President Trump touched down in Vietnam at 8:45pm (local) / 8:45am (EST). Vietnam is 12 hours ahead of U.S. eastern time zone. President Trump arrived for a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un aimed at removing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic benefits and better relations with the U.S. and the world.

President Trump was met at the airport with a delegation of Vietnamese government officials and U.S. embassy personnel. The Vietnamese also rolled out the red carpet with a full military color guard for the welcome.

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Fox News’s Ed Henry has a report from the hotel below:

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President Trump and the U.S. delegation have a working lunch with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the Office of Government in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Lunch Menu:

Course 1: Fresh shredded green mango salad with scallops, mint leaves and cashew nuts served in a sweet vinaigrette dressing.

Course 2: deep fried Hanoi style spring rolls with shrimp, pork, vermicelli, and vegetables served with a side of sweet and sour fish sauce and red chillies.

Course 3: king crab meat and spinach in a light seafood-based broth

Course 4: grilled cod fish “cha ca”; roasted Wagyu beef medallions with foie gras and a semi-sweet fermented black rice sauce; sautéed “su su” vegetables with garlic (crispy green chayote stems and leaves); steamed sticky glutinous rice with shrimp wrapped in a lotus leaf.

Course 5: a traditional Vietnamese dessert consisting of lotus seeds, longans, and white wood-ear mushrooms served warm and in a light sugary syrup.

On the sideline of the President Trump and Chairman Kim summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, President Trump and Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong participate in a signing ceremony worth a combined $21 billion value in U.S. trade.

Contracts were signed by Kevin McCallister – President and chief executive officer of Boeing commercial airplanes; and Allen Paxson, Vice President of GE aviation.  On the Vietnamese side: Nguyen Thanh Hung, Vice Chairman of VietJet Air; and Nguyen Thi Phurong Thao, President and CEO VietJet.  WATCH:

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Details include: VietJet will buy 100 Boeing 737-Max jets and 215 GE/CFM joint venture engines.  Bamboo Airways will buy 10 Boeing 787-9 jets, and Vietnam Airlines will buy $100 million in services and technology from Sabre Corporation. “These deals will support more than 83,000 American jobs and provide increased safety and reliability for Vietnamese International travelers.” (link)

Doug Mills

✔@dougmillsnyt

.@realDonaldTrump waves a flag as he participates in greeting with Nguyen Xuan Phu Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in Hanoi, Vietnam. #TrumpKimSummit

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You might remember the story from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where a man dining at a Mexican restaurant while wearing a MAGA hat was assaulted by a seemingly unhinged woman.  The police were called and she was arrested. Quick video reminder below:

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Well, the story takes a rather interesting twist today.  Apparently she was in the country illegally:

FALMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) – A woman who was charged with disorderly conduct and assault and battery after she was caught on camera accosting a man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat at a Falmouth restaurant has been taken into ICE custody after officials determined she was in the U.S. illegally.

[…] “Deportation officers with ICE’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested Rosiane Santos, an unlawfully present citizen of Brazil, today near Falmouth, Massachusetts,” the agency said in a statement. “Santos is currently facing local charges of assault and other offenses. She is presently in ICE custody and has been entered into removal proceedings before the federal immigration courts.”  (more)

There’s a considerable backstory {Go Deep} to the announcement today where Fiat Chrysler will be investing $4.5 billion in new manufacturing, and 6,500 additional jobs.

Fiat Chrysler’s Mike Manley watched legendary CEO Sergio Marchionne dealing with President Trump in 2017 during two sets of meetings with key auto leaders. POTUS and titan Marchionne got along great; both old school deal-makers. There was a lot of respect between the two leaders. There’s no doubt Mike Manley took heed of Sergio Marchionne’s approach when he took over as CEO of Fiat Chrysler in 2018.

(Via CNBC) […] The automaker says it will hire 6,500 workers and invest $4.5 billion by adding a new assembly plant in Detroit and boosting production at five existing factories.

CEO Mike Manley said expanding in Detroit is a logical decision given the company’s facilities in the area and the desire to produce Jeeps in the U.S. “We’re an American brand. We’re proud of that within the Jeep brand,” he said in a statement.

Executives have made it clear for months that the company would be expanding Jeep production, including converting an idled engine plant in Detroit into a full-time final assembly plant.

Fiat Chrysler will spend $1.6 billion converting the Mack Avenue Engine Complex into the final assembly plant for next generation Jeep Grand Cherokee and an all-new three-row, full-size Jeep SUV. The move will create 3,850 new jobs.

The company will also be adding production of two all-new Jeep models, the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, two models Manley believes will help fill a hole in the brand’s portfolio when it comes to large SUVs. While most of the models will be sold in the U.S., Manley is looking at the production from a global viewpoint.

“All of these vehicles will be opened up for our export markets,” he said. (read more)

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

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

With a current tariff at 2.5% the EU won’t move anything just pay the duty; however at 10% or higher the EU manufacturers might move engine building or transmission building to North America etc to get inside the rules of origin threshold.

Throughout all of 2018 President Trump was exploring the Mercedes, VW and BMW perspectives while Angela Merkel was gnashing her teeth.

