President Trump has a simple economic platform: “Buy American and Hire American“; toward that goal all economic and fiscal policies are now directed to assist U.S. manufacturing companies and retain U.S. workers.  Period.

Two days ago Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wilburine” Ross announced a 20% tariff, countervailing duties, on imported Canadian soft wood lumber.  Today, Pleasant River Lumber Co. in Jackman Maine announces their wood mills will now expand as a direct result of the beneficial impacts of even trade practices.

This is a big deal for this community.

MAINE – The Dover-Foxcroft-based Pleasant River Lumber company is expanding its Jackman sawmill in anticipation of increased demand for American lumber amid the U.S. government’s plans to levy tariffs on Canadian softwood.

In a media release Tuesday, Pleasant River Lumber said it is expanding its Moose River spruce mill in Jackman to add drying capacity this summer and hire up to 20 new workers for a second shift starting this fall.

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Art of the deal glaringly visible in less than one-half of a single day’s media cycle.  Simply amazing.  These phone calls are also further evidence of how much leverage the U.S. carries in the entire NAFTA Trade construct.  [White House Press Release]

Readout of President Donald J. Trump’s Call With President Peña Nieto of Mexico and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada

Late this afternoon, President Donald J. Trump spoke with both President Peña Nieto of Mexico and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada.  Both conversations were pleasant and productive.

President Trump agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this time and the leaders agreed to proceed swiftly, according to their required internal procedures, to enable the renegotiation of the NAFTA deal to the benefit of all three countries.

President Trump said: “it is my privilege to bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation. It is an honor to deal with both President Nieto and Prime Minister Trudeau, and I believe that the end result will make all three countries stronger and better.”   ###

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How do you get congress to accept the NAFTA notification of intent letter? Why, you backstop the Canadian decision to undermine U.S. dairy farm exports by applying equity import tariffs and offsetting losses to U.S. manufacturers.

First stop, lumber mills. ie U.S. regional impacts, not coincidentally, represented by key Democrat constituents.

The congressional delegations from Washington State and Oregon happen to be mostly elected Democrats; and they happen to applaud the efforts; which means they are not able to criticize the approach. Hmm, it’s almost as if Wilburine and POTUS had a strategy or something.   Nah, couldn’t be.

(Via CNN) These are the first tariffs imposed by President Trump, who during his election campaign threatened to use them on imports from both China and Mexico. The decision on Monday is bound to lead to a standoff and could stoke fears of a trade war between the US and Canada, two of the world’s largest trade powers.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs, or taxes, announced Monday evening were being imposed after trade talks on dairy products fell through.

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Another research report surfaces today highlighting a growing international trend.  More People are beginning to identify the structures of liberal government as untrustworthy; it is quite an interesting dynamic.
The latest Trust Survey comes from Canada and shows a massive drop in trust by Canadians toward the construct of their governance.
While there are many media voices who would immediately seek to refute the empirical evidence within such surveys, one thing becomes increasingly clear.  The more liberal the structure of government, the greater the drop in trust.  [UK Brexit, USA Trump, France Le Pen surge are recent examples.]

Within the Canadian survey you find another similarity to underlying nationalist distrust, the media are viewed as the problem [Slide #13, #15].  There is no doubt a large number of people throughout the globe are waking up to the reality of their leftist media being co-conspirators in the selling and maintenance of leftist governance.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking at a joint news conference, Monday February 13th, 2017.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is scheduled to visit President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.

[…]  This will be the first face-to-face encounter between the two leaders with radically different approaches to trade, immigration and international relations, although they have had two telephone conversations since Mr. Trump became President.

Global tender sensibility safe-space liberals are urging Bambi, the leader of ‘the resistance‘ or something, to confront the horrible Trump: (more…)

Two suspects shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire inside the The Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, which is also known as the grand mosque of Quebec. At least 6 people were killed, 8 injured / 6 in very serious condition.  39 potential victims escaped (link).

[CBC.CA] A witness, who asked to remain anonymous, told CBC’s French-language service Radio-Canada that two masked individuals entered the mosque.
“It seemed to me that they had a Quebecois accent. They started to fire, and as they shot they yelled, ‘Allahu akbar!’ The bullets hit people that were praying. People who were praying lost their lives. A bullet passed right over my head,” said the witness.
“There were even kids. There was even a three-year-old who was with his father.”  (link)
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…”and we will win, and you will win, and we will keep on winning, and eventually you will say we can’t take all of this winning, …please Mr. Trump  …and I will say, NO, we will win, and we will keep on winning”. ~ Donald Trump

THE TRUMP EFFECT – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already announced the Canadian government’s willingness to renegotiate NAFTA.   In addition, President Trump’s energy agenda plans to triple domestic U.S. energy production, no carbon tax, and the Trump tax proposal drops the corporate tax rate to 15%.
One Canadian economist realizes exactly what this confluence of events adds up to:

Remember what we shared yesterday, it underpins every forward action and behavior.  If you don’t understand it – you will be lost over the next several years.
Donald Trump is not yet president, and yet within 24 hours of winning the election both Mexico (link) and Canada (link) announce they are willing to begin renegotiation’s of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Trump: And who’s gonna pay for that wall?
Crowd: MEXICO !
Trump: 100% folks, 100% !

This is EXACTLY what happens when you put a Titan of Industry back in charge of the biggest economy in the world.  As a non-politician industrialist Donald Trump has said for decades, the U.S. holds all the leverage in these negotiations. He’s right.
American capitalists and workers are about to see just how powerful that leverage is.  Remember, Trump’s economic platform -and his plan to save SSI and retiree benefits- is founded upon the U.S. economic engine working at 4%+ GDP growth.
He will drive that number much, much, higher.  “Believe me“.
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