President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan sign “stage-one” of a U.S-Japan trade agreement negotiated by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Foreign Minister Motegi; both are very strong negotiators.

The agreement has been in the works for several years as President Trump and PM Abe both held firm to positions that benefit both.  [Video and Transcript Below] Japan is the fulcrum for Trump’s Indo-Pacific trade reset; PM Abe recognizes the importance of positioning Japan to benefit from the decoupling between the U.S. and China.  Trade can be boring at times, but this jousting is actually a lot of fun; don’t miss it.

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much everybody for being here. I’m honored to be alongside my great friend, Prime Minister Abe of Japan, to formally announce our first stage of a phenomenal new trade agreement with our close ally. They’ve been a great friend, and the Prime Minister has been my great friend.

I want to thank Ambassador Lighthizer for his extraordinary work in these negotiations. He works 24 hours a day. He never sleeps. (Laughter.) He’s a great gentleman. When I first got this job, everybody was saying, “You got to get Lighthizer. You have to get Lighthizer.” He’s a great and fine man who also gets along with the other side, and in particular with Japan. They’ve developed a really great mutual respect.

I’m grateful as well to several members of my Cabinet for joining us this afternoon — and that’s Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Ross, Secretary Pompeo. And my thanks also to Representative Roger Marshall.

In a moment, the Prime Minister and I will sign a document outlining the significant steps we’re taking toward a fair and reciprocal trade agreement. We insist on fairness and we insist on reciprocal — we want reciprocal agreements from now on because — and I’m not just talking about Japan. I’m talking about virtually every nation in the world. They have not been reciprocal. They’ve been one-way streets.

Under the market access agreement that we’re announcing today, Japan will open new markets to approximately $7 billion in American agricultural products. Japanese tariffs will now be significantly lower, or eliminated entirely, for U.S. beef, pork, wheat, cheese, corn, wine, and so much more.

This is a huge victory for America’s farmers, ranchers, and growers. And that’s very important to me.

And it’s very important that you report this news, as opposed to not reporting it, because it’s great for our farmers, as you know, and ranchers, and for a lot of other people.

We also reached a deal for robust commitments on $40 billion of digital trade between our two countries. This will greatly expand commerce across cutting-edge products and services.

Japan is one of America’s most important economic partners. We are Japan’s top foreign investor, by far. And Japanese investments in America supports hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

The deal we’re announcing today will reduce our chronic trade deficit built up and taken effect over many, many years of dealing with other governments and other administrations, and it’ll deepen our enduring national ties. It’s a very important deal.

Our teams will continue negotiations on remaining areas of interest to achieve a final comprehensive agreement. We’re negotiating very, very big transactions with Japan. Some of them — I think probably all of them in the not-too-distant future will happen. This is a big chunk.

But in the fairly near future, we’re going to be having a lot more very comprehensive deals signed with Japan.

So this is tremendous for our technology industries, but in particular, these are really big dollars for our farmers and for our ranchers.

I want to congratulate Prime Minister Abe. Not so long ago, he had a tremendous election victory. He won by a lot, and a lot of people say that it was only his friendship with President Trump that got him that tremendous victory. (Laughter.)

So, Shinzo, I want to thank you again for your steadfast partnership. I look forward to continuing to work closely with you as we pursue lasting prosperity and peace for our people. And congratulations to the people of Japan and congratulations on your great victory. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) Thank you, Donald. For the past 12 months, since we have signed the Japan-U.S. joint statement back in September 2018, we have had strenuous negotiations between Japan and the United States. And I am very delighted that today, together with you, we are announcing final agreement on our trade agreement.

One of the highlights of this new agreement is that under this agreement, we together, we’ll be able to bring benefit to everyone in Japan as well in the United States, namely consumers, producers, as well as workers. So the outcome of this negotiation is actually a win-win solution for Japan and the United States.

So under the new agreement, I do believe that we have successfully covered a wide range of areas, including not only the industrial goods, but also the agricultural products and also the digital trade between the two sides. And I am convinced that now, with these two agreements in place, we will be able to develop both economies of Japan and the United States as we move forward.

So, in your first statement, you applauded the great work done by Ambassador Lighthizer and also the wonderful American team. And from my own perspective, I do share your great applaud for the American team because they have been very, very tough throughout the negotiation process. (Laughter.) And to live up to your expectation, and also to meet the (inaudible) between Japan and the United States, I specifically assigned this important work to now the Foreign Minister, Foreign Minister Motegi, and his team. And I am sure that he did a great job, too.

And I do believe that the outcome of this negotiation is namely the crystallization of the strenuous and persistent efforts made by Minister Motegi and his team. And also, I like to underscore that both Minister Motegi and Ambassador Lighthizer did take care and also took into account the national interest of Japan and the United States, respectively.

And now, here we are today to share this final agreement. And I’m so glad that Donald also shared my aspiration, and you join us and join me in making this final judgement — decision to announce the final agreement on the two agreements between Japan and the United States.

Since your inauguration, Japan is the number one investor in the United States. In total of 25.7 billion U.S. dollar investment was already announced by Japan, which have already created more than 50,000 jobs for American people.

And I am convinced that when we are to have the entry into force of the Japan-U.S. trade agreement, as well as Japan-U.S. digital trade agreement, we will further galvanize the investment in the two sides, and also we’ll be able to deepen our economic relations. So once again, this will be a win-win outcome for Japan and the United States. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

(The agreement is signed.) (Applause.)

END 12:18 P.M. EDT

President Trump and Prime Minister Abe are essentially peas and carrots engaged in friendly economic competition.  The relationship between them is genuine warmth and respect. During their bilateral today President Trump praised the U.S-Japan announcement as big deal, adding it “took a lot of work to get it done.“

Abe has been my friend, POTUS said, adding that Japan – on his request – has been building their plants in the US. In Michigan, in Ohio.  Prime Minister Abe said: “Once again, I’d like to share with you my enthusiasm“ about this agreement. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We have some of our great farmers and ranchers and businesspeople in the room, and likewise Japan. And we have tremendous representatives — some of the biggest people anywhere in the world — what we’re going and the agreement that we just signed. And it’s an honor to have you with us. I thought you could join us for this meeting.

We’ll be talking about certain elements of business and trade, and it would be good to have you with us because you’ll give us some very good ideas.

We’re working on phase two already with Japan. I just want to thank Prime Minister Abe and all of your representatives for working so nicely. It’s a tremendous thing that just took place. And they won’t report it today; it gets lost with other fake news. But it’s still big. When you get back to your areas, you’re going to report it. That’s going to be the front-page news. That really is the real news.

So it’s a tremendous trade deal. It’s a very big trade deal. I want to thank Bob Lighthizer. I want to thank your counterpart. Congratulations. Great job. And took a lot of work to get it done for this particular week. This was a very important week to all of us.

But most importantly — and if you folks have anything to say — you’re the biggest human beings I’ve ever seen with the cowboys hats. (Laughter.) If you have anything to say, I would love to have your ideas.

Before I do that, I’d like to just introduce Prime Minister Abe, who’s been my friend, who has worked so well with us in so many ways. They’re spending a tremendous amount of money in our country also, building automobile factories, automobile plants.

Many of the great Japanese companies, at my request, are now building their plants in the United States, in Detroit, and very, very many other places. We’re all over Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina. We have many plants going up right now — not all from Japan, by the way, but many, many plants. Big ones going up in South Carolina, Florida. It’s been really amazing what’s happened. For years, we didn’t have an auto plant being built, and now we have many of them being built. So, it’s been terrific.

Mr. Prime Minister, perhaps you’d like to say a few things, but I want to — I really appreciate everything you’ve done. It’s really nice.

PRIME MINISTER ABE: (As interpreted.) Once again, I would like to share with you all my enthusiasm about the fact that, together, with President Trump, I could sign the Japan-U.S. statement, marking the final agreement of the Japan-U.S. trade negotiations that we have had so far.

As a matter of fact, in terms of the GDP, the United States is the world’s largest, number one economy, and Japan is the third-largest economy. And by having this first- and third-largest economies coming to the table and announcing this new agreement means that we will be able to have the very wonderful, positive impact on the global economy as a whole. So I do think that the newly agreed agreement will be something that we have to be proud of as a wonderful achievement.

