We’ve watched a lot of different takes on the explosive Friday oval office meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Trump, however this explanation from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is exceptional.

Secretary Lutnick explains what the administration team anticipated from Zelenskyy versus what took place. Knowing the context of the congressional team that met with Zelenskyy prior to the Oval Office meeting, the explanation from Lutnick takes on even more sunlight. This is a very brutally honest take from a great member of the Trump administration. WATCH:

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President Trump’s repeated position that Zelenskyy is refusing to discuss peace because the USA is standing close with him, is exactly the reason President Trump is now going to create distance.

CUT HIM OFF – President Trump is going to force Ukraine to stand without the USA support, only supported by the EU and U.K.  It’s essentially a peacekeeping standoff.  President Trump wants peace, the Ukranian people want peace, Zelenskyy and the EU/UK are willing to fight Russia to the last Ukranian.

It’s not about sending U.S. military goods into Ukraine, the Trump play can be twofold.  (1) We stop paying for their government operations; and (2) potentially we turn off the U.S. satellite targeting systems that Ukraine is using.  Then watch what happens.

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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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For many of us who walk the deep weeds of honest economic analysis, this is the moment we have been waiting for.

Second only to the elimination of the U.S-Marshal Plan, which is scheduled to end April 2, 2025, the structural implementation of North American tariffs against Mexico and Canada provides the most significant opportunity for GDP expansion, jobs, wage increases and massive economic gains in the United States.

Simultaneous to the tariffs scheduled to go into effect tomorrow, President Trump notes U.S. food prices are positioned for major supply-demand changes that will benefit all American consumers.  What President Trump notes in the Truth Social message below, is a reality we experienced in 2018/2019 as the result of national agriculture supply.

[Source]

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told CNBC on Monday that the inflationary impact from any tariffs would be “second-order small, so I don’t see the president wavering on any of this, because he knows in order to get to a world in which America is strong and prosperous, with real wages going up and (more) factory jobs. This is the path that he’s chosen.” (more)

CTH outlined the prediction for ’18/’19 back in 2016 when we discussed what happens when the American food supply equation is modified to focus on domestic production to the benefit of domestic consumers.   The food supply chain will shift, slowly at first and then ultimately by around Thanksgiving of this year (fall harvest) we will see major price drops in the American food basket.

There are going to be major opposition forces, notably related to decades of Big Ag exfiltration, screaming that U.S. consumers will see higher prices.  However, as previously experienced/outlined these claims are entirely false. We will see major drops in food prices as a result of a more balanced U.S production-import/export dynamic.

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The White House has announced an executive pause of support for Ukraine with a reevaluation of priorities following Zelenskyy’s expressed intransigence against peace.

[…] “President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a White House official told POLITICO. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” (more here)

Vice-President JD Vance appears tonight on Fox News with Sean Hannity to discuss the breakdown in relationship between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As noted by Vance, it does no good to verbally antagonize Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the same time President Trump is trying to create the environment for peace and bring all sides to the negotiating table.  WATCH:

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Expressing frustration over the intransigence of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who demands to maintain the killing fields in Europe, President Trump says, “America will not put up with it much longer.”

[SOURCE]

The remarks by Zelenskyy follow a meeting in London with various EU leaders who are assembling a ‘coalition of the willing’ to support Ukraine with enlarged military operations.  Zelenskyy tells the AP:

““We are talking about the first steps today, and therefore, until they are on paper, I would not like to talk about them in great detail.” “An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away, and no one has started all these steps yet. The peace that we foresee in the future must be just, honest, and most importantly, sustainable,” he added.

President Trump notes the intransigence from Zelenskyy seemingly hails from the mindset that the United States will continue to fund and support the Ukraine government in their conflict against Russia.  “This guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing,” President Trump noted on Truth Social.

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President Donald Trump held a press briefing Monday where he announced a $100 billion investment from Taiwanese Chip company TMSC in the United States.

President Trump on the TMSC investment: “We’ll be at close to 40% of the [chips] market with this transaction and a couple of others that we’re doing.” The investment will be to produce semiconductor chips in Arizona. WATCH:

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The press questions and answer period begins at 11:00 of the video above.

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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.

(more…)

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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Following a widely watched assembly of EU leaders, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces that Britain will lead a “coalition of the willing” and the U.K. will put boots on the ground and planes in the air to create the “security guarantee” for a potential Russia-Ukraine ceasefire.

The Prime Minister did not specify any other European country who will align and join their military forces on the ground in Ukraine; instead outlining that additional military elements will be rapidly organized.  PM Starmer stressed that U.S. military forces “must” backstop the EU military members and implied that Italian PM Meloni will only align with the principal of Italian military use if the USA is involved.

As secretary Rubio mentioned earlier in the day, the Ukraine/EU phrase “security guarantee” is more honestly described as “deterrence” or an insurance policy.  Prime Minister Starmer and this EU ‘coalition of the willing’ are only willing to put their military into Ukraine if the USA will be guaranteed to come into the conflict if the ceasefire falls apart.  This should not be a part of any reasonable consideration, given the 3rd parties (not Russia) that would intentionally seek to disrupt a ceasefire to suck the USA into battle.  WATCH: 

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None of the other EU nations are willing to publicly say they will put their military into Ukraine, because the EU just doesn’t have a military force capable to deal with the conflict.

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