The Trump Doppelganger

Dave Trump:  Looks like the White House took a page from the movie Dave, replacing @realDonaldTump with Dave Trump for the Saudi Arabia leg of the Three Religion Tour.  A day after receiving a beautiful solid gold medal and enjoying himself in a ceremonial sword dance, “Dave” Trump gave a somewhat thoughtful speech to the Saudis and a group of dignitaries from other Muslim nations.  He stuck with the teleprompter text and managed not to condemn the whole Muslim faith or use the words radical Islamic terrorism. He didn’t mention the Muslim travel ban but then the Saudis who export radical Wahabism aren’t effected by the illogical ban anyway.  The speech, written by  Steven Miller, the automaton who also wrote Trump’s anti-Muslim campaign diatribes, sounded like it had been  heavily edited by national security adviser McMaster who has been working on banning Islamic terrorism from the Trump vernacular.  Except for the omission of any reference to the sorry state of human rights in the region, the Trump speech could have been delivered by Obama or Clinton. The Tweeter-in-Chief was supposed to follow his big speech with an informal one at a twitter forum, but by then someone must have told him that he has to turn his gold medal over to the Smithsonian when he gets home because he bagged the speech part, turning his duties over to favorite daughter, Ivanka.

The Kushner Effect:  Before leaving Washington, Jared Kushner, who may or may not be a person of interest in the Russia investigation, used his influence to shave a few hundred million off the price of a landmark $110 billion sale of “beautiful” US military equipment to the Saudis.  In exchange, the Saudis committed $100 million to a women’s empowerment fund that Ivanka is promoting together with the World Bank.  Ivanka had been planning to take an active role in the fund until it was pointed out that her father had spent a large part of his campaign bashing Hillary’s involvement in the Clinton Foundation as a massive conflict of interest.  The Saudi contribution was announced at a meeting on women’s issues between Ivanka and fifteen prominent Saudi women, all of whom were only able to attend because they had obtained permission slips and rides from their fathers or husbands.   

McMaster Doubles Down:  The Trump squad was mostly busy with trip plans but McMaster managed to find time to discuss Trump’s controversial Oval Office “Lavrov/Kislyak” meeting again, this time with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. McMaster didn’t deny that Trump had called former FBI Director Comey a nut job but said that the insult was taken out of context, though he didn’t try to explain when it would be appropriate to insult your FBI director in a conversation with Russian adversaries. He added that because Trump was trying to find areas of cooperation with the Russians there was no point in bringing up their interference in the 2016 elections. The once highly respected McMaster has moved over to the dark side.  To avoid any more tough questions, US correspondents were excluded from the White House Riyadh press conference.       

Next Stop Israel:  The Israel phase of the Trump trip is likely to be a little more challenging than the highly orchestrated Saudi portion.  Trump’s trip coordinators have shortened today’s planned airport welcoming reception allegedly because of the heat.  Either Trump has heard that Israeli AC isn’t up to Saudi standards or he has already become unmanageable and his affable doppelganger “Dave” is long gone which doesn’t bode well for Trump’s unrealistic peace aspirations.  Netanyahu is now trying to persuade his ministers, who are already annoyed by the schedule change, the intelligence leak, the refusal to acknowledge Israel’s control of the Western Wall, the size of the Saudi arms sale, the Iran nuclear deal and Trump’s reneging on his campaign promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem, to show up at the airport meet and greet.  As Trump should know by now, Democracies are a little harder to manage than Kingdoms.  Soon enough he will learn that three Israelis at a negotiating table will result in at least four views.  Trump’s trip to the ancient Masada fortress has been cancelled because Israel no longer allows helicopters to land on the ruin’s fragile surface and, unlike his predecessors Bush and Clinton, Trump doesn’t do cable cars.  Trump and Ivanka do still plan a private visit to the Western Wall.  Wonder what prayer will be on the slip of paper he leaves in the Wall?  A call for world peace or something more personal like a call for the end of the Russia investigations?  Tomorrow Trump meets with Palestinian leader Abbas in Bethlehem to broker his “bigger and better” peace deal.

On the Homefront:  Reince Priebus left early to return to Washington, either because he is about to be replaced or because someone has to interview Trump defense counsel candidates and help with the roll-out of Trump’s budget proposal.  Last night, the Washington Post reported that Trump’s budget plan takes another large chunk out of Medicaid and will also seek large reductions in a number of other social safety net programs including SNAP (food stamp) payments.      

Pence at Notre Dame:  Mike Pence gave a few commencement addresses this weekend including one at Notre Dame.  Approximately one hundred graduating students stood up and walked out during his speech, protesting Pence’s views and policies “that target the most vulnerable among us.”  A preview, perhaps, of what Trump will hear when he visits the Pope later this week?      

Calista and Newt:  Last summer, Seth Rich, a DNC staff member was murdered on his way home from work in what appears to have been a random act of violence.  A number of right wing conspiracy theorists claim that Rich was killed because he, not the Russians, had leaked the DNC emails to WikiLeaks.  Local police and the FBI have denied that there is any truth to this nonsense and Rich’s family has spoken out against the “harmful speculation.”  None of this stopped Newt Gingrich from advancing the “fake news” story on Sunday morning’s Fox & Friends show in an effort to detract from the investigation into Russia meddling and Trump team collusion. Gingrich was just trying to show his appreciation to Trump for appointing his wife Calista as Ambassador to the Vatican.