The pageantry and scale of the royal reception toward President Trump and the U.S. is reflective of much more than a singular presidential visit to a nation and region of geo-strategic importance.

The word “reset” is frequent amid media reporting of the Saudi trip but few people have followed the recent regional history to thoroughly understand what exactly is being reset.

~ President Donald Trump and Saudi King Salman – Joint Statement.

President Trump is being recognized and respected by the regional Arab coalition for his specific approach and outward worldview which is based on eye-to-eye diplomacy.

Through the contacts, discussions, emissary meetings and individual diplomatic engagements over the past six months, the Arab region members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -and specifically Saudi Arabia- are overjoyed to find a fresh U.S. perspective based on mutual respect. (more…)

U.N. Secretary Nikki Haley appears on ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos to discuss the vast Russian planetary electoral conspiracy theorem.

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Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is in Italy at an advance meeting of G7 financial leaders ahead of the full G7 meeting scheduled for May 26th and 27th which will be attended by President Trump.  Mnuchin is swamped with international questions about President Trump’s trade, finance, tax and economic policies. It is odd how the U.S. Media is less interested in this important stuff.

Meanwhile Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is leading the Arctic Council Meeting in Fairbanks Alaska.  Yes, though they get almost no attention, we actually have national policies targeted directly to the needs and interests of the Arctic Circle.

[Transcript] SECRETARY TILLERSON: Well, it’s my pleasure to welcome all of you, foreign ministers, permanent participant heads of delegation, Arctic Council observers, and honored guests. And I want to thank again the tribal leaders of the aboriginal groups for their greeting this morning and their very meaningful message to all of us, and we appreciate their opening this session for us.

I want to welcome all of you to the 10th Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting and this beautiful city of Fairbanks, and we thank them again for their great hospitality in hosting us. (more…)

This presentation is so good and so important, we’re sticking it to the top of the page for a while. 

“The Trump Doctrine”

Earlier today Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talked to the employees at the State Department and delivered outstanding remarks to explain the Trump administration foreign policy approach.  T-Rex talks about the ongoing State Dept. mission and how values and policies intersect with the larger ‘America-First’ strategy.

Specifically T-Rex explains how the distinction between U.S. ‘values’ relates to U.S. ‘policy’ but determinations of influence and our best interests cannot necessarily be contingent upon foreign governments accepting values that are inherently different to their culture.

These remarks delivered to State Dept personnel are exceptionally well presented and intensely interesting.

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[Transcript] SECRETARY TILLERSON: Good morning. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.  Are we on? Can you all hear me back there in the back? Can you hear me now? (Laughter.) Can you hear me now?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

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Earlier we shared the remarks by Secretary Rex Tillerson as he opened a U.N. Ministerial Session on North Korea’s nuclear ambition. However, what we were unable to find was video of the closing remarks.

The closing remarks by T-Rex were intensely direct. The video is available on the State Department Website HERE. (w/ Transcript Below)  There are some critical forward policy points outlined in the T-Rex closing.

SECRETARY TILLERSON: I shall now make a further statement in my capacity as Secretary of State of the United States.

First, I appreciate all of the statements that have been made by you, and I have received those statements in the constructive spirit in which I know they’ve been offered. I also want to acknowledge the presence of a large number of ambassadors with us today. Your presence gives strength to the importance of this issue. It is a visible demonstration of the importance of this issue to the international community, and I welcome you, and I appreciate you being here.

It has been stressed repeatedly in many of your statements today North Korea has failed to honor its commitments of the past. It has made promises which it has broken. Had this body fully enforced and stood behind resolutions it had enacted in the past, vigorously enforcing sanctions with full compliance, perhaps we would not have found ourselves confronted with the high level of tension that we face today.

We will not negotiate our way back to the negotiating table with North Korea. We will not reward their violations of past resolutions. We will not reward their bad behavior with talks. We will only engage in talks with North Korea when they exhibit a good-faith commitment to abiding by the Security Council resolutions and their past promises to end their nuclear programs.

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Oh noes, how is the U.S. media going to find a way to spin this?  It was only a matter of time.  President Trump and Secretary Tillerson played out the global strategy perfectly.

By assembling international allies in a coalition of influence, specifically by pulling China into a close relationship with President Trump, Russia has been cast into a brutally diminished role.  Secretary Tillerson’s exceptionally well received visit to the U.N. Security Council yesterday appears to have been the final straw.

