The Commentariat -- June 16, 2018

*****

** Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "President Trump declared in a spur-of-the-moment interview with 'Fox and Friends' Friday morning that he wants people to sit at attention for him like they do for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.... Kim stands accused of leading a murderous regime that starves its own people. But Mr. Trump has heaped praise on Kim since meeting with him in Singapore, saying repeatedly that the two have 'good chemistry.' 'Hey, he is the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head,' Mr. Trump told Fox News' Steve Doocy on the White House lawn Friday. 'Don't let anyone think anything different. H speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.' Pressed by a reporter about those remarks moments later, Mr. Trump said he was 'kidding.' 'I'm kidding, you don't understand sarcasm,' the president said." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ...

     ... Mrs. McC: I don't think Trump was kidding, & -- rather than insult a reporter, as Trump did -- I'm going to assume the reporter does understand sarcasm, AND s/he can tell when Trump isn't kidding. ...

What makes Trump's comments so disturbing is that they reveal a president who believes in projecting American power but not American values -- he believes in might but not right. --Amy Zegart of Stanford University ...

... "Dictator Envy." Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's praise Friday for Kim Jong Un's authoritarian rule in North Korea -- and his apparent envy that people there 'sit up at attention' when the 35-year-old dictator speaks -- marked an escalation of the American president's open embrace of totalitarian leaders around the world.... Whether jesting or not, no U.S. president has been as free in his admiration of dictators and absolute power as the 45th, historians say. And Trump's interest in the subject seems to be growing as he becomes better acquainted with some of the world's authoritarian leaders.... Trump earlier this week declared the media to be 'our country's biggest enemy,' and he has repeatedly voiced his desire to punish journalists who air criticisms of him. Trump remarked during his Singapore trip about how positive a female news anchor was toward Kim on state-run North Korean television, and he joked that even Trump-friendly Fox News was not as lavish in its praise. Trump condoned violence against protesters during his campaign rallies and as president has encouraged jailing his political opponents and perceived enemies...." ...

Using ... language like 'the enemy of the people' -- it-s a Stalin phrase.... What he has done is begun to stress these norms and stress them constantly, and people become inured to it. I've seen this play out in Turkey, and that's how this stuff gets normalized. And after a while, people say, OK, that's the way it is. -- Eric Edelman, Dubya's ambassador to Turkey ...

... Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico: "... Donald Trump reliably tells the truth on one thing: He likes the way dictators do business.... He's spent the three years -- to the day -- since riding down that escalator in Trump Tower demanding loyalty, fantasizing about torture, dividing the country into 'followers' and enemies.... He stocks his staff with supplicants and family members, then pits them against one another to watch them fight for his favor in a nonstop West Wing soap opera.... Political enemies should be investigated and jailed, Trump says. He'll pardon whom he wants to, whomever gets his attention by running to a Fox News set. He blames it on a justice system he undercuts.... If you're offended, Trump and his aides say, if you disagree, if you want an explanation, you're either an idiot or not a patriot."

     ... Trumplomacy. Bob Fredericks of the New York Post: "... Donald Trump stunned his fellow world leaders at the G7 meeting when he said he would ship '25 million' Mexicans to Japan, which would result in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe losing his next election. During the gathering in Quebec -- which ended with Trump leaving early and refusing to sign the traditional joint communique -- the president was talking about what he called Europe's immigration problem when he turned his attention to the Japanese leader. 'Shinzo, you don't have this problem, but I can send you 25 million Mexicans and you'll be out of office very soon,' Trump said, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior EU official who was in the room. The commander-in-chief also raised eyebrows when the subject turned to Iran and terrorism. 'You must know about this, Emmanuel, because all the terrorists are i Paris,' he told French President Emmanuel Macron. 'A sense of irritation with Mr. Trump could be felt, but everyone tried to be rational and calm,' the official told the paper."

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's obvious Trump finds it in his interest to antagonize democratic allies & cozy up to dictators and enemies (tho the China tariffs don't fit this pattern). There's an end game in the man's mind. I don't know exactly what it is, but I know it's not good. ...

     ... So This Is Funny. John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday tweeted photos of himself meeting with world leaders at last weekend's G-7 summit, accusing news outlets of reporting incorrectly that he has a negative relationship with world leaders. In a string of tweets, the president posted photographs showing him smiling alongside world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and French president Emmanuel Macron at the summit. 'I have a great relationship with Angela Merkel of Germany, but the Fake News Media only shows the bad photos (implying anger) of negotiating an agreement - where I am asking for things that no other American President would ask for!' Trump tweeted." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember the Magnitsky Act? That's the U.S. law under which the U.S. has sanctioned Russians for human rights violations. Congress initiated the act specifically because of the the death of Russian tax accountant Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow prison in 2009, but extended it to apply to any foreign government officials who commit abuses. Donnie Junior made the act well-known when news reports revealed that Junior had called a Trump Tower meeting to get dirt from Russia on Hillary Clinton but was disappointed when the Russian reps wanted to talk only about ending the sanctions imposed against Russian oligarchs under the Magnitsky Act. Well, last year, Canada passed its own Magnitsky law, with similar provisions. ...

     ... AND NOW, guess what? ...

     ... Poetic Justice. Rebecca Samuels of the pluralist: "Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that she is open to using a law normally reserved for leaders responsible for human rights violations to impose retaliatory sanctions on the Trump Administration. Those sanctions could target the administration itself rather than the American people. The Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act, also known as the Magnitsky law, would allow Ottowa to impose travel bans and asset freezes on foreign leaders. Regina-Lewvan MP Erin Weir proposed the measure during a Question Period with Freeland earlier this week. Weir noted that the law might be particularly useful because Trump has 'made himself vulnerable' by maintaining personal business interests." ...

... Peter Baker & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump went on offense on Friday with a withering series of attacks on the F.B.I., congressional Democrats, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Canada's prime minister, football players, the media, the special counsel and other favorite targets even as he hailed his relations with the leaders of North Korea, China and Russia. After a couple of days out of sight following his trip to Singapore to meet with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump delivered a blizzard of pointed messages on Twitter, gave an interview to his preferred Fox News show and then engaged in a typically freewheeling encounter with reporters on the White House driveway.... The ]Justice Department IG's] report, he said, exposed what he called 'the scum on top' of the F.B.I. as 'total thieves,' and he insisted that Peter Strzok, a senior F.B.I. agent who had spoken privately against him, should be fired. 'They were plotting against my election,' he said. When it was pointed out that the report actually found that no decisions were made out of political bias, he dismissed the conclusion.... [In his Fox News interview, he said,] 'If you read the I.G. report, I've been totally exonerated.' But the report dealt only with the handling of the investigation into Mrs. Clinton and did not address allegations against Mr. Trump and his campaign related to contacts with Russia during the election and possible obstruction of justice after he took office." Read on, if you haven't had lunch. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

... Evan Hurst of Wonkette highlights some more of Trump's Friday morning whoppers. ...

