The Commentariat -- June 9, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Damian Paletta & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump told foreign leaders at the Group of Seven summit that they must dramatically reduce trade barriers with the United States or could risk losing access to the world's largest economy, delivering his most defiant trade threat yet to his counterparts from around the globe. But there were numerous signs here that leaders of other countries stood their ground, having stiffened after months of attacks and insults.... If they don't back down and Trump does try to stop -- or at least slow -- the flow of trade, it could impact the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars in goods, potentially impacting millions of jobs in the United States and around the world. Trump, in a news conference before leaving for Singapore, described private conversations he held over two days with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. He said he pushed them to consider removing every single tariff or trade barrier on American goods and that, in return, he would do the same for products from their countries. But if steps aren't taken, he said, the penalties would be severe." ...

... Julian Borger & Anne Perkins of the Guardian: "The president departed a summit of the G7 major industrialised democracies in Quebec the same way he arrived, firing off threats of a trade war. His fellow leaders were warned not to respond to the steel and aluminum tariffs he has imposed on them. 'If they retaliate, they're making a mistake,' Trump told reporters before leaving several hours early, ducking sessions on climate change and the oceans. In a tense session on trade on Friday, European and Canadian leaders had sought to defuse the gathering conflict, rolling out statistics on how many US jobs depended on their countries' trade and investment and arguing that the US had more barriers to trade than its partners. The discussion had no effect on Trump, who stuck to the claims he made throughout his election campaign: that the US was being ripped off. 'The European Union is brutal to the United States,' he railed. 'And they understand that. They know it. When I'm telling them, they're smiling at me. You know, it's like the gig is up.' Canada too, the president said, 'can't believe it got away' with its trade deal with the US. 'We're like the piggy bank that everybody's robbing. And that ends,' Trump said. The president even threatened to stop doing business with US partners if they did not change their policies. 'And it's going to stop,' Trump said. 'Or we'll stop trading with them. And that's a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.' The disparaging tone towards leaders seen by all former administrations as America's closest allies was in marked contrast to the hopeful language he used in anticipation of Tuesday's planned summit with Kim Jong-un." ...

... The New York Times story, by Michael Shear, is here. "Mr. Trump also blamed former President Barack Obama for Russia's invasion, in which the country sent troops into Crimea. Mr. Trump said that it was Mr. Obama who should take responsibility for Russia's actions. 'Crimea was let go during the Obama administration, and you know, Obama can say all he wants, but he allowed Russia to take Crimea,' the president said. 'I may have had a much different attitude, but, so, you really have to ask that question to President Obama. You know, why did he do that?'" In fact, in the wake of the Russian invasion in 2014, it was Mr. Obama who led the other six nations in the Group of 7 to expel Russia in a joint statement known as The Hague Declaration." Mrs. McC: FDR caused WWII; Wilson caused WWI. ...

... Benjamin Hart of New York: "During the few hours he spent at the G7 Summit in Quebec, President Trump effectively acted as a one-man turd in the punch bowl, distancing America from its supposed allies at just about every opportunity. On Saturday morning, Trump threw in straight-up rudeness to his list of offenses, showing up conspicuously late to a meeting assembled by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the topic of women's empowerment -- which, admittedly, is not high on Trump's list of concerns." ...

... His Touch, His Feel. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "President Trump predicted Saturday that he will know almost immediately when meeting Kim Jong Un whether the North Korean leader is serious about negotiating a nuclear deal, suggesting his intuition is enough to size up the leader of the world's most opaque authoritarian regime. 'Within the first minute, I'll know. My touch, my feel -- that's what I do,' Trump said during a news conference in Quebec as he prepared to depart the Group of Seven summit en route to Singapore, where he is scheduled to meet Kim on Tuesday. 'You know the way they say you know if you like somebody in the first five seconds?' he added. 'Well, I think very quickly I'll know whether something good is going to happen. I think I'll also know whether it will happen fast.' Trump's remarks came two days after he said he didn't need to do a lot of preparation ahead of the historic summit because the interpersonal relationship between the two leaders would be the more important factor."

*****

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Yesterday was a day in American history like no other. The U.S. has been a Western leader since the country entered into World War II, arguably since World War I. It has been a world leader since the end of World War II. Donald Trump is turning that all around. It really is difficult to go on with our daily lives as if we are experiencing some slight disruption of norms that a national election can smoothly correct or reverse. ...

Le Manoir Richelieu in the Charlevoix region of Canada -- site of the G-6 Plus Jerk meeting.

... Tonda MacCharles of the Toronto Star: "Rifts in the G7 opened wide Friday after ... Donald Trump called for the re-entry of Russia into the exclusive group and publicly slammed the trade practices of his allies. But efforts continued well into the evening to bridge the gaps, with Trump himself joking the G7 could reach a joint final statement -- something that many of the other leaders felt was in doubt.... Once leaders went behind closed doors for what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said would be 'frank' talks about how to tackle economic inequality and create good jobs, Trump's tone changed and was very 'cordial,' according to Canadian officials." ...

... ** Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Rarely has President Trump's role as a disrupter on the world stage been starker. At a moment of tumult over trade and nuclear security, he is shaking up the international order to make friends with America's enemies and enemies out of America's friends. A businessman and entertainer with no diplomatic experience, Mr. Trump arrived at the White House nearly 17 months ago convinced that the economic and geopolitical alignments that have governed the world for seven decades were out of whack and biased against the United States. But after a year of being restrained to some extent by advisers who championed that global order, Mr. Trump has replaced much of his national security team with more like-minded aides and is finally acting on his 'America First' impulses in ways that are sending shock waves across Europe, Asia and North America. At the annual meeting on Friday of seven major economies known as the Group of 7, Mr. Trump was the odd man out as he quarreled with Europeans and Canadians over trade and pushed for the reinstatement of Russia four years after it was cast out. Seemingly reluctant to spend more time with longtime allies than necessary, he planned to leave early on Saturday to meet instead with a longtime adversary, North Korea. (This is a major rewrite of a story linked yesterday with Michael Shear then also on the byline.) ...

What worries me most ... is the fact that the rules-based international order is being challenged. What is surprising is that the challenge is driven not by the usual suspects, but by its main architect and guarantor, the U.S.... Trump's actions play into the hands of those who seek a new post-West order where liberal democracy and fundamental freedoms would cease to exist. - Donald Tusk, European Council President, Friday at the G-7, partially paraphrased ...

... ** Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "When do arguments, sharp-tongued put-downs and perceived betrayal among allies become the collapse of the Western-dominated order that has ruled the world, under U.S. leadership, for the past seven decades? As each day brings a new series of punches and counterpunches between President Trump and longtime U.S. partners, the question appears to be moving beyond the realm of the academic. The most recent episode began with Friday's Group of Seven summit in Quebec, the annual chat-fest with the United States and the world's other self-described economic leaders, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. It followed Trump's decision not to exempt any of them from new U.S. 'national security' tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. That ruling came on the heels of nearly 18 months of clashes over climate change, trade, NATO, Iran and other issues on a list so long it is hard to remember everything on it." ...

... Washington Post Editors: "... Mr. Trump's decision to sow ferment within the G-7 -- to antagoniz America's closest allies -- is more than a childish tantrum or a play for attention. It is an undermining of those values that the G-7 was meant to safeguard. Not only the allies but Americans, too, must come to grips with the fact that the ostensible leader of the free world may not really believe either in the free world or in leading it." ...

... Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump railed on Friday against Canadian tariffs on American dairy products as he prepared to travel to Canada, where he is likely to be greeted with an icy welcome ahead of a financial summit meeting with longtime American allies. 'We're going to deal with the very unfair trade practices,' Mr. Trump said on Friday, and threatened to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement if he cannot strike deals with American allies, a promise he campaigned on as well." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Juan Cole: "Trump's 17th century mercantilist trade policies are making the United States the skunk at the party at the G7 meet in Quebec on Friday.... [Emmanuel] Macron is saying ... that the G7 could become the G6 if the other members decided to exclude Trump. It is a breathtaking idea, that the US should be treated by the major industrialized democracies as a rogue state in the same category as Putin's Russia." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... E.A. Crunden of ThinkProgress: "President Trump will leave the Group of 7 summit in Canada early following a public spat with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The timing of his departure will ensure that Trump misses key meetings on climate change and the environment.... An aide will reportedly stay and serve in his place." ...

... Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump aggressively confronted America's closest allies on Friday as they convened their annual summi meeting, calling for Russia's readmission to the Group of 7 nations and refusing to ease his assault on the global trading system. The response from the leaders of Europe, Canada and Japan was swift and angry. Most rejected the return of Russia, which was ousted from the diplomatic forum after President Vladimir V. Putin violated international norms by seizing parts of Ukraine in 2014. And they assailed Mr. Trump's embrace of protectionism as illegal and insulting. At a meeting devised for cooperation and comity, public smiles and descriptions of 'cordial' conversations were undercut by what officials said was a struggle to agree on a common direction. The likelihood grew that the United States could be frozen out of a joint statement of principles by the countries that have so often followed America's lead." Mrs. McC: At first glance, I read a word in the front-page headline as "read-mit"; it's "re-admit."

... ** "We've Got a Big Problem." Josh Marshall: "Over the course of 16+ months, President Trump has acted consistently and with some success to destabilize and break up the western alliance [in NATO] ... but also its less formal dimensions in trade and other partnerships. He has also worked consistently on really every front to advance the interests of Russia.... The last twenty four hours of attacks on our closest allies capped by President Trump's seemingly out of the blue demand to bring Russia back into the G-7 ... simply brings the matter into a newly sharp relief. If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances ... and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there's really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done. Take a moment to let that sink in." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Kevin Drum: "But if there's anything even worse about this, it's the fact that the Republican Party just doesn't seem to care. A few of them speak out occasionally, usually if they've decided not to run for reelection, but that's about it. Trump is dedicated to total support of Israel, and that by itself seems to be about the only foreign policy issue that matters to them anymore. Russia, China, free trade, NATO--meh. As long as Trump keeps selling plenty of hardware to Israel and delivering lots of right-wing judges to the Senate, they're happy enough." ...

... ** Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "... Trump seems to relish the confrontation [with (former) allies] he has unleashed and is spoiling for more. On Thursday morning, the President tweeted that he was 'getting ready to go to the G-7 in Canada to fight for our country on Trade,' insisting, as he often does, that 'we have the worst trade deals ever made.' But others involved in the summit were preparing for an America more alone than ever before, and now Trump faces the very real risk of allies teaming up against him.... Ever since Trump took office, America's allies have desperately sought to avoid this moment.... Trump may be reorienting U.S. foreign policy away from its closest historical friends, such as Great Britain and Germany, and toward those with whom Trump is more politically aligned in Israel, the Gulf, and along Europe's restive fringes, but his traditional partners have no real strategy for how to respond." Mrs. McC: Glasser wrote her post before Trump urged G-6 nations to include Russia. (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Susan Rice, also writing before Trump announced his recommendation to re-install Russia as a member of the G-6, -7 or -8, outlines, in a New York Times op-ed, many of the ways Trump has helped Vladimir Putin re-establish Russia as a first-tier world power. "There is no evidence that Mr. Putin is dictating American policy. But it's hard to imagine how he could do much better, even if he were." ...

... John Harwood of CNBC: "Vladimir Putin tried to help Donald Trump win the presidency. As president, Trump is helping Putin achieve a top strategic goal. And the question is: Why? That mystery deepened Friday when Trump, as he openly attacked U.S. allies while heading for meetings with them, called for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7 club of advanced industrial democracies. The U.S. and its allies ejected Russia after its 2014 seizure of Crimea. With that concession, Trump capped a whirl of activity advancing Russia's objective of splintering the alliances undergirding the Western world's security and prosperity for the past 70 years.... This followed the president's earlier reluctance to embrace North Atlantic Treaty Organization commitments safeguarding Europe against Russia, his delay in implementing new congressional sanctions against Russia and his praise of Putin himself.... The starkness of Trump's words -- he stated no conditions for returning Russia to international favor on the same morning he impugned Canada's honesty -- unsettled observers across the political spectrum." ...

