The President's Daily Brief - January 9th, 2023. Biden, Trudeau, and AMLO Meet to Discuss Drugs, Trade, and Immigration.

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

It’s January 9th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ I’ve got four briefs for you this morning that are shaping America — and the world. First, a big brief on North America this morning, where we start in Washington DC, then Denver, El Paso, and two stops south of the border. That’s where the leaders of Canada, the US, and Mexico are gathered this morning talking drugs, immigration, and trade. Then second, we leave North America and head to a breaking story out of Brazil. Protestors there have stormed key government buildings as they make clear they will not support a new Leftist president — perhaps with the support of the military. Third, we later travel to Vietnam where US taxpayers are helping that country to transition away from coal and towards solar energy. Later, we close out the podcast with a listener question about my previous brief on vitamins and medicines from China. I’ll answer that question, plus more possible trouble with the supply of infant formula.  ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. A good day to you, ladies and gentlemen, I've got three briefs for you this morning that are shaping America and the world. First, a big brief on North America this morning where we start in Washington, D.C., then head off to Denver, El Paso, and two stops south of the border. That's where the leaders of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico are gathered this morning talking drugs and immigration and trade. Then second, we leave North America and head to the breaking story out of Brazil.

Protesters there have stormed key government buildings as they make clear that they are not going to support a new leftist president, and perhaps they've got the support of their military. Third, we later travel to the country of Vietnam, where U.S. taxpayers are helping that country transition away from coal and towards solar energy. Later, we close out the podcast with a list of. question about my previous brief on vitamins and medicines from China. I'll answer that question, plus more possible trouble with the supply of infant formula. But before we get to all of that, we got to get started with this. We're talking this morning about the future of North America.

That's our lead brief as the president and prime minister of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada all gather this week to talk about the future of their countries. And this brief is really important because sometimes we forget how critical each nation is to the other. So for instance, on just trade, Canada and Mexico are the leading trade partners for the United States, bigger than even China. So the relationship between our three countries is critical, simply based, of course, on trade and jobs, maybe even yours, say nothing, of course, of illegal migration or stopping human traffickers. So folks, this is a brief that we should definitely care about. All right, let's get started.

And let's kick off in Washington, D.C. Over the weekend, the White House confirmed plans that Joe Biden would travel first to the border city of El Paso, Texas before heading on to Mexico City to meet with those leaders of Canada and Mexico. White House spokeswoman Corrine Jompier laid out the agenda for Mr. Biden, including things like trade, the energy policies, drug, humanitarian issues, and then she pivoted to migration, especially illegal migration. As PDB listeners know, this has been an issue of great weakness for Joe Biden politically,

with records set over the past two years for the number of illegal aliens coming across the southern border, over two million encounters just last year, in fact. Well, Ms. Jean-Pierre anticipated this kind of criticism, so she led her brief with this. Quote, the president inherited a mess because of what the last administration did. We inherited a mess. And, you know, Republicans in Congress made it worse by blocking comprehensive immigration reform. And so what you're seeing from this president is he is acting. He's acting to secure the border.

So I will let you all decide if that's true that Joe Biden deserves no blame and Republicans and Trump deserve all of it. But one thing is pretty darn clear. Biden's immigration reforms that he announced last week, those have set off a firestorm of controversy. I briefed you on those last week. or just refresh our memories. They include expanding or reintroducing programs previously embraced by President Trump. Well, as you can imagine, that kicked off a firestorm. One pro-immigration group out of El Paso called the Annunciation House

blasted Joe Biden with some, well, sarcasm by saying, quote, the Biden administration has found the perfect immigration tool. No one gets any rights. Meanwhile, the organization ACLU said that, Biden's new plan, quote, further ties his administration to the poisonous anti-immigrant policies of the Trump era. In other words, folks, Mr. Biden's leftist allies are not buying that this policy shift is either moral or good. And speaking of good and bad, let's shift now from D.C. to Denver, Colorado. Over the weekend, the governor of that state, Democrat Jared Paulus, was blasted

again by the mayors of the sanctuary cities in Chicago and New York. As PDB listeners know from the briefs last week, those Democrat mayors are very angry because fellow Democrat, again, Governor Polis, is shipping several thousand illegals from his state to their communities, all without warning. Well, that prompted these mayors to release a pretty remarkable open letter trashing their fellow Democrat. In fact, they said that he must, quote, cease and desist, end quote, in sending these illegal migrants. They added that, quote, the buses have arrived in our towns without any regard to either of our city's abilities to either properly shelter these migrants or care for them, end quote. And then they went on to demand that Paulus reverse course. Well, he did. Yesterday, Governor Polis announced that the last of the buses shipping these illegals would leave today.

