It was evident several weeks ago that U.S. chargé d’affaires to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, is one of the current participants in the coup effort.  It was Taylor who engaged in carefully planned text messages with EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland to set-up a narrative helpful to Adam Schiff’s political coup effort.

George Kent (left) – Bill Taylor (right), bagmen for the Foreign Service Office.

Bill Taylor was formerly U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine (’06-’09) and later helped the Obama administration to design the laundry operation providing taxpayer financing to Ukraine in exchange for back-channel payments to U.S. politicians and their families.
Today Rudy Giuliani has released a letter to Senator Lindsey Graham outlining how Bill Taylor has blocked VISA’s for Ukrainian ‘whistle-blowers’ who are willing to testify to the corrupt financial scheme.   Unfortunately, Senator Graham, along with dozens of U.S. Senators currently serving, may very well have been a recipient for money through the aforementioned laundry process.  So, good luck with the visas.
U.S. senators write foreign aid policy, rules and regulations thereby creating the financing mechanisms to transmit U.S. funds.  Those same senators then received a portion of the laundered funds back through their various “institutes” and business connections to the foreign government offices; in this example Ukraine. [ex. Burisma to Biden]
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The U.S. multinationals on Wall Street do not want the USMCA to pass because they don’t want President Trump to have leverage that allows him to continue the fight against China and the EU. It is a simple dynamic, USMCA ratification makes the Wall Street prior investments in China worth less.
In all of these efforts U.S. multinational corporations, big companies on Wall St, are heavily opposed to President Trump because they have invested in those overseas operations. Those companies facilitated the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Remember, in 2018 the Supreme Court ruled that non-union members cannot be forced to pay for union representation.
That decision led to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declaring support in 2019 for illegal aliens having rights to U.S. jobs and collective bargaining.
There is also now a clear alignment between Wall Street multinationals, and democrats like Nancy Pelosi. Wall Street’s ability to pay Pelosi and political leadership to protect their multinational interests; in combination with corporate promises of funding to Pelosi’s party; has created the unholy alliance of united interests.
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White House trade and manufacturing policy advisor Peter Navarro appears on Fox News to discuss two key economic and trade issues: (1) the current status of U.S-China trade discussions “round one”; and (2) the status of USMCA ratification (Pelosi’s delay).
Nothing in the China trade discussion is solid, until everything in the China trade discussion is settled; this is one of the key aspects to President Trump’s directive to USTR Robert Lighthizer.  No deal is a more favorable outcome than the construct of a trade deal that cannot be enforced.
On the USMCA ratification, again it all falls upon the politics of Pelosi.  The agreement would pass tomorrow if it were put up to a vote; there is no controversy.  Speaker Pelosi is holding back the ratification vote for pure political purposes.

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USMCA ratification is the first domino in long-chain of ‘America First’ economic benefits. As soon as USMCA passes a wave of North American investment will surge. The downstream consequences includes leverage for U.S-China, U.S-Europe, U.S-India and U.S-U.K trade agreements.
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Earlier today Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appeared for an interview with Maria Bartiromo on the status of phase-one for the U.S-China trade deal, Huawei and ZTE national security concerns, and Speaker Pelosi blocking ratification of the USMCA agreement.
Secretary Ross cautions the Chinese deal is contingent on some very particular and important enforcement details. Additionally Ross discusses the potential national security issues with 5G network and AG Bill Barr having strong concerns about Huawei and ZTE.

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Funny stuff amid headlines discussing the likelihood of President Trump postponing a 25% tariff on European autos.  What the pundits are missing is how President Trump has positioned a myriad of trade dynamics that make EU action unavoidable.   This is the fun stuff, so let’s enjoy the details.
The current headlines surround President Trump “postponing” a 25% tariff on EU automobiles as an outcome of the major EU manufacturers (mostly Germany) promising increased investment in their U.S. operations.  By itself this would be considered a win for President Trump, but that’s not the whole picture, not even close.

What the more broad trade and manufacturing dynamic includes will explain what EU economists are only just now starting to realize.  Yes, the major European auto-makers will put more investment into the United States (thereby lessening the EU industrial economy); however, the auto decision is not because they are presenting a magnanimous benefit of sorts, but rather it is a foregone conclusion; an unavoidable reality due to a previous trade agreement construct.
Within the USMCA agreement President Trump negotiated a win-win-win for Mexico, Canada and the U.S. through a requirement that 75 percent of North American auto content must originate from manufacturing within North America.  Failure to reach that threshold means the auto company will be subject to a 25 percent tariff to bring the product to the U.S. market.
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The major industrial economies of the European Union (U.K., France, Germany) have been the beneficiaries of a decades-long system which allowed one-sided benefits -via tariffs- against U.S. products.
With President Trump demanding reciprocity, and with less industrial purchasing from China, the EU is now starting to contemplate a dramatically different economic future.

