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Are DJT Republicans forgetting about promises to tackle high prices in first 100 Days asks the WSJ?

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Italian leader Meloni comes to the White House for a meeting with US president DJT on April 17, 2025. DJT says there will be a deal with the EU "100 percent."

"There will be a trade deal, 100 percent, but it will be a fair deal."

Meloni criticised "woke ideology" and said she fully supported the "war against illegal migration".

"The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together."

"I'm proud of sitting here as prime minister of an Italy that today has a very good situation - a stable country, a reliable country."

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WSJ report shows that on the morning of the 90 Day Pause in Tariffs announcement discussions took place with the Swiss prime minister, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and watching Fox News interview of JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon. Seeing the turmoil in financial markets and bond markets, US president DJT made the decision to give time to make the agreements with about 50 countries, and time for financial markets to understand the president's  policy and goals to reformulate the world trading system into one that offers a level playing field. The chart showing the Tariffs of 67% by China and US 34% imposed tariff in the Rose Garden on April 2, 2025, was say reports the result of the influence on the president of the advice of Peter Navarro.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's expertise is in financial markets as a protege of Soros, Navarro's is world trade. Bessent stepped in when financial markets appeared to reflect the uncertainty and convinced the president that the 90 day pause would be the best way to implement the policy on trade. There is a vigorous debate in the administration about how to get a level playing field for trade, and get the job done without disruptions in financial markets or a recession induced by uncertainty. On April 10 as part of the effort to talk to the American people US president DJT opened up his Cabinet meeting to the media and had Bessent, Borghum, RFK Jr and Marco Rubio talk about their plans and policies. Proper implementation, gaining confidence of the people of America and financial markets, is now as important as the goals and policies in the next 90 days. Getting the trade deals with the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Britain and India would go a long way to reassure financial markets and set the right tone for the future.   ...

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Oil prices are at $73 a barrel in Jan 2025. DJT's goal for 2025 is for oil prices to drop to $45 to bring inflation down. To do this requires shale oil producers and Saudi Arabia to increase production. This report in WSJ says Saudis will have a hard time managing budget needs at this price and have indicated they will not increase production. Shale oil producers are also reluctant saying they are in a different phase in the production cycle and are not looking to expand production. 

Prices at the pump have dropped from $5.00 a gallon to $3.10. In 2024 per barrel prices were at $90. 

The new administration hopes that reducing regulations and speeding up the approval process, and new incentives would help increase production.

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Russian strategy is to continue to make gains and not seek an immediate ceasefire. Russian drone attacks on Ukraine continue in May 2025.

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In his commencement address to to 1000 cadets graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point, NY, DJT tells graduates to think big, take risks and hold on to the culture. He says president Dwight D. Eisenhower who graduated from West Point believed that it was important to think big the harder the challenge, as problems sometimes difficult to solve become easier to tackle when one thinks big at the larger problem. Other advice was to hold on to the momentum achieved in any task to move on to the next step which may lead to big results. And always living with thrifty habits and hard work that pays of with perseverance. A certain CEO of a large bank who has been around almost forever says most important in life is to go out and listen to people, talk to people, the only way to find out what is happening. He also says courtesy and humility are very important. These are not habits DJT mentioned at West Point but are very important in real life along with hard work and perseverance to achieve lasting results. ...

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Oil and gas, pharmaceuticals are not affected by the 26% US tariffs on India in April 2025. The domestic market in India is large enough and growing. India could use this opportunity to get its manufacturers in shape to compete with US products. It is making a huge effort to improve manufacturing, infrastructure and logistics base that will make it a completely different competitor by 2030. Having a stable government focused on grwoth and the economy, infrastructure, farmer's welfare, was a major step for India in 2024. Much of the base for industrial growth and modernization will be laid by 2030.

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Already Japan, Vietnam and Taiwan are negotiating. India will join South Korea. Britain will follow. Only Canada and China are holding back because of the imbalance in trade heavily in their favor and a failure to see that it is about fairness. In the EU only Germany has a surplus many nations have a deficit, it seeks to start negotiating at the first opportunity. Contrary to what most of the American and British media says Lighhizer and Jamieson have thought this thing through for many years before arriving at the Tariffs advice they gave the US president as his 2 USTR. It is these two not the president acting on his own whim as the media like to show. And Lighthizer has done this before- as Deputy USTR in the 1980 with Japan on the opposite side and come out of it with winning solutions for the US and for the world.

