A quarter billion here, a quarter billion there, and pretty soon we’re talking about Bigly money.  LOL  While T-Rex is achieving State Department spending reductions of 30%, Nikki Haley joins the ‘walking in a winner wonderland” party…

(USUN) Today, the United Nations agreed on a budget for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. ‎Among a host of other successes, the United States negotiated a reduction of over $285 million off the 2016-2017 final budget. In addition to these significant cost savings, we reduced the UN’s bloated management and support functions, bolstered support for key U.S. priorities throughout the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the UN system.

“The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known. We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked. This historic reduction in spending – in addition to many other moves toward a more efficient and accountable UN – is a big step in the right direction. While we are pleased with the results of this year’s budget negotiations, you can be sure we’ll continue to look at ways to increase the UN’s efficiency‎ while protecting our interests,” said Ambassador Haley.  (link)

PART I – As the year winds down there will be lots of reviews of all things political. Lists of shifts and outlined accomplishments will be compiled to either show the advances or declines depending on tribal affiliation of the pundit.

However, not many people ever ask the questions behind the “why”.  Why is there so much opposition to President Trump?

In the larger analysis, Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) proposition is a daily reminder that citizen inspired government can eliminate the decades-long notion of politics as a profession.

There are hundreds-of-thousands of people within the institutional system known as politics. Each member carving out a specialty and selling their expertise as necessary within the opaque organization known as government. From city council, through state legislature and into federal representation, the primary selling point of each participating member is to declare their operational skill within the institution.

Heck, the professional political enterprise is so accepted as ordinary you can even go to college and earn a degree in how to be a politician. Why?

Boil down government to it’s most basic of institutional objectives and the entire premise is about operating common systems to the benefit of the aggregate assembly. The only thing that changes is the scale of the assembled constituency, local, state or federal.

In the private sector success or failure is measured on competence in achieving the objective, usually financial growth.

In the public sector success or failure is measured in how effectively the individual retains the perception that governance is necessary.

When businessman Donald Trump arrived in Washington DC he represented a wrecking ball to a decades-long Potemkin village that only politicians can govern.

As a direct consequence, if Trump succeeds in solving problems or making things better he’s essentially embarrassing an entire profession; and fundamentally changing the dynamic.

Now, if your core purpose, and evaluation by your peers of success, was to convince people that only a specifically trained group of people could govern effectively, and along comes Trump and does it better than… well, see the problem?

If a team of little people showed up to the winter Olympics and easily won the bobsled competition because their physical stature meant they could remove half the weight of the sled; well, the next winter Olympic year the entire field of bobsled teams would be midgets…

…Then what happens to the ‘regular-sized‘ career bobsled professionals?

Never has their been a more brutally obvious intention on display, than with President Trump’s cabinet selections.  Toward the end goal of MAGA, President-Elect Trump assembled his cabinet; these would be the subject matter experts to whom he assigns specific responsibilities.

Now, unlike most ‘politicians’, the filter of cabinet selection qualification did not include political repayment for campaign support rendered.  Indeed, all previous political presidencies used cabinet positions to repay political favors; generally, it has always been thus.  However, for POTUS Trump the intensely mapped-out MAGA objective is the primary filter.  He was looking for results oriented ‘doer’s’ not politicians.

Within this cabinet, the level of competency and skill is stunning.

President Trump hired the most traveled business executive on the planet to be the COO of the administration.  He actually hired the Chief Executive of the largest private business in the world, a man running a multi-billion company with over 74,000 employees around the globe, to be the Secretary of State.

Knowing how energy development would be one of the pillars to the larger use of American economic leverage to ensure maximum use of economic leverage to gain geopolitical national security objectives, President-elect Trump hired Rex Tillerson away from Exxon Mobil.  Secretary Tillerson has been beyond consequential and effective in the year he’s running the State department.

