President Trump's Foreign Policy Initiatives Are Working Very Nicely -- Take Time to Savor Them

TODAY'S NEWS IS ABOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FOREIGN POLICY INITIATIVES. The Mainstream media and ProgDem talking heads pound away every day about President Trump's domestic policies -- we might ask why, because the US economy, job market and business expansion are going gangbusters under him. Even Mad Maxine Waters had to admit that over the weekend, while looking for a way to paint "the other mess " she accuses Preisdent Trump of making, although she can't really explain just what the "other mess" is. But, that's Mad Maxine, isn't it? And, except when something negative hits the news, the media tends to steer clear of President Trump's foreign policy program. But, our President is doing really well on the foreign side. So, today, we're taking a look at some of his strategies. • • • ITALY CAME TO WASHINGTON ON MONDAY. It wasn't the old, socialist-leaning Italy we all recognize. It was the brand new Italy that has been notably friendly toward the President since the G-7 summit in Canada in June. • The Epoch Times reported on the joint press conference held by President Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in the East Room of the White House after their bilateral talks in the Oval Office. Both leaders announced a new strategic dialogue on a number of issues including immigration, commerce, and combating terrorism. Trump told the press conference : "“We had a very good G-7 meeting, where Giuseppe and I became friends. I think we were probably more closely aligned than anybody else in the room,” he said referring to the summit where trade tensions took center stage between Trump and other European leaders. Conte responded by endorsing Trump’s stances on trade, NATO, and Russia : “You have a President who is a strong supporter and advocate of the interests of the American people and the American country. He’s a great negotiator.” • During their meeting at the White House, Trump and Conte expressed alignment on immigration issues, as Trump supported Conte’s Italy-first immigration stance. Illegal immigration was a key issue in the Italian election in March because Italy, as a first-entry country for those arriving in Europe by boat, has become a focal point of the EU’s wider immigration issue. And the new Italian government’s decision to bar the boat immigrants underlined the deep divisions in Europe over how to handle an influx of people mostly from the Middle East and Africa. Trump said at the press conference : “Like the United States, Italy is currently under enormous strain as a result of illegal immigration. They have fought it hard. The Prime Minister frankly is with us today because of illegal immigration. Italy got tired of it.” Conte said : “My government and the Trump administration represent change. They were elected in order to change the status quo and to improve their citizens’ living conditions.” • Conte applauded the recent trade agreement between Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The US and the EU agreed on July 25 to work together to eliminate tariffs and other trade barriers on all industrial goods other than cars. The Trump administration agreed to put on hold any new tariffs, while the EU pledged to increase imports of American soybeans and liquefied natural gas (LNG). Following on the July 25 US-EU trade agreement, Trump told the rpess conference : “Now is also the perfect time to expand commerce between the United States and Italy.” • The US and Italy will also cooperate against unfair Chinese trade practices and work on reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). Conte said : “It’s a years-old system...not well-functioning...not rational." Trump said Italy and the United States also agreed to combat “unfair foreign trade practices from non-market economies,” referring mainly to China. • Conte said the US and Italian position regarding Russia has not changed and they are still open to dialogue : “We do believe that Russia plays a fundamental role in all international geopolitical crises.” In June,when Trump called on the G-7 leaders to reinstate Russia as a member, Conte was the only G-7 leader who quickly backed him, responding to Trump’s proposal with a tweet : “I agree with President @realDonaldTrump : Russia should re-enter the G8. It’s in everyone’s interests.” At the Monday press conference, Conte again talked about Russia : “Italy is favorable to a dialogue with Russia. Italy also considers that the dialogue between the United States and Russia is fundamental so that we can have positive results in a more global perspective for stability and security purposes.” • Prime Minister Conte also supports Trump’s stance on Iran and NATO. Both leaders agreed on dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons and encouraging other countries to press Iran to end its “malign activities,” said Trump. With respect to NATO, Trump said the alliance was “essentially going out of business” before he demanded change. Trump has repeatedly asked NATO allies to increase their contributions and meet their commitment to spend 2% of their gross domestic product for the defense alliance. Although Rome is struggling with its own finances, Conte said he backed Trump’s efforts, saying allies “need to rebalance the expenditure, which is borne traditionally by the United States, which is very disproportionate.” As a result of the pressure, Trump said, NATO members paid $44 billion more last year, adding : “And this year, I said it in a little bit stronger tone, and they’re paying hundreds of billions of dollars more over the years. If you speak to [NATO] Secretary-General Stoltenberg, I think he’s the biggest fan of Trump.” • So, the White House meeting with the leader of the new Eurosceptic, anti-establishment Italy-first government went very well. That should be no surprise because President Trump is very good with people generally and a consummate expert at finding the points in common that build relationships. • • • NORTH KOREA IS STILL STRUGGLING WITH ITS NEW ROLE. The good news is that in a goodwill gesture, North Korea has turned over the potential remains of US soldiers who have been missing since the Korean war -- part of a commitment made by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to President Trump. A US Air Force plane carrying 55 cases of remains landed at Osan Air Base in South Korea where a formal ceremony will be held on August 1, the White House said in a statement last Thursday night. UN honor guards in South Korea carried the boxes containing the remains after they arrived from North Korea. Also on the plane were technical experts from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The White House statement said : “It is a solemn obligation of the United States Government to ensure that the remains are handled with dignity and properly accounted for so their families receive them in an honorable manner." The agreement to return the remains were made during a historic summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore in June. The White House said the move was the first step in achieving the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. • And, more good news came when Fox News reported that North Korea has begun dismantling its main missile-engine test site. Satellite images by an American research group on Monday claimed that North Korea has begun dismantling its main missile-engine test site, a possible sign that Pyongyang is fulfilling the promises North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made to President Trump at the summit in Singapore. According to an analysis of satellite imagery of the location by the North Korea-focused "38 North" website -- between July 20 and 22 -- the North Korean government appeared to be dismantling the Sohae launch site. Some facilities on the site were either razed or taken apart. The facilities included a rocket engine test stand, which is used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles. Another facility was identified as a space-launch vehicles and a rail-mounted processing building. Analyst Joseph Bermudez wrote in the 38 North report : “Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence building measure on the part of North Korea.” Bermudez said the satellite images indicate that Pyongyang took “an important first step toward fulfilling a commitment made by Kim Jong-un.” South Korean officials have also reported detecting dismantlement activities at the site, although SK didn’t specify the exact nature of the activities. President Trump said after the summit that the North has already started “destroying a major missile engine testing site.” The President didn’t identify the exact site, sparking speculation that North Korea may not be transparent about its activities. Media reports in recent days also claimed that Trump was frustrated by the lack of progress made by North Korea in its denuclearization efforts, according to the New York Times. The President fired back, saying he’s “very happy” with how the North has been honoring the commitments made at the summit, tweeting : "A Rocket has not been launched by North Korea in 9 months. Likewise, no Nuclear Tests. Japan is happy, all of Asia is happy. But the Fake News is saying, without ever asking me (always anonymous sources), that I am angry because it is not going fast enough. Wrong, very happy!" Fox News said that while many believe the latest presumed efforts to dismantle the site may have a positive effect on denuclearizing the communist state, experts urge caution until the North completely abandons the area, quoting Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute : “If North Korea goes further and dismantle the entire Sohae site, that would meaningfully reduce the country’s long-range missile capability by eliminating a facility where it could fire multiple ICBMs in succession." Lee added that while the first steps in dismantling the site are important, in reality, Pyongyang is giving up little as it appears the country is content with the current long-range weapons in its possession. • But, on the iffy side, the BBC reported on Tuesday that North Korea is working on new missiles. The BBC quoted US officials who told the Washington Post that spy satellites had spotted continuing activity at a site that has produced ballistic missiles. Reuters quoted an official as saying it is unclear how far the work has gone. BBC says the factory is known to have produced the Hwasong-15, the first North Korean ICBM capable of reaching the US. However, a US official told Reuters that a liquid-fuelled ICBM didn't "pose nearly the threat that a solid-fuelled one would because they take so long to fuel." Reuters also added that satellite imaging showed vehicles moving in and out of the facility, but not the extent of any missile construction. Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) told the Washington Post that satellite imagery of the Sanumdong facility shows that the site is "active...not dead, by any stretch of the imagination. We see shipping containers and vehicles coming and going. This is a facility where they build ICBMs and space-launch vehicles." Another MIIS North Korean expert, Melissa Hanham, told the BBC that the facility had "regular traffic in and out of the building," adding that this "traffic pattern" on the site stayed "about the same through the Panmunjom and Singapore meetings." This indicated that there had not been a complete stop in activity during the summit talks. She also noted that large "brightly coloured containers" also showed up in satellite imagery, saying that "containers similar to these have appeared during previous ICBM inspections by Mr Kim." Hanham added that while that experts at MIIS could not "find a way to confirm the [intelligence] leak," the information has matched evidence from satellite imagery. The BBC also reported that last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korea was continuing to produce nuclear fissile material, though he insisted that "progress is happening." • If President Trump and Secretary Pompeo are right, what we are seeing is a jittery Kim Jong-un, trying to please the US by doing what he promised at the Singapore summit, while at the same time, needing to appease his own military and probably China as well. President Trump is not likely to be working so gently with Kim unless he sees signs of cooperation and efforts to denuclearize. Patience all around is the order of the day. • • • CHINA IS A DIFFERENT MATTER WHEN IT'S ABOUT US TECHNOLOGY. Zero Hedge reported last week that US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was "confirming the President's concerns" when he issued a warning to China over the recent weakness of its yuan currency, telling Reuters that the Treasury is closely monitoring the yuan for signs of manipulation. In an interview while he was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Mnuchin said : “There’s no question that the weakening of the currency creates an unfair advantage for them...we’re going to very carefully review whether they have manipulated the currency." The importance of any China currency manipulation would be that it would offset Trump 25% tariff on Chinese imports if China then devalues its currency 25% -- thus, the net effect would be zero and the US would be back where it started. On October 15, the US Treasury will issue its semiannual report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. The report is the formal mechanism for labeling a trading partner such as China a “currency manipulator” with severe consequences. And, October 15 is just three weeks before the midterm elections, so it could be a highly popular political move in addition to being economically important. • In another China matter, the Washington Free Beacon reported on July 24 that : "China is waging war against the United States through a far-reaching foreign influence operations campaign that has raised concerns of spying and technology theft, according to regional experts. In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last week, James Phillips, chairman and CEO of NanoMench Inc., warned the Chinese government is subtly exploiting America's open innovation model to steal business secrets and academic research, posing a greater national security threat than the much-publicized actions by Russia. 'We need to quit talking about Russia,' Phillips said. 'There's a real war going on -- it's a cyber war like never before, where they're invading the United States every day trying to take over the United States in terms of our science and technology. If they're not stealing it they're imitating it, or they're trying to get it through other means.' " The Free Beacon said : "US intelligence officials have warned for years about China's emergence as a major strategic competitor that is seeking to supplant the United States as an economic and military powerhouse. During a security conference in Aspen, Colorado, last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China the 'most significant' long-term threat to the country, noting the bureau is pursuing Chinese-linked economic espionage investigations in all 50 states. The CIA has raised similar concerns, issuing a classified report detailing China's efforts to impart financial incentives as leverage to permeate American institutions. Partnerships between Chinese companies and US universities have been of particular concern, especially on campuses that have ties with Beijing-based firms and host sensitive Pentagon research." According to Elsa Kania, an adjunct fellow at the Center for a New American Security, who also testified at the House Intelligence Committee hearing, "China has staged several intrusions over the past few years targeting universities that engage in military research, including Penn State and the University of Virginia." The Defense Department is now investigating these partnerships, and the Pentagon's undersecretary for research and engineering has said the Department is "not yet as vigilant" as it needs to be to ensure military research is withheld from campuses that have these ties. The Free Beacon says that Congress has also targeted these partnerships in recent months, hosting several congressional panels that "have examined attempts by foreign actors to infiltrate American institutions of higher education to conduct espionage and steal federally funded research. A bipartisan group of 26 lawmakers last month sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy Devos urging her to require American universities working with Chinese technology titan Huawei to hand over all documents and information related to the partnership." Phillips of NanoMench added that the US is giving away valuable proprietary technology to China through faulty technology transfer commercialization programs : "We're publishing our very best science out of our universities, national labs onto the internet, giving it free to countries like China. It just doesn't make any sense to the extent that that could be moved from ideation to invention to innovation to full execution commercialization and we could have the lead on innovation, not only now, but on a permanent basis and all that translates to GDP. The winner is not going to be through wars anymore, it's going to be through GDP -- the country with the best jobs and the most jobs." Phillips was adamant about Russia, later telling Breitbart : “We’ve got to wake up to the fact that we’re in a war [with China]. It’s one of the biggest wars that have ever been fought, and it’s cyber warfare....It’s not dropping bombs, that’s why people haven’t noticed it. Instead, people are fixated on Russia....If you measure countries by their GDP, they’re not even in the top ten -- they’re a trillion and a halft. It’s Mexico with nukes. Otherwise, it’s not even a player. And we need to stop all this stuff. Russia is not a threat. They really aren’t." When Phillips testified before the House Intelligence Committee, the Free Beacon says that Democrats unsuccessfully tried to motion to subpoena a US interpreter that translated for President Donald Trump during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Phillips said : “Russia means nothing....Meanwhile, China has openly stated its goal to become the world’s superpower and surpass the US and is using technology theft and cyber crimes against the US and American companies to achieve it....America invents. China manufactures, steals, monetizes, and that’s why they’re outgrowing us. When they pass us in GDP in a big way, the world is going to change like never before. And when this happens, America loses like never before.” Phillips told Congress that China has a "a cyber outfit that has 25,000 soldiers. They are doing more cyber warfare, to the tune of somewhere between stealing $400 to 600 billion.” Phillips said he learned firsthand what the Chinese were doing when the FBI showed up “en force” to NanoMech and told him : “Your firewall is the most hit firewall in the southern U.S. -- millions of hits a day from China.” The Free Beacon says Phillips was told that the Chinese were so good at stealing secrets he should keep his best science “off the grid” -- in logbooks like in the 1900s. Phillips said that Americans cannot be complacent. During the hearing, he laid out what the US could do, including revamping its tech transfer programs, growing and retaining top talent, and investing more in scientific research and development : “Our future’s going to be made great or not great by our GDP -- do we have good jobs, are we producing great jobs?. We’re in a moon race right now.” • • • THE US AND CHINA TO GO BACK TO THE TABLE ON TRADE AND TARIFFS. When CNBC reported this on Tuesday morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 100 points, with 3M and Boeing as the best-performing stocks in the index. The S&P 500 gained 0.4% as industrials rose 1%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7%. Bloomberg News reported that the world's largest economies are trying to restart talks in order to avoid a full -blown trade war. The report, which cites two people familiar with the situation, said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are talking privately about the matter. Mnuchin told CNBC last week "there continue to be some quiet conversations" regarding China. • • • AND THE PRESIDENT TAKES A GAMBLE ON IRAN. President Trump noted at his Monday joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Conte that he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with “no preconditions. I would certainly meet with Iran if they wanted to meet. I don’t know if they’re ready yet,” Trump said, when asked at a White House press conference about a possible meeting with Rouhani. Trump said he would set “no preconditions,” and, “If they want to meet, I’ll meet, anytime they want.” The President already has held summits with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. While Trump drew bipartisan criticism for his Putin summit...the President maintained Monday that they had a “great meeting” and stressed that he’s willing to meet with “anybody.” • President Trump was asked about Iran after he and Iranian President Rouhani traded threats in July. Fox News suggested that : "Any such meeting, if ever scheduled, would surely tackle Trump’s decision earlier this year to pull out of the Obama-era pact calling on Iran to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for reduced sanctions. Trump has suggested he could be laying the groundwork for a new nuclear deal. In contrast with his tweet, Trump assumed a more measured tone during the joint press conference Monday, alongside visiting Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. He said such a meeting would be the 'appropriate thing to do,' and would come neither from a position of strength nor weakness. • PRESS TV commented on Trump's offer. PRESS TV is the first Iranian international news network, broadcasting in English and