President Trump’s geopolitical economic strategy is most often talked about regarding trade, China and resetting a massive U.S. trade deficit therein.  However, a critical part of that strategy, generally overlooked by U.S. media, is the relationship President Trump is building with India.
Expanded economic engagement with India creates more than just bilateral trade opportunities. A strengthened relationship, and possibility of moving India to the top of the trade priority list, also creates leverage toward China and ASEAN partner nations.
While most were paying attention to Thanksgiving’s ‘Black Friday‘ shopping; China quietly, lowered U.S. import tariffs.  BIGLY.  See Here [ <– That’s a big ‘effen deal]
Chinese media watch President Trump’s ongoing engagement with India far more closely than U.S. media watch it.  Chairman Xi Jinping and his economic advisers know the scale of risk inherent to their economy with a growing U.S./India trade relationship.

NEW DELHI, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — Ivanka Trump, the daughter and adviser of U.S. President Donald Trump, has arrived in India for the annual global entrepreneurship summit, foreign ministry officials said Tuesday.
The summit scheduled to held in the southern city of Hyderabad Tuesday is being co-hosted by India and the United States.

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CTH has been looking, unsuccessfully, for China SME’s who have insight on the DC lobbying angle by Chinese foreign nationals and the hidden story of how the Trump administration might be confronting that aspect.
Gordon Chang briefly touches on that note during a discussion segment on the overall outcome of President Trump’s 12-day visit to Asia.
Apparently, if Chang’s sources are accurate (likely they are), the notification by POTUS Trump toward Chairman Xi Jinping, of the lobbyist warning did take place [Video 02:25].

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The foreign influence lobbying is a critical element for us domestically in the larger geopolitical strategy.  Chinese nationals pay our congressional representatives millions of dollars to purchase U.S. foreign policy.  CTH is cautiously optimistic this is a key element of Robert Mueller.
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Walking in a Winner Wonderland.  Oh yeah, the New York Times writes about the bloated bureaucracy and career diplomats being removed from the U.S. State Department as if it’s a bad thing.  The condescending DC elites cannot fathom why they are unable to stop Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from cutting the rust out of the enterprise and streamlining the mission.

No-one, repeat NO-ONE, could have pulled off what T-Rex is accomplishing except T-Rex himself; with the full support of President Trump, of course. The former leader of the worlds largest private business, Exxon-Mobil, is now systematically bringing efficiency and effectiveness to the worlds largest public institution, the State Dept.
One fundamental question: “what is your specific and quantifiable value to the core DoS mission; and how do we measure your effectiveness therein”? The lack of reasonable answers within the bureaucratic ranks is leading to massive downsizing.
Making America Great Again means Making Interventionism Irrelevant Again – The New York Times outlines why the diplomatic retention of irrelevant snobbery is vital to those within the State Department’s cocktail circuit influence network.  At the rate Tillerson is going he might even eliminate the entire staff for the Assistant Cultural Ambassador to the U.N. Center for Biodiversity and Southern Hemispheric Aquatic Species Rights. That’s the threshold where things are really going to get ugly:
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Holy Cats… things are moving exponentially fast now…
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is now disclosing the nature of his resignation, and why he left Lebanon to spend time in Saudi Arabia.  It appears the Saudi and regional partners provided evidence that Iran and Hezbollah were planning an assassination targeting Hariri and his family.
Saad Hariri traveled to France for a meeting with French President Emanuel Macron.
Yesterday President Trump and President Macron had a phone conversation where they agreed on the need for continued cooperation and partnership with regional allies, namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the Gulf States and coalition members to confront the destabilizing efforts of Iran and Hezbollah:

JEDDAH: US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday agreed on the need to partner with allies to respond to the destabilization activities of Hezbollah and Iran in the region.
The two leaders’ telephone conversation came in the aftermath of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s resignation, which he announced during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia.
“Both presidents agreed on the need to work with allies to counter Hizballah’s and Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region,” a statement from the White House said.

