President Trump has nominated current U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Kelly Knight Craft, to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations replacing Nikki Haley.
Washington – […] Craft is set to succeed Nikki Haley, pending Senate confirmation, and is Trump’s second pick to replace Haley, who left the U.N. post at the end of last year. The president’s earlier candidate, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, withdrew from consideration last week.
Trump praised Craft’s tenure representing his administration in Ottawa as “outstanding” as he made the announcement on Twitter. (more)
This is the best video to adequately review the full nuance and scale of consequence within the oval office meeting between the Chinese trade delegation and the U.S. team. Aspreviously noted, President Trump delivered brutally honest remarks about expectations to both teams that likely, strategically and purposefully, caught Chinese Vice Premier Liu completely off guard.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, AG Secretary Sonny Perdue, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Brandstad, Trade Adviser Peter Navarro with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, and multiple Chinese vice ministers/senior officials were all in the Oval Office for a discussion of current trade status…. and the outcome was epic.
Jumping Ju-Ju Bones…. I’ll get a video and transcript downloaded soon, but boy howdy… Thirty years of President Trump -vs- China trade just roared to the surface in the Oval Office.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, AG Secretary Sonny Perdue, NEC Chairman Larry Kudlow, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Brandstad, Trade Adviser Peter Navarro with China’s Vice Premier Liu He, and multiple Chinese vice ministers/senior officials were all in the Oval Office for a discussion of current trade status…. and the outcome was epic.
Secretary Mnuchin announces the Chinese delegation will be staying in DC for an additional two-days of negotiations. Heck, he’s got em. The Chinese team can’t leave, not without a preliminary deal, because Trump is going to Vietnam next week and the phase-two tariffs kick in March 1st.
While Vice Premier Liu is seated directly in front of him POTUS Trump answers a reporter question about Chinese technology and cyber-security. Trump notes that he wants open and fair tech competition, but if China represents a security threat… well, that changes the dynamic. Liu is seated right in front of President Trump…. EPIC !
USTR Lighthzer notes that they are making great progress toward the six-step Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and POTUS Trump says he ain’t buying any of that MOU nonsense; Trump wants a cemented, contractual, binding trade agreement, nothing less… In essence: stuff that MOU nonsense, enough with the talk, talk, talk plans; get a granular binding deal that he can review.
GULP.
Yesssir…
Hilarious, considering the Chinese delegation have been working toward the duplicitous MOU panda scheme for months, and Trump just eviscerated it.
President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin also announced they’re working toward a summit between Chairman Xi and President Trump in March, likely in Mar-a-Lago.
[Fava beans, Chianti and a nice Diet Coke, I presume].
Tonight President Donald Trump addressed a reception audience celebrating National African American History Month in the east room of the White House.
Joining President Trump on the stage was First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, Clarence Henderson, Catherine Toney and Bob Woodson.
With about a week left before the second phase of U.S. tariffs is scheduled to hit Chinese imports both the U.S. and China trade delegations met today in an ongoing effort to hammer out details about enforcement mechanisms. The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife…
Beijing’s Red Dragon team is focused on putting together a six step Memorandum of Understanding, the Panda MOU, they hope will convince President Trump to delay any tariff action. This cunning procedural approach is China’s historic tactic when confronted about the reality within their trade behavior and economic duplicity. However, USTR Robert Lighthizer is well aware and unwilling to follow the path of historic failure.
These talks are intense; it is difficult to appropriately frame how consequential these negotiation sessions are. Because the trillion dollar stakes are so high; and because China is unfamiliar negotiating with a government delegation they have not purchased; this is the type of hard-line negotiation that could never be attempted by any other administration other than President Donald Trump. It is rather epic when you stand back and consider the larger landscape.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators haggled on Thursday over the details of a set of agreements aimed at ending their trade war, just one week before a Washington-imposed deadline for a deal expires and triggers higher U.S. tariffs.
