Pittsburgh over Paris

Paris is Burning Mad:  In a highly orchestrated Rose Garden presentation, Trump announced that he is withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement.  After first detailing all of his “impressive” successes, Trump launched into a dark, cynical view of how the agreement benefits all other participating nations at the expense of the US adding that the rest of the world is laughing at us for agreeing to such a massive redistribution of US wealth. He may be right about the laughing, but he is wrong about the reason. He cited discredited studies, bad science and phony economic analysis to justify his decision and said the time had come to choose Pittsburgh over Paris.  Immediately after the speech, the Mayor of Pittsburgh hit back at Trump tweeting that “we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future.”  Tesla’s Elon Musk and Disney’s Robert Iger quit Trump’s advisory councils and low profile Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein slammed Trump with his first ever tweet saying “today’s decision is a setback for the environment and for the US’s leadership position in the world.”  California Governor Jerry Brown announced that he is heading to China to further California’s climate goals and twenty-nine others states expressed plans to stick with the accord’s goals.  Withdrawal from the Paris accords is a four year process and Trump left open the possibility of negotiating better terms but France, Germany and Italy responded by saying that the Agreement cannot be renegotiated. Last night, after tweeting that the US has turned its back on the world, French President Macron gave a speech in English, directed at Trump, where he said that France and the rest of the world will step up to protect the planet with or without him.  Ivanka who reportedly fought hard for staying in the Agreement did not attend the Rose Garden reveal.  So much for the moderating influence of the first daughter and the rest of the New York contingent.    

Sanctions Relief Ambitions:  Before leaving office, Obama punished Russia for meddling in the US elections by imposing economic sanctions, kicking out Russian spies, and taking over Russia’s Maryland and New York compounds. These sanctions were in addition to those previously imposed for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Thursday it was reported that Trump had planned to unilaterally rescind all of these sanctions almost immediately after taking office, without seeking any Russian concessions.  Career State Department staffers blocked Trump’s plans by giving a heads up to Senate supporters who hastily introduced legislation requiring Senate approval for any sanction relief.  Trump’s plan for immediate sanction relief were further impeded when Mike Flynn was forced to resign for “lying” to VP Pence about his conversation with Russian Ambassador Kislyak and by the investigations into Russian election meddling and Trump team collusion that followed.  Nevertheless Trump is still trying to move forward, first by giving the confiscated Maryland and New York properties back to Russia. To make the property return appear less controversial Trump’s team asked the Russians to grant permission to go forward with long blocked plans to build a St. Petersburg US consular facility.  The Russians have rejected that request but Trump still plans to go forward with the turnover of the Maryland and New York compounds.  New York Representative Eliot Engel is now on record saying what the rest of us are thinking:  Engel “can’t help but ask if Trump is now starting to pay back the Kremlin for criminally hacking the election in his favor.”

Patriotic Russian Hackers Did It:  For his part, Putin is having a hard time keeping his responsibility for Russian election meddling quiet.  On Thursday, he said that it was quite possible that patriotic Russian hackers who woke up in the morning feeling inspired might have been behind the hacking of the DNC emails.  By patriotic hackers he means Kremlin directed computer experts.  Notably, Putin initially denied that the Russian military had any involvement in the annexation of Crimea instead blaming the Crimea invasion on vacationing Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian equivalent of patriotic hackers. It’s only a matter of time before Putin fully fesses up to Kremlin interference in the election. No doubt he will beat Trump to the punch.   

Another Undisclosed Kislyak-Klatch :  Congressional investigators and the FBI are looking into another possible meeting between Russian Ambassador Kislyak, Attorney General Sessions, and Jared Kushner.  All three attended an event at the Mayflower Hotel in April 2016 during the presidential campaign.  The FBI is reviewing intelligence reports that the three had a private meeting at some point during the event.  Notably Sessions did not report this meeting during his Senate confirmation hearings, neither did he report it when he amended his testimony to include other previously undisclosed Kislyak meetings.  Kushner did not report this meeting on his security clearance forms. Kushner’s meeting with VneshEconomBank head Sergey Gorkov continues to raise questions as well.  Kushner and Gorkov give different reasons for the meeting with Kushner saying that it was just a “general and inconsequential meeting” and Gorkov saying it was related to loan “negotiations.” Fifty-two House Democrats sent White House Counsel McGahn a letter demanding that Kushner’s security clearance be revoked in order to protect national security.  No comment from McGahn.

Travel Ban Appeal:  Last night the Trump administration filed two emergency applications asking the Supreme Court to revive its ninety day, six country Muslim travel ban.  It’s been far longer than ninety days since the original ban was issued, haven’t the stricter visa screening procedures already been put in place?

The Embassy Stays Put: Despite his promise to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on “day one” of his presidency, Trump is following in the footsteps of previous US presidents.  Yesterday, with all attention focused on the Paris Agreement withdrawