President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend a reception at the residence of Ambassador William F. Hagerty, U.S. Ambassador to Japan. [Note: see the Japanese guest to understand how twitchy Ambassador Hagerty is.]
Accompanying the President and First Lady are: chief of staff Mr. Mick Mulvaney, USTR Robert Lighthizer and Asst to President Mr. Rob Blair (helps Mulvaney).
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The funniest thing about this video is how President Trump (not a politician) is sizing up the room based on executive business acumen; and simultaneously the room is sizing up Donald Trump based on his status as President Trump.
Japanese Guest List (below):
A HISTORIC NEW ERA: President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump congratulate Japan on their new era of Reiwa and look forward to a great friendship and bright future.
Earlier this month, the Japanese people welcomed the new Imperial Era of “Reiwa,”which means “beautiful harmony.”
In the spirit of this new era, President Trump recommits the United States to advancing our strong partnership and achieving our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Japanese Business Leaders Present:
Kiyotaka Ise, President of Aisin Seiki
Peter Jennings, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan
Noriyuki Inoue, Chairman of Daikin Industries
Koji Arima, President and Chief Executive Officer of DENSO
Hiroyuki Ochiai, President of Fuel Total System
Toshiaki Higashihara, Chairman of Hitachi
Toshiaki Mikoshiba, Chairman and Director of Honda
Masatsugu Nagato, President and Chief Executive Officer of Japan Post Holdings Co.
Yuzaburo Mogi, Honorary Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors for Kikkoman
Akira Marumoto, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mazda
Ken Kobayashi, Chairman of Mitsubishi Corporation (Trading House)
Masaki Sakuyama, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Seiji Izumisawa, President and Chief Executive Officer for Mitsubishi Heavy Industry
Nobuyuki Hirano, Chairman and Corporate Executive for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.
Shigenobu Nagamori, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer for Nidec Corporation
Hiroto Salikawa, President and Chief Executive Officer for Nissan
Junko Nakagawa, Executive Managing Director for Nomura Asset Management Co.
Hiroshi Mikitani, Chief Executive Officer for Rakuten
Yasuhiko Saitoh, President of Shin-Etsu Chemical
Masayoshi Son, Chief Executive Officer of Softbank
Masayoshi Fujimoto, President and Chief Executive Officer for Sojtz
Shiro Kambe, Executive Vice President for Sony
Tomomi Nakamura, President of Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries)
Masayuki Hyodo, Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sumitomo Corporation
Takeshi Niinami, President and Chief Executive Officer of Suntory
Christoph Weber, President and Chief Executive Officer of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co.
Michiaki Hirose, Chairman of Tokyo Gas Co.
Satoshi Tsunakawa, President of Toshiba Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota
[Interestingly, there’s probably not many events that have ever put all of these leaders of Japanese business and industry together, in the same room, at the same time.]
With a 13-hour time zone difference, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Tokyo shortly after 4:00am EDT this morning (5:00pm Tokyo).
The President was greeted by Taro Kono, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Mrs. Kaori Kono
Spouse of Taro Kono; U.S. Ambassador to Japan William F. Hagerty, and several Japanese representatives from the Suite of Honor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As they were coming down the stairs, stunning Melania laughed when POTUS noted she almost had a Marilyn Monroe moment.
Based on time zones (Japan is 13 hours ahead), and considering Lighthizer left on Thursday; it would appear Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are meeting right about now.
(Reuters) – Japanese Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Friday that he will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Tokyo on Saturday for trade talks ahead of a summit meeting between leaders from the two nations on Monday.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump are expected to discuss topics including North Korea’s nuclear programs, trade issues and the coming Group of 20 leaders’ summit. (link)
Following the State Dinner to celebrate the beginning of the Reiwa Era, introduced with the coronation of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are scheduled to hold a summit and joint press conference on Monday.
There is a rumor their presser may include a “significant announcement.”
I cannot think of a non-splendid reason for Ambassador Lighthizer to fly all the way to Japan if Trump and Abe didn’t have something planned.
The People’s President delivering buckets of fun. During a refueling stop in Alaska, en route to Japan, President Trump greets a standing group of smiling troops at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson… “I figured I might as well get out of the plane.” [Video]
Chopper pressers are the best pressers. As President Trump and First Lady Melania depart the White House for Japan, the president paused for an impromptu presser with the White House press pool. [Video and rough draft transcript below]
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[Rough Transcript] […] A — I’m very transparent, so as you know I declassified everything, everything they want, I put it under the auspices of the attorney general. He’s going to be in charge of it. He’s a great gentleman and a highly respected man, so everything that they need is declassified and they’ll able to see how the hoax or witch hunt started and why it started.
