Oh, how the European hypocrisy is in overdrive on the tariff issue.  According to BBC U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and President Trump had a phone call where the British leader expressed “deep concern” over the Trump administration’s pending tariff’s on Steel and Aluminum.

Theresa May has told Donald Trump of her “deep concern” at his plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US.

Amid an escalating war of words between Washington and the European Union, the Prime Minister told the US President that “multilateral action was the only way to resolve the problem of global overcapacity in all parties’ interests”, a Downing Street spokeswoman said.  (read more)

Mrs. May must think Americans are unambiguously stupid because it was less than two years ago when the U.K. urgently applied tariffs against Chinese steel in an effort to stave off the losses within their own steel industry:

APRIL 2017,  – BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Commission has imposed anti-dumping duties on steel products from China to stop them flooding Europe’s struggling steel market.

Hypocrisy much?

President Trump is entirely correct in his prior tweet:

(more…)

Senator Joe Manchin appears on Face the Nation and highlights his support for the Trump trade initiatives.  The cross-party MAGAnomic support highlights an aspect to President Trump policy that is unique to this administration. [ DEEP DIVE HERE ]

Within the aggregate MAGAnomic policy of President Trump there are two central components: taxes and trade.  With the ‘tax element’ completed, the administration will likely jettison some of the Wall Street crowd as they focus on the trade issues that specifically benefit Main Street.

.

The application of “economic nationalism” as a policy is adverse to the interests of multinational corporations. The multinationals have been purchasing U.S. policy through DC politicians for decades. However, the last 30+ years have seen exceptionally high increases. (read more)

(more…)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo to talk trade and tariffs amid the apoplectic drum-beating from the Wall Street crowd and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Secretary Ross explains the use of Trade Section 232 for national security. The U.S. capability to produce steel and aluminum is a vital interest to national security. The World Trade Organization (WTO), a collective enterprise of multinational corporations, is angered by the use of section 232 because it works around their ability to file complaints.

.

The essential point to drive home is that for the past 30+ years U.S. trade policy has been driven by Wall Street and financial corporate benefactors to the detriment of the U.S. middle class and a manufacturing economy.  It is not necessary to argue the outcome, we can all clearly see it.  The Trump objective is to restore a balanced U.S. economy, stop the exploitative export of American wealth, and stabilize our own middle-class.

(more…)

Boy howdy, you can judge how close you are to the treasury center of the swamp by the scale of the defenses surrounding the policy.   As we have continued to explain, it’s always about the money.  All aversion to President Trump is about the economic interests of people who have established their affluence and influence from 30+ years of exploitation.

Chris Wallace is the media guardian of corporate Wall Street, the GOPe, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the financial controlling interests at the intersection of Wall Street and corporate media.  In this interview with President Trump’s Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, Peter Navarro, Wallace goes bananas to protect those interests.

.

The exploitation of the U.S. economic market through export of American wealth is a UniParty policy. Almost all Republicans and almost all Democrats are aligned in common cause to do the bidding of their corporate benefactors on trade, finance and economic policy. There are trillions at stake, and President Trump is an existential threat to their decades-long constructs.

(more…)

Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro appears on CNN with Jake Tapper to discuss pending steel and aluminum tariffs.   During the interview Navarro rightly outlined the possibility of some product “exemptions” but there no country “exclusions” for new trade tariffs.

What the media refuse to explain (willful blindness), on the country exclusion aspect, is that Chinese steel dumping doesn’t come from China alone.  China uses proxy countries in Asia as shipment depots to avoid tariffs.  Additionally, China use Mexico and Canada in North America as destinations for their steel product to gain tariff-free NAFTA access to the U.S. market.   The only way to avoid their use of proxy shipment hubs is to tax all steel and aluminum globally.

.

(more…)

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 †

Congressman Lee Zeldin and Congressman Ron Desantis are interviewed by Judge Jeanine Pirro on the ongoing investigations of the FBI and DOJ:

(more…)

There has been some non-broadcast media discussion about a battle that took place in Syria on February 7th, 2018.  According to the generally accepted overview, U.S. and coalition forces appear to have killed scores of Russian mercenaries, some reports put the number as high as 200.

Officially Russia has denied their troops were engaged in the failed attack against U.S. and coalition forces; however, actions by Russia since the battle seem to convey a more confirming message.

Bloomberg reported around 100 Russian contracted mercenary soldiers, hired by Syria’s Bashir Assad, were killed by a coalition force of U.S. and Kurdish forces in what would easily be the deadliest clash between Russians and Americans since the cold war.

More than 200 contract soldiers, mostly Russians fighting on behalf of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, died in a failed attack on a base held by U.S. and mainly Kurdish forces in the oil-rich Deir Ezzor region, two of the Russians said. The U.S. official put the death toll in the fighting at about 100, with 200 to 300 injured, but was unable to say how many were Russians. (link)

The contracted mercenaries are likely from a Russian company Wagner, similar to the U.S. company Blackwater.  Because they are not officially Russian soldiers there’s a great deal of built in plausible deniability.   As Bloomberg also noted: ““This is a big scandal and a reason for an acute international crisis,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat and lawmaker who’s now an independent political analyst. “But Russia will pretend nothing happened.””

(more…)

Here’s an example why POTUS Trump can be trusted as a change agent on the most important big picture item for the U.S., the economics.  He has held these exact same positions on trade and economics for decades.  Buried inside this 2011 speech you will find the nucleus of CTH support for Donald Trump from the moment he made the announcement.

Back in April 2011 businessman Donald Trump delivered direct and salty remarks to an audience in Las Vegas. The speech was during a period when Donald Trump was contemplating a run for the presidency in 2012. Barron was four-years-old.  The speech was about U.S. economics, poor decision making by U.S. policy makers, and the perspective of stopping the bleed within the U.S. economy:

That speech was April 2011, this tweet is today, March 3rd, 2018.

(more…)