Mr. Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Wall Street Financier, Author, Philanthropist, Activist, Lobbyist, Oil & Gas Trader & President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., a New York based private equity “family office” that focuses on originating, structuring, advising and acting as equity investor in management-led buyouts, strategic minority equity investments, equity private placements, consolidations, buildups, and growth capital financing in US based companies and projects and the trading of key physical commodities.

Mr. Abdelnour is also Founder & Chairman of the Board of the Financial Policy Council; a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization designed to give its select group of supporters the opportunity to have direct face-to-face dialogue with the nation’s quintessential powerbrokers and policymakers.

Since 1985, Mr. Abdelnour has been involved in over 125 transactions worth in aggregate over $10 billion in the investment banking, high yield bond and distressed debt markets and has been widely recognized for playing an integral role in those three key market sectors.

Mr. Abdelnour serves on the Advisory board of DPG Investments, a recognized premier multi strategy global merchant banking, alternative investment, management and advisory firm.

He also is the Editor (Economy & Finance) of Blitz.

Recently, Ziad K. Abdelnour has accorded an exclusive interview to Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor, Blitz. Here are the excerpts:

Q1: In your first interview with this newspaper, you predicted President Trump’s re-election in 2020. Do you think he still is the most favored presidential candidate?

A: Yes. Unless there is a scandal more serious than the Russia hoax or some unforeseen economic shock affecting people’s livelihoods, I don’t think the Democrats have a prayer of winning the White House in 2020 – certainly not with any of the buffoons who say they’re thinking of running. The best bet they have today is probably Joe Biden, but Trump would mop the floor with him.

Q2: As an internationally acclaimed economy and finance expert, you have given an A+ to President Trump’s economic policies. But Democrats are saying that this economic progress is a “continuation of the achievements of Obama.” What is your opinion?

A: What Obama achievements? Obama never achieved annual GDP growth higher than 3% any of the eight years he was in office. And it’s easy to ramp up the economy right after a downturn. Trump took over after an economic recovery (the weakest since 1949) had been underway for years, and he is on track to pass this threshold in his second year – GDP growth was 4.2% and 3.5% in the second and third quarters of this year.

Obama would have sold his soul to achieve Trump’s numbers on growth and unemployment. The real test will be whether the current trajectory is sustainable – I personally believe it will be – but there’s no question Trump is the one responsible for getting us where we are today.

Q3: But with Democrats now having majority in the House, don’t you expect them to create obstructions to President Trump’s economic policies?

A: Of course. They will use every tool this power gives them to bring Trump down. Removing him from office will be impossible without control of the Senate, and they can’t tamper with the tax cuts and trade policies driving the Trump economy. But they will hold hearing after hearing, launch investigations, appoint special commissions – you name it – in order to divert public attention, erode consumer confidence, depress the stock market, and so forth.

And the Democrats have sympathizers in the Federal Reserve, which is planning to raise interest rates further in order to slow the economy before the 2020 election.

Q4: President Trump’s political opponents mock his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Does that mean that Democrats do not want to make America great again?

A: They don’t, because Democrats don’t think America was ever all that great. Obama spent eight years repeatedly apologizing for his country’s supposedly sinful past (see this top-ten list).

What Democrats want is power, and they are perfectly willing to sacrifice the long-term wellbeing of America to get it. They threw due process out the window during the Kavanaugh nomination in favor of a political hit job and incited mobs to physically harass conservatives. They want open borders because they want more reliably Democratic voters; whatever the cost to working class Americans who have abandoned the party in droves. Their motto should be, “Make America Suck.”

Q5: In my opinion, the Robert Mueller investigation is a scam, where millions of public dollars are being wasted. What is your opinion of this issue?

A: I agree. Allegations of collusion with Russia are absurd, and the investigation demeans our country and the Constitution. $38 million spent so far to find nothing. What a circus.

Q6: How do you assess President Donald Trump’s economic offensives against China?

I fully back his China policy and consider it effective.

China will be the primary economic, strategic, and military threat to the United States in the century to come.

Despite this threat, past presidents accepted China’s rapacious trade practices because they feared the short-term economic (and thus political) impact of a trade war. Trump understands that ending this grossly unfair imbalance is critical to America’s future and isn’t afraid of the political cost. That’s leadership.

Q7: Please tell us, in your own judgments, why the American voters must re-elect President Donald Trump in 2020?

A: Because the Democrats have no solutions to offer to the American voters other than promoting dissent.

Trump’s track record speaks for itself. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what he can brag about on the campaign trail:

$5 trillion-dollar growth in the stock market

The lowest unemployment in 49 years.

Scrapping of the TPP and its unfair trade provisions.

Over 90% of ISIS forces defeated

Illegal border crossings down

Black home ownership now at the highest level in history

NATO nations beginning to pay their fair share of alliance costs

Revamping of the VA

NAFTA renegotiated

Military strength growing

Putting the Keystone pipeline back in action

Revival of the coal industry

Standing up to China

Q8: European politicians are mocking President Trump’s nationalist policy (America first policy) and they advocate globalist policy. But we can see that the globalist policies of European leaders are becoming a curse to their nations. So why are they pressing this policy?

A: Because those traditional elites still in power think in terms of the global good, not the wellbeing of their constituents. They look to international political and monetary institutions like the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank, and the EU to solve humanity’s problems. Demands for cultural conformity soon follow. But people don’t want this.

In contrast, Trump believes the nation-state must return as the principle organizing force in world affairs, and his foreign policy places American interests above all other considerations. Trump not only won resounding public support for this view in America, but also inspired likeminded political forces across Europe. Europe is where globalization has advanced the farthest, and it is where anti-globalist movements will have the most lasting impact. That’s why globalists everywhere want to destroy Trump.

Q9: President Donald Trump sees the caravan migrants as a potential threat to America’s security. This newspaper has also reported about hardened criminals as well as militants being melted into the caravan. On the other hand, Trump opponents are demanding entry of these illegal migrants into the US. What is your view on it?

A: Although apologists try to paint illegal immigration as a victimless crime, it causes substantial harm to American citizens and legal immigrants, particularly the poor.

Job competition by waves of illegal immigrants desperate for work unfairly depresses the wages and working conditions offered to American workers, hitting hardest at minority workers and those without high school degrees.

Illegal immigration also causes an enormous drain on public funds. A study by the National Academy of Sciences found that the taxes paid by immigrants do not begin to cover the cost of services received by them. The quality of education, health care and other services for Americans are thus undermined by the endless influx of poor, unskilled illegal entrants.

Bottom Line: I strongly believe there must be a comprehensive effort to end illegal immigration. To start, this means ensuring that illegal aliens will not be able to obtain employment, public assistance benefits, education, housing, and other taxpayer-funded benefits without detection.

Q10: There had been mob anarchism at the residence of Fox News journalist Tucker Carlson. As a media-friendly individual, how you see this?

A: I’m appalled. Fighting ideas you don’t like is an American right. Targeting someone’s home and terrorizing his family because he disagrees with you is an act of monstrous cowardice. Democrats don’t seem to understand the difference.