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

The Commentariat -- June 6, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

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."

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."

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."

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."

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 Trump campaign 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.'" ...

     ... 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.

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

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

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

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."

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."

*****

... Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "... one of the most crucial bits of [American] technology [during World War II], the one that helped the Allies launch the surprise attack on Normandy, was the hull of a boat -- the Higgins boat ... the one that carried troops right onto Normandy's beach. It was built by a wily, hard-drinking inventor named Andrew Higgins, the man Dwight D. Eisenhower once credited with winning World War II. 'It is Higgins himself who takes your breath away,' Raymond Moley, a former FDR adviser, wrote in Newsweek in 1943. 'Higgins is an authentic master builder, with the kind of will power, brains, drive and daring that characterized the American empire builders of an earlier generation.'... They were 'tunnel stern boats,' whose magic was in the way the 'hull incorporated a recessed tunnel used to protect the propeller from grounding'...." ...

... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: To appreciate the Trump administration's "remembrance" of D-Day, find Heather Nauert on this page.

Primary Results

New Jersey. Sen. Robert Menendez (D) has survived a challenge from Lisa McCormick. Bob Hugin won the Republican Senate primary. Other results here.

     Jonathan Salant of NJ.com: "New Jersey Democrats' fight to help the party win the House in the midterm referendum on ... Donald Trump kicked into high gear Tuesday as high-profile candidates won primaries. Candidates touted by national party leaders defeated insurgent challengers in three districts deemed crucial to the party's chances of taking back the House. State Sen. Jeff Van Drew, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Tom Malinowski and former federal prosecutor and Navy pilot Mikie Sherrill all won their primary contests, according to the Associated Press.

Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey won the Republican primary; her Democratic challenger will be Walt Maddox. Other results here. Al.com columnist John Archibald assesses the state of the state races.

Mississippi. Incumbent Sen. Roger Wicker (R) won the GOP primary. Democratic challengers Howard Sherman & David Baria advance to a run-off. Anna Wolfe of the Clarion-Ledger reports. The New York Times lists other results.

Iowa. Democrat Fred Hubbell will challenge Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who ran uncontested. The Des Moines Register has links to full results & related stories here.

     Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register: "Multiple Iowa voter turnout records were announced as bested Tuesday even before polls had closed. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate reported at around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday that 50,610 absentee ballots had been received, surpassing the previous stat primary election record of 44,740 in 2014."

South Dakota. Kristi Noem won the GOP primary for governor. Billie Sullivan (uncontested) is the Democratic nominee. In South Dakota's House at-large district, Dusty Johnson won the GOP primary & Tim Bjorkman (uncontested) will face Johnson in November.

Montana. Sen. Jon Tester (D) will face Republican Matt Rosendale in November. At 1:40 am ET, the Democratic challenger to horrible Greg Gianforte (R) had not been decided.

New Mexico. Both Sen. Martin Heinrich (D) & his challenger Mick Rich ran uncontested in the primaries. Michelle Grisham won the Democratic primary for governor; Steve Pearce ran uncontested for the GOP candidacy. The NYT has other results here.

California. The New York Times has results here.

     Phil Willon & Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times have live updates here. "John Cox, a multimillionaire Republican hitched to the far-right policies of President Trump, won the second spot in California's primary for governor Tuesday night, and will face Democrat Gavin Newsom in the November general election. The results mark a stunning defeat for former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, representing the fall of a politician who embodied the growing power of the Latino electorate when he was elected mayor in 2005."

     L.A. Times reporters are doing live analysis here. The most recent update, at 1:30 am PT: "Democrats in California appeared poised Tuesday night to avoid getting shut out of key congressional races for the November election, the most pressing risk they faced as they seek to retake control of the House. With most precincts reporting, Democrats seemed to have captured second place in the contests where the threat was most acute. The party's wide, boisterous field of candidates could have locked them out of multiple races because of the state's unique primary, which advances the two candidates with the most votes regardless of party."

     Adam Nagourney & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "The California results were muddled in the most-watched races here: Seven congressional districts that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016 and are now held by Republicans. Democrats are aiming to capture those seats in November, a linchpin of their strategy to take back control of the House. But many of the districts had crowded primaries and votes were still being counted late Tuesday night.... Among the seven highly competitive House races in California, Democrats were battling in at least three of those contests to avoid getting shut out from the November ballot under the state's 'top two' election system.... The races appear to be close, and provisional ballots and votes sent by mail could be critical and take days to count.... California's unusual open-primary system has become a difficult obstacle for Democrats, as a horde of candidates on the left have divided up Democratic votes and threatened to let Republicans monopolize the general election."

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "'The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn't tell me he was going to recuse himself,' Mr. Trump [tweeted Tuesday morning.] 'I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and mone wasted, so many lives ruined ... and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!'... What made this tweet so striking was that it encapsulated the essential contradictions of Mr. Trump's arguments. In fewer than 280 characters, he acknowledged perhaps as explicitly as he ever has that the reason he is mad at Mr. Sessions is that the attorney general did not shut down the investigation into Mr. Trump's campaign. To critics, that is all but an admission of obstruction of justice, or at least the desire to obstruct justice.... The implication of his [many] attacks has been that he wanted a loyalist in charge of the Justice Department. But Tuesday's tweet went further by making clear that he was counting on Mr. Sessions not just to run a fair investigation but to halt it altogether."

** Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a series of exclusive interviews, former Fox News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron explained to ThinkProgress how the Russians coordinated their cyber-attack on the 2016 election with the Trump campaign. 'Trump confidant Roger Stone's success was having the connections and creating the opportunities for [Russian intelligence officer] Guccifer2.0 and other Russian groups to really start taking advantage of social media'... Cameron explained.... In 2016 ... Stone helped Guccifer2.0 -- who worked for Russian intelligence -- and other Russian-backed groups boost an anti-Clinton narrative online targeted at key groups. Stone direct-messaged with Guccifer2.0 on Twitter and WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange in August 2016.... The President, Roger Stone, and other campaign officials have put a lot of effort into lying about their meetings and contact with Russians linked directly to the Kremlin and its cyber attack on the United States. But they put even more effort into coordinating their message with the Russians." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

David Corn of Mother Jones: "The other evening I was on a cable news show to cover the latest Russia news of the day -- and I had an epiphany.... Though it's clear Trump's presidency has been hobbled by the Russia scandal, the manner in which this matter plays out in the media has helped Trump.... The evidence [against Trump] is rock-solid: They committed a profound act of betrayal.... But how often do you hear or see this fundamental point being made?.... It is hard to hold on to all these pieces and place them into one big picture.... The problem is there is no organized force with as loud a bullhorn countering his disinformation in fundamental terms.... When it comes to framing the overarching story, Trump practically has a monopoly.... All this shows how easy it is for disinformation and demagoguery to distort reality. That is a tragedy for the United States. For Trump -- and Putin -- that is victory." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Spencer Hsu & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "... Paul Manafort plans to fight prosecutors' claims that he tried to tamper with a witness -- an accusation that could get him sent to jail before he goes on trial this summer on conspiracy and money laundering charges. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia set a June 15 hearing to weigh prosecutors' demand that she revoke or tighten the terms of Manafort's release while he is pending trial. Manafort, 69, has been on home detention. The judge gave Manafort's lawyers until Friday to present a written rebuttal to accusations by prosecutors that he and a longtime associate repeatedly contacted two executives at a public relations firm in hopes of persuading them to provide false testimony about secret lobbying they did at Manafort's behest in 2013.... Sending Manafort to jail before trial could intensify the pressure on him to reach a plea deal with prosecutors."

Pot Calls Kettle Black. The Latest Trumpertantrum. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump doubled down on his war with the Philadelphia Eagles on Tuesday, hosting a short celebration without the team as his spokeswoman accused the Super Bowl champions of turning their White House invitation into 'a political stunt.'... 'We love our country, we respect our flag and we always proudly stand for the national anthem,' Mr. Trump said.... The message from the president was clear: a denunciation of football players who knelt during the anthem or have said they would stay in the locker room when it is played -- even though none of the Eagles players did either of those things during their winning season. In tweets earlier, Mr. Trump also made his meaning crystal clear, saying, 'NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!' And moments before the 10-minute celebration, Sarah Huckabee Sanders ... unloaded on the Eagles, flatly accusing them of engaging in what she repeatedly called 'a political stunt' by declining to attend the White House celebration at the last minute.... In a [prior] statement, Mr. Trump abruptly disinvited the Eagles, accusing them of trying to make a political statement about the anthem." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: How many groups and individuals does Trump have to alienate before his dimwitted cult followers notice he's a nasty SOB with no redeeming qualities? ...