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Efforts to bring the two sides together for ceasefire succeed for Black Sea but hit snags along the way. Russia wanting to get sanctions lifted on it's Agricultural Bank to lift grain and fertilizer exports. A separate deal on not attacking energy infrastructure was negotiated.  Fundamentally NATO needed to be reconstituted at the end of the Cold War. Russia's apparent weakness was temporary as it converted to a market economy from the Soviet model. It's GDP is not a correct representation of it's capabilities and need for respect as an advanced European economy. With US-Russian cooperation nothing like Syria and Venezuelan disasters would have happened disrupting the fabric of American and European democratic systems. Russian conditions include ones that were clear from the early days of the war. Ukraine joining NATO threatens Russian security. That this was not to be allowed. And Ukraine to relinquish territory now controlled by Russia in Crimea and in Ukraine's east. DJT in the US has ruled out joining NATO for Ukraine. These territories have been integrated into Russia and it is unlikely that this would change so that continuation of the war after so many lives are lost doesn't make sense. Europeans particular Baltic Republics and Poland are concerned about Russian intentions- this too is not going to change by continuation of the war. It can be addressed by putting in concrete safeguards. ...

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DJT Commerce Department restricts access to US technology to Chinese defense companies. Inspur a server maker and Sugon supercomputer maker are added to the list limiting access. The goal is to restrict access to technology for defense applications including hypersonic weapons. This goes further than the Biden administration.

Export controls don't always work when Chinese companies control ownership in American companies as shown in this example in WSJ for Inspur Corp.

"American technology should never be used against the American people,” -Jeffrey Kessler,  head of the US Commerce department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

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Immigration and drug flows became an explosive issue in the US by 2016, yet between 2016-2024 Venezuelan people outflows added up to 7.1 million migrants including about 1 million to the US, as Venezuela collapsed and Russia intervened to keep the regime.   None of this could have happened with major powers US Russian cooperation. The Monroe Doctrine of president Monroe, 1824, warned European powers to not restore colonial influence in the Americas. By 2024 Syria sent 14 million of its population to Europe, and Venezuela sent 7.7 million migrants to Colombia, Brazil, and the US, as their economies and democratic institutions collapsed. Missing was working cooperation with another military power Russia. Clinton, Bush, Obama, Western financial interests, failed to grasp the importance of US Russia cooperation and mutual respect. Obama denigrated Russia as insignificant because of its GDP.   Russia intervened in failing states but gained little, straining the good relations mutual respect from earlier periods of its history and interactions with the US.  DJT tariff on all importers of Venezuelan oil affect China to which Venezuela sent 55% of its oil exports over half a million barrels a day. It also affects India and other importers. These importers say experts, will shift to Russian crude preferring it to heavy oil from Venezuela. This is a sore point for Americans affected by violent crime from Venezuelan gang members reflected in recent election results. This also affects the sense of safety in American neighborhoods and in towns across America. The Linken Riley Act was passed in the US Congress as action on this issue. People in China, India, and in Europe, and some even in Silicon Valley in the US fail to grasp the way this has affected communities across the US when after decades of deindustrialization and shipping jobs overseas by American business, these communities are affected by a sense of lack of safety in their neighborhoods. There is also a failure to grasp the harm done by migration of 7.7 million people from Venezuela, almost a fourth of the country's population, because of mismanagement of the economy and crippling inflation, and the failure of democratic institutions to function effectively. A failure to grasp the extent of the economic and human disaster in Venezuela. DJT says- "Venezuela has been very hostile to the US and the Freedoms which we espouse...Venezuela has "purposefully and deceitfully sent to the United States, undercover, tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals".    ...

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As both Harris and Trump focus on increasing Border Security and fighting transnational gangs at the Border, Mexico's new president Claudia Sheinbaum has a strategy for the first 100 days to tackle the 10 cities with the highest homicide rates that include Acapulco, Guanajuato.