... AND Linda Qiu of the New York Times has a detailed fact-check of the lies Trump told during his Fox "News" interview.

Jill Abramson of the Guardian: "Reading ... the IG report and the lawsuit [against the Trump Foundation, et al.], fills any sane person with the deepest regret that Donald Trump is president. This is a tragedy that could have been prevented, according to my reading of the Justice Department's report. And anyone needing more evidence that Trump lacks the moral or ethical moorings to be president need only peruse the New York lawsuit eviscerating the Trump Foundation. Despite his sanctimony, his best-selling book and his claims to martyrdom after Trump fired him, James Comey is a singular villain. Though the IG report states that he had no political motive in doing so, he upended the 2016 election and all but destroyed Clinton's candidacy.... The inescapable conclusion of the report is that the FBI under Comey was a ship of fools." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will await his trial for foreign lobbying crimes from jail. Two weeks after Robert Mueller's prosecutors dropped new accusations of witness tampering on him, a federal judge Friday revoked Manafort's current bail, which allowed him out on house arrest. Judge Amy Berman Jackson's order marks an end to months of attempts from Manafort to lighten his house arrest restrictions after he was charged and pleaded not guilty to foreign lobbying violations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... The New York Times story, by Sharon LaFraniere, is here. "Mr. Trump and members of his team lashed out against the judge's move, an attack that renewed talk about whether the president might issue pardons to curb a prosecutorial process in the special counsel's Russia inquiry that he describes as stacked against him. 'Wow, what a tough sentence for Paul Manafort, who has represented Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other top political people and campaigns,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Friday in which he appeared to confuse the judge's action with a sentence handed down after conviction. 'Didn't know Manafort was the head of the Mob. What about Comey and Crooked Hillary and all of the others? Very unfair!' Rudolph W. Giuliani ... said in an interview that Mr. Trump should not pardon anyone while the special counsel inquiry is still going on, but 'when the investigation is concluded, he's kind of on his own, right?'... Mr. Trump has sought to distance himself from Mr. Manafort, who worked for his campaign for nearly five months, including three months as campaign chairman, before he was ousted in August 2016 amid controversy over his Ukraine work. 'Mr. Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time,' the president said on Friday morning. 'He worked for me, what, for 49 days or something?' he added." ...

... MEANWHILE. Kara Scannell of CNN: "... Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has indicated to family and friends he is willing to cooperate with federal investigators to alleviate the pressure on himself and his family, according to a source familiar with the matter.Cohen has expressed anger with the treatment he has gotten from the President, who has minimized his relationship with Cohen, and comments from the President's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the source said. The treatment has left him feeling isolated and more open to cooperating, the source said. Asked by reporters Friday if he was worried about Cohen cooperating, Trump said, 'I did nothing wrong, nothing wrong.' He also said he hasn't spoken with Cohen 'in a long time,' adding, 'I always liked Michael and he's a good person.'" ...

... Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "Federal investigators were able to piece together about 16 pages of shredded documents seized during a raid on President Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, a court filing Friday revealed. Prosecutors also now have been able to read more than 700 pages of messages and call logs from the encrypted communication platforms WhatsApp and Signal."

Jeff Horwitz of the AP: "A company run by former officials at Cambridge Analytica, the political consulting firm brought down by a scandal over how it obtained Facebook users' private data, has quietly been working for ... Donald Trump's 2020 re-election effort.... The AP confirmed that at least four former Cambridge Analytica employees are affiliated with Data Propria, a new company specializing in voter and consumer targeting work similar to Cambridge Analytica's efforts before its collapse. The company's former head of product, Matt Oczkowski, leads the new firm, which also includes Cambridge Analytica's former chief data scientist.... In [a] conversation, which took place in a public place and was overheard by two AP reporters, Oczkowski said he and Trump's 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, were 'doing the president's work for 2020.'... Both Oczkowski and Parscale told the AP that no Trump re-election work by Data Propria was even planned...."

White House Concedes Trump Has No Idea What He's Talking about. Thomas Kaplan & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Conflicting messages from President Trump and his aides over whether he would support a compromise immigration bill sent House Republicans into fits of confusion on Friday, further diminishing the bill's fortunes ahead of a showdown vote next week. Speaker Paul D. Ryan is planning to hold votes on two immigration measures: a hard-line conservative bill, which is almost certain to fail, and new legislation worked out by Republican immigration moderates and House conservatives, which Mr. Ryan promoted Thursday as a 'very good compromise.' But a day of White House drama left Republicans unsure of where the president stood, and uncertainty will not help legislation that would bring sweeping change to the United States' immigration system. On Friday morning, Mr. Trump seemed to casually dismiss the delicate compromise. 'I'm looking at both of them,' Mr. Trump said on 'Fox and Friends.' 'I certainly wouldn't sign the more moderate one.' Senior aides in the White House quietly insisted that the president had misspoken, but it took hours for the White House to say that out loud. Finally, early Friday evening, Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, issued a statement pledging Mr. Trump's support for the compromise bill as well as for the hard-line measure...." ...

... Colleen Long of the AP: "Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the U.S. border over a six-week period during a crackdown on illegal entries, according to Department of Homeland Security figures obtained Friday by The Associated Press.... Under a 'zero tolerance' policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Department of Homeland Security officials are now referring all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. U.S. protocol prohibits detaining children with their parents because the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are. Sessions announced the effort April 6, and Homeland Security began stepping up referrals in early May, effectively putting the policy into action." ...

... ** Trump Vows to Continue to Use Traumatized Children as Bargaining Chips. Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump has calculated that he will gain political leverage in congressional negotiations by continuing to enforce a policy he claims to hate -- separating immigrant parents from their young children at the southern border, according to White House officials. On Friday, Trump suggested he would not change the policy unless Democrats agreed to his other immigration demands, which include funding a border wall, tightening the rules for border enforcement and curbing legal entry. He also is intent on pushing members of his party to vote for a compromise measure that would achieve those long-standing priorities. Trump's public acknowledgment that he was willing to let the policy continue as he pursued his political goals came as the president once again blamed Democrats for a policy enacted and touted by his own administration. 'The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda,' he tweeted. After listing his demands in any immigration bill, he added, 'Go for it! WIN!'"

So Much Winning!