With economics as the backbone to MAGA, President-elect Trump hires a the biggest apex predator, a contract killer amid the multinational business world, to be our Secretary of Commerce.  Billionaire Wilbur Ross is the guy all international financial people knew as the man they could contract to turn corporate coal into diamonds.

Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is as comfortable dancing through the fine print of international trade contracts like Fred Astaire gliding in a Viennese Waltz.  The man can make a billion from the contract text covered by the rim of his glasses while sipping tea.  If contracts were quarks, Wilbur Ross would be the maestro of particles.

Businessman Donald Trump faced hired contract killer Wilbur Ross once; only once. More than two decades before he hired him to be MAGA’s primary trade contract negotiator.

An odd duck within the international fiance world, who expanded his capital toward learning the machinations of Hollywood production, was considered a rain-main of sorts by those who tried to figure out his mental algorithms for currency exchange.

The guy looked like Clark Kent and used statistical analysis -to run mental algorithms through the prism of common sense- like no-one had ever seen.  That guy is Steven Mnuchin, and President Trump took Wall Street’s mild-mannered rain-man to be our Treasury Secretary.

Rain-Man Mnuchin scared the left-coast elites so much Hollywood made a move about their perception of him but they never credited the origin of the screenplay.  They titled the film simply “The Accountant“, and if you saw Ben Affleck character play out the role, you’ll immediately notice the parallel to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin (sans all the killing people with guns part). The Accountant’s brother? Yeah, that’s Gary Cohn right there.

Knowing China was the dominant threat to MAGA on the trade front the filter for USTR consideration would be depth of knowledge, scale of understanding the Chinese psyche, and willingness to confront an opponent that will never come to equitable terms.

That’s exactly why Robert Lighthizer is our combat wolverine United States Trade Representative.

Trump hired an eagle-scout, Navy SEAL, outdoors-man to be Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke; a life-long Georgia farmer to be Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue.  The list of exceptional qualifications goes on, but hopefully you see the larger picture.

The Trump Administration is a strategic assembly of the most inherently competent people every put together within a U.S. cabinet.   And yes, I do mean so much more so than even President Ronald Reagan was able to assemble.

All prior presidencies needed to balance politics with the assignment.  Political debts owed, to whom, what party, for what reason, etc. all of this was part-and-parcel of the prism of cabinet nominee selection.  But not Donald Trump.

For this administration there is one objective: Make America Great Again.  That’s the nucleus, the core, the central goal that radiates outward into the concentric circles of the cabinet and aggregate Trump administration.

That central objective, in combination with the competency currently in place to accomplish that mission, is why Donald J Trump is considered an existential threat to the system.

#MAGA

Things are getting increasingly interesting and simultaneously obvious.  Thursday night the Washington Post reported that FBI Director Christopher Wray had relieved FBI Chief Legal Counsel, James Baker, of his responsibilities within the department.

Attorney James Baker accompanied FBI Asst. Director “Andy” McCabe to the Tuesday congressional hearing with the House Intelligence Community.  Curiously, in addition to other lines of inquiry, during the questioning McCabe was asked about whether James Baker was authorized to speak to the media about the Steele Dossier and the underlying ‘counterintelligence’ operation.  Asst. Director McCabe responded that Baker would not be authorized to take such action.

Following the HPSCI hearing, republican committee leadership announced their plan to subpoena James Baker for further questioning.  [Keep in mind Baker was there.]  Two days later, at the Thursday Judiciary and Oversight Committee hearings, James Baker did not accompany Andrew McCabe.   Hours later, James Baker is removed from his responsibilities as legal counsel within the FBI.  Cause: ‘unknown‘.

Back in July, 2017, it was reported that James Baker was under a criminal investigation for leaking classified information from within the FBI, although the details of the leak content were unknown.  Politico today reports that James Baker has been identified as the likely source that released information about the Fusion-GPS/Christopher Steele “Russian Conspiracy Dossier” to David Corn of Mother Jones in October of 2016:

(Via Politico) House Republicans are investigating contact between the FBI’s top lawyer and a Mother Jones reporter in the weeks before the left-leaning outlet broke the first news story about the existence of a disputed dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and the Kremlin, according to two congressional GOP sources who described documents linking the two men.

