Earlier this afternoon President Donald Trump met with Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz [Video and Transcript below] Additionally, the president answered questions from the White House media on current events and issues including the section 232 auto-tariffs, the upcoming visit to the DPRK, AG Bill Barr and Andrew McCabe.

.
[Transcript] – Oval Office 1:52 P.M. EST – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Hello, everyone. Thank you very much. And it’s great to be with the Chancellor of Austria. We have a tremendous relationship, long term, with Austria. And we’re going to be discussing numerous things — immigration — today. But we’re also discussing trade. We have a very big trade presence and a very good relationship on trade. We do a lot of business with each other.
(more…)

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has completed the section 232 investigation on the auto industry, reviewing the sector as a vital economic interest for continued national security.

The content of the investigative finding is unknown. The Commerce Department has privately delivered the 232 report directly to the White House. However, with the possibility of the report empowering President Trump to implement 20 to 25% import auto tariffs industry executives are proactively going bananas.
An important aspect here is that the USMCA (U.S., Mexico and Canada) agreement exempts the trilateral North American pact from any auto tariff fear. If the vehicle consists of 75% North American (USMCA) content, there’s no tariff.
(more…)

Every element of global economic trade is controlled and exploited by massive institutions, multinational banks and multinational corporations. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), control trillions of dollars in economic activity. Underneath that economic activity there are people who hold the reigns of power over the outcomes. These individuals and groups are the stakeholders in direct opposition to principles of America-First national economics.
The modern financial constructs of these entities have been established over the course of the past three decades. When you understand how they manipulate the economic system of individual nations you begin to understand why they are so fundamentally opposed to President Trump.
In the Western World, separate from communist control perspectives (ie. China), “Global markets” are a modern myth; nothing more than a talking point meant to keep people satiated with sound bites they might find familiar; but the truth is ‘global markets‘ have been destroyed over the past three decades by multinational corporations who control the products formerly contained within global markets.
(more…)

There’s a lot of news this week reflecting a great deal of oppositional alignment against the presidency of Donald Trump. CTH can get down in the weeds of each specific issue to discuss the motives and intents (we will, and do), but the big picture MUST remain at the forefront of understanding. If we lose track of the big picture, the weeds are overwhelming.

…“It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who gain by the new ones.”
~ Niccolò Machiavelli

♦POTUS Trump is disrupting the global order of things in order to protect and preserve the shrinking interests of the U.S. middle-class.  He is fighting, almost single-handed, at the threshold of the abyss. Our interests, our position, is zero-sum; if POTUS Trump fails, there will never be another available route to confront the Big Club.
President Trump’s aggregate opposition seeks to repel and retain the status-quo. They were on the cusp of full economic control over the U.S. just before candidate Trump snatched away their victory.  There are trillions at stake. They won’t make that mistake again.
(more…)

Democrat Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) is the representative from Long Island City where Amazon was going to put their headquarters.  Along with many other Democrats Ms. Maloney is stunned at how the moonbat wing of the party has taken over.
AOC and her followers think a ‘tax abatement’ is an actual bucket of pre-existing cash they can now spend to improve New York schools and infrastructure.  No, seriously, they actually believe this… It’s far beyond economic dissonance, it’s Moonbattery.

.
70% tax rates. Free college and medicare for everyone. Cars and airplanes made illegal. A ban on cows and meat. Social justice mobs who cheer destroying jobs… Alexandria Occasional-Cortex and her millions of followers is the gift that keeps on giving.
(more…)

United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin concluded the second round of trade negotiations in China with a meeting with Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Liu He.
Both teams are working on a way-point memo of understanding (MOU). Talks will continue. Both sides extending diplomatic courtesies and presenting an optimistic face.

.
[White House]  This week, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, officials from the United States traveled to Beijing to continue negotiations on the trade relationship between the United States and China. On the United States side, the talks were led by Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative, and the Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury.
(more…)

Earlier today President Donald Trump delivered remarks announcing his intention to use a national emergency declaration to fund border security measures at the U.S-Mexico border.  This comes on the heels of a legislative compromise to avoid a government shutdown.
The move is expected to face a swift and forceful legal challenge that could stall the attempt in the courts for the near future. But the declaration and other money-moving plans allow Trump to continue to fight for border wall construction while also averting another partial government shutdown — which would have been triggered at midnight absent the new funding package. [Video and Transcript]

.
[Transcript] Rose Garden – 10:39 A.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, everybody. Before we begin, I’d like to just say that we have a large team of very talented people in China. We’ve had a negotiation going on for about two days. It’s going extremely well. Who knows what that means, because it only matters if we get it done. But we’re very much working very closely with China and President Xi, who I respect a lot. Very good relationship that we have. And we’re a lot closer than we ever were in this country with having a real trade deal.
(more…)

Amazon announced today it was canceling a plan to build new East Coast headquarters building in New York City.  [The planned building in Virginia will go ahead.]  The company said it would not look for a new location to replace the cancelled $2.5 billion Long Island City project.  The cancellation also means the loss of 25,000 new jobs.

“After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,” Amazon spokeswoman Jodi Seth said in a statement.

A socialist political movement led by New York Representative Ocasio-Cortez who are against allowing Amazon to receive $3 billion in tax abatement incentives, was cited as the primary reason for the cancellation.
In related news: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is accusing President Trump of stealing wealthy New York residents, and shipping them to Florida.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest consumer price information today which shows overall low inflation at 1.6 percent (with energy price deflation, and flat food prices).
Excluding food and energy costs the total CPI remains low at 2.2%.   This low inflation is the exact opposite of what financial media were predicting when President Trump began the series of import tariffs in 2017, which continued throughout last year.

(data link)

When President Trump began the tariffs against global Steel and Aluminum imports; and when President Trump began the first set of tariffs against Chinese imports; almost all financial media went into fits of apoplexy claiming we would see massive increases in prices.   Reality shows their doomsday predictions were completely over-hyped.
(more…)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is traveling through central Europe as part of the ongoing Trump administration outreach to genuine U.S. geopolitical allies who are often diminished by the larger economies within the EU.  [Follow the Photo-Journal Here]
While in Budapest, Hungary, Secretary Pompeo participates in a joint press availability with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. The political and national values carried by the U.S., via President Trump, and Hungary, via PM Orban are in alignment.

.
[Transcript] MODERATOR: (Via interpreter) Distinguished secretary and minister, distinguished under secretaries, deputy secretaries, dear guests: Heartfelt welcome to all of you at the press conference of Their Excellencies Peter Szijjarto, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Secretary of State Michael Richard Pompeo. First of all, may I ask His Excellency Mr. Peter Szijjarto to deliver his speech.
(more…)