London Bridges

London Bridges:  Trump squandered another opportunity to appear diplomatic and compassionate.  With London reeling from another terrorist attack, he picked a fight with Mayor Sadiq Khan, attacked the UK’s strict gun control and promoted his travel ban. He tweet smacked Mayor Khan for telling Londoners that “there’s no reason to be alarmed” when he missed or intentionally ignored that the Mayor’s full remarks were that “Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days.  There’s no reason to be alarmed.”  Instead of staying silent on his gun views or at least acknowledging how much worse the terrorist rampage would have been if the assailants had brandished Uzis instead of knives, he pushed the NRA narrative and dissed the UK’s strict gun control laws. Then, he further handicapped his own Justice Department lawyers who have been arguing that his travel ban is not a Muslim ban by calling for the immediate reinstatement of the ban to protect the US from marauding Muslims from the countries that haven’t been exporting terrorism. The acting US Ambassador to London, a career civil servant who will probably be recalled immediately, tried to clean up after Trump’s gaffes by expressing condolences and praising Khan’s extraordinary response to the crisis.  Other world leaders, including Trump’s sometime BFF Putin, expressed solidarity and sent condolences.  Master strategist and troll, Putin also found time to tell NBC’s Megyn Kelly that the CIA was responsible for US election interference and that he didn’t know former security adviser Mike Flynn was Trump’s right hand guy, even though he arranged for him to fly to Russia for their dinner tete-a-tete.

Paris Fallout:  Trump continues to draw heat, literally and figuratively, about his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords.  Critics were out in force on all the Sunday morning talk shows.  Former VP Al Gore, who has made environmental advocacy and climate change his cause since leaving government, said that Trump’s action was reckless and indefensible and that “rather than trying to recreate the 19^th century and paint a picture of a past that is gone, we need leadership to gear America for the 21^st century.”  A very frustrated Former Secretary of State John Kerry compared Trump to OJ Simpson saying that Trump’s statement that he is going to find a better climate deal is “like OJ Simpson saying he’s going to go find the real killer.  Everybody knows he isn’t going to do that because he doesn’t believe in it….if he did believe in it he wouldn’t pull out of Paris.”  Kerry went on to say that Trump is ceding world leadership. Secretary of State Tillerson might agree. Tillerson, who supported the Paris Accords, was nowhere to be seen this weekend.  Instead, EPA Head Pruitt, a darling of the ultra-conservative billionaire Koch Brothers, oil refinery and pipeline owners who heavily lobbied against the Paris Accords, assumed the role that would ordinarily fall to a secretary of state.  He was out defending Trump’s decision and refusing to say whether or not Trump believes in climate science.  Playing clean-up again, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said that Trump does believes in climate change, just doesn’t like the terms of the accords, and then tried to provide assurance that he will continue to support the environment.  She smiled too much and her credibility is waning faster than Antarctica ice floes.

Upcoming Testimony:  Former FBI Director Comey is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday morning and the White House is getting increasingly nervous about what he will say.  So far, White House lawyers haven’t figured out a way to quietly kneecap him but they still have a few days to try to throw a wrench at him. It’s not just Comey’s testimony that’s potentially problematic. On Wednesday, before Must See Comey TV, NSA Director Michael Rogers is due to testify and Atlantic Magazine has suggested that he too “may have a bomb to drop” on the Trump administration.   In the meantime, with no real budget or tax reform progress and health care legislation stuck in Senate quicksand the Trump team will try to divert attention from all the testimony by announcing a trillion dollar infrastructure plan.  Like the earlier tax reform reveal, the infrastructure plan is likely to be long on dramatic ideas like privatizing roads and air traffic control and short on details but it will give Trump and his surrogates something other than Russia to talk about.  It has even been suggested that Trump might head to London to personally express condolences but that seems farfetched, given his tweet storm, Thursday’s UK general elections, and his compulsive need to berate European allies.        

Staffing is Complicated Too:  Trump is having a hard time filling key positions in the White House and across the various departments.  He still hasn’t announced a nominee to serve as FBI Director and reports are that he mostly talks about himself during “chaotic” interviews.  No doubt his request for undying loyalty is making it difficult for qualified candidates to sign on.  The White House Communications Director job is generally considered a plumb assignment, but none of the four people who have been approached to replace Director Mike Dubke, who resigned for “family reasons,” are interested in the job.  Even George Conway,  Kellyanne’s husband, who was supposed to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Division, has taken his name out of consideration.  He may have serious reservations about putting all the family financial eggs in the Trump basket.  The Conways just bought a house in Washington, D.C. so this is a recent change in plans.   Late last night, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar over Qatar’s support for Iran.  The US maintains a strategic base in Qatar and in the past has mediated regional disputes.  However, the understaffed State Department currently lacks the regional experts who usually take the lead in this process.  Qatar may be in the Middle East but it falls outside of Kushner’s wheelhouse and he is currently occupied by other pressing personal issues.    

The Republican Wall:  Republican leadership continues to stand by Trump, but a few Senators are starting to part ways on key issues.  Missouri Senator Roy Blunt said that Trump can do the extreme vetting thing if he wants but doesn’t see the need for a travel ban.  Maine Senator Susan Collins said that the “travel ban is too broad” which is why it has been “rejected by the courts.”   North Carolina Senator Burr said he sees little chance of passing health care legislation this year and Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander actually suggested bolstering Obamacare for now by saying “we might have to do some things we normally wouldn’t do in order to keep premiums as low as we can and to make sure Americans can buy insurance.”  Despite Alexander’s comments Trump insists that Trumpcare passage is imminent.