French, is affiliated with the State-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, whose head is appointed directly by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is considered to be close to the country's conservative political faction. Press TV is headquartered in Teheran and has offices and bureaus around the world, including London, Beirut, Damascus, Kabul and the Gaza Strip. So, PRESS TV reported that Iran President Hassan Rouhani has once again denounced the US withdrawal from the 2015 international nuclear deal, saying the ball is now in Europe’s court to make up for Washington’s absence and work to keep the landmark agreement alive. Rouhani made the remarks on Tuesday during a meeting with Britain's new Ambassador to Iran Rob Macaire, who submitted his credentials to the Iranian president. Rouhani said : “Today, we are at a very important historic moment regarding the JCPOA,” Rouhani said, referring to the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The president said the European parties need to transparently declare what measures they intend to adopt in order to make up for Washington’s “illegal” pullout from the Iran deal. The US withdrawal entails the re-imposition of not only sanctions on Iran but also the so-called secondary sanctions on third countries. However, the European parties have expressed their determination to maintain their business links with Iran and have presented Tehran with a package of incentives to help save the JCPOA. But, PRESS TV also reported that France says Europe is unlikely to put together an economic package for Iran before November as Teheran urges "verifiable and actionable commitments." Recently, the Trump White House announced that it seeks to bring Iran’s oil sales down to “zero.” In response, Iran said that if it is rendered incapable of selling its oil, other countries in the region will face the same -- a relatively implicit statement that was taken to mean that Iran may block its waters in the Strait of Hormuz, through which international oil cargoes pass. Rouhani also complained that some of the parties to the JCPOA are not fully implementing the terms of the deal in business and banking sectors : “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always been ready to develop good relations with European countries, and now, following the US illegal exit from the JCPOA, the ball is in Europe’s court in the limited time remaining,” he added. In turn, according to PRESS TV, the UK ambassador, whose country -- along with France and Germany -- is a party to the Iran deal, expressed London’s support for the JCPOA, saying the European states are making efforts to preserve the accord. He also said the UK attaches great importance to Iran’s policy of reducing tensions in the region, and wants to develop its ties with the Islamic Republic. The British ambassador further noted that problems could be resolved through dialog and diplomacy. • The US and Italy vs the EU and Iran...anyone taking bets??? • • • TRUMP'S CENTRAL AMERICA STRATEGY. While it may not be so foreign as Iran or North Korea, Central America plays a key role in US foreign policy these days. Epoch Times reported on Monday that : "To help solve the illegal immigration crisis, the United States is working south of the border to curtail the drivers in Central America -- namely poverty, high crime, and weak governance. About half of Central America’s population -- located in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras -- lives in poverty, according to State Department estimates. In 2015, El Salvador and Honduras had the highest global rates of intentional homicides, respectively, according to data from the United Nations. And although the homicide rates in both countries dramatically declined in 2017, according to State Department data, they still exceed those of most countries in the region. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership hopes to work closely with the president-elect of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to align immigration policies -- especially in regard to asylum-seekers -- and to crack down on transnational violence. Kevin McAleenan, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, at an event in Washington last Friday, said : “I think if we can come up with an approach to protect asylum-seekers in a shared vision with Mexico, with Canada, with other regional partners, that’s something we could do near-term. If you look at El Salvador, the migration from El Salvador has reduced 65% this year. What they’re doing is working -- both on the security front and on the economic opportunity front. We want to achieve those same successes in Honduras and Guatemala, as well.” McAleenan said that from the 1930s through to 2009, more than 90% of illegal immigrants were single male Mexican nationals who were crossing for seasonal work. The first year that the proportion of Mexican nationals crossing illegally dropped below 90% was 2009, and “3 of the last 5 years have been more than 50% non-Mexican nationals. The change has been driven by Central American. Now we see, this year, a full 40% of those crossing our border are either children unaccompanied, that’s 15%, or families, that’s 25%....Most family units consist of an adult female and one child." McAleenan says that another change is in the number of illegal immigrants claiming asylum, which has skyrocketed to about 20% of all illegal border crossers, from fewer than 1% in 2013. About 20% of all asylum claims are approved by