Background first:  There’s a massive shifting of manufacturing in the auto-industry and President Donald Trump is at the center of it.  The USMCA trade agreement is the newly constructed Trump fulcrum underneath the structure of all auto manufacturing.  POTUS Trump has shifted the location of this fulcrum through auto-tariffs; and the final determinations therein are still ongoing.

On Tuesday, POTUS invited the EU auto executives to the White House.  No doubt Trump, the executive businessman, was seeking to understand their position on how the EU crew will comply with a 75% USMCA rule of origin…. and feel-them-out over what leverage he could apply (tariff threshold) to enhance their manufacturing relocation decision.

Example: With tariff at 2.5% they won’t move anything just pay the duty; however at 10% or higher they might move engine building or transmission building to North America etc to get inside the rules of origin threshold.  Trump was likely exploring the Mercedes, VW and BMW perspectives while Angela Merkel was gnashing her teeth… “curse you villian”.

President/Businessman Trump is setting up a future for high-wage U.S. manufacturing workers.  POTUS is in apex predator mode… the combination of USMCA and tariff possibilities are like blood in the water surrounding: Dr. Dieter Zetsche (Mercedes), Dr. Herbert Diess (VW), and Dr. Nicholas Peter (BMW); while Trump asks questions.

Mike Manley the new CEO of Fiat Chrysler wants nothing to do with that scenario.  He ain’t about to get in the water.  Swimming with Trump? Oh, hell to the no:

(CnBC) Fiat Chrysler, riding a wave of strong truck and SUV sales, is planning to build a new final assembly plant in Detroit even as other American automakers scale back operations in the U.S., according to people familiar with the plan.

The assembly plant, an old Mack II Engine Plant that closed in 2012, will build a new three-row, Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV starting in 2020 as the automaker moves to keep up with strong demand for utility vehicles, the people said. A spokesperson for Fiat Chrysler would not comment on the report, nor confirm the automaker’s plans.

The move comes as the industry faces pressure from President Donald Trump to keep manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and stands in stark contrast to the recent decision by General Motors to stop production and idle five plants in North America including four in the United States. (read more)

Fiat Chrysler’s Mike Manley watched legendary CEO Sergio Marchionne dealing with President Trump in 2017 during two sets of meetings with key auto leaders [Marchionne seated at Trump’s immediate left above].  POTUS and titan Marchionne got along great; both old school deal-makers.  Lots of respect between the two leaders.

No doubt Mike Manley took heed of Sergio Marchionne’s approach when he took over as CEO of Fiat Chrysler earlier this year due to Marchionne’s untimely death.

Meanwhile the German crew have Angela Merkel to deal with.  Not so good.  Trump is really close to leveraging massive tariffs on Fraulein Merkel’s primary industry. Oh yeah, this stuff is buckets of fun.

Geopolitical-strategy-Trump doesn’t care about delicate sensibilities, and Merkel is trying to have her cake and eat it too with NATO defense (U.S. pays) and self-serving energy contracts with Russia (Germany saves).  Chancellor Merkel’s economic slip is showing and she is totally exposed to the massive leverage President Trump holds.

I can only imagine Merkel sitting in her office wondering: “how exactly did we get ourselves into this position, and never notice while we were traveling here”?

Methinks we might just see more Audi, VW, BMW and Mercedes auto plants. And I guarantee you we will see more Audi, Volvo, VW, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota (Lexus), Honda (Acura) and Nissan (Infinity) SUV component plants…. [Just like the Fiat Chrysler announcement today.]

Audi (Q7, Q5), Volvo (XC-90) and additional Mercedes (SUV) component production and manufacturing assembly plants will likely be crunching the numbers based on their Tuesday meeting.

Oh, this stuff is buckets of fun.

OMB Director Mick Mulvaney has been wearing two hats as both head of the Office of Management and Budgets and head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Democrats went bananas in 2017 when Mulvaney took over the source of their financial black-mail and fundraising scheme constructed by Elizabeth Warren.

Today the senate voted to confirm Mulvaney’s protege’ Kathy Kraninger to replace him.

Democrats are still going bananas.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voted 50-49 on Thursday to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. consumer watchdog despite opposition from Democrats and consumer groups who say she is unqualified.

Kathy Kraninger will serve as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), replacing acting chief Mick Mulvaney, after Trump signs a declaration approving her five-year term.

The banking industry and consumer groups will be watching to see whether Kraninger, who is currently a senior official at the White House budget office, will take on Mulvaney’s mantle and continue to aggressively curtail the CFPB’s enforcement and rule-writing agenda.  (read more)

If the latest reports are accurate, this is *not* good.  Remember, there are trillions at stake and Wall Street has spent hundreds-of-million on behalf of multinational interests lobbying to keep the current status with China unchanged.

