A moving visit to Pearl Harbor preludes what is proving to be a very fruitful Asian tour. Is it a whole year already?
On Friday Melania and I laid a wreath inside the USS Arizona Memorial to commemorate the 2400+ American lives lost at Pearl Harbor. We then scattered white flower petals onto the water above the clearly visible USS Arizona wreckage. This was a first visit to Pearl Harbor and a very memorable one.
Washington’s been buzzing at a joint federal agencies’ report on climate change that suggests global warming is real very likely due to human activity. This is ironic timing with us on our way to China – which I once suggested had invented global warming in order to reduce US competitiveness – and with UN led climate talks opening in Bonn with delegates from almost 200 countries attending. But it’s all guesswork.
Even the so-called experts don’t all agree on how sensitive the Earth's climate is to greenhouse gas emissions.
What is true is that the climate is always changing … and that we need coal, oil and gas to supercharge US growth and industry. On that note, we would very much appreciate Saudi Arabia doing their IPO of Aramco with the New York Stock Exchange. That would be an important coup for the US and we don’t want to lose out to London. I’ll give ‘em a Tweet and see what happens.
Ha! So Bush Sr has called me a "blowhard"…. Is that the best you’ve got? Junior apparently worries that he will have been the last Republican president. Where’s HE been for the last year (Happy Birthday in office to me….) !? GW thinks I don't know what it means to be president… I wonder who fed him that idea, it surely wasn’t original.
This Asian tour is important. We’ve not been winning on trade but now we can push for fairer terms with Japan and although I have to give China credit for taking advantage of weaker past Presidents, things have to change there too..
Still they both – along with S. Korea and Russia - are important players in handling N. Korea and maybe it’s time I tried a softer approach in getting Pyongyang to the negotiating table.
Russia again!! L Who’s leaking these documents??? They allegedly show that Wilbur Ross has an interest in Navigator Holdings, which earns millions a year transporting gas for Russian energy firm Sibur. Damn, Wilbur and I go way back but it looks like we may soon need a new commerce secretary with Putin’s son-in-law also in Sibur.
Kim Jong-un has been good for trade though. S. Korea will be ordering billions of dollars in military equipment from the US, thus reducing their trade deficit and enhancing their defence capabilities and there could be massive military and energy orders from Japan who – with US equipment – could shoot down any of Pyongyang’s missiles.
A great trip so far. Lots of trade opportunity!
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