;)
The Commentariat -- March 2, 2018
Afternoon Update:'
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "A day after stunning markets, Republican lawmakers and even his own advisers by announcing stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, President Trump doubled down on his approach on Friday, saying in an early morning tweet that 'Trade wars are good, and easy to win.' Mr. Trump appeared eager to defend his decision to levy sweeping tariffs on all imports of those metals, issuing a series of morning tweets explaining the need for tariffs. 'Our steel industry is in bad shape. IF YOU DON'T HAVE STEEL, YOU DON'T HAVE A COUNTRY!' he said in one tweet.'" ...
... He's Come Unglued. Stephanie Ruhle & Peter Alexander of NBC News: Trump's "public show of confidence belies the fact that Trump's policy maneuver, which may ultimately harm U.S. companies and American consumers, was announced without any internal review by government lawyers or his own staff, according to a review of an internal White House document. According to two officials, Trump's decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team. On Wednesday evening, the president became 'unglued,' in the words of one official familiar with the president's state of mind. A trifecta of events had set him off in a way that two officials said they had not seen before: Hope Hicks' testimony to lawmakers investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, conduct by his embattled attorney general and the treatment of his son-in-law by his chief of staff. Trump, the two officials said, was angry and gunning for a fight, and he chose a trade war...." ...
... Gloria Borger of CNN: "Not since Richard Nixon started talking to the portraits on the walls of the West Wing has a president seemed so alone against the world. On source -- who is a presidential ally -- is worried, really worried. The source says this past week is 'different,' that advisers are scared the President is spiraling, lashing out, just out of control. For example: Demanding to hold a public session where he made promises on trade tariffs before his staff was ready, not to mention willing. 'This has real economic impact,' says the source, as the Dow dropped 420 points after the President's news Thursday. 'Something is very wrong.' Even by Trumpian standards, the chaos and the unraveling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are a stunning -- and recurring -- problem."
An A-Mazing "Coincidence." Judd Legum of Think Progress: "Billionaire investor and longtime Trump confidant Carl Icahn dumped $31.3 million of stock in a company heavily dependent on steel last week, just days before Trump announced plans to impose steep tariffs on steel imports. In a little-noticed SEC filing submitted on February 22, 2018, Icahn disclosed that he systematically sold off nearly 1 million shares of Manitowoc Company Inc. Manitowoc is a 'is a leading global manufacturer of cranes and lifting solutions' and, therefore, heavily dependent on steel to make its products. Trump's announcement rattled the markets, with steel-dependent stocks hardest hit. Manitowoc stock plunged, losing about 6 percent of its value. Reuters attributed the drop to the fact that Manitowoc is a 'major consumer of steel.' As of 10:20 a.m. Friday, the stock had lost an additional 6 percent, trading at $26.21. Icahn was required to make the disclosure because of the large volume of his sale. The filing reveals that he began systematically selling the stock on February 12, when he was able to sell the stock for $32 to $34. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross publicly released a report on February 16 calling for a 24 percent tariff. But, as the chart in the SEC filing indicates, Icahn started selling his Manitowoc stock on February 12, prior to the public release of that report."
Mixing Business with "Public Service." Clayton Swisher & Ryan Grim of the Intercept: "The real estate firm tied to the family of presidential son-in-law and top White House adviser Jared Kushner made a direct pitch to Qatar's minister of finance in April 2017 in an attempt to secure investment in a critically distressed asset in the company's portfolio, according to two sources. At the previously unreported meeting, Jared Kushner's father Charles, who runs Kushner Companies, and Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi discussed financing for the Kushners' signature 666 Fifth Avenue property in New York City.... The failure to broker the deal would be followed only a month later by a Middle Eastern diplomatic row in which Jared Kushner provided critical support to Qatar's neighbors. Led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a group of Middle Eastern countries, with Kushner's backing, led a diplomatic assault that culminated in a blockade of Qatar. Kushner, according to reports at the time, subsequently undermined efforts by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to bring an end to the standoff.... The crisis followed a May visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by Kushner and ... Donald Trump, who subsequently took credit for Saudi Arabia and its allies' efforts against Qatar. The fallout has reshaped geopolitical alliances in the region...." ...
... Eric Levitz: "The Gulf monarchies claimed that this act of aggression [against Qatar] was a response to Donald Trump's call for the Arab world to crack down on terrorists.... The United States had nothing to gain from a conflict between its Gulf allies. Qatar hosts one of America's largest and most strategically important air bases in the Middle East. Any development that pushes Doha away from Riyadh pulls it toward Tehran.... Donald Trump was more than happy to endorse the idea that his speech had moved mountains.... According to contemporary reports, his son-in-law was one of the only White House advisers to approve of this stance.... It's worth noting that the project the Qatari foreign minister refused to finance ... was Jared's baby -- his misbegotten, sickly, drowning baby ... -- 666 Fifth Avenue.... It looks like the president's son-in-law worked to sour relations with a key U.S. ally in the Middle East -- which has since drifted further into the orbit of a regime hostile to the United States -- because it refused to bail out his family's underwater real-estate investment." ...