It was an attempted coup, an attempted take-down of the president of the United States it should never ever happen to anybody else so it’s very important. People have been asking me to declassify for a long period of time, I decided to do it, and they’ll learn a lot. I hope it’s going to be nice perhaps it won’t be.
Q — inaudible
A — The Middle East, we’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective, and uh, some very talented people are going to the Middle East now and we’ll see how, we’ll see what happens. It’ll be about 1500 people.
Q — inaudible
A — Yeah that’s possible, but I do believe you can’t go down two tracks. If you look at Judiciary if you look at what’s going on, all they talk about in the House is this. I’d like to talk about lowering drug prices, which I’ve done better than any president ever. We had a year this year as you know drug prices went down first time in 51 years. I’d like to talk about. Because with Congress you can get it down 40 and 50 percent. But I can’t do that when all they want to do is try and do a redo of the Mueller report. They were very unhappy with the Mueller report, they want to do a redo of the Mueller report. It’s over there is no redo they lost. It was very clear. There was no collusion, there was no obstruction, so there’s no redo.
Q — could Drs be forced to perform gender reassignment surgery ?
A — [hard to hear, either “what do you think’ or ‘we’ll see’]
Q — about Theresa may
A — I feel badly for Theresa. I like her very much. She’s a good woman. She worked very hard. She’s very smart. She decided to do something that some people were surprised at, some people weren’t, it’s of the good of her country. But I like her very much. In fact I’ll be seeing her in 2 weeks.
Q — why are you considering pardoning war criminals, and does that endanger our troops?
A — we’re looking at a lot of different pardons for a lot of different people. Some of these soldiers are people that have fought hard, long, you know we teach ’em how to be great fighters. You know when they fight sometimes they get really treated very unfairly so we’re going to take a look at it, I haven’t done anything yet I haven’t made any decisions. There’s 2 or 3 of them right now. It’s a little bit controversial. It’s very possible that I’ll let the trials go on and I’ll make my decision after the trial.
Q – Michael Avenatti?
A — I wish him a lot of luck.
Q- Theresa May and Five-Eyes?
A — I may very well talk to her about that yeah. There’s word and rumor that the FBI and others were involved, CIA were involved, with the UK having to do with the Russian hoax and I may very well able to talk to her about that yes.
Q — Nancy Pelosi?
A — Well I don’t know about the videos, I can tell you, what I need here is to help the country. That’s why I did this. Our country is doing unbelievably well. We have the best economy we’ve probably ever had. We have the best job numbers we’ve ever had. We have the best unemployment numbers we’ve ever had. With all of the unemployment numbers that’s what I’m all about. I don’t think they can go down 2 tracks.
I want to get drug prices down. I want to get things like if you look at infrastructure and others, I want to get a lot of things done. I don’t think they’re capable of going down two tracks. I think they can only do one thing or the other. So let em finish the one. What I don’t think is right is you do a redo. They were very unhappy with the m report. No collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. They’re very unhappy, they’re angry about it. They have to get over their anger, they have to get over their — wait a minute. They have to get over their anger and they have to get in to infrastructure, drug prices and things like that. Because they want to do a redo. Even the fact that they’re asking bob Mueller to testify. He just gave them a 434 page report which says no collusion, which leads to absolutely no obstruction he just gave that report. Why does he have to testify? That’s ridiculous. They want to get onto drug prices, lowering them, we can cut em by 50 or 60 percent. The one thing I’m v proud of also on drug prices I brought it down first time in 51 years that drug prices went down. But if I can work with congress we can cut 50 percent and more off drug prices. I can work with these people… I can absolutely work.
Q — about Nancy Pelosi
This shows how fake you are. When you say a personal attack. Did you hear what she said about me long before I went after her? Did you hear? She made horrible statements, she knows they’re not true, she said terrible things, so I just responded in kind. Look, you think Nancy’s the same as she was? She’s not. Maybe we could all say that. But I think, I think, frankly I think right now we are I’m only speaking for myself I wanna do whats good for the country I think Nancy Pelosi is not helping this country, I think the democrats are obstructionist, they’re hurting our country very very badly. We can pass so many different bills right now but all they want to do is investigate because they failed with Robert Mueller, the Mueller report.
