Against the backdrop of ‘Phase 2’ trade policy initiatives based on reciprocity, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross talks to CNBC about tariffs, carve-outs and protecting national security ahead of his meeting with the European commissioner for trade.

The hypocritical European Union has expansive protectionist tariffs against U.S. products and has threatened retaliation if the U.S. enforces the Trump administration about trade reciprocity.

Additionally, the Trump administration (Ross, Lighthizer, Navarro and Mnuchin) are focusing on China’s trade theft of intellectual property. According to Reuters reporting there is a possibility of $60 billion in trade tariffs being enforced against China for their IP violations and practices.

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President Trump travels to New Hampshire today to speak Manchester Community College.  President Trump will deliver remarks regarding the ongoing opioid epidemic in the US. at approximately 2:30pm:

UPDATE: Video Added

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It’s well known that Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan doesn’t want to be in an actual leadership position; and it’s also well known -enhanced by the campaign, and victory, of Donald Trump- that Republicans did not want to win the majority position and face having to reveal their true UniParty agenda.

The evidence of this UniParty positioning has been staring the electorate in the face, repeatedly and brutally, since candidate Donald Trump actually campaigned on key tenets of the Republican party and found himself being openly opposed by GOP leadership.

Now, a stunning discovery surfaces of Paul Ryan’s Congressional Leadership SuperPAC, congressionalleadershipfund.org, actually campaigning for the Democrat, Conor Lamb, in the recent PA18 congressional race.

As evidenced by Big League Politics the Paul Ryan SuperPAC sent a mailer to Pennsylvania CD-18 voters touting Lamb’s favorable position on gun ownership rights:

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Announcement from senate candidate Chris McDaniel – Today, Chris McDaniel announced that he will run for the United States Senate seat being vacated by Senator Thad Cochran. The seat will become open on Aprl 1, the date of Cochran’s retirement.

Cochran’s departure from the Senate will trigger a special election to fill his unexpired term. McDaniel has been getting a lot of encouragement from his supporters to run in the open seat. Supporters say an open seat is the best path for McDaniel to win election to the United States Senate.

“By announcing early, we are asking Mississippi Republicans to unite around my candidacy and avoid another contentious contest among GOP members that would only improve the Democrats’ chances of winning the open seat,” McDaniel said. “If we unite the party now and consolidate our resources, we can guarantee Donald Trump will have a fighter who will stand with him.”

The open seat is the same seat McDaniel competed for in the 2014 Republican primary where he received the most votes with 49.5 percent of the total. Cochran, however, prevailed after 40,000 Democrats voted in the GOP run-off, giving Cochran a win by just over 6,000 votes.

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The Senate voted 67-31 to end debate on a reform bill to modify the Dodd Frank banking bill.  While overall the approach is needed and will likely find White House support, the Senate Bill -as constructed- doesn’t do enough to modify the control held by massive multinational financial institutions, who hold lobbying power over congress.  Unfortunately, the corruptocrat leadership in the Senate will not allow the house to modify the bill as needed.

The current reform bill sets the tiered definition for lowered regulation at $250 billion in assets and there are some domestic banking beneficiaries.  However, it doesn’t break up the investment division from influence over the commercial banking.  The argument against breaking up the system is that if divisional separation is required – the banks best interests would naturally put the investment division ahead of commercial lending and the liquid capital within the overall economy would shrink.

The Trump/Mnuchin approach toward a secondary deregulated but financially sound banking system focused on commercial lending and was constructed around Community Banks and Credit Unions with far less regulatory and compliance hurdles.

WASHINGTON – All Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats voted to move the bill toward a vote on final passage, which is scheduled for Wednesday evening.

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White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short appears on Fox News to discuss the Steel and Aluminum tariffs being implemented by President Trump to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturing industry.

The Wall Street antagonists together with politicians purchased by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and K-Street lobbyists (working on behalf of Wall Street),  have vowed to fight President Trump’s trade initiatives.   The steel and aluminum tariffs are the first in a series of trade actions by President Trump that he outlined during his candidacy.

