Secure Freedom Minute

Trump Bets on Trade Reciprocity to Make American Manufacturing Great Again

Donald Trump has staked his presidency on the proposition that the United States must once again be a manufacturing superpower, both for its economic and national security. Yesterday, he compellingly laid out the case for doing so and what it will entail in terms of reversing decades of trade policies that have imperiled both.
Specifically, the President is ending the practice whereby trading partners around the world impose tariffs and many other restrictions on American exports that have, heretofore, gone unreciprocated. He enumerated many of the most egregious examples of such unfair trade, and assigned U.S. tariffs that would “kindly” only partially level the field.
It remains to be seen how many countries will opt to close their markets further, rather than open them. My guess is that Donald Trump’s bet will substantially pay off, and help make American manufacturing great again.
This is Frank Gaffney.

Judicial Pay-to-Play Should be Rejected in Wisconsin

Today, the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history concludes in Wisconsin. The prime reason is the expectation that, if the leftist candidate being supported by immense amounts of money from George Soros and other Democrat donors, Susan Crawford, prevails she will inject herself in deciding congressional redistricting. It would give the term “activist judge” a new meaning. 
Crawford appealed to donors at a January event billed as “a chance to put two more House seats in play in 2026,” supporting electoral maps designed to make those Republican districts into ones favoring Democrats, possibly impacting control of the federal House of Representatives.
While various courts across the country have injected themselves into redistricting disputes, it’s astounding that a judicial candidate is so nakedly selling her seat to interested partisans. That’s a precedent that should not be set in Wisconsin today. 
This is Frank Gaffney.

Today's Minutemen Defeat the CCP in Michigan

Like the Minutemen at Concord almost exactly 250 years ago, patriots in Michigan have successfully pushed back an invading enemy – in this case the Chinese Communist Party set on establishing a toxic electric battery manufacturing plant in the state’s rural north.
Faced with concerted and sustained local opposition strongly  supported by House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, the CCP’s Gotion High-tech has suspended its application for facility construction. 
This project also breaches restrictions on “foreign adversary inbound investing” in the U.S. energy sector laid out in President Trump’s new “America First Investment Policy.” 
Ditto one being pursued elsewhere in Michigan by yet-another PRC battery manufacturer – a Pentagon-designated “Chinese military company” called CATL, for which Wall Street is hoping to raise $7 billion, flouting presidential inhibitions on outbound investment to China, too.
Attention Minutemen! We must now stand against CATL’s fundraiser. 
This is Frank Gaffney.

Secure America’s “Pacific Heartland” Now!

On Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth marked the 80th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima, liberated from Imperial Japan in World War II at a cost of 26,000 killed.
This occasion, like the rest of Pete’s travels across the Western Pacific last week, offered a most-needed reminder of the importance of the vast region’s strategic islands – and the magnitude of the folly of allowing Communist China to dominate any of them.
Simply put: We risk having to pay again in blood and treasure to reverse another totalitarian foe’s imperialism – and the attendant threat to our vital interests in what the great strategist Cleo Paskal described in a recent PresentDangerChina.org webinar as America’s “Pacific heartland.”
We must now actualize Secretary Hegseth’s highly visible, and most welcome, commitments to support our allies there and counter our mutual enemy, the Chinese Communist Party.

Focus on Deterring Incipient Attacks

It’s a bad time for official Washington to be consumed with a Signal group chat involving top national security officials and a highly partisan journalist. After all, Russia and China appear poised for military aggression that, if not deterred, could prove catastrophic.
Reportedly, there are multiple divisions worth of Russian troops massing in Belarus near its borders with NATO members Poland and the Baltic States. 
And the Chinese Communists are now exercising – without prior notice – the use of air and sea forces against Taiwan, the latest incremental step towards surprise attacks there, and perhaps far beyond. 
Regrettably, our ability to dissuade these “no limits” partners from engaging, presumably jointly, in aggression is largely locked in for the short-term – and probably seriously discounted. Therefore, we must ensure our adversaries are not further encouraged to strike by our perceived internal divisions and distractions.   
This is Frank Gaffney.

Will the SEC Enforce America First Investing - or China First?

For a dozen years, millions of U.S. investors have unwittingly had their pensions, college savings and other funds used to underwrite companies working for the Chinese military. That means they’ve helped our mortal enemy buy the weapons that may be used to kill them – and countless other Americans. 
President Trump has announced an America First Investment Policy to end this insane practice. But top Wall Street leaders like Jamie Dimon, Brian Moynihan, Ted Pick and David Solomon are helping to raise at least another $7 billion for one such company called CATL. Their “China First” policy subverts Mr. Trump’s, and threatens our national security.
Today, Paul Atkins will have his nomination to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission considered in a Senate Banking Committee hearing. We need to know: Will he help enforce America First investing – or further enable the Chinese threat?