... Jonathan Chait: "One of Russia's principal foreign-policy goals for decades has been to split the United States from is allies. Whether by accident or by design, President Trump appears intent on bringing that dream to fruition.... Western trade partners have attempted to reason with Trump's demands, but the problem is that the basis for his beliefs and actions is entirely fantastical.... One by one, Trump's personal relationship with the leader of each major U.S. ally has been fatally poisoned."

Trump Admits He Bases Pardons on Popularity. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Friday that he may soon pardon Muhammad Ali -- a sentiment that a lawyer for the late boxer quickly said was appreciated but unnecessary. Ali was convicted in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military during the Vietnam War. His local draft board rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. 'He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now,' Trump told reporters as he prepared to leave the White House on Friday en route to a Group of Seven economic summit in Canada.... But Ron Tweel, an attorney for Ali, who died in 2016, pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali's conviction in 1971. In a unanimous ruling, the court found that the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance was not motivated by his Muslim religious beliefs." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Michelle Goldberg: "On Wednesday, five days after the official start of hurricane season in the Atlantic, Donald Trump attended what was supposed to be a meeting on storm preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. Most of the meeting was closed to the press, but The Washington Post obtained a recording. According to The Post, Trump spoke about the coming North Korea summit meeting, polling on the midterms, the Taiwanese company Foxconn, his love of coal and his administration's 'great' popularity. He claimed that the government saved $1.6 billion on Air Force One after he got involved in negotiations. The Post reported, 'Military officials have not been able to explain where Trump got such a figure.' One subject Trump did not get around to, according to The Post, were the victims of Hurricane Maria.... Puerto Ricans have been the first American citizens to really feel what it means to have a president who is so wildly unable to fulfill his responsibilities. It's hard to imagine they'll be the last."

Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been hit with a seven-count superseding indictment. Special counsel Robert Mueller filed the indictment Friday in a D.C. court, accusing Manafort and an associate of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements and conspiracy to launder money, among other charges. Konstantin Kliminik, a Manafort associate with ties to Russian intelligence, was also indicted. The filing comes after reports that Manafort attempted to influence two former colleagues' testimony to Mueller." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... The more-detailed New York Times story, by Ken Vogel, is here.

... A Weasel Never Changes His Spots. Or Something. Amy Pollard of Slate: "House Speaker Paul Ryan did some damage control on Thursday, one day after he told reporters he had seen 'no evidence' to support President Trump's assertion that the FBI planted a spy in Trump's presidential campaign. At a press conference in the Capitol, Ryan echoed the president's line that there had been no collusion in his campaign. 'There's been no evidence that there's any collusion between the Trump campaign and President Trump and Russia,' Ryan said on Thursday. 'Let's just make that really clear. There's no evidence of collusion.'" ...

     ... Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Friday that he didn't think House Speaker Paul Ryan was agreeing with Rep. Trey Gowdy's assessment that the FBI acted properly by using a confidential informant to contact members of the Trump campaign as it investigated ties to Russia, even though Ryan said as much this week. 'I think if you look at what Paul Ryan is saying, it didn't come out that way,' Trump said when asked about Ryan agreeing with his fellow Republican. 'The fact is, they had people in our campaign. They had people doing things that have never been done in the history of our country. And it really is a disgrace. Frankly, that stuff is just starting to come out.' But Ryan said this week that he did agree with Gowdy's assessment. 'I think Chairman Gowdy's initial assessment's accurate...," Ryan told reporters at a news conference on Capitol Hill.... 'I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,' Gowdy said in an interview on Fox News."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, made a dramatic request: He essentially asked special counsel Robert Mueller to consider whether perjury charges should be brought against witnesses who testified to the committee during its Trump-Russia investigation. Schiff did not convey this request directly to Mueller. Rather, he released a letter he sent on May 23 to Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif) ... asking that the committee hand over to Mueller the transcripts of all the interviews it conducted during the probe.... Schiff noted that Rep. Mike Conaway (Texas), who led the Russia investigation for the committee's Republicans, and other GOPers on the panel had repeatedly promised to make these transcripts public at the end of the inquiry.... But ... they have 'abandoned this pledge under the unsupported pretext of protecting the Special Counsel's investigation.' Schiff reported that he has asked Mueller if he has any objections to the committee releasing the transcripts and that Mueller has none." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

About That Stormy Daniels Thing. Greg Price of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump's 'biggest complaint' about living in the White House is that he cannot watch pornography, one of his fiercest cable news critics claimed Thursday. Mika Brzezinski, who has had public battles with the president over Twitter, returned to MSNBC following her regular spot on Morning Joe to appear with host Stephanie Ruhle."

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department took a significant step this week toward advancing its long-promised crackdown on leaks, charging a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer with lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters, and seizing the phone and email records of a journalist to help make its case. As the man charged in the brewing controversy made his first court appearance, free-press advocates warned that federal prosecutors' heavy-handed tactics might send a further chill through the government, where officials already are reluctant to share information. To support the charges against James A. Wolfe, prosecutors obtained years of phone records from New York Times reporter Ali Watkins, who had been in a romantic relationship with Wolfe and previously covered the congressional committee where he worked as security director. A person close to the Intelligence Committee said investigators had obtained so much material from Wolfe's devices, they would not have needed to seize Watkins's records to bring charges.... The charges against Wolfe ... are perhaps more significant for what they say about the government's increasingly aggressive campaign -- spanning Democratic and Republican administrations -- to stop leaks."

Awk-ward! Another Rule for Thee But Not for Me. Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration's Department of Justice will not defend in court the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's consumer protections, including the ban on discrimination against people with pre-existing medical conditions, it announced Thursday. While Attorney General Jeff Sessions is far from the first to opt not to defend a law he deems unconstitutional, many prominent Republicans -- including Sessions himself -- were highly critical of the practice just a few years ago. Back in February 2011, President Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder announced that his DOJ would no longer defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act..... At a March 2011 confirmation hearing for the Solicitor General, [Sessions] said that Holder should have stood up to Obama and resigned, rather that stopping his DOMA defense.... His view that the administration was obligated to defend laws they disagreed with was echoed by many others on the right at the time[.]" ...

... Cristian Farias of New York: "When the Obama administration declined to defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in pending litigation over same-sex federal benefits, the DOJ looked at the state of constitutional law vis-à-vis the historic treatment of gays and lesbians in the country and concluded that the law couldn't stand. Some lawyers within the ranks were uncomfortable with the decision, but it was a careful, considered opinion, one the Supreme Court ended up adopting when it struck down the part of DOMA defining marriage as 'a legal union between one man and one woman.' No such thoughtfulness is at play here. Sessions is just playing along with long-shot legal tactics aimed at toeing the party line -- achieving through callous litigation what he himself couldn't do when he was in Congress."

... Erica Werner & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration's startling decision to abandon one of the Affordable Care Act's most popular provisions -- protections for people with preexisting medical conditions -- put Republicans on the defensive Friday and handed Democrats a potentially potent political message. Democrats had already made health care a major focus in their campaigns heading into November's midterm elections, with polls consistently showing it as a top issue among voters. Now, the Justice Department's stance in a federal-court case in Texas will allow Democrats to argue that Republicans want to deny affordable health coverage to some of the people who need it most. Late Thursday, the department said the health law's requirement that most Americans carry insurance will become unconstitutional next year and so will consumer protections forbidding insurers to deny coverage to sick customers or charge them more."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The revelation that federal prosecutors seized years' worth of email and phone records from a New York Times reporter drew criticism on Friday from news organizations and press rights groups, which expressed outrage at the first known instance of the Trump administration's pursuing the private communications of a journalist. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the move 'a fundamental threat to press freedom.'... Under Mr. Obama, the Justice Department prosecuted more leak cases than all previous administrations combined. Mr. Trump's attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said last year that the Justice Department was pursuing about three times as many leak investigations as were open at the end of the Obama era.... Documents filed in the indictment of Mr. Wolfe suggested that prosecutors were especially interested in a scoop by [Ali] Watkins published in BuzzFeed in April last year. The article revealed that Russian spies had tried to recruit Carter Page, a former Trump adviser, in 2013 -- information that had been furnished to the Senate Intelligence Committee.... [BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith said] he was 'baffled' by the Justice Department's aggressive action against Ms. Watkins, given that Mr. Page had confirmed the information in the article."

Charles Pierce: "[By tearing apart families at the border,] the United States government is now committing human rights atrocities within its own borders and against the most vulnerable people it can find. I don't need to 'understand,' much less take seriously, anyone who still supports this president* and his administration* because, if you do, you've taken the idea of America and run battery acid through its veins." --safari

Here's Why Trump Thinks Scotty Is Doing a Great Job. Emily Holden & Anthony Adragna of Politico: "A prominent GOP donor and ... Donald Trump supporter helped EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt choose the head of the influential scientific body charged with reviewing EPA's regulations, according to newly released documents. Doug Deason, a Dallas businessman, submitted a list of names of candidates for Pruitt's Science Advisory Board in August that had been supplied by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, on whose board he serves. Deason and his father, Darwin Deason, donated over $900,000 in 2016 alone to help elect Trump and other Republican candidates. His influence over the SAB appointments is the latest example of the high-level access that politically powerful conservatives have to [Peuitt].... Last year, Pruitt overhauled EPA's advisory boards, banning scientists who received EPA funding and replacing many of them with employees of energy companies and state agencies. The new emails, released under the Freedom of Information Act to the Sierra Club, show that some of those appointments were made at the suggestion of campaign contributors and oil and coal industry officials."

God Digs Coal. Brian Palmer of Slate: "Environmentalism and American evangelicals are like oil and water.... Just 20 percent of committed Christians consider themselves active participants in the environmental movement.... The proportion of Christians who prioritize environmental concerns over energy production has dropped by about 20 percentage points in the last 25 years. And indications are that the more ardently Christian an American becomes, the less he or she cares about the environment. Evangelicals are the least environmentally inclined of committed U.S. Christians.... [T]he Environmental Protection Agency is currently headed by an evangelical, the now-infamous Scott Pruitt.... Pruitt has supporters who like him so much ... because he thinks like them: He puts people before the environment, just like God does." --safari

Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Republican leaders have drafted the outline of an immigration agreement they hope will stave off an intra-party war over Dreamers according to multiple lawmakers and aides. These Republicans cautioned that there is no deal at this time. But news of a framework, which has not previously been reported, represents a significant development in the House GOP's effort to reach a consensus on an issue that's bedeviled the party for years." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "A federal district court judge grappled Thursday with whether a group of about 200 congressional Democrats can sue President Trump for not seeking congressional approval before accepting payments and benefits from foreign governments through his personal business holdings. Democrats, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler D-N.Y.), allege Trump has violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which they say was designed by the founders to prevent corruption.... Thursday's hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia focused solely on whether the lawmakers have suffered the required injury to bring the case forward. The lawmakers say they've been injured because they've been denied their constitutional right to vote on whether Trump can accept the payments, benefits and gifts.... Brianne Gorod, one of the Democrat's attorneys with the Constitutional Accountability Center, said there's nothing Congress can do regardless of who has the majority because any law that passes would require the president's own signature. She said members are largely in the dark because Trump is not sharing with Congress what gifts or payments he wants to accept, nor providing information about his business holdings." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Blumenthal said[in a phone interview with Rubin] that while Congress has the power to approve or not approve the president's receipt of foreign monies, 'We can't approve what we don't know.' He explained that the plaintiffs are merely seeking an order requiring the president to tell what foreign monies he is getting and get permission before pocketing them. (This would apply both retrospectively and prospectively.) It is the height of chutzpah for the administration to claim that Congress can always pass a resolution or that litigation has to be on behalf of the whole Congress.... In other words, because Republicans are delinquent in their duties, the Trump administration argues, responsible lawmakers cannot enforce a constitutional provision. That in effect renders the emoluments clause a dead letter when the president's party controls Congress. That does not seem to comport with the framers' acute concern to prevent foreign corruption.... 'This is not just corruption,' Blumenthal says. 'It's also about national security.' For Trump, however, it's about the money." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Six House Democrats on Friday sought a criminal investigation into Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt for reportedly using his office in a bid to secure work for his wife. Writing to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and acting assistant attorney general John Cronan, the lawmakers said Pruitt had used his office for 'the personal gain of himself and his family, in violation of federal law.' Their letter was released by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)."