... Carol Lee, et al., of NBC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has asked witnesses about [Jared] Kushner's efforts to secure financing for his family's real estate properties, focusing specifically on his discussions during the transition with individuals from Qatar and Turkey, as well as Russia, China and the United Arab Emirates, according to witnesses who have been interviewed as part of the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to sway the 2016 election.... Qatari government officials visiting the U.S. in late January and early February considered turning over to Mueller what they believe is evidence of efforts by their country's Persian Gulf neighbors in coordination with Kushner to hurt their country, four people familiar with the matter said. The Qatari officials decided against cooperating with Mueller for now out of fear it would further strain the country's relations with the White House...."
Margaret Hartmann: "While the idea that the president himself may be secretly plotting to oust his daughter and son-in-law from the White House [according the NYT report by Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman, linked below] is quite a juicy plot twist, it's also one of Trump's more astute staffing decisions. Not the part where he's incapable of firing them himself, of course, but his recognition that Jared and Ivanka are massive liabilities who contribute very little to the success of his administration. Why didn't anyone try to tell him that the president shouldn't hire his own family members?"
** NRA = Bad Guy with Guns. Julia Belluz of Vox: "A brief, partial respite from gun injuries is expected when some 80,000 gun owners descend on Dallas for the annual National Rifle Association convention. That's because the convention has historically coincided with a temporary -- and dramatic -- drop in gun-related injuries, according to a new analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine.... The gun injury rate actually fell by nearly 20 percent nationwide during NRA conventions." Emphasis added. ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: NRA membership should come with a heavy tax to help pay for the high costs NRA members impose on law enforcement. The NRA claims to have nearly 5 million members, meaning the vast majority of NRA members don't go to the conventions. It is reasonable to posit, then, that an unknown but significant number of other card-carrying NRA members are responsible for the gun injuries that do occur during the convention. Any way you look at it, the NRA is a pox on the U.S.
Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The FBI interviewed top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin around the holidays last winter -- more than a month and a half after the politically charged investigation into Clinton's email practices had seemed to conclude for a second time, according to people familiar with the probe. Agents were focused on how Abedin's and Clinton's messages ended up on a laptop used by former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), Abedin's estranged husband, these people said. They considered their look at Clinton complete but still had questions about whether Abedin should have told them about the messages sooner, the people said.... The interview is important ... because it shows that even after the bureau had intimated publicly that its probe into Clinton was over, the FBI knew it still had work to do with one of her close aides."
*****
Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Thursday that he would impose stiff tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, making good on a key campaign promise and rattling stock markets as the prospect of a global trade fight appeared imminent. In a hastily arranged meeting with industry executives that stunned many inside the West Wing, Mr. Trump said he would formally sign the trad measures next week and promised they would be in effect 'for a long period of time.'... The announcement capped a frenetic and chaotic morning.... The action, which came against the wishes of Mr. Trump's pro-trade advisers, would impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum, effectively placing a tax on every foreign shipment of those metals into the United States.... Stocks fell in response to the potential tariffs, with declines in the industrial sector outpacing the overall market. The Standard & Poor's 500 industrial sector was down 1.9 percent, compared with a decline of about 1.3 percent in the overall benchmark index. Shares of American automakers, all large consumers of steel and aluminum, declined, as did shares of Boeing, a large exporter that could be hurt if other nations retaliate against United States tariffs." ...
... David Lynch & Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post: "Trump’s move, under a little-used national security provision of U.S. trade law, is expected to trigger legal challenges by China, the European Union and Brazil at the World Trade Organization.... Canada, one of the United States' closest allies, blasted the step as 'absolutely unacceptable' and vowed to respond when the levies take effect. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission... [said], 'We will not sit idly while our industry is hit with unfair measures that put thousands of European jobs at risk.'... [Trump's move] also prompted predictions that it will backfire on American farmers and other exporters. 'It's pretty much our worst fears,' said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents multinationals such as Microsoft and Caterpillar. 'This is a pretty clear indication that the Trump administration cares more about the old economy than it does the new economy.'... Trump's statement followed hours of drama and confusion." ...
... Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "The real risk [of Trump's tariffs] isn't that steel and aluminum are a bit more expensive, though that is likely to be the case. It's that an entire system of global trade, which the United States helped build, might be undermined." ...