There’s a deep financial motive within this dynamic to stop President Trump from resetting the trade relationship with China. Additionally, Canada is aligned in self-interest with Wall Street and Trump’s adversaries toward the same goal.

Apparently National Security Adviser John Bolton was aware the CFO of Huawei was going to be arrested in Canada.  However, President Trump was kept out of the loop.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said in an interview with National Public Radio that he knew in advance about the arrest of a top executive of the Chinese technology giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL], according to an NPR reporter on Thursday.

Bolton said he did not know if the president was aware in advance of the arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Canada on Saturday, the day Trump struck a 90-day truce on trade in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Argentina, NPR reporter Steve Inskeep said in a tweet.

“I knew in advance. That is something we get from the Justice Department,” the tweet quoted Bolton as saying. (read more)

Here’s the alarming (if true) aspect:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump did not know about a U.S. request for the extradition of Huawei’s chief financial officer from Canada before he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping over dinner last weekend, a White House official said on Thursday.

Huawei Technologies Ltd’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 and faces extradition to the United States. The United States has been looking since at least 2016 into whether Huawei violated U.S. sanctions against Iran. (read more)

So while President Trump was sitting down with Chairman Xi to negotiate the framework of their ongoing trade discussions; Bolton knew a very geopolitical arrest, that would directly impact the relationship, was about to take place…. And he did not inform President Trump?

If true this is concerning because the Deep State would like nothing more than to scuttle any possible trade reset between the U.S. and China; and Canada would be more than willing to assist therein.

Canada benefits from the status quo.  Canada exploits their access to the U.S. market as part of their overall economic model.  Canada brokers Asian manufactured goods through their country, and assembles some parts into finished products therein.  This skirts any countervailing duties imposed on the originating Asian nation by the U.S.  This exploitation has been very lucrative for Canada.

Additionally, the Wall Street multinationals and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have paid U.S. politicians to allow maximum benefit to Chinese manufacturing.   The Big Club is opposed to President Trump; there are trillions at stake.

If Bolton knew of the location of a landmine that could have serious damage to the efforts of Trump’s economic team, and he kept it hidden, he could have intentionally positioned President Trump’s policy toward China for maximum collateral damage.

Not good.

Must watch this closely.

Suspicious cat needs more information.

According to a report in the Washington Post William P Barr is the leading candidate to replace Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General.   Barr previously served as AG under George HW Bush.  The other possible candidate is Rep. John Ratcliffe from Texas.

(Washington Post) Former attorney general William P. Barr is President Trump’s leading candidate to be nominated to lead the Justice Department — a choice that could be made in coming days as the agency presses forward with a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations.

Barr, 68, a well-respected Republican lawyer who served as attorney general from 1991 to 1993 under President George H.W. Bush, has emerged as a favorite candidate of a number of Trump administration officials, including senior lawyers in the White House Counsel’s Office, these people said. Two people familiar with the discussions said the president has told advisers in recent days that he plans to nominate Barr.

One person familiar with the discussions cautioned that while Barr is the leading candidate, the decision is not final and the president could decide to pick someone else.  (read more)

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attended two Hanukkah receptions today, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.  The video below are the remarks during the first reception. The President and First-Laady marked Hanukkah Thursday evening with a reception including eight survivors of the Holocaust.:

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Halley was visiting President Donald Trump in the White House today, ahead of a report she has sold her home in South Carolina home and will remain in New York after she departs from the cabinet at the end of the year.

My hunch is Haley has met, briefed and interviewed possible replacement John James on the U.N. position, and is debriefing POTUS Trump therein. Again, just a hunch….

COLUMBIA — Former Gov. Nikki Haley is not coming straight back to the Palmetto State after she leaves the United Nations at year’s end.

She plans on staying in New York where her son attends high school.

“South Carolina will always be home for Ambassador Haley and her family, and they look forward to returning to their friends and family in the Palmetto State after her son finishes high school,” Haley spokeswoman Chaney Adams said in a statement.

The return will be long enough away that Haley and her husband, Michael, recently sold their Lexington home.

Haley, 46, has not revealed what she will do when she leaves the United Nations after two years.  The Post and Courier has learned a second book is the works, per several sources who asked to not to be identified because they were not authorized to reveal the news. (more)

 

In the grand scheme of things, the move of U.N. Secretary Nikki Haley to resign is a typical move of a professional politician on the establishment side of the GOPe political continuum.

Ms. Haley comes from the political house of Bush; hence the original Rubio support in 2016 etc. She is a political animal from the establishment wing.

Within the traditional political class the customary approach to a White House run is to gain about five years of wealth in advance of a presidential run. Haley would be following a wealth process for a 2024 presidential run.