Ellen Nakamura & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "Chinese government hackers have compromised the computers of a Navy contractor, stealing massive amounts of highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare -- including secret plans to develop a supersonic anti-ship missile for use on U.S. submarines..., according to American officials. The breaches occurred in January and February, the officials said.... The hackers targeted a contractor who works for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a military organization headquartered in Newport, R.I., that conducts research and development for submarines and underwater weaponry. The officials did not identify the contractor.... The Washington Post agreed to withhold certain details about the compromised missile project at the request of the Navy...."

It Was Just a Bug! Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [Facebook] said it had again failed to keep the information of millions of users private. As many as 14 million Facebook users who thought they were creating private posts last month that only a small group of friends could see were, in fact, making public posts that anyone could view. Facebook blamed a software bug for the problem. The company did not say how it had found the bug, or how it knew the problem was limited to 14 million people. In a statement, Facebook said the bug affected users from May 18 to May 22, while the company was testing a new feature. By May 27, the company had changed the affected posts from a public setting back to a private one." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeet Heer of the New Republic: Charles "Krauthammer, the Washington Post columnist who has been fixture on national policy debates since the 1970s, has written a note explaining that the cancer he had removed last August has returned and doctors have told him he has only a few weeks to live."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida Conducted No Gun Background Checks for More than a Year Because an Employee Didn't Know How to Log into the National System. Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times: "For more than a year, the state of Florida failed to conduct national background checks on tens of thousands of applications for concealed weapons permits, potentially allowing drug addicts or people with a mental illness to carry firearms in public. A previously unreported Office of Inspector General investigation found that in February 2016 the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stopped using a FBI crime database called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that ensures applicants who want to carry a gun do not have a disqualifying history in other states. The employee in charge of the background checks could not log into the system, the investigator learned. The problem went unresolved until discovered by another worker in March 2017 -- meaning that for more than a year applications got approved without the required background check. During that time, which coincided with the June 12, 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub that left 50 dead, the state saw an unprecedented spike in applications for concealed weapons permits. Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam [ -- who is the front-running GOP candidate for governor --] has made it a priority to speed up the issuing of concealed weapons permits since he was elected in 2010." ...

... Marc Caputo of Politico: "Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam's agency failed to conduct complete criminal background checks on concealed weapons permit applicants for more than a year, a failure that could have allowed tens of thousands of unqualified people to secretly pack heat in a state that has become known for its mass shootings. The mistake, first reported Friday by the Tampa Bay Times, was kept hidden from the public for more than a year as Putnam became the Republican front-runner for governor and as he called himself a 'proud NRA sellout' -- a term he used on Twitter in July 2017, one month after an Office of Inspector General report, marked 'confidential,' detailed the background check failure." Emphasis added.... Democrats called on Putnam to drop out of the gubernatorial race for incompetence. Even the National Rifle Association expressed concerns. Some Republicans were also critical, with Gov. Rick Scott's office noting it was blindsided by the news."

Lisa Huriash of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Two months before the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School, a retired Secret Service agent warned administrators that the school could be vulnerable to a gunman. Gates were unlocked. Students did not wear identification badges. A fire alarm could send students streaming into the halls. Active-shooter drills were inadequate, he said. The retired agent, Steve Wexler, said he made his point by strolling through the school with Post-it notes, attaching them to places his bullets or knife would land if he were an intruder. No one stopped him, he said. In an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Wexler said he was invited to analyze the school's security and presented his recommendations to four staff members. 'I said, "This stuff is blatantly obvious. You've got to fix this,"' Wexler said. He never heard another word from the district, he said."

The Commentariat -- June 8, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Rachel Bade of Politico: "House Republican leaders have drafted the outline of an immigration agreement they hope will stave off an intra-party war over Dreamers, according to multiple lawmakers and aides. These Republicans cautioned that there is no deal at this time. But news of a framework, which has not previously been reported, represents a significant development in the House GOP's effort to reach a consensus on an issue that's bedeviled the party for years."

Avery Anapol of the Hill: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been hit with a seven-count superseding indictment. Special counsel Robert Mueller filed the indictment Friday in a D.C. court, accusing Manafort and an associate of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements and conspiracy to launder money, among other charges. Konstantin Kliminik, a Manafort associate with ties to Russian intelligence, was also indicted. The filing comes after reports that Manafort attempted to influence two former colleagues’ testimony to Mueller."

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump railed on Friday against Canadian tariffs on American dairy products as he prepared to travel to Canada, where he is likely to be greeted with an icy welcome ahead of a financial summit meeting with longtime American allies. 'We're going to deal with the very unfair trade practices,' Mr. Trump said on Friday, and threatened to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement if he cannot strike deals with American allies, a promise he campaigned on as well."

More of the Tat for the Tit Delivered in 2016. Peter Baker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump called on the world's leading economies on Friday to reinstate Russia to the Group of 7 nations four years after it was cast out for annexing Crimea, once again putting him at odds with America's leading allies in Europe and Asia. The president made the suggestion to reporters at the White House just before leaving for Canada to attend the annual meeting of the G-7, a gathering that already was promising to be crackling with tension over trade, Iran and Mr. Trump's sharp-edged approach to foreign leaders." Read on for more of Trump's remarks, made on the South Lawn of the White House. Muhammad Ali & Melania Trump's "big operation" figure in. ...

... ** Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "... Trump seems to relish the confrontation [with (former) allies] he has unleashed and is spoiling for more. On Thursday morning, the President tweeted that he was 'getting ready to go to the G-7 in Canada to fight for our country on Trade,' insisting, as he often does, that 'we have the worst trade deals ever made.' But others involved in the summit were preparing for an America more alone than ever before, and now Trump faces the very real risk of allies teaming up against him.... Ever since Trump took office, America's allies have desperately sought to avoid this moment.... Trump may be reorienting U.S. foreign policy away from its closest historical friends, such as Great Britain and Germany, and toward those with whom Trump is more politically aligned in Israel, the Gulf, and along Europe's restive fringes, but his traditional partners have no real strategy for how to respond."...

...**"We've Got a Big Problem." Josh Marshall: "Over the course of 16+ months, President Trump has acted consistently and with some success to destabilize and break up the western alliance [in NATO] ... but also its less formal dimensions in trade and other partnerships. He has also worked consistently on really every front to advance the interests of Russia.... The last twenty four hours of attacks on our closest allies capped by President Trump's seemingly out of the blue demand to bring Russia back into the G-7 ... simply brings the matter into a newly sharp relief. If candidate Trump and President Putin had made a corrupt bargain which obligated President Trump to destabilize all U.S. security and trade alliances ... and advance the strategic interests of Russia, there's really nothing more remotely realistic he could have done to accomplish that than what he has in fact done. Take a moment to let that sink in." --safari

Trump Admits He Bases Presidential Pardons on Popularity. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Friday that he may soon pardon Muhammad Ali -- a sentiment that a lawyer for the late boxer quickly said was appreciated but unnecessary. Ali was convicted in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military during the Vietnam War. His local draft board rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. 'He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now,' Trump told reporters as he prepared to leave the White House on Friday en route to a Group of Seven economic summit in Canada.... But Ron Tweel, an attorney for Ali, who died in 2016, pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Ali's conviction in 1971. In a unanimous ruling, the court found that the Department of Justice had improperly told the draft board that Ali's stance was not motivated by his Muslim religious beliefs."

Lydia Wheeler of the Hill: "A federal district court judge grappled Thursday with whether a group of about 200 congressional Democrats can sue President Trump for not seeking congressional approval before accepting payments and benefits from foreign governments through his personal business holdings. Democrats, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), allege Trump has violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which they say was designed by the founders to prevent corruption.... Thursday's hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia focused solely on whether the lawmakers have suffered the required injury to bring the case forward. The lawmakers say they've been injured because they've been denied their constitutional right to vote on whether Trump can accept the payments, benefits and gifts.... Brianne Gorod, one of the Democrat's attorneys with the Constitutional Accountability Center, said there's nothing Congress can do regardless of who has the majority because any law that passes would require the president's own signature. She said members are largely in the dark because Trump is not sharing with Congress what gifts or payments he wants to accept, nor providing information about his business holdings." ...

... Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Blumenthal said [in a phone interview with Rubin] that while Congress has the power to approve or not approve the president's receipt of foreign monies, 'We can't approve what we don't know.' He explained that the plaintiffs are merely seeking an order requiring the president to tell what foreign monies he is getting and get permission before pocketing them. (This would apply both retrospectively and prospectively.) It is the height of chutzpah for the administration to claim that Congress can always pass a resolution or that litigation has to be on behalf of the whole Congress.... In other words, because Republicans are delinquent in their duties, the Trump administration argues, responsible lawmakers cannot enforce a constitutional provision. That in effect renders the emoluments clause a dead letter when the president's party controls Congress. That does not seem to comport with the framers' acute concern to prevent foreign corruption.... 'This is not just corruption,' Blumenthal says. 'It's also about national security.' For Trump, however, it's about the money."

It Was Just a Bug! Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [Facebook] said it had again failed to keep the information of millions of users private. As many as 14 million Facebook users who thought they were creating private posts last month that only a small group of friends could see were, in fact, making public posts that anyone could view. Facebook blamed a software bug for the problem. The company did not say how it had found the bug, or how it knew the problem was limited to 14 million people. In a statement, Facebook said the bug affected users from May 18 to May 22, while the company was testing a new feature. By May 27, the company had changed the affected posts from a public setting back to a private one."

David Corn of Mother Jones: "On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, made a dramatic request: He essentially asked special counsel Robert Mueller to consider whether perjury charges should be brought against witnesses who testified to the committee during its Trump-Russia investigation. Schiff did not convey this request directly to Mueller. Rather, he released a letter he sent on May 23 to Rep. Devin Nunes (R.-Calif) ... asking that the committee hand over to Mueller the transcripts of all the interviews it conducted during the probe.... Schiff noted that Rep. Mike Conaway (Texas), who led the Russia investigation for the committee's Republicans, and other GOPers on the panel had repeatedly promised to make these transcripts public at the end of the inquiry.... But ... they have 'abandoned this pledge under the unsupported pretext of protecting the Special Counsel's investigation.' Schiff reported that he has asked Mueller if he has any objections to the committee releasing the transcripts and that Mueller has none." --safari

Juan Cole: "Trump's 17th century mercantilist trade policies are making the United States the skunk at the party at the G7 meet in Quebec on Friday.... [Emmanuel] Macron is saying ... that the G7 could become the G6 if the other members decided to exclude Trump. It is a breathtaking idea, that the US should be treated by the major industrialized democracies as a rogue state in the same category as Putin's Russia." --safari

*****

Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "A White House economic analysis of President Trump's trade agenda has concluded that Mr. Trump's tariffs will hurt economic growth in the United States, according to several people familiar with the research. The findings from the White House Council of Economic Advisers have been circulated only internally and not publicly released..., making the exact economic projections unknown. But ... top White House officials continue to insist publicly that Mr. Trump's trade approach will be 'massively good for the U.S. economy.' The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, an economist who came to the administration from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, dodged questions at a White House briefing on Tuesday about whether tariffs would hurt an economy that has accelerated during Mr. Trump's tenure. Asked whether the administration's economists had modeled the impact that a trade war with China would have on the United States economy, Mr. Hassett said Mr. Trump was a great negotiator...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... "Trump Heads to G-7 Meeting after Alienating Most U.S. Allies." Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Ahead of the summit meeting, finance ministers from the other six countries that form the Group of 7, or G-7, condemned Mr. Trump's trade decisions in an extraordinary rebuke of a member nation's president. And some of the leaders themselves have threatened to boycott the usual end-of-meeting communiqué.... Rarely -- if ever -- has there been the kind of visceral and unanimous outrage at an American president among the nation's most important allies, who for decades have seen the closest of relationships with the leader of the free world as a paramount foreign policy priority. Mr. Trump has repeatedly poked his counterparts in the eye -- ignoring their pleas to remain a part of the Paris climate treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the Iran nuclear deal, and more recently by branding their steel and aluminum industries threats to national security, and therefore subject to tariffs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nice to see everybody -- reporters, editors (even Time magazine), European leaders, some suddenly-honest GOP short-timers -- finally catching up with us here at Reality Chex. At some level, Trump realizes what a disaster his presidency is, which is why he's always boasting about how great a job he's doing. But his unparalleled failure also will serve only to make him more crazy. ...

... Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Emmanuel Macron has called on other members of the G7 to stand up to Donald Trump's trade policies in the face of what he described as the threat of a new US 'hegemony'. The French president was speaking alongside the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who is hosting the G7 summit in Quebec amid sharp disagreements between the US president and the six other leaders of industrialized liberal democracies over trade, climate change and the nuclear deal with Iran. Macron called on other G7 leaders not to water down a joint communique at the end of the summit, at the expense of shared values, simply in an effort to win Trump's signature, warning that a 'G6 plus one' outcome was possible. The challenge brought a tweeted response from Trump, claiming Macron and Trudeau's governments were pursuing unfair trade practices at the expense of US producers." ...

... Damian Paletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday threatened to join with other world leaders to issue a rare rebuke of the United States at a global summit ... this weekend, drawing immediate and sharp replies from President Trump. Macron said Trump could be excluded from joining with other leaders in a joint declaration of unity at the end of a global summit here, a very unusual move that was meant to isolate Trump's recent burst of trade threats aimed at numerous U.S. allies.... Trump appeared unmoved, accusing Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of hurting the United States with unfair trade practices. Trump also said Trudeau is 'being so indignant,' an unusually personal attack aimed at one of the United States' closest allies. 'Please tell Prime Minister Trudeau and President Macron that they are charging the U.S. massive tariffs and create nonmonetary barriers. The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion, and Canada keeps our farmers and others out. Look forward to seeing them tomorrow,' Trump wrote [in a tweet].... Later, Trump tweeted that he would raise undisclosed tariffs against Canada and European Union countries if they don't lower theirs. 'Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!' he wrote. The exchanges cast an immediate shadow over the summit before it even began. The White House said Thursday evening that Trump now plans to leave Quebec on Saturday morning, several hours earlier than his counterparts."

Trump Cites Imaginary Iran "Success" as Predictor of North Korea Summit Results. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "President Trump asserted Thursday that his decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal had already curbed Iran's aggressive behavior, and he predicted that his hard-nosed tactics would also result in a successful nuclear negotiation with North Korea.... Mr. Trump cited no evidence to support his contention.... Iran, he said, was no longer as adventurous in Syria and Yemen, and had relaxed its ambitions to extend its influence all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. 'Iran is not the same country that it was a few months ago,' Mr. Trump said at a news conference five days before he was scheduled to meet in Singapore with Kim Jong-un of North Korea.... Iran remains firmly under the control of its theocratic government, it continues to support proxy forces across the Middle East, and it just announced plans to increase its capacity to enrich uranium after Mr. Trump's withdrawal.... Depending on the degree of success, the president said, he could foresee inviting Mr. Kim to a follow-up meeting at the White House."

The King & Dukes of Haphazard. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "National security adviser John Bolton has yet to convene a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss ... Donald Trump's upcoming summit with North Korea next week, a striking break from past practice that suggests the Trump White House is largely improvising its approach to the unprecedented nuclear talks. For decades, top presidential advisers have used a methodical process to hash out national security issues before offering the president a menu of options for key decisions. On an issue like North Korea, that would mean White House Situation Room gatherings of the secretaries of state and defense along with top intelligence officials, the United Nations ambassador, and even the Treasury secretary, who oversee economic sanctions. But since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on March 8, the White House's summit planning has been unstructured, according to a half-dozen administration officials." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** "President Trump Still Way Too Lazy to Do His Job." Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump possessed less relevant experience and subject expertise for the job of president than any person ever elected to the job. Those deficits can be offset, to a degree, with dogged study and hard work. But rather than make up for his historical lack of qualifications, Trump has compounded the problem with historical laziness. He famously lounges in front of the television having 'Executive Time' until 11 a.m., checks out early, refuses to read briefings, and otherwise disdains the most important parts of his job. Three new reports highlight the laziness problem." Read on. The update is excellent, too: "Asked if he's prepared for the North Korea summit, Trump assured a reporter that he is.... 'I think I'm very well prepared,' Trump said, 'I don't think I have to prepare very much. It's about attitude. It's about willingness to get things done.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Michael Kruse in Politico Magazine: "'My attitude,' Donald Trump [often says], 'is whatever happens, happens.'... This isn't just filler language from a famously extemporaneous and detail-light public speaker. It is, in fact, a guiding principle of a downbeat personal philosophy.... When he says, 'We'll see,' again and again and again, Trump is giving voice to one of the least talked-about but most abiding convictions of his long, loud, public life -- his unambiguous belief in the inherent meaningless of human existence, and his repeated self-identification as a fatalist.... [Some] see something darker and sadder, a nihilism born from Trump's disinterest in and disconnect from everybody except his immediate family and perhaps even them.... What has made him fearless is what has made him careless. Because he's never had to pay a lasting price for his mistakes." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nihilism, yes, but fatalism -- I don't think so. Trump's entire life is characterized by narcissistic irresponsibility. That, obviously, is a disqualifying personality flaw in anyone put in a position of responsibility over the lives and/or well-being of others.

Another Entry for Amazing List of "Stupidest Things Donald Trump Ever Said." Andrea Zelinski & St. John Barned-Smith of the Houston Chronicle: "... on a conference call with state and federal leaders in preparation for another dreadful hurricane season..., Trump thanked the Coast Guard for its service in helping save 16,000 people after Harvey, Hurricane Maria and other storms.... 'Sixteen thousand people, many of them in Texas, for whatever reason that is. People went out in their boats to watch the hurricane,' Trump said. 'That didn't work out too well.' Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez took umbrage with the president's remarks, crediting civilians with making an 'extraordinary effort' with their own boats to rescue neighbors, relatives and pets as Hurricane Harvey flooded the Texas coast.... 'I didn't see anyone taking the approach that would reflect his comments,' Gonzalez said. 'I'll be sure to invite the president to ride out the next hurricane in a jon boat in Galveston Bay the next time one approaches,' he added. No one could explain the president's comment." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Like many of his cult followers, Trump is oblivious to the world around him. He doesn't understand how elementary things work, & he has little interest in finding out. Here he assumes that ordinary citizens who went out to save others (something it would never occur to him to do himself) were instead out on pleasure cruises for death-defying joy rides. Update: I wrote this before I read Kruse's essay above. But you can see the same thread of narcissistic irresponsibility tied into Trump's off-the-cuff lies.

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Ken Vogel, et al., of the New York Times: "The special counsel's accusation this week that Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, tried to tamper with potential witnesses originated with two veteran journalists who turned on Mr. Manafort after working closely with him to prop up the former Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, interviews and documents show. The two journalists, who helped lead a project to which prosecutors say Mr. Manafort funneled more than $2 million from overseas accounts, are the latest in a series of onetime Manafort business partners who have provided damaging evidence to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Their cooperation with the government has increasingly isolated Mr. Manafort as he awaits trial on charges of violating financial, tax and federal lobbying disclosure laws.... The prosecutors did not name the journalists, but three people familiar with the project identified them as Alan Friedman and Eckart Sager.... They join a growing list of lobbyists, consultants and lawyers who worked on various contracts related to [Viktor] Yanukovych's government, political party or supporters and are now cooperating with the government's prosecution of Mr. Manafort."

Steve Reilly, et al., of USA Today: "The purchase of three properties by President Trump's son-in-law on the banks of a toxic Brooklyn canal triggered a series of unusual real estate deals and a windfall profit from transactions financed by a bank tied to the Trump family. The property transactions totaling more than $150 million began in late 2014 and early 2015 and included sales prices well above the assessed value of the parcels, as well as high-risk loans that experts said raise red flags. At the center of each deal is either Jared Kushner or Michael Cohen, whose business dealings have attracted close scrutiny from prosecutors and regulators since Trump's election. The transactions were financed through Signature Bank, one of three banks whose ties to Kushner have been widely reported to be under review by New York banking regulators. The bank's board members have included Ivanka Trump and former Republican U.S. senator Al D'Amato...."

Turns out the "Unmaskers" Were the Trump Transition Team. Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The Trump transition team told Barack Obama's White House about Mike Flynn's fateful conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to [Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes'] new memoir. That account stands in contrast to oft-repeated claims that the Obama team unmasked Flynn's name after learning of the Kislyak conversation from surveillance intercepts.... Rhodes ... often features prominently in accusations from Donald Trump's allies that the outgoing White House improperly 'unmasked' Flynn from surveillance intercepts and then leaked his name to discredit him. 'His own transition team volunteered to us that he'd met with Sergei Kislyak ... before meeting with the American official he was replacing.' [Rhodes writes. He learned of the Flynn-Kislyak meeting second-hand, from another Obama administration official.]... 'I never unmasked any Trump campaign official or associate.... The "unmasking scandal" was a completely craven and disingenuous farce masquerading as outrage, all intended to keep Americans from focusing on the real story of the Trump campaign's links to Russia.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Classic Trump: (1) Shoot yourself in the foot. (2) Claim the other guy was holding the smoking gun.

Ex-Rep May Be a Missing Piece of the Russia Puzzle. Natasha Bertrand of the Atlantic: "An ex-congressman has attracted scrutiny from the Senate Judiciary Committee, as it continues to investigate whether ... Donald Trump's campaign conspired with Moscow to sway the 2016 presidential election. Curt Weldon, a Republican and former Pennsylvania congressman, lost his re-election campaign more than a decade ago following an FBI probe into his ties to two Russian companies. He has 'connections to both Russia and the Trump campaign' that are raising suspicions among senators, a spokeswoman for Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said. Feinstein is the committee's ranking member, and wants to interview Weldon, the spokeswoman said. The reasons for the committee's interest in Weldon are murky, but his ties to Russia are significant."

Amy Sorkin of the New Yorker: "'Excuse me, when you look at Stormy Daniels,' Rudolph Giuliani ... said on Wednesday, in an onstage interview at the Globes Capital Market Conference, in Tel Aviv, before interrupting himself to make a face.... Giuliani's expression was, perhaps, meant to be one of knowing revulsion at Daniels, but the lopsided chaos of his features conveyed a moral contortion all his own.... Ignoring the interviewer's plea of 'Let's respect her,' Giuliani added, 'I know Donald Trump. Look at his three wives, right?' ... 'Beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance. Stormy Daniels?' He paused to make another face.... '... I even have to respect, you know, criminals.... But I'm sorry, I don't respect a porn star the way I respect a career woman, or a woman of substance, or a woman who has great respect for herself as a woman, and as a person.' [Daniels' work] is more of an honest living than some New York real-estate developers make.... Her profession shouldn't mean that she ought to be automatically distrusted, let alone attacked with impunity.... Giuliani's remarks about Clifford ... convey a political philosophy that he and the President share...: those who are vulnerable are meant to be wounded, and have no right to ask for respect, let alone protection. It is a bully's declaration of open season on the weak." ...

... Melania Tells Rudy to STFU. Kate Bennett & Dana Bash of CNN: "... Rudy Giuliani shared his thoughts Wednesday during a speaking engagement about first lady Melania Trump and the allegations her husband had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. 'She believes her husband,' Giuliani said at the 'Globes' Capital Market conference in Tel Aviv. 'And she knows it's untrue.' Thursday afternoon, the first lady's communications director fired back at Giuliani. 'I don't believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani,' East Wing communications director Stephanie Grisham told CNN in a statement." ...