... "Man of Steel." Mike Allen & Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump has long mused about doing what he wants, when he wants, how he wants. He wanted tariffs on steel and aluminum -- big ones -- now. He wanted to negotiate with Congress -- in public, on his court, surprise and shock, all for the cameras. He wanted to ditch any P.C. pretenses and consider Singapore-style death for all drug dealers. He wanted to play by his rules alone.... His staff at times managed to talk him off the ledge. No more. Tired of the restraints, tired of his staff, Trump is reveling in ticking off just about every person who serves him.... He has grown to especially hate [John] Kelly's rigid rules, so he purposely blew off Kelly's process and announced planned tariffs in a haphazard way.... The tariffs call was also a big middle finger to economic adviser Gary Cohn, who has fought for more than one year to kill tariffs that would provoke a trade war or higher prices for consumers, a de facto tax increase. Cohn, who stuck around to fight tariffs, now seems more likely to leave." ...
... Mark Landler & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "For 13 months in the Oval Office, and in an unorthodox business career before that, Donald J. Trump has thrived on chaos, using it as an organizing principle and even a management tool. Now the costs of that chaos are becoming starkly clear in the demoralized staff and policy disarray of a wayward White House. The dysfunction was on vivid display on Thursday in the president's introduction of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The previous day, Mr. Trump's chief economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn, warned the chief of staff, John F. Kelly, that he might resign if the president went ahead with the plan, according to people briefed on the discussion. Mr. Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs president, had lobbied fiercely against the measures. His threat to leave came during a tumultuous week in which Mr. Trump suffered the departure of his closest aide, Hope Hicks, and the effective demotion of his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was stripped of his top-secret security clearance. Mr. Trump was forced to deny, through an aide, that he was about to fire his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster." ...
... Julie Pace, et al., of the AP: "Rattled by two weeks of muddled messages, departures and spitting matches between the president and his own top officials, Donald Trump is facing a shrinking circle of trusted advisers and a staff that's grim about any prospect of a reset. Even by the standards of Trump's often chaotic administration, the announcement of communications director Hope Hicks' imminent exit spread new levels of anxiety across the West Wing and cracked open disputes that had been building since the White House's botched handling of domestic violence allegations against a senior aide late last month." ...
... Tarini Parti & Matt Berman of BuzzFeed: "Even for this chaotic administration, the last few weeks have taken a toll on ... Donald Trump and his staff. A tragic mass shooting, big-name staff departures, and a series of scandals -- all in the growing shadow of the investigation into Russia's involvement in 2016 election -- has left the White House under a dark cloud of low morale and constant frustration. Many mid- and low-level staffers are anxious to leave and are actively looking for jobs elsewhere, sources close to the White House say. Those staffers saw the surprising resignation of Trump loyalist and communications director Hope Hicks on Wednesday as a sort of tipping point." ...
... Kevin Liptak of CNN: "The tumult of the past week has fueled a deep and seething anger within ... Donald Trump -- not an uncommon emotion for the insolent commander in chief -- but one that allies and aides say has escalated as he faces a new gauntlet of problems, including the encroaching Russia investigation. His soothing communications guru is leaving. His obstinate attorney general has turned openly defiant. His son-in-law and senior adviser was stripped of his security clearance at the behest of his chief of staff. His Cabinet secretaries keep spending an inordinate amount of taxpayer dollars on luxuries. His most loyal allies in Congress describe his meetings as 'surreal.' Allies of Trump's on Capitol Hill and elsewhere describe a sense of 'meltdown' at the White House as the series of unfortunate events unfold. Morale in the West Wing, already diminished following the domestic abuse scandal involving Trump's former staff secretary, has taken a downward turn, people inside and outside the building say. Staff departures are being announced on a near-daily basis as aides become fed up with the constant swirl of tension. And policy announcements ... -- including a long-awaited decision on steel and aluminum tariffs, gun control measures and an elusive immigration fix -- have been caught up in the swirl of uncertainty, leading to questions on how Trump will be able to govern amid the chaos." ...
... Nicolle Wallace of NBC News: "The White House is preparing to replace H.R. McMaster as national security adviser as early as next month in a move orchestrated by chief of staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The move would be the latest in a long string of staff shake-ups at the White House over the past year and comes after months of strained relations between the president and McMaster.... NSC spokesman Michael Anton responded by saying that he was just with the president and McMaster in the Oval Office. 'President Trump said that the NBC News story is "fake news," and told McMaster that he is doing a great job,' Anton said.... A leading candidate to become ... Donald Trump's third national security adviser is the auto industry executive Stephen Biegun, according to the officials." ...
... Eric Levitz of New York: "H.R. McMaster was an 'adult in the room' among adults in the room. The national security adviser was decorated war hero and Ph.D-wielding intellectual -- one whose dissertation was a treatise on the hazards of allowing a president's self-interested needs override the better judgement of military experts. After taking the reins from disgraced Turkish government agent Michael Flynn, McMaster evicted his predecessor's team of crackpot Islamophobes from the National Security Council, and won a war of attrition with Steve Bannon. McMaster also repeatedly debased himself -- and misled the public -- at the president's command; escalated American involvement in Afghanistan without offering anything resembling a plan for victory; and expressed a more fervent opposition to diplomacy with -- and openness to preemptive war against -- North Korea than any other senior member of the Trump administration.... Given the fact that he was apparently the 'adult' in the White House most open to pushing an emotionally volatile reality star into a war with nuclear state, it's hard to feel much concern at the thought of his exit."