During this wealth accumulation period the cocktail party circuit (the billionaire crowd) will front-load wealth, purchase homes and all expenses etc, for the future candidate. This ‘Five Year Plan‘ was the same historic approach done for Ronald Reagan.

With a candidate in the private sector, the professional donor-class make investments in the candidate while it is legal to do so. The investments are made in anticipation of future influence.  This is simply how money influences politics.

With the “Me Too” movement in high political value, the currency of Nikki Haley, as an investment candidate, is at the apex.  Haley checks the right boxes; she is making a predictable move to capitalize on that process, politics and timeliness.

The U.N., as an institution, is also in alignment with the high-brow Prescott Bush clan. Ms. Nikki Haley is regarded by this clan as a very valuable commodity. If they can’t get Jeb, or another Bush (ie. Rubio) over the finish line, they will be much better positioned with investments in Nikki Haley.

It goes without saying the U.N. is not MAGA. In many ways the interests of the U.N. run counter to the more nationalistic MAGA movement.

Hence, it was smart for President Trump to put a non-MAGA ambassador into the U.N. while simultaneously, and smartly, using the position to keep the globalists from attacking MAGA policy.

It was a strategic move when it was done and the benefits have been visible.

Moving forward, despite the success of President Trump in taking over the Republican party, the political apparatus still has factions (ie. Never Trump etc.). Those GOPe types will back Nikki Haley in 2024 as they did Jeb in 2016. The outlooks are same/same. This is all entirely predictable.

Due to the increasing success of the MAGA or Trump Republican apparatus, Haley will need to carefully position herself as a stealth Decepticon and not upset the vulgarian hordes; ie. the new republican party base voter. As a smart and tactical politician Haley will invest heavily in the optics of supporting the MAGA movement; and embrace President Trump to avoid any conflict.

Much like the primary of 2016 (w/ Jeb), the primary race of 2024 will determine if Haley can con enough people into not seeing her elitist Decepticon position.

The Bush clan and professional political cocktail circuit was rebuked in 2016, so we can anticipate their strategy in 2024 will be with those strategic lessons at the forefront.

/End.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro appears on Fox Business to discuss the possibility of trade deals between the U.S. and China.  Navarro explains the Buenos Aires dinner meeting and how Chairman Xi outlined his position on three buckets of U.S. concerns.

Charles Payne is going bananas because he doesn’t understand what happens in the space between two different sets of economic policy benefactors:  Wall Street and Main Street.

Wall Street is going to lose ground; period.  Their financial interests are dependent on retaining the status-quo multinational/global economic systems.  President Trump is supporting Main Street over the interests of Wall Street.  Stocks that are centered on U.S. blue-collar companies, domestic benefits, will grow; all other multinational stocks will not.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears with Fox Business Maria Bartiromo for an extended interview on multiple current economic aspects. Economic Security is National Security. There are three segments.

Secretary Mnuchin discusses: the agreement between President Trump and Chairman Xi for immediate shifts within the U.S-China trade relationship, and the anticipated immediate deliverables; the USMCA agreement; the auto industry and the overall economy.

Segment two and three below:

In segment two Secretary Mnuchin discusses the auto industry. Worth noting today is the day when the German auto leaders are meeting at the White House. Likely POTUS Trump wants to know how they intend to respond to the 75% rule of origin within the USMCA.

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In segment three Secretary Mnuchin discusses the overall economy and the future outlook.

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Within the dynamic of the U.S -vs- China trade confrontation, CTH noted the Wall Street (globalist) multinationals would likely go bananas.  There are trillions at stake and President Trump is confronting three decades of financial influence from the corporate lobbyists.   To the angst of Wall Street, POTUS Trump tweets the dynamic:

President Trump has been brutally consistent for more than three decades on his intent and purpose with the Chinese.  President Trump is the first U.S. President to understand how the red dragon hides behind the panda mask.

Additionally, while carrying out the objectives of the confrontation, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Ross, Ambassador Lighthizer and adviser Navarro are well aware of Beijing’s panda mask; POTUS Trump will never let them forget about it.

Some call it ‘Globalism vs Nationalism’, at other times it is best described as “Wall Street -vs- Main Street”; however, the overarching bigger picture is a battle over economics and the financial power structures that oppose President Trump.

CTH has often said ‘everything is about the economics’, because it is. Ask the ‘why’ question five times to any issue and you will find the root issue is money.  Power, greed and control, it is all about the money and the economics.

Opposition to President Trump’s singularly unique and transformational reset of the U.S. economic system boils down to a battle against the ‘Big Club’.