Don Lee & Jonathan Kaiman of the Los Angeles Times: "China on Wednesday matched dollar for dollar the Trump administration's plan to slap tariffs on $50 billion of imported Chinese goods, issuing its own list of U.S. products of comparable value that would be subject to hefty duties should the White House follow through with its tough trade sanctions. Beijing's swift and broad retaliatory response at first seemed to confirm fears that the world's two largest economies were hurtling toward a trade war that would be costly for consumers and companies, and damage the global economy. Anxious U.S. businesses pleaded for cooler heads, and investors panicked. But after sinking sharply when markets opened Wednesday, U.S. stocks not only recovered, but the Dow ended the day up 231 points. The rebound followed assurances by White House officials that despite President Trump's sharp rhetoric and threats, chances are good that the tit-for-tat trade salvos will end in settlement rather than much further escalation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Trump Says It's All Good. Heather Long of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision Friday to put hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese products means costs are going up for a lot of goods. A tariff is another word for a tax, and Trump just announced significant new taxes on 1,102 items.... Americans will almost certainly face higher costs as companies pay more for parts they need to build cars, dishwashers and tractors, and then firms turn around and pass those higher prices onto consumers. All of Trump's tariffs so far -- on China, on steel and aluminum, on washing machines and on solar panels -- will end up costing the average U.S. family $80 a year, Moody's Analytics estimates.... If Trump continues to pile tariffs on China (he has threatened to do another $100 billion) and China retaliates, then the cost to the average family would rise to $210, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs has also forecast rising prices from the tariffs. The [right-wing] Tax Foundation, a think tank that supported Trump's tax law, predicts that more than 45,000 jobs will be lost because of the tariffs Trump has issued so far. They also forecast a small hit to the economy and wages.... Trump is calling on Americans to pay higher prices for a while because he thinks it will be worth it if he gets concessions from China and the E.U.... Trump is arguing it will be worth it in the end.... In a rally in late April in Michigan, he told supporters to be prepared for 'a little pain' in this fight with China and the European Union." ...

... Trump & Co. Are Making $$ & You're Not. Jeff Stein & Andrew van Dam of the Washington Post: "The average hourly wage paid to a key group of American workers has fallen from last year when accounting for inflation, as an economy that appears strong by several measures continues to fail to create bigger paychecks, the federal government said Tuesday. For workers in 'production and nonsupervisory' positions, the value of the average paycheck has declined in the past year.... This pool of workers includes those in manufacturing and construction jobs, as well as all 'nonsupervisory' workers in service industries such health care or fast food. The group accounts for about four-fifths of the privately employed workers in America, according to BLS.... The fall in those wages has alarmed some economists, who say paychecks should be getting fatter at a time when unemployment is low and businesses are hiring.... The falling wages promise to exacerbate historic levels of U.S. inequality.... Gains are going almost exclusively to people already at the top of the economic ladder, economists say."

Now This Is a Rigged System. Maggie Severns of Politico: "The FEC will not investigate ... Donald Trump's political campaign for enriching his businesses after considering a complaint from a liberal watchdog group, which alleged that Trump's boasting about his hotels and use of his private jets constituted a violation of campaign law. The agency released its decision Friday, two years after the complaint was filed during the 2016 primaries, when then-candidate Trump plugged Trump-branded wine, steaks and golf courses during political events and held press conferences at Trump properties. The complaint from American Democracy Legal Fund alleged that represented a use of campaign funds to further Trump's business and personal interests in violation of campaign finance law. Additional complaints alleged that Trump had 'charged his own campaign significantly more money' for events than he had charged others for similar events. But the FEC dismissed the complaints on a 3-1 vote, with Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub dissenting, after the agency's general counsel recommended against moving forward." Mrs. McC: The FEC has only four commissioners, although it is supposed to have six, with no more than three from one party. The three who voted to forget about Trump's money-making campaign endeavors are all Republicans appointed by Dubya.

Friday in Scott Pruitt Scandals. Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior staff members at the Environmental Protection Agency frequently felt pressured by Scott Pruitt, the administrator, to help in personal matters and obtain special favors for his family, according to interviews with four current and former E.P.A. officials who served as top political aides to Mr. Pruitt. The officials said that Mr. Pruitt, who 'had a clear sense of entitlement,' in the words of one of them, indicated that he expected staff members' assistance with matters outside the purview of government, including calling on an executive with connections in the energy industry to help secure tickets to a sold-out football game in January at the Rose Bowl. The aides said the administrator ... had also made it clear that he had no hesitation in leveraging his stature as a cabinet member to solicit favors himself. As an example, Mr. Pruitt, shortly after taking the E.P.A. job, reached out to the former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates seeking help for his daughter, McKenna, in securing admission to the University of Virginia School of Law. William Howell, the former speaker, appears on Mr. Pruitt's official E.P.A. calendar, and he confirmed in an interview that he was approached by Mr. Pruitt and subsequently wrote a letter to the school's dean on the daughter's behalf.... Separately, at least three E.P.A. staff members were dispatched to help Ms. Pruitt obtain a summer internship at the White House, the current and former staff members said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... But Pruitt still has Trump's support. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters: "Talks with the United States over how to reform the main U.N. rights body have failed to meet Washington's demands, activists and diplomats say, suggesting that the Trump administration will quit the Geneva forum whose session opens on Monday. A U.S. source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the withdrawal appeared to be 'imminent' but had no details. Diplomatic sources said it was not a question of if but of when the United States retreats from the Human Rights Council, which is holding a three-week session through July 6.... Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, publicly told the Council a year ago that Washington might leave the body unless a 'chronic anti-Israel bias' were removed." Mrs. McC: Isn't the real reason we're pulling out that the Trump administration doesn't care about human rights?

Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Tensions flared on Friday between federal authorities in Arizona and residents of a Native American reservation straddling the border with Mexico after a video surfaced in which a Border Patrol vehicle appears to hit a man from the tribe before driving away. The video, which was recorded on the phone of the victim, a member of the Tohono O'odham Nation identified as Paulo Remes, spread quickly on social media after several tribe members and Indivisible Tohono, an organization focused on the impact of border policies, posted the footage on Twitter and Facebook.... He told The Arizona Daily Star that he was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of injuries from the incident.... The ... Border Patrol said in a statement that it was 'actively investigating' the incident." Mrs. McC: Includes video, which is awful. The driver appears to purposely run down Mr. Remes.

Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, the lab testing company that promised to revolutionize health care, and its former president, Ramesh Balwani, were indicted on Friday on charges of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars as well as deceiving hundreds of patients and doctors. The criminal charges were the culmination of a rarity in Silicon Valley -- federal prosecution of a technology start-up. This one boasted a board stacked with prominent political figures and investors, and a startling valuation of $9 billion just a few years ago."