The Russia Thing, Ctd.
John Harwood of CNBC: "... whatever the special counsel concludes legally about 'collusion,' evidence on public display already paints a jarring picture. It shows an American president who has embraced Russian money and illicit favors, while maintaining rhetoric and policies benefiting Russia and undercutting national security officials of his own country.... 'President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there's little price to pay,' Adm. Michael Rogers told Congress. Inescapably, the source of that conclusion is the president of the United States." This is a brief, but devastating, rundown of Trump's bad acts.
Ken Dilanian, et al., of NBC News: "Special counsel Robert Mueller is assembling a case for criminal charges against Russians who carried out the hacking and leaking of private information designed to hurt Democrats in the 2016 election, multiple current and former government officials familiar with the matter tell NBC News. Much like the indictment Mueller filed last month charging a different group of Russians in a social media trolling and illegal-ad-buying scheme, the possible new charges are expected to rely heavily on secret intelligence gathered by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), several of the officials say.... The release of embarrassing Democratic emails through WikiLeaks became a prominent feature in the 2016 presidential election, cited at least 145 times by Republican candidate Donald Trump in the final month of the campaign."
Ryan Goodman of Just Security: "A significant recent revelation in the Russia investigation has been largely overlooked.... A nugget of information is contained in the memo written by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee (the so-called Schiff Memo), which was released on Saturday morning.... As Rep. Adam Schiff recently told Chris Hayes, 'our memo discloses for the first time that the Russians previewed to [George] Papadopoulos that they could help with disseminating these stolen emails.' Rep. Schiff added, 'When Donald Trump openly called on the Russians to hack Hillary Clinton's emails, they'd be richly rewarded if they released these to the press, his campaign had already been put on notice that the Russians were prepared to do just that and disseminate these stolen emails.'... This new revelation is legally important and, if true, could have exposed Papadopoulos and potentially other campaign officials to significant criminal liability."
Darren Samuelsohn & Eliana Johnson of Politico: "... Donald Trump's lawyers have urged him not to discuss details of the unfolding Russia investigation with anyone outside his legal team, warning of a conversational 'bright line' that could put aides and associates in legal jeopardy, according to current and former Trump aides. But Trump often ignores that legal advice in the presence of senior aides -- including his departing confidante and White House communications director, Hope Hicks. 'I think the president has put her in a very precarious position,' a senior Trump administration official said in a recent interview. Hicks is not alone. Current and former Trump aides describe a president who often fails to observe boundaries about the Russia probe and who calls staffers into his office and raises the subject without warning." ...
... Karoun Demirjian & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "In her nine-hour closed-door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee this week, White House communications director Hope Hicks refused to say whether she had lied for a number of senior White House and Trump campaign officials, even as she acknowledged telling 'white lies' for President Trump. A Democrat and a Republican on the panel said Thursday that Hicks refused to answer questions Tuesday about whether she had been asked to lie by White House aides and Trump's family members, including Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon, and former campaign officials Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort.... 'If your response to the question "Have you ever lied for your boss?" is to pause and take two timeouts, then we already know the answer,' [Rep. Eric] Swalwell [D-Calif.] said, recapping his version of the exchange for The Washington Post.... 'What she was doing is what any honest human being would say.' [said Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.].... Hicks was angry after the Tuesday testimony, telling those close to her she left feeling 'abused' and 'accused,' according to a person familiar with the situation." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Yes, because when you daily aid & abet a corrupt president & his corrupt administration, interrogators should ask questions about hair styles & if Ivanka Trump is her favorite designer. ...
... Uh-Oh. Justin Baragona of Mediaite: "Talk about burying the lede. In a Daily Mail puff piece about White House communications director Hope Hicks and how she could be looking at a #10 million payday for a tell-all book about her time in the Trump administration, a White House insider told the publication that Hicks clandestinely kept a diary.... But if Hicks has a journal in which she kept track of all the activity within the White House, it won't just make a good basis for a political gossip book. That is something investigators are going to want to get their hands on, something former Obama White House Ethics Czar [Norm Eisen] noted Thursday night: 'Whoa!: "Hicks has been secretly keeping...a 'diary of her White House work, and her interactions w/Trump.'" If true, belongs to USG not her, must be preserved in WH under Pres Recds Act, raises issues about her handling of classified & WILL be subpoenaed.'"
