The In-Law

The Son-in-Law:  The unnamed close Trump adviser who is under investigation in the Russia probe is none other than Jared Kushner, renaissance man.  Kushner is under FBI scrutiny but is not necessarily a suspect.  The FBI is focusing on his meetings with Ambassador Kislyak and a Russian banker and their interest may extend beyond collusion to possible financial matters, a focus that strikes fear in the hearts of major real estate magnates everywhere.  Kushner is in a different category than Manafort and Flynn who are formally considered “subjects under investigation.”  It’s not clear if Kushner will be able to continue in his roles as Middle East peacemaker, solver of the opioid crisis, and shadow Secretary of State.  It’s also not clear if he will be able to keep his security clearance or continue talking with his father-in-law.  Trump is in the process of setting up an internal war room operation to vigorously beat back any and all claims of Russian collusion.

NATO Meetings:  Boorish Trump is back.  At a ceremony dedicating a 9/11 memorial outside of NATO’s new headquarters, that also honored victims of the recent Manchester bombing, Trump lectured his fellow NATO leaders, calling them out as deadbeats for not fully meeting their financial commitments and omitting language that explicitly stated that the US would honor NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense pledge.  Prior presidents have pressured NATO members to increase their funding so Trump’s comments were not totally out of line, but his forceful delivery as part of the dedication were misplaced and not well received.  Given Putin’s expansionist rhetoric and Crimea land grab, NATO members, particularly those from the Baltic States, were anxious to hear Trump reaffirm the US commitment.  Later in the day Sean Spicer, who may be disembarking from the Trump train soon, cleaned up the Article 5 omission when he said that Trump is “fully committed to NATO’s  collective defense.” Ironically, to date, the only time that Article 5 was invoked was after the 9/11 attacks.  When the leaders lined up for a group photo, Trump shoved the leader of Montenegro, NATO’s newest member, out of the way as he jockeyed for a position in the center of the front row.  Maintaining good relations with strategic allies, not so important, but a photo-op is a photo-op. 

The Travel Ban:  The largely conservative Fourth Circuit Court refused to lift the injunction holding up Trump’s travel ban.  The court said that “when the government chooses sides on religious issues, the inevitable result is hatred, disrespect and even contempt towards those who fall on the wrong side of the line.”  In other words, if you spend your whole campaign calling for the banning of Muslims, it’s hard to convince the court that your travel ban is not just a veiled Muslim ban.  The ever persistent, somewhat xenophobic Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department will appeal the case to the Supreme Court.  

And the Winner Is:  With almost 75% of the votes already cast by mail, Wednesday night’s beat down of a Guardian reporter by Republican Greg Gianforte had no impact on the outcome of the Montana special congressional election,  As expected, Gianforte  beat his Democratic opponent, Rob Quist,  by about 7 percentage points.  His margin of victory was significantly  smaller than Trump’s twenty point lead in the presidential election which may be a harbinger of things to come in the 2018 mid-term elections.  During his victory speech Gianforte finally apologized for choking and slamming the reporter to the ground but it didn’t really sound sincere and it doesn’t look like he will face any significant penalty for his actions as Paul Ryan has already said that while trying to kill people, even members of the liberal press, is bad he is sure that Gianforte will fit right in with the rest of the Republican crowd in the House.  It will be interesting to see how Gianforte copes with the legion of reporters who will make it their job to provoke another violent response in the boisterous Congressional catacombs.     

New FBI Director: Former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman who had been Trump’s first choice to replace Comey as FBI Director has taken himself out of contention. Lieberman, who is of counsel at the same law firm as Marc Kasowitz, the lawyer retained by Trump to help him with the Russia investigation, said it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to be  FBI Director given his colleague’s role.  Trump had thought that Lieberman’s confirmation would be a bi-partisan slam dunk, but Democrats are still annoyed with Lieberman for endorsing McCain over Obama and for holding up Obamacare until a public option was dropped from the legislation so his confirmation had not been a sure thing.  Former FBI Agent Richard McFeely pulled himself out of contention last week.  Finding an acceptable candidate willing to take the Trump loyalty oath is complicated.