No more will depart his state. He said that he and his administration will somehow figure out a way to deal with it. By the way, so far this year, Chicago has dealt with about 4,000 new illegals in their sanctuary city. In New York, now about another 36,000. Those numbers, by the way, are according to the Wall Street Journal. So if you compare those collective 40,000 illegals over a year or so, to what's being experienced in El Paso, Texas, well, in just four months from August to December,

that small town in Texas has experienced a flood of 84,000, thousand and eighty-two illegals. That's according to the mayor's office. So to just state this very clearly, El Paso is dealing with double the migrants in just four months as compared to those two massive cities in one year. At any rate, that takes us from Denver, New York, and Chicago to old El Paso this morning. Mr. Biden, in fact, was there yesterday meeting with city officials, plus nonprofit groups and customs and border patrol officials, all discussing. the illegal migrant crisis in that city. According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas Governor Greg Abbott also met with Biden out

at the El Paso International Airport. Apparently, the two men shook hands. Not too much more than that. Although the Republican governor did pass a letter to Biden that said, quote, my goodness, here we go. Quote, this chaos at the border is the direct result of your failure to enforce the immigration laws that Congress enacted. your open border policies have emboldened the cartels who grow wealthy by trafficking deadly fentanyl and even human beings.

Texans are paying an especially high price for your failure. Well, Biden later said that he hadn't had the time to read the governor's letter. I'll let you know what he said at some point when he does. Well, after leaving the airport, Mr. Biden then went to various places around El Paso, but according to the Daily Mail and local media outlets, the streets of El Paso were clearly, cleared of illegals. Gone too were their tents and their trash. So the allegation is that Biden's team didn't want any pictures or video of him surrounded by the extent of the crisis. Well, so they just swept it all away. One final thing here before we leave El Paso. According to multiple

media outlets, it appears that this is the first time that Biden has been to the southern border in his 50 years in Washington, D.C. Now, to be fair, he apparently drove by the border. But, back in 2008 when he was running for president against Barack Obama. That's according to the White House. Well, you can take that for what it is. All right, with that, let's leave Texas and head to Mexico, specifically the state of Sinaloa. Now, I briefed you previously, actually on Friday,

that the Mexican government captured the son of former cartel chief El Chapo, or Joaquin Guzman, in that state. So there was an immediate outbreak of cartel violence against the police and the military, trying to get that sun back. Several dozen folks died. Well, Saturday was especially bad. Lots of statewide lockdowns.

Plus, tourists were ordered to shelter in place. In fact, listen to this. A group of tourists from Canada is apparently stuck in Mazatlan. That's according to the Canadian press. Apparently, someone set a fire the buses that they were going to take to the airport. So instead of trying again, those tourists from Canada decided to lay low for a while. Probably a good call. Still, the general situation as of this morning is modestly calm across the state,

but don't expect that to last. As former DEA chief Mike Vigil told the Guardian newspaper, we should expect to see a spike in violence in the coming days between rival factions within the Sinaloa cartel, as well as the opposing cartel in the region, known as the Halisco New Generation. So the council from last week that I gave you to hold off on travel to Mexico, for a while. That remains my advice. Meanwhile, one other thing here, that former DEA leader that I just

mentioned, Mr. Mike Vigil, he was asked whether the arrest of El Chapo's son will have any impact on a fight against fentanyl or human trafficking. He said no, their operations are spread too far and too wide. Although, to be very precise, his more colorful response was, quote, the cartel operates in six of the seven continents on earth. The only continent they don't operate in is Antarctica, because the penguins don't have any money to buy drugs, end quote. Well, to be fair, they don't have wallets either or hands. But anyway, with that, let's head south.