Senators to Paul Ryan: "Get Your House in Order." Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were behind the leak of private text messages between the Senate panel's top Democrat and a Russian-connected lawyer, according to two congressional officials briefed on the matter. Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the committee's Republican chairman, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat, were so perturbed by the leak that they demanded a rare meeting with Speaker Paul D. Ryan last month to inform him of their findings. They used the meeting with Mr. Ryan to raise broader concerns about the direction of the House Intelligence Committee under its chairman, Representative Devin Nunes of California, the officials said. To the senators..., the leak was a serious breach of protocol and a partisan attack by one intelligence committee against the other.... The texts were leaked just days after the same House Republicans had taken the extraordinary step of publicly releasing, over the objections of the F.B.I., a widely disputed memorandum based on sensitive government secrets. Taken together, the actions suggested a pattern of partisanship and unilateral action by the once-bipartisan House panel. Fox News published the texts, which were sent via a secure messaging application, in early February. President Trump and other Republicans loyal to him quickly jumped on the report to try to discredit Mr. Warner, suggesting that the senator was acting surreptitiously to try to talk to [Christopher] Steele."...
... UPDATE: Aaron Rupar of ThinkProgress: "On Thursday, the New York Times reported that House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) leaked Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner's (D-VA) confidential text messages to Fox News.... In a statement provided to the Times, Nunes' camp didn't deny leaking the texts to Fox News. Instead, Nunes spokesman Jack Langer attacked the Times for writing about it in the first place.... While Nunes' leak bothered Republican Sen. Richard Burr (NC), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, House Speaker Ryan seems disinterested." --safari
Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "President Trump signaled he was open to some proposals to curb gun violence on Wednesday during an hourlong televised meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. But even as he voiced support for proposals generally backed by Democrats -- including expanded background checks and raising the age limit to 21 for some gun buyers -- the president peppered his remarks with inaccuracies about mass shootings and gun policy. And many of his comments hewed firmly to traditional Republican Party tenets." (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Yes, That Would Be Yesterday. This Would Be Today:
... Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "The top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association claimed late Thursday that President Trump had retreated from his surprising support a day earlier for gun control measures after a meeting with N.R.A. officials and Vice President Mike Pence in the Oval Office. The lobbyist, Chris Cox, posted on Twitter just after 9 p.m. that he met with Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence, saying that 'we all want safe schools, mental health reform and to keep guns away from dangerous people. POTUS & VPOTUS support the Second Amendment, support strong due process and don’t want gun control. #NRA #MAGA.' Mr. Trump tweeted about an hour later, 'Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!' Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined to provide details about the previously unannounced meeting." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Okay, everybody, all together now: "We're shocked!" ...
... GOP SOP. Sheryl Stolberg & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "A day after President Trump ordered lawmakers to draft tough gun control legislation, few if any Republicans embraced the president's surprising stances and congressional leaders on Thursday showed little urgency in moving forward with even modest gun measures.... A number of Republicans who voted against the expanded background checks legislation in 2013 said Mr. Trump had said nothing that changed their minds. And several Republican newcomers, who were not present for the emotional debate prompted by the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said they could not support such a bill." ...
... Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Okay, everybody, all together now: "We're shocked!" ...
... Brandon Carter of the Hill: "L.L. Bean announced Thursday it will no longer sell guns or ammunition to anyone under 21 years of age.... CNN reports the company's flagship store in Freeport, Maine is its only store licensed to sell firearms. The company doesn't sell guns or ammunition on its website, but does sell certain firearm accessories, such as gun safes, cleaning kits and rifle cases."
Sara Murray, et al., of CNN: "US counterintelligence officials are scrutinizing one of Ivanka Trump's international business deals, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The FBI has been looking into the negotiations and financing surrounding Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, according to a US official and a former US official. The scrutiny could be a hurdle for the first daughter as she tries to obtain a full security clearance in her role as adviser to ... Donald Trump.... The development -- a 616-foot beacon dotting the Vancouver skyline and featuring a trademarked Ivanka Trump spa -- opened in February 2017, just after Trump took office. The Trump Organization does not own the building. Instead, like other Trump projects, it receives licensing and marketing fees from the developer, Joo Kim Tiah."...
... Quid Pro Quo. Danielle Mclean of ThinkProgress: "The equity firm magnate [Joshua Harris, founder of equity firm giant Apollo Global Management] that advised the Trump administration on infrastructure and whose company gave a $184 million loan to Kushner Companies also benefited from three rule changes relaxing pipeline safety regulations.... [According to] Stephen Spaulding, the chief of strategy at the government watchdog group, Common Cause. 'If you follow the money, you can see how the investment is paying off now that the rules are on hold.... They are getting a great return on their investment.'... Apollo also benefited from Trump's tax law that left intact a loophole allowing private equity managers to pay income taxes at a lower rate." --safari: So the public gets more pipeline spills, and Kushner gets a multi-million dollar loan. #MAGA ...