(Reuters) – Persistent weakness in euro zone manufacturing raises the risk of other sectors of the economy being infected, extending the currency bloc’s recent downturn, European Central Bank policymaker Yves Mersch said on Monday.
“The longer the weakness in manufacturing persists, the greater the risk that other sectors of the economy will be affected by the slowdown as well,” Mersch told a conference.
“Risks to the growth outlook remain on the downside overall.” (read more)

I think it is safe to say the majority of American voters have no idea how deeply the global economy is dependent on systems of trade that are based on the U.S. trade deficits.
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President Trump held an impromptu presser prior to departing JBA for Alabama.  This is one of those mini-pressers that reveals important aspects to the *direction* of the U.S-China trade discussion from the POTUS perspective.  The financial pundits always miss these little tell-tale remarks.  President Trump is managing the trade and economic program at a granular level; this is his priority… every little part of it, he is directing.
President Trump notes the value of the tariff strategy, and infers (not so subtle) that no deal is preferred within his ongoing plan: “you’ll see what I’m going to be doing.”  This is what the financial pundits ignore. President Trump has gamed this out, he’s stringing the process slowly to keep boosting the stock market…. but his goal does not include a deal.
[Video and Transcript below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: I look forward to seeing a lot of things. But on Monday, in particular, our stock market has just broken another record, as you see. Our economy is doing phenomenally well. Our jobs numbers just broke yet another record. They’re higher than ever before. Our country is doing better than it’s ever done. Our military is rebuilt. It was a mess when I took over.

And a lot of good things are happening, and now I’m going to watch Alabama-LSU, and that’ll be a lot of fun. So, we look forward to it.

Do you have a question? Go ahead.

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As we warned yesterday, about taking the propaganda of the Beijing panda mask…
Well, today President Trump pummels that narrative when he was asked about it during an impromptu press conference at the White House:

Q On China, can you tell me whether a tariff rollback will be part of the phase-one China deal?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, they’d like to have a rollback. I haven’t agreed to anything. China would like to get somewhat of a rollback — not a complete rollback, because they know I won’t do it.

But we’re getting along very well with China. They want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make a deal a lot more than I do. I’m very happy right now. We’re taking in billions of dollars. I’m very happy. China would like to make a deal much more than I would. (link)

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has a statement out today that underlines why so many global forces are against President Trump: “there are trillions at stake”.

(Reuters) – An interim U.S.-China trade deal that rolls back some tariffs has the potential to improve the International Monetary Fund’s baseline economic forecasts, which show the two countries’ trade war slowing global growth significantly this year, an IMF spokesman said on Thursday. (read more)

The baseline for the position of the IMF is the open secret amid global economic that few will ever discuss openly.  The U.S. economy generates approximately $21 trillion in total activity; roughly 20 percent of total global economic activity.
When the U.S. maintains a $500 billion per year trade deficit with China, essentially we are sending China trade dollars Beijing then uses to purchase industrial products from the EU an other nations.  Any reduction in the U.S-China deficit means China has less dollars to distribute; as an outcome the global economies have access to less U.S. wealth.
The process to retain U.S. dollars inside our own economy, President Trump’s “America First” economic agenda, is the heart of what most call the global economic slowdown.  As a result the position of the IMF is better when the U.S. maintains a deficit, and the position of the IMF is weakened by any process that stops that exfiltration of wealth.
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There is a lot of banter amid the punditry class of trade and finance watchers surrounding a statement from Chinese Commerce spokesman Gao Feng claiming that U.S. and China negotiators were discussing a ‘phased’ roll-back of U.S. tariffs as part of a trade deal. However, a note of very strong caution should be applied.

On its face the Beijing-central claim is essentially an accurate portrayal of a dynamic long discussed.  The tariffs were initially imposed to reset the outlook of China.  In any negotiation with China a concession of current status is a non-starter.  By natural disposition Beijing refuses to cede already won ground. This is their historic approach.
Therefore when engaging in any negotiations with China it is necessary to reset the baseline.  China has to naturally feel losses; the economic landscape must be changed around them without their participation; in order for for them to consider negotiation.
The punishing U.S. tariffs accomplished this objective; the Beijing baseline status has been changed.  The bamboo forest is significantly less than it was two years ago, and now China wants to recapture lost position. Their current status indicates exactly that dynamic.
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