The Commentariat -- June 15, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will await his trial for foreign lobbying crimes from jail. Two weeks after Robert Mueller's prosecutors dropped new accusations of witness tampering on him, a federal judge Friday revoked Manafort's current bail, which allowed him out on house arrest. Judge Amy Berman Jackson's order marks an end to months of attempts from Manafort to lighten his house arrest restrictions after he was charged and pleaded not guilty to foreign lobbying violations."

** Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "President Trump declared in a spur-of-the-moment interview with 'Fox and Friends' Friday morning that he wants people to sit at attention for him like they do for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.... Kim stands accused of leading a murderous regime that starves its own people. But Mr. Trump has heaped praise on Kim since meeting with him in Singapore, saying repeatedly that the two have 'good chemistry.' 'Hey, he is the head of a country and I mean he is the strong head,' Mr. Trump told Fox News' Steve Doocy on the White House lawn Friday. 'Don't let anyone think anything different. He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.' Pressed by a reporter about those remarks moments later, Mr. Trump said he was 'kidding.' 'I'm kidding, you don't understand sarcasm,' the president said." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See his commentary below. ...

     ... Mrs. McC: I don't think Trump was kidding, & -- rather than insult a reporter, as Trump did -- I'm going to assume the reporter does understand sarcasm, AND s/he can tell when Trump isn't kidding. ...

... Peter Baker & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump went on offense on Friday with a withering series of attacks on the F.B.I., congressional Democrats, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Canada's prime minister, football players, the media, the special counsel and other favorite targets even as he hailed his relations with the leaders of North Korea, China and Russia. After a couple of days out of sight following his trip to Singapore to meet with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump delivered a blizzard of pointed messages on Twitter, gave an interview to his preferred Fox News show and then engaged in a typically freewheeling encounter with reporters on the White House driveway.... The ]Justice Department IG's] report, he said, exposed what he called 'the scum on top' of the F.B.I. as 'total thieves,' and he insisted that Peter Strzok, a senior F.B.I. agent who had spoken privately against him, should be fired. 'They were plotting against my election,' he said. When it was pointed out that the report actually found that no decisions were made out of political bias, he dismissed the conclusion.... [In his Fox News interview, he said,] 'If you read the I.G. report, I've been totally exonerated.' But the report dealt only with the handling of the investigation into Mrs. Clinton and did not address allegations against Mr. Trump and his campaign related to contacts with Russia during the election and possible obstruction of justice after he took office." Read on, if you haven't had lunch.

Jill Abramson of the Guardian: "Reading ... the IG report and the lawsuit [against the Trump Foundation, et al.,], fills any sane person with the deepest regret that Donald Trump is president. This is a tragedy that could have been prevented, according to my reading of the Justice Department's report. And anyone needing more evidence that Trump lacks the moral or ethical moorings to be president need only peruse the New York lawsuit eviscerating the Trump Foundation. Despite his sanctimony, his best-selling book and his claims to martyrdom after Trump fired him, ames Comey is a singular villain. Though the IG report states that he had no political motive in doing so, he upended the 2016 election and all but destroyed Clinton's candidacy.... The inescapable conclusion of the report is that the FBI under Comey was a ship of fools."

Don Lee & Jonathan Kaiman of the Los Angeles Times: "China on Wednesday matched dollar for dollar the Trump administration's plan to slap tariffs on $50 billion of imported Chinese goods, issuing its own list of U.S. products of comparable value that would be subject to hefty duties should the White House follow through with its tough trade sanctions. Beijing's swift and broad retaliatory response at first seemed to confirm fears that the world's two largest economies were hurtling toward a trade war that would be costly for consumers and companies, and damage the global economy. Anxious U.S. businesses pleaded for cooler heads, and investors panicked. But after sinking sharply when markets opened Wednesday, U.S. stocks not only recovered, but the Dow ended the day up 231 points. The rebound followed assurances by White House officials that despite President Trump's sharp rhetoric and threats, chances are good that the tit-for-tat trade salvos will end in settlement rather than much further escalation." See more on Trumpy tariffs, linked below.

Today in Scott Pruitt Scandals. Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "Senior staff members at the Environmental Protection Agency frequently felt pressured by Scott Pruitt, the administrator, to help in personal matters and obtain special favors for his family, according to interviews with four current and former E.P.A. officials who served as top political aides to Mr. Pruitt. The officials said that Mr. Pruitt, who 'had a clear sense of entitlement,' in the words of one of them, indicated that he expected staff members' assistance with matters outside the purview of government, including calling on an executive with connections in the energy industry to help secure tickets to a sold-out football game in January at the Rose Bowl. The aides said the administrator ... had also made it clear that he had no hesitation in leveraging his stature as a cabinet member to solicit favors himself. As an example, Mr. Pruitt, shortly after taking the E.P.A. job, reached out to the former speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates seeking help for his daughter, McKenna, in securing admission to the University of Virginia School of Law. William Howell, the former speaker, appears on Mr. Pruitt's official E.P.A. calendar, and he confirmed in an interview that he was approached by Mr. Pruitt and subsequently wrote a letter to the school';s dean on the daughter's behalf.... Separately, at least three E.P.A. staff members were dispatched to help Ms. Pruitt obtain a summer internship at the White House, the current and former staff members said." ...

     ... But Pruitt still has Trump's support.

*****

Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "President Trump said he 'did a great service' to the American people by firing James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, in tweets on Friday marking his first public comments about an internal Justice Department report into the bureau's handling of an investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.... Mr. Trump also lashed out about communications between F.B.I. agents that were disclosed in the highly anticipated report, saying, 'Doesn't get any lower than that!'" ...

... Chris Strohm of Bloomberg: "Former FBI Director James Comey 'deviated' from bureau and Justice Department procedures in handling the probe into Hillary Clinton, damaging the agencies' image of impartiality even though he wasn't motivated by politics, the department's watchdog found in a highly anticipated report.... Among topics the inspector general reviewed was Comey's announcement in July 2016 that no prosecutor would find grounds to pursue criminal charges against Clinton for improperly handling classified information on her private email server, as well as Comey's decision to inform Congress only days before the election that the Clinton investigation was being re-opened. Comey's public announcement of findings angered Republicans, while his reopening of the inquiry outraged Democrats." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "A highly anticipated report from the Justice Department's inspector general criticizes former FBI director James B. Comey for his actions during the Hillary Clinton email investigation and includes new text messages from FBI personnel conveying political opposition to President Trump.... Perhaps the most damaging new revelation in the report, according to multiple people familiar with it, is a previously unreported text message in which Peter Strzok, a key investigator on both the Clinton email case and the investigation of Russia and the Trump campaign, assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that 'we'll stop' Trump from making it to the White House.... Though the inspector general condemned individual FBI officials, the report fell significantly short in supporting the assertion by the president and his allies that the investigation was rigged in favor of Clinton, according to a person familiar with its content...." Also linked yesterday; the story has been updated, with Devlin Barrett as the lead reporter on the byline. ...

