Together with his family and diplomatic team, U.S. President Donald Trump became the first president to visit Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Monday.  President Trump stood before the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray before inserting a note between the monumental stones.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were accompanied by the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, who said on Israel Radio that he recited two psalms with the U.S. leader. One of them, Psalm 122, speaks of Jerusalem as a “city that is united together”.

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There’s diplomatic friendship, nice people (Xi Jinping); then there’s leadership friendship, great people (Fattah al-Sisi); and then there’s ‘friendship’ friendship.  Donald and Melania Trump together with Bibi and Sara Netanyahu have the latter in buckets.

With all the formal decorum that can at times be choking to deal with, Melania and Sara have a naturally gracious and comfortable sense together. Donald and Bibi also really like each other, and they really like that Melania and Sara enjoy each other. Big Bonus. Good stuff.

The most consequential events in history all surround relationships – not simply events. Relationships create trust – trust creates history.

The overheard conversation on the tarmac was pricless. (Video Below):

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U.S. President Donald J Trump delivers remarks with Israeli President Rivlin

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President Trump and First Lady Melania arrive in Tel Aviv, Israel and participate in the Airport Welcome Ceremony.  Greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin – Ben Gurion International Airport:

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12:25pm President Donald Trump meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and deliver remarks in a joint press event.  Later in the evening, the President and the First Lady will have dinner with Prime Minister and Mrs. Netanyahu:

RSBN Livestream Link – Alternate Livestream #3 – Alternate Livestream Link #2

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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

Much of the predictive economic analysis we present is done so for a very specific reason. If you teach yourself how to sift through the big picture rocks you can quite simply predict the granular future.  Our CTH goal has always been to help with the sifting. CTH has a remarkable track record because common sense is the compass heading, and when we see the obscure data –nobody pays attention to– we focus attention and context upon it.

NOW THIS–>:DETROIT (AP) — Ford is replacing its CEO amid questions about its current performance and future strategy. A person familiar with the situation says CEO Mark Fields is retiring at age 56 after 28 years at the company. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement hasn’t been made.

Fields will be replaced by Jim Hackett, who joined Ford’s board in 2013, this person says. Hackett has led Ford’s mobility unit since last year. He is the former CEO of office furniture maker Steelcase. Fields helped lead Ford’s turnaround a decade ago as president of its Americas division. But the company’s stock price has fallen almost 40 percent in the three years since he became CEO. (link)

Those of you who have been around a while might remember…

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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 †

The Saudi people and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are very proud of what they were able to accomplish during this historic visit by President Donald Trump to the summit of a united Arab coalition. (Summit Production Video):

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The entire region should be proud.

Despite the popular western dismissive media narrative, the summit was a resounding success. Beyond the royal pageantry, we can only imagine the internal anxiety if our beloved America was defined by the abhorrent behavior of the Westboro Baptist Church.

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President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump join President Fattah al-Sisi (Egypt) and Saudi King Salman to participate in the inauguration of The Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology.  [two videos below]  ‘Hearts and Memes’?

Essentially the center appears to be a Saudi data hub for monitoring multiple media and social media platforms, detecting extremist sentiments and countering the concerning rhetoric with positive social media messaging. In the U.S. we have the NSA cyber command monitoring system, a ‘big brother’ per se’.  The Saudi version appears to be a non military enterprise which might be considered ‘Big Allah’.

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Given First Lady Melania’s interests in combating social media bullying, this Saudi enterprise and exhibit was likely interesting.

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