... David Nakamura & Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post: "Trump's decision to carry on with a 'Celebration of America,' complete with a Marine Corps band in dress uniforms and miniature American flags -- after abruptly canceling a traditional visit from the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles -- drew intense backlash from high-profile professional athletes [like LeBron James].... The event marked another discordant moment in the tide of cultural disputes stoked by Trump, who has fanned controversies on issues including immigration, a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and last week's flare-up over a racist tweet from comedian Roseanne Barr. Rather than seek to defuse tensions, Trump again sought to magnify them -- turning what has traditionally been an apolitical White House feting of a sports team into another divisive spectacle.... Over the years, some players have chosen to skip the events, sometimes for political reasons. But past presidents have typically not reacted to the no-shows. That has changed in the Trump era. Last fall, after Warriors guard Stephen Curry said he did not want to attend his team's White House visit, Trump canceled the event.... Trump also used his speech to pay tribute to himself, touting low unemployment rates and asserting that the United States 'has never done better than it's doing right now. Never. We have record numbers at every outpost.'" ...

... Annie Karni & Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "Last week, the Eagles submitted 81 names of players who were planning to visit the White House, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. The team was 'full steam ahead,' another administration official said, for an event that had been in the works since February. But on Monday, the White House was informed that the delegation had been reduced to just two or three players, the owner, and the team's beloved mascot, Swoop. 'We feel like they wanted to publicly humiliate the White House and the president,' the official said." Mrs. McC: Hmm, wonder if that's because Trump has knocked himself out trying to "publicly humiliate" NFL players demonstrating for justice for all Americans. ...

... Jonathan Chait: "Even by the standards of a hastily devised event, it was a shambolic display. If the plan was to prove that Eagles fans would side with Trump over the Eagles, there is very little evidence it worked.... I have seen Philadelphia Eagles fans. [The people who showed up at the White House 'fan' event] do not look like Philadelphia Eagles fans.... They look like Republican staffers and lobbyists who were hastily summoned to the White House to fill out the audience. Trump attempted to sing along to 'God Bless America,' but managed to get just two lines in before he obviously no longer knew the words." With illustrations. Chait has a nice riff on Sarah Sanders' confused misunderstanding of "free speech," the national anthem &, oh, American values. ...

... Say, Here's a Clue Chait Might Be Right. Christian D'Andrea of SB Nation: "So instead [of the Eagles event, Trump] hosted a celebration of America -- i.e. the singing of patriotic songs to which Trump may or may not know the words -- for the 'more than 1,000 Eagles fans.'..." In a tweet D'Andrew cites, Tim Furlong of NBC Philly writes, "I've asked 6 of the 'fans' at the White House who was the Eagles quarterback during the super bowl. Not ONE person knew." ...

... Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Trump disinvited the Eagles. Why? Because he couldn't stand to have so few show him fealty. And here's the thing: He's admitting it.... Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Wentz wanted to go. So did head coach Doug Pederson. They said they didn't see it as a political issue.... If two or three dozen Eagles wanted to attend, they should now realize why they were invited.... They were pawns in his game.... It was never to be done in their honor, only his.... So, what now, Pennsylvania?... Let's hear how spitting in the face of the Super Bowl champions Makes America Great Again.... This act -- this graceless, puny act -- insults both the democratic ideal and the sporting ideal. Both are rooted in the concept that citizens put aside their differences to unite for the greater good." --safari (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Foiled Again. Laura Nahmias of Politico: New York State Judge Jennifer Schechter "ruled Tuesday that ... Donald Trump can be deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought last year by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on 'The Apprentice' who says Trump kissed and groped her after she appeared on the show.... [Trump's] lawyers have appealed to New York's highest court in hopes of avoiding it.... Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang said Trump's attorneys are trying to stall for time. Wang said her legal team had already issued a subpoena to the Trump campaign, which had been unwilling to hand over any information related to other women who've accused Trump.... Schecter ordered both legal teams to give her a briefing on the issue." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Putin Punks U.S. Steven Erlanger & Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived in Austria on Tuesday sensing an opportunity almost unimaginable just months ago: to overhaul frosty relations with a European Union infuriated by President Trump on a host of issues, from climate and Iran to, most recently, tariffs and trade.... Mr. Putin was now gaining considerable traction by casting himself as a reliable friend and trading partner to Europe even as the Trump administration was treating its closest allies there as strategic and economic competitors.... Though careful not to gloat, Mr. Putin had to take great satisfaction in the recent turn of events. Often dismissed as a tactician and opportunist, he was looking more like a grand strategist as Mr. Trump bluntly rejected European demands for an exemption from what Brussels considers illegal and unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminum.... It is not only Europe's populists who are looking for warmer ties with Russia. Last week, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, called for an end to the demonization of Russia."

Ana Swanon & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Mexico hit back at the United States on Tuesday, imposing tariffs on around $3 billion worth of American pork, steel, cheese and other goods in response to the Trump administration's steel and aluminum levies, further straining relations between the two countries as they struggle to rewrite the North American Free Trad Agreement. The tariffs came as the Trump administration threw yet another complication into the fractious Nafta talks by saying it wants to splinter discussions with Canada and Mexico and work on separate agreements rather than continue three-country discussions to rewrite the 1994 trade deal. Larry Kudlow, President Trump's chief economic adviser, said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump's 'preference now, and he asked me to convey this, is to actually negotiate with Mexico and Canada separately.'" ...

... Sanction Trump! Matt Yglesias of Vox: "Our trade partners are planning to respond to ... Donald Trump's imposition of new taxes on steel and aluminum imported from those countries by hitting back with tariffs of their own -- attempting to inflict economic harm on American companies and mobilize political pressure on Trump to relent. This is a fine idea.... But it does tend to founder on a few problems. One is that it's simply not clear whether Trump cares about the welfare of American citizens.... Another is that, with overall economic conditions generally pretty good in the United States right now, you'd need to inflict a lot of retaliatory pain for it to be noticeable to normal Americans. Last but by no means least, the true perversity of trade war is that it's genuinely lose-lose.... But there is a better way.... America's democratic allies probably can't (and certainly shouldn't) bribe Trump and his family in [the way China has], but they both can and should do the opposite: work together on a package of targeted sanctions narrowly designed to inflict pain specifically on the Trump Organization.... Hitting Trump personally might work on its own terms."

David Graham of the Atlantic: Donald Trump "aggressively and successively made hardline immigration policy synonymous with himself, but with a growing uproar over the separation of children from parents apprehended crossing the border, he is now wishing to distance himself from the policy. This is not the first time this has happened. The fight over how to handle 'Dreamers,' unauthorized immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, has played out similarly.... Trump has tried to soft-pedal the effects of the policy Sessions announced in May, and to distance himself from it. On May 26, he tweeted, 'Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.' On Tuesday, he added:... 'Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats. Border Security laws should be changed but the Dems can't get their act together! Started the Wall.'... There is no law that requires separation per se...." ...

... Julia Ainsley & Courtney Kube of NBC News: "Border agents and child welfare workers are running out of space to shelter children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S. border as part of the Trump administration's new 'zero tolerance' policy, according to two U.S. officials and a document obtained by NBC News. As of Sunday, nearly 300 of the 550 children currently in custody at U.S. border stations had spent more than 72 hours there, the time limit for immigrants of any age to be held in the government's temporary facilities. Almost half of those 300 children are younger than 12.... HHS officials will soon tour military installations near the border in Texas as they search for more space to house children while they wait for placement." ...