Wall Street politicians (globalists) are now engaged in a fight against Main Street economic and trade policy (nationalists). There are trillions at stake. The anger against the President over the steel/aluminum tariffs is nothing in comparison to what lies ahead; with a likely NAFTA withdrawal and other MAGAnomic trade initiatives looming on the horizon.

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A very confident Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears on CNBC for a wide-ranging interview on current economic subjects. Within the discussion [14:00] Secretary Mnuchin affirms the U.S. economy is nowhere near “full employment”; an economic reality which highlights how much labor statistics were manipulated by political ideologues the prior administration(s).

Additionally, Secretary Mnuchin discusses the administrations’ focus on ‘reciprocal trade deals’ as the cornerstone of new trade constructs. This is a seismic shift in U.S. trade position. The secretary replaces the word “globalism” with a more nuanced “world-wide”; and “economic patriotism/nationalism” is replace with the word “territorial”.

Also worth noting is the larger dynamic of “intellectual property” (vis-a-vis China) and how the inherent Trump policies therein overlay trade positions between the U.S. and China. As we have previously mentioned the USTR Lighthizer 301 investigation into China could be exponentially more significant than Steel and Aluminum tariffs. Secretary Mnuchin confirms this aspect albeit with a measure of necessary opaqueness.

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Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears for an interview with Trish Regan immediately after President Trump signed the Presidential Proclamation to advance Steel and Aluminum tariffs to protect and expand American industry. [DEEP DIVE]

Ms. Regan is one of the financial business analysts who have slowly evolved away from the insufferable Wall Street/U.S. Chamber of Commerce ‘globalist’ viewpoints, which was/is entirely built upon a false premise.  Thankfully Ms. Regan joins the ranks of economic patriots Charles Payne and Lou Dobbs.  We’ll keep working on Maria Bartiromo.

In this interview Secretary Ross elevates the discussion beyond just Steel and Aluminum and begins to expand -and emphasize- the perimeter of an entirely new American approach toward trade, “reciprocity“.  Indeed for the very first time in this interview Secretary Ross gives a preview into what will follow and how ‘reciprocity’ will be applied.

“President Trump is taking action today to protect both our national security and industries critical to our economy. The President’s decision regarding the steel and aluminum Section 232 reports are the result of a long and well-thought-out process led by the Commerce Department. Once again, President Trump is keeping his promises and standing up for American families, American businesses, and American workers.”  ~ Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross

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President Trump will sign a trade-section 232 proclamation today to elevate Steel and Aluminum manufacturing to be of national security status.  The overall trade initiative which stems from the 232 proclamation will be a 25% trade tariff on imported steel and a 10% trade tariff on imported aluminum.  POTUS Trump will control exemptions.

The trade announcement is anticipated at 3:30pm in the White House today.

UPDATE: Video Added

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I have never witnessed an economic policy initiative positioned, framed and delivered with this much success.  A few points must be noted for emphasis.

♦ First, at 3:30pm today President Trump will announce the final end-policy on his Steel and Aluminum tariffs.  It is going to happen; and the final outline will be extraordinarily effective – in part because the opposition to the policy walked directly into the hands of a deal-maker who knows how to position the opponent’s demands to increase his own strength.

After President Trump’s lead trade policy advocate, Peter Navarro, stated yesterday the steel and aluminum tariff announcement would be coming today, the opposition immediately increased their calls for modifications.

While the White House trade lawyers were working through the day and night constructing the legalese, Fox News Ed Henry stated late last night there might be a delay….

But the media again displayed how they don’t understand this President.

When Trump establishes a goal that is a top priority for his personal MAGAnomic agenda – he will not accept roadblocks.  As such, today the announcement is proceeding according to the timeline set by Trump, no-one else.

This trade specific issue, and many more soon to follow, are important to this president.  This is President Trump’s subject area of specific expertise.  These trade policies are the issues he has been discussing for over thirty years.

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