So, since our last meeting on the margins of G20 Osaka Summit, back in June, within the period of the last three months, we have additional eight investment projects in the United States. And I’m very happy to update you about the new status of the Japanese investment. And also, over the last 12 months, we have a total of 31 investment projects in the United States.

And I do think that the achievements that we just announced will bring benefit, of course, to your people — American stakeholders, as well as American farmers and others. But also, this will bring benefit to Japanese farmers, Japanese investor representatives, workers, as well as consumers. So I do think that this agreement will bring benefits to both sides.

So, in this plenary session, I look forward to having a discussion with Mr. President on the current situation surrounding the Middle East and how we can work together to mitigate the tension. And also, I would like to cover other international challenges. And, of course, we would love to discuss the issue of North Korea.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Very good. We’ll do that.

You folks, I know you’re very happy, but do you have any suggestions for the future as far as your industry and your whole way of life go? Because you’ve — we’ve taken in a lot of purchases. A lot of money is coming your way. What other suggestions would you have? Would you have anything, while we’re all together?

Yes.

MR. SMITH: Mr. President —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.

MR. SMITH: — as the President-elect of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association — otherwise, the big guy in a cowboy hat —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right. That’s right.

MR. SMITH: — thank you so much for bringing this agreement to the table and bringing us what you said: a fair and reciprocal trade agreement. What do we want? That is all that we ever want. We asked for a level playing field, and you delivered that to us, and we thank you for that. And it’s a great day too for, we think, for the Japanese people. This will enable them to buy more American beef, more American agricultural products. It offsets —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And much better beef. Much better beef. (Laughter.) Not even a contest.

MR. SMITH: And we are — and American agriculture, here’s one industry that can help offset that trade deficit.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

MR. SMITH: And so this gives us that opportunity, it gives them that opportunity. They have been our largest export partner to date, even with higher tariffs and an uneven playing field. Today, you bring us that playing field we asked for.

In our world, in agriculture, making a commitment to somebody and living up to it is (inaudible). And you brought us that despite what sometimes the press wants to say about it. Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. Well, I’m glad you said that about the press. It’s true. (Laughter.)

You know, China is starting very big purchases also. I don’t know if you know that.

MR. SMITH: Yes. Very much so.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: But you see that China is back in the market. They’re starting big purchases of ag. Our farmers are very happy. Our ranchers are very happy. But that’s starting — including beef and including pork.

MR. SMITH: Absolutely.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: In particular, pork — they’re buying vast amounts. So, China has started that, and they wanted to let me know, and they have let me know a number of times. But more importantly, I heard from our farmers and ranchers that they’re seeing tremendous orders coming in from China. So that’s very good.

Anybody else have a question?

MR. DUVALL: Mr. President, Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Sure.

MR. DUVALL: We just want to say thank you so much. We want to thank the Japanese people and the delegations for leveling this playing field. And what we need in the future is more agreements like this all around the world.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah.

MR. DUVALL: And what we need is trade, and that’s what makes a rural America grow. But I want to also say to you that the farmers and ranchers of this country appreciate you standing up for us and standing up for the American people, and to continue to show your support for rural America. We appreciate it, and we look forward to continue work with you on that.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you. And you are doing a fantastic job representing the folks. And I will say this: The American farmer and rancher has been targeted by China, and they never once came to me and they said, “Sir, please make a deal. Just make any deal; get us back.” They never did. But I went to you, and I said, “How much money have you lost over the last two years?” And it was $12 million through Sonny, as you know. Sonny said — Secretary of Agriculture — he said, “Sir, last year was 12 years — $12 billion. And this year, it’s $16 billion.” And they’re paying us many, many, many billions of dollars in tariffs. And they’re eating it because they’ve devalued their currency. They’re pouring money in. They’ve really been eating the tariffs.

And we’ve took it — we’ve taken it out of those tariffs and we gave the farmers $12 billion for two years ago. And for last year, we gave $16 billion, divided up among the farmers. So, they’re even. I mean, I wanted to know, what was the number. That was the number. And we had, you know, tens of billions of dollars left over. Because it will be well over $100 billion pretty soon that we will have taken into our Treasury.

So out of the big numbers, we took back — we paid to the farmer. I don’t think there’s any other President ever in history that would’ve even thought of that. And the reason I did it is because you’ve been so loyal. Nobody says, “Oh, you’ve got to make a quick deal.” This doesn’t go quick, to win it. Now, China has got a lot of difficultly. They lost 3 million jobs. Their supply chains are broken up. And they want to make a deal, and we want to make a deal, and I think there’s a good chance we’ll make a deal.

But the American farmer and rancher, like you, are great patriots. You never came to me. Others come, “Oh, please, could you make a crummy deal? Just make any deal. We don’t care.” Farmers said, “Take your time. We’re suffering.” But I took the suffering away, in all fairness. But if I didn’t do that, you’d still be with me because you’re great patriots. So I want you to tell them that.

But we’re getting closer and closer. But in the meantime, with Japan, it’s been a great day. Thank you. Thank you.

MR. MARSHALL: Mr. President, Roger Marshall from Kansas, representing one of the largest agriculture-producing states in the country. This deal is huge for Kansas agriculture producers.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your business. We look forward to more opportunities to work with you.

The next thing that we need to work on is the USMCA agreement.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

MR. MARSHALL: You asked us, “What’s next?” That’s what’s on top of our mind right now.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know if Nancy Pelosi is going to have any time to sign it. That’s the only problem. (Laughter.)

We have USMCA. That’s a great point, Roger. And I don’t think Nancy Pelosi will have time. She’s wasting her time on a — you know, let’s use a word that they used to use a lot: a “manufactured crisis.” Remember when they came up with the word nobody ever heard of? And then every media group in the country used the same word that same day. Nobody ever heard of the word, in relation to what they were talking about. They said it was a “manufactured crisis.” Okay?

Well, they came up with a manufactured crisis, Roger. I don’t know whether or not they’re going to have time to do any deals. I don’t think they can do any deals.

You know, we were working on guns — gun safety. They don’t even talk — all they’re talking about is nonsense.

And we released something today that was fantastic. And, you know, you look at that — it was — it’s all fake stuff that the media makes up with the Democrats, which are their partners. The Democrats and the media are one in the same. They’re partners. So I want to thank you.

But I just don’t know. You know, [US]MCA — you could tell me, Bob Lighthizer: Are they going to get to take a vote? All they have to do is — the agreement is signed. It’s approved by Canada. It’s approved by Mexico. It’s a great trade deal — the greatest we’ve ever had. NAFTA was a horrible trade deal. It replaces NAFTA. We terminate NAFTA, and this takes over.

It’s phenomenal for farmers, it’s good for manufacturers, it’s good for everybody. Even the unions want it because they’ve always hated NAFTA. The unions want it. I don’t know that they’re ever going to get to a vote because they’re all fighting. The Democrats are all fighting with themselves. So, we’ll see. If it happens, it happens. Otherwise, when we take over the House next year, we’ll do it our way. And we’ll get it. We’ll make it even better.

Bob Lighthizer, do you have a comment on that — USMCA?

AMBASSADOR LIGHTHIZER: Well, I think that it will come up for a vote. When it comes up for a vote, I’m confident that it will pass. It’s 1.4 trillion dollars’ worth of trade and literally millions of American jobs.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: One of the biggest trade deals ever made. It’s a fantastic deal for our country. And, you know, it’s possible they won’t vote. I mean, I know these people much better than you do.

Go ahead. Yeah.

PARTICIPANT: The U.S. wheat —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: How tall is the man next to you? How tall are you?

MR. PADGET: Six-eight, sir. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And you weigh — I won’t ask you the weight, but you’re in good shape.

MR. PADGET: Three hundred.

THE PRESIDENT: You look like an ex-football superstar. Keep it up. (Laughter.) You eat a lot of beef, I assume. Right? (Laughter.)

MR. PADGET: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: You know, you should use him in an ad. (Laughter.)

All right, go ahead.

PARTICIPANT: U.S. wheat has dealt with China for — I mean with, I’m sorry, Japan for 70 years now. So 50 percent of the wheat that goes to Japan comes from the United States. So this is a tremendous trade deal for the U.S. wheat.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s great. Yeah. This is a great deal. This is a great day. They won’t report it. You won’t see any articles, but we — at least we know. But locally, you’re going to get great — you know, because locally, the press — you know, people don’t understand this, but locally, the press treats us very well. Nationwide, just ridiculous. They’re fake. But we have gotten — so when you go back to your local states, you’re going to get tremendous press on this because this is what they’ve wanted. They’ve wanted this really for a long time.