... ** Gabe Ortiz of Daily Kos: "In an interview with America's most racist Keebler elf [Jeff Sessions], [conservative media personality Hugh] Hewitt said he was 'disturbed' by the administration's policy tearing kids from the arms of immigrant parents at the U.S./Mexico border, saying that 'I don&'t think children should be separated from biological parents at any age, but especially if they're infants and toddlers': 'HH: Is it absolutely necessary, General, to separate parents from children when they are detained or apprehended at the border? JS: Yes. What's happening is we are having more people coming bringing children with them entering between the ports of entry, between the ports of entry illegally.... We believe every person that enters the country illegally like that should be prosecuted. And you can't be giving immunity to people who bring children with them recklessly and improperly and illegally.... Within 72 hours, they're taken to the Health and Human Services to be sure they're properly cared for. And those persons will have, the adults will be prosecuted like the law requires.'... Petitioning for asylum at a U.S. port of entry is a legal act enshrined in U.S. law, yet the Trump administration has horrifically dismissed this as a 'Democrat loopholes.' There is no law forcing Trump and Sessions to separate families." Read the whole post so you won't forget what a weasly, lying little turd Jeff Sessions is. ...

... U.N. Cites U.S. Human Rights Violations. AFP: "The United Nations has urged Washington to immediately halt its controversial practice of separating asylum-seeking Central American children from their parents at the southern border. The UN human rights office said it was deeply concerned over the zero tolerance policy introduced by the Trump administration to deter illegal immigration. The spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the policy had 'led to people caught entering the country irregularly being subjected to criminal prosecution and having their children -- including extremely young children -- taken away from them as a result'.... 'The US should immediately halt this practice,' she told reporters in Geneva. 'The practice of separating families amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child. The use of immigration detention and family separation as a deterrent runs counter to human rights standards and principles,' she said."

Good Grief. Pete Williams of NBC News: "A man wanted on an attempted murder charge was arrested Tuesday morning outside the White House, where he was working as a contractor and had a White House pass, law enforcement officials said. Officers arrested 29-year-old Martese Maurice Edwards of Suitland, Maryland, when he reported for work, according to a Secret Service statement.... A federal official said the warrant was for attempted first-degree murder.... A federal law enforcement official says Edwards did work for the National Security Council in the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House and did not have access to the West Wing."

No Apologies, But Sadler Gets the Boot. Noah Gray, et al., of CNN: "Kelly Sadler, the White House communications aide who made a imprudent comment about Republican Sen. John McCain's health, was quietly let go Tuesday nearly a month after making the insensitive remark. 'Kelly Sadler is no longer employed within the Executive Office of the President,' wrote Raj Shah, the principal deputy press secretary, in an emailed statement. The White House had been strategizing an exit for Sadler for the last two weeks, a senior administration official said." ...

... Update. Katie Rogers & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Ms. Sadler did not leave in light of her comments, according to two people familiar with the situation. Instead, they suggested that Ms. Sadler was pushed out over reports that she had told Mr. Trump that Mercedes Schlapp, the White House strategic communications director, had been the one leaking to the news media. Tensions between the two had reached a point where Ms. Sadler, who worked in the White House communications office focusing on immigration, and Ms. Schlapp were unable to be in the same room together, White House aides said."

David Dayen of The Intercept: "The leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [Mick "little prick" Mulvaney] is required by law to hold in-person meetings with its consumer advisory board, yet according to more than a dozen of its members, they are refusing to do so.... The CFPB ... has canceled two in-person meetings with the CAB, as well as numerous conference calls. Contact has been limited to one phone call in March that was supposed to last one hour but ended after 20 minutes.... CAB members have expressed concern with more than just refusing to meet, but the entire strategic direction of the CFPB. Since taking over last November as acting director, Mulvaney has overseen efforts to sideline enforcement, undermine the offices of fair lending and student loan enforcement through restructuring, sought to delay a major rule governing payday lenders, and temporarily freeze consumer complaint data collection. The CAB was not consulted on any of these changes." --safari

Swamp. Justin Glawe of The Daily Beast: "Before stepping off a military jet in Kentucky last summer where he viewed a solar eclipse at Fort Knox, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was doing something else in secret.... Mnuchin's use of the exemption to redact information [from his public schedule] supposedly related to his personal security is significantly higher than his predecessors.... In the first eight months of Mnuchin's tenure, the Treasury Department has used Exemption 7 148 times, or 18 times per month, on average.... By comparison, both Treasury secretaries in the Obama administration used law enforcement exemptions 235 times in eight years.... The revelation that Mnuchin is redacting significantly more information from his calendar comes at a time when several cabinet members have come under scrutiny for travel expenses...." --safari...

...This Is a Real Headline in a Real Newspaper: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to help his wife find a job -- with Chick-fil-A." There's a real story below the real headline, by Juliet Eilperin & others of the Washington Post. Almost tops yesterday's news: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to buy an old Trump Hotel mattress." Extra points for predicting tomorrow's story: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to _______(fill in the blank)_______." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jennifer Dlouhy & Mario Parker of Bloomberg: "Republican Senator Joni Ernst blasted allegations of ethical misconduct by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.... 'He is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C., and if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own cabinet,' said Ernst, of Iowa.... The comments from Ernst coincided with sharp words from her fellow Iowa Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, who told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday that Pruitt 'has betrayed the president.'"

Apparently Betsy DeVos was upset by the all the headlines Scott Pruitt was garnering, so she thought up something comparable for herself:

... AP: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday said the federal commission on school safety set up after a Florida high school shooting won't be looking at the role of guns in school violence. DeVos was asked during a congressional hearing whether the panel, which she is chairing, will look at guns in the context of school safety. 'That is not part of the commission’s charge per se,' DeVos told a Senate subcommittee overseeing education spending. 'We are actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school.' Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, who asked the question, quipped[,] 'So you are studying gun violence, but not considering the role of guns.'" ...

... Somebody Schooled Betsy. Michael Stratford of Politico: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday walked back earlier comments that it's up to individual schools to decide whether to report undocumented students, following intense criticism from Democrats and civil rights advocates. DeVos at a hearing was pressed by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on whether teachers and principals are permitted under federal law to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about students who are undocumented. Murphy asked: 'So they can't call ICE?' 'I don't think they can,' DeVos responded. [Mrs. McC: According to the AP report linked above, "The audience gasped with relief" at her answer.] At another congressional hearing last month, DeVos said it was up to individual schools to decide whether to call ICE to report undocumented students."

You. Can't. Make. Up. This. Stuff. Mrs. McCrabbie: I didn't think anybody could top Scott Pruitt's petty corruption -- silver pens, used Trump mattresses, Chick-fil-A franchise -- or Betsy DeVos's commission on gun violence that isn't studying gun violence. But Patrick set me straight in today's Comments. Not only did State Department spokesperson and former "Fox & Friends" couch tomato Heather Nauert excuse our ambassador to Germany for his impolitic remarks by arguing that ambassadors have free speech rights, too, she cited D-Day as a proof of the U.S.'s great relationship with Germany:

Mike Ives of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Documents listing locations of United States Cyber Command outposts. A passcode-protected thumb drive, hidden behind a sock in the toe of a shoe. According to the Justice Department, these are among the items that United States agents found over the years while searching the luggage of Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency case officer, as he flew numerous times between the United States and China. Mr. Hansen, 58, a fluent Mandarin speaker who first visited China in 1981, has allegedly received at least $800,000 in 'funds originating from China' since May 2013. On Saturday, Mr. Hansen was arrested in Seattle and charged with attempted espionage, in what appears to be another high-profile mol hunt by F.B.I. investigators intent on uncovering Chinese spying against the United States." (Also linked yesterday.)

Senate Races. Thomas Kaplan & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that he is canceling most of the Senate’s monthlong August recess, a move that could keep vulnerable Democrats tethered to Washington as the midterm elections approach.... With 10 incumbent Democratic senators up for re-election in states won by Mr. Trump in the 2016 presidential election, the campaign implications were hard to overlook."

Now the Chinese Are Watching You, Too. Michael LaForgia & Gabriel Dance of the New York Times: "Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China's government, the social media company said on Tuesday. The agreements, which date to at least 2010, gave private access to some user data to Huawei, a telecommunications equipment company that has been flagged by American intelligence officials as a national security threat, as well as to Lenovo, Oppo and TCL. The four partnerships remain in effect, but Facebook officials said in an interview that the company would wind down the Huawei deal by the end of the week."

Good-bye to all that.... Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "The Miss America Organization, confronting a harassment scandal and trying to find its place in the #MeToo era, announced on Tuesday that it would scrap the swimsuit portion, starting with its next pageant in September. 'We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,' Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization's chairwoman, said on ABC's 'Good Morning America.' 'We want more women to know that they are welcome in this organization.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "David H. Koch, the billionaire industrialist who combined his vast wealth and libertarian-tinged brand of conservatism to influence candidates and campaigns at all levels of American politics, is stepping away from his political and business interests because of declining health, his company announced Tuesday. Mr. Koch's brother, Charles, said in a letter to employees at Koch Industries, the company the two brothers controlled, that David Koch's health problems had made it impossible for him to continue working."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "The Wall Street Journal named a new editor in chief on Tuesday, elevating Matthew J. Murray to the top spot at one of the country's pre-eminent newspapers and bringing an end to the tenure of Gerard Baker, whose stewardship had prompted defections and some unrest in the newsroom. The British-born, Oxford-educated Mr. Baker, who led the broadsheet for five and a half years, will remain at The Journal as a weekend columnist and a host of conferences and live events. He will also host a Journal-themed show on the Fox Business Network, which, like the newspaper, is an arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.... Last year, at an all-hands meeting called to address concerns about coverage, Mr. Baker defended himself against accusations from reporters that the paper had gone easy on President Trump, and suggested that other news organizations had become overly negative in their coverage."

... Weird News. Martin Weil of the Washington Post: "An armored military vehicle, looking like a tank, but without the weaponry, was taken Tuesday night from a military installation in Virginia, and pursued over main roads to Richmond. The vehicle, known as an armored personnel carrier, and equipped with treads reminiscent of a tank, came to a halt about 9:40 p.m. in a Richmond intersection near the state capitol. It was not immediately known why it stopped or why it stopped where it did.... The base is used for National Guard training. It was not immediately known whether whoever drove it from the base was connected to the Guard.... State police said a man was taken into custody. The incident remained under investigation late Tuesday and no charges had been filed."

Beyond the Beltway

This is America. Brad Reed of RawStory: "[Eighth] graders graduating from the St. Cornelius middle school in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, this week were given a macabre gift: Bulletproof backpack 'shields' intended to save their lives during a future school shooting.... [M]any students seemed baffled by the fact that this was the gift they were getting to welcome them to high school. 'I never thought I'd need this,' one student told Fox 29.... A great grandparent of one of the graduating students similarly said it was a sad commentary on American society that 8th graders needed to be given bulletproof shields as rites de passage going into high school." --safari: As much as most of recoil in horror about this, others are amazed in its ingeniousness. WTF is wrong with us? ...

... Alex Finnie of WPLG-TV: "The family of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg was 'swatted' Tuesday morning, prompting deputies to respond to their Parkland home. A call came into the Coral Springs Police Department claiming a hostage situation at the home. When a Broward Sheriff's Office SWAT team arrived at the scene, they found no hostage situation and determined the call was a prank. Hogg was not home at the time of the incident and is currently in Washington with his mother to accept the RFK Human Rights award. In a phone call with Local 10 News, Hogg sounded off about the prank call, which led to the massive law enforcement presence at his home."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "A South Dakota state lawmaker argued in a Facebook comment that businesses should be allowed to turn down people based on the color of their skin. The comment from state Rep. Michael Clark (R) came shortly after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado baker, who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his religious beliefs.... 'It is his business,' Clark wrote in a comment. 'He should have the opportunity to run his business the way he wants. If he wants to turn away people of color, then [that's] his choice.' Clark deleted the post on Tuesday, saying he had 'jumped in on it a little bit too fast,' the Leader reported. He later apologized for the comment in an email to a reporter for the Leader." Mrs. McC: Reminds me of Sen. Rand Paul, who has a far more influential job than Clark.

The Commentariat -- June 5, 2018

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

This Is a Real Headline in a Real Newspaper: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to help his wife find a job -- with Chick-fil-A." There's a real story below the real headline, by Juliet Eilperin & others of the Washington Post. Almost tops yesterday's news: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to buy an old Trump Hotel mattress." Extra points for predicting tomorrow's story: "Scott Pruitt enlisted an EPA aide to _______(fill in the blank)_______."

Trump Foiled Again. Laura Nahmias of Politico: New York State Judge Jennifer Schechter "ruled Tuesday that ... Donald Trump can be deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought last year by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on 'The Apprentice' who says Trump kissed and groped her after she appeared on the show.... [Trump's] lawyers have appealed to New York's highest court in hopes of avoiding it.... Zervos' attorney Mariann Wang said Trump's attorneys are trying to stall for time. Wang said her legal team had already issued a subpoena to the Trump campaign, which had been unwilling to hand over any information related to other women who've accused Trump.... Schecter ordered both legal teams to give her a briefing on the issue."

** Joe Romm of ThinkProgress: "In a series of exclusive interviews, former Fox News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron explained to ThinkProgress how the Russians coordinated their cyber-attack on the 2016 election with the Trump campaign. 'Trump confidant Roger Stone's success was having the connections and creating the opportunities for [Russian intelligence officer] Guccifer2.0 and other Russian groups to really start taking advantage of social media'... Cameron explained.... In 2016 ... Stone helped Guccifer2.0 -- who worked for Russian intelligence -- and other Russian-backed groups boost an anti-Clinton narrative online targeted at key groups. Stone direct-messaged with Guccifer2.0 on Twitter and WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange in August 2016.... The President, Roger Stone, and other campaign officials have put a lot of effort into lying about their meetings and contact with Russians linked directly to the Kremlin and its cyber attack on the United States. But they put even more effort into coordinating their message with the Russians." --safari

David Corn of Mother Jones: "The other evening I was on a cable news show to cover the latest Russia news ... -- and I had an epiphany.... Though it's clear Trump's presidency has been hobbled by the Russia scandal, the manner in which this matter plays out in the media has helped Trump.... The evidence [against Trump] is rock-solid.... But how often do you hear or see this fundamental point being made?.... It is hard to hold on to all these pieces and place them into one big picture.... The problem is there is no organized force with as loud a bullhorn countering his disinformation in fundamental terms.... When it comes to framing the overarching story, Trump practically has a monopoly.... All this shows how easy it is for disinformation and demagoguery to distort reality. That is a tragedy for the United States. For Trump -- and Putin -- that is victory." --safari

Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Trump disinvited the Eagles. Why? Because he couldn't stand to have so few show him fealty. And here's the thing: He's admitting it.... Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Wentz wanted to go. So did head coach Doug Pederson. They said they didn't see it as a political issue.... If two or three dozen Eagles wanted to attend, they should now realize why they were invited.... They were pawns in his game.... It was never to be done in their honor, only his.... So, what now, Pennsylvania?... Let's hear how spitting in the face of the Super Bowl champions Makes America Great Again.... This act -- this graceless, puny act -- insults both the democratic ideal and the sporting ideal. Both are rooted in the concept that citizens put aside their differences to unite for the greater good." --safari

Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "During an interview on Monday, Fox News host Harris Faulkner and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) vigorously agreed that President Trump has the power to pardon himself..." --safari

Mike Ives of the New York Times: "Tens of thousands of dollars in cash. Documents listing locations of United States Cyber Command outposts. A passcode-protected thumb drive, hidden behind a sock in the toe of a shoe. According to the Justice Department, these are among the items that United States agents found over the years while searching the luggage of Ron Rockwell Hansen, a former Defense Intelligence Agency case officer, as he flew numerous times between the United States and China. Mr. Hansen, 58, a fluent Mandarin speaker who first visited China in 1981, has allegedly received at least $800,000 in 'funds originating from China' since May 2013. On Saturday, Mr. Hansen was arrested in Seattle and charged with attempted espionage, in what appears to be another high-profile mole hunt by F.B.I. investigators intent on uncovering Chinese spying against the United States."

Good-bye to all that.Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "The Miss America Organization, confronting a harassment scandal and trying to find its place in the #MeToo era, announced on Tuesday that it would scrap the swimsuit portion, starting with its next pageant in September. 'We are not going to judge you on your outward appearance,' Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who is now the organization's chairwoman, said on ABC's 'Good Morning America.' 'We want more women to know that they are welcome in this organization.'"

*****

Ella Nilsen, et al., of Vox: "June 5 marks one of the most consequential and crowded primary days of the year. There's a 'jungle primary' that could lock out Democrats from important House seats in California, an establishment 84-year-old Democratic senator is facing a compelling primary challenger, and there's a surprisingly heated governor's race in South Dakota. There are key primaries in five states Tuesday: California, New Jersey, Iowa, Montana, and New Mexico. California will likely be the most closely watched state. With seven Republican-held districts that Hillary Clinton won in 2016, the state is an integral part of Democrats' path to regaining control of the House in November." The reporters provide details.