President/Businessman Trump has been diligently working through a process to establish high-wage U.S. manufacturing workers.  From day one the president has been in apex predator mode.  The combination of USMCA rules and tariff possibilities are like blood in the water surrounding: Dr. Dieter Zetsche (Mercedes), Dr. Herbert Diess (VW), and Dr. Nicholas Peter (BMW); while Trump simply asked questions.

Mike Manley the new CEO and steward of Fiat Chrysler wants nothing to do with a scenario where President Trump becomes adverse to his corporate objectives.  Manley ain’t about to get in the water with an apex business predator as president.  He knows the value in keeping U.S. economic policy aligned with his corporate interests.

Meanwhile, consumer confidence surged in February; bouncing back for the first time in four months.  A sign that Americans have worked through the consistent media nay-saying, and shrugged off the government shutdown doomsday predictions and worries about a so-called media fabricated ‘recession‘.

The consumer confidence index exceeded all expectations climbing to 131.4 this month from a revised 121.7 in January, the Conference Board said Tuesday.

President Trump touched down in Vietnam at 8:45pm (local) / 8:45am (EST). Vietnam is 12 hours ahead of U.S. eastern time zone. President Trump arrived for a second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un aimed at removing nuclear weapons in exchange for economic benefits and better relations with the U.S. and the world.

President Trump was met at the airport with a delegation of Vietnamese government officials and U.S. embassy personnel. The Vietnamese also rolled out the red carpet with a full military color guard for the welcome.

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Fox News’s Ed Henry has a report from the hotel below:

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Hanoi Vietnam is 12 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.  Approximately an hour ago Chairman Kim Jong-un arrived via train in Dong Dang, Vietnam, and is en route to his Hanoi hotel.  At approximately the same time Air-Force One was completing a refueling in England (RAF base Mildenhall, just Northeast of London).  Next stop, Hanoi.

Chairman Kim Jong-un arrives in Vietnam

On Tuesday Evening (US EST) / Wednesday Morning (local), POTUS’ schedule looks to begin with the first event at 11 a.m. (local) 11 pm U.S. EST.

• Greeting with the president Nguyễn Phú Trọng, of Vietnam.
• Expanded bilateral talks with Vietnamese delegation.
• Commercial trade signing event.
• Photo op with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam
• Expanded bilateral meetings and working lunch with the prime minster of Vietnam

Then, Wednesday evening (local) / Wednesday morning (US EST), President Trump will take part in his first meetings with North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un.

• Anticipate a one on one bilateral and greeting with Kim Jong-un
• Then a social dinner (Trump, Kim + 2 officials from each delegation).  Reportedly President Trump will be joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.  Chairman Kim will reportedly bring Vice Premier Kim Yung Chol and a third, yet unknown, associate.

Happy Chairman Kim  aka “Little Rocketman”, aka “little panda”, aka “hostage”.

Video of Chairman Kim arriving in Dong Dang, Vietnam:

Prior to departing for Hanoi, Vietnam, President Trump delivered breakfast remarks to an assembly of our nation’s governors.  [Video and Transcript below]  POTUS is confidently on top of his game; and the humor is priceless.

For those who have followed the granular details of the Trump-Kim relationship closely, one early remark about Kim Jong-un (off-the-cuff and not part of the prepared speech) is very interesting (emphasis mine):

“I’m now — right after this meeting, I leave for Vietnam, where I meet with Chairman Kim and we talk about something that, frankly, he never spoke to anybody about. But we’re speaking, and we’re speaking loud”….

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[Transcript] State Dining Room – THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you very much.

As governors, we all sort of get together and we have a good time. But we also — we’re going to accomplish a lot. This going to be a very good meeting. Tremendous things are happening for our country.

I’m now — right after this meeting, I leave for Vietnam, where I meet with Chairman Kim and we talk about something that, frankly, he never spoke to anybody about. But we’re speaking, and we’re speaking loud. And I think we can have a very good — a very good summit. I think we’ll have a very tremendous summit. We want denuclearization, and I think he’ll have a country that will set a lot of records for speed in terms of an economy.

And I told you last night — it was a lovely dinner — but I told you how well we did with our trade talks in China. And it looks like they’ll be coming back quickly again. And we’re going to have another summit. We’re going to have a signing summit, which is even better. So hopefully, we can get that completed. But we’re getting very, very close.

Ambassador Lighthizer, Steve Mnuchin, a lot of folks in the room have been helping and that’s been great. And I just see our great Secretary sitting there. On drug prices, first time in 54 years that drug prices have actually gone down this year. So, Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. That’s a great, great deal. (Applause.)

Today, it’s my honor to welcome our nation’s governors back to the White House after a wonderful evening last night. And I’m deeply grateful for your presence, your partnership, and your friendship — many of you are such good friends — as we work together on behalf of all Americans.

We’re here to forge bonds of cooperation between our federal, state, and local governments as we strive to deliver a safe, bright, and prosperous future for every community in our magnificent nation.

Thank you as well to all of my Cabinet Secretaries who are here today to share their energy, expertise, and devotion. They are devoted. They work so hard and they’re doing a terrific job. There are few — I say there are none — but there are few administrations that have accomplished what we’ve accomplished over the last two years and the first two years.