And I think Kansas is doing pretty well. Do you like this, man?

PARTICIPANT: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Here’s another man from Kansas, right? (Laughter.) How’s he doing? Do they love him in Kansas?

MR. MARSHALL: Next to you, sir, he is the popular person in Kansas. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He knows what to say. Hey, I like him. I like him. Anyway, anybody else have anything to say? Please.

MR. HARRINGTON: Mr. President, I’m Dave Harrington. I’m President of the National Pork Producers Council. I’ve never spent many days in New York, but this is the greatest day I’ve ever spent in New York.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Wow.

MR. HARRINGTON: Thank you and thank Prime Minister Abe for this agreement. And it gives so much opportunity to our 60,000 pork producers across this great country.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s great.

MR. HARRINGTON: And I can’t thank you for getting up and working hard every day.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And how are you doing with China? Because they’re coming in big. Tell me: How is pork doing with China?

MR. HARRINGTON: It’s just starting to turn around. We’re starting —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Are you seeing — are you seeing the big movement now?

MR. HARRINGTON: It’s starting to move right now.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: They’re going to need a lot.

MR. HARRINGTON: They’re going to need a lot. They’ve got some issues over there with African swine fever. And we’re standing ready to help them out.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So they are starting to come in and you can see that happening very big. How will that compare to Japan, in terms of — ultimately, where do you see China versus Japan in terms of buys?

MR. HARRINGTON: Well, Japan has always been our largest value market, one of our greatest customers. It’s hard to say, Mr. President. But I think that, because of the disease they have over there today, they’re going to need — they’re short in supply of pork. So I think there’s great opportunity.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, China is going to buy more pork than they’ve ever bought by far. I mean, they told me the numbers are going to be incredible. And they’re coming to you.

MR. HARRINGTON: And we’re going to help them out.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So, look, they want to make a deal. They’re trying to be nice. I was nice to them. You know, they had their — as you know, their 70th anniversary. And it was very important to them. Did you know? Their 70th. And it was October 1st; that’s when the tariffs get lifted. And they called and they said, “Could you possibly make it another day?” And we delayed it two weeks. So we did them a favor. But they’re doing us a favor. But they’re buying a lot of agricultural product and, in particular, where you are. Okay?

MR. HARRINGTON: Yes, sir.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you. That was a very nice statement. Anybody else? You guys all right? Yes. Please.

MR. SUYDAM: My name is Ryck Suydam. I’m a 12th-generation farmer from Somerset County, New Jersey. A lot of these folks here represent big ag. I’m a small ag. I’m a small farm — been there for 300 years. But all of this helps raise agricul- — it’s going to help me —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

MR. SUYDAM: — and a lot of small farmers all across this country. So we had to get the first one done. Thank you to Japan. And next, we need the USMCA, and then China.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.

MR. SUYDAM: So big ag — good. Small ag — good, too.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And we signed Korea, remember. You know, we did a big deal with South Korea. It’s a great trade deal. It’s already done. And it’s in action. And it’s had a very, very positive impact. It’s been very positive for us. And that was a great deal that we got done relatively quickly. But nobody talks about that one, you know? By normal standards, a big deal.

But Japan is going to be special. And this is my special friend. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you for being here. (Applause.)

Thank you very much, everybody.

END 1:02 P.M. EDT

The completely over-the-top response by a Deep State embed whistleblower and his/her political allies withing the administrative state now makes sense; it had nothing to do with Joe Biden.  President Trump asked President Zelenskyy about “Crowdstrike.”

(Page 3 – Source pdf)

To understand how important this is, we must remember the foundation for the entire Russian election interference narrative, ‘Muh Russia – writ large, is built on the claim Russians hacked the servers of the Democrat National Committee (DNC), and subsequently released damaging emails that showed the DNC worked to help Hillary Clinton and eliminate Bernie Sanders.

Despite the Russian ‘hacking’ claim the DOJ and FBI previously admitted the DNC would not let FBI investigators review the DNC server or cloud-based network.  Instead the original claim was that the DNC provided the FBI with analysis of a technical review done through a cyber-security contract with Crowdstrike.

According to the original FBI statements made by James Comey: Crowdstrike did the captured imaging of the DNC network (servers/cloud), then conducted analysis, then provided a report to the DNC with their findings; and that report was given to the FBI.  At least that was the original 2017 claim.  However, during court filings in the case against Roger Stone, the DOJ/FBI later admitted they never even saw the Crowstrike final report.

Lawyers representing Roger Stone requested the full Crowdstrike report on the DNC hack. When the DOJ responded to the Stone motion they made a rather significant admission. Not only did the FBI not review the DNC server or cloud data,  the FBI/DOJ never even saw the final Crowdstrike report.

(Source pdf)

The narrative around the DNC hack claim was always sketchy; many people believe the DNC email data was downloaded onto a flash drive and leaked.  Crowdstrike was a private contractor holding a strong conflict of interest over Clinton and DNC interests. With this FBI court admission the scale of sketchy increased exponentially.

There was, and still is, absolutely no evidence the DNC was “hacked” (WikiLeaks claims the information was an inside job of “leaking”), and even John Podesta admitted himself he was a victim of an ordinary “phishing” password change scam.

This admission meant the FBI and DOJ, and all of the downstream claims by the intelligence apparatus; including the December 2016 Joint Analysis Report and January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, all the way to the Weissmann/Mueller report and the continued claims therein; were based on the official intelligence agencies of the U.S. government and the U.S. Department of Justice taking the word of a hired contractor for the Democrat party….. despite their inability to examine the server and/or actually see an unredacted technical forensic report from the investigating contractor.

The entire apparatus of the U.S. government just took their word for it…

…and used the claim therein as an official position….

…which led to a subsequent government claim, in court, of absolute certainty that Russia hacked the DNC.

Think about that for a few minutes.

The full intelligence apparatus of the United States government is relying on a report they have never even been allowed to see or confirm; that was created by a paid contractor for a political victim that would not allow the FBI to investigate their claim.

The DNC server issue is foundation, and cornerstone, of the U.S. government’s position on “Russia hacking” and the election interference narrative; and that narrative is based on zero factual evidence to affirm the U.S. government’s position.

…”the government does not need to prove at the defendant’s trial that the Russians hacked the DNC”… (pg 3)

Ridiculous.

CTH has previously outlined how the December 29th, 2016, Joint Analysis Report on Russia Cyber Activity was a quickly compiled bunch of nonsense about Russian hacking.

The “Russian Malicious Cyber Activity – Joint Analysis Report” (full pdf here) is pure nonsense. It outlines nothing more than vague and disingenuous typical hacking activity that is no more substantive than any other hacking report on any other foreign actor.

This report might as well be blaming Nigerian fraud phone solicitors for targeting U.S. phone numbers.  Just because your grandma didn’t actually win that Nigerian national lottery doesn’t mean the Nigerian government, or representative of the Nigerian government were targeting grandma.

This JAR report is nothing more than a generalized, albeit techno-worded, explanation for how Nigerians, Indians, or in this case Russians, attempt to gain your email passwords etc., nothing more.  (more)

The JAR was followed a week later by the January 7th, 2017, Intelligence Community Assessment.   The ICA took the ridiculous construct of the JAR and then overlaid a political narrative that Russia was trying to help Donald Trump.

The claims within the ICA were/are completely silly, and manufactured specifically to present a political narrative intended to undermine President-elect Donald Trump.  The ICA was the brain-trust of John Brennan, James Clapper and James Comey.  NSA Director Mike Rogers would not sign up to the “high confidence” claims, likely because he saw through the political motives of the report.

[…] “And then you hear it’s 17 agencies. Well, it’s three. And one is Brennan and one is whatever. I mean, give me a break. They’re political hacks.”

“So you look at it — I mean, you have Brennan, you have Clapper, and you have Comey. Comey is proven now to be a liar and he’s proven to be a leaker.”

“So you look at that, and you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with that. Now, you’re not going to get into an argument. You’re going to start talking about Syria and the Ukraine.”