They want to try to get a do-over of the Mueller report. It doesn’t work that way. And just so you know I was the most transparent and am transparent president in history. We gave 500 witnesses, I allowed attorneys to testify in front of bob Mueller. 2500 subpoenas, 1,400,000 pages of documents, we gave it… and then we get a great result and they say oh this is terrible, let’s do it over again. You can’t do it. The country doesn’t have that kind of time.
We’re gonna say. As you know I declassified I guess potentially millions of pages of documents I don’t know what it is I have no idea but I want to be transparent. Everybody wanted me to declassify I’ve done it. And you could almost say he’s the trustee, he’s a highly respected man. Our AG is in charge. Let’s see what he finds. But we have documents now that I have declassified for the purpose of the AG he can then show them to the public, do whatever he wants to do with them, but you have to get down to what happened. Because what happened is a tremendous blight on our country. What happened, the investigation, they tried to do a take-down and you can’t do that. Let me just tell you this should never ever happened to another president again.
Q- what message do you want to spend to military families who are concerned about you sending troops to the Middle East?
A — I think ti’s going to be very good in the Middle East. Iran has been very as you know they stage terror all over the world. They’re a much different country now than when I first got here. When I first got here, they were in 14 different locations fighting. Right now I don’t think Iran wants to fight and I certainly don’t think they want to fight with us. But they cannot have nuclear weapons and under the Obama horrible agreement they would have had nuclear weapons within 5 or 6 years . They can’t have nuclear weapons and they understand that.
Q – why should people trust the AG to select what’s declassified? Even Robert Mueller expressed concerns…
A — the question is so false and so phony. Let me explain to you something. Th AG is one of the most respected ppl in this country and he has been for a long period of time. He’s going to look at a lot of documents. Some he might find interesting, maybe he’ll find none interesting, but for over a year people have asked me to declassify. So what I’ve done is, I’ve declassified everything.
He can look and I hope he looks at the UK, and I hope he looks at Australia, and I hope he looks at Ukraine, I hope he looks at everything, because there was a hoax that was perpetrated on our country, it’s the greatest hoax, excuse me, excuse me, it’s the greatest hoax probably in the history of our country and somebody has to get to the bottom of it. We’ll see. But for a [long] period of time they’ve wanted me to declassify it and I did.
Q – is this about getting payback?
A — This is about finding out what happened. I won an election. I own it easily. 306 to 223. I won it pretty easily. And I’ll tell you what this is all about what happened and when did it happen because this was an attempted take-down of the president of the United States and we have to find out why did somebody write a text message, two lovers, that if she loses we have an insurance policy? An insurance policy to take down the president? We’re going to find out what happened and why it happened. Let me just tell you, I don’t care about payback, I think it’s very important for our country to find out what happened.
Q — are you worried that these investigations are hurting your re election chances?
A — I don’t know, my poll numbers are very good, you don’t like to report em but I guess we have a 48 today, we have a 51. We have very good poll numbers considering. Now I have to tell you, if you people would give straight news I’d be at 70, I’d be maybe at 75. But you don’t give straight news, you give fake news. With fake news I’m still winning the election. But if you gave serious, good news, the way your’e supposed to, I’d probably be at 70 or 75 based on the economy alone.
Q — on Modi
A — I just spoke to prime minister Modi and I gave him my warmest regards and congratulations. I just spoke to pm Modi minutes ago and I just conveyed congratulations on behalf of our country, myself and everybody. He had a great election when he’s a fine friend of mine, we have a v good relationship with India.
Q — are you being protected by William Barr?
A – No I just want somebody that’s going to be fair. I think William Barr is the most respected man, one of the most respected men doing what he does in our whole country. I just want him to be fair. I don’t want him to be for me or for anybody else, I just want him to be fair and that’s what he is and we’re going to find out what this yields but I will tell you declassifying, people have wanted men to do it for a long time. I think it’s v important to do and basically what are we doing? We’re exposing everything. We’re being, a word that you like, transparent. We’re being ultimately we’re being transparent and that what’s it’s about. Again, this should never ever happen in our country again.
Now that President Trump has officially designated the Declassification Memorandum we can review the specifics for process, content and timing. Our previous research led to a set of expectations for the directive. Now, that we have the directive in hand, we gain increased clarity of purpose.
♦ First, President Trump has assigned ownership of the Directive to U.S. Attorney General William Barr. This part was predictable because the purpose of declassification would be to facilitate a DOJ review of how the intelligence apparatus was used in the 2016 election.