... ** February Is the Cruelest Month. Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "They were the ascendant young couples of the Trump White House: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, and Rob Porter and Hope Hicks.... They even double-dated once. But an unlikely cascade of events -- set in motion by paparazzi photos of Porter and Hicks published Feb. 1 in a British tabloid -- crashed down on Kushner this week. The shortest month of the year delivered 28 days of tumult that many inside and outside the White House say could mark the fall of the House of Kushner. Once the prince of Trump's Washington, Kushner is now stripped of his access to the nation's deepest secrets, isolated and badly weakened inside the administration, under scrutiny for his mixing of business and government work and facing the possibility of grave legal peril in the Russia probe.... [Donald Trump] mused this week that everything might be better for [Jared & Ivanka] if they simply gave up their government jobs and returned to New York...." ...
... Frank Rich: "... reading The Wall Street Journal's editorial page is a good way to read the White House's tea leaves. The page is in the tank for Trump, and its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, is close to [Jared] Kushner besides. So when the Journal opined this morning, however gingerly, that the continued presence of both Kushner and Ivanka Trump in the White House is a political burden for Trump, it's safe to bet that they are goners. Please forgive me for breaking this heartbreaking news if you are among the several dozen people in America who thought Kushner would bring peace to the Middle East.... I am no shrink, but I remain convinced that at least an unconscious motive here is Jared's desire to repeat his father Charles's history as a convicted felon. One of the lesser-noted aspects of Jared Kushner's White House career i that in addition to engaging in foreign policy, he also has a domestic brief that includes, most prominently, running the administration's push for prison reform. He'd be wise to get cracking on that one fast." ...
... Tim Egan: "While burnished renditions of British royals dominate the small screen, and a super-powerful African king owns the big screen, the monarchal narcissism of the American president shows why we have a constitutional clause banning any title of nobility.... The closest thing to a throne will have to be the solid gold toilet that the Guggenheim Museum helpfully offered President Trump. If Trump were king, opponents would be jailed for failing to clap during his speeches. He calls that ageless act of defiance treason. The Constitution calls it something else. This president is also the nearest approximation of the mad king since the original sovereign to wear that title, George III, was booted from oversight of our shores. As the saying goes, King George lost the colonies, then lost his mind. Trump is doing it in reverse order, with a middle-aged democracy." ...
... Unsolved Mystery: How Did Melania Get That "Einstein Visa"? Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "In March 2001, [Melania Knauss, who was then dating Donald Trump,] was granted a green card in the elite EB-1 program, which was designed for renowned academic researchers, multinational business executives or those in other fields, such as Olympic athletes and Oscar-winning actors, who demonstrated 'sustained national and international acclaim.'... To obtain an EB-1 under the extraordinary ability category, an immigrant has to provide evidence of a major award or meet at least three out of 10 criteria.... 'She was never a supermodel; she was a working model -- like so many others in New York,' said one person who knew her in the 1990s.... Melania Trump's ability to secure her green card not only set her on the path to U.S. citizenship, but put her in the position to sponsor the legal residency of her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs.... Immigration experts said the president's efforts to restrict legal immigration spotlight lingering questions about how the first lady and her family members obtained residency in the United States."
Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin used his annual state of the nation speech on Thursday to threaten Western nations with a battery of new weapons, including an intercontinental nuclear cruise missile, and to assure Russians that their lives would improve through enormous new social spending. The guns-and-butter speech came 17 days before the March 18 presidential election. It seemed intended to reassure ordinary Russians that a huge increase in social spending would help salve the economic problems of the past four years, while also evoking traditional fears that Russia could be invaded at any minute. Gleb O. Pavlovsky, a political analyst and former Kremlin consultant, wrote on Facebook that, 'From tales about progress, the speech flowed into an open-ended declaration of world war.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ...
... Howard Altman of the Tampa Bay Times: "During his annual state of Russia speech, President Vladimir Putin unveiled what he called a devastating new intercontinental ballistic missile. To illustrate how it works, he showed the audience a video that ended with warheads raining down on the United States -- specifically, what appears to be the Tampa Bay area.... Russia was recently singled out for criticism during congressional testimony by Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of CentCom, which is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.... According to Republic, a Russian media outlet, the video used by Putin is actually from a 2007 presentation that showed the first iteration of what is now known as the Satan 2 missile." ...
... Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Few experts on either side believe that the new weapons, assuming they actually exist and are ever deployed, would change the balance of power between two nations that already have the ability to destroy each other many times over. At the same time, there is widespread agreement that the rhetorical attacks, stalled diplomacy and military escalation that increasingly characterize U.S.-Russia relations are counterproductive to global security.... Trump appears to be the only senior member of his administration who still believes in a thaw.... As he has failed to move relations forward, 'the Russians basically see the Trump administration as a lost cause,' said Andrew Weiss, who held senior Russia policy positions during both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations...." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: If you are wondering why I've failed to post President* PutinPuppet's response to Putin's threat to the U.S. (and specifically to Tampa Bay) that's because he hasn't tweeted a word, nor -- as far as I know -- has he released a statement.
