The majority of the political engagements between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un will take place early Wednesday morning (U.S. EST). Vietnam is 12 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time.

Wed. Hostage Rescue Schedule and Livestream Below:

• 5:55am EST / 5:55pm (local) – President Trump departs his hotel en route to the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 6:15am EST / 6:15pm (local) – President Trump arrives at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 6:30am EST / 6:30pm (local) – President Trump participates in a greeting with the Chairman Kim Jong-un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Hanoi, Vietnam
• 6:40am EST / 6:40pm (local) – President Trump participates in a one-on-one conversation with Chairman Kim Jong-un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 7:00am EST / 7:00pm (local) – President Trump participates in a social dinner with Chairman Kim Jong-un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 8:35am EST / 8:35pm (local) – President Trump departs the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi en route to his hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 8:55am EST / 8:55pm (local) – President Trump arrives back at his hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam

Day #1 (Wednesday Local) concludes.
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On the sideline of the President Trump and Chairman Kim summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, President Trump and Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong participate in a signing ceremony worth a combined $21 billion value in U.S. trade.
Contracts were signed by Kevin McCallister – President and chief executive officer of Boeing commercial airplanes; and Allen Paxson, Vice President of GE aviation.  On the Vietnamese side: Nguyen Thanh Hung, Vice Chairman of VietJet Air; and Nguyen Thi Phurong Thao, President and CEO VietJet.  WATCH:

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Details include: VietJet will buy 100 Boeing 737-Max jets and 215 GE/CFM joint venture engines.  Bamboo Airways will buy 10 Boeing 787-9 jets, and Vietnam Airlines will buy $100 million in services and technology from Sabre Corporation. “These deals will support more than 83,000 American jobs and provide increased safety and reliability for Vietnamese International travelers.” (link)

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The majority of the political engagements between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un will take place in the overnight hours.  Vietnam is 12 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time.
President Trump is in Vietnam for his second summit with Chairman Kim. The two men first met last June in Singapore, a summit that was the first person-to-person contact between leaders of the U.S. and North Korea.  The structure of the visible public engagement is to reach an agreement where North Korea will give up its nuclear arsenal and enter the economic world of peaceful nations.

Those who follow China and North Korea closely see a much bigger, non-discussed geopolitical effort and engagement.  Within this dynamic a more complex objective is to rescue Chairman Kim from the clutches of oppressive generational control by Beijing, China.
Chairman Xi does not want to give up control and President Trump is leveraging full U.S. economic pressure upon China to break the grip. Technically, President Trump is on the most complex, challenging and historic hostage rescue mission; and the entirety of world’s media cannot see it.  Wed. Hostage Rescue Schedule and Livestream Below:

• 10:35pm EST / 10:35am (local) – President Trump departs the RON en route to the Presidential Palace, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 10:55pm EST / 10:55am (local) – President Trump aprrives at the Presidential Palace, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 11:00pm EST / 11:00am (local) – President Trump participates in a photo opportunity with the General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Hanoi, Vietnam
• 11:10pm EST / 11:10am (local) – President Trump participates in an expanded bilateral meeting with the General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Hanoi, Vietnam

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Prior to departing for Hanoi, Vietnam, President Trump delivered breakfast remarks to an assembly of our nation’s governors.  [Video and Transcript below]  POTUS is confidently on top of his game; and the humor is priceless.
For those who have followed the granular details of the Trump-Kim relationship closely, one early remark about Kim Jong-un (off-the-cuff and not part of the prepared speech) is very interesting (emphasis mine):

“I’m now — right after this meeting, I leave for Vietnam, where I meet with Chairman Kim and we talk about something that, frankly, he never spoke to anybody about. But we’re speaking, and we’re speaking loud”….

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[Transcript] State Dining Room – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you very much.
As governors, we all sort of get together and we have a good time. But we also — we’re going to accomplish a lot. This going to be a very good meeting. Tremendous things are happening for our country.
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President Trump has been executing a foreign policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”
The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a fundamental paradigm shift.  Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference.

“Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald Trump

The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.
There have been clear examples of this doctrine at work. When President Trump first visited the Middle-East he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”
Toward that end, as Qatar was identified as a financier of extremist ideology, President Trump placed the goal of confrontation upon the Gulf Cooperation Council, not the U.S.
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We are living in historic times.
It was not coincidental that North Korea’s Chairman Kim Jong-un took the long train out of the DPRK yesterday while U.S.T.R Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He were still engaged in the extended U.S-China trade negotiations.  Quite simply Kim’s early exit from Pyongyang meant Chairman Xi’s geopolitical trade leverage was diminished.
If you’ve listened to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo describing Team USA and Team DPRK delegations, both holding discussions in Hanoi all last week, the early exit of Chairman Kim takes on an enlightened context.  Meanwhile, the U.S. media is oblivious.

Since mid 2017 the long-game plan of the Trump Doctrine toward China (on trade) and their proxy province of North Korea (nuclear hostilities) has been clear. However, being able to see it unfold means accepting President Trump held a strategy.  Fortunately for us we have a front row seat.
President Trump has been engaged in a two-year long hostage rescue mission.  We are now entering the final stages of carefully designed hostage negotiations.
The Chinese trade delegation, led by Vice-Premier Liu He, could not leave Washington DC without some structural progress in U.S-China trade discussions that would avoid the looming March 1st 25 percent tariff on over $200 billion worth of Chinese imported products.  With a summit between President Trump and DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-un on the calendar, Vice-Premier Liu stayed in Washington DC for an extra two days.
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Multiple media outlets are reporting that North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un has departed Pyongyang en route to Hanoi Vietnam by train.  It’s approximately a two day train ride for the journey.  The summit with President Trump is scheduled for February 27th and 28th.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Sunday confirmed for the first time that its leader Kim Jong Un will hold a second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, days ahead of the high-stakes nuclear meeting set to take place in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi.
Kim left Pyongyang by train on Saturday afternoon for the Feb. 27-28 summit accompanied by senior North Korean officials, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said.

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Today in presidential history is a day when the import of consequence doesn’t surface until historians apply hindsight.  However, those who carry the longest-lens are enjoying these moments in history…. We make with our support of Trump such a sound as all history from these days forward are forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.  And when we are gone, our beneficiaries will sing of these deeds in forbidden songs while tending the flickering flame of liberty; for we few lived in the era of Trump.

[Transcript] Oval Office – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. It’s a great honor to be with the Vice Premier of China, a very highly respected man in China. And we’re negotiating trade and the trade agreement. And we have many representatives from China and — as you’d know, and most of you know who they are — many representatives from the United States.
I think we’re getting along very well. Ultimately, I think the biggest decisions and some even smaller decisions will be made by President Xi and myself. And we expect to have a meeting sometime in the not-too-distant future.
And I can only say talks are going along well, but we’re going to have to see what happens. I think there’ll be some points that this group won’t agree on because maybe they’re not supposed to agree on, allowed to agree on. And I think President Xi and I will work out the final points, perhaps. And perhaps not.
So I just want to say, Mr. Vice Premier, it’s a great honor to have you.
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This is the best video to adequately review the full nuance and scale of consequence within the oval office meeting between the Chinese trade delegation and the U.S. team.  As previously noted, President Trump delivered brutally honest remarks about expectations to both teams that likely, strategically and purposefully, caught Chinese Vice Premier Liu completely off guard.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, AG Secretary Sonny Perdue, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Brandstad, Trade Adviser Peter Navarro with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, and multiple Chinese vice ministers/senior officials were all in the Oval Office for a discussion of current trade status…. and the outcome was epic.
ENJOY:

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Jumping Ju-Ju Bones….  I’ll get a video and transcript downloaded soon, but boy howdy… Thirty years of President Trump -vs- China trade just roared to the surface in the Oval Office.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, AG Secretary Sonny Perdue, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Brandstad, Trade Adviser Peter Navarro with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, and multiple Chinese vice ministers/senior officials were all in the Oval Office for a discussion of current trade status…. and the outcome was epic.
Secretary Mnuchin announces the Chinese delegation will be staying in DC for an additional two-days of negotiations.   Heck, he’s got em.  The Chinese team can’t leave, not without a preliminary deal, because Trump is going to Vietnam next week and the phase-two tariffs kick in March 1st.
While Vice Premier Liu is seated directly in front of him POTUS Trump answers a reporter question about Chinese technology and cyber-security.  Trump notes that he wants open and fair tech competition, but if China represents a security threat… well, that changes the dynamic.  Liu is seated right in front of President Trump….  EPIC !
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