... The IG's report is 500 pages long, but the Washington Post has posted the executive summary. Update: Vox has the full report here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "The former F.B.I. director James B. Comey was insubordinate in his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election, a critical Justice Department report has concluded, according to officials and others who saw or were briefed on it. But the report, by the department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, does not challenge the decision not to prosecute Mrs. Clinton. Nor does it conclude that political bias at the F.B.I. influenced that decision, the officials said.... Then in late October, over the objection of top Justice Department officials, Mr. Comey sent a letter to Congress disclosing that agents were scrutinizing new evidence in the Clinton case. That evidence did not change the outcome of the inquiry, but Mrs. Clinton and many of her supporters blame Mr. Comey's late disclosure for her defeat.... The findings sharply criticize the judgment of Mr. Comey, who injected the F.B.I. into presidential politics in ways not seen since at least the Watergate era.... The report criticizes the conduct of F.B.I. officials who exchanged texts disparaging Mr. Trump during the campaign. The officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, were involved in both the Clinton and Russia investigations, leading Mr. Trump's supporters to suspect a conspiracy against him.... The inspector general said that, because of his views, Mr. Strzok may have improperly prioritized the Russia investigation over the Clinton investigation during the final weeks of the campaign." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The FBI leaked like a sieve in 2016, and those disclosures helped Donald Trump, according to a newly released inspector general's report on former FBI Director James Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The 500-page report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz suggests anti-Clinton leaking from the bureau's New York office likely influenced Comey's decision to announce the resumption of the email probe less than two weeks before the presidential election -- a step that may have thrown the race to Trump. The FBI could be in for a bloodbath over these leaks: Horowitz says his office plans to report on multiple investigations into extensive 'unauthorized media contact by FBI personnel.'" ...

... James Comey, in a New York Times op-ed: "I do not agree with all of the inspector general's conclusions, but I respect the work of his office and salute its professionalism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... ** David Graham of the Atlantic: "A report by the Justice Department's internal watchdog found no political bias in the conduct of an investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and account, but it offers a scathing condemnation of how former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI employees handled aspects of the investigation, including extensive violations of Justice Department rules and protocols. The report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz is a blow to both Comey and President Trump.... For Comey, the report is a harsh indictment of his judgment and decision-making that tarnishes his long career in law enforcement. The report also criticizes former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and several other Justice Department officials.... The major takeaway is this: Trump's comments about Comey run counter to the IG report in every major respect. Trump alleged political bias where Horowitz finds none, and lauded Comey where Horowitz condemns him." This is quite a helpful summarization of the IG's findings. ...

... David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The report addresses one question that's more important than any other: Did the Justice Department and F.B.I. use their power, as Trump has repeatedly claimed, to help Clinton's campaign and hurt his?... And the report's answer is clear: No.... The most significant mistake in the investigation ... hurt her, badly. It was James Comey's decision to violate department policy and talk publicly about the investigation. If it weren't for that decision, the polling data suggests Clinton would be president.... [The report] finds that Trump's claims of a 'rigged system' to protect Clinton are outright fabrications. They are, as is so often the case with Trump, lies." ...

...  "DOJ Report Confirms That the President Is a Dishonest Conspiracy Theorist." Eric Levitz of New York: "Donald Trump has claimed that a secret cabal of 'deep state' Democrats within the FBI 'rigged' the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton -- thereby allowing her to escape accountability for violations of information-security protocol that should have landed her in prison -- even as said cabal orchestrated a 'WITCH HUNT' into his campaign's nonexistent ties to Russian hacking.... In light of these (alternative) 'facts,' the president maintains that the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election -- and his own alleged attempts to interfere with that investigation -- is so 'corrupt' and baseless, it should be ended as soon as possible.... [However,] a new report from the Justice Department’s inspector general 'found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors' in the Clinton email investigation 'were affected by bias or other improper considerations ... Rather, we concluded that they were based on the prosecutor's assessment of facts, the law, and past department practice.'... The broader DOJ report finds no evidence that [FBI agent Peter] Strzok did anything to undermine the integrity of the Clinton investigation.... Finally, the report concludes that [FBI Director James] Comey's decision to publicly announce the discovery of new Clinton emails in October 2016 -- a development that correlated with a drop in Clinton's poll numbers -- was an inappropriate act of insubordination. (It also, ironically, finds that Comey repeatedly conducted official FBI business from his personal Gmail account, in violation of protocol.)" Emphasis added. There's more. ...

... Steve M.: "Some liberals would now like to believe that the right has no more justification for conspiracy-mongering.... But that's silly. There are just too many anecdotes for the right to seize on, the most obvious one being this: 'Perhaps the most damaging revelation in the report is a previously unreported text message in which Strzok ... assured an FBI lawyer in August 2016 that 'we'll stop' Trump from making it to the White House.'... The report's conclusion lacks the emotional punch of the anecdotes -- and we know how much the right likes to weaponize anecdotes. (Anecdotes are the primary way they've persuaded themselves that immigrants are a criminal class.) So this is not going to be a public relations win for the forces of reason -- far from it." Mrs. McC: Steve is so right. The entire Republican political apparatus relies on "weaponizing anecdotes" to justify all forms of bad governance. ...

... Well, Okay, Some Mostly Rant Senselessly. Margaret Hartmann: "Despite the conclusion that the FBI's investigation was not influenced by political bias, and the fact that Horowitz wasn't even looking at the Mueller probe, Trump and his allies proceeded with their plan to declare that the IG report proves the special counsel's investigation should be shut down[.]... On Fox News, Giuliani and Sean Hannity tackled the broader theme of anti-Trump bias at the FBI, cherrypicking details from the IG report to make their case, while simultaneously suggesting that Horowitz can't be trusted because he didn't conclude that Clinton should have been prosecuted." Here's kinda the best part of Giuliani's rant: he wants a new investigation because Horowitz, we must infer, is not "honest": "(Giuliani explained that this investigation should be conducted by 'honest FBI agents from the New York office who I can trust implicitly.' The IG report contained details that support the rumor that the New York office was a major source of anti-Clinton leaks.)... [Peter] Strzok played a major role in the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia. He was initially assigned to Mueller's investigation, which started in May 2017, but he was removed in July 2017, immediately after the anti-Trump texts came to light. Nevertheless, multiple Republican lawmakers argued on Wednesday that Strzok's involvement in the early days of the Trump-Russia investigation, and the few weeks he spent on Mueller's team, call the whole operation into question." ...