Not to Antarctica, though, but to Mexico City. That is going to be our last stop for our first brief this morning. Mexican President, Mr. Lopez Obrador, is meeting with Mr. Biden and Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. They'll be discussing North American relations starting today through Wednesday. Also related to energy, Mr. Lopez Obrador wants Biden to offer up cash to help him build solar farms in the Mexican state of Sonora. And if I were a betting man, I would say that Biden will probably say yes to that request.

And finally, there will be lots and lots of talk about illegal migration and how to stop it or address it. Now, I promise you that you will hear lots of decisions. discussion about root causes, which, as PDB listeners know, is the goal of stopping illegal migration by first stopping poverty in crime in places like Nicaragua or El Salvador. In other words, these folks would never leave in the first place. So this idea of root causes is something we have talked a lot about here on the PDB, back on July 27th, in fact, and again on November 10th.

You can revisit those briefs if you have time, but don't worry. Don't worry if you don't. I suspect that we will revisit those briefs later this week and talk about this root causes argument. And we will once again get to the bottom of whether or not that argument and those policies are worth your consideration. Now with that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. When we come back, I've got two more critical pieces of news for you. So hang tight and we will be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right.

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Kayak, got that right. Welcome back to the PDB. I've got two more critical pieces of news for you this morning. First, a breaking story out of Brazil. About 4,000 protesters gained access to the country's Supreme court, Congress, and presidential palace. There are some reports of damage to those buildings and historical documents, but also stories of people taking selfies, even with the police. Regardless, the claim by these 4,000 protesters is that the last election, just a couple of months

ago, was illegitimate, and that their candidate, former President Bolsonaro, actually won. They are staunchly opposed to the man currently leading the nation, a radical leftist named President Lula de Silva. Now, what's very curious about this protest is that it's been planned and publicized for weeks on social media. So it came as no surprise to anyone. Plus, listen to this. When the protesters began to gather sort of in mass, they were actually escorted by military police cars with flashing lights to these various government buildings. It was only two hours later after the military escort folks left, did riot police arrive on the scene.

So it suggests that we could have a military coup brewing, as has happened in Brazilian history. We shall see. Meanwhile, there's been pretty universal condemnation of the breach of these buildings and the protesters. So De Silva's leftist government has slammed these folks. No surprise there. But also, Bolsonaro has condemned these protesters, saying, quote, public protests by law are part of democracy. However, depredations and invasions of public buildings as occurred today.

as well as those that were carried out by the left in 2013 and 2017, those were all outside of the law. So folks, I flagged this breaking story for you for two reasons. First, Brazil is notably important for the United States when it comes to trade. America sends about $10 billion in machinery to that country annually, and another $600 million in agricultural products. That's all according to the U.S. Trade Reps Office. So this is a country that's very important for our,

farmers and ranchers and blue-collar workers. In other words, if Brazil is in crisis, some parts of our economy might be too. Second, these protests ultimately stem from the fact that the country is deeply divided after the last election. The final vote tally was close to 51% to 49%. And part of that division is based on this. President de Silva was thrown in prison for corruption and money laundering back in 2018. So the very fact that he could run again and be allowed to rule the nation as a convicted criminal, well, it's probably no surprise that having such a crook back in office might cause domestic concerns.

One final thought on this. You'll likely see all sorts of politicians here in the United States blaming this sort of spasm of protest on, yeah, Donald Trump. So for instance, the socialist and Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted this out, yesterday. Quote, nearly two years to the date that the U.S. Capitol was attacked by fascists. We see fascist movements abroad attempting to do the same, but now in Brazil, end quote. Meanwhile, her Democrat colleague, Eric Swalwell of California, tweeted this out, saying, quote, this violent attack on Brazil's government is the first export of Kevin McCarthy's

Insurrection Party, end quote. Well, obviously, he is referring to the Republican Party and the new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. But to just be really clear, these allegations are utterly without proof. And I promise you, if there is evidence that former President Trump or Kevin McCarthy have somehow helped organize this protest in Brazil, I will bring that to you. But we can safely say in the meantime that Ms. Acosio-Cortez and Mr. Swalwell are spouting some pretty outlandish, leftist conspiracy theories, and I wouldn't pay any of it any mind. So all in all, folks, I will be following this break.

story very, very closely. Finally this morning, let's take off from Brazil and head over to Vietnam. In the past couple of months, we've talked more and more about this former enemy of America. As you probably recall, Hanoi is now a bigger trading partner to us than the United Kingdom. Plus, we're selling them modest defense equipment like helicopters and coast guard ships. That is quite a change from years gone by. Well, we've just learned of a new development out of Vietnam and it will impact not just American taxpayers but taxpayers from around the world. So a couple of weeks ago, Vietnam signed an agreement with the United States, the UK, Japan, and the European Union for something called a Just Energy Transition Partnership. It's a $15.5 billion deal to get Vietnam to move away from coal and natural gas and instead embrace solar and wind power.

