President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center of Performance Arts.  As they walked the red carpet, President Trump paused to answer questions from the assembled international press pool.  WATCH:

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President Trump appeared very relaxed and comfortable with the events of the evening and was deliberate in his responses to several critical issues happening around the world.

JD Vance also attended with his wife, Usha Vance, and responded to brief questions, below.

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U.S. Secretary of State / National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence ODNI Tulsi Gabbard continue making background moves well worth noticing.

♦ Secretary Marco Rubio has moved forward with instructions to fire all overseas USAID staff.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered U.S. embassies around the world Tuesday to move ahead with a directive to fire all remaining staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He said the State Department will take over USAID’s foreign assistance programs by Monday.

A federal judge had temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump for mass firings at multiple federal agencies, including the State Department, and plaintiffs say Rubio’s reorganization plan appears to violate that court injunction.

The Trump administration says the plan was already underway when the president issued the order, so there’s no possible violation. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has yet to make a determination. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that Rubio’s directive “wasn’t a surprise.”

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We can discuss opinion and motive in the comments section.  I’ll drop my thoughts below the fold:

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The headline is written to draw the contrast from what the professional economic pundits previously -and continuously- proclaim.

Two charts tell the story.  The first is “Tariff Revenues”:

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The Second Chart is USA Inflation:

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Apparently, despite all the wailing, pearl-clutching and teeth gnashing from the multinationals, their economic punditry conscripts and the professional political apparatus, tariffs are not raising prices.  Go figure.

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on CNBC to outline some of the topline details behind the latest U.S-China trade agreement.

As Lutnick notes, with all the terms agreed over two long days of negotiation, the details now move to “the paper” where President Trump and Chairman Xi will review and approve.  The agreement is ¹only between the USA and China and does not involve trade details with other nations who will not be pulled along by our U.S. position.

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This facet is very interesting because it means ¹Canada, a nation entirely dependent on China for industrial raw materials, does not gain benefit from the outcome of the U.S-China trade agreement.   Canada is openly, publicly, trying to develop their economic model with a relationship toward the U.K and EU, to the detriment of the USA.  If China grants benefit to the USA that are not existent for Canada, the U.K and E.U, that puts their coalition of economic adversaries at a disadvantage.

Lutnicks’ throw-away line, “we tried to help them, but it didn’t work out”… moving on.  lol

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President Trump announces that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have successfully concluded three-days of topline trade negotiations with their Chinese counterparts.

President Trump and Chairman Xi will now evaluate the successfully negotiated details and institute the topline strategy as part of the overall future trade agreement. According to the Truth Social post, there will be a 55% tariff on Chinese imports and a 10% tariff on U.S. goods to China.

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At a 55% tariff rate against Chinese finished-goods imports, there will be ZERO inflationary pressure to the U.S. consumer.

None. Zero. Zippo. Zilch.

I will explain why below.

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press beating.  Livestream links below:

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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.

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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 †

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This indictment summary reads like a movie script.

A member of the Chinese Communist Party, Shenghua Wen, 42, of Ontario California, came to the USA on a student visa in 2012; he never left.

Wen remained in the USA illegally, while somehow purchasing “a firearms business in Houston, paid for with money sent through intermediaries by one of Wen’s North Korean contacts.”

After organizing a covert life in the United States, and after purchasing the firearms company, Wen began sending weapons and sensitive military hardware to China, where it was transshipped by prior agreement and sent into North Korea.  You just have to read the DOJ press release to review the unbelievable system Shenghua Wen had put into place.

“Wen also acquired or offered to acquire a civilian airplane engine and a thermal imaging system that could be mounted on a drone, helicopter, or other aircraft, and could be used for reconnaissance and target identification.” [READ MORE]

Wen plead guilty to the charges and now faces “a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the count of violating the IEEPA and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18.”

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