Eric Lipton & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Even before President Trump officially opened his high-profile review last spring of federal lands protected as National Monuments, the Department of Interior was focused on the potential for oil and gas exploration at a protected Utah site, internal agency documents show. The debate started as early as March 2017, when an aide to Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, asked a senior Interior Department official to consider reduced boundaries for Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah to remove land that contained oil and natural gas deposits that had been set aside to help fund area public schools.... The map that Mr. Hatch's office provided, which was transmitted about a month before Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke publicly initiated his review of national monuments, was incorporated almost exactly into the much larger reductions President Trump announced in December, shrinking Bears Ears by 85 percent.... Most of the deliberations took place behind closed doors. The internal Interior Department emails -- more than 25,000 pages in total -- were obtained by The New York Times after it sued the agency in federal court...." ...
... AND Never Mind This: ...
** Joe Rommof ThinkProgress: "A new study finds that wind power and solar photovoltaics could by themselves meet 80 percent of all U.S. electricity demand.... It's especially encouraging for two additional reasons. First, the price of solar and wind have been dropping rapidly.... Second, the study ... still leaves 20 percent that could be provided by a variety of alternative types of carbon-free power.... [H]ydropower already provides 6.5 percent of U.S. power while geothermal and biomass together add another 2 percent. All of those can be expanded.... This latest finding should help resolve the debate as to whether the United States can have an affordable carbon-free grid by mid-century. We absolutely can." -- safari: In a normal world, this would be a "let's come together and fly to the moon" political moment. Instead, we have Scott Pruitt's turds. (Also linked yesterday.)
Matt Apuzzo & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A Justice Department review is expected to criticize the former F.B.I. deputy director, Andrew G. McCabe, for authorizing the disclosure of information about a continuing investigation to journalists, according to four people familiar with the inquiry. Such a damning report would give President Trump new ammunition to criticize Mr. McCabe, who is at the center of Mr. Trump's theory that 'deep state' actors inside the F.B.I. have been working to sabotage his presidency. But Mr. McCabe's disclosures to the news media do not fit neatly into that assumption: They contributed to a negative article about Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration's Justice Department — not Mr. Trump.... Mr. McCabe, under pressure from the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, stepped down as the deputy director in late January amid concerns over the coming report."
Jon Swaine of the Guardian: "Ben Carson, the US secretary for housing and urban development (Hud), has scrapped an order for a $31,000 dining set for his Washington office amid a growing ethics controversy.... The decision, first reported by CNN, followed a promise from Carson of 'full disclosure' over his use of public funds to buy expensive furniture, in his first public remarks since the Guardian revealed a senior Hud official's allegation that she was demoted for refusing to break a legal spending limit on redecoration. The pressure has been growing on Carson amid reports that the White House was angered by his spending." ...
... Rene Marsh & Ross Levitt of CNN have pictures & descriptions of the components of the set (or similar furniture). Mrs. McC: They are awfully nice pieces & not overpriced, IMO. Also, just right for Carson, his family (& occasionally a few lucky HUD staff) to sit around while dining on fine cuisine & disparaging the lazy poor.
John Bacon of USA Today: "EPA chief Scott Pruitt, under fire for flying first class along with his security detail, says his next flight will be coach. 'You're going to accommodate the security threats as they exist ... up to and including flying coach,' Pruitt said he told his security team. 'And that is what's going to happen on my very next flight. So those things are happening right away.' Pruitt told CBS News he has faced a 'legitimate security issue.'"
David Agren of the Guardian: "The US ambassador to Mexico is resigning from her post as the US-Mexico relationship sours and Donald Trump's discourtesies toward Mexico make diplomacy increasingly difficult. Veteran diplomat Roberta Jacobson told embassy staff in a note on Thursday that she was leaving at 'a critical moment' in the US-Mexico relationship. Jacobson's resignation will take effect on 5 May, two years to the day after she was sworn in as ambassador.... Jacobson previously served as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs.... Jacobson is the latest in a string senior diplomats to leave the state department after Donald Trump's election: the US has lost more than half its career ambassadors and many other senior diplomats since Trump took office.... José Díaz-Briseño, Washington correspondent for the newspaper Reforma, reported on Thursday that Trump would name the former General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre as ambassador to Mexico." ...
... Joshua Partlow & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "As [Roberta Jacobson's] replacement, the Trump administration is looking to name Edward Whitacre Jr., a former chief executive of General Motors and AT&T, who also has worked with Carlos Slim, Mexico's richest man, according to U.S. and Mexican officials familiar with the decision. Whitacre's name was first reported by the Mexican newspaper Reforma.... If the new U.S. ambassador pushes harder on Trump's favorite themes -- including stopping illegal immigration from Central America -- the relationship [between the U.S. & Mexico] could deteriorate further, according to Mexican analysts."
