President Trump visited South Carolina yesterday, receiving an award and delivering the keynote speech at Benedict College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Two great gentlemen. Thank you very much. And thank you all. Please, sit down.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, President! (Applause.)
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This would appear to be one of the few positive indicators that AG Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham are indeed doing more than bondo.  The New York Times is reporting the Durham “review” has now officially moved into a full “criminal investigation”.  [All emphasis mine]

WASHINGTON — For more than two years, President Trump has repeatedly attacked the Russia investigation, portraying it as a hoax and illegal even months after the special counsel closed it. Now, Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into how it all began.

Justice Department officials have shifted an administrative review of the Russia investigation closely overseen by Attorney General William P. Barr to a criminal inquiry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move gives the prosecutor running it, John H. Durham, the power to subpoena for witness testimony and documents, to impanel a grand jury and to file criminal charges.

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is now calling current and former White House National Security Council (NSC) staff to appear before his committee to provide evidence for impeachment.  The purpose of the requests is to gather testimony from all those who disagree with President Trump’s foreign policy.
The arc of the current impeachment plan is to remove President Trump from office because he is not permitting the Bush, Clinton-Clinton, Bush-Bush, Obama-Obama foreign policy to continue.   All career bureaucrats who have advised and constructed U.S. foreign policy for maximum influence & financial gain are now fuel for impeachment.

White House Trade and Manufacturing Advisor Peter Navarro appears on Fox Business to discuss the purpose and intent of the USMCA and the ongoing China trade discussions.
What Navarro skims upon is the heart of the economic purpose behind the USMCA as requested by President Trump and constructed by USTR Lighthizer. The USMCA establishes an internal North American manufacturing system; this provides the alternative for Asian manufacturing of goods for the U.S. market.
This manufacturing system is why Mexico is “all-in” to support the USMCA. Additionally, the economic benefits within the system as constructed is exactly why Mexican President Lopez-Obrador is willing to pressure House democrats to ratify and also back-up President Trump on other geopolitical issues (immigration controls etc).

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On the Stock Market dynamic. Currently there is a great deal of investment capital waiting to see where the money should be placed. Investment in China has dropped dramatically; investment in Southeast Asia shifted, but new investment is pending this outcome. Multinationals are calculating the TCP (Total Cost of Production), and if the new USMCA is passed there will be a triggering effect of North American investment because the uncertainty will be eliminated.
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Earlier today President Trump delivered remarks about the ongoing issues with Turkey and Northern Syria from the White House.  [Video and Transcript]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. My fellow Americans, I greet you this morning from the White House to announce a major breakthrough toward achieving a better future for Syria and for the Middle East. It’s been a long time.
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Representative Elise Stefanik (R-New York) gives a good general perspective from a centrist, non ideological, politician.  As a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Stefanik is at the center of the impeachment efforts undertaken by HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff.
Ms. Stefanik has had enough of the schemes and games and is publicly calling out Chairman Schiff for his manipulation of the impeachment process.  This type of push-back is good, because Pelosi and Schiff’s crew are comfortable with the customary GOP push-back from McCarthy, Jordan, Meadows, Gaetz, Collins, Nunes etc. However, the Lawfare crowd is not prepared to deal with the optics of a more dangerous Stefanik.

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White House manufacturing policy advisor Peter Navarro discusses the lack of action from Speaker Pelosi on ratification of the USMCA.
As CTH has outlined since the July 2019 alliance meeting between Pelosi and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the strongest likelihood is the House will table the ratification vote until after the 2020 election. It is a strategic political decision.

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The back-story here is likely worse than the obvious.  In a tweet today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announces his resolution warning President Trump not to remove troops from Syria or Afghanistan.  [Not coincidentally the two countries visited by Speaker Pelosi and Adam Schiff last weekend.]

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Of course the obvious, albeit unwritten “or else” part, is Senator McConnell threatening to join with with Senator Lindsey Graham and support President Trump’s impeachment.
We cannot say we were not warned [ SEE HERE ] it was obvious immediately after the Democrats won the House in 2018 that McConnell was breathing a sigh of relief.  [Also reminder, the SSCI doesn’t run an operation against the President and the Leader of the Senate not know about it…. just sayin’.]

Earlier today President Trump held a cabinet meeting and permitted the U.S. media to stay in attendance for the first hour.  No U.S. President has ever allowed this level of transparency in government.  After brief statements, the president took multiple questions from the assembled press pool. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you very much. We have a Cabinet meeting. We’ll have a few questions after grace. And, if you would, Ben, please do the honors.

SECRETARY CARSON: Our kind Father in Heaven, we’re so thankful for the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us in this country. And we’re thankful for the people of courage who have been here before us, who have fought hard for the rights of our country.

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Leftists love to trot out Christine Lagarde as the pontificating elite to defend their multinational interests.  Recently the former IMF leader was elected to take control of the European Central Bank.   As a direct result, Ms. Lagarde is now taking an adverse position toward a strong U.S. economy and decrying the ‘America-First’ policies of President Trump that have removed the tentacles of global financial control.
If you follow trade, finance and the interests of the multinationals, this is actually quite funny.  In this first brief interview segment Ms. Lagarde, has the elitist audacity to warn President Trump that lowering U.S. interest rates defeats the agenda of the EU.  She doesn’t put it in those terms, but watch and we’ll explain:

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Notice how Lagarde magnanimously claims that lowering interest rates when the U.S. economy is strong, and the U.S. unemployment rate is at historic lows, could lead to rising prices inside the U.S.  Too damned funny; how very kind of the EU to be worried about U.S. consumers… (pro tip: they ain’t).
What she’s really worried about is the dynamic that President Trump has created that is crushing the globalists. Let’s expand.
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