Dr. Rasmus discusses House Speaker, Paul Ryan’s, announcement this past week to resign and what’s behind it. It’s not about spending more time with his kids or giving up on Trump. What it means for conservative plans to attach social security, medicare, education and other social programs to pay for the annual $1 trillion budget deficits for the next ten years that are baked into the US budget now due to $5 trillion tax cuts and $100 billion a year increases in US war spending. What’s behind Trump’s retreats this past week on trade: signaling US intent to rejoin the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership free trade treaty), going slow on NAFTA revisions, and raising the stakes with China. Trump’s phony trade war with everyone except China. Why tariffs and goods trade deficit is not the US real objective in a trade war with China. The domestic politics basis of Trump’s phony trade war is discussed