This Russia Thing, Etc., Ctd.

Painting by Patrick Shea.... Trump Declares Himself King. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump declared Monday that the appointment of the special counsel in the Russia investigation is 'totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!' and asserted that he has the power to pardon himself, raising the prospect that he might take extraordinary action to immunize himself from the ongoing probe. In a pair of early-morning tweets, Mr. Trump suggested that he would not have to pardon himself because he had 'done nothing wrong.' But he insisted that 'numerous legal scholars' have concluded that he has the absolute right to do so, a claim that vastly overstates the legal thinking on the issue. In fact, many constitutional experts dispute Mr. Trump's position on his pardon power, an issue for which there has been no definitive ruling.... Mr. Trump did not elaborate in the tweets about the legal basis for his claim that the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia case, was unconstitutional. In that tweet, he insisted that 'we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!'... The president also tweeted Monday morning about trade, asserting that Canada has 'all sorts of trade barriers' on American agricultural products. 'Not acceptable,' he said. He also bragged about his accomplishments at the 500-day mark in office. Shortly after, the White House echoed that sentiment with an email to reporters titled: 'President Donald J. Trump's 500 Days of American Greatness.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Allan Smith of Business Insider: Rudy interprets Donald. Mrs. McC: When pundits rely on opinions from the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, remember these are opinions, & courts disagree with the DOJ's opinions all the time. OLC opinions do not set precedent in the way court decisions do. So Smith reports, "Giuliani repeatedly cited a 2000 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel following President Bill Clinton's scandal, saying that while the Constitution does not give the president immunity from prosecution, the president cannot be indicted." That was the opinion of probably-career DOJ lawyers; it's up to the courts -- in this case, most likely the Supremes, to decide whether the opinion is "correct." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The president has had help in shaping his expansive view of his authority: For at least a year, his lawyers in the investigation into whether he tried to obstruct the Russia inquiry have been advising the president that he wields sweeping constitutional powers to impede investigations no matter his motive -- and despite obstruction-of-justice laws that everyone else must obey.... But their striking constitutional claim that obstruction statutes cannot bind Mr. Trump stood apart from the rest of their case.... Mr. Trump's lawyers, by contrast, are claiming that he is 'the chief la enforcement officer' -- a description usually applied to the attorney general -- wielding absolute power to command the actions of every federal prosecutor or F.B.I. agent in a way no congressional statute can limit." ...

     ... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is what happens when a bad client hires bad lawyers. Typically, a layperson who asks a lawyer to represent him against some adversary will believe some misbegotten tropes about the law that inure to his benefit -- like "possession is 9/10th of the law," or "my boss violated my First Amendment rights when he fired me for swearing at a customer." It's up to the lawyer to explain to him what the "real" law is and/or how cases like his are commonly decided. But Trump is a narcissist who is not capable of grasping or even hearing anything that suggests he could be a "loser." So the only "law" he can hear is that which would benefit him. The lawyers willing to take on this kind of client are also ones who must be willing to make outlandish claims with straight faces. Trump's lawyers feed his fantastical views & bill him for it. That may not matter much with an "ordinary" client -- he'll just lose the case & the client & his lawyers can all sit around & blame the judge & jury -- but it does matter when the client is a person of unique power.

... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Despite President Trump's declarations that he has expansive powers that could blunt the special-counsel investigation, his legal team is preparing for the possibility of a presidential interview, or a legally precarious subpoena battle over such a sit-down.... Private moves by Trump's attorneys and advisers indicate that -- despite the president's public bravado -- they are readying for a fraught legal confrontation that could have far-reaching consequences.... However, the fledgling briefings have not gone very deep, because of the president's anger about the probe, according to a person familiar with the situation." ...

... Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Monday warned President Trump, with varying degrees of alarm, against entertaining the prospect of pardoning himself of any federal crime.... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) noted constitutional scholars have reached varying conclusions on whether a president can pardon himself, but she added that ... she would urge him to 'never say another word about Bob Mueller's investigation until it's complete.'... 'It would be a tremendous abuse of his authority if he were to do so, as well as remarkably unwise.' Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) stressed that the Constitution 'doesn't give carte blanche freedom to a president.' And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who is leading his own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign... [told reporters], 'If I were president and somebody, some lawyer told me that I could do that, I'd hire a new lawyer.'..." And so forth. ...

... Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A recently published letter from ... Donald Trump's attorneys claiming that the president could not have obstructed the federal investigation into ties between his campaign and Russia is deeply flawed, 14 prominent law professors and legal scholars said Monday in a pointed rebuttal sent to top lawyers at the White House. 'The Office of the President is not a get-out-of-jail free card for lawless behavior,' the professors wrote in their letter.... "Indeed, our country's Founders made it clear in the Declaration of Independence that they did not believe that even a king had such powers; they specifically cited King George's obstruction of justice as among the "injuries and usurpations" that justified independence. Our Founders would not have created -- and did not create -- a Constitution that would permit the President to use his powers to violate the laws for corrupt and self-interested reasons.' Among the better known signers of the rebuttal: Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, former U.S. Attorneys Harry Litman and Joyce Vance and former Obama White House ethics czar Norm Eisen. The letter was coordinated by Project Democracy, a watchdog group.... The professors [directed their rebuttal] ... to White House Counsel Don McGahn and a recent addition to McGahn's office, Emmet Flood." ...

... Charles Pierce: "The president* ... has at his easy disposal everything a dictator could possibly want.... He is succeeding in his campaign to delegitimize any criminal investigation of his various schemes.... Hostile press, he can easily ignore. He is consolidating power based on deceit at an alarming rate, and, worst of all, he is becoming more popular for doing so among the only voters that matter to him.... [T]he president*'s approval rating among Republicans is the highest of any Republican president since World War II at this point in his administration* with the exception of where George W. Bush was at immediately after the attacks of 9/11. He stands at 87 percent approval among Republicans....It is entirely possible that the momentum now is unstoppable. The country is hurtling toward the destruction of its most basic ideas about itself.... Not that anyone actually is doing anything about it." -safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Jack Holmes of Esquire: "The authoritarian movement that this president began during his campaign is approaching its natural conclusion.... The signs are that his supporters will back him no matter what: He enjoys the support of 87 percent of Republicans.... That support is similarly reflected in the ethno-nationalist fervor of his rallies.... If the president believes he can do as he wishes because he has unlimited authority, and a section of the nation backs him simply because he is the authority, you are dealing with an authoritarian movement that could support a tyrant. The alarm bells should be ringing." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... Trump's tweets reinforce an underrecognized point: The likelihood that the fate of the Trump administration will eventually be decided by the Supreme Court is greater than most people realize. Consider three issues that seem increasingly likely to end up before the court. [1] Trump pardoning himself.... [2] Trump rejecting the authority of the special counsel.... [3] Trump rejecting a subpoena from the special counsel." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "For nearly a year, the denials from President Trump's lawyers and spokeswoman were unequivocal. No, the president did not dictate a misleading statement released in his son's name.... But in a confidential, hand-delivered memo to the special counsel, Mr. Trump's lawyers acknowledged that, yes, Mr. Trump had dictated the statement, which attempted to deflect questions about a meeting with a Kremlin-tied lawyer at Trump Tower. Prosecutors are asking whether the statement was part of an effort by the president to obstruct a federal investigation. Even for a president whose false statements have been constantly cited by fact-checkers, this was a stark private acknowledgment of what was a repeated public falsehood. And it sums up the dilemma that Mr. Trump faces as he weighs whether to sit for an interview with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. The misleading statement is but one aspect of Mr. Mueller's investigation. But it highlights a communication strategy that the White House has used repeatedly: deny facts, attack news outlets and dismiss journalism as 'fake news.'... On Monday, [Sarah] Sanders refused to answer the question or address her previous denial." ...

... Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The admission that Trump dictated his son's statement is the latest example of where on a number of key issues -- especially pegged to Mueller's ongoing Russia probe and Trump's legal difficulties -- the White House and the president's lawyers have offered contradicting stories and whipsaw about-faces, often revealing the truth only weeks later, when confronted with their inconsistencies." Parker cites a number of instances in which Trump lied, then left others to try to cover for him when the "fake news" uncovered the facts of the matters. ...

... Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "On the evidence of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's CNN interview over the weekend, the likely next speaker of the House is a mindless sycophant and a threat to the constitutional order. Confronted with a simple ethical question -- would he condemn demonstrable White House lies in covering up President Trump's role in drafting his son's account of the now-infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians -- McCarthy, a California Republican, was initially dumbstruck, then shifted into a prerecorded attack on special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.... McCarthy seems to view surrender to the president as a matter of principle -- as part of the tribal code of the partisan.... Because the Constitution makes impeachment so difficult -- requiring a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Senate for conviction and removal -- any president who retains the loyalty of his party has essentially no practical limits on his power in criminal matters.... The president has now claimed the entire executive branch as his private fiefdom, and every federal law enforcement official as his personal servant. Would a Speaker McCarthy stand athwart Trumpism yelling 'Stop!'? There is no reason to think it." ...

... Another Profile in Cowardice. Dominique Jackson of the Raw Story: "When asked by a local D.C. journalist, Haley Byrd, if he believes that President Trump can pardon himself, [Sen. Ted] Cruz had nothing to say. The Texas Senator paused for nearly 20 seconds before giving a lukewarm response. 'That is not a constitutional issue I have studied, so I will withhold judgement,' Cruz said." Includes audio w/20 seconds of background noise. ...

... ** Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "How did Trump get the idea he has powers that allow him to fire anyone, even for an illegal reason (e.g., a bribe)? We're only talking about self-pardon ... because Republicans were largely indifferent to pardons of cronies such as Joe Arpaio and right-wing race-monger Dinesh D'Souza. When reports suggested that the president's team might have dangled pardons in front of key witnesses, you did not see Republicans in Congress leap to object.... The failure of Republicans, even those considered constitutional sticklers, to balk at Trump's increasingly outrageous claims goes back the GOP original sin in 2016 -- sticking by Trump because of the notion he could deliver on taxes or appoint conservative judges.... Conservatives repeatedly called out [President] Obama and his administration for allegedly obstructing of justice. When exactly did it become impossible for presidents to obstruct justice?... The reason Trump feels emboldened to make frightful claims of vast executive power is that the constitutional conservatives don't much care about the Constitution and aren't conservative in any meaningful sense of the word." ...

... Callum Borchers of the Washington Post: "In the past, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has made excuses for false statements. On Monday, she tried something new -- telling incredulous reporters that she is not the right person to answer questions about one of her own untrue assertions. During a televised media briefing, journalists pressed Sanders about her insistence in August that President Trump 'certainly didn't dictate' a misleading statement to the New York Times on behalf of his son Donald Trump Jr. In a January letter to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, published for the first time over the weekend by the Times, the president's private legal team conceded that Trump had, in fact, dictated the statement. 'What's the reason for that discrepancy?' the Hill's Jordan Fabian asked Sanders. 'This is from a letter from the outside counsel, and I'd direct you to them to answer that question,' Sanders replied. That. Doesn't. Make. Sense. ...

... ** Maybe Putin Dictated the "Adoption" Excuse. Marcy Wheeler: "Right in the middle of this heated effort to respond to the NYT [About Junior's Trump Tower meeting with Russians], Trump bizarrely spent an hour chatting Vladimir Putin up over dinner at the G-20.... The question here is not just ... 'why did you emphasize adoptions -- Russian code for sanctions -- rather than the sanctions that were at the core of the meeting?' It's also the unstated question: 'Did you dictate that statement? Or did Vladimir Putin?'... We don't actually have to speculate about whether that spin -- adoptions rather than sanctions -- came up in the chat between Putin and Trump. In an interview not long after news of the June 9 meeting broke, Trump actually told the NYT he and Putin were talking about adoptions. '... And I actually talked about Russian adoption with him [Putin], which is interesting because it was a part of the conversation that Don [Jr., Mr. Trump's son] had in that meeting. As I've said -- most other people, you know, when they call up and say, 'By the way, we have information on your opponent,' I think most politicians ... [would say], "Who wouldn't have taken a meeting like that?"'" ...

     ... digby has more on this. Natasha Bertrand (tweet) & Josh Marshall (firewalled) agree with Wheeler. Mrs. McC: If anybody pays directly for the Trump-Putin collusion on the false story, it will likely be Junior, because he apparently perjured himself before committees of both Houses regarding who wrote the false cover story.

Eric Beech of Reuters: "... Paul Manafort, who has been indicted by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, attempted to tamper with potential witnesses, Mueller said in a court filing on Monday. Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, asked the judge overseeing the case in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to revoke or revise an order releasing Manafort ahead of his trial." The story has been updated: "FBI Special Agent Brock Domin, in a declaration filed with Mueller's motion, said Manafort had attempted to call, text and send encrypted messages in February to two people from 'The Hapsburg Group,' a firm he worked with to promote the interests of Ukraine.... The communications were 'in an effort to influence their testimony and to otherwise conceal evidence,' Domin wrote." ...

... Darren Samuelsohn of Politico has more. A lot of "Person A" & "Person D2" stuff. ...

... Here's the government's filing, via the Washington Post. ...

... Now Is the Time for Manafort to Flip. Margaret Hartmann: "President Trump and his legal team are working feverishly to discredit the Russia probe, dismissing it as a 'witch hunt' at every opportunity, and filling the media with increasingly audacious claims about the president being above the law. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is using opposite tactics: avoid the press, don't leak, and occasionally file a court document that shows you're several steps ahead of those seeking to thwart your investigation. Mueller's team did it again on Monday when they interrupted the current discussion about whether Trump could kill James Comey and get away with it (theoretically!) to accuse former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of attempted witness tampering.... The people Manafort was trying to tamper also ratted him out to the FBI.... Now he could wind up in jail until his two trials, scheduled for July and September, which would increase the pressure to cut a plea deal considerably.... [Trump] tweets [that attempted to distance him from Manafort] may help convince Manafort that the man he can trust to reduce his prison time is Mueller, not Trump."

Alan Feuer & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "A special master reviewing a trove of documents and electronic files seized in April from Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer, said on Monday that, at least so far, only a tiny fraction of the materials are protected by the attorney-client privilege, meaning that most can be used by the federal prosecutors who are conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation into Mr. Cohen. In a report submitted to Kimba M. Wood, the federal judge presiding over Mr. Cohen's case in Manhattan, the special master, Barbara S. Jones, said that only 14 paper documents out of the 639 that she had looked at are privileged, or partly privileged, and would be withheld from the prosecutors' inquiry. Of the 291,770 electronic files contained on two of Mr. Cohen's cellphones and on one of his iPads, 148 are privileged and will be withheld if the judge approves, Ms. Jones said." ...

     ... Rachel Maddow ties the Cohen docs to Trump's latest freakout.

BUT Here's a DOJ Investigation Trump Anxiously Awaits. Louis Nelson of Politico: "... Donald Trump complained Tuesday that there have been 'numerous delays' in the release of the Justice Department inspector general's report on the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.... 'What is taking so long with the Inspector General's Report on Crooked Hillary and Slippery James Comey. Numerous delays,' the president wrote on Twitter. 'Hope Report is not being changed and made weaker! There are so many horrible things to tell, the public has the right to know. Transparency!'"

Before There Was Donald, There Was Bill:

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, Bill is still a colossal dick. Poor boy is a victim of what he did to Monica Lewinsky. But, hey, this was a political thing, and the people love him. And the press didn't get the story straight. Nice way to turn a question about moral behavior into a political question -- very Trumpian Clintonian. Asshole. ...

... Update. Dana Milbank: "... in Bill Clinton were the seeds of Donald Trump.... To see the former president -- now promoting a mystery he co-wrote with novelist James Patterson -- sit down with NBC's Craig Melvin was to see how Clinton's handling of the Monica Lewinsky affair was a precursor of the monstrosity we now have in the White House: dismissing unpleasant facts as 'fake news,' self-righteously claiming victimhood attacking the press and cloaking personal misbehavior in claims to be upholding the Constitution. The former president's offenses were far less serious than President Trump's. Trump's many misdeeds -- against women, law, facts, democracy and decency -- are in a category of their own. But Clinton set us on the path, or at least accelerated us down the path, that led to today.... [In the Melvin interview,] Clinton hid his behavior behind high principle ('I think I did the right thing. I defended the Constitution') on the same day the current president complained about the 'unconstitutional' investigation of him and his campaign." ...