Every political confrontation is a move within this dynamic. The structural battle is not based on party affiliation, it is based on control and ownership of economics. This confrontation represents the biggest challenge; a brief example:

Hundreds of millions were spent on the 2018 election by owners within the ‘Big Club’; at a surface level those expenditures are discussed by punditry thus: “we were outspent” (insert Kevin McCarthy and/or Ronnda McDaniel here). But if you have followed the challenge more closely, over the course of years/decades, you have a more substantive understanding of the dynamic.

Billionaires on one side of the UniParty spend hundreds-of-millions in opposition to the MAGA agenda. That agenda, that economic agenda, is the existential threat to the Big Club’s grip on power.

Here’s the critical aspect: When it comes to the economics, there are no big spending billionaires on the nationalist side of the equation. The interests of Wall Street Democrats and Wall Street Republicans are based on globalism; Wall Street not Main Street.

In the ‘globalist’ multinational, Wall Street dynamic, the Big Club DNC donor base and the Big Club RNC donor base have mutual self interests.  Within this interest, President Trump is their unified opposition.

The only defeating mechanism that can structurally override this dynamic is an independent Billionaire and a massive amount of tax-paying small donors, ordinary middle-Americans, who can supplement the financial arsenal.   Think back to 2015/2016, and you will see the single-successful-reference for this reality at work.

Everything is about the economics.

The Big Club opposition to President Trump is based on financial best-interest.  That opposition is not bound to a political party ideology.  It is an ideology based on economics.  In essence, this is a structural economic battle that is being waged politically.

Decades of financial policy were intentionally structured to the benefit of the BIG CLUB and the multinational Wall Street alliance represented by U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue.  This is not a Republican -vs- Democrat issue; this is a larger confrontation between those who hold financial power and a singular person, President Donald Trump, who is determined to remove that grip.

In headlines: Big Club board member Alan Greenspan declares that President Trump’s tariff policies are “insane” [link].  This expression by Greenspan is directly representative everything noted above.

However, conversely, the outcome of those MAGA tariff policies are EXACTLY what we said they would be.  The BLS released information quantifying inflation across all sectors (emphasis mine).

Food – The food index declined 0.1 percent in October as the index for food at home fell 0.2 percent and the index for food away from home rose 0.1 percent. Three of the six major grocery store food group indexes declined in October. The fruits and vegetables index fell 0.7 percent in October, its third consecutive decline.

The index for fresh fruits fell 1.8 percent, while the fresh vegetables index increased 0.3 percent. The index for cereals and bakery products fell 0.6 percent, and the index for dairy and related products declined 0.4 percent. (link)

Notice how the prices for food are dropping as the MAGAnomic trade policies of President Trump are being carried out.

Notice how the timing of the decline is directly related to the tariff actions, and the counter-actions, by the targeted countries.

President Trump is fracturing the multinational corporate ‘controlled market’, and his trade policies are beginning to reconstitute supply and demand pricing in a nationalist market.

This inflation data, specifically within the fastest sector to show indicators (most perishable = fastest turnover) highlights what we have been explaining for years:

[…] The biggest lie in modern economics, willingly spread and maintained by corporate media, is that a system of global markets still exists.

It doesn’t.

Every element of global economic trade is controlled and exploited by massive institutions, multinational banks and multinational corporations. Institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and World Bank control trillions of dollars in economic activity. Underneath that economic activity there are people who hold the reigns of power over the outcomes. These individuals and groups are the stakeholders in direct opposition to principles of national economics. (cont.)

The process of charging the U.S. consumer more for a product, that under normal national market conditions would cost less, is a process called exfiltration of wealth.

It is never discussed.

To control the market price some contracted product may even be secured and shipped with the intent to allow it to sit idle (or rot). It’s all about controlling the price and maximizing the profit equation. To gain the same $1 profit a widget multinational might have to sell 20 widgets in El-Salvador (.25¢ each), or two widgets in the U.S. ($2.50/each).

Think of the process like the historic reference of OPEC (Oil Producing Economic Countries). Only in the modern era massive corporations are playing the role of OPEC and it’s not oil being controlled, it’s almost everything, including food.

Yes, President Trump, the man and his policy team, is an existential threat to the elitist hierarchy of things well beyond the borders of the DC Swamp. In the era of explaining the complex it’s a planetary economic reset almost too massive and consequential to encapsulate in words.

There are massive international corporate and financial interests who are inherently at risk from President Trump’s “America-First” economic and trade platform. Believe it or not, President Trump is up against an entire world economic establishment.

President Trump’s campaign manager Brad Parscale discusses how the campaign used social media to break through the firewall of MSM control.  Additionally, Parscale confronts the reason why the approach is needed in an era where MSM gatekeepers attempt to manipulate the type of information.

Within the interview Brad Parscale directly confronts the MSM gate-keeping mindset, as advanced by an interviewer who is ideologically predisposed to support control over any content he disagrees with.  The result is a lengthy but very interesting interview.