The GOP sources said the documents — made available recently to lawmakers by the Department of Justice — revealed that James Baker, the FBI’s general counsel, communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election. Corn was the first to report the existence of the dossier on Oct. 31 and that it was compiled by a former high-level western spy.

[…]  Corn’s story indicated direct contact with Steele: “[A] former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump — and that the FBI requested more information from him,” he reported.

Corn then added that a “senior U.S. government official not involved in this case but familiar with the former spy,” told him that the agent “has been a credible source with a proven record of providing reliable, sensitive, and important information to the U.S. government.”

The news of Baker’s reassignment came just days after congressional Republicans began asking questions about his contacts with media.  (read more)

A couple of interesting points to remember here.

♦Less than a week after the July 2017 report of the investigation of James Baker, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats instructed Asst. DOJ AG Rod Rosenstein to create a new special unit inside the FBI and DOJ to target intelligence leaks.

04:30 …”The FBI has created a new counterintelligence unit to manage these [leak] cases”…

08:17 …”these National Security breaches do not just originate from within the Intelligence Community. They come from a wide range of sources within the government, including the Congress.”…

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Two days later, Sunday August 6th, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reiterated he was going to follow through on the investigative demand of AG Sessions and DNI Coats and again referenced a “new counterintelligence division within the FBI”.

00:50 …“we’re responding appropriately. We’re going to devote more resources, re-evaluate our procedures and make sure we investigate every one of those leaks in an appropriate way.”…

1:07 “We have seen a surge in referrals (of leaks). We’ve seen an increase in the number of leaks. And we’re going to respond appropriately and try to establish an effective deterrent. Criminal prosecution isn’t the only way to prevent leaks but it’s an important part of the solution.”…

1:43 “That significant increase has necessitated an increase in resources. And so we have re-prioritized our cases within the National Security Division, we’re providing appropriate supervision at a high level, we’ve created a new unit within the FBI to focus on those leaks, and we’re going to devote whatever resources are necessary to get them under control.”…

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♦All indications are that James Baker was/is part of the FBI/DOJ “small group”, the co-conspirators behind the 2016 plan to assist Hillary Clinton with her email investigation.  James Baker was one of the participants in the wording of the highly dubious exoneration script read by FBI Director James Comey:

Following the successful operation to cover for Hillary Clinton in the email investigation. The FBI/DOJ “small group” moved on to create the 2016 FBI counterintelligence operation known as the “Trump Project”.

The “Trump Project” was a thinly veiled political spying operation monitoring and wiretapping candidate Donald Trump with the use of weaponized FBI and DOJ FISA warrants.

April 2016: •Mary Jacoby, wife of Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, visits the White House.  •The Clinton Campaign and DNC then hire Fusion GPS to conduct ‘Opposition Research’, with a Russian emphasis.  •Fusion GPS then hires Nellie Ohr who specializes in Russian-centric counterintelligence.  •Nellie Ohr then contacts MI6 agent Christopher Steele to write a Russian Dossier.  A month later, May 2016: Nellie Ohr’s husband inside the DOJ, Bruce Ohr, is then working with FBI counterintelligence head Peter Strzok.  •The same month Strozk and the “small group” are crafting the exoneration letter. •By June 2016: Peter Strzok, Bruce Ohr and DOJ Attorney Lisa Page then apply for the first FISA warrant. •In July 2016 the official counterintelligence operation “The Trump Project” begins.

However, in the aftermath of the election they didn’t expect to lose, the “small group” behind the politicized operations shifted their efforts toward creating the Special Counsel Mueller Investigation, many of them remain there today.

