President Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence met earlier today with congressional leadership: House Speaker Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
[Video and Transcript of remarks below]  When Nancy Pelosi began talking the look on VP Pence’s face is, well, priceless. Additionally, anticipating Pelosi and Schumer are going to hold up the budget by threatening military spending, the ever-strategic Trump invited General Mattis into the discussion so the Democrat leadership could tell him to his face why they would be willing to put American military lives at risk.  Epic.

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[ Transcript] 3:08 P.M. EST – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. We’re all here as a very friendly, well-unified group. It’s a well-knit-together group of people. And we hope that we’re going to make some great progress for our country. I think that will happen, and we appreciate it very much.
And, Chuck, Nancy, would you say anything — like to say anything? Chuck?
LEADER SCHUMER: Well, we hope we can come to an agreement. Funding the government is extremely important, helping our soldiers is very important, and helping average citizens is very important.
So we’re here in the spirit of: let’s get it done.
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Multinational corporations and foreign governments spend hundreds of millions in Washington DC lobbying House and Senate politicians to retain trade positions.  It’s generally a legal bribery business where congressional representatives get rich by selling their votes to corporations and foreign governments.
Most of you already know the game: It’s a big club, and we -the working class- ain’t in it.
Fortunately for us, President Trump won the election without funding from the big corporations and lobbyists within the U.S. political system.  As such they cannot influence Trump’s decisions on economic policy matters and trade; and President Trump rarely invites them into the White House for policy meetings.
Specifically because the lobbyists don’t have access to the White House they rely on their purchased politicians in the House and Senate to influence the administration.

The multinational corporations and multinational banks are against the U.S. removing ourselves from multilateral trade agreements.  Those institutions rely on being able to manipulate the U.S. consumer market – EXPLAINED HERE.  The biggest influence agent, and by far the biggest lobbyist spender, is Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who represents the interests of the multinational corporations and Wall St.
So when you see these letters, knowing they are written by K-Street and transcribed onto legislative letterhead by political staffers, all you need to do is look at the signatures of the politicians and you can quickly identify who has been purchased by Tom Donohue:
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Just because western media doesn’t understand how President Trump executes a geopolitical strategy based on economic leverage, that doesn’t mean adversaries are not fully aware of the effectiveness of the approach.
The Trump Doctrine has two avenues toward dealing with national security adversaries.
The first route is direct assignment of responsibility toward the enablers: see China for North Korea; The Gulf States for Qatar (Sunni extremism); Russia for Syrian terrorism (Assad); and Pakistan for Afghanistan (Taliban); as recent examples.

However, when the geopolitical threat stems directly from the enabler, and not the enabled, the Trump Doctrine has a distinctly different and far more encompassing, approach.  Route two goes through leveraging regional allies and partners: See ASEAN and India for ¹China; and France, Poland, Baltic States for ²Russia.  And now President Trump is beginning to shift toward ³Iran.
In each case: China, Russia and Iran, unlike Western media, these powers assemble volumes of research to assist them in understanding the most likely sequence of events President Trump will take.
When we say volumes of research, we indeed mean hundreds of people researching and drafting position documents based upon every scintilla of every deal Donald J Trump has engaged in.  No expenses are spared as these state actors assemble information toward their own strategy to counter the most unpredictable adversary they have faced.
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President Trump became the first sitting president to deliver a speech at the Value Voters Summit in Washington DC. The Summit is a gathering of faith-based leaders and political voices from within the faith-based community.
President Trump had spoken at the Summit twice before, including his attendance as the 2016 Republican presidential nominee. His address today at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in DC was his third at the Summit and the first for a sitting president.

[Transcript] 10:22 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Tony. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. You know, I’ve been here before. (Laughter.) You do know that. Before the big day on November 8th, I was here. I want to thank Mark Meadows and all of the folks that have really made this possible. And, Tony, tremendous guy.
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On Sunday Vice-President Mike Pence and Second-Lacy Karen Pence left the Indianapolis -vs- San Francisco NFL football game after several San Fran players refused to stand for the national anthem.  The response from their political and cultural left-wing opposition was to call the Pence family leaving the game “a political stunt”.
Interesting, albeit typical, moonbat logic: NFL players refusing to stand for the anthem is not a “stunt”, but VP Pence walking out due to their disrespect is a “stunt”.  White House adviser Kellyanne Conway responds:

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Vice-President Mike Pence and Second-Lady Karen Pence were attending an NFL game today between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers.  The Colts were set to honor the career of Peyton Manning during a half-time event.
Unfortunately the players from the San Francisco team refused to stand for the National Anthem.   Subsequently, our Vice-President and Karen Pence walked out.
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President Donald Trump, First-Lady Melania Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and Second-Lady Karen Pence are all heading to Florida to visit first-responders, rescue and recovery workers and see the challenges first hand – Tomorrow:

Press Secretary Sarah Sanders has shared an expectation that President Trump and First Lady Melania are going to be in the Naples and Fort Myers area; that’s Lee County in Southwest Florida.
I’m hopeful the President brings Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert with him to review rescue, recovery and rebuilding efforts.  As a Floridian I find myself having high confidence in Bossert’s articulate approach focusing on root issues, getting government out of the way, and not getting dragged in the weeds and paralysis of bureaucratic analysis. [If there’s one cat who can figure out the logistics of the fuel issues, Bossert seems like the guy to deliver.]
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Lara Trump shares the week in review from the President Trump administration.  Topics include Hurricane Harvey response, economic news including the Tax Reform proposal and the geopolitical threat from North Korea’s aggression.

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The Trump administration is pushing every federal agency to lean forward and get all available resources to the people and communities in Texas and Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.  Rescue, Recovery and Relief efforts are ongoing as flooding continues to lessen in some areas, but worsen in others. President Trump and First Lady Melania are scheduled to return to Texas on Saturday.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) teams are strategically located throughout the region and all available resources have been opened to Texas Governor Greg Abbott; it’s quite remarkable how proactive their efforts have been.
Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the general “we got this” attitude of people in Texas is leading to fast, effective, responsive and inspiring solutions.  Today Vice-President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and multiple Cabinet Officials traveled to Texas to visit the communities most impacted by the storm and flooding.

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This is one of those paradigm shift CTH predictions that many people scoffed at back in 2015/2016 when we discussed a Trump federal budget, and how Washington DC politicians would respond to a president who actually planned to cut spending.  Back in February we warned:

[…] The UniParty is going to fight hard, very hard, to retain their spending. Don’t be surprised to see GOPe “conservatives” demanding President Trump spend more money. We have been repeating this warning since he announced his bid for the presidency in 2015. (link)

Today’s headline reads “Fears Grow That Trump Could Ignore Congress on Spending“. Traditional thinking, at first glance of the headline, would be the President might ignore budgetary levels and spend more than he should. However, in reality, the paradigm shift is the exact opposite.  DC is worried that President Trump won’t spend enough money.
Let that sink in for a minute.
THAT’S a prime example of: A.) evidence of the DC UniParty; and, B.) how ridiculously dysfunctional and broken the federal budgetary and spending process has become.  DC lawmakers are now consulting attorneys and planning to sue the President and force him to spend money.

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers and activists are preparing for the possibility that President Donald Trump’s administration, in its zeal to slash the federal budget, will take the rare step of deliberately not spending all the money Congress gives it — a move sure to trigger legal and political battles.

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