Timing his visit with a stock market “pump and dump”, executed by his friend Bill Ackman and intended to create domestic political turmoil, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits President Trump in the White House.

Smartly, the strategic team in the White House saw the Ackman ‘pump and dump’ as it was triggered and cancelled the formal bilateral press conference in favor of a sit-down open presser in the Oval Office. Recovering from the failure of the strategic headline narrative effort (irrelevant questions about the fake news 90-day tariff pause), Netanyahu was then forced to retreat and outline his remarks unscripted.

President Trump then sat back (semi-detached) and watched Netanyahu discuss tariffs, “the subject of great interest today.” Netanyahu proclaimed that Israel agrees with President Trump about the exploitative use of tariffs against American interests, and President Trump wondered if the viewing audience noticed that if one-way Israeli tariffs were so bad for the “good friend of Israel” then why were they in place? WATCH:

President Trump noted his administration was having direct talks with Iran about their nuclear ambitions.  Stating “we cannot be the stupid people anymore,” the coded messages of geopolitical gamesmanship were very visible from President Trump.

The media questions come at the 9:00 minute mark.  This is the Big Leagues folks.  This is where the major league geopolitical power moves and counter-moves take place, trillions are at stake and generational change is afoot.  As President Trump rightly says, “we have one shot at this folks,” and I believe he is the great American leader to do it.

Bring the thunder!