It’s been pretty incredible with tax cuts and regulation cuts — more regulations than any other administration in history, and that’s very important. And we still have regulation. But you don’t have 10 of identical regulations that you have to get approved and wiped out from different departments. So we’ve really cut it down.

A highway that would take 17 or 18 years of approval now takes probably two. And we’re trying to get it down to one. And it may be rejected on various grounds, including environmental. But we have it down to two, and we think we can get it down further. So it will be — that will be something. You know. You have many highways and many roadways, and they’re tied up for many years. And that won’t be happening too much anymore.

In my State of the Union Address, I outlined many bipartisan priorities that we all share: delivering fair trade; rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure — which we are going to work very hard on, because as governors, that has to be music to your ears. (Applause.)

And I would like — on infrastructure, I would like you to call your senators and call your congressmen and women and get it done, because I’m ready. I want to sign. I am totally ready.

Reducing the price of healthcare and prescription drugs — and we’ve made a lot of progress, as I said. First year in 54 years that prescription prices have gone down, which is a big statement. But we can get them a lot lower. We’re in the process, Mr. Secretary, of doing that.

Creating a safe and lawful immigration system, and keeping America safe.

We’re gathered today at a truly incredible time for our nation. Things are happening like rarely ever before. Since the election, we’ve created more than 5.3 million new jobs, including a half a million brand-new manufacturing jobs. And that number is going to go over 600,000 manufacturing jobs in just a very short period of time.

And if you remember, manufacturing jobs were never coming back to our country. Well, they are coming back and they’re coming back very strongly. And we have companies opening up in the United States that we thought we lost, that would never be back, and some are coming back and some are brand new and they’re big. And they’re coming in and they’re moving in, which is one of the reasons we need people to come in. They have to come in through a legal process. But with a 3.7 [percent] unemployment, we need to have people coming in. We need workers, frankly, because we have all of these companies pouring in.

We were just discussing — our great new governor of Michigan — last night, where you have some good news coming up very soon. And we have car companies opening up in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and so many other places. I was with Prime Minister Abe of Japan, and he was saying it could be seven different plants in a very short period of time, not to mention all of the plants that have already opened.

So, we need people. We have to have people and they have to come in, but they have to come in legally and through merit.

Nearly 5 million Americans have been lifted off of food stamps during this very short period of time. Blue-collar jobs are growing at their fastest pace in many decades. The unemployment rates for African Americans — and you’ve heard this many times — Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans have all reached their lowest levels ever recorded. And with women, it’s now 64 years. Lowest in 64 years. Soon, it will be historic.

So America now has, really, the hottest economy on Earth. Whenever I greet a prime minister or a president, or any leaders of any countries, they always start off by saying, “Congratulations on your economy. It’s been incredible. Congratulations.” And many of them are trying to follow our formula, which was cutting taxes, cutting regulations, and many other things.

We give incentives and we work very hard at getting companies to come back in. Those companies that left, we — in particular, we want to work. They left our country. They fired all of their workers. They moved to another country. They’re now coming back. It’s a great thing.

In a few moments, our first session on vocational training and workforce development will begin. We want every citizen to gain the cutting-edge skills they need to enjoy a rewarding, lifelong career. Many of the governors here today have identified this as a very top priority. My daughter, Ivanka, who is going to be speaking later, is — she has been so much involved. So incredibly involved. Where is Ivanka? Ivanka, keep — keep going. (Laughter.) Created — my daughter has created millions of jobs. I don’t know if anyone knows that, but she’s created millions of jobs. (Applause.)

So, because of our roaring economy, there are more opportunities than ever before to get sidelined workers — and these are people that lost jobs and have never gotten them back, but now they’re coming back and very, very rapidly — get these sidelined workers back into the labor force.

Last year, my administration created the Council for American Worker and launched the Pledge of America’s Workers, where we’ve gained commitments from private sector leaders to hire and train more than 6.5 million Americans. Think of it: 6.5 million. And these are jobs that, for the most part, would not have happened.

I was also proud to sign a modernized Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act into law. We believe two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American. It used to be a terrible thing when you said “America first.” People said all sorts of things: “It’s terrible. It’s a horror.” It’s “America First.” It’s “Make America Great Again.” (Applause.) It’s whatever you want to call it, but that’s the way it is.

I mean, you know very well. And some can’t say, and some can say proudly, but we would focus so much on other countries, it was almost like we put those — not almost. We put those countries ahead of ours. We actually took those countries and put them ahead of ours. We can’t do it. And we’re going to help other countries that we have great relationships. But we can’t do that anymore. It’s America first.

Today, we also will discuss the bold action we took to address economic inequality by establishing Opportunity Zones as part of our historic tax cuts. It’s incredible what’s going on. I don’t know, I think some of you really see it. Okay? You see what’s going with the Opportunity Zones. Far greater than anybody thought. And we’ve done a lot of them, and they have great incentives. And money is being put in by very rich people and rich companies in areas that you would have said nobody will ever invest in. We established incentives for investment in more than 8,700 distressed areas that you have designated in each of your states.

You’re designating some tough places. I say, “Can they give us some tougher places than that?” They are tough and it’s — incredibly, for the first time ever, it’s really working. The concept was always good but it wasn’t done properly. I want to thank you for partnering with us in this critical effort to lift up neglected and totally forgotten communities.