Additionally, because the DOJ review encompasses intelligence systems potentially weaponized in 2016 for political purposes and intents, President Trump carries: (a) declassification authority; but also: (b) an inherent conflict. In this DOJ endeavor candidate Trump would have been the target of corrupt agency activity; and therefore would be considered the target/victim if weaponization were affirmed by evidence.
To avoid the conflict President Trump designates the U.S. Attorney General as arbiter and decision-maker for the purposes of declassifying evidence within the investigation:
…”The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information.” (link)
Additionally, AG Bill Barr does not need to assemble the intelligence product for approval by the executive (Trump). Instead the office of the president is granting the AG full unilateral decision-making as to each product being considered for declassification.
This is a huge amount of trust from the President to the Attorney General, and a big responsibility for William Barr:
[Sec 2] …”With respect to any matter classified under Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009 (Classified National Security Information), the Attorney General may, by applying the standard set forth in either section 3.1(a) or section 3.1(d) of Executive Order 13526, declassify, downgrade, or direct the declassification or downgrading of information or intelligence that relates to the Attorney General’s review referred to in section 1 of this memorandum.” (read more)
The position-designate slightly works around custom insofar as the intelligence hub, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Dan Coats), is given conference – but the decision making is designated to the Attorney General (Bill Barr).
Essentially the DNI will be following the instructions of the AG for this Memorandum. This is slightly unusual; but given the purpose, necessary and expected.
♦ Secondly, following protocol, the Memorandum is specific to the agencies carrying the documentation that will be reviewed by the Attorney General: The Secretary of State (Pompeo); the Secretary of Treasury (Mnuchin); the Secretary of Defense (Shanahan); the Secretary of Energy (Perry); the Secretary of Homeland Security (McAleenan); the Director of National Intelligence (Coats); the Director of the CIA (Haspel), and the Attorney General himself (Barr).
The agencies give insight into the intelligence product (ie. evidence) being reviewed. The Treasury and Energy agency was surprisingly notable:
Considering the purpose of the Memorandum: “The Attorney General is currently conducting a review of intelligence activities relating to the campaigns in the 2016 Presidential election and certain related matters“… The appearance of Treasury and Energy would indicate the pre-existence of investigative evidence; that would be subject to ongoing DOJ review; and potentially be part of ongoing proceedings.
Potential target issues could include: (1) an investigation of Uranium One; (2) an investigation of the Clinton Foundation; and, (3) an investigation of matters related to payments to Iran.
Treasury would come into play with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS); which was part of the Uranium One process and also included the Dept. of Energy. Additional related matters could include George Papadopoulos $10k (Treasury); and The Clinton Foundation. [Obviously this is supposition, but there are not too many alternate investigative pathways for intelligence within Treasury and Energy.]
The absence of FBI in the memorandum designation is not unusual as the FBI is an internal agency of the DOJ where Barr already has supervision and decision-making authority.
However, that said, one does have to wonder where current FBI Director Christopher Wray, current Deputy Director David Bowditch and current FBI legal counsel Dana Boente line-up within the DOJ investigation itself.
♦ Third, within the memorandum the President does not allow AG Bill Barr to delegate authority. However, all agencies are required to respond to Barr’s authority.
The purpose of the Declassification Directive also appears to permit the DOJ Inspector General to include classified material in the body of the upcoming report on FISA abuse; this memorandum is granting AG Bill Barr the autonomy to make that decision and declassify that content.
♦ Lastly, regarding the timing of release…. While the purpose of the authority is to empower AG Bill Barr to collect, process and declassify intelligence product that is part of the DOJ investigative review, this does not preclude the public release of intelligence information in advance of the IG report on potential FISA abuse.
Much of the intelligence information may be collected external to the IG review parameters (FISA process), and may be released independently as part of stand-alone declassification that pertains to weaponized DOJ, FBI and CIA political activity.
Ultimately the decision to release, and the timing therein, is now in the hands of U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump made an unscheduled visit to Arlington National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day. As more than 260,000 flags were being placed at the graves of U.S. service members, the president and first lady visited with U.S. Army personnel who participate in the annual remembrance and solemn event.
The President and First Lady placed flags at headstone of Frank Buckles who was the last surviving World War I veteran before his passing. President Trump will not be in the U.S. to observe the Memorial Day holiday, as both he and Melania head to Japan for an official state visit on Friday.
