Noting President Trump’s Asian Strategy. [High Profile, but Under-reported] •A firm open hand •leveraging new policy •structured around personal trust •building modern alliances:

♦February 10th – President Trump hosted Japanese Prime Minister Abe at the White House and at Mar-a-Lago, w/both spouses, to discuss regional issues (including N-Korea).

♦February 27th – President Trump and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi meet in the White House Oval Office to discuss regional issues (including N-Korea).

♦March 15th – Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visits Japan, South Korea and China to follow up on February’s conversations and discuss the forward path (including N-Korea).

♦April 6th and 7th – President Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago where they discussed all of the critical bilateral and regional issues (including N-Korea).

♦April 15th – Vice President Pence arrives in Asia for a ten day visit; positioned as the steady, stable and reliable administration policy closer (including N-Korea).

The White House (Trump) approach and results so far have been stunningly effective.

There have been more consequential Asia-Pacific/U.S. results (trade, economics and security) in the past two months than in the prior ten years. The stunningly successful and deliberate strategy continues today with Vice President Mike Pence in Japan.

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President Trump travels to Kenosha Wisconsin today where he will sign a “Buy American, Hire American” executive order during a visit to Snap-On Tools.   Additionally, President Trump is anticipated to deliver remarks at approximately 3:00/3:30pm ET

RSBN Live Stream – Alternate NYT Live Stream – Alternate TIME Live Stream

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According to Pennsylvania State Police, Cleveland Facebook killer Steve Stevens has killed himself after being located by police.  (Source Link)  Approximately 11:46am ET

That’s weird.  (Hat Tip GWP) The Democrat candidate running to represent Georgia’s 6th congressional district doesn’t even live in the district and can’t vote for himself.

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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

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 †

It’s not on the official public press release page yet, however several media are reporting a call between President Trump and President Erdogan.

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Taken in the abstract it’s disconcerting for President Trump to be congratulating Erdogan on the controversial referendum. However, I had a sense this was going to happen because Press Secretary Sean Spicer really FUBAR’d a diplomatic protocol earlier in the day when questioned about yesterday’s election result in Turkey.

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HatTip Newsbusters – Generation Z continues to highlight their rebellious tendencies. During a live CNN report in the 11 am ET hour, a young chap photobombed CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and appeared to mouth “fake news” at the camera, twice.

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During a February interview which broadcast just before the Superbowl, President Trump recalled riding with former President Barack Obama to the Inauguration on Jan. 20 when he asked Obama to list the three greatest issues America was facing.

[…] “I asked him what you think our biggest problem is and he told me,” Trump said, recalling the limousine ride to the U.S. Capitol with Obama.

“I can’t tell you,” Trump said after O’Reilly interrupted to ask about specifics. “But it’s a problem, its a military problem with a certain place. No, it’s not China. But it is – he did mention, cause I did ask him what would you say our number one, two, three problems are and the number one problem that he felt – I was a little bit surprised, but I fully understand.” (link)

Almost every mainstream political pundit and political observer believes the concerning country within that conversation was North Korea. Indeed, if you were to evaluate the comment in isolation, against the backdrop of world media headlines, N-Korea seemingly becomes a natural conclusion.

However, CTH does not believe North Korea was the country of concern. President Obama viewed and acted upon all foreign affairs through the prism of ideological belief. Every action taken by the Obama administration was in furtherance of an ideological world-view that was personal to the small circle of like-minded fellow travelers.

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During a massive campaign rally today in Paris nationalist politician Marine Le Pen was targeted by a far-left loon who rushed the stage and came within inches of the presidential candidate before security forces took action.

The activist disguised herself as a Le Pen supporter carrying flowers and rushed the stage, it took several seconds for the security team to react.  Thankfully no-one was hurt.  Video Below:

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Le Pen’s security apparatus need to step up their approach; because if that had been a violent attack their response time would have been far too late.

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