... Two Crazy Man Vent on National Teevee:

... The Hill: "On the eve of the release of a potentially explosive new report, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the termination of the FBI's top two former executives and warned that the forthcoming report on the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe could result in more people being fired.... Sessions said he is certain that Comey's firing was justified. 'It was the right thing to do. The facts were pretty clear on it. He made a big mistake and he testified only a few weeks before that termination that he would do it again if he had the opportunity. So we felt like there was a serious breach of discipline within the department if we allowed him to continue.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general's office filed a scathingly worded lawsuit on Thursday taking aim at the Donald J. Trump Foundation, accusing the charity and the Trump family of sweeping violations of campaign finance laws, self-dealing and illegal coordination with the presidential campaign. The lawsuit, which seeks to dissolve the foundation and bar President Trump and three of his children from serving on nonprofit organizations, was an extraordinary rebuke of a sitting president. The attorney general also sent referral letters to the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission for possible further action, adding to Mr. Trump's extensive legal problems. The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, culminated a nearly two-year investigation of Mr. Trump's charity, which became a subject of scrutiny during and after the 2016 presidential campaign. While such foundations are supposed to be devoted to charitable activities, the complaint asserts that Mr. Trump's was often used to curry political favor or settle legal claims against his various businesses, and even spent $10,000 on a portrait of Mr. Trump that was hung at one of his golf clubs." (Also linked yesterday.)

Whiney-Baby-in-Chief. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "Some of the most intense drama surrounding President Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un came not across the negotiating table, but in the days and hours leading up to Tuesday's historic meeting -- a behind-the-scenes flurry of commotion prompted by Trump himself. After arriving in Singapore on Sunday, an antsy and bored Trump urged his aides to demand that the meeting with Kim be pushed up by a day -- to Monday -- and had to be talked out of altering the long-planned and carefully negotiated summit date on the fly, according to two people familiar with preparations for the event. 'We're here now,' the president said, according to the people. 'Why can't we just do it?'... Ultimately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders persuaded Trump to stick with the original plan, arguing that the president and his team could use the time to prepare, people familiar with the talks said. They also warned him that he might sacrifice wall-to-wall television coverage of his summit if he abruptly moved the long-planned date to Monday in Singapore...." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: It's hard to decide if Trump has delusions of grandeur or he's just reflexively lying: The WashPo team reports, "The language in the agreement that Trump announced with Kim, for instance, was almost entirely prewritten before Trump arrived in Singapore -- a standard diplomatic practice for leaders' meetings, which are normally preceded by extensive negotiations and discussions between lower-level officials. But Trump repeatedly asserted that the final agreement was based on his ability to size up Kim in person and build a working relationship with him." Also, you kinda wonder if Trump has any idea of what a "relationship" is. Nobody who has proximity to Trump likes him. He's a nasty, demanding boor. He's not someone with whom anyone has a "relationship" of the kind most of us experience, where there's mutual bonding, good will & camaraderie.

... Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "North Korean state television aired a 42-minute documentary on Thursday that offered a different view of Kim Jong Un's meeting with President Trump in Singapore. Notably, the documentary appears to have captured several scenes that international news organizations missed -- including one awkward moment when Trump was saluted by a North Korean military leader. The U.S. president then salutes in return.... 'This is a moment that will be used over and over in North Korea's propaganda as 'proof' that the American president defers to the North Korean military,' said [Jean H. Lee, a North Korea scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington]. 'It will be treated as a military victory by the North Koreans.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: If you watch Seth's "Closer Look," you may notice that, as Steve M. asserted, Republicans rely on weaponized anecdotes to rationalize their policies, BUT if Trump doesn't have an anecdote for the occasion, he just makes up one. And it doesn't have to be plausible or even remotely possible.

Alberto Nardelli & Julia Ioffe of BuzzFeed: "... Donald Trump told G7 leaders that Crimea is Russian because everyone who lives there speaks Russian, according to two diplomatic sources. Trump made the remarks over dinner last Friday during a discussion on foreign affairs at the G7 summit in Quebec, Canada, one of the diplomats told BuzzFeed News.... During the dinner, Trump also seemed to question why the G7 leaders were siding with Ukraine. The president told leaders that 'Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world,' the source said.... Russia invaded and then annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, leading to widespread international condemnation and sanctions. It also directly led to Russia being kicked out of the then-G8." Mrs. McC: Also, England, Australia & most of Canada are U.S. territories because everyone who lives there speaks English. Anyhow, Comrade Putin thanks you, Donald, you sniveling traitor. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Susan Glasser of the New Yorker: "Fresh off his closely watched Singapore summit with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, President Trump is pushing his team to arrange another dramatic one-on-one meeting, this time with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as soon as this summer. Negotiations with the Kremlin have been under way for weeks. 'There’s no stopping him,' a senior Administration official familiar with the internal deliberations said.... Ever since Putin's reëlection to another six-year term in March, Trump has been pressing for a Putin summit, dismissing advisers' warnings about the political dangers of such a meeting, given the ongoing special counsel investigation.... With the Russia allegations swirling, Trump never had the formal meeting he wanted with Putin last year -- settling for just two brief encounters on the sidelines of international gatherings -- but he has clearly never given up on his campaign vision of closer ties with the Russian strongman, whose autocratic rule he has often praised."

Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "White House Counsel Don McGahn recused his entire staff last summer from working on the Russia investigation because many of his office's lawyers played significant roles in key episodes at the center of the probe, former White House attorney Ty Cobb said on Wednesday. McGahn made the decision to halt his staff's interactions with Special Counsel Robert Mueller because many of his own attorneys 'had been significant participants' surrounding the firings of national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, Cobb said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trumpy & the Football. Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday said he would not sign the compromise immigration bill House Republicans unveiled on Thursday." Mrs. McC: Trump had indicated last week that he would sign the bill if it came to his desk, & it was for that reason Paul Ryan agreed to allow the bill to move.

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "With the number of migrant children in government custody rising fast, the Trump administration said Thursday that it will open an additional temporary shelter in the desert outside El Paso. The shelter site, at the Tornillo-Marcelino Serna port of entry, is about 20 miles east of El Paso along the Mexico border. It was last used in 2016 to house migrant children and families in large, dormitory-style canvas tents. Children will begin arriving in the next few days, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for their care. The site will have 360 beds, according to HHS officials, with the potential to add more. The Tornillo site will be the only location, to date, where HHS plans to put children in tents, or what the agency calls 'semi-permanent structures.'... The Tornillo site belongs to the Department of Homeland Security. It will have recreation areas and educational programming, and its tents are air-conditioned, according to HHS spokesman Kenneth Wolfe." ...