... Christopher Massie of CNN: "When Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that Stormy Daniels has no credibility because she is is a porn star, he neglected to mention that his client..., Donald Trump, has appeared in three Playboy videos that feature nudity and softcore pornographic content."

Pompeo Tells Rudy to STFU. Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday dismissed recent comments made by President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani about North Korea, saying the former mayor does not speak for the administration on that issue.... While at a business conference in Israel on Wednesday..., Giuliani said North Korea's Kim Jong Un 'begged' Trump to hold their planned summit after the president cancelled it in response to escalating rhetoric from Pyongyang."

DOJ Goes After NYT Reporter in Pursuit of Leaks by Senate Aide. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "A former Senate Intelligence Committee aide was arrested Thursday in an investigation of classified information leaks where prosecutors also secretly seized years' worth of a New York Times reporter's phone and email records. The former aide, James A. Wolfe, 57, was charged with lying repeatedly to investigators about his contacts with three reporters. According to the authorities, Mr. Wolfe made false statements to the F.B.I. about providing two of them with private information related to the committee's work. They did not say whether it was classified.... Mr. Wolfe's case led to the first known instance of the Justice Department going after a reporter's data under President Trump. The seizure -- disclosed in a letter to the reporter, Ali Watkins -- suggested that prosecutors under the Trump administration will continue the aggressive tactics employed under President Barack Obama.... F.B.I. agents approached Ms. Watkins about a previous three-year romantic relationship she had with Mr. Wolfe, saying they were investigating unauthorized leaks.... A prosecutor notified Ms. Watkins on Feb. 13 that the Justice Department had years of customer records and subscriber information from telecommunications companies, including Google and Verizon, for two email accounts and a phone number of hers.... The investigation came to light after the Senate Intelligence Committee made a cryptic announcement on Wednesday that it was cooperating with the Department of Justice 'in a pending investigation.'"

** Robert Pear of the New York Times: "The Trump administration told a federal court on Thursday that it would no longer defend crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act that protect consumers with pre-existing medical conditions. Under those provisions of the law, insurance companies cannot deny coverage or charge higher rates to people with pre-existing medical conditions. The Justice Department said the provisions were part of an unconstitutional scheme that required most Americans to carry health insurance. In a court case filed by Texas and 19 other states, the Justice Department said the requirement for people to have insurance -- the individual mandate -- was unconstitutional. If that argument is accepted by the federal court, it could eviscerate major parts of the Affordable Care Act that remain in place despite numerous attacks by President Trump and his administration.... The Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate in 2012 as an exercise of the government's power to tax. But since Congress repealed the tax last year, the mandate and the law's consumer protections can no longer be justified, the Justice Department said.... California and 15 other states have intervened in the court proceeding, and they filed a brief on Thursday defending the law, including its consumer protections."

Marc Caputo of Politico: "... Donald Trump broke through a logjam with his White House, the Justice Department and Sen. Marco Rubio's office on Thursday by finally nominating a new federal prosecutor for the South Florida district that includes Mar-a-Lago in its jurisdiction. Trump's selection of Miami-Dade Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan -- recommended by Rubio and supported by Gov. Rick Scott -- looked like a done deal months ago. But dysfunction in the White House counsel's office and the unexpected involvement of a top Department of Justice official with Florida ties slowed down the process. The White House didn't explain the delay." Caputo goes over some behind-the-scenes wrangling about the appointment. ...

... A Far More Horrifying Possibility. Eliana Johnson & Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Jeanine Pirro has a top-rated Fox News show and a forthcoming book ... but she still wants to be ... Donald Trump's attorney general. A former prosecutor and judge, Pirro has repeatedly told Trump's aides and advisers over the past 18 months that she's interested in taking over as the nation's top law enforcement official, according to four people familiar with the conversations. Trump has dangled the possibility of giving her a top appointment. During a November meeting in the Oval Office, the president raised the possibility of nominating Pirro to a federal judgeship, according to a former administration official, though this person added that Trump was more likely engaging in flattery than seriously considering putting Pirro on the bench. Pirro's Fox News colleagues have laughed at her frequent mentions of the possibility of getting senior-level government work, according to one Fox employee." ...

     ... Wait, It Gets Worse. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times tweeted that some Trump staffers worried Trump wanted to appoint Pirro to the Supreme Court.

The War on the Poor. Danielle McClean of ThinkProgress: "The Trump administration's latest attack on housing assistance would boost rents by an average 26 percent for millions of financially vulnerable Americans and increase the risk of homelessness.... The analysis found 8.3 million people would be affected by the proposal.... [T]he plan ... still needs Congressional approval." --safari ...

... Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times: "With annual budget deficits nearing $1 trillion, the House took a modest step on Thursday to broadcast fiscal responsibility, narrowly approving a White House plan to rescind nearly $15 billion in unspent funding that had been approved in past years.... The House voted 210 to 206 to pass the measure ... championed by a leading contender to be the next House speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.... Democrats were united in opposition.... Among the funding to be rescinded is $7 billion for the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP." --safari

Sacrified on the Racist Convictions of Jeff Sessions & Whims of Donald Trump. Rekha Basu of the Des Moines Register: "Manuel Antonio Cano Pacheco should have graduated high school in Des Moines last month.... Instead, Manuel died a brutal death alone in a foreign land, a symbol of gang supremacy in a country plagued by violent drug cartels. It happened three weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned him to Mexico, a country he had left at age 3 when his parents brought him here without a visa. The fact that America was the only home he has known made Manuel eligible to apply for and be granted DACA status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program initiated by former President Barack Obama. It exempted from deportation certain young people, referred to as DREAMERS, who were brought to the U.S. without papers as children.... An ICE spokesperson said in a statement that a federal immigration judge terminated his DACA status because of two misdemeanor convictions.... The northwestern Mexican state of Zacatecas, where Manuel's family came from, has reportedly become a deadly place, especially for youth.... What's more, according to The Dallas Morning News, deportees are especially targeted by gangs in certain border areas. They are held by their captors unless their relatives in the U.S. pay thousands of dollars for their release." ...

Sarah N. Lynch & Kristina Cooke of Reuters: "U.S. authorities are transferring into federal prisons about 1,600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees, officials told Reuters on Thursday, in the first large-scale use of federal prisons to hold detainees amid a Trump administration crackdown on people entering the country illegally. An ICE spokeswoman told Reuters five federal prisons will temporarily take in detainees awaiting civil immigration court hearings, including potential asylum seekers, with one prison in Victorville, California, preparing to house 1,000 people.... ICE has used federal prisons in the past but not on this scale, sources said. The new policy drew criticism from immigration advocates and former officials."

CBS/AP: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says that the Trump administration has reached a 'definitive agreement' with Chinese telecom giant ZTE that Ross claims 'imposes the most strict compliance that we've ever had on any company, American or foreign.' In an interview on CNBC, Ross said penalties amounted to $1 billion and that ZTE agreed to install new management and a compliance team picked by the U.S. The agreement is controversial: ZTE had been sanctioned by the U.S. for doing business with North Korea and Iran. It was blocked from purchasing parts from U.S. companies, sanctions that had crippled the company. The Trump administration has walked a fine line, stressing that any ZTE deal is separate from ongoing trade negotiations with China. And that the punishment for ZTE's past actions is tough enough." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, after heavy lobbying by the chemical industry, is scaling back the way the federal government determines health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market, documents from the Environmental Protection Agency show. Under a law passed by Congress during the final year of the Obama administration, the E.P.A. was required for the first time to evaluate hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals and determine if they should face new restrictions, or even be removed from the market. The chemicals include many in everyday use, such as dry-cleaning solvents, paint strippers and substances used in health and beauty products like shampoos and cosmetics. But as it moves forward reviewing the first batch of 10 chemicals, the E.P.A. has in most cases decided to exclude from its calculations any potential exposure caused by the substances' presence in the air.... Instead, the agency will focus on possible harm caused by direct contact with a chemical in the workplace or elsewhere.... The approach is a big victory for the chemical industry, which has repeatedly pressed the E.P.A. to narrow the scope of its risk evaluations. Nancy B. Beck, the Trump administration's appointee to help oversee the E.P.A.'s toxic chemical unit, previously worked as an executive at the American Chemistry Council, one of the industry's main lobbying groups."

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked members of his 24/7 security detail to run errands for him on occasion, including picking up his dry cleaning and taking him in search of a favorite moisturizing lotion, according to two individuals familiar with those trips.... The top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), reiterated his call that Pruitt step down." Mrs. McC: So not just his office staff but also his security staff, which he needs not only to protect him from economy-class travelers who yell at him but also to serve as his personal shoppers, nap-time monitors (requires busting down door), headhunters for Mrs. Pruitt, stuff like that. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: "According to four sources familiar with the work environment at the Environmental Protection Agency, its scandal-plagued EPA administrator has regularly sent his subordinates out during the workday to pick up his favorite snacks and treats. Pruitt has been known to send staffers on these errands at least twice a week, with some sources describing his demands as 'constant,' and others merely noting that he does this 'frequently.'... He is particularly fond of finger food from the upscale eatery Dean & Deluca, according to a former EPA official. Pruitt is also particular about his coffee tastes, the former official said, and would often direct an aide to brew him pour-over coffee, which he prefers to more run-of-the-mill brewing methods.... One source described the work environment [at the EPA] as a 'hell hole'...." ...

... Paul Krugman: "... what's really striking to me is not so much the extent of corruption among Trump officials as its pettiness. And that pettiness itself tells you a lot about the kind of people now running America.... Long ago Tom Wolfe wrote a memorable essay on what really drives many powerful men.... It is ... the pleasure of 'seeing 'em jump' -- of watching people abase themselves, jump through hoops, to cater to your whims. It's about making yourself feel bigger by getting other people to act small.... Clearly, they take their cues from their boss, who famously enjoys sycophancy and demeaning his subordinates, up to and including top officials. Indeed, I suspect that many of his officials are engaged in what I once saw described as 'bicycling': bowing to the man above while trampling on those below.... Petty corruption and cruel, destructive policy are indeed linked. Men who see high office largely as a license to live large, act like big shots and force government employees to act as their personal servants aren’t likely to care much about serving the public interest."

CBS/AP: "The Trump administration is disbanding a panel of experts focused on protecting consumers from financial abuse. Members of the panel, called the Consumer Advisory Board, say Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has dissolved the group, which includes consumer advocates, financial industry representatives, community leaders and others. The board advises the CFPB, a federal agency formed after the housing crash to prevent financial abuse. Mulvaney, told the board's 25 members that they are being replaced and the panel overhauled, according to two of the members.... Under Dodd Frank, the 2010 financial reform law that created the CFPB, the consumer panel is required to meet twice a year. But meetings were repeatedly cancelled since Mulvaney took the helm at the bureau in November." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Meant to link a story on this Wednesday. Thanks to Akhilleus for discussing Mulvaney's Bank Protection Racket & Consumer Rip-off Bureau in today's Comments.

Thomas Kaplan & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Hoping to defuse a Republican rebellion, Speaker Paul D. Ryan promised Thursday that House Republicans would draft compromise legislation on immigration, setting up a showdown on one of the thorniest political issues just as the midterm campaign comes into focus.... Moderate Republican lawmakers need only three more signatures on a petition to force a series of immigration votes over the speaker's objections, including at least two that would focus on those young immigrants, known as Dreamers. Because of the arcane rules for such 'discharge petitions,' those lawmakers face a Tuesday cutoff to gather the 218 names needed to force floor action in late June. After a lengthy meeting with his conference to discuss immigration, Mr. Ryan stressed that pursuing a compromise bill would be a better course than forcing the issue through a petition.... But it remained unclear if the negotiations on a compromise would satisfy Republican lawmakers who are eager to see the House address the fate of the Dreamers."