I also want to thank every governor here today who is supporting our new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — the USMCA. (Applause.) I’ve long said that NAFTA is the worst trade deal that any country has ever signed. It emptied us out. We had a surplus with Mexico and Canada, and we went to $130 billion trade deficit with the combination of Mexico and Canada. And this deal will bring it back.

We’re opening it up to farmers. We’re opening Canada, as an example — and Mexico — to farmers. They were closed. It was a closed shop. They had all sorts of non-monetary trade barriers. And they had monetary trade barriers. They were charging, for certain agricultural products, an almost 300 percent tariff. Nobody ever talked about it. Nobody ever knew about it. And I’d go up to Wisconsin and the farmers would say, “Sir, we can’t compete. They’re charging us 287 percent, to be exact.” I said, “You got to be kidding.” And we did something about it.

So the USMCA is very important. It will help our dairy farmers in Wisconsin; our wine makers in Oregon and Washington and California; our autoworkers in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and all over; and dozens of other states, and ranchers and farmers and growers and manufacturers from coast to coast. It’s a very, very comprehensive deal. It’s a deal that nobody thought we’d be able to get approved.

I was able to get it approved, to be honest with you, by using tariffs. I was putting very substantial tariffs — or was getting ready to — on Canada, who was very tough to negotiate. You know, we think of “Oh, Canada.” Well, “Oh, Canada” is tough. They’re tough. (Laughter.) And I said, “Look, you know, you’re either going to do this or we’re going to put 20, 25 percent tariffs on your cars that you ship in here by the millions.

And every time we had a problem, we’d just say, “That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. We’ll put the tariffs on.” And they said, “Okay. Fine. It’s okay. We’ll sign.” It was a tough — it was a really tough negotiation. And same thing with Mexico. But in the end, we got it done and it’s a great deal for us, and it’s a very good deal, I think, for Canada and for Mexico.

They have to get it approved also. We have to get it approved. Let’s see what happens. And I think it probably will be. It should — I think from our standpoint — I know how much they hate me, but they have to hate me even more not to get this deal approved. Okay? That’s the only thing I can say.

To be a prosperous nation, we must also be a safe nation. We passed groundbreaking criminal justice reform. And I have to thank so many people for that. But this was where super- conservatives got together with super-liberals, believe it or not. I mean, I’m looking at names on both sides and right down the middle. Criminal justice reform, where people are put into jail for a pretty minor act — there’s nothing minor — but a pretty minor act, and they’re put in jail for 45 years and 50 years and there’s no chance of ever coming out. And it was a very — and it’s very tough, by the way. A lot of conservatives signed it, and signed it very willingly. In fact, they pushed it. They were pushing it, I think, as hard as the other side. But it’s very, very important.

Many states here today are following the same roadmap to help former inmates become productive and law-abiding citizens. And one of the thing that’s helping the inmates so much — you know this probably better than I do — the economy is so strong that inmates, for the first time, are getting jobs when they come out.

And I have a friend who’s hired seven or eight. I can’t say every one was perfect, but he said, “Five are — I’ll always have them. They’re great.” They got a chance. Nobody would hire them because they have that — whatever it is in the background. And it’s a very tough situation for them in the past.

But the economy is so strong. The economy — the strength of the economy became our best friend. They couldn’t get workers, and now they’re hiring people that they normally wouldn’t have. And the results are incredible. Companies all over the country are saying, “Wow, they are really — they’re really doing a great job.” And it makes me very happy. I think without that very powerful economy it couldn’t happen.

So, finally, to protect our communities, we must secure the border against human trafficking, drug smuggling, and crime of all types. The human trafficking is a tremendous problem where, mostly women, and they’re tied up and they’re taped up, and they’re put in the back of cars, and the car does not come through the port of entry.

I mean, you watch this — “Everything comes through it.” Ninety percent of the drugs don’t come through the port of entry. Ninety percent of the drugs and the big stuff goes out to the desert, makes a left, and goes where you don’t have any wall. I’m going to call it a wall. You know, they’d like me to call it a barrier. It’s a wall. It’s a big, beautiful, powerful steel wall that you can see through — which is very important to be able to see through. And if you don’t have it, you’re not going to have borders, you’re not going to have a country pretty soon. Because we’re spending a fortune. We’re doing an incredible job.

The Border Patrol has been amazing. The military has been amazing. I called in the military and they’ve been amazing. But if we had a wall, we’d save a fortune not only on drugs that are being smuggled into the country. And you’re talking about billions and billions and billions of dollars’ worth of drugs. But we’d save it just on not having to pay military, not having to pay so much on the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol can go to other locations and other places.

But I’ll say this: Border Patrol and ICE — and I’m proud of ICE because they go into areas where a lot of people don’t want to go, including law enforcement. These are tough, tough people that they’re dealing with. And you need tough people. The ICE people, they’re tough but they’re incredible. I mean, they’re just incredible in so many ways. They are patriotic people. They love our country. They want it to work. And they’ll go into situations that you want no part of.

When you look at these MS-13 gangs, sheriffs all over the country have told me, “We’re very happy to have ICE come in and take over.” Because this is a group of people that — hard to even understand how they could have developed this way. They’re mean. They’re sadistic. Their crimes are incredible. We’re taking them out by the thousands, and we’re bringing them back to where they came from. And in some cases, we’re putting them in jail. But, you know, then we pay for them for the next 40 years. But we’re bringing them back where they came from.