~ President Donald Trump

There’s no doubt the intended intelligence community outcome was to create internal confusion about the validity of the 2016 election and begin selling a narrative to undermine the incoming President-elect Trump administration.  No-one expected him to win; Trump’s victory sent a shock-wave through the DC system the professional political class were reacting to.

Trump was a threat, an existential threat to their entire livelihood, and Trump won.  Now the outgoing administration was in a state of panic; and the outlier co-dependent agents from that administration were similarly apoplectic with fear.

The outgoing administration needed to create something, some narrative, to block Trump from upending their entire political system.  They sold this ridiculous Russian Narrative to a gullible U.S. left-wing electorate, because the Obama administration -writ large- knew media would help them and millions of people who will buy into these fabrications.

Consider the December 2016 example from a Yahoo News article:

[…] The US intelligence community has concluded that a hack-and-release of Democratic Party and Clinton staff emails was designed to put Trump — a political neophyte who has praised Putin — into the Oval Office. (link)

Was the ICA document, the analysis that forms the cornerstone of this narrative, a politically engineered report stemming from within a corrupt intelligence network?

The importance of that question is rather large.

All of the downstream claims about Russian activity, including the Russian indictments promoted by Rosenstein and the Mueller team, are centered around origination claims of illicit Russian activity outlined in the ICA.

If the ICA is a false political document…. then guess what?

Yep, the entire Russia narrative from the JAR and ICA is part of a big fraud.

The Intelligence Community Assessment (JAR and ICA) is dependent on a forensic analysis report from Crowdstrike.  Crowdstrike was a contractor for Clinton and the DNC; and the DOJ now admits they never saw the final Crowdstrike report or the underlying evidence upon which the report is based…

(New York Times) […] Mr. Barr wants to know more about the C.I.A. sources who helped inform its understanding of the details of the Russian interference campaign, an official has said. He also wants to better understand the intelligence that flowed from the C.I.A. to the F.B.I. in the summer of 2016.

During the final weeks of the Obama administration, the intelligence community released a declassified assessment that concluded that Mr. Putin ordered an influence campaign that “aspired to help” Mr. Trump’s electoral chances by damaging Mrs. Clinton’s. The C.I.A. and the F.B.I. reported they had high confidence in the conclusion. The National Security Agency, which conducts electronic surveillance, had a moderate degree of confidence. (read more)

Now do you see why the Deep Administrative State would be going bananas?

President Trump holds a Press conference following his United Nations meetings and discussions in New York City.  The anticipated start time is 4:00pm ET

UPDATE: Video and Transcript Added

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. Thank you.

Well, thank you all for being here. We’ve had a tremendous three days in New York, at the United Nations. I want to thank the Secretary-General. It’s been really incredible what’s been taking place. And he’s been a fantastic host to a lot of countries.

The meetings I had on a bilat, or close, were pretty staggering. I think we set a new record, but you’ll have to check that out. The — we met very, very — for pretty extended periods of time, either two and two, one on one, or just about at that level with Pakistan, Poland, New Zealand, Singapore, Egypt, South Korea, United Kingdom, India, Iraq, Argentina, Germany, Brazil, France, Japan, Ukraine, Honduras, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Other than that, we weren’t too busy over the last three days.

And, unfortunately, the press doesn’t even cover it. You know, we have — we’ve made some fantastic deals, like with Japan. For farmers, we have a tremendous trade deal with Japan. And that doesn’t get covered because you waste your time on nonsense.

The PMI manufacturers’ index has gone substantially up, which was an incredible — Larry Kudlow, wherever you may be — Larry, please stand up. He just gave me these numbers. And existing new home sales are through the roof. Just came out. Oil prices have gone down ever since the Saudi Arabia incident, and they’ve gone down very substantially. So, we have plenty of oil. But those numbers were surprising to you, Larry. And the extent of the increase. Is that a correct statement? So thank you, Larry Kudlow.

We think we’ll make this little announcement to you because — important. You know the so-called whistleblower? The one that didn’t have any first-class, or first-rate, or second-tier information, from what I understand. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself. But I’ve spoken with Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans — many of them — and we were going to do this anyway, but I’ve informed them — all of the House members — that I fully support transparency on the so-called whistleblower information, even though it was supposedly second-hand information, which is sort of interesting.

And other things have come out about the whistleblower that are also maybe even more interesting. But also insist on transparency from Joe Biden and his son Hunter on the millions of dollars that have been quickly and easily taken out of Ukraine and China. Millions of dollars. Millions and millions of dollars taken out very rapidly while he was Vice President. And I think they should have transparency for that. I’ve informed the Leader about that.

And additionally, I demand transparency from Democrats who went to Ukraine and attempted to force the new President, who I met and is an outstanding person. I just met a little while ago; some of you were there. I think he’s going to be outstanding. He got elected on the basis of corruption. He wants to end corruption in Ukraine, and I think that’s great.

But they went there and they wanted to force the new President to do things that they wanted under the form of political threat. They threatened him if he didn’t do things. Now, that’s what they’re accusing me of, but I didn’t do it. I didn’t threaten anybody. In fact, the press was asking questions of the President of Ukraine. And he said, “No pressure.” I used the word “pressure.” I think he used the word “push,” but he meant pressure, but it’s the same thing. No push, no pressure, no nothing. It’s all a hoax, folks. It’s all a big hoax.

And the sad thing about this hoax is that we work so hard with all of these countries — and I mean really hard. This has been — I’ve been up from early in the morning to late in the evening, and meeting with different countries all for the good of our country, and the press doesn’t even cover all of this. And it’s disappearing — it’s really disappointing also to those countries that are with us and spend so much time with us.

So, we want transparency. We’ve informed Kevin McCarthy about transparency. And we said, “Vote for it.” So I think you’ll have close to 100 percent of the Republican votes, I hope.

And it got almost no attention, but in May, CNN reported that Senators Robert Menendez, Richard Durbin, and Patrick Leahy wrote a letter to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were “critical.” In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake and that if they didn’t do the right thing, they wouldn’t get any assistance. Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar? Doesn’t that sound familiar?

And Chris Murphy — who I’ve been dealing with on guns — you know, so nice. He’s always, “Oh, no, we want to work it out. We want to work it out.” But they’re too busy wasting their time on the witch hunt. So, Senator Chris Murphy literally threatened the President of Ukraine that, if he doesn’t do things right, they won’t have Democrat support in Congress. So you’re going to look all of this up.

One other thing — I’m just going off of certain notes and elements of what we’ve been doing over the last three days, but this just came up a few minutes ago: The “Amazon-Washington Post” just put out a fake article that Acting Director of National Intelligence, Joseph Maguire — who I’ve gotten to know, and he’s a tough cookie — and I was surprised; I was shocked to hear this — was going to quit, blaming the White House for something that they wouldn’t let him talk openly, freely. And I was shocked because I know Joe, and he’s tough. A tough guy.

And I was really surprised to hear he was going to quit. Before I could even either talk to him or talk to anybody else, he put out a statement — I didn’t speak to Joe yet — but he said, “At no time have I considered resigning my position.” In other words, the story in the Washington Post was a fake.

“At no time have I considered resigning my position since assuming this role on August 16, 2019. I have never quit anything in my life, and I am not going to start now. I’m committed to leading the intelligence community to address the diverse and complex threats facing our nation.” That’s from the Acting Director of National Intelligence, a very good man, Joseph Maguire.

So we’re having a great period of time. Our country is the strongest it’s ever been economically. Our numbers are phenomenal. Wilbur, thank you. And Larry. Everybody. The numbers are phenomenal. Our economy is the strongest in the world. We’re the largest economy in the world.

Had my opponent won, we would be second right now because China was catching us so rapidly, we would’ve been second by this time. And unless somebody does a very poor job as President, we’re going to be first for a long way, because we’ve picked up trillions and trillions of dollars in value and worth of our country, and China has lost trillions and trillions of dollars, and millions of jobs, and their supply chain. And they want to make a deal.

This year, America came to the United Nations stronger than we have ever been before: Since my election, the United States has not only brought our economy to a level that we have never seen, the most jobs that we’ve ever had — you know you’ve heard me say it many times — African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, the best unemployment numbers we’ve ever had. And the most and best employment numbers: 160 million — very close to that number — in jobs. We’ve never been anywhere close.