Now, this will be quite a change if it happens. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, Vietnam's electricity comes mostly from coal right now, about 53%. Natural gas, that comes in around 15%, but solar, only 5%. So this $15.5 billion in grants and cheap loans to Vietnam could go a long way to change that, with particular focus on solar. But as PDB listeners know, that's a problem, or at least it should be. About 80% of the world's supply of solar panels come from China, and they are mostly manufactured by slave labor in the Xinjiang province. You might remember that these imprisoned people are the Uyghur people, and Beijing has

sent them to live in concentration camps and force them to produce and manufacture all sorts of products, from clothes to solar panels. So could it be that taxpayers from around the world are going to be buying Chinese slave panels so that Vietnam can go dirty green? Well, according to the South China Morning Post, the answer is yes. Analysts in Vietnam and China anticipate that most of the panels will come from China, with a minor number coming from Vietnamese manufacturers too. And by the way, it's not just Vietnam that's getting one of these just energy transition agreements.

Indonesia is getting one worth around $20 billion, too. And we have South Africa as well, with an initial investment there of $8.5 billion. By the way, that amount should grow to over $98 billion over five years if this agreement is to be expanded. That's according to the government of the United Kingdom, which wishes to do that. They posted this last November in a press release. So, folks, as ever I will let you decide if hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars from all around the world buying solar panels from concentration, camp victims is something that we should support or rather not. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we conclude your morning brief. But I've got one more thing before I let you go. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to the PDB folks. I've got one more thing before I let you go. Well, back on December 22nd, I briefed you all on America's vitamin and supplement industry, one that sources their materials from China. I had a number of you write in about that brief. Of course, there was Tony in Vancouver, also Vivian and Amy from somewhere in America. All of you expressed alarm and you offered your reactions. One of you, I believe it was Seth in Cedar Rapids, wrote in saying, Wait a minute. Didn't we just go through the pandemic where our policymakers swore that we should not be reliant

on Beijing's medical supply chain? Did none of that get fixed? Well, Seth, the answer is no. It didn't get fixed. based on recent reporting from NBC News and other media outlets, we are still deeply reliant on the communists for our antibiotics, antidepressants, blood thinners, birth control pills, and drugs for chemotherapy, just to name a few.

In fact, we still import about $3.2 billion worth of drugs from China, but it's actually more than that. And that's because there is something that you might not know about this issue. And that's that other countries that we import medicines from, specifically India and Europe, they also rely on China for their base ingredients as they sort of cook up other prescription drugs. Now, as bad as all of that is, and it is, there's one final variable here. Right now, COVID is ripping through China for the first time. And because of that, a number of factories are shutting down or reducing production. Now, how many factories we're talking

about. Ah, that is a big question. I briefed you on CNBC data saying that some production in some places is down 50 to 75%. So depending on the quality of that data plus the products that these factories are producing, well, that could impact our supply of critical medicines, especially if China hoards it for themselves as the COVID pandemic hits them. Now, it's true that getting fidelity on all this right now is really tough because China is not exactly known for its transparency on, well, anything. Finally, and speaking of shortages, one last thing to offer you, but not related to medicines or supplements and such, but rather baby formula. Now, you all might remember that we went through a formula crisis this past spring and summer. It was a major shortage. Well, to ease that

shortage, the FDA waived a 17.5% tariff on foreign baby formula. Well, thankfully, supply increased. But that tariff waiver has now expired. In fact, it expired last Friday. So imported formula will again face tariffs as of today, which means one of three things. First, they stop selling it because they can't compete. Second, they absorb the cost. Or third, they hike prices. Now, which one of those three will it be? We'll find out this week and next. So there you go, moms and dads. You might want to keep that in mind and prepare. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes your morning brief.

As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here, talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John, chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. and the truth shall make you free. Good day. Some follow the noise.

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