President Donald Trump delivers the weekly address where he outlines the previous week’s trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the EU.  Additionally, President Trump discusses the ongoing efforts to generate economic growth.

[Transcript]  My fellow Americans,

I am thrilled to be back in the United States after our first historic foreign trip.

Over the course of 9 days, Melania and I traveled to some of the holiest sites in the three Abrahamic religions and met with nearly 100 foreign leaders. Everywhere we went, my goal was to advance American interests, to build a coalition of nations to drive out the terrorists, and to unlock a future of peace, prosperity, and hope for all Americans – and people around the world.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross sits down for a big picture conversation to discuss the upcoming NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) trade renegotiation.

This interview is well worth the time to understand the dynamics and objectives of the Trump administration.

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We are incredibly blessed to have Wilbur Ross, Steven Mnuchin (Treasury) and Robert Lighthizer (U.S. Trade Rep.) as the leading edge of the new America-First economic revitalization.

These U.S. policy titans of trade, finance and commerce are the most comprehensively well-skilled people we have had assembled in our lifetime.

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For those following along over the past two years this will not come as a surprise. European manufacturers understand the entire foundation for the Paris Treaty was about economics, economic advantages and the transfer of economic strength away from the U.S., not climate.  Specifically for Germany the outlook is especially troubling.

First, Germany will be the primary EU country to fill the financial void from the U.K. leaving the EU (Brexit); that financial hole is approximately €15 billion per year.  Secondly, Germany will be faced with having to renegotiate trade deals with the U.S. while they remain encumbered with the regulatory burden of the Paris treaty, while the U.S. negotiators are not.  This is a large advantage for Team America.

As such, today we see and immediate reaction. German auto manufacturers announce they are faced with losing a competitive advantage over the U.S. in the global market, and will now need to reassess their domestic production and manufacturing standards:

REUTERS – Germany’s powerful car industry said Europe would need to reassess its environmental standards to remain competitive after the United States said it would withdraw from the Paris climate pact.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would withdraw the United States from the landmark 2015 global agreement to fight climate change, drawing anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry.

“The regrettable announcement by the USA makes it inevitable that Europe must facilitate a cost efficient and economically feasible climate policy to remain internationally competitive,” Matthias Wissmann, president of the German auto industry lobby group VDA, said in a statement on Friday.

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Earlier today Secretary of Commerce Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross was interviewed by Today host Matt Lauer. Wilburine doesn’t suffer fools especially when they are quoting from oppositional talking points disconnected from facts.

Lauer throws the progressive talking points and Wilburine simply chews through them while reminding Lauer the Paris Treaty was about economics not climate.

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The underlying principle of the Trump Economic Team’s policy is how they plan to effectively grow the economy beyond the current 1-1.5%. Without the insufferable regulation, and with renegotiated trade deals, the baseline for economic growth jumps enormously.

This is the fundamental disconnect most financial and economic followers are missing. All current assumptions for growth are predicated on the burdensome status quo; remove those blocks and the national GDP has no upper limit. Three to four percent (or higher) growth becomes the reality.

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Press Secretary Sean Spicer and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt deliver the press beating live from the White House – Start Time 1:30pm EDT (estimated):

UPDATE: Video Added

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Kathy Griffin holds a press conference in California to claim she has been horribly victimized by President Trump and the first family.  Additionally Griffin is claiming a group of “old white men” are trying to destroy her career and she is enduring bullying.

There are several emotional moments where Ms. Griffin breaks down crying as she recounts the strong possibility that her career is financially ruined, and claims 11-year-old Barron Trump is being used as a weapon against her.

There are also snippets of the press conference below.

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Against the backdrop of Kathy Griffin producing a video where she decapitated President Donald Trump; and yesterday hiring attorney Lisa Bloom to conduct a press conference scheduled for today, it is worth noting an interview Ms. Griffin gave to Vulture Media at the Equality Now Gala in December of 2016:

[…] “So I’m happy to deliver beat down to Donald Trump — and also to Barron. You know a lot of comics are going to go hard for Donald, my edge is that I’ll go direct for Barron. I’m going to get in ahead of the game.”  (link)

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(screen grab link)

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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

Sean Spicer Twitter @PressSec

Yesterday the news production staff at CNN were having a bad day.  A horribly, terribly, gloriously and embarrassingly bad day.

Many people, myself included, have just stopped watching the train wreck media circle the drain amid their need to oppose anything, everything, Trump.  CNN executives wake up in the morning knowing Trump has done something terrible, they just don’t know what it is yet. Oy, how this ideological perspective is challenging to maintain.

The anti-Trump outlook relies heavily on the desperate production staff who are increasingly verklempt in their desperate efforts to find new ways to present the same tired narrative.

Fraught with the reality of a diminishing quality of Russian trumpet, their collective production anxiety cannot help but show on the faces of the hosts and CNN proletariat.

However, yesterday was an especially challenging day.

The day began with CNN having to find a way, some way, any way, to support candidate H. Pickles Clinton amid her vast international Russian and Macedonian right-wing DNC conspiracy theory.

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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 †