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On Friday U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spearheaded a ministerial session of officials and leaders from within Africa to discuss ongoing issues and policy priorities from the perspective of the U.S.   [Speech Video and Transcript]

[Transcript] SECRETARY TILLERSON: Thank you. And good morning, everyone. It really is my honor to welcome all of you to the State Department this morning.
And we are grateful to see so many friends and partners here in the United States, and appreciate you traveling to be with us today for this event.
I have been very eager to host this ministerial meeting to bring together leaders from the continent to address our shared goals and, as I was sharing with the chairman of the African Union yesterday evening, I have not had the chance during my time as Secretary of State to travel to the continent.
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Given the speed of events in Saudi Arabia this year a stunning report surfaces stating that King Salman is anticipated to hand over ruling authority to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next week.
According to The Daily Mail King Salman will retain the title of guardian of the holy mosques but otherwise hand over all ruling authority to the crown prince.

The King of Saudi Arabia plans to step down and announce his son as his successor next week, a source close to the country’s royal family has exclusively told DailyMail.com.

The move is seen as the final step in 32-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s power grab, which began earlier this month with the arrests of more than 40 princes and government ministers in a corruption probe.

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The entire apparatus of the American moonbat-left ignores it, and simultaneously attempts to send it into the inconvenient memory-hole of nothingness, that’s what.
Nobel prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi is the State Counselor of Myanmar (Burma), and has for years been the de-facto personification of a heroine for far left Brangelina Peacenik treehuggers.

Lauded by the Birkinstock crew: Bog Geldof, Bono, and President Obama as the “Asian Mandela“, Aung San Suu Kyi was elevated to almost mythological status by Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, the U.S. State Department and international human rights groups.  In short, she was their heroine.
Unfortunately Aung San Suu Kyi was also susceptible to the intoxicating self-importance of expressed western globalism; and entirely inept in understanding the value in cultural nationalism, and the value of national identity, when there’s no framework of democracy to underpin her desired political and social changes.
After months of weakness, willful blindness and duplicity in allowing genocide against the Rohingya Muslim population, the bloom is off the ruse.  Follow modern peacenik liberalism to its natural and logical conclusion and you find totalitarian dictatorships created by losses in national sovereignty. Despite the apologetic and defensive posture of the New York Times the reality remains.
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The Usual Suspects – Senator John McCain joins Senator Bob Corker demanding that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spend more money or face being hauled up to congress for Senate investigative hearings on his excessive streamlining and productivity efforts.
According to their arguments, Secretary Tillerson has the audacity to think he is allowed to run the state department. Exactly who does he think he is?
If he doesn’t start spending more money, the Republicans in the Senate might just impeach him.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two senior U.S. senators asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday to explain “questionable management practices” at his department that they believe are weakening the country’s diplomatic power, adding to a chorus of concern in Congress.
Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen delivered a letter to Tillerson asking him to begin consulting with lawmakers on decisions that have an impact on recruiting, retaining and staffing the State Department, removing a hiring freeze and resuming promotions.

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Chairman Xi is sending his CPC special envoy, Song Tao, to North Korea.

Song Tao, special envoy of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping, will leave for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday.  (Story Here)

This is President/Chairman Xi Jinping, now fully empowered by the communist party in Beijing, sending the party apparatus to talk to Kim Jong-un.  Previously these instructions would have come from Beijing’s old guard.  However, Chairman Xi now commands all power over the communist government; he doesn’t need their approval any longer.
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At 10:20am (local) / 10:20pm (U.S. EST) President Trump and President Quang will be holding a joint press conference from the Presidential Palace, Hanoi, Vietnam.
UPDATE: Video Added

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President Trump pushed back against the ridiculous questions about Russian election conspiracy and knocks the nonsense out of the ballpark. GREAT ANSWER (Video Segment Below)
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