Congressional Races. New York Times Editors: "This week's primary elections underscored the striking degree to which President Trump has transformed the Republican Party from a political organization into a cult of personality. By contrast, Democrats show signs of taking a more pluralistic approach, fielding candidates who are willing and even eager to break with their national leaders -- ... [Nancy] Pelosi, in particular.... Assuming that American democracy endures, a party organized around a single extreme personality seems like a brittle proposition.... Through his demagogic command of the party's base, he has emerged as the shameless, trash-talking, lib-owning fulcrum around which the entire enterprise revolves.... Such timidity is hardly surprising. Mr. Trump's favorability rating among Republicans is at 87 percent...."

Hannity Advises Mueller Witnesses to Destroy Evidence. But He Was Kidding! Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On the Friday before Labor Day in 2016, the FBI released a set of documents ... including ... an interview with a Clinton staffer who reported having destroyed with a hammer at least two mobile devices used by the former secretary of state.... The destruction of those retired devices helped prevent anyone from potentially retrieving their contents, including foreign agents.... On Wednesday night..., CNBC reported... [that Robert] Mueller and his team have also been requesting access to their phones, allowing investigators to peruse messages sent over systems that would otherwise be hard to acquire.... [So Sean] Hannity offered new advice to those targeted by Mueller's probe. '... He wants the phones turned over, even texts that are on what are called "encrypted apps: like WhatsApp or Signal, or one of these things,' he said. '... If I advised them to follow Hillary Clinton's lead, delete all your emails and then acid-wash the emails and the hard drives on the phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer to little itsy-bitsy pieces, use BleachBit, remove the SIM cards, and then take the pieces and hand it over to Robert Mueller and say: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, this is equal justice under the law."' He was kidding, he later insisted -- while repeating the same advice." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: To be clear, the Clinton staffer destroyed devices to protect U.S. secrets (and likely received authorization or instructions to do so); Hannity is advising witnesses to destroy what could be evidence of crimes against the U.S., an act which itself is a crime.

Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "The New Yorker's editorial staff members said Wednesday that they had formed a union, adding the magazine to a growing list of publications, old and new, whose employees have turned to collective bargaining during a tumultuous time for the industry."

Jane Mayer of the New Yorker: "According to two well-informed individuals close to the family, David [Koch], who has been in declining health for several years, had resisted resigning, but Charles [Koch] forced him out.... From the start..., Charles was the instigator behind their political activism while remaining largely behind the scenes. This dynamic was evident as far back as 1980, when Charles convinced his younger brother David to run for Vice-President on the Libertarian Party ticket.... Nearly forty years later, many of the Kochs' policy preferences are now standard Republican orthodoxy, having been promoted from the fringes into the mainstream by the dozens of nonprofit organizations and candidates they funded. Small government, anti-tax, anti-regulatory, and pro-privatization policies, as well as skepticism regarding global warming, are commonplace.... Recent news accounts have highlighted differences that the Kochs have had with Trump.... What is often overlooked, and is far more significant, is the large extent to which the Kochs' policy preferences have prevailed under Trump.... Even if there is only one Koch brother left at the table, the menu will remain exactly the same, and the tab will be larger than ever." ...

... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "The Koch Brothers are the Cain and Abel of plutocratic politics.... This is not the first time fraternal intrigue has divided the family. Frederick Koch, the eldest brother in the family, alleges that after their father died in 1967 Charles tried to use 'homosexual blackmail' to force Frederick to sell his shares of the company business. [It didn't work.]... Another sibling, Bill, who is David Koch’s twin, has also wrestled for control of the company with both David and Charles.... The unfolding Koch drama perhaps illustrates the logical endpoint of libertarianism as a philosophy of extreme individualism. After all, what could be be more individualistic than trying to bring a vast fortune and political machine under the control of one man?"

Beyond the Beltway

Mini Moore. Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress: "[I]f the Alabama Republican Party gets its way, [Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom] Parker will be the state's next chief justice. Earlier this week, Parker defeated incumbent Chief Justice Lyn Stuart for the GOP nomination to take over her job.... Before joining the court himself, Parker was a top aide to then-Chief Justice Roy Moore.... Like Moore, Parker holds a deep animus against LGBTQ people, and he believes that his judicial decisions should be driven by his conservative religious beliefs...Oh, and there's one other thing. Parker appears to be quite enamored of a treasonous war fought to defend the idea that white people can own black people." And on and on. --safari

Way Beyond

The Cancer Is Spreading North. Ashifa Kassam of the Guardian: "Doug Ford -- the brother of controversial former Toronto mayor Rob Ford -- is the new leader of Canada's most populous province, winning a majority government in a local show of strength for the divisive wedge politics that have rattled much of the world.... [T]he Conservatives won 41% of the vote, bringing an end to 15 years of Liberal rule in the province.... Throughout the campaign Ford’s brand of populism prompted a slew of comparisons to Donald Trump." --safari

Way, Way Beyond

Ian Sample of the Guardian: "Nasa's veteran Curiosity rover has found complex organic matter buried and preserved in ancient sediments that formed a vast lake bed on Mars more than 3bn years ago. The discovery is the most compelling evidence yet that long before the planet became the parched world it is today, Martian lakes were a rich soup of carbon-based compounds that are necessary for life, at least as we know it."

News Lede

CNN: "Anthony Bourdain, a gifted storyteller and writer who took CNN viewers around the world, has died. He was 61. CNN confirmed Bourdain's death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide." ...

... The New York Times' obituary is here.

The Commentariat -- June 7, 2018

Afternoon Update:

Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "A White House economic analysis of President Trump's trade agenda has concluded that Mr. Trump's tariffs will hurt economic growth in the United States, according to several people familiar with the research. The findings from the White House Council of Economic Advisers have been circulated only internally and not publicly released..., making the exact economic projections unknown. But ... top White House officials continue to insist publicly that Mr. Trump's trade approach will be 'massively good for the U.S. economy.' The chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Kevin Hassett, an economist who came to the administration from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, dodged questions at a White House briefing on Tuesday about whether tariffs would hurt [the] economy.... Asked whether the administration's economists had modeled the impact that a trade war with China would have on the United States economy, Mr. Hassett said Mr. Trump was a great negotiator...." ...

... "Trump Heads to G-7 Meeting after Alienating Most U.S. Allies." Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Ahead of the summit meeting, finance ministers from the other six countries that form the Group of 7, or G-7, condemned Mr. Trump's trade decisions in an extraordinary rebuke of a member nation's president. And some of the leaders themselves have threatened to boycott the usual end-of-meeting communiqué.... Rarely -- if ever -- has there been the kind of visceral and unanimous outrage at an American president among the nation's most important allies, who for decades have seen the closest of relationships with the leader of the free world as a paramount foreign policy priority. Mr. Trump has repeatedly poked his counterparts in the eye -- ignoring their pleas to remain a part of the Paris climate treaty, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the Iran nuclear deal, and more recently by branding their steel and aluminum industries threats to national security, and therefore subject to tariffs." ...

... Mrs. McCrabbie: Nice to see everybody -- reporters, editors (even Time magazine), European leaders, some suddenly-honest GOP short-timers -- finally catching up with us here at Reality Chex. At some level, Trump realizes what a disaster his presidency is, which is why he's always boasting about how great a job he's doing. But his unparalleled failure also will serve only to make him more crazy.

The King & Dukes of Haphazard. Eliana Johnson of Politico: "National security adviser John Bolton has yet to convene a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss ... Donald Trump's upcoming summit with North Korea next week, a striking break from past practice that suggests the Trump White House is largely improvising its approach to the unprecedented nuclear talks. For decades, top presidential advisers have used a methodical process to hash out national security issues before offering the president a menu of options for key decisions. On an issue like North Korea, that would mean White House Situation Room gatherings of the secretaries of state and defense along with top intelligence officials, the United Nations ambassador, and even the Treasury secretary, who oversees economic sanctions. But since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with ... Kim Jong Un on March 8, the White House's summit planning has been unstructured, according to a half-dozen administration officials."

** "President Trump Still Way Too Lazy to Do His Job." Jonathan Chait: "Donald Trump possessed less relevant experience and subject expertise for the job of president than any person ever elected to the job. Those deficits can be offset, to a degree, with dogged study and hard work. But rather than make up for his historical lack of qualifications, Trump has compounded the problem with historical laziness. He famously lounges in front of the television having 'Executive Time' until 11 a.m., checks out early, refuses to read briefings, and otherwise disdains the most important parts of his job. Three new reports highlight the laziness problem." Read on. The update is excellent, too: "Asked if he's prepared for the North Korea summit, Trump assured a reporter that he is.... 'I think I'm very well prepared,' Trump said, 'I don't think I have to prepare very much. It's about attitude. It's about willingness to get things done.'"

Another Entry for Amazing List of "Stupidest Things Donald Trump Ever Said." Andrea Zelinski & St. John Barned-Smith of the Houston Chronicle: "... on a conference call with state and federal leaders in preparation for another dreadful hurricane season..., Trump thanked the Coast Guard for its service in helping save 16,000 people after Harvey, Hurricane Maria and other storms.... 'Sixteen thousand people, many of them in Texas, for whatever reason that is. People went out in their boats to watch the hurricane,' Trump said. 'That didn't work out too well.' Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez took umbrage with the president's remarks, crediting civilians with making an 'extraordinary effort' with their own boats to rescue neighbors, relatives and pets as Hurricane Harvey flooded the Texas coast.... 'I didn't see anyone taking the approach that would reflect his comments,' Gonzalez said. 'I'll be sure to invite the president to ride out the next hurricane in a jon boat in Galveston Bay the next time one approaches,' he added. No one could explain the president's comment." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Like many of his cult followers, Trump is oblivious to the world around him. He doesn't understand how elementary things work, & he has little interest in finding out. Here he assumes that ordinary citizens who went out to save others (something it would never occur to him to do himself) were instead out on pleasure cruises for death-defying joy rides.

CBS/AP: "Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says that the Trump administration has reached a 'definitive agreement' with Chinese telecom giant ZTE that Ross claims 'imposes the most strict compliance that we've ever had on any company, American or foreign.' In an interview on CNBC, Ross said penalties amounted to $1 billion and that ZTE agreed to install new management and a compliance team picked by the U.S. The agreement is controversial: ZTE had been sanctioned by the U.S. for doing business with North Korea and Iran. It was blocked from purchasing parts from U.S. companies, sanctions that had crippled the company. The Trump administration has walked a fine line, stressing that any ZTE deal is separate from ongoing trade negotiations with China. And that the punishment for ZTE's past actions is tough enough."

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked members of his 24/7 security detail to run errands for him on occasion, including picking up his dry cleaning and taking him in search of a favorite moisturizing lotion, according to two individuals familiar with those trips.... The top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), reiterated his call that Pruitt step down." Mrs. McC: So not just his office staff but also his security staff, which he needs not only to protect him from economy-class travelers who yell at him but also to serve as his personal shoppers, nap-time monitors (requires busting down door), headhunters for Mrs. Pruitt, stuff like that.

CBS/AP: "The Trump administration is disbanding a panel of experts focused on protecting consumers from financial abuse. Members of the panel, called the Consumer Advisory Board, say Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has dissolved the group, which includes consumer advocates, financial industry representatives, community leaders and others. The board advises the CFPB, a federal agency formed after the housing crash to prevent financial abuse. Mulvaney, told the board's 25 members that they are being replaced and the panel overhauled, according to two of the members.... Under Dodd Frank, the 2010 financial reform law that created the CFPB, the consumer panel is required to meet twice a year. But meetings were repeatedly cancelled since Mulvaney took the helm at the bureau in November." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Meant to link a story on this yesterday. Thanks to Akhilleus for discussing Mulvaney's Bank Protection Racket & Consumer Rip-off Bureau in today's Comments.