Wages are up, and inequality is down. Something that people don’t like writing about. But wages are up. I used to speak during the campaign, and I’d talk about wages where people were making less money three years ago than they were making 21 years, 22 years ago, and they’d have two jobs and three jobs. When I say “three years ago,” I’m talking into the area sometime prior to the election. And they were doing very badly. And now, for the first time in many years, wages are up and employment is up, and unemployment is down. And it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

In a week of active and ambitious diplomacy here at the United Nations, America renewed our friendships. We advanced our values greatly and made clear to everyone that the United States will always defend our citizens to promote prosperity.

I met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at length, of the United Kingdom, continuing our discussions on a magnificent, new bilateral trade deal. So we’ll see what happens with respect to Brexit, but I suspect we’ll have a fantastic deal with the UK. It should be much bigger than it has been over the last number of years. Over the last 20 years, frankly. It should be a much bigger deal.

That’s true with many countries. We’re going to have much bigger trade deals with a lot of countries that have an opportunity to come. And they all want to do business with the United States, especially now.

Earlier today, I stood alongside Prime Minister Abe of Japan — a friend of mine, a great gentleman. Had a great reelection. And we signed a terrific new trade deal, which tremendously helps our farmers and ranchers, and technology. The technology companies are really big beneficiaries.

We also held very productive conversations with leaders of Pakistan, India. And many other nations are achieving stronger ties of fair and reciprocal trade. And with respect to Pakistan and India, we talked about Kashmir. And whatever help I can be, I said — I offered, whether it’s arbitration or mediation, or whatever it has to be, I’ll do whatever I can. Because they’re at very serious odds right now, and hopefully that’ll get better.

You look at the two gentlemen heading those two countries — two good friends of mine — I said, “Fellas, work it out. Just work it out.” Those are two nuclear countries. They’ve got to work it out.

This week, we also made incredible strides on national security with President Duda of Poland. We signed a joint declaration advancing defense cooperation. And, crucially, Poland has agreed to put up 100 percent of the money — something I don’t think you’ve ever heard said before. But they’re going to put up 100 percent of the money, of hosting additional U.S. military personnel that we’ll be taking from various other countries. We won’t have more over; we’ll have — we’ll be moving them around.

Poland is building us phenomenal new facilities. They’re spending everything, and they’re going to really do a job. But we’ll be moving a few thousand soldiers, and Poland will be paying that for it.

Together with Prime Minister Lee of Singapore, I signed an important agreement extending our defense cooperation. This hasn’t been changed in many years. Then, yesterday, I met with prospective members of the Middle East Strategic Alliance, which is a group that I know very well; I know all of them. And through this effort, the nations of the Middle East are taking more responsibility for securing their own future and their own neighborhood. And they’re also reimbursing us and paying us for a lot of the military work that we incredibly do.

But because we’re now independent, energy-wise — we’re energy independent — we have very few boats going over the Middle East. We used to have them going through the Straits all the time. And you probably noticed that, every once in a while, they go after somebody else’s. They haven’t gone after ours yet. If they do, they’ve get big problems. But we have very few boats going over there. They were saying the other day, they’ve never attacked an American boat, and I’m not asking for trouble. But if they do, they know they have far bigger trouble. But then they said, “But, you know, we don’t see very many American boats over here anymore.”

This week also brought extraordinary progress to nations of our own hemisphere. In recent days, we’ve achieved historic asylum cooperation agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. We were with El Salvador today. A great young gentleman became the President. He’s strong and tough, and he’s taking care of crime. He was really something today. I was very impressed with him. And likewise with Honduras, who we met. We signed a cooperation agreement with both, and also with Guatemala.

We’re working with our partners in Central America to ensure that asylum-seekers can pursue relief as close to their home countries as possible. That’ll make a tremendous difference at our southern border.

And Mexico — I have to say, President Lopez Obrador has been outstanding — an outstanding partner. And he’s doing a great job in Mexico. The cartels are way down, and the numbers — our Secretary is here now — the numbers are way down. Way, way down. And we’re doing that without the help of Congress, meaning the Democrats in Congress who won’t give us a single vote to take care of loopholes.

We have loopholes that are so horrible, and it would be so easy to fix. And they know they should be fixed but they don’t want to do because they don’t want to give Trump any credit because it’s all about the election. That’s all they care about. They don’t care about our country; they care about the election.

And the sad part is, with all of the tremendous work that we’ve done this weekend — whether it’s Secretary Mnuchin or Secretary Pompeo, who had some outstanding, outstanding meetings — with all of this tremendous work that we’ve done, the press doesn’t even cover it. And the Democrats did this hoax during the United Nations week. It was perfect. Because this way, it takes away from these tremendous achievements that we’re taking care of doing, that we’re involved in in New York City, at the United Nations.

So that was all planned, like everything else. It was all planned. And the witch hunt continues, but they’re getting hit hard in this witch hunt, because when they look at the information, it’s a joke. Impeachment? For that? When you have a wonderful meeting, or you have a wonderful phone conversation?

I think you should ask. We actually — you know, that was the second conversation. I think you should ask for the first conversation also. I can’t believe they haven’t, although I heard there’s a — there’s a rumor out they want the first conversation. It was beautiful. It was just a perfect conversation.

But I think you should do that. I think you should do, and I think you should ask for VP Pence’s conversation because he had a couple conversations also. I can save you a lot of time. They’re all perfect. Nothing was mentioned of any import other than congratulations. But the word is that they’re going to ask for the first phone conversation. You can have it anytime you need it. And also Mike Pence’s conversations, which were, I think, one or two of them. They were perfect. They were all perfect.

It’s very sad what the Democrats are doing to this country. They’re dividing. They’re belittling. They’re demeaning our country. So many leaders came up to me today and they said, “Sir, what you go through, no President has ever gone through. And it’s so bad for your country.” People laugh at the stupidity of what they’ve asked for. And here we could do asylum. We could do all of these different things so easily. We could do asylum quickly. We could do loopholes; get rid of them.

Instead, we actually made deals with Mexico and with Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras. And we’re doing it with them instead of with our Congress, but we’re doing it. We get it done.

The wall is being built, by the way. It got little coverage. I went to the border. It’s going up in New Mexico. It’s going up in Arizona. It’s going up in California, believe it or not. They really wanted that wall in California, in San Diego. As soon as it was completed, they said, “We don’t want a wall.” They were begging me for a wall. I should take it out and move it to another location.

We were with the Governor — spoke to him a lot — but the Governor of Texas, Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Attorney General of Texas, the senators of Texas — Cornyn, Ted Cruz. And we’re building an incredible wall. That’s going to — number one, it’s going to look great. It’s going to be virtually impossible to cross unless you’re one hell of a mountain climber. It’s very tough. It’s going to be very tough to get people and drugs over those walls, because they’re the real deal.

I went to the Secretary of Homeland security, and he got all his people together. I said, “Give me four walls — your optimum. Every single thing included.” And they give me 20 percent less, 20 percent less, and 20 percent less — meaning, less cost. They came back, they said, “This is the wall, sir. This would be the best.” We have the panels on top, which are anti-climb panels. I don’t know if you noticed the steel on top. We have a different design for a different area, but this anti-climb is very tough. They’ve — we had people going out and real climbers telling us which is the toughest to climb. But these are anti-climb panels. Very tough to get across.

And the wall is going up, many miles a week. And we hope to have over 400, but maybe as much as 500 miles, which we’ll pretty much do it because you have a lot of natural barriers; you have mountains, you have really rough rivers. You have some really rough land that you can’t cross very easily. So they serve as their natural walls. But we — we’ll have, we think, over 400, but we could even have 500 miles.

To combat the malice, corruption of both the Venezuelan and Iranian dictatorships, today I issued proclamations suspending the entry into the United States of senior regime officials and their families.

And further, to promote American values, on Monday I was proud to be the first President in history to host a meeting at the United Nations —

I’m so surprised; first President for this. I can’t believe that I’m first. I spoke to Franklin Graham about that. I can’t believe it.

— at the United Nations, on protecting religious freedom and liberty for people around the world.

While some partisans and unelected bureaucrats in Washington may choose to fight every day against the interests and beliefs of the American people, my administration is standing up for the American people like no administration has in many, many years. You forgot the American people. You totally forgot the American people.