While in Japan President Trump and the first lady will be participating in a Memorial Day event at Yokosuka U.S. Naval Base where they will honor our fallen soldiers.
Video [Note: today’s trip wasn’t on the president’s public schedule, and reporters were kept far away to hear what was said.]
President Trump is holding a White House event to support Farmers and Ranchers and announce a transitionary aid package to help during the restructuring of the global supply chain and a reset in U.S-China engagement. Anticipated start time 3:15pm EDT.
The headlines are once again examples of an ideological media. “Stunning”, “surprising”, “unexpected”, etc. However, far from the headline ideology; in a result that is splendidly falling into place for a much more consequential geopolitical landscape; things are going swimmingly…
Reuters Headline: “India’s Modi stuns opposition with huge election win”
NEW DELHI/AYODHYA (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored a dramatic election victory on Thursday, putting his Hindu nationalist party on course to increase its majority on a mandate of business-friendly policies and a tough stand on national security.
His re-election reinforces a global trend of right-wing populists sweeping to victory, from the United States to Brazil and Italy, often after adopting harsh positions on protectionism, immigration and defense.
Official data from the Election Commission showed Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party ahead in 302 of the 542 seats up for grabs, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament.
That would give his party the first back-to-back majority for a single party since 1984. Votes will be fully counted by Friday morning.
Modi was showered with rose petals by some of the thousands of cheering supporters who waited for hours in a thunderstorm for his arrival at party headquarters on Thursday evening. (read more)
Yes Alice, the planets have aligned. It is remarkable how each event falls exactly into the place needed for President Donald J Trump. Truly,… almost divinely inspired.
The BRIC economic alliance (Brazil, Russia, India and China) has been disassembled. Nationalist/populist Brazil and nationalist/populist India are now more aligned with nationalist/populist Trump. China and Russia are bleeding cash to retain influence. Economic security is national security. Things are going swimmingly.
Reminder: All of the geopolitical indicators are present…. and it is important to remember that historic trilateral Buenos Aires summit between President Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and India’s Prime Minister Modi.
Taken in totality with the November 2017 “Golden Ticket” tour of Asia, it looks like President Trump structured two facets of the Indo-Pacific alliance, as far back as 2017, to be a hedge against China.
It appears that President Trump started his administration with a plan for a broad alliance of ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) to replace the U.S. economic engagement with China. More specifically, it appears to me that President Trump is using Japan as the fulcrum, and repaying Shinzo Abe by working with Modi (India) to open up the India economy.
There’s a similar precedent for this. Historically, think about how the U.S. helped Canada by using the scale of the U.S. economy to open trade doors, and then leveraging the engaged country to also permit Canadian benefit (entry).
It looks like President Trump is using the ASEAN and Indo-Pacific alliance as the hedge against China. Japan is key for this to work; with support from Vietnam, S-Korea, Philippines etc; and then Trump repays Japan by opening up the U.S. for India exports, and in turn India opens for Japanese imports.
♦Economic security is national security. ♦The KORUS (South Korea-U.S.) trade deal was already reached last year. ♦Japan essentially controls the TPP group. ♦A new trilateral alliance resets global supply chains (disrupting One Belt/One Road); and yet retains the value of regional manufacturing (Vietnam, Philippines, S-Korea, etc).
If my spidey-sense is correct, Shinzo Abe will be very open to Trump’s unilateral trade requests (perhaps Monday announcement) because Abe sees an enlarging Japanese GDP through new accessibility to India. It’s a win-win-win.
Trump opens up for India (Indo-Pacific).
India opens up for Japan (Indo-Pacficic).
Japan increases investment in U.S.A. [(U.S-Japan trade agreement); and with new focus on national security, an expanded Japanese GDP permits security purchases from U.S.A.]
This is a very public letter. Obviously British diplomats, politicians and intelligence officials will have immediately read it. Perhaps Chairman Devin Nunes is opening the door for President Trump to aid in a more, well, diplomatic approach to the questions.
Heck, there’s no guarantee Theresa May will still be Prime Minister on Friday. The U.K. election for representatives to the EU parliament is tomorrow, Thursday 5/23/19. There’s a possibility Nigel Farage’s newly formed Brexit Party is going to win big in that election…. If that happens, U.K. politics will be completely disrupted.
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BNL NEWS@BreakingNLive
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BREAKING NEWS: U.K. PM Theresa May to resign tonight, following badly criticized handling of Brexit – reports
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