... Keith McMillan & Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions used a Bible verse on Thursday to defend his department's policy of prosecuting everyone who crosses the border from Mexico, suggesting that God supports the government in separating immigrant parents from their children. 'I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,' Sessions said during a speech to law enforcement officers in Fort Wayne, Ind. 'Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent and fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.'" ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: The chapter Sessions cites forms the notorious basis for claims of the divine right of kings. Our country is founded on the rejection of these verses. ...

... Here's Colbert's take. Thanks to Nisky Guy for the link:

... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "White House media briefings are often contentious, but Thursday's question-and-answer session got personal.... During one exchange, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said to CNN reporter Jim Acosta, a frequent sparring partner, 'I know it's hard for you to understand even short sentences.' Acosta had asked Sanders about Attorney General Jeff Sessions's attempt, earlier in the day, to use the Bible to justify the Trump administration's immigration policies, which include splitting up families that arrive at U.S. borders seeking asylum.... On a telecast of the briefing, another reporter could be heard scolding Sanders for a 'cheap shot.' Sanders then falsely asserted that the Trump administration is separating children from their parents 'because it's the law, and that's what the law states.' In fact, separation is not required by law but is a Trump administration practice that White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly calls a 'tough deterrent.'" It got worse: ...

It's the law, and that's what the law states. -- Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a news briefing, June 14

The Trump administration seems to be caught inside a 'Twilight Zone' episode, insisting without evidence that its own policy of separating undocumented immigrant children from their parents is somehow a long-standing law and that any blame should go to Democrats. The president got this ball rolling himself in a series of tweets and statements over the past few months.... [Here's one:] 'We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law,' Trump said during a roundtable on sanctuary cities in California on May 16.... These claims are violently divorced from reality.... Reporters at the June 14 briefing fact-checked Sanders on the spot, but she stuck to her guns.... The bottom line is that nothing required the Trump administration to separate children from their families until Sessions's zero-tolerance policy made it a practical necessity. -- Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post

... Laurie Goldstein of the New York Times: "Conservative religious leaders who have long preached about the sanctity of the family are now issuing sharp rebukes of the Trump administration for immigration policies that tear families apart or leave them in danger. The criticism came after recent moves by the administration to separate children from their parents at the border, and to deny asylum on a routine basis to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence. Some of the religious leaders are the same evangelicals and Roman Catholics who helped President Trump to build his base and who have otherwise applauded his moves to limit abortion and champion the rights of religious believers.... Leaders of many faiths -- including Jews, Mainline Protestants, Muslims and others -- have spoken out consistently against the president's immigration policies. What has changed is that now the objections are coming from faith groups that have been generally friendly to Mr. Trump." ...

... Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "Life inside the biggest licensed child care facility in the nation for undocumented immigrant children looks more like incarceration than temporary shelter. The kids, a mix of those who crossed into the U.S. unaccompanied and those who were separated from their parents under Attornye General Jeff Sessions' new zero-tolerance policy, spend 22 hours per day during the week (21 hours on weekends) locked inside a converted former Walmart, packing five into rooms built for four.... NBC News was among the first news organizations granted access to the overcrowded Casa Padre facility. The average stay at the center in Brownsville, Texas, is 52 days. Minors are subsequently placed with a sponsor.... Dr. Juan Sanchez, the president of the nonprofit that operates the facility, South West Key, warned that the temporary locations might not have to be licensed or staffed by trained child welfare professionals if they are established on federal land, which the Trump administration has been considering." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Michael Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "Casa Padre now houses more than 1,400 immigrant boys, dozens of them forcibly separated from their parents at the border by a new Trump administration 'zero-tolerance' policy. On Wednesday, for the first time since that policy was announced, and amid intense national interest after a U.S. senator was turned away, federal authorities allowed a small group of reporters to tour the secretive shelter, the largest of its kind in the nation." (Also linked yesterday.) ...

... Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Where there were once racks of clothes and aisles of appliances, there were now spotless dorm-style bedrooms with neatly made beds and Pokemon posters on the walls. The back parking lots were now makeshift soccer fields and volleyball courts. The McDonald's was now the cafeteria. All this made it difficult to visualize what the sprawling facility used to be -- a former Walmart Supercenter. The converted retail store at the southern tip of Texas has become the largest licensed migrant children's shelter in the country -- a warehouse for nearly 1,500 boys aged 10 to 17 who were caught illegally crossing the border. The teeming, 250,000-square-foot facility is a model of border life in Trump-era America, part of a growing industry of detention centers and shelters as federal authorities scramble to comply with the president's order to end 'catch and release' of migrants illegally entering the country. Now that children are often being separated from their parents, this facility has had to obtain a waiver from the state to expand its capacity." (Also linked yesterday.)"

Noah Lanard of Mother Jones: "The [US Customs and Border Protections] agency is having so much trouble hiring enough border agents that it's now spending huge sums -- potentially hundreds of millions of dollars -- to recruit applicants and help them complete the application process.... Last November, CBP awarded a five-year, $297 million contract with Accenture Federal Services, a subsidiary of the global consulting company Accenture. That comes to nearly $40,000 for each of the 7,500 workers Accenture is supposed to help recruit and hire. The per-hire cost exceeds the base salary of many CBP officers.... But it is still not clear that CBP will be able to hire them, because Congress has refused to provide the funding." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David J. Lynch & Damian Paletta of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday will announce a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of Chinese products, the latest move in his intensifying campaign to rewrite the rules of global trade. The action will come one day after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders about the president's recent meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The tariffs, which Trump set in motion in March, are a response to China's practice of compulsory technology licensing for foreign companies and its efforts to steal U.S. trade secrets via cybertheft, administration officials have said." ...

... Tariffs Are Not Your Friends -- Another Stupid Trump Trick. Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "It seems almost quaint today, but the U.S. washer industry was one of the first sectors that Trump decided to rescue through an aggressive, no-holds-barred tariff. And now that a few months have passed, the industry offers a useful preview for how Trump's tough-on-trade strategy can backfire for many of the U.S. companies, consumers and workers...." Read on. It's quaint. Unless you want to buy a washing machine. "This spring, laundry equipment prices skyrocketed 17 percent, the biggest increase on record.... When you aggregate all those price increases across the 10 million washers sold annually in the United States, consumers will collectively pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year for each job supposedly created or saved. Which is many multiples of what factory workers typically earn. And it's not even clear how safe their jobs are at this point, given the rest of Trump's trade agenda."