Reuters reported exclusively on Wednesday that the two sides are starting to sketch out an agreement on structural issues, drafting language for six memorandums of understanding on proposed Chinese reforms.
If the two sides fail to reach an agreement by March 1, U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports are set to rise to 25 percent from 10 percent. Tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two largest economic powers have disrupted international trade and slowed the global economy since the trade war started seven months ago.
Negotiators have struggled this week to overcome differences on specific language to address tough U.S. demands for structural changes in China’s economy, two sources familiar with the talks said. The issues include an enforcement mechanism to ensure that China complies with any agreements.
Chinese officials did not answer questions as they left the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on Thursday evening after more than nine hours of talks on Thursday.
The discussions began with a photo opportunity where U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He faced each other silently across a table in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House.
WATCH/FEEL THE TENSION
It was unclear whether Liu would meet with U.S. President Donald Trump after the scheduled end of talks on Friday, as they did during Liu’s last visit to Washington for talks in late January.
The two sides remain far apart on demands by Trump’s administration for China to end practices on those issues that led Trump to start levying duties on Chinese imports in the first place.
Chinese President Xi Jinping would need to undertake difficult structural economic reforms to meet U.S. demands. The United States is offering no real concessions in return, other than to remove the tariff barriers Trump has imposed to force change from China. (read more)
CTH doesn’t throw around financial predictions loosely; however, it would be a prudent idea to get out of the Wall Street stock market from now until after the first week in March.
The financial twitches outside these negotiations, some likely intentional by the multinational community, will make things increasingly volatile.
Remember, Donald “Tariff Man” Trump doesn’t bluff.
Yes, President Trump, the man and his policy team, is an existential threat to the elitist hierarchy of things well beyond the borders of the DC Swamp. In the era of explaining the complex it’s a planetary economic reset almost too massive and consequential to encapsulate in words.
There are massive international corporate and financial interests who are inherently at risk from President Trump’s “America-First” economic and trade platform. Believe it or not, President Trump is up against an entire world economic establishment.
President Trump will not back down from his position; the U.S. holds all of the leverage and the issue must be addressed. President Trump has waiting three decades for this moment. This President and his team are entirely prepared for this.
We are finally confronting the geopolitical Red Dragon, China!
The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of peace and war. The symbol in any figure’s right hand has more significance than one in its left hand. Also important is the direction faced by the symbols central figure. The emphasis on the eagles stare signifies the preferred disposition. An eagle holding an arrow also symbolizes the war for freedom, and its use is commonly referred to the liberation fight of righteous people from abusive influence. The eagle on the original seal created for the Office of the President showed the gaze upon the arrows.
The Eagle and the Arrow – An Aesop’s Fable
An Eagle was soaring through the air. Suddenly it heard the whizz of an Arrow, and felt the dart pierce its breast. Slowly it fluttered down to earth. Its lifeblood pouring out. Looking at the Arrow with which it had been shot, the Eagle realized that the deadly shaft had been feathered with one of its own plumes.
Moral:We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the cyber threat from China and ongoing trade negotiations, along with concerns over Iran’s threat to stability in the Middle East, ‘ISIS bride’ Hoda Muthana, the decision to pull troops out of Syria and nuclear talks with North Korea.
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Secretary Pompeo also appeared on NBC morning to discuss similar issues.
Asia expert Gordon Chang discusses the U.S.-China trade negotiations with Lou Dobbs and why President Trump should consider raising tariffs on Chinese imports on March 1st.
Massive pressure is being applied by Chinese purchased interests including Wall Street, the multinational corporate lobbying groups; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and all of the global financial elite, to oppose President Trump’s confrontation with Beijing.
Q How confident are you that it will be finished by March 1? Or are you considering extending that deadline?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they are very complex talks. They’re going very well. We’re asking for everything that anybody has ever even suggested. These are not just, you know, “let’s sell corn or let’s do this.” It’s going to be selling corn but a lot of it — a lot more than anyone thought possible. And I think the talks are going very well — with China, you’re referring to?