This week, every — every week, I really can say — of my presidency, we’re standing up for American prosperity, American security, and the American way of life. And together, with our friends and partners, we’re building a more peaceful, prosperous, and promising future.

We have a tremendous relationship now with a lot of nations that are very happy with what’s going on, and that includes in South America, where they’ve been so helpful, where nobody thought this would be possible. The relationship with Mexico is an example, or El Salvador, or Honduras, or Guatemala. Nobody even knew about it. Yet, we sent them hundreds of millions of dollars, and all we got back was caravans of people pouring in.

We had tremendous — we had tremendous — it was terrible. And we’ve got that stopped, and the countries are now helping us. And we stopped those payments, by the way. We don’t pay those countries that money anymore. But I will tell you, if they’re as good as they seem to be — they’re really doing a job on crime and stopping the wrong people from leaving and coming to the United States — we’ll be helping them a lot with economic development projects and other things.

So, with that, we had a tremendous three days. It was beautiful to see. Made a lot of new friends. I read you a list of all the countries I saw pretty much one on one. And it’s been very busy, but it’s been very, very fruitful.

So we could take a couple of questions. I’d love some questions on some of the things that we accomplished at UNGA, instead of the witch hunt — the phony witch hunt questions, which I know that’s what you want to ask because it’s probably better for you, but it’s not better for the country.

So maybe we’ll take a few — a few questions. Please.

Q Thank you, Mr. President. You suggested that you didn’t do anything wrong in the course of your conversations with the Ukrainian President. But can you explain to the American people why it is appropriate for an American President to ask a foreign leader for information about a political rival, and what you would have said if you discovered that Barack Obama perhaps had asked a foreign leader for information about you before your campaign for the presidency?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. Well, that’s what he did, isn’t it, really? When you think about it.

Look, that whole witch hunt was started, and hopefully that’ll all come out. But there’s been some fantastic books written that just came out — whether you will look at Gregg Jarrett, or McCarthy’s book that just — just came out recently, and so many other books. And a lot of books are coming out. When you start reading those books, you see what they did to us. What they’ve done to this country is a disgrace. They’ve hurt this country very badly. And no other President should have to go through what I’ve gone through.

The President — the new President of Ukraine is looking to stop corruption. There’s a lot of corruption going on, and there was corruption. I just told you about senators that threatened him with votes and no money coming into Ukraine if they do things. That’s really what people are trying to say that I did, but the only difference is I didn’t do it. You take a look at that call; it was perfect. I didn’t do it. There was no quid pro quo, but there was with Biden and there was with these senators. And they threatened. They said, “You do this, you do that. We’re not going to give you votes.” That’s — that’s the real deal.

So we have an honest group of people that have been maligned. And, you know, it’s — a lot of people say I’ll do even better. I’m very happy. Yesterday, I guess we had a 53 poll, and a lot of people say add 10 points to anything. Anybody voting for Trump, you can add — anytime you get a poll, you can add 10 points or 7 points or 6 points. Take it any way you want. But I don’t know if I consider that to be a compliment, but in one way it is a compliment.

And I guess that’s what happened in the last election: Far more people came to vote than anybody thought possible.

Q So why should the American people then be comfortable with an American President asking a foreign leader for information about an American citizen?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think you can look at your senators and you can look at Biden, and you can look at all these other people. But what we’re looking for is corruption. An investigation started, called the “Russian witch hunt,” affectionately. And it was a total phony scam. It was set up by people within the government to try and stop somebody from getting elected.

And after that person — namely, me — won, and convincingly won at 306 to 223 in the Electoral College — which, by the way, when you run a race, if you’re running electoral — you know, if you go by the College, Electoral College, that’s a much different race than running popular vote. And it’s like the hundred-yard dash or the mile. You train differently.

And I can’t help it that my opponent didn’t go to Wisconsin and should have gone much more to Michigan and Pennsylvania and other places. But that’s the way it is. We won election, convincingly. Convincingly. And then you had the text message on, “Well, if she doesn’t win, we’ve got an insurance policy.” How bad was that? You know the insurance policy? That’s sort of what has been taking place over the last number of years — the insurance policy.

No, there are a lot of very dishonest people. We’re the ones that played it straight. And you know what? The millions of people out there that are looking at what’s going on — those people understand it. They see it. And they think it’s disgusting. And our people are being hurt, and our country is being hurt.

When Nancy Pelosi allows her position to be taken over by radical far-left socialists, or worse, that’s pretty bad. That’s pretty bad — especially when the senators and all of these other people have actually done what they’re accusing me of doing, which I didn’t do.

I’m going to have Mike Pompeo say a couple of words. I’m going to have Steve Mnuchin say a couple of words. And then we’ll do a couple of more questions.

SECRETARY POMPEO: Mr. President, I thought I’d start by talking about Iran. We had a productive week. We saw the Europeans take a position with respect to the attacks that took place in Saudi Arabia, making clear this was Iran, just as President Trump and I had been saying, and have now joined us in saying that the existing JCPOA framework is not going to work, it’s not going to solve the world’s problems, it’s not going to create Middle East stability.

Then we had a good set of meetings with our Middle East allies as well. The President joined for a meeting of the GCC where we talked again about how we can help deter. We want peace. We want a peaceful resolution with the Islamic Republic of Iran. We’re hoping we can get that way. In the end, it’ll be up to the Iranians to make that decision, whether they’ll choose violence and hate — and the President said in his speech yesterday to the General Assembly — if their bloodthirst will continue.

We hope that’s the (inaudible). We hope we can get the opportunity to negotiate with them and get an outcome that’s good for both of them, for the United States, to make sure that they never have a nuclear weapon and that they can’t foment their terror with ballistic missiles and in the way they have all around the world. And I think we made real progress uniting the world on that here over these past few days. Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

SECRETARY MNUCHIN: As Secretary Pompeo said on Iran, we had very good discussions with all of our allies about the sanctions program, which is the maximum pressure, and unity on the sanctions program. The Europeans made it very clear they would not do anything without our consent.

And then, on the economic front, we had the entire economic team here for all the meetings: Secretary Ross, Larry Kudlow; Ambassador Lighthizer just left to go back to D.C. He’s working hard on trying to get USMCA passed. But we had a lot of productive discussions. The Japanese trade deal and a lot of discussions on investing in the U.S., more jobs in the U.S., and more trade. Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Okay. Go ahead, please.

Q Thank you. Kristina Partsinevelos, Fox Business. I want to focus on markets, because I’ll leave it to everybody else to talk about impeachment. Markets reacted positively after you spoke about China, and that it would happen sooner than — rather than unexpectedly.

Yet, you have the Foreign Minister of China saying that they have no intention of, you know, unseating the United States. And yet, they’re investing heavily in infrastructure and military.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Not anymore, maybe.

Q But what — what is different this time, though?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And maybe they just say that, Kristina.

Q What is different this time, though? The fact that you’re saying it’s progressing.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Oh, I just think it’s progressing. I think they want to make a deal. They’re losing their supply chain. You know, it’s getting killed.

Q Do you have something specific?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t want to say that. But I can tell you that these two men — and, in this case, more specifically, Steve, we’re having some very good conversations.
And I guess it’s next week that a group is coming in and the week after. So we have a lot of — we have a lot of talks going on, and also by telephone.

They want to make a deal. And you know why they want to make a deal? Because they’re losing their jobs, and because their supply chain is going to hell. And companies are moving out of China, and they’re moving to lots of other places, including the United States. And that’s not good; that’s far worse than they thought.

And, by the way, in the meantime, we’re taking in billions and billions of dollars in tariffs. We’re taking in tremendous numbers in tariffs. And we’re helping our farmers who got targeted. Now, by the way, China is starting to buy our agricultural product again. They’re starting to go with the beef and all of the different things — pork. Very big on pork.

But if you look and if you see — and they actually put out, I think, a statement. But they’re starting, very heavy, to buy our ag again. No, they want to make a deal. And they should want to make a deal. The question is: Do we want to make a deal?

Q If USMCA doesn’t pass through Congress, is that it for NAFTA?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, that would be a shame. Well, I don’t want to answer that question, but you know how I feel about NAFTA. I think NAFTA is the worst trade deal ever made, although I also happen to think World Trade Organization was not one of the greats. Not one of the greats. That was the creation of China, which went like a rocket ship from the day they signed. It was — it was terrible.