Swamp mikey. Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Vice President Pence has transformed his office into a new entry point for lobbyists seeking to influence the Trump administration across federal agencies, according to federal records and interviews. About twice as many companies and other interests hired lobbyists to contact the vice president's office in Pence’s first year than in any single year during the tenures of Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Richard B. Cheney, filings show.... The approach has allowed Pence, a former congressman and Indiana governor, to emerge as a key ally for corporations inside the Trump White House even as the president vows to 'drain the swamp.'... In several cases, the relationships are mutually beneficial, with lobbyists who have charged clients millions of dollars to access his office donating money to Pence-backed political causes.... Pence was also responsible for staffing many of the federal agencies that lobbyists seek to influence.... In some cases, donations to Mike Pence's political causes can provide a platform for companies seeking to influence federal policy."

** Nickles and Dimes! Ryan Koronwoski of ThinkProgress: "The federal government just admitted that workers are earning lower wages since the passage of the GOP tax cuts.... On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a new release detailing the 'real earnings summary' through May 2018...: 'From May 2017 to May 2018, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted,' it read." --safari (Also linked yesterday.) ...

.. Josh Boak of TPM: "[On Wednesday] the head of the world's most powerful central bank was asked a question weighing on the minds -- and the checking accounts -- of Americans everywhere: When will people finally start getting meaningful pay raises? Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, had no satisfactory answer. He called it a 'puzzle.' And then, as if measuring his words, he said he wasn't prepared to call it a 'mystery.'... Powell acknowledged that he couldn't say for sure why wage growth remains generally tepid. He said he 'certainly would have expected pay raises to react more' to falling unemployment." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Minnesota's ban on wearing 'political' apparel to polling places, saying that the state's intentions may be good but that its law was too broad and open to differing interpretations. The 7-to-2 decision, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was careful not to cast constitutional doubt on restrictions every state imposes to protect the solemnity of the voting booth. But Minnesota's prohibition on the wearing of a 'political badge, political button or other political insignia' raised more questions than it answered, Roberts wrote, and gave too much discretion to volunteer election judges trying to figure out what counted as 'political' and what did not. 'The state must be able to articulate some sensible basis for distinguishing what may come in from what must stay out,' Roberts wrote. 'Here, the unmoored use of the term "political" in the Minnesota law, combined with haphazard interpretations the state has provided in official guidance and representations to this court, cause Minnesota's restriction to fail even this forgiving test.'... Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen G. Breyer dissented, partly because of the route the case took. The challengers went to federal court with their complaint, alleging it violated their free speech rights."

Juan Cole: "In a blow to the Trump administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted, by 120 votes in favor, a resolution introduced by Algeria and Turkey condemning Israel for deploying excessive force against Palestinians at rallies near the border of Gaza.... In another important international vote, the 4 million strong Indian Student Federation has voted to boycott Hewlett Packard computers and other equipment on the grounds that the company is involved in the oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli occupiers. This step seems to me among the more significant victories for the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement promoted by Palestinian civil society." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Dorothy Cotton, a confidante of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was the only woman in his inner circle of aides, marched in perilous civil rights demonstrations and was a driving force in getting Southern black people to vote, died on June 10 at a retirement home in Ithaca, N.Y. She was 88."

How to Tell the POTUS* Is a Fascist

Under the daily blitz of Donald Trump's remarks & actions, it is easy to let slip the overarching theme of his presidency. You may prefer a term other than fascist -- autocrat, tyrant, authoritarian, totalitarian -- but what I mean by "fascist" is a dictatorial leader who "exalts nation and often race above the individual and [who] stands for a centralized autocratic government, severe economic and social regimentation, and ... suppression of opposition." Flag Day seems an appropriate occasion to zero in on the thrust of the day's news. Limiting myself to the links I've posted as of 7 am ET, let's see what just today's news tells us of Donald Trump's adherence to fascist principles:

Makes "truth" and "facts" subjective by repeatedly making false, rosy claims. "... there is 'no longer' a nuclear threat from" North Korea.

Makes conflicting, situational statements, rendering meaningless every utterance: "[Kim's] country does love him"/"The horror of life in North Korea is so complete that citizens pay bribes to government officials to have themselves exported abroad as slaves."

Makes false, empty promises to boost his popularity. "I think we’re going to have some of the big drug companies in two weeks, and they’re going to announce – because of what we did – they’re going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices…. That’s going to be a fantastic thing."

Lies constantly. See Glenn Kessler's report.

Excuses massive human-rights abuses by other dictators. "So have a lot of other people done some really bad things."

Engages in human-rights abuses. See reports by Pete Williams & Jason Soboroff and Dana Milbank's column.

Makes on-the-spot military decisions that favor totalitarian enemies of the U.S. over our own country & our allies. Without gaining any concessions from North Korea, Trump said he was ending joint U.S.-South Korea military defense exercises, a long-held wish of North Korea, China & Russia.

Denigrates former U.S. leaders, falsely claiming they lacked his "superior" skills. "I don’t think they honestly could have done it," "it" being the Singapore summit.

Makes his own propaganda videos.

Installs propaganda murals featuring himself, trying to indoctrinate even children he has separated from their parents. See Jacob Soboroff's reporting.*

Disowns former allies & factotums when they are no longer useful to him. Michael Cohen. ...

... But retains demonstrably corrupt allies who remain helpful. Scott Pruitt. ...

... And hires unqualified people. See Axios story about Andrew Giuliani.

Demands absolute, lock-step loyalty of organizations & of administration employees, including career civil servants. Keeps an "enemies" list of those merely suspected of not supporting him personally. See digby's report on Mari Stull.

Demands absolute, lock-step loyalty from elected officials. See reports on Rep. Mark Sanford, who in fact supported most Trump-approved legislation.

Promotes racist policies. see, for instance, Pete Williams' report on the DOJ's continuing effort to end the DACA program.

Supports racist politicians. See reports on Virginia Senate candidate & long-time racist Corey Stewart, who Trump says "has 'a major chance of winning" the general election.

Repeatedly denigrates & undermines American democratic institutions like the free press, describing true news reports as "fake," and publicly labeling the press "enemies of the people." "Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!"

Has underlings try to silence specific reporters. Trump's 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said the press credentials of CNN's Jim Acosta should be "immediately' suspended" because Trump and he have determined that Acosta's questions to Trump during a press conference were not "polite" enough.

We should keep in mind that there is no factual counter-narrative: the news gives us no reason to hope that Trump is just an honest, if incompetent, fellow who is doing the best he can for the American people.

Of course today's news is but a tiny slice of the picture. Today, for instance, unlike many days, I have not linked stories about any of Trump's infamous efforts to subvert the rule of law vis-a-vis the Russia investigation. And there is nothing about his corrupt practices -- like the way he & his close family members are using their government positions to rake in millions. Yet even within the confines of today's news, like many a single day's news reports, one theme is apparent: the current President* of the United States is a fascist.

* It turns out the facility, Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas, also features murals of other presidents, including Barack Obama, so this was not a fair criticism of Trump.