THE PRESIDENT: And the talks are going very well.
Our group just came back and now they’re coming here. I can’t tell you exactly about timing, but the date is not a magical date. A lot of things can happen.
The real question will be: Will we raise the tariffs? Because they automatically kick in to 25 percent as of — on $200 billion worth of goods that they send. So I know that China would like not for that to happen. So I think they’re trying to move fast so that doesn’t happen. But it’s — we’ll see what happens.
I can only say that the talks with China on trade have gone very, very well. In the meantime, our economy is very strong. We’re doing well.
I don’t know if you noticed, but deficits seem to be coming down. And last month it was reported, and everybody was surprised, but I wasn’t surprised. We’re taking in a lot of money coming into our Treasury from tariffs and various things, including the steel dumping. And our steel companies are doing really well. Aluminum companies also. So we’re very happy about that.
I think that it’s — they’ll be coming very shortly. They’re going to have very detailed discussions on subjects that have never really been even discussed by people that sat in this chair and they should have been. Very important subjects. And I think we’re doing very well. Okay?
Earlier this afternoon President Donald Trump met with Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz [Video and Transcript below] Additionally, the president answered questions from the White House media on current events and issues including the section 232 auto-tariffs, the upcoming visit to the DPRK, AG Bill Barr and Andrew McCabe.
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[Transcript] – Oval Office 1:52 P.M. EST – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Hello, everyone. Thank you very much. And it’s great to be with the Chancellor of Austria. We have a tremendous relationship, long term, with Austria. And we’re going to be discussing numerous things — immigration — today. But we’re also discussing trade. We have a very big trade presence and a very good relationship on trade. We do a lot of business with each other.
And, Chancellor, it’s very nice to have you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Please.
CHANCELLOR KURZ: Thank you, Mr. President, for receiving us here in the U.S., in the White House. It’s a pleasure for my delegation and for me to be here.
Austria, as you probably know, is — compared to the U.S. — a very small country, but we are a beautiful country.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s true.
CHANCELLOR KURZ: We are a, economically, quite strong country. You would probably say a “great country.” We are in the heart of the European Union, an active member state of the European Union. It’s a small country. We need international cooperation, and therefore I hope that we can discuss now our bilateral relations, but also the relations between the European Union and the United States of America. Of course, trade and how we can gain economic growth for the U.S., but also for Europe. And probably international issues like Middle East, Korea —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Right.
CHANCELLOR KURZ: — and probably also Russia. Thank you for receiving us.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Q Mr. President, are you going to impose auto tariffs on the Europeans?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, it’s something we certainly think about. We’re trying to make a deal. They’re very tough to make a deal with — the EU. They’ve been very difficult over a period of time — over many, many years. And so it’s something we think about, and we’re negotiating with them. If we don’t make the deal, we’ll do the tariffs.
Q The new report hasn’t changed your mind about it at all? There’s a new report from the Commerce Department.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: The new report is not that kind of a report. It’s just really a study that’s underway. We’ve studied it very carefully. We’ve seen the results. But the bottom-line result is whether or not we can make a deal with the EU that’s fair. We lose about $151 billion trading with the EU. That’s a lot of money. And this has been going on for many years. They wouldn’t meet with the Obama administration, and they’re meeting with us. So we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens.
Q Mr. President, should the Mueller report be released when you’re abroad next week?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’ll be totally up to the new Attorney General. He’s a tremendous man, a tremendous person, who really respects this country and respects the Justice Department. So that’ll be totally up to him, the new Attorney — the new Attorney General, yes.
Q Should it be public? Should the report become public, do you think?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I guess, from what I understand, that will be totally up to the Attorney General. Okay?
Q Mr. President, on your push to decriminalize homosexuality, are you doing that? And why?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Say it?
