Earlier tonight President Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell met with the Joint Chiefs’ and National Security Team. [Video and Transcript Below]

Mark Meadows (Chief of Staff), Robert O’Brien (NSA), LTG Keith Kellogg (National Security Advisor to the Vice President), Secretary Mike Pompeo (State), Secretary Steven Mnuchin (Treasury), Secretary Mark Esper (Defense), Director Richard Grenell (ODNI).

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[Transcript] –  THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. This is the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and we’ve had a very productive meeting. It’s going to continue after you leave. But we’ve had a very, very productive meeting.

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Reports of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un being in poor health, and/or dead, have been swirling for days.  President Trump said he did not trust the initial media reports and Secretary Mike Pompeo said “we’re watching the situation very keenly.”

Reuters is reporting today that China sent a team including doctors into North Korea to assist Chairman Kim; again, depending on the actual status of the DPRK leader, the delegation could mean a rather large difference in what’s going on.

China controls North Korea; it is simply part of their cunning geopolitical strategy to use the DPRK for their own interests and simultaneously have plausible deniability for it.  In essence Chairman Kim is the hostage of Chairman Xi Jinping, and the world has a poor understanding of the complexity created by this dynamic.

If Kim Jong-un is in a very serious physical state (and/or dead) then the visit by the Beijing delegation would likely be to establish the terms and conditions for his successor.  Again, another captive for the Chinese regime that must present an entirely different face to the world.  Hopefully this is not the issue and Chairman Kim will recover.

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During the coronavirus task force briefing President Trump was asked about his tweet earlier in the day regarding Iranian gunboats harassing U.S. Navy Ships.  The President was unambiguous in his response: “We’ll shoot them out of the water”.

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Shortfalls in the illicit drug trade could be very problematic for the DNC who receive funding through Mexican drug cartels.  Apparently, according to the cartels, the coronavirus is having an impact.  Will Speaker Pelosi look for bailout options?

Additionally the U.S. military operation to target illicit drugs is entering its fourth week creating even more havoc in the system.

NEW YORK (AP) — Coronavirus is dealing a gut punch to the illegal drug trade, paralyzing economies, closing borders and severing supply chains in China that traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make such profitable drugs as methamphetamine and fentanyl.

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Though the U.S. and Canada are not part of the “OPEC Plus” group, President Trump has  been leading negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Russia to broker a deal and stop their price war.  Today President Trump announces an agreement between the major petroleum exporting countries to curb oil production by approximately 10 million barrels per day:

Additionally, there was a loggerhead within the negotiations as Mexico did not want to cut their production by the requested amount of 400,000 barrels daily.  Mexico relies on oil as a large part of their economy. AMLO stated his economy could not withstand such a significant drop in state revenue.  Economic security is, after all, national security.

President Trump broke the OPEC+ stalemate by agreeing to decrease U.S. production by 300k/barrels allowing Mexico to drop a more manageable 100k/barrels.  Trump and AMLO reached an undisclosed agreement where Mexico will reimburse the U.S. later on.

I suspect the “reimbursement” will be more, well, strategically geopolitical than financial.  [*nudge-nudge*, *wink-wink*, *say-no-more/say-no-more*]  President Trump has an uncanny knack of collecting leverage for later, more strategic, purposes.  Just sayin’.

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President Trump calls-in for a short interview with Jeanine Pirro to provide his perspectives on faith, the Easter holiday and the challenges to combat the Wuhan virus.

Our president outlines the complex dynamic of ongoing COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the movement of resources regionally to continue the fight; and the simultaneous need to restart the American economic engine while balancing the health interests of Americans.

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Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly (pictured left) submitted his resignation Tuesday morning; and shortly thereafter Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he accepted the resignation, consulted with President Trump, and nominated Under Secretary of the Army James McPherson to be his replacement.

Secretary Modly resigned after making poorly-timed remarks to the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt about the judgement of captain Brett Crozier.  Modly labeled Crozier as “stupid.”  Bad form.

The poor judgement by Captain Brett Crozier did compromise his mission and publicly put our enemies on notice a nuclear powered asset was compromised. He deserved to be removed.  However, in response, Secretary Modly also compromised the structure of command authority with public statements exhibiting his own bad judgement.  Criticism of command leadership goes up, never down.  Doofus.  FUBAR.

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Former White House advisor Steve Bannon appears on Fox News to discuss his thoughts on how to mitigate and eliminate Coronavirus from the United States.

Among Comrade Bannon’s proposals:  Shut down all inbound international air travel. Shut down all domestic air travel. Forced federal shut down all ports of entry, allowing only commerce. Initiate forced quarantine zones around major metropolitian areas keeping people from leaving.  A forced shut-down all vehicle travel on interstates, except supply chain transports. A federally enforced closing of states to cross border traffic. WATCH:

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Yikes.  Civil liberties? Meh, details… details.

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The always political Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to President Trump today saying it was “long past the time” to name a senior military officer to lead the supply-chain effort.

Senator Schumer was attempting to construct a political narrative around the administration not taking action to secure U.S. supply needs combating COVID-19.

The letter was/is ridiculous; and built upon an entirely false premise; because Admiral John Polowczyk is already in that supply-chain procurement and distribution position working closely with Peter Navarro after the invocation of the Defense Production Act.

Replying to the ridiculous Schumer letter, President Trump calls out his stupidity:

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Earlier today President Trump and Defense Secretary Esper announced a major deployment of U.S. military to interdict narcotics trafficking from Central America.

On the surface the effort to deploy naval assets to the Caribbean and southern pacific is justified based on intelligence drug cartels will exploit the coronavirus pandemic to ship more narcotics into the U.S.

However, in the bigger picture there’s also a likelihood the CCP would work with their allies in Central American regimes to further weaken the U.S. during a time of increased vulnerability.

In times of war, or severe geopolitical confrontation, exploiting a vulnerability is a common strategy.  Therefore it’s a smart and prudent geopolitical move for President Trump and U.S. military to take very aggressive action against the cartels and their communist sympathizers.  There’s more going on here than appears on the surface.

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Admitted or not we are at war with the Red Dragon.  Chairman Xi is cunning and strategic; President Trump is countering.  Keep watching…

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