And I told Guatemala and I told Honduras, and I told El Salvador — three places where they send us tremendous numbers of people — and they’re rough people. They’re not sending us their finest. It doesn’t make sense. Why would they send their finest? They’re sending us some very — as I would sometimes say — rough hombres. These are rough, rough, tough people. Many criminal people.

And I told these three countries — you know, we send them $500 million a year. I said, “We’re not sending it anymore.” And you organize caravans, and these caravans that are coming up — we had one — and we’ve broken them up. I don’t know if you’ve been seeing. We’ve broken them up. We’ve gotten them broken up, in many cases now, before they get here.

But you take a look at Tijuana, Mexico: Thousands and thousands of people are sitting there, trying to get into our country. And if we didn’t have a wall there — that we’ve totally renovated and fixed — if we didn’t have that wall, it would be impossible even for the military to stop them. Because don’t forget, unlike other countries — and this is a good thing; I don’t want to create controversy because I hate controversy, believe me. (Laughter.) But unlike other countries, we don’t let people get shot. You know? We don’t have people standing there with the most sophisticated machine guns in the world and use them. Many countries do. Many countries do. We can’t do that. We can’t do that. This country can’t do that. But the barrier does it very simply. It just doesn’t let them in.

So you take a look at a place like Tijuana and other places. It’s incredible what that wall has done. And that’s not even the upper — you know, the most — the best of our walls. We have a great system now. We have a prototype. We have — I expect to have 250 to 300 miles of wall built in the very near future. Secretary Nielsen is here right now, and we have — we will shortly have about 200 miles under construction.

We just started a 47-mile patch. We have different patches. We bid it out tough. We have a much better prototype. It’s actually a beautiful wall. It’s a beautiful-looking — actually — you know, I’ve always said part of the wall was that previous administrations, when they did little walls, they built them so badly. So badly. It’s so unattractive. So — I wouldn’t want them in my backyard. And the new one is incredible looking. It’s a piece of art, in a sense. It’s still — and it’s, by the way, more effective. I mean, it’s more effective.

So we are doing a job. We’re getting it up. We have beautiful prototypes. We’re working with the Army Corps of Engineers. We’re total pros. And I don’t know if you saw what I put on Twitter, but I put on Twitter a piece of it. That’s not the new prototype; the new prototype has started in different locations.

But we’re going to be, pretty soon, having well over a couple of hundred miles of wall up. We don’t have to go 2,000. We never planned on going 2,000. It’s 2,000 from the Gulf to the Pacific; it’s 2,000 miles. But you have many natural boundaries, including really tough waters, which you don’t need the wall. We have very, very rugged mountain areas, which you don’t need the wall. Actually, if we do a really good job, and if we have some money left over, we might even throw them in areas where you would say you don’t need them because they’ll figure a way. That will be the area. That will become the weak spot. It’s like water; it just seeks its own.

But these people, they have the traffickers. They’re vicious, they’re smart — the coyotes. How about the name “coyote”? They have people tied up, put in the back of trucks and vans. They can’t go through checkpoints. They have to go through open areas. Can’t walk through. You can’t go through it. Because even if they don’t do much of an inspection of your truck or your car, they do open the back door, or they do look through a window. You can’t have women sitting there that are tied up.

So when I hear the other side say — and we have some of the other side here. But when I hear the other side say, “Oh, no, everything goes through the checkpoint,” that’s absolutely false. You have areas where you literally have roads that are carved in the sand that it’s used so much. They go right through these roads. They go right, they hang a left and hang another left, and “Welcome to the United States.” There’s nobody there to even talk to them. Because you’re talking about 2,000 miles. You’re talking about a lot of area.

So we’re doing really well on the wall — the emergency you’ve all been reading. We do have an emergency. We have an emergency of people pouring into our country that we don’t want — criminals, smugglers. We have drugs pouring into our country. We can’t have it. We can’t have it. We cannot allow this to happy to our country. Most drugs — most of the major drugs are coming through the southern border. This will make it — you’re never going to stop it completely, but we can stop it a lot.

One of the things that Ambassador Lighthizer and Steve, and all of the people that are working with China — the fentanyl is a tremendous problem. It seems to be made 100 percent in China. A hundred percent. Now, China is paying us, right now, billions and billions of dollars of tariffs a month. Every month, billions of dollars. I love it. Personally, I love it. But they’re paying billions of dollars. And it’s hurting them; it’s not good for them.

And I said to President Xi — I said, “President, you have to do me a favor. As part of our trade deal…” — it has nothing to do with trade, or certainly very little — but we’re having shipped over here, from China, fentanyl. It’s killing 88,000 people a year, and probably more. That’s just the ones we know about. It’s deadly. A little tiny spoonful can wipe out a state, it’s hard to believe. It can wipe out an entire state, a spoonful of this stuff.