Hannity Advises Mueller Witnesses to Destroy Evidence. But He Was Kidding! Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On the Friday before Labor Day in 2016, the FBI released a set of documents ... including ... an interview with a Clinton staffer who reported having destroyed with a hammer at least two mobile devices used by the former secretary of state.... The destruction of those retired devices helped prevent anyone from potentially retrieving their contents, including foreign agents.... On Wednesday night..., CNBC reported... [that Robert] Mueller and his team have also been requesting access to their phones, allowing investigators to peruse messages sent over systems that would otherwise be hard to acquire.... [So Sean] Hannity offered new advice to those targeted by Mueller's probe. '... He wants the phones turned over, even texts that are on what are called "encrypted apps: like WhatsApp or Signal, or one of these things,' he said. '... If I advised them to follow Hillary Clinton's lead, delete all your emails and then acid-wash the emails and the hard drives on the phones, then take your phones and bash them with a hammer to little itsy-bitsy pieces, use BleachBit, remove the SIM cards, and then take the pieces and hand it over to Robert Mueller and say: "Hillary Rodham Clinton, this is equal justice under the law."' He was kidding, he later insisted-- while repeating the same advice." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: To be clear, the Clinton staffer destroyed devices to protect U.S. secrets (and likely received authorization or instructions to do so); Hannity is advising witnesses to destroy what could be evidence of crimes against the U.S.

*****

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "The White House has assembled the paperwork to pardon dozens of people, two sources with knowledge of the developments tell CNN, signaling that ... Donald Trump is poised to exert his constitutional power and intervene, in some instances, where he believes the Justice Department has overstepped. The administration has prepared the pardoning paperwork for at least 30 people, the sources tell CNN.... Who Trump pardons has oftentimes come as a jolt to his own staff, and on some occasions, the person being pardoned.... Trump has not followed the typical procedure for granting pardons...." ...

... Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has signed a commutation for Alice Johnson, currently serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense, according to a source with direct knowledge. CNN reported earlier today that the White House had prepped the paperwork for a pardon for Johnson while The Washington Post reported last night that he had been considering doing so.... Johnson's cause was championed last week at the White House by Kim Kardashian West.... Per a source familiar, White House counsel Don McGahn is skeptical of the merits of pardoning Johnson." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

Burgess Everett of Politico: "... Donald Trump called Bob Corker on Wednesday morning to try to dissuade the GOP senator from filing an amendment that would allow Congress to block his steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies.... The Tennessee senator is unbowed and plans to introduce his amendment to a defense policy bill on Wednesday afternoon with a bipartisan group of senators. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is also planning to lead a delegation of Republican senators to the White House to express their disapproval of the president's new tariffs, according to senators and aides.... Corker may not even be able to get a vote on his proposal. Senators are already at loggerheads over amending the defense bill, and Corker acknowledged that his amendment has a lot to do with it. The Senate has not held an amendment vote on the floor since March." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Update. Michael Collins & Eliza Collins of USA Today: "Sen. Bob Corker said Tuesday that 'a large number' of Senate Republicans are supporting his call for legislation challenging President Trump's decision to impose steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners.... Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday he would not allow the Corker tariff proposal to be brought up as a freestanding bill. But he did not shoot down the idea of attaching it to the defense legislation."

G-6 + Jerk. Damian Paletta & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "President Trump plans to confront other world leaders at a summit in Quebec on Friday over what he believes is a global economic system tilted against the United States, several people briefed on the plan said, escalating tensions with U.S. allies who have expressed outrage at his pivot toward protectionism. The summit will put Trump face to face with leaders he has antagonized on a range of issues, including the environment and the U.S. withdrawal last month from the international nuclear accord with Iran. But the two-day meeting of the Group of Seven, which will bring together many of the world's leading economies in a picturesque Canadian mountain town, has crystallized into a showdown over trade after Trump's recent insistence on new barriers that the other nations see as petty and insulting. Most of the other countries represented have a trade beef with Trump that is unlikely to be resolved at the summit -- and for each the standoff is one more sign that the United States is pulling back from traditional global leadership roles." ...

... Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "The president has vented privately about Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as their trade tensions have spilled into public view. He has mused about finding new ways to punish the United States' northern neighbor in recent days, frustrated with the country's retaliatory trade moves. And Trump has complained to aides about spending two days in Canada for a summit of world leaders, believing the trip is a distraction from his upcoming Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with Trump's views. In particular, the president said Tuesday to several advisers that he fears attending the Group of Seven summit in rural Charlevoix, Quebec, may not be a good use of his time because he is diametrically opposed on many key issues with his counterparts -- and does not want to be lectured by them. Additionally, Trump has griped periodically both about German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- largely because they disagree on many issues and have had an uneasy rapport -- as well as British Prime Minister Theresa May, whom he sees as too politically correct, advisers say. Behind the scenes at the White House, there have been staff-level discussions for several days about whether Trump may pull the plug on the trip and send Vice President Pence in his stead, as he did for an April summit of Latin American leaders in Peru." ...

... Trump Mad at Canada for Burning Down White House. Daniel Victor of the New York Times: The War of 1812 "figured prominently in a discussion between President Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on May 25. According to CNN's unnamed sources, President Trump asked Mr. Trudeau, 'Didn't you guys burn down the White House?'... Canada didn't become a nation until 1867, long after British troops did, in fact, burn down the White House in 1814." Mrs. McC: It's so wrong to blame Trump for this itty-bitty goof. He's been studying history under the tutelage of State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert. (See yesterday's Commentariat for context.) ...

... Jeet Heer, who is Canadian, does point out that "Trump is not entirely wrong about the War of 1812." ...

... Kevin Drum: "I know it's easy to sit at my desk and advise world leaders to tell Trump off, but really, they should tell Trump off. It's the only thing that works. Forbearance and good personal relations get you nowhere with Trump, as Trudeau, Shinzo Abe, Emmanuel Macron, and others have all learned. Just tell him to call back when he's ready to talk like an adult and then hang up the phone." ...

... digby: "... I hope that our erstwhile allies band together and teach Trump a lesson. He's out of control." ...

... Brooke Seipel of The Hill: "The World Bank is warning that trade tensions between the United States and other countries could trigger a financial crisis equivalent to the decline seen in 2008. In its Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank warns that tariff increases would have 'severe consequences' for global trade and could cause a decline similar to that seen in 2008, or worse if tariffs are increased beyond the maximum level allowed by the World Trade Organization." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

In More Excellent Diplomacy News ... Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, 'got back on his hands and knees and begged' for the United States to revive the Singapore summit meeting after President Trump abruptly scrapped it last month, one of Mr. Trump's lawyers, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said Wednesday. The remarks by Mr. Giuliani, apparently intended to portray Mr. Trump as a tough negotiator, may have lobbed a disruptive obstacle into the salvaged meeting less than a week before it is set to happen. The remarks could easily offend officials in North Korea, where a cultlike autocracy exalts Mr. Kim as a deity who cannot be seen as servile and weak. 'If the North Koreans needed a reason to cancel the meeting, the Americans just gave it to them,' said Evans J.R. Revere, a former State Department diplomat who specializes in North Korea."

Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: "China's expanding efforts to impose its will on neighbours through diplomatic, commercial and military pressure -- the so-called Xi doctrine -- have drawn the sharpest riposte to date from the Trump administration with Taiwan once again the main flashpoint in a sea of accelerating Sino-American rivalry.... China has accelerated efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, using its economic clout to pressure countries and international institutions into breaking off ties ... including the deployment of its own aircraft carrier in the strait.... The US response is being closely watched for signs of weakness by America's other allies in the region, who are also feeling the squeeze.... Dangerous US-China flashpoint issues appear to be multiplying fast." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Steven Erlanger & Milan Schreuer of the New York Times: "In a letter to senior Trump administration officials, European foreign and finance leaders this week tacitly acknowledged that their efforts to preserve the West's nuclear deal with Iran were failing. In the letter, sent on Monday to the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the European leaders cited 'security interests' in requesting that companies in Europe be granted an exemption from United States sanctions that would be imposed as a result of President Trump's decision to withdraw from the pact.... The plea is considered unlikely to produce the relief the Europeans want, since the Trump administration's stated intention is to pressure Tehran into agreeing to an entirely new set of negotiations.... On Tuesday..., Iran announced that it was preparing its nuclear facilities to resume large-scale uranium enrichment and had built a factory for constructing advanced centrifuges should Europe fail to preserve the deal."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Louis Nelson of Politico: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's office is 'trying very, very hard to frame' ... Donald Trump, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said at a conference Wednesday in Israel. Giuliani said Mueller's team, tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and allegations that the Trumpcampaign colluded in those efforts, is composed of '13 highly partisan Democrats ... (who) are trying very, very hard to frame him to get him in trouble when he hasn't done anything wrong.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a shocking lie to tell anywhere, much less while visiting an ally with whom we share intelligence. It's also probably pretty effective: if you're having trouble defending your vote for Trump because he's such a corrupt fuck-up, it really helps if you "find out" that the DOJ & the FBI are "trying to frame" Trump, so you can ignore every charge the Mueller team may assert. ...

... Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Paul D. Ryan contradicted President Trump's assertions of a broad conspiracy by federal law enforcement on Wednesday, joining other lawmakers in saying that the F.B.I. did nothing wrong by using a confidential informant to contact members of the Trump campaign as it investigated its ties to Russia. And he said that Mr. Trump should not try to pardon himself, despite the president's assertion two days earlier that he has the power to take such a step. 'I don't know the technical answer to that question, but I think obviously the answer is he shouldn't,' Mr. Ryan told reporters. 'And no one is above the law.' Mr. Ryan's warning was the latest indication that the president is beginning to face trouble on Capitol Hill, where members of his own party are showing small signs of resistance. From international trade and China to immigration and the conduct of his cabinet, serious dissent from at least some Republicans is beginning to boil over." Mrs. McC: Ryan is retiring. ...

... Kyle Cheney & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Rep. Tom Rooney, a top Republican lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee, is ripping ... Donald Trump's unsupported claim that the FBI inserted a spy inside his campaign. 'What is the point of saying that there was a spy in the campaign when there was none?' Rooney said in an interview on Wednesday. '... It's like, "Lets create this thing to tweet about knowing that it's not true." ... Maybe it's just to create more chaos but it doesn't really help the case.'... Rooney, a three-term Florida Republican who is retiring at the end of the year, was one of three GOP House members to lead the Intelligence Committee's year-long Russia probe after Chairman Devin Nunes stepped aside." Emphasis added.

Elie Mystal of Above the Law: "I'm not going to pretend I know the answer to the question: Can the President pardon himself?... Every speck of digital ink spilled contemplating the scope President's pardon power without talking about impeachment is a waste. This is not 'Philosophy of Laws: 101.' Instead, open your book 'So you've elected a despot' to chapter 1, page 1. It says right there: 'Does your system allow for the impeachment of said despot, and peaceful removal from power?' If YES, then you can stop reading. Impeachment or the 25th Amendment are the only Constitutional ways to remove a sitting president from power. That's the full list of despotic remedies.... It doesn't MATTER if he pardons himself. If Congress won't act, he can do ANYTHING HE WANTS.... The only relevant legal question is: what happens after Trump leaves office? Will he be arrested, like, the day a new president is sworn in? If so, will a preemptive self-pardon carry sway with whatever legal authorities are arrayed against former-President Trump? I don't know the answer to that question either, but at least it's one worth asking." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is requesting that witnesses turn in their personal phones to inspect their encrypted messaging programs and potentially view conversations between associates linked to ... Donald Trump, sources told CNBC. Since as early as April, Mueller's team has been asking witnesses in the Russia probe to turn over phones for agents to examine private conversations on WhatsApp, Confide, Signal and Dust, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Fearing a subpoena, the witnesses have complied with the request and have given over their phones, the sources said."

Follow the Money. Carole Cadwalladr & Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian: "A Cambridge Analytica director apparently visited Julian Assange in February last year and told friends it was to discuss what happened during the US election.... Brittany Kaiser, a director at the firm until earlier this year, also claimed to have channelled cryptocurrency payments and donations to WikiLeaks. This information has been passed to congressional and parliamentary inquiries in the UK and US. Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks are already subjects of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, but the revelations open up fresh questions about the precise nature of the organisations' relationship. There was no known connection until October last year, when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had 'reached out' to Assange in July 2016 and offered to help him index and distribute the 33,000 emails that had been stolen from Hillary Clinton."