Jonathan Blitzer of the New Yorker paints a grotesque portrait of new DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen: "Since its creation, in 2002, the Department of Homeland Security has had six different heads: two governors, a federal judge, the top lawyer at the Department of Defense, a four-star general, and Kirstjen Nielsen, who took over in December. Compared to her predecessors, Nielsen's résumé is conspicuously thin. Prior to joining the Trump Administration, she was a little-known cybersecurity consultant with no major management experience. 'In a normal Administration, there isn’t a chance in hell she would get nominated for anything above an undersecretary job,' a former national-security official, who served under George W. Bush, told me." Read on. This is a picture Nielsen will want to keep in the attic, a la Dorian Gray.
Paul Krugman Explains the Tax Heist to Dummies: "So you go out for dinner with a wealthy acquaintance. 'I'll take care of everything,' he says, and orders you a hamburger. Then he orders himself an expensive steak and a bottle of wine, which he doesn't share. And when the waiter comes with the check, he points at you and says, 'Charge it to his credit card.' Now you understand the essence of the Trump tax cut, signed into law a little over two months ago. The key thing you need to know is that right now the U.S. government has no business cutting taxes. We need more revenue, not less.... So the message to middle-class taxpayers is, if you think you were helped by the tax cut, think again. Donald Trump and his allies pretended to give you a gift, but they gave themselves and their wealthy patrons much bigger gifts -- and they're going to stick you with the bill. You've been scammed."
Melanie Schmitz of ThinkProgress: "Equifax announced this week that a widespread hack last year may have affected [2.4 million] more people than originally thought.... The update brings the total number of consumers affected by the Equifax breach to approximately 148 million.... In addition to waiting weeks before announcing the hack, several top executives within the company -- including CFO John Gamble -- sold off hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stock ... shortly after the breach was discovered, earning a combined $1,780,000.... [T]he Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) later confirmed that the sales were not pre-planned." --safari
Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "In a surprising reversal, the struggling film studio co-founded by Harvey Weinstein has reached a deal to sell its assets to an investor group led by a former Obama administration official, the company said Thursday night. The deal to sell the Weinstein Co. to the investor group, led by former Small Business Administration head Maria Contreras-Sweet and billionaire Ron Burkle 'provides a clear path for compensation for victims and protects the jobs of our employees,' the film studio said in a statement. The Weinstein Co. has been struggling to stay afloat since reports emerged in October in the New York Times and the New Yorker detailing allegations of sexual abuse by co-founder Harvey Weinstein spanning decades. More than 70 women have since accused him of sexual misconduct, including rape."
Ha! Cindy Watts & Dave Paulson of the Tennessean: "Less than one day after his appointment was announced, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee resigned Thursday from the CMA Foundation board of directors after criticism from multiple members of the country music industry. 'I genuinely regret that some in the industry were so outraged by my appointment that they bullied the CMA and the Foundation with economic threats and vowed to withhold support for the programs for students if I remained,' Huckabee wrote in his letter of resignation.... The announcement follows pointed criticism from members of the country music industry, as well as fans -- much of it stemming from Huckabee's stance on LGBT issues."
Beyond the Beltway
Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Georgia lawmakers approved a bill on Thursday that stripped out a tax break proposal highly coveted by Delta Air Lines -- the most stinging punishment that America's pro-gun forces have leveled so far on one of the many corporations recalibrating their positions on firearms after the Florida high school massacre. The $50 million sales tax exemption on jet fuel that was sought by Delta, one of Georgia's biggest employers, had been included in a broader tax-relief bill. But this week, a number of Georgia Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, sought to remove the perk as retribution for Delta's decision to end a promotional discount for members of the National Rifle Association."
News Ledes
New York Times: "A fierce nor’easter toppled power lines, stranded thousands of travelers whose flights were canceled and inundated coastal roads with churning seawater on Friday. The storm’s effects were felt as far south as Georgia and as far north as Maine. In Rhode Island, the winds were so severe that officials shut down the Newport Bridge. In New York City, most flights were grounded for a time on Friday afternoon. And in the Washington suburbs, downed trees were strewn across the streets. More than 2,700 flights had been canceled and more than 1,700 delayed across the country on Friday, according to FlightAware, many at coastal airports in the storm's path. Amtrak suspended service along its Northeast Corridor and hundreds of thousands of people lost electricity. The National Weather Service warned of coastal flooding, dangerous storm surge and extraordinary winds, as well as snow and rain." It appears the Times is updating this story as events occur.
Hill: "Intense winds in the Washington area shuttered the federal government and several school districts on Friday as a powerful winter storm pounded the Northeast. Residents in the Washington region woke up Friday to howling winds, and the National Weather Service (NWS) issued forecasts of gusts of up to 70 miles per hour. The Office of Personnel Management, the federal agency charged with overseeing the government's civilian workforce, announced the government closure on its website Friday."
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