And in China, they have a very, very tough penalty for drugs. It’s called the death penalty. And I said to President Xi, “You don’t have much of a drug problem. Do you have a drug problem?” “No. No drug problem.” I said, “So you have 1.4 billion people, and you don’t have a drug problem?” “That’s right. No drug problem.” I said, “What do you attribute that to?” “Death penalty. Quick trial.” They don’t have trials that last 19 years. At the end of a — the judge dies. Everybody dies. The only one living is the one that did the damage. No, they have what’s called a “quick trial.” It goes quick. It doesn’t take a lot of time. And if you’re a drug dealer, you’ll say, “You know what — maybe I’ll just sort of stay out of China.” Singapore, the same thing.

So I said to President Xi — I said, “You know, if you would criminalize the sale of fentanyl into the United States, you would be saving many, many lives.” It took me one minute, and he agreed. Because it’s not criminalized. I think they view it as an industrial drug or something. It’s not criminalized. And as part of our deal — and, Bob, don’t forget to put that down — but as part of our deal, I think we’re going to get a criminalization of fentanyl being sold into the United States. It’ll stop. (Applause.) It’ll stop. Very important.

And I have to tell you, I have to really thank President Xi, both for that, and he has been a big help with respect to North Korea. I have a very, very good relationship with Kim Jong Un. Very, very good. But we need all the help we can get. And as you know, about 92 percent of the goods going into North Korea go through China. And President Xi has been very good. He’s been very, very good.

Now, you know, it helps that we are in a strong trading position. But nevertheless, he’s been very strong and he’s, for the most part, held it. At the beginning, he was perfect. I told him the other day, “At the beginning, you were perfect. Now you’re good. Not quite as good. You got to get better.”

But maybe we’ll make a deal and then we won’t have to worry about that any longer. So that will be something really great. But he’s been great.

And the fentanyl is — they’re already working on that process. And, you know, I said, “Do you need any other approvals?” “No.” I said, “Well, that works a lot different than this country.” (Laughter.) He needs no other approval.

When I got the basketball players out — the three basketball players — that was a beautiful scene. I was in China. And you have these three, you know, potential stars — and I guess they’re going into the NBA draft, or just have — but I said, “Would you do me a favor? Three players were just arrested.” They were arrested for stealing — in Louis Vuitton — sunglasses.

And I wasn’t happy with those three players because they never gave our country much credit for having gotten them out. And believe me, they’d be in jail. Stealing in a store in China is a very big offense.

And I said, “Would you do me a favor?” I was having dinner with him at this incredible show that he put on in a ballroom, the likes of which few people have ever seen. It was an incredible evening. Melania is here. And I’m talking. And it just happened and they were arrested. They were put in jail. And I said, “Mr. President, could you do me a favor? Could you let the three basketball players out?”

He didn’t know about it. He called over to his people. He’s got 10 people standing behind him; every one is a central casting. Central casting. (Laughter.) Glasses, pad — boom. He went over — he came back. He reported within two minutes, explained, “Basketball players…” Bom. Bom. And I said, “It would be a great thing if you could possibly let them out.” He goes, “So be it. They’re out.”

I thought — I said, “Is this different than our country?” Huh? (Laughter.) It’s just a little bit different. And we got them out. Then we came back, and the one father said, “Well, we don’t know that Trump helped. I sent a consultant.” That consultant would’ve gotten nowhere.

But, you know, we just have a great relationship with so many of these countries. And I think in some cases it’s tough. There are many countries that take advantage of us very seriously, both at NATO and on trade.

The European Union is very, very tough. Very, very tough. They don’t allow our products in. They don’t allow our farming goods in. You people know. Many of you represent farm states. They won’t — you know that better than anybody. They won’t allow our farm products in. They don’t take any. They have these non-, you know, monetary barriers that are brutal. They’re worse than the — you know, than others.

The cars — they charge us big tariffs. And it’s very hard for a car to get in, number one. But if it does, they have to pay a big tariff, whereas we charge them almost nothing when they send their cars to us — Mercedes and BMW, and all of the things that they send.

So we’re taking care of it. I mean, we’ve informed them that, “Look, if you don’t — if you’re not going play ball…” President Obama, in eight years, couldn’t do a thing. They wouldn’t even meet with him. They said, “We have no intention of meeting.” They wouldn’t even meet with President Obama. They wouldn’t meet with President Bush.

EU is one of the toughest — maybe the toughest. Maybe, in certain ways, tougher than China, just smaller, from our standpoint. But they have to meet. And we told them, “Have to meet. Sorry. And if you don’t meet, we’re going to tariff the hell out of you.” And they’re going to meet. I mean, they’re going to meet.

But we lost last year with the European Union $151 billion. This has been going on for many years. Think of it — $151 billion. We take their product; they don’t take ours. We don’t charge them tariffs; they charge us tariffs.  Other than that, it’s a very fair arrangement.

And, by the way, we pay for their military. Because we pay almost, getting close to 100 percent for their military. I’ve gotten them to put up over $100 billion toward NATO, which has made a big impact. But — so they have to treat us fairly. We want to have a great relationship. I have a great relationship with the leaders. But we have to be treated fairly.

