Trump Doth Protest Too Much

The Road Trip:  Trump’s first day in Israel went largely according to plan.  He was warmly welcomed at the airport where Bibi managed to keep his ministers in line.  Trump visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre before moving on to the Western Wall for a prayer moment and  photo-op.  He pressed the Israelis to seek peace with the Palestinians and promised that his new very good friend Saudi King Salman would invite Israel to a sword dance as soon as a peace agreement is reached.  Today Trump took his pitch to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.  In the aftermath of last night’s horrific Manchester attack, he began his speech by expressing solidarity with England and the bombing victims.  Reflecting the audience and McMaster’s ban on using inflammatory words to describe terrorists,  he called the bombers losers, a significant step down from what he really wanted to say.  If all goes according to Trump’s plan, a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement will be signed by Friday because negotiating a beautiful Middle East peace is very, very easy.  Trump did experience two small hiccups yesterday. First, Melania refused to hold his hand after they disembarked from Air Force One because hand holding is not covered in their post-nup.  Second, he inadvertently confirmed that he did betray Israel’s intelligence to the Russians by blurting out that he “never mentioned the word or the name Israel” when he gave Lavrov and Kislyak Israel’s top secret intelligence.  “They’re all saying I did, so you have another story wrong.”  Intelligence officials from Israel and the US are now looking for ways to share information without bringing Trump into the loop.

Flynn and Friends:  Monday was not a good day for former security adviser Flynn.  First he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by refusing to provide any of the documents that have been subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee. As a result, he now faces the risk of being held in contempt by Congress.  Later in the day, Representative  Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, released information showing that Flynn lied to the Pentagon when he failed to disclose the source of his Russian income and his contact with Putin during his security clearance renewal.  Unlike Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and erstwhile Trump friend Roger Stone have both provided their information to the Senate Committee. 

Trump Doth Protest Too Much:  Trump continues to act like a guy with something to hide.  It turns out that former FBI Director Comey isn’t the only intelligence professional he tried to obstruct.  He also asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and Director of the NSA Admiral Michael Rogers to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of Russian collusion and to use their influence to get Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.  Both of them refused to comply with Trump’s “inappropriate” request and Rogers, like Comey, wrote a memo to the files about it.  Trump is close to hiring a whole team of lawyers to represent him as he responds to the Russia “witch hunt.”  He also may rehire his first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski and his deputy campaign manager, David Bossie to serve as crisis managers for all things related to the Russian investigation.  

What Party Line:  A number of Republicans are starting to distance themselves from the Trump party line. Governor Christie, who ran Trump’s transition team before being summarily fired and replaced by Mike Pence, threw shade at both Flynn and Trump by saying that he had made it clear to then President-elect Trump that Flynn didn’t belong anywhere near the White House.  UN Ambassador Nikki Haley who has already shown that she has no problem speaking truth, actually expressed her support for the Russian investigation and said that she would do her best to reassure US partners in the Middle East that their secrets remain safe with the Trump administration despite his tendency to accidentally release confidential information.  Haley is on her first international trip and may find Lewandowski blocking her reentry when she tries to return home.

The Swamp:  Trump ran on the promise that he would “drain the swamp” and bragged about the strict rules he would impose to limit lobbyists from moving in and of government.  Instead he has provided waivers to a record number of industry lobbyists to facilitate their placement in agencies and departments where they are now disassembling the rules and regulations they lobbied against.  Unlike Obama, who also provided a few waivers,  Trump is refusing to make his waiver list public by pushing back against requests from the Office of Government Ethics and outside watchdog groups.

The End of Compassion:  Trump’s budget proposal is due to be released today.  Budget Director Mulvaney calls it a “taxpayer first” budget since it prioritizes taxpayers over benefit recipients and dispenses with “compassion.”  Despite Mulvaney’s preferences, it leaves most of Social Security and Medicare alone but, as expected, slashes Medicaid, arts, science, disease prevention, education, and social programs while beefing up defense, homeland security and the wall.  The budget which is only a starting point, assumes that Trumpcare is passed.  On Wednesday when the revised Trumpcare scoring report is released we will learn even more about the end of compassion.   

Thoughts go out to everyone in Manchester.