Interesting delegation to accompany Secretary Ross: treasury, agriculture and energy. Small delegation, short trip, sounds like contract discussions.

From Camp David –  Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the members of an official delegation from the United States to China to discuss rebalancing the bilateral economic relationship between the United States and China.

These meetings will take place from June 2 through June 3, and are a continuation of the talks held in Beijing one month ago and in Washington two weeks ago.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross will lead the discussions, accompanied by United States Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, Under Secretary of Treasury for International Affairs David Malpass, Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney, and United States Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator Ambassador Gregg Doud.

Additional officials and technical experts from the Department of Commerce, Department of Treasury, United States Trade Representative, Department of Agriculture, and Department of Energy will also participate in the talks.  (link)

Yesterday in a discussion thread recognizing DPRK Vice-Chairman Kim Yong Chol, I noted the following: “The Trump administration is providing North Korea the first modern day opportunity to create an authentic version of itself“.  In essence, though it is difficult to describe, the Trump Doctrine has a clarity of purpose.

The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence accountable for regional impact(s), and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.

There have been clear examples of this doctrine at work.  When President Trump first visited the Middle-East he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”

Toward that end, as Qatar was identified as a financier of extremist ideology, President Trump placed the goal of confrontation upon the Gulf Cooperation Council, not the U.S.

The U.S. role was clearly outlined as supporting the confrontation.  Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates needed to confront the toxic regional influence; the U.S. would support their objective.  That’s what happened.

Another example:  To confront the extremism creating the turmoil in Afghanistan, President Trump placed the burden of bringing the Taliban to the table of governance upon primary influence agent Pakistan.  Here again, with U.S. support.  Pakistan is the leading influence agent over the Taliban in Afghanistan; the Trump administration correctly established the responsibility and gives clear expectations for U.S. support.

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“No more stupid trade deals” ~ U.S. President Donald Trump

From the G7 Mission Statement outlining the objectives of their meeting: “From May 31 – June 2, 2018, G7 Ministers responsible for development cooperation met in Whistler, Canada, to discuss their shared priorities on some of the most pressing global development and humanitarian challenges, including advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.”

However, as the G7 finance ministerial sessions wrapped up today, all the talk centered around their collective, and stunningly hypocritical, angst at new United States trade policy; specifically the imposition of Steel and Aluminum tariffs on imported goods.

France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Italy all have trade tariffs and trade barriers far higher than the U.S.  Each of the G7 nations has exploited the overwhelmingly one-sided access to the U.S. market for decades.  As President Trump demands “reciprocal and fair” trade agreements – those same nations now balk at the same rules and duties they impose on the U.S. now being imposed against them.

The European Union is a non-enumerated member of the G7, and does not chair nor hosts Summits; however, the EU head joins with the G7 in collective angst against a U.S. trade reset.   It’s hilarious to watch them going bananas.

WHISTLER, British Columbia (Reuters) – Finance leaders of the closest U.S. allies vented anger over the Trump administration’s metal import tariffs but ended a three-day meeting in Canada on Saturday with no solutions, setting the stage for a heated fight at a G7 summit next week in Quebec.

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The North Dakota senate seat currently held by Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp is one of the targeted seats Republicans are looking to take in the 2018 mid-terms.  To flip the seat the White House helped convince Republican Kevin Cramer to challenge Heitkamp.

With the North Dakota election considered a ‘toss up‘, between Heitkamp and challenger Cramer; and with election outcome looking positive toward republicans; the UniParty quickly jumps into action.

Notorious UniParty control agents David and Charles Koch, aka ‘The Koch Brothers’, now begin spending money to help Heitkamp retain her seat.

Washington (CNN) – Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers-backed political advocacy group, is running a digital ad thanking a vulnerable Democratic senator for her support of bank deregulation legislation ahead of the midterm elections.

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NBC is promoting an upcoming interview with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau surrounding the recently imposed steel and aluminum tariffs and the Canadian response.

Justin from Canada continues pushing the ridiculously obtuse narrative that tariffs to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industry represent President Trump saying Canadians are a national security threat to the U.S.

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It’s too bad NBC’s Chuck Todd didn’t interrupt Justin from Canada after the “aluminum smelter” comment and ask: ‘well, now that you mention it, what ever happened to that smelter near the airbase you mention’?