... AND Erin Ryan of the Daily Beast: "Bill Clinton just doesn't fucking get it. And he never will.... Instead of remorse, Clinton offered a brand of sleazy obfuscation.... There was the self-pity ('I left the White House $16 million in debt'), the argumentum ad populum ('Two-thirds of the American people sided with me'), and the clever, vague distractions ('you typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this'). There was even the misdirection. 'I've apologized to everybody in the world,' he said when asked whether he'd expressed sorrow to Monica Lewinsky. (For what it's worth, I wasn't able to find any reports of him apologizing directly to her.)... But above all, there was the moral preening that, when distilled to its purest form, is just a ham-fisted attempt to avoid taking responsibility. How could he, Bill Clinton, have been bad to Monica Lewinsky if he, Bill Clinton, had been so good for women elsewhere?... If Democrats are serious about being the party that women can count on to stand up for them, they need to take several giant steps away from Bill Clinton." ...

... AND Rebecca Traister of New York: "By many measures..., it's feminists -- and not Bill Clinton himself -- who have been blamed for having extinguished the post -- Anita Hill conversation. It is feminists, and more broadly women, who have had to answer for their errors in judgment 20 years ago, often with more frequency or rigor than Bill Clinton has been made to answer with for his errors in judgment 20 years ago. Which is what makes the most notable thing about [Monday] morning's interview the fact that Bill Clinton seemed to be shocked that he would be asked about his behavior in light of #MeToo.... Consider that Lewinsky herself has been asked to answer for this relationship -- and only this relationship -- for two decades.... Pundits like the New York Times' Maureen Dowd accused Hillary of leveraging sympathy as a wronged wife into a political career.... When Michigan congressman John Conyers was revealed to have settled sexual-harassment claims, it was Nancy Pelosi's (ill-advised!) defense of him on Meet the Press that garnered the most critical ink.... Considering all this, it is truly only a powerful white man who could have lived the past 20 years -- through the defeat of his wife and the social revolution it helped to galvanize -- and think that none of this effort or upheaval applied to him, especially given that so much of it applies to him directly." Mrs. McC: Traister cites other examples. Here's my favorite:

Let's not forget, and I'll be brutal, the reason she's a U.S. senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be senator from New York ... She didn't win there on her merit. -- Chris Matthews, January 2008 ...

... I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton's, but when she ran for Senate in 2000, she knew more about federal policy than most Senate candidates & more than many sitting senators. And she campaigned hard in New York for the Senate seat. In 2008, she knew more than most other presidential candidates, including Barack Obama. She had immersed herself in policy issues in Arkansas, too, when Bill was governor. Yes, she did win that Senate seat on her merit. Sexists like Chris Matthews should STFU. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Justin Carissimo of CBS News: "President Trump has disinvited the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles from a planned visit to the White House on Tuesday over what he says is a disagreement on standing during the national anthem. Mr. Trump issued a statement Monday evening saying the full NFL team would not be coming after several players indicated they wouldn't participate.... Mr. Trump said the team wanted to send a 'smaller delegation' of players but fans attending the event 'deserve better.' 'These fans are still invited to the White House to be part of a different type of ceremony -- one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the National Anthem,' it said. Some Democratic members of Congress from Pennsylvania reacted to the president's announcement by inviting the team to visit the Capitol instead. Sen. Bob Casey said he would be skipping the revised event[.]" ...

... Zach Berman, et al., of philly.com: "Fewer than 10 players planned to attend, a team source told the Inquirer and Daily News.... Owner Jeffrey Lurie planned to make the visit, the source said."

In More Trump Gossip "News" ... Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg: "Trump told ... Kim Kardashian,] wife of hip-hop mogul Kanye West, in the Oval Office that the couple was boosting his popularity with African-Americans, according to two people familiar with the matter." Mrs. McC: There's always something in it for Donald.

Andrew Restuccia of Politico: "Melania Trump emerged on Monday after more than three weeks out of the public eye, ending an absence that inspired wild conspiracy theories about her health and well-being. She appeared at a closed-door Memorial Day reception at the White House with the families of fallen members of the U.S. military. Reporters, photographers and videographers were barred from covering the event, but the first lady issued a statement on Monday evening in what might have been an effort to quell the mounting questions about her lengthy departure from public view." ...

... Amanda Arnold of New York: "... one reporter who was somehow in attendance [at the Gold Star event] tweeted some of Trump's uncomfortable remarks about his wife's absence. According to Jena Greene, a reporter for the right-wing outlet Daily Caller, Trump said, 'Melania had a little problem a couple weeks ago but she wouldn't miss this for anything.'" Mrs. McC: In another tweet, Greene wrote, "@realDonaldTrump joked about the media's speculation regarding Melania's recent absence. He laughed off rumors of them breaking up, saying it wasn't happening. 'Isn't that right honey?' He says to a room full of laughing Gold Star families." Arnold: "Though the state of Melania's well-being is less clear, Trump is certainly feeling fine, and acting like his typical tacky self. Laughing off rumors about the dissolution of your marriage in a room full of families of service members who were killed in the Iraq War -- that's our president!"

Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "Furious after [John] Bolton raised the so-called 'Libya' model to describe US intentions in North Korea -- with its suggestion of a grisly death for a dictator who relinquishes his nuclear arms -- Trump has publicly walked back his national security adviser's rhetoric as he works to ensure his summit talks with Kim proceed. In doing so, he's dramatically lowered the bar for his face-to-face session with Kim, who has made no concrete commitments toward abandoning his nuclear arsenal.... The remarks about Libya also infuriated [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo, who angrily confronted Bolton in a heated conversation at the White House.... Trump has given his secretary of state, whom he views as intelligent and charismatic, considerable leeway on North Korea -- including following his lead and keeping Bolton at arm's length from the negotiations.... Pompeo views Bolton skeptically, two people familiar with their relationship say, and doesn't trust his motives on North Korea."

Michelle Kosinski & Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "A call about trade and migration between ... Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron soured last week after Macron candidly criticized Trump's policies, two sources familiar with the call told CNN. 'Just bad. It was terrible,' one source told CNN. 'Macron thought he would be able to speak his mind, based on the relationship. But Trump can't handle being criticized like that.'... Thursday's strained call is particularly notable because Macron is arguably the European leader to whom Trump is closest."

Caleb Ecarma of Mediaite: "Corey Stewart, the GOP front-runner in Virginia's Senate race, called white nationalist Paul Nehlen 'one of my personal heroes' on-camera and praised an apparent neo-Nazi his campaign's official 'volunteer of the week.' Stewart, an ardently pro-Trump candidate, is leading the Republican primary against two challengers on an anti-immigration platform. Should he win the nomination -- to be held on June 12 -- he will face off against Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine."

Our Political Racket. Aaron Lorenzo of Politico: "Top-level GOP aides who helped write the new tax law are now leaving the Hill in droves to cash in as lobbyists on K Street and other marquee private-sector destinations.... Meanwhile, some of their bosses have already left or announced retirements, and Republican control of the Hill could be in jeopardy." Lorenzo lists quite a few Congressional and one top White House aide who are proceeding through the revolving door.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker on Monday in a closely watched case pitting gay rights against claims of religious freedom. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority in the 7-2 decision, relied on narrow grounds, saying a state commission had violated the Constitution's protection of religious freedom in ruling against the baker, Jack Phillips, who had refused to create a custom wedding cake for a gay couple.... The Supreme Court’s decision, which turned on the commission's asserted hostility to religion, strongly reaffirmed protections for gay rights and left open the possibility that other cases raising similar issues could be decided differently.... Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Elena Kagan and Neil M. Gorsuch joined the majority opinion. Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the majority but would have adopted broader reasons. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.... Though the case was mostly litigated on free speech grounds, Justice Kennedy's opinion barely discussed the issue. Instead, he focused on what he said were flaws in the proceedings before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Members of the commission, he wrote, had acted with 'clear and impermissible hostility' to sincerely held religious beliefs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Mark Stern of Slate analyzes the decision, which doesn't actually decide much. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

... Richard Primus in Politico Magazine: "... from a culture-war perspective, the baker's victory was considerably less than opponents of same-sex marriage might have been hoping for.... The Court ruled only that the specific administrative proceeding that ruled against this particular baker had been tainted by a disrespectful attitude toward his religious beliefs.... By framing the case as it did, the Court made its limited decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission a warm-up act for ... Hawaii v. Trump, the case about the executive order banning entry into the United States by nationals of several countries, most of them majority-Muslim. That case, like the wedding-cake case, is about the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause. The author of Monday's decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy, is generally assumed to be the swing vote in the entry-ban case. And over and over in Monday’s decision, Justice Kennedy articulated positions directly relevant to the entry ban — all of them running against the Trump administration's position.... In Monday's decision, Justice Kennedy made plain that it is appropriate to consider the prejudice in things government officials say when analyzing claims that those officials' actions are unconstitutionally discriminatory...."

Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a request from the Justice Department to discipline lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union for assisting an undocumented teenager to obtain an abortion. In an unsigned opinion with no noted dissents, the court vacated an appeals court ruling that had allowed the teenager to obtain the procedure, saying the dispute was moot. That wiped out the appeals court's ruling as precedent. The case attracted wide attention after the Justice Department, in an unusual Supreme Court filing in November, accused the A.C.L.U. of serious professional misconduct in the case of the teenager, who was known as Jane Doe. She obtained an abortion in October over the government's objection after an appeals court allowed it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brent Griffiths of Politico: "... Donald Trump and one of his top aides on Monday night appealed a federal court ruling that said the president was violating the constitutional rights of individuals he has blocked from viewing his personal Twitter feed. Three Justice Department officials filed notice of their appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District on behalf of Trump and Dan Scavino, the White House social media director.

WTF? Nicole Lafond of TPM: "Among a slew of odd and unprofessional personal requests that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt asked his top aide Millan Hupp to undertake for him.... Pruitt asked Hupp to secure a 'used mattress' from the Trump International Hotel for him.... Hupp said she didn’t know why Pruitt wanted the mattress other than he mentioned it 'around the same time that he was moving.' She said she never 'actually connected' with someone at the Trump Hotel about the secondhand bedding." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Now that's a firing offense! Hilarious. Here's more on the old mattress from Lisa Friedman & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Federal ethics standards prohibit such personal assistance by a subordinate, even if the employee is working outside of office hours. One provision bans the use of government time to handle personal matters. A second provision prohibits bosses from asking employees to handle personal matters for them outside of the office.... According to a partial transcript released by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, [Millan] Hupp ..., who serves as Mr. Pruitt’s scheduling director..., worked with real estate agents and visited at least 10 apartments over more than a month to find Mr. Pruitt new lodging. She also did other personal errands for the administrator including booking his personal travel to the Rose Bowl college football game." Ms. Hupp could not recall if Mr. Pruitt requested a urine-stained mattress. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Hand of ThinkProgress: "Over the past seven years, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has overseen a sweeping rollback of state environmental protections, implementing a suite of industry-friendly policies that have since been embraced by the Trump administration at the national level.... Now, the person Walker hired to implement his pro-industry vision for environmental regulation [Cathy Stepp] has a key leadership position in the EPA." --safari

Jeremy Diamond & Kevin Liptak of CNN: "in his role as deputy chief of staff, [Joe] Hagin is being counted on to pull off a high-stakes presidential trip of a different nature,& President Donald Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.... Deployed to Singapore last week to negotiate logistical details with a delegation of North Koreans, Hagin has assumed an outsized role in the preparations for the off-again, on-again meeting.... Two officials said Hagin has kept sensitive logistical details from Trump -- including during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Mar-a-Lago last year -- for fear that the President might tweet about them and upend the plans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Goon Calls Cops on U.S. Senator. James Hohmann of the Washington Post: "As the sun set Sunday night, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) went to a shuttered Walmart in Brownsville, Texas, that has been converted into a detention center for immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. He asked for a tour. Instead, the government contractor that runs the converted store called the cops. An officer filled out a police report, and the senator was asked to leave. The half-hour incident at a strip mall near the southern border with Mexico underscores the lack of transparency from President Trump's administration about its intensifying efforts to break up undocumented families caught crossing the border, the centerpiece of a 'zero tolerance' policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month to deter illegal immigration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times: "Howard Schultz, the outspoken executive chairman of Starbucks, will leave the company at the end of the month, bringing to an end the tenure of a socially conscious entrepreneur who turned a local Seattle coffee chain into a global giant with more than 28,000 stores in 77 countries. Mr. Schultz's decision to retire, a plan he said he privately outlined to the board a year ago, will most likely stoke speculation that he is considering a run for president in 2020. He is frequently mentioned as a potential candidate for the Democratic Party and has become increasingly vocal on political issues, including criticizing President Trump last year as 'a president that is creating episodic chaos every day.' While Mr. Schultz, 64, typically bats away speculation about his political ambitions with an eye roll or a pithy answer, on Monday he acknowledged for the first time that it is something he may consider." ...

     ... Mrs. McCrabbie: Is this a candidacy that excites me? Absolutely not. But the furniture there looks really nice, & gilt-free. Also, nice suit -- and it fits.

Josh Israel of ThinkProgress: "The head of Illinois' National Rifle Associate affiliate inadvertently admitted on Tuesday that gun restrictions have helped prevent mass shootings in his state. Richard Pearson, the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, made the argument on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning while trying to make the case that additional gun laws are not necessary in Illinois." --safari

** David Taylor of the Guardian: "The emboldened religious right has unleashed a wave of legislation across the United States since Donald Trump became president, as part of an organised bid to impose hardline Christian values across American society. A playbook known as Project Blitz, developed by a collection of Christian groups, has provided state politicians with a set of off-the-shelf pro-Christian 'model bills.'... Some legislation uses verbatim language from the 'model bills' created by a group called the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation (CPCF), set up by a former Republican congressman which has a stated aim to 'protect religious freedom, preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage and promote prayer'. At least 75 bills have been brought forward in more than 20 states during 2017 and 2018 which appear ... to have similar objectives to the playbook." --safari (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Meet Your GOP. Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast: "An affiliate of a 'pro-white' group who marched in Charlottesville last year was elected to a Republican Party post in Washington state last week, part of his campaign to take over the GOP for the alt-right.... James Allsup ... was filmed marching with Identity Evropa, an anti-immigrant alt-right group.... Allsup was now a precinct committee officer for the Whitman County, Washington Republican Party."

Kelsey Mo & Anne Ryman of the Arizona Republic: "Police say a man suspected of murdering a prominent forensic psychiatrist, a psychologist and two paralegals at their offices in Phoenix and Scottsdale is dead... of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.... The series of murders that began Thursday evening have rattled the legal community. Police said evidence connects all four homicides. First killed was Steven Pitt, a forensic psychiatrist who consulted on a number of high-profile cases including the Baseline Killer case and the JonBenét Ramsey murder investigation.... Less than 24 hours later, 48-year-old Veleria Sharp and 49-year-old Laura Anderson were shot in the downtown Scottsdale law offices of Burt, Feldman and Grenier.... Psychologist and counselor Marshall Levine was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound early Saturday inside an office building...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Stevens of the New York Times: "A rookie police officer in Georgia was swiftly fired over the weekend after body camera video showed him striking a man with his patrol car during a pursuit. An internal investigation by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department determined that the officer, Taylor Saulters, used excessive force when he struck the man, Timmy Patmon, with his vehicle on Friday. Chief Scott Freeman fired Officer Saulters on Saturday after initially placing him on administrative leave, said Eppi Rodriguez, a police spokesman. The Georgia State Patrol is investigating the crash and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation, Mr. Rodriguez added. Mr. Patmon suffered scrapes and bruises and was taken to a hospital for evaluation, a police statement said." Saulters is white; Patmon is black. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The molten lava on the island of Hawaii has destroyed what officials said may be hundreds of homes, including a vacation home of the county's mayor, Harry Kim, as a spewing vent has sent a wide, slow-moving river of lava into a residential community and the sea beyond it on the island's east side. The lava flow, which has destroyed homes in the community of Kapoho and filled in an ocean bay known for snorkeling and tidal pools, is coming from a nearby fissure that has spouted a fountain of lava that has reached as high as 250 feet in recent days."

New York Times: American fashion designer Kate "Spade, 55, was discovered dead at her Manhattan apartment, where she had hanged herself in her bedroom, the police said."