Q Your push to decriminalize homosexuality around the world.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don’t know which report you’re talking about. We have many reports.
Anybody else?
Q What do you expect the Austrian Chancellor to do in European policy?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re just going to have a great meeting. We have a great relationship and our countries have a great relationship.
And he’s a very young leader, I have to tell you. You are a young guy. That’s pretty good.
CHANCELLOR KURZ: But the problem with the age is getting better from day to day.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: That’s right. Someday you won’t be saying it.
But we have a very good relationship and we have a great trade relationship, and that’s pretty much what we’re going to be talking about today.
Q Are you considering replacing Dan Coats as your Director of National Intelligence?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I haven’t even thought about it.
Q Mr. President, you spoke to the Prime Minister of Japan today.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I did.
Q How hard is it going to be to get North Korea to completely, verifiably denuclearize, which I think you —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I spoke with — this morning, with Prime Minister Abe. I had a long conversation with him. We talked about the trip next week to Vietnam, which will be, I think, very successful. I think the first trip to Singapore was extremely successful.
We’ll be meeting with Chairman Kim for two days, and I think we’ll accomplish a lot. We started off with a very good meeting, and I think we’ll continue that along. I don’t think this will be the last meeting by any chance, but I do think that the relationship is very strong.
When we started, as you know, there were a lot of problems. There was the missiles going all over. There were hostages that were being held. There were remains that we wanted to get back. There were many, many things. Now there’s no nuclear testing, no missiles going up. And we have a good relationship — a very good relationship, I’d say.
So I spoke with Prime Minister Abe of Japan about that, and we compared notes. And I think we are very much on the same wave length. It was a good meeting. A good conversation.
Q They seem very reluctant — the North Koreans — to denuclearize. Do you think you’ll be able to make any —
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No, I don’t think they’re reluctant. I think they want to do something. But I — you know, you’ve been talking about this for 80 years. They’ve been talking about this for many, many years, and no administration has done anything. They’ve gotten taken to the cleaners. And I think we have a really meaningful relationship. We’ll see what happens.
The sanctions are on in full. As you know, I haven’t taken sanctions off. I’d love to be able to, but in order to do that, we have to do something that’s meaningful on the other side.
But Chairman Kim and I have a very good relationship. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something work out. I really believe that, as an economic power, because of its location in between. I mean, if you look on a map and you see Russia, China, and right in the middle of everything is South Korea, but North Korea right smack in the middle. So you have Russia, China, and then South Korea. And this is right in the middle. Tremendous potential for economic wellbeing, long term. And I think he understands that very well. I think he might understand that better than anybody.
So they have a great, great potential as a country, and I think that’s what they’re looking to do. We’ll see. But we’ve made a lot of progress. We’ve made a tremendous amount. That doesn’t mean this is going to be the last meeting, because I don’t believe it will. But we have subjects to discuss which will be very fruitful, I believe.
Q Do you have a comment on Andrew McCabe briefing McConnell and Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes, telling them about the investigation into you?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think Andrew McCabe has made a fool out of himself over the last couple of days, and he really looks to me like sort of a poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover. He’s a — I think he’s a disaster. And what he was trying to do was terrible and he was caught. I’m very proud to say we caught him.
So we’ll see what happens. But he is a disgraced man. He was terminated, not by me; he was terminated by others. The IG report was a disaster — a disaster, from his standpoint. Anybody reading the IG report would say, “How could a man like this be involved with the FBI?” And the FBI has some of the greatest people — some of the finest people you’ll ever meet. But this man is a complete disaster.
Thank you all very much.
Q Are you going to Japan, Mr. President? Are you going to Japan in May?
I have created this site to help people have fun in the kitchen. I write about enjoying life both in and out of my kitchen. Life is short! Make the most of it and enjoy!
This is a library of News Events not reported by the Main Stream Media documenting & connecting the dots on How the Obama Marxist Liberal agenda is destroying America
Centinel2012 