourth corner of the 2020 Fox News motives:

NEWSMAX – The parent company of Fox News has hired a former top aide to Joe Biden as its chief lobbyist in Washington.
On Tuesday the new Fox Corp., a spin-off of 21^st Century Fox which just merged with Disney, became a standalone public company, controlling television assets such as Fox News and the Fox television network.
Broadcasting & Cable reported that new Fox “hit the ground running on day one” with its Washington lobbying operation headed by Danny O’Brien, a well-known Democrat.

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Everything about last year’s headline story just two-weeks before the mid-term election was weird; including the refusal of the FBI to state what ‘specifically’ was the material suspect Cesar Sayoc was accused of using to create his Acme looking pipe bombs.
[Full Indictment Here]
You might remember: FBI Director Christopher Wray outlined during his remarks that the devices consisted of PVC pipe, clocks, batteries, wiring and “energetic material that can become combustible when subjected to heat or friction”.
The FBI director went out of his way to state: “these were not hoax devices.”  The DOJ then moved to seal all court filings and the case against the nut continued behind the curtain of ‘national security’.  Suspect Cesar Sayoc was scheduled to go on trial this summer on charges relating to the pipe bombs.  However, today he entered a guilty plea before a federal judge in New York.

(Via Washington Post) Cesar Sayoc, the Florida man accused of mailing explosive devices to more than a dozen politicians and media figures who have been critical of President Trump, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court.

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