James Baker is a key.  As a known friend and confidant of both James Comey, Andrew McCabe and Robert Mueller, Baker would have been one of the primary FBI investigative and legal resources used to guide and assist the Special Counsel with who to place on his team.  The goal of the “small group” was/is to shield their prior activity from sunlight.

As time has progressed, and the plot details have become evident, it is increasingly clear the entire purpose of creating Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe was not to investigate some nefarious Russian election interference; but rather with a Trump victory the same people who weaponized the FBI and DOJ to conduct the “Trump Project” needed control. The “small group” needed a shield or firewall to protect them from sunlight. The Mueller probe is that shield.

Those who are seeking answers to the most critical questions are now running into the officials within the scheme using the Mueller probe as a defensive shield so they do not have to answer investigative questions from congress. This motive is now the primary purpose and benefit of the Mueller probe.

With hindsight it is now clear why the Democrats, the intelligence operatives, and their media allies were so adamant a Special Counsel probe be initiated. They planned to use Mueller’s investigation as a shield all along.

This purpose is why those behind the Obama administration, the “small group” plot, the network of co-conspirators and their allies in the media, are demanding the Mueller probe remain untouched.

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RESOURCES:

• Steele Dossier Origination Now Directly Leads To Obama White House – HERE
• FBI Asst. Director “Andy” McCabe has convenient memory lapse – HERE
• Rand Paul Discusses Evidence of Conspiracy HERE
• Summary of Scheme and Letter from Trump Transition Team HERE
• Congress Confirms the Investigative Approach for The Big Ugly HERE
• Understanding the Background Motives of Inspector General Horowitz HERE
• Democrats Realize the BIG Ugly Is Coming HERE
• Understanding the Important Role of Bill Priestap HERE
• Inspector General Horowitz Explains how he caught Peter Strzok and Lisa Page HERE
• Understanding the Pattern of Information Releases HERE
• Jim Jordan Questions Rod Rosenstein HERE
• More releases of information about Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Andrew McCabe HERE
• Why Was FISA Court Judge Recused – Discussion HERE
• Jaw-Dropping Info. on Demoted DOJ Deputy Bruce G Ohr’s wife, Nellie H. Ohr HERE
• Discovery – Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion GPS on Trump Opposition Research Project
• Intel Chairman Devin Nunes Outlines FBI FISA Warrant Abuse HERE
• The FBI/DOJ Leak Hunting Task Force Everyone Forgot – Outlined HERE
• Jim Jordan Discusses the Fraud Behind the FBI FISA Warrant HERE
• Black Hat Hunting II – Becomes Obvious – False Media Leaks To Catch Leakers HERE
• The BIG UGLY – The Big Picture and What it Means HERE
• Judge Rudolph Contreras Recuses Himself – FISA Discoveries HERE
• “The Predicate” – The Importance of the Origin of The FISA WARRANTS HERE
• Black Hat Hunting I – First Appearance of Coordinated Plan HERE
• Deputy Head of Counterintelligence FBI Agent Peter Strzok – Outlined HERE
  
• Discovering Initial Seeds of DOJ-OIG Investigative Plan – Outlined HERE
• President Trump Reacts to Evidence of FBI Mgmt Bias Against Him HERE
• Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes Threatens FBI with Contempt HERE
• First IG Release of FBI Team Bias on Robert Mueller Squad HERE

IG Stimulated Releases of Information:

♦Release #1 was the FBI Agent Strzok and Attorney Lisa Page story; and the repercussions from discovering their politically motivated bias in the 2015/2016 Clinton email investigation and 2016/2017 Russian Election investigation.

♦Release #2 outlined the depth of FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page’s specific history in the 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton to include the changing of the wording [“grossly negligent” to “extremely careless”] of the probe outcome delivered by FBI Director James Comey.

♦Release #3 was the information about DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr being in contact with Fusion GPS at the same time as the FISA application was submitted and granted by the FISA court; which authorized surveillance and wiretapping of candidate Donald Trump; that release also attached Bruce Ohr and Agent Strzok directly to the Steele Dossier.