The panda fur has been stroked perfectly.  China is literally on the cusp of calling for five-party talks, sans N-Korea, over the entire Asian crisis; and all regional U.S. partners are perfectly positioned to support Trump/Tillerson in that endeavor. Additionally, the delicate sensibilities of the U.N. have been cultured, praised, and Patrone’ Trump has personally laid down reasonable expectations which the participants applauded.

The international diplomacy of President Trump, Vice-President Pence, Secretary T-Rex and even Ambassador Nikki Haley has been incredibly well received.  Starting in the mid-east, through Europe and NATO all the way to the Asia-Pacific, international leadership has been effusive in praise for what President Trump is making possible.

As hard as it is for the media to admit, that’s the backdrop reality for this:

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♦Last week Vice President Mike Pence visited Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia and Australia.  One of the primary topics was North Korea.  ♦Yesterday (April 23rd), President Trump followed up on Pence’s visit with personal phone calls to China’s President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; again, the topic was North Korea:

“The two leaders reaffirmed the urgency of the threat posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, and committed to strengthen coordination in achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” (link)

♦Today (April 24th), U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley brings the U.N. Security Council to the White House for lunch with President Trump.  The President spoke of the need for the U.N. to fulfill its original charter. ♦On Wednesday (April 26th), President Trump has invited all U.S. Senators to the White House for a classified briefing on North Korea.

♦On Friday (April 28th), U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be traveling to the U.N. to speak to the Security Council personally: (more…)

One of President Trump’s greatest strengths is his keen instincts for developing relationships as a strategic tools toward accomplishing consequential objectives. To wit, President Trump invites the entire U.N. Security Council delegation to lunch at the White House.

Now, most of us, myself included, do not think highly of the United Nations as an entity that has ever accomplished anything of worth – beyond pushing an incessant drum-beat of left-wing globalism and ridiculous pie-in-the-sky pontificating.

However, that said, the historic invitation to lunch is quite smartly full-throated use of regional political proximity.  President Trump inviting the U.N Security Council ambassadors to the White House is something Vladimir Putin, or any other leader of consequence, cannot recreate.  The Ambassadors themselves acted more like a group of valedictorian school kids on an outing to where the really important people live.

Important leverage is created through personality, nuance, outline of expectations, proximity and exposure to real power. This is far beyond the mere wordy pontificating power of the attendee’s familiarity, this is structurally deploying leverage of consequence to change paradigms.

[TRANSCRIPT] 11:50 A.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT:  This is a very, very important and powerful group of people, and it’s really wonderful to have you with us.  And I have to say, welcome to the White House.  It’s a privilege to have all of the ambassadors and their spouses.

You know, they were going to leave out the spouses, and I said, you must bring your spouses.  (Laughter.)  You know, I heard there were a lot of very angry spouses — (laughter) — and this is their first time to the White House.  So it’s a great honor to those of you that brought your wife or spouse.

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President Trump welcomed Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to the White House today and they will be holding a joint press conference shortly:

Video Added:

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Turkish President Recep Erdogan is quick to declare victory today, albeit by a narrow margin, as a national referendum to consolidate power passes during a national vote.

[…]  The 18 constitutional amendments that will come into effect after the next election, scheduled for 2019, will abolish the office of the prime minister and hand sweeping executive powers to the president. –link–

Having watched the Erdogan objectives play out over the past six to eight years the approach he has taken has been highly effective.

Erdogan essentially imported a base of support consisting of mostly Muslim Brotherhood political supporters to aid his desire to transform Turkey from a secular nation into a more Islamic dictatorial endeavor.

He may never fully achieve the goal of recreating the Ottoman Empire, but that doesn’t mean there is going to be anything less than toxic turmoil ahead for Turkey and the EU as his endeavors continue to be successful.

A decade or two from now when our children look back upon the period from 2010 to 2020 there will be a rather obvious similarity between the rise of Erdogan to power and the rise of Libya’s Muamar Qaddafi.

Both power-hungry nuts utilized immigration to construct their objectives, and both were national gatekeepers. Qaddafi held power over Europe via the North African migration gate, and Erdogan gaining power over Europe through the use of the Mid-East gate.

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