In the dynamic of President Trump confronting Chairman Xi over Chinese trade and manufacturing practices there are critical members of the U.S. team, each with a role to play. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are the most important members.
Secretary Ross explains the position of the U.S. team as they head to the G20. WATCH:
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As we discussed yesterday, Chinese anxiety is off-the-charts. When China gets into this high-anxiety disposition, they immediately -predictably- drop the Panda mask, and lash-out with Red Dragon antagonisms. This is happening right now. (more…)
President Trump calls in to Maria Bartiromo for an extensive interview on multiple subjects. The president discusses his perspective on Mueller testifying; the state of the economy; the upcoming G20 talks with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping and the status of the trade negotiations; the status of tariffs; and the U.S-Mexico border issues.
On China, President Trump doesn’t sound like he’s willing to make any concessions or retreat on any tariffs. “They want to make a deal more than I do”, he said.
Fox News contributor Dan Bongino and Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera respond to the latest news that Robert Mueller has agreed to testify to the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees on Wednesday, July 17th.
[Toward the end of the panel segment Mr. Bongino has some additional insight into the Michael Flynn situation]
In March 2017 CTH first highlighted statements by Evelyn Farkas that described a coordinated effort from within the Obama administration to push political opposition research, gathered by the intelligence community, into the media.
Jay Sekulow now discovers documents that highlight the Obama administration’s efforts in their last days in office. This effort backstops Farkas’s earlier statements. First, from Sekulow:
(Via Fox Op-ed) – Stunning new information just released by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) shows that the Obama administration stepped up efforts – just days before President Trump took office – to undermine Trump and his administration.
The ACLJ, where I serve as chief counsel, has obtained records that show the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, under Director James Clapper, eagerly pushed to get new procedures as part of an anti-Trump effort. The procedures increased access to raw signals intelligence before the conclusion of the Obama administration, just days before President Trump was inaugurated.
Earlier today President Trump signed an Executive order establishing a White House council on eliminating regulatory barriers to affordable housing [Details Here]. After explaining the XO President Trump answered questions from the pool:
[Video and Transcript]
[Transcript] – 2:07 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. I’d like to take a few moments to describe what we’re doing on numerous fronts, but we’re going to take a major step in our historic regulatory reduction campaign.
Today, we begin a bold new initiative to bring down the cost of housing for American families. So important. (more…)
Earlier today in the East Room of the White House U.S. President Donald Trump presented the nation’s highest honor for bravery to Staff Sergeant David Bellavia, U.S. Army [Video and Transcript Below]
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[Transcript] – 3:36 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Please. Thank you, Chaplain, very much. It’s really beautiful.
Today, it’s my privilege to award the highest military honor to an American soldier who demonstrated exceptional courage to protect his men and defend our nation. Will you please join me in welcoming Staff Sergeant David Bellavia? David, thank you. (Applause.) (more…)
Sometimes we just read and think; sometimes we just read and laugh. This is the latter.
China continually looks at President Trump and the U.S. trade position through the wrong prism. Those around Chairman Xi genuinely seem to be incapable of understanding a U.S. President who independently represents long-term U.S. larger interests, and simultaneously leverages the U.S. market as a customer in a one-sided transaction.
The disconnect in Beijing analysis of the dynamic is really quite something.
After last weeks strategic magnanimous panda maneuver, Beijing was shocked, shocked, that President Trump continued to maintain “wrong thinking” toward the upcoming discussion with Chairman Xi.
It appears China fully expected some reciprocal trade bargaining based on their implied promise to release North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un from manipulation; but Trump didn’t flinch. Instead, of acquiescence to magnanimous panda, President Trump sends Chairman Kim a letter filled with “excellent content“. Beijing was snubbed.
So yesterday as a follow-up Beijing indicates a willingness to revisit the prior agreement by putting the face of Vice-Premier Liu He back into their negotiation position: (more…)
Stephanie Grisham has served as spokeswoman for First Lady Melania Trump since March 2017. She’s sharp as a tack, fierce as a wolverine and intensely loyal to the first family. [Twitter Here]
Today First lady Melania Trump announces Stephanie Grisham will replace Sarah Huckabee Sanders as White House press secretary.
Ms. Grisham will also serve as White House communications director, a position that has been vacant since Bill Shine stepped down in March to advise President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. “I can think of no better person to serve the Administration & our country,” Melania Trump tweeted Tuesday. (more…)
One of the reasons why the Flynn legal situation is so interesting is not really because of Flynn himself; but rather because the Flynn situation is a likely example of President Obama’s surveillance network in operation.
Tenuous legal theories (Logan Act) and obscure laws (technical FARA violations) appear to have been exploited by DOJ administration officials, in close ideological alignment with the Lawfare Group. In association with overall Obama administration officials, the fellow travelers used the legal system to create a DC surveillance network.
At the 30,000 ft. level Obama’s surveillance network looks like this:
• White House identifies a target; •passes request to the DOJ National Security Division (middlemen); •who then use the auspices of possible FARA violations to pass the instructions to the FBI contractors; •who data-mine the NSA database.
•The FBI results are then passed back to the DOJ-NSD; •who weaponize the information for FISA applications (becomes legal cover); and •pass the authorized surveillance (spying) results back to the White House etc.
It’s a circle of surveillance activity that could encompass almost every politician in Washington DC as they network with foreign lobbyists and special interests. (more…)
The official media account of how the intelligence community gained the transcript of incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn talking to Ambassador Sergey Kisliyak on December 29th, 2016, surrounds “incidental collection” as a result of contact with an agent of a foreign power. Meaning the Flynn call was picked up as the U.S. intelligence apparatus was conducting surveillance on Russian Ambassador Kisliyak.
If this version of events were accurate (it’s not), it would fall under FISA-702 collection: the lawful monitoring of a foreign agent (Kislyak) who has contact with a U.S. person (Flynn).
In order to review the identity of the U.S. person, a process called ‘unmasking’, a 702 submission must be made. That submission, the unmasking, leaves a paper/electronic trail. In a 2017 congressional hearing, Senator Lindsey Graham asks Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and former DNI James Clapper about this process. [Watch first 3 minutes]
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However, in the two years following this testimony, there was nothing that would deliver the answer as to: who unmasked General Michael Flynn?
The reason is simple, Flynn wasn’t unmasked – because he was under FISC authorized active surveillance. Here’s how we know. (more…)