But, no, we’re going to find out. That’s going to be a very interesting question, with Nancy and Chuck and all of these people focusing on the witch hunt because they can’t beat us at the ballot. They can’t beat us at the ballot. And they’re not going to win the presidential. We’re having great polls. We have internal polls that are — Ohio, Iowa. Pennsylvania is looking good. North Carolina.

We just won two races that a lot of people — we thought we were going to lose both of those races. One was down 17 points three weeks before the race, and he ended up winning by a substantial margin — by a substantial margin. And — Dan Bishop.

And then we had a second race, as you know, and he was up one or two points and ended up winning by — what was it? Twenty-five points or some incredible — I’ll ask you folks because I don’t want to be inaccurate. Otherwise, I’ll have a front-page story: “We have breaking news. Trump exaggerated.”

But he won by many, many points. And he was leading by maybe two, maybe three, but he won by — in the twenties. So it’s — it’s been — so we’re looking great in North Carolina, looking great in Florida.

And you had one or two congressmen Democrats say, “Listen, we can’t beat them at the election, so let’s impeach him.” Right? Didn’t you hear — Al Green. That’s a beauty. He’s a real beauty, that guy. But he said, very distinctively, it’s all — it was all over the place. I don’t know — they’re trying to lose that tape, I guess.

But he said, “We can’t…” Essentially, he said, “We can’t beat him. Let’s impeach him.” That’s pretty — that’s pretty dangerous stuff.

Steve, go ahead.

Q Thank you, sir. You had expressed some concerns about the precedent of releasing the transcript.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. I don’t like it.

Q Why did you go ahead and do it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Because I was getting such fake news, and I just thought it would be better. And now they’re asking for the first phone conversation, and I’ll release that too, if it’s important to you. But they’re asking for — because I had a conversation previous — on a previous election plateau that he had hit. The — the current president hit a couple of different plateaus. And I spoke to him, previous to the call that we released, which was a very innocent call — very, very innocent; very nice call.

And as he said, we were — “I wasn’t pushed. I wasn’t pushed,” meaning pressured. He wasn’t pressured at all.

But I don’t like the concept of releasing calls because when a president or prime minister, or a king or a queen, calls the United States, you don’t like to say, “Gee, we’re going to release your call to the fake-news media, and they’re going to make you look like a fool.” What happens is, it’s hard to do business that way. You want to have people feel comfortable.

So I hated it, but you folks were saying such lies, such horrible things about a call that was so innocent and so nice. In fact, Lindsey Graham said to me, when he read it — it was very interesting. He’s a good man. He’s a smart man. He said, “I can’t believe it. I never knew you could be this, really, nice to a person.” He said, “I cannot believe it. You were so nice. I didn’t think you had that in you to be so nice.”

I was nice. I’m nice to a lot of people. People don’t understand that. But I was. But he was shocked that it was such a nice call. There — he said, “There is nothing here.” And all fair people say the same thing.

But I don’t like the precedent, Steve. I don’t like it where you’re dealing with heads of state and to think that their call is going to be released. But I felt that — and, you know, we spoke to Ukraine about it. Mike actually called up his counterpart, and we spoke to Ukraine about it because we want to — because they could have been — if that they didn’t want us to do it, we would not have done it.

But he actually said, “That was a very innocent call. You can release it all you want.”

Q And are you now braced for long impeachment saga?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I thought we won. I thought it was dead. It was dead. The Mueller report — no obstruction, no collusion. You look at all of the things that happened.

Corey Lewandowski was fantastic the other day, as a person that they have been tormenting. You look at all the people that they’ve tormented, all the legal fees. People came here with bright eyes; they wanted to make life so great for other people. And they left where they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that they didn’t have. And it’s a sad thing. What these Democrats have done to ruin lives is so sad.

I’ve seen people with only good intention. They came to Washington because they wanted to make the United States and the world a better place. And they went home — they were dark. They got hit by Mueller’s subpoenas. I think there were 2,500 subpoenas, or some ridiculous number. Five hundred people were interviewed, and yet, they don’t interview Joe Biden and his son.

If you’re Democrat, you have automatic protection. That’s years and years of people putting in certain people into positions. But when you look at all of the — all of the trauma that these fakers, of course — and the press — look, the press is — much of the press is not only fake, it’s corrupt. These stories they write are corrupt; they’re so wrong. And they know that.

You know, it used to be — I used to get great press until I ran for politics. I mean, I used to be the king of getting good press. I was very good at it. And I got good. I mean, they covered me well for what — otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be here.

And once I ran, I said, “Boy, this is incredible.” But if you see the way they treat my family — used to be treated great. My family worked so hard. The people that work with me — these people — all of these people, they work so hard. They’ve done such a good —

Look, we have the greatest economy we’ve ever had. We have a military — two and a half trillion dollars. We’ve rebuilt our military. You don’t hear the vets complaining. We got Choice approved. It couldn’t be approved.

But when you see what happened with the viciousness, and when you see little Adam Schiff go out and lie and lie and stand at the mic — smart guy, by the way — stand at the mic and act like he’s so serious. And then he goes into a room with Nadler, and they must laugh their asses off. They must laugh their asses off.

But it’s so bad for our country. People have said — Rush Limbaugh — great man; Sean Hannity said it. A lot of people have said it. Mark Levin. They said they don’t know if one man anywhere in the world, with all the men they know — or woman — that could handle what I’ve had to handle.

And I think that’s true, but I handle it. To me, it’s like putting on a suit.

All right, how about one more question? A question on the economy. A question on the economy.

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Q Hi, Mr. President. VPItv from Venezuela — Caracas, Venezuela.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Good. Good. Wow.

Q Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: How are you doing?

Q We made it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: How are you doing over there?

Q Pretty bad. Our situation is pretty bad.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yeah. I would say “pretty bad.” Yeah. Sad.

Q Yeah. But we are fighting.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: And it was one of the great countries and one of the richest countries not so long ago — 15 years ago. It’s incredible.

Q But we are going to make it.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right. I agree with that. And we’re helping you.

Q Yeah.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re helping you.

Q Yeah, I know. And thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go ahead.

Q I have two questions —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go ahead.

Q — to take advantage of this. Maduro traveled to Russia and Diosdado Cabello to North Korea — two of the most antagonist nations in the U.S. interests. What can be done to contain this? What are they looking for in that country? And because the special envoy, Mr. Abrams, said that the Russians are willing to negotiate it. This is one question.

And the other: Mr. President, you say that the socialists is one of the biggest challenges, you said yesterday in the United Nations. But the region is far from safe. Maduro is still a dictator, full in power. (Inaudible) in Argentina and Brazil are on their (inaudible) about the socialist and populist. Are you worried about it?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I just say that socialism will never happen in the United States. It can’t happen in the United States. And Venezuela — unfortunately, I have to use your country as the example of what socialism can do, how it can tear the fabric of a country apart. Because I know a lot about Venezuela.

I’ve had many, many friends of mine come from Venezuela. They live — many in Miami — a certain section of Miami, I won’t mention the name because they’ll say I’m thinking about my business, and I’m not. But they are fantastic people and they like your President. They voted overwhelmingly for me. They like what I’m doing for Venezuela.

We have Venezuela very much in our hearts and very much in our sights. And we’re watching it very carefully. And you know what I would say? We’re giving millions and millions of dollars in aid — not that we want to, from the Maduro standpoint, but we have to because, on a humanitarian — people are dying. They have no food. They have no water. They have no nothing. They’re dying. No medicine. Their hospitals are closed or — or don’t even have electricity. It’s so sad to see.

Let me just say that we have it under control. We are watching it very carefully. And we’re going to be very, very —

Q Russia (inaudible) —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re — we’re watching it very carefully, including other countries that may or may not be playing games. We’re watching it very closely.

Q But, you know, if Russia is talking with the USA or Guaidó, what can you tell — about us?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Just put this in the back of your mind: It’s all going to be fine. We know everything that you said, and it’s all going to be fine. We’re very much involved. We very much know what’s going on, and we’re very much involved. Okay?

Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.