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Against the backdrop of President Trump’s unapologetic economic muscle flexing, National National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on CNBC to discuss the latest stunningly positive jobs and economic reports.

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the May Jobs Report earlier today (pdf here) and has stunned forecasters and economic analysts with incredible results.  Over 223,000 jobs were created in May, and the unemployment rate drops to 3.8%.

As the New York Times is forced to admit, there are not enough words to describe just how good these results are amid the continued growth of the U.S. economy. Accepting the BLS heavily manipulated jobs numbers during the Obama years, the BLS is forced to attempt to reconcile the scale of monthly job gains (223k) and an unemployment rate that has seemingly dropped below the floor of reasonable possibility.  As a result 3.8% is the lowest unemployment rate since April 2000; and if the unemployment rate drops another 0.1% it will be the lowest unemployment number since the 1960s.

Average monthly employment growth in 2018 now averages a whopping 207,000 jobs per month.  These monthly average gains are faster than gains in both 2016 and 2017.  Collectively, the U.S. economy has added nearly 3 million jobs since President Donald J. Trump took office.

White House:  “Job growth has been strong across the board during the first 16 months of this Administration, and the gains in the goods-producing industries (manufacturing, construction, and mining and logging) have been especially robust. After averaging gains of 27,000 jobs per month during President Obama’s second term, these industries have almost doubled the pace of hiring to 46,000 jobs per month since January 2017. Manufacturing gains have picked up even more speed: Monthly gains have averaged 19,000 per month since President Trump took office after increases of only 8,000 per month, on average, during the second term of President Obama.

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Grab your winnamins and hide the Ju-Ju bones. I thought this was going to be an issue when Prime Minister Trudeau publicly told reporters the content of a private conversation between Vice-President Mike Pence and himself.  With incredibly bad diplomatic form, Justin from Canada has not only cemented the Steel and Aluminum tariffs as permanent – but Trudeau has likely destroyed any hope of the U.S. remaining in NAFTA.

The White House has delivered a statement to the media, with a request to ensure authorship is directly and personally cited from President Donald J Trump:

The United States has been taken advantage of for many decades on trade. Those days are over. Earlier today, this message was conveyed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada: The United States will agree to a fair deal, or there will be no deal at all. (link)

For those unfamiliar; this is about as close to an ultimatum as President Donald Trump generally delivers to his adversaries.   Look back on his history and you’ll note rarely does Donald J Trump deliver ‘either this / or that’ approaches; it’s just not his style…. He doesn’t bluff.  However, when Trump has decided to walk away from a deal, any deal, he delivers the “either/or” right before walking to the door.  The final terms hang in the air providing the opposition with a few fleeting moments to reflect prior to exit.

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Justin from Canada presents one of the most ridiculous contexts for the U.S. 232 Steel and Aluminum tariff decision. Justin proclaims the imposition of countervailing duties by the U.S. indicates that President Trump considers Canada a national security threat. Seriously, I’m not kidding, that’s what he is stating – watch.  Additionally, his feelings are hurt.

Apparently Justin from Canada cannot draw a distinction between an industry being lost, and that loss being a national security risk, and the hurt feelings of the Canadian Prime Minister. Intensely ridiculous… even for Justin. Obviously the irrational liberals in both the U.S. and Canada will likely draw the same ridiculous and illogical conclusions.

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China, the EU, Canada and Mexico have been exploiting weak U.S. trade policy for years. Through the effective utilization of targeted tariffs, with multiple opportunities -and warnings- to avoid the outcome, President Trump and Wilbur Ross cut the Gordian Knot.

The Big Club, driven almost entirely by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Tom Donohue are going bananas….. They can’t believe Trump actually did it. He actually followed through. The Wall Street consortium of multinationals are apoplectic.

Decades of economic gaslighting upon the U.S. electorate; massive manipulative multinational corporate influences; hundreds of millions spent purchasing U.S. politicians; and POTUS has just punched it all square in the face.

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Amid ongoing trade stalemates with NAFTA and the EU, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has announced the U.S. Commerce Department will no longer provide exemptions for the European Union, Canada or Mexico.

As anticipated, during a telephone briefing with reporters Secretary Ross announced at midnight tonight the 25% steel, and 10% aluminum, tariffs on imported goods will begin.

Via Reuters: U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters on a telephone briefing that a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico would go into effect at midnight (0400 GMT on Friday).

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