immigration judges. In 2009, DHS conducted more than 5,000 credible-fear reviews for asylum claims, according to Department of Justice numbers. By 2016, that number had increased to 94,000. McAleenan said the multibillion-dollar industry of human and drug smuggling by transnational criminal organizations has caused significant issues for Mexican nationals who live along smuggling routes and near the southwest border : “This process of smugglers controlling the access is really a phenomenon of only the last five to 10 years. Previously, if you wanted to migrate to the United States, you could kind of chart your own path, get transportation up to the Mexican border, see where other people were gathering, and try to cross together with a group. Now, it’s impossible to get across without paying a smuggler -- usually around $500 just to cross the actual border line. That’s why that violence is so intense right now in Tamaulipas. They’re fighting over every inch of access to that river.” Tamaulipas is the state directly south of Rio Grande Valley in southeast Texas, which is the busiest illegal crossing point along the southern border. The murder rate in Tamaulipas has more than doubled in the past 18 months alone, McAleenan said. In the last election cycle, 122 candidates for political office in Mexico were murdered at the federal, state, and local level. Several hundred candidates had to quit or drop out due to threats, he said. McAleenan blames the loopholes in the United States’ immigration system for fueling the violence across the border and “inviting people to take this dangerous journey. We’ve got to be cognizant of what our system is doing both to Central America and in Mexico." Partnering with those countries is essential to both addressing the economic push factor from Central America and dismantling the transnational criminal organizations that are victimizing the most vulnerable people en route to the United States : “We have talked with these leaders. They don’t want to lose their youth and energy to this migration flow. They don’t want to put their vulnerable families and children in the hands of smugglers." McAleenan says DHS is launching a messaging campaign in Central America this month, in Spanish and indigenous dialects, to explain the dangers of the journey and also to promote the future economic opportunity in their home country. He said that although most of the talk is about gang violence, the migration flow is driven by economic concerns and lack of economic opportunity : “That’s really fundamental to understand -- there’s a lot of discussion about gang violence, a lot of discussion about coercion, but economics is the fundamental core of this.” Therefore, McAleenan says, the Trump administration is expanding on the scope of the Alliance for Prosperity plan that was begun at the end of 2014. It was started by Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador and has been supported each year since by a US congressional allocation of $460 million to $750 million. The plan copied a similar one in Colombia that helped to dismantle drug cartels, increase security, and foster economic activity. In Central America, US programs contributed to $92.2 million in exports and domestic sales and the creation of more than 29,000 jobs in 2017, according to the State Department. During a June 2017 conference to discuss prosperity and security in Central America, the Central American governments committed to enact reforms to improve their business climates, including eliminating red tape, improving transparency, and streamlining business formalization processes. • • • DEAR READERS, President Trump is juggling a lot of foreign policy balls and he has thus far not dropped any of them. It is the difference in having a President who sees helping America and the world as a personal duty, and not the usual Deep State and politician view of going through the motions in order to be re-elected and get a taxpayer-funded pension. • President Trump last week threatened on Twitter to unleash severe consequences on Iran if it tries to attack the US. He has already imposed sanctions that will cut Iranian oil out of the international market in November. The hand-wringing has been frenzied. But, on Tuesday oil prices closed at their lowest in 2018, causing Phil Flynn, analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, to say : "I think we went from getting ready to price in a total loss of Iranian exports to maybe, just maybe, we won't lose any exports, depending on whether or not the Iranians take Donald Trump up on his offer." A Reuters poll showed on Tuesday that oil prices are likely to hold fairly steady this year and next as increased output from OPEC and the US meets growing demand led by Asia and helps to offset supply disruptions from Iran and elsewhere. • And, instead of setting out to destroy the US position in the international export market, as so many predicted, China wants to talk in order to avoid a trade war. • In addition, Trump will bring the immigration problem to a halt if only Congress shuts up and lets him work his magic. • BlabberBuzz published an article today with the title "Trump Is Pulling Us Kicking and Screaming into Peace and Prosperity." We'll talk about it tomorrow -- but tonight, let's just relish the success President Trump is offering to us and the world. History will surely ask why so many supposedly bright people want to destroy President Trump and how they could have been so wrong. Trump's Peace and Prosperity. Savor it.