WH Livestream Link –  Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business Livestream Link

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This is too funny.  Serendipitous timing. President Trump is holding a bilateral meeting with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the same day the transcript of the call between both leaders has been released.  There are multiple media outlets streaming the upcoming meeting.  Trump and Zelenskyy meet at 2:15pm ET, links below:

Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business Livestream – CNBC Livestream Link

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Good grief, talk about a nothingburger – this phone call is fine. Here’s the transcript of the phone call between President Trump and President Zelenskyy.

[White House] President Donald J. Trump has released a declassified, unredacted transcript of his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from July 25th, 2019. The transcript can be read HERE.

The political planets are aligned to provide a considerably interesting day today.

If events happen as outlined in recent media reports, the White House will release the transcript of a call (underpinning a hearsay whistleblower complaint) between U.S. President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine (pictured below).

Additionally, the Intelligence Community Inspector General is expected to release research documents from his office showing a concerning political motive behind the hearsay whistleblower; a person who complained about the Trump-Zelenskyy phone call while not actually hearing the call, or reading what the call content was all about.

Exactly when the call transcript and ICIG documents are going to be released is an unknown. President Trump has a 12:10pm bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  PM Abe is a very good friend of President Trump and together they have recently agreed to a set of sector specific trade deals; with more stuff in the works.

At 2:15pm things really get interesting, as President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will be holding their own bilateral meeting at the UNGA.  Media cameras are generally present for a short Q&A at the start of every Bilat, and obviously the #1 topic will be this mysteriously alarming phone call; with an opportunity for President Zelenskyy to address the U.S. political narrative therein.

At 4:00pm President Trump will be holding a press availability concluding the UNGA.

How far into the mud the predictably combative U.S. media will attempt to take this press conference is anyone’s guess given the unknown possibilities within the late morning & early afternoon….

Today, President Donald J. Trump hosted President Barham Salih of the Republic of Iraq. The two leaders discussed how best to enhance our already robust partnerships on issues such as security, trade, and energy. Specifically, President Trump highlighted his strong support for the continued fight against ISIS and all terrorist groups. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We’re glad to be joined by the President of Iraq and his representatives. And I will say that we’ve had a very good couple of meetings with Iraq. We’re doing well with Iraq. It’s been a very long and complicated but friendly relationship, especially over the last little while. I was in Iraq a little while ago, as you know. And it’s fascinating what’s taking place.

So we’re going to — we have a lot to talk about. There’s things to talk about that we can’t talk about in front of you, but we have a lot of good things to talk about. And you’re doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT SALIH: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you.

PRESIDENT SALIH: Thank you.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Please.

PRESIDENT SALIH: It’s an opportunity, Mr. President, to reaffirm our gratitude to the United States and the international coalition that has come to help us overcome the tyranny of ISIS and terrorism.

This was an amazing battle. And Iraqis were in the forefront of this battle, but your support has been absolutely crucial, and we appreciate it. Now, the task of rebuilding Iraq, reconstructing Iraq, affirming the sovereignty of Iraq, and being a partner in the neighborhood for a more stable Middle East is a hope and an aspiration that we look for the help of the United States and the help of the international community.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I understand. And it has been a great achievement. We took 100 percent of the caliphate from ISIS. And ISIS — now we have thousands and thousands of people that we’ve captured. These people have done a lot of destruction, not only in that area, in a lot of other areas. But, as you know, we have thousands of people. We’ll talk about that also because we’re going to have to do something — put them on trial, et cetera, et cetera.

But we’ve captured thousands of ISIS fighters and taken back 100 percent of the caliphate. And when I first became President, it was a mess. It was a big mess. And we — we all worked together and we got it done, but it was a great achievement, so we appreciate that. And we look forward to our discussion.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Q Thank you. Mr. President, good to see you. Iraq has declared that it won’t allow its territory to be used as a launching pad against its neighbors. Can you assure us that you can control all the rogue elements, especially with the (inaudible), especially that we have two rockets landing?

PRESIDENT SALIH: It’s our sovereign responsibility. It’s our sovereign responsibility to abide by our constitution, not — Iraq not to be used as a base for any threat against our neighbors. It is work in progress, and Iraq has been a constructive player in the neighborhood, trying to assure all our neighbors that the stability and sovereignty of Iraq is a common interest.

And a lot of things, in that regard, is happening, and I’m looking forward to talking to the President about it.

Q Mr. President, the French President just now said that it’s time to negotiate with Iran. Do you believe that the time is now to negotiate with Iran? And are you going to meet with him today?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, they would like to negotiate. We haven’t really worked that out. They’re here, we’re here, but we have not agreed to that yet. But they would like to negotiate. And it would certainly make sense, but we have not agreed to that yet.

Q Are you meeting with Mr. Macron?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: He’s also talking to us. A number of people are. So is Prime Minister Khan of Pakistan and a lot of people; Chancellor Merkel — just left Chancellor Merkel. And she’s very much involved. We have a lot of people involved. A lot of people would like to get us to the table. We’ll see what happens. But, so far, we have not agreed to a meeting.

Q President Trump —

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it?

Q Have you asked Prime Minister Khan to mediate with Iran?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, he’d like to do that, and we have a very good relationship. And there’s a chance that that could happen. But, no, I haven’t spoken. He actually asked me. He thought it would be a good idea to meet.

And we’re here. We’re in New York together. And we have the time to do it, although we’ve done a lot of bilats in the last two days. We’ve had tremendous success. I was treated very nicely on the speech. A lot of good reviews on what we had to say. And so, I appreciate that. The media was actually very good on the speech.

Q Mr. President, your reaction to Speaker Pelosi saying today that she is moving toward an impeachment announcement later this afternoon?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I haven’t heard this. Look, it’s just a continuation of the witch hunt. It’s the worst witch hunt in political history. We have the strongest economy we’ve ever had. We have the best unemployment numbers we’ve ever had. African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, lowest in history. Best numbers we’ve ever had. Our country is doing phenomenally well.

We have rebuilt our military to the tune of $2.5 trillion. We have the strongest military on Earth. If you look at the vets, if you look at any group, they’re doing fantastically well.

So the country is doing the best it’s ever done, and I just heard that she’d like to impeach. We also just had Rasmussen, as you heard, just came out with a poll. We’re at 53, and they say 53 plus maybe 10. A lot of people say that, because you add about 10 percent to the Trump polls because some people don’t want to talk; they just want to go out and do it, and they know what’s good.

Our country is doing the best it’s ever done. They’re going to lose the election and they figure this is a thing to do. This never happened where we’re in the election, and — I mean, if she does that, they all say that’s a positive for me, for the election. You could also say, “Who needs it?” It’s bad for the country. Then they wonder why they don’t get gun legislation done. Then they wonder why they don’t get drug prices lowered. Because all they do is talk nonsense. No more infrastructure bills. No more anything. All they do — that’s all they do.

You watch Jerry Nadler and Schiff — you know, Schiff has been doing this stuff for three and a half years. It’s the craziest thing anybody has ever seen.

And other countries — like today we’re with Iraq and we were with other countries during the day, and every one of them says how crazy it is. We have the strongest country in the world, the best economy we’ve ever had. And she’s talking impeachment. So I think that — and, by the way, she hasn’t even seen the phone call. The phone call was perfect. The call that wasn’t perfect and the words that weren’t perfect were Joe Biden with respect to his son. And his son takes away millions of dollars out of Ukraine, and millions of dollars out of China, and you don’t talk about that. It’s a real disgrace.

But the good news is, the voters get it. This is why they say it’s good for the election. But you know what? It’s bad for the country. What she’s doing is very bad — if it’s true. I can’t even believe that it’s true. How can you do this and you haven’t even seen the phone call?

The whistleblower, they say, was second-hand or third-hand. And it was reported — I have no idea who the whistleblower is. I guess I could find out. Maybe I couldn’t find out. But they say it was a very partisan person — the whistleblower. But it was second- or third-hand. Never heard the call.

But I have better than that. We have the whole transcript of the call, which will be released tomorrow. And comments will be put with respect. It was a perfect call. There was no quid pro quo, unlike Biden. There was no nothing. It was a perfect call. A very nice call. And, in fact, I thought this was very nice. Ukraine just came out. It made a very good statement. It was a very good call. There was no pressure put on them whatsoever.

Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.

END 3:39 P.M. EDT