♦Release #4 was information that Deputy Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was an actual contract employee of Fusion GPS, and was hired by F-GPS specifically to work on opposition research against candidate Donald Trump. Both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr are attached to the origin of the Christopher Steele Russian Dossier.

♦Release #5 was the specific communication between FBI Agent Strzok and FBI Attorney Page. The 10,000 text messages that included evidence of them both meeting with Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe to discuss the “insurance policy” against candidate Donald Trump in August of 2016.

Those seeking to expose the conspiracy include: Inspector General Michael Horowitz (OIG), Attorney General Jeff Sessions (DOJ), FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Another video interview today worth watching:

Oh, we have no idea yet how big and consequential the synergy between all of President Trump’s economic policies are toward an almost unfathomable MAGAnomic result; but we’ll find out really soon, BIGLY.

The international community is just now beginning to recognize how intensely sequential the domestic MAGAnomic tax policy is when combined with the international America-First trade policy therein.

2018 will be the year when every international trade partner reassess their best financial interests; and with the tax outline codified into law, POTUS Trump, Secretary Ross, Secretary Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer are about to initiate the biggest multinational trade shift in the history of international economics.

Yes folks, I’m actually talking about that phase when we discover we are living within the orbit of: “almost too much winning”.   This is where we begin to recognize that 5%, 6% and even 7% GDP growth is easily attainable. Here’s how it works.

Previously the larger multinational corporate community used the tax rates of lesser industrialized nations as a strategic gateway to offset costs held within the largest market in the world, the United States.  With the U.S. changing the entire dynamic behind the tax rates, the same companies now enter a phase of recalculating the production costs.

In direct realignment with the tax rates, the Trump policy cuts the costs further by eliminating regulation and unleashing energy development, which again lowers costs.  Energy costs third in line of importance behind labor and raw materials in most manufacturing cost considerations.

The combination of manufacturing automation, decreased U.S. regulations, and now lower tax rate provisions entirely changes the cost dynamic.  Add in the transportation costs inherent with bringing foreign products to the U.S. market and, well, you can quickly see how the multidimensional strategy makes the best financial sense to manufacturer right here in the U.S.A.

As a noted left-leaning Canadian outlet notes:

(Via National Post) […] “Foreign companies that operate in North America are now going to look at, ‘Do I invest in Canada, with a small population, small market, to serve the North American market, or do I go to the United States?”‘ said Mintz, of the University of Calgary.

“When they look at Canada they now see … similar tax rates and similar burdens (to the U.S.),” he added. “Then they look at regulations in Canada, which are increasing as the U.S. is reducing theirs.”

The U.S. trade czar leading the NAFTA negotiations, Robert Lighthizer, toasted the bill’s adoption, calling it a monumental win that will make American business more competitive, and reduce the U.S. trade deficit. (read more)

There is no incentive for the U.S. to remain inside NAFTA.  We are the market everyone want’s and needs access to.  We are the consumer.  President Trump has signaled his intention to leverage access to our markets as part of the larger trade initiatives.  USTR Robert Lighthizer is now holding a much stronger hand than just a few months ago thanks to the Tax bill.

Additionally, even European nations are beginning to realize their manufacturing access to U.S. markets will now be much weaker.  Cue Germany:

Handelsblatt – […] “The tax competition will have a new dimension,” said Christoph Spengel, chairman of the corporate tax department at the University of Mannheim. Mr. Spengel, who is also a research associate at the Center for European Economic Research, and a group of tax experts at the university have done a detailed comparison of the two countries’ tax systems and published a report under the heading, “Germany loses out in US tax reform.”

Clemens Fuest, who heads the Ifo economic think tank, also said he believed German business would suffer. “Investments and jobs will migrate to the US,” he said. (read more)

German companies that already do the manufacturing inside the U.S. will not be impacted.  However, German companies that rely on exports into the U.S. are now in a very tenuous position.  Their best hand becomes actually moving operations into the U.S., hiring U.S. workers, and producing the end product right here.