So, overall, we’re doing a great job for our country. Our country has rarely done better. Maybe never done better from an economy standpoint. We’re very proud of it. And we have tremendous potential when we fix these trade deals, because we’re being ripped by everybody. We are just being ripped, because we lose $800 billion a year on trade. Think of it. It’s incon- — $800 billion. Nobody even knows what that means. And we’re fixing that all up. We start with Mexico, Canada, China. China is the big one. China is 50 percent of the number — even more. And we’re doing very well. That could happen fairly soon, or it might not happen at all. Okay? Might not happen at all, but I think it’s going to happen and it could happen fairly soon. The relationship is great.

So I just want to thank all of the governors for being here. You’re very special people. I think we have 17 brand-new governors. Right? Brand new ones. Very smart ones, like my friend. Huh?

Congratulations. It’s a great — you’re going to have — you have such an easy state. (Laughter.) That’s so easy. Great state of Illinois. What an easy state. I don’t know. Huh? Have you found it to be easier or tougher than you thought?

GOVERNOR PRITZKER: Well, you’re going to help us out. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: I’ll help you out. I help everybody out. I’m going to help you. Congratulations.

It’s an honor to have you all at the White House.

Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.)

[End Transcript]

Hostage rescue, Round #2, begins in Hanoi…

President Trump has been executing a foreign policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.”

The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a fundamental paradigm shift.  Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference.

“Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald Trump

The nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work to stop any corrupted influence from oppressing free expression of national values held by the subservient, dis-empowered, people within the nation being influenced.

There have been clear examples of this doctrine at work. When President Trump first visited the Middle-East he confronted the international audience with a message about dealing with extremist influence agents. President Trump simply said: “drive them out.”

Toward that end, as Qatar was identified as a financier of extremist ideology, President Trump placed the goal of confrontation upon the Gulf Cooperation Council, not the U.S.

The U.S. role was clearly outlined as supporting the confrontation. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates needed to confront the toxic regional influence; the U.S. would support their objective. That’s what happened.

Another example: To confront the extremism creating the turmoil in Afghanistan, President Trump placed the burden of bringing the Taliban to the table of governance upon primary influence agent Pakistan. Here again, with U.S. support. Pakistan is the leading influence agent over the Taliban in Afghanistan; the Trump administration correctly established the responsibility and gives clear expectations for U.S. support.

If Pakistan doesn’t change their influence objective toward a more constructive alignment with a nationally representative Afghanistan government, it is Pakistan who will be held accountable. Again, the correct and effective appropriation of responsibility upon the influence agent who can initiate the solution, Pakistan.

The process of accurate regional assignment of influence comes with disconcerting sunlight. Often these influences are not discussed openly. However, for President Trump the lack of honesty is only a crutch to continue enabling poor actors. This is a consistent theme throughout all of President Trump’s foreign policy engagements.

The European Union is a collective co-dependent enabler to the corrupt influences of Iran. Therefore the assignment of responsibility to change the status is placed upon the EU.

The U.S. will fully support the EU effort, but as seen in the withdrawal from the Iran Deal, the U.S. will not enable growth of toxic behavior. The U.S. stands with the people of Iran, but the U.S. will not support the enabling of Iranian oppression, terrorism and/or dangerous military expansion that will ultimately destabilize the region. Trump holds the EU accountable for influencing change. Again, we see the Trump Doctrine at work.

Perhaps the most obvious application of the Trump Doctrine is found in how the U.S. administration approached the challenging behavior of North Korea. Rather than continuing a decades-long policy of ignoring the influence of China, President Trump directly assigned primary responsibility for a reset to Beijing.

China held, and holds, all influence upon North Korea and has long-treated the DPRK as a proxy province to do the bidding of Beijing’s communist old guard. By directly confronting the influence agent, and admitting openly for the world to see (albeit with jaw-dropping tactical sanction diplomacy) President Trump positioned the U.S. to support a peace objective on the entire Korean peninsula and simultaneously forced China to openly display their closely-guarded influence.

While the Red Dragon -vs- Panda influence dynamic is still ongoing, the benefit of this new and strategic approach has brought the possibility of peace closer than ever in recent history.

No longer is it outlandish to think of North Korea joining with the rest of the world in achieving a better quality of life for its people.

Not only is President Trump openly sharing a willingness to engage in a new and dynamic future for North Korea, but his approach is removing the toxic influences that have held down the possibility for generations. By leveraging China (through economics) to stop manipulating North Korea, President Trump is opening up a door of possibilities for the North Korean people. This is what I mean when I say Trump is providing North Korea with an opportunity to create an authentic version of itself.

What ultimately comes from the opportunity President Trump has constructed is entirely unknown. However, the opportunity itself is stunning progress creating a reasonable pathway to prosperity for the North Korean people. Chairman Kim Jong-un has the opportunity to be the most trans-formative leader within Asia in generations; but it is still only an ‘opportunity’.

Whether Kim Jong-un can embrace openness, free markets and prosperity is yet to be seen. Freedom is a precariously scary endeavor because there’s always a danger loosening the grip on control can lead to fear, which can lead to even tighter more authoritarian, control.

♦The commonality in these foreign policy engagements is the strategic placement of responsibility upon the primary influence agent; and a clear understanding upon those nation(s) of influence, that all forward efforts must ultimately provide positive results for people impacted who lack the ability to create positive influence themselves.

One of the reasons President Trump is able to take this approach is specifically because he is beholden to no outside influence himself. It is only from the position of complete independence that accurate assignments based on the underlying truth can be made; and that takes us to the ultimate confrontations – the trillion dollar confrontations.