The Warp Zone. Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "Late on Tuesday, President Trump tweeted something that's embarrassing even by his standards: an unfounded conspiracy theory that originated in some of the internet's worst 'fake news' corners. 'Strzok-Page, the incompetent & corrupt FBI lovers, have texts referring to a counter-intelligence operation into the Trump Campaign dating way back to December, 2015,' the president wrote. 'SPYGATE is in full force!'... [W]hat happened, it seems, is that a conspiratorial interpretation of texts between two FBI employees, one entirely unfounded in the actual evidence, got laundered from the fringe right-wing media to the right-wing mainstream through Fox News personalities -- and eventually reached up to a member of Congress and the president of the United States. This says something profound about the way the country is broken today -- about how Trump and the conservative media have combined forces to warp the way millions of Americans understand the world around them." --safari

The Lady & the Weightlifter. Anthony Cormier, et al., of BuzzFeed: "Amid intense scrutiny of contacts between Donald Trump's inner circle and representatives of Vladimir Putin, Ivanka Trump's name has barely come up. But during the campaign, she connected her father's personal lawyer with a Russian athlete who offered to introduce Donald Trump to Putin to facilitate a 100-story Trump tower in Moscow, according to emails reviewed by BuzzFeed News and four sources with knowledge of the matter. There is no evidence that Ivanka Trump's contact with the athlete -- the former Olympic weightlifter Dmitry Klokov -- was illegal or that it had anything to do with the election. Nor is it clear that Klokov could even have introduced Trump to the Russian president. But congressional investigators have reviewed emails and questioned witnesses about the interaction, according to two of the sources, and so has special counsel Robert Mueller's team, according to the other two."

Sarah Fitzpatrick & Tracy Connor of NBC News: "Stormy Daniels says in a new lawsuit that her former attorney betrayed her and became a 'puppet' for ... Donald Trump and his personal lawyer while still representing her. The filing Wednesday alleges that Trump attorney Michael Cohen 'hatched a plan' and 'colluded' with the adult film actress' lawyer, Keith Davidson, to get her to go on Fox News in January and falsely deny she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago. Cohen even referred to Davidson as 'pal' in one text cited in the complaint. The lawsuit against Davidson and Cohen also claims that Trump was aware the two attorneys were communicating and coordinating for his benefit -- unbeknownst to Daniels.... 'Mr. Davidson abdicated his role as an advocate and fiduciary of his client Ms. Clifford and instead elected to be a puppet for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump in order to advance their interests at the expense of Ms Clifford,' the suit says."

Trumpy Takes a Field Trip

We're now exporting energy for the first time. Never did it. Now we're exporting energy. -- President Trump, speaking at a briefing at FEMA headquarters on Wednesday

The United States has exported energy sources like coal, natural gas, petroleum and electricity for decades.... The United States is still a net importer. Additionally, data from the energy statistical agency shows that the United States was a net exporter for several years before 1953. -- Linda Qiu of the New York Times

Adam Raymond of New York: "President Trump and Vice-President Pence visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday and lavished the agency with praise for its work in 2017, making no mention of the recent study that put the death toll in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria at 4,645."

Gossip Page. Adam Edelman & Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "First lady Melania Trump made her first public appearance in nearly a month on Wednesday, tamping down rumors about her noticeable absence from the public eye after she underwent a kidney procedure. The first lady sat next to ... Donald Trump at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a 2018 hurricane season briefing with the vice president and several cabinet officials also in attendance." Mrs. McC: No, no, I'm sure that was a body-double. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Frank Dale of ThinkProgress: "Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are calling for an independent commission to investigate the Trump administration's response to Hurricane Maria and the storm's aftermath in Puerto Rico.... Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) vowed to introduce legislation that would lead to the creation of an independent commission -- though passing it in the current Republican-controlled Congress will be a challenge." --safari

Miranda Carter in the New Yorker: "One of the few things that Kaiser Wilhelm II, who ruled Germany from 1888 to 1918, had a talent for was causing outrage.... One of the many things that Wilhelm was convinced he was brilliant at, despite all evidence to the contrary, was 'personal diplomacy.'... The Kaiser viewed other people in instrumental terms, was a compulsive liar, and seemed to have a limited understanding of cause and effect.... I published ... a book that was, in part, about Kaiser Wilhelm.... Ever since Donald Trump started campaigning for President, the Kaiser has once again been on my mind -- his personal failings, and the global fallout they led to." Read on. --safari

Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A federal judge in San Diego on Wednesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's practice of taking children from immigrants when they arrive at the border to seek asylum, ruling that the 'wrenching separation' of families may violate the Constitution's guarantees of due process. 'Such conduct, if true, as it is assumed to be on the present motion, is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency,' Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the Southern District of California wrote in his 25-page opinion. The judge rejected the government's claim that the practice of family separations -- one of the most controversial features of the government's crackdown on illegal immigration -- cannot be challenged on constitutional grounds, though he did dismiss a separate challenge claiming that the practice violates asylum laws."

Brady Dennis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Two of Scott Pruitt's most trusted aides have given notice that they are leaving the Environmental Protection Agency as its embattled administrator faces growing scrutiny over his spending and management decisions, according to current and former agency officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel moves. The departures of Sarah Greenwalt, Pruitt's senior counsel, and Millan Hupp, his director for scheduling and advance -- both of whom had worked with Pruitt since his days as Oklahoma attorney general -- leave the EPA chief increasingly isolated as he faces a dozen federal spending and ethics probes.... The departures are the latest and possibly most significant in a growing list of political appointees who have left the agency.... Trump praised Pruitt at a FEMA event today and said the EPA is 'doing very, very well.'" ...

... Elaina Plott: "Hupp, who worked as the director of scheduling and advance, has been entangled in many of the scandals dogging EPA Administrator Pruitt. According to one top EPA official, the 26-year-old was 'tired of being thrown under the bus by Pruitt,' and weary of seeing her name constantly appear in headlines about the agency. Officials began drafting her resignation paperwork on Monday morning, just after portions of her congressional testimony had been made public.... When reached by phone, Jahan Wilcox, an EPA spokesperson, would not comment. He said: 'You have a great day, you're a piece of trash.'" Mrs. McC: Needless to say, an agency spokesperson in any other administration who called a reporter asking a routine question "a piece of trash" would be fired on the spot. No word Wilcox has cleared out his desk or been frog-marched out of the building. ...

... Trump Is Only Person in White House Who Likes Scotty. Get Out! Emily Holden, et al., of Politico: "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt loves eating at the White House mess, an exclusive U.S. Navy-run restaurant open only to White House officials, Cabinet members and other dignitaries. But apparently he liked it too much, and the White House asked him to please eat elsewhere sometimes." ...

... Marcy's So Mean. Lisa Ryan of New York: "Marcy Kaptur of Ohio decided to insert an amendment into the EPA interior bill limiting the amount of taxpayer funds Pruitt could use on individual pens to just $50 ... and it passed!"...

... Tribal Protections. Kyla Mandel of ThinkProgress: "House Republicans on Wednesday afternoon blocked an effort by Democrats to increase funding for the [EPA's] watchdog, which is tasked with investigating the many scandals surrounding agency administrator Scott Pruitt.... [V]oting along party-lines 21-26, Republicans rejected an amendment introduced by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) to increase the OIG's funding for 2019. 'It's hard to imagine that there is a more overworked inspector general than at the EPA these days,' Pocan said. 'This is not a Democrat/Republican thing, this should be a good government thing.'" --safari

** Mike Levine of ABC News: "The Justice Department's internal watchdog has concluded that James Comey defied authority at times during his tenure as FBI director, according to sources familiar with a draft report on the matter. One source told ABC News that the draft report explicitly used the word 'insubordinate' to describe Comey's behavior. Another source agreed with that characterization but could not confirm the use of the term. In the draft report, Inspector General Michael Horowitz also rebuked former Attorney General Loretta Lynch for her handling of the federal investigation into Hillary Clinton's personal email server, the sources said.... The draft of Horowitz's wide-ranging report specifically called out Comey for ignoring objections from the Justice Department when he disclosed in a letter to Congress just days before the 2016 presidential election that FBI agents had reopened the Clinton probe, according to sources. Clinton has said that letter doomed her campaign.... Horowitz's draft report [also] cited Comey for failing to consult with Lynch and other senior Justice Department officials [in July 2016] before making his announcement on national TV [re: closing the e-mail! investigation]. While saying there was no 'clear evidence' that Clinton 'intended to violate' the law, Comey insisted the former secretary of state was 'extremely careless' in her 'handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.'"

Steven Myers & Jane Perlez of the New York Times: "A crisis over a mysterious ailment sickening American diplomats and their families -- which began in Cuba and recently appeared in China -- widened on Wednesday as the State Department evacuated at least two more Americans from China. The Americans who were evacuated worked at the American Consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou, and their colleagues and family members are being tested by a State Department medical team, officials said. It is unclear how many of them are exhibiting symptoms, but officials expect more American personnel to be evacuated. For months, American officials have been worried that their diplomats have been subjected to targeted attacks involving odd sounds, leading to symptoms similar to those 'following concussion or minor traumatic brain injury,' the State Department says."

Congressional Races. Carl Hulse & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Democrats enhanced their prospects for winning control of the House with Tuesday's coast-to-coast primary results, skirting potential calamity in California and lining up likely gains in New Jersey and possible victories in Iowa and New Mexico. The Democratic Party had feared disaster in California, where a quirky 'jungle primary' gives the November ballot to the top two finishers, regardless of party. But Democratic contenders there leveraged financial and strategic help from the national party to weather the winnowing primary, and ensure that they will field candidates in multiple districts that they will most likely need if they are to win control in November.... Republicans avoided their own worst-case scenario as well, securing a spot in the California governor's race, which should help bring G.O.P. voters to the polls this fall to vote for their party's House candidates.... Republican voters also chose strong candidates in Southern California for the showdown in November."

Extra-Special Rich-White-Boy Sentence Leads to Recall. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Aaron Persky, the California judge who drew national attention in 2016 when he sentenced a Stanford student to just six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, was recalled on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. He is the first judge recalled in California in more than 80 years. Judge Persky, 56, had served on the Santa Clara County Superior Court since 2003, and he began his most recent six-year term in June 2016.... The judge said he thought [Brock] Turner [-- the assailant --] would 'not be a danger to others' and expressed concern that 'a prison sentence would have a severe impact' on him. He did not mention the impact of the assault on the victim, known publicly only as Emily Doe, who described her suffering in a more than 7,000-word statement that went viral soon after it was published by BuzzFeed." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Presidential Race 2020. Eric Levitz of New York runs down the many reasons Democrats should reject a presidential bid by Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks.

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Former President Bill Clinton's book tour for his first novel keeps getting interrupted by a familiar character from his past: Monica Lewinsky. After Mr. Clinton reacted defensively on the 'Today' show on Monday when asked about Ms. Lewinsky..., he tried to walk back the tenor of his remarks, if not fully the substance, on Tuesday. 'When something that was that painful is thrown up again after 20 years after it was fully litigated, you tend to freeze up -- and it wasn't my finest hour,' Mr. Clinton said at a TimesTalk event in Manhattan." (Also linked yesterday.)

Giovanni Russonello of the New York Times: "Samantha Bee apologized on 'Full Frontal' on Wednesday for using a severe epithet to describe Ivanka Trump last week.... (Bee devoted the next section of her show to the detention facilities where the Trump administration is now housing immigrant children separated from their parents by Border Patrol agents.)" With video.

Way Beyond the Beltway

David Harding of AFP: "On the first anniversary of a bitter Gulf diplomatic rift, Qatar's foreign minister on Tuesday declared his country stronger than ever and said it was open to dialogue with its regional rivals.... Diplomatic efforts led by Kuwait and the United States have so far stalled though there are tentative plans for talks in September.... Doha would continue with its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence missile system. Saudi leaders have asked French President Emmanuel Macron to intervene to prevent the deal going ahead, raising fears of military action in the dispute. Raising the military stakes yet further, Qatar's defence minister Khalid bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah, said Tuesday that Doha wanted to join NATO." --safari