See how that works.

Now, sticking with the Canadian and German examples cited, it becomes transparently obvious how GDP growth rates explode.  Remember, the U.S. GDP is the combined value of everything produced and serviced in the U.S. “minus” the value of our imports.

If we drop $1 billion in imports and instead manufacture the $1 billion in products here in the U.S. the GDP growth rate is measured in terms of $2 billion in growth.  The GDP growth rate as a percentage increases two-fold.

This is why five, six, and even higher percentage increases in GDP growth are possible.  It is our MARKET size that dominates the leverage in the equation.

In addition to leveraging economic power for national security, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Ross are working on long term economic benefits: Trade renegotiation, exports, and investment along with capital/credit availability. Simultaneously EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is working on short-term economic benefits: energy development, deregulation, etc.

Lowering energy costs has an exponential benefit to the overall economy. Not only does it drive down the cost of domestic highly consumable products, but it also binds the building blocks of the manufacturing and production sector. Lower energy costs offset higher wages on products manufactured for export and helps keep the U.S. competitive.

President Trump is uniquely qualified as a successful businessman (non-politician) to have developed actual life-skills on Main Street that help him see the bigger value in policy shifts. Politicians usually speak in esoteric terms about economic “costs”; but President Trump has direct experience in how shifts in costs can directly contribute to the Main Street economy.

Domestic manufacturing and industry sectors have three top-tier costs as they transfer to Main Street: 1) Raw materials (or finished goods depending on sector); 2) Labor costs; and 3) energy costs. If you lower any of the three drivers you lower the cost of business operations.

President Trump is actually the only President in modern history who is working to lower both material costs and energy costs simultaneously. In doing so, the short term benefit to the middle-class worker is a lower consumable good prices and subsequently a higher level of disposable income.

In essence by lowering material and energy costs the internal economic action actually gives a raise to the middle-class faster than waiting for full economic expansion/growth to drive wage rates higher.

See how that works?

In the longer term, as the economy expands, there will be a natural pressure on wage rates to rise – as competition for labor drives up labor value.

• Under President Trump, nearly 1.7 million new jobs have been created.
  • 159,000 jobs have been created in the manufacturing industry.
  • 57,000 jobs have been created in the mining and logging industries.

• The unemployment rate has fallen to 4.1 percent, the lowest in nearly 17 years.
  • Thirteen States have reached record low unemployment rates.

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States has grown by more than 3 percent in the last two quarters.
  • The GDP growth rate was 3.3 percent in the third quarter of this year.
  • The GDP growth rate was 3.1 percent in the second quarter of this year.
• Productivity in the United States economy grew to 3 percent last quarter.

• Americans’ confidence in the economy has soared to record highs under President Trump.
  • The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index reached a 17-year high in November.
  • The National Association of Manufacturers’ Outlook Index had the highest annual average it has ever recorded.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit record highs 70 times in 2017—the most ever recorded in one year.
  • For the first time in its history, the Dow closed higher than 24,000 points.
  • Since President Trump was elected, more than $5 trillion in wealth has been added to the United States economy.

HARD AT WORK: The Department of Labor has implemented pro-growth programs, rolled back overreaching regulations, and taken action to support American workers.

• The Department of Labor has convened a Task Force on Expanding Apprenticeships, which will work to create more opportunities for American job seekers and job creators.
  • The 20-person task force brings together leaders from business, labor unions, educational institutions, and trade groups to advise the Administration on how to expand the number and breadth of apprenticeships.

• Following President Trump’s Executive Orders on regulatory reform, the Department of Labor is working to identify regulations that place an undue burden on employers with minimal impact on worker protections.

• The Department of Labor is actively involved in the process of renegotiating and improving the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement.

• Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta has directed the Department to aggressively confront visa fraud and abuse.

Go ahead and mark the date on the calendar, you’ll remember this day. Earlier today the United Nations voted in favor of a nonbinding resolution declaring President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void.”