A U.S. foreign policy that provides the opportunity for fully-realized national authenticity is a paradigm shift amid a world that has grown accustomed to corrupt globalists, bankers and financial elites who have established a business model by dictating terms to national leaders they control and influence. We have our own frame of reference with K-Street lobbyists in Washington DC. Much of President Trump’s global trade reset is based on confronting these multinational influence agents.

When you take the influence of corporate/financial brokers out of foreign policy, all of a sudden those global influence peddlers are worthless. Absent of their ability to provide any benefit, nations no longer purchase these brokered services.

As soon as influence brokers are dispatched, national politicians become accountable to the voices of their citizens. When representing the voices of citizens becomes the primary political driver of national policy, the authentic image of the nation is allowed to surface.

In western, or what we would call ‘more democratized systems of government‘, the consequence of removing multinational corporate and financial influence peddlers presents two options for the governing authority occupying political office:

♦One option is to refuse to allow the authentic voice of a nationalist citizenry to rise. Essentially to commit to a retention of the status quo; an elitist view; a globalist perspective. This requires shifting to a more openly authoritarian system of government within both the economic and social spheres. Those who control the reigns of power refuse to acquiesce to a changed landscape.

♦The second option is to allow the authentic and organic rise of nationalism. To accept the voices of the middle-class majority; to structure the economic and social landscape in a manner that allows the underlying identity to surface naturally.

Fortunately we are living in a time of great history, and we have multiple examples surfacing around the world. National elections in Poland, Hungary, Italy, Brazil and right here in the U.S. via Donald Trump highlight responses to dysfunctional multiculturalism and financial influences from corrupt elites within the institutions of globalist advocacy: The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Two specific reference points are playing-out in real time. •One is the U.K. and voices of the British people who voted to Brexit the European Union. •The second is Mexico, and the July 1st, 2018, election of Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador (aka AMLO), a nationalist.

In the U.K. we see the government turning more authoritarian and distancing itself from the voices of the majority who chose to rebuke the collective association of the EU. In recent decisions the government has taken a more harsh approach toward suppressing opposition, and as a consequence oppressing free speech and civil liberties. [Insert the example of Tommy Robinson here – there are many others.]

This doesn’t come as a surprise to those who have followed the arc of history when the collective global elite are challenged or rejected. Globalism can only thrive amid a class structure where the elites, though few in number, have more controlling power over the direction of government. It is not accidental the EU has appointed officials and unelected bureaucrats in Brussels as the primary decision-making authority.

By its very nature the EU collective requires a central planning authority who can act independent of the underlying national voices.

As the Trump Doctrine clashes with the European global elite, the withdrawal of the U.S. financial underwriting creates a natural problem. Subsidies are needed to retain multiculturalism.

If a national citizenry has to pay for the indulgent decisions of the influence class, a crisis becomes only a matter of time.

Wealth distribution requires a host.

Since the end of World War II the U.S. has been a bottomless treasury for EU subsidy. The payments have been direct and indirect. The indirect have been via U.S. military bases providing security, the NATO alliance, and also by U.S. trade policy permitting one-way tariff systems. Both forms of indirect payment are now being reversed as part of the modern Trump Doctrine.

Similarly, in Mexico the Trump Doctrine also extends toward changed trade policies; this time via NAFTA. The restructuring of NAFTA into the USMCA disfavors multinational corporations and financial holdings who have exploited structural loopholes that were designed into the original agreement.

With President Trump confronting the NAFTA fatal flaw, and absent of the ability of corporations to influence the direction of the administration, the trade deal ultimately presents the same outcome for Mexico as it does the EU – LESS DOLLARS.

However, in Mexico, the larger systems of government are not as strongly structured to withstand the withdrawal of billions of U.S. dollars. The government of Mexico is not in the same position as the EU and cannot double-down on more oppressive controls. Therefore the authentic voice of the Mexican people is likely to rise.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), is a nationalist but he is not a free-market capitalist. AMLO is more akin to soft-socialist approach with a view that when the central governing authority is constrained, and operates in the best interests of its citizens, equity can be achieved.

The fabric of socialism runs naturally through the DNA strain of Mexico, and indeed much of South America. This is one of the reasons why previous Mexican governments were so corrupt. Multinational corporations always find it easier to exploit socialist minded government officials.

When bribery and graft are the natural way of business engagement, the multinationals will exploit every opportunity to maximize profit. Withdraw the benefit (loophole exploitation) to the financial systems, and the bribery and graft dries up quickly. A bottom-up nationalist like AMLO, is the ultimate beneficiary.

The authentic-sense of the Mexican people, rises in the persona of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – who actually does personify the underlying nature of the classic Mexican class-struggle.

Thus we see two similar yet distinct outcomes of the Trump Doctrine. Within a highly structured U.K. parliamentary government the leadership becomes more authoritarian and rebukes the electorate; and in Mexico a less structured government becomes more nationalist, more prideful, and embraces the underlying nature of the electorate.

It is not accidental the historic nature of the U.K. is a monarchy (top down), and the historic nature of Mexico is populist (bottom up). Revolution not withstanding, both countries are now returning to their roots.

We are indeed living in historic times.