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley delivered remarks noting the likely consequence prior to the vote taking place.  [Full transcript and video below] Believe me, this will not end well for the U.N:

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The entire enterprise of the U.N. is supported by slightly less than half of all Americans. The modern irrelevance of (and general antagonism within) the U.N. has been a less visible but decades-long discussion throughout most political circles.

It is doubtful the U.N. realizes the consequential difference of this moment with President Donald Trump at the helm of commonsense U.S. foreign policy.

In our lifetime few figures represent the level of righteous American swagger as seen carried by President Donald Trump. He is not beholden to traditional diplomatic circular triple-speak; and he carries the desire to eliminate anything he views as against American interests. This is a critical point most often overlooked.

President Trump does not want to correct policy that is against U.S. interests. President Trump desires to DESTROY policy that is against U.S. interests. There is a profound difference. Put your national interests on the other side of the “U.S. best interest” equation; and there is no limit to the pain President Trump is willing to inflict upon your decision. FACT.

From President Trump’s stewardship viewpoint: America will give respect and America deserves respect.

Violate that simple principle, without permission from his administration to do so, and POTUS Trump will methodically, strategically, heck, often personally, crush that opponent with severe and extreme economic prejudice.

[Transcript] Thank you, Mr. President.

To its shame, the United Nations has long been a hostile place for the state of Israel. Both the current and the previous Secretary-Generals have objected to the UN’s disproportionate focus on Israel. It’s a wrong that undermines the credibility of this institution, and that in turn is harmful for the entire world.

I’ve often wondered why, in the face of such hostility, Israel has chosen to remain a member of this body. And then I remember that Israel has chosen to remain in this institution because it’s important to stand up for yourself. Israel must stand up for its own survival as a nation; but it also stands up for the ideals of freedom and human dignity that the United Nations is supposed to be about.

Standing here today, being forced to defend sovereignty and the integrity of my country – the United States of America – many of the same thoughts have come to mind. The United States is by far the single largest contributor to the United Nations and its agencies. We do this, in part, in order to advance our values and our interests. When that happens, our participation in the UN produces great good for the world. Together we feed, clothe, and educate desperate people. We nurture and sustain fragile peace in conflict areas throughout the world. And we hold outlaw regimes accountable. We do this because it represents who we are. It is our American way.

But we’ll be honest with you. When we make generous contributions to the UN, we also have a legitimate expectation that our good will is recognized and respected. When a nation is singled out for attack in this organization, that nation is disrespected. What’s more, that nation is asked to pay for the “privilege” of being disrespected.

In the case of the United States, we are asked to pay more than anyone else for that dubious privilege. Unlike in some UN member countries, the United States government is answerable to its people. As such, we have an obligation to acknowledge when our political and financial capital is being poorly spent.

We have an obligation to demand more for our investment. And if our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our resources in more productive ways. Those are the thoughts that come to mind when we consider the resolution before us today.

The arguments about the President’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem have already been made. They are by now well known. The decision was in accordance to U.S. law dating back to 1995, and it’s position has been repeatedly endorsed by the American people ever since. The decision does not prejudge any final status issues, including Jerusalem’s boundaries. The decision does not preclude a two-state solution, if the parties agree to that. The decision does nothing to harm peace efforts. Rather, the President’s decision reflects the will of the American people and our right as a nation to choose the location of our embassy. There is no need to describe it further.

Instead, there is a larger point to make. The United States will remember this day in which it was singled out for attack in the General Assembly for the very act of exercising our right as a sovereign nation. We will remember it when we are called upon to once again make the world’s largest contribution to the United Nations. And we will remember it when so many countries come calling on us, as they so often do, to pay even more and to use our influence for their benefit.

America will put our embassy in Jerusalem. That is what the American people want us to do, and it is the right thing to do. No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that.

But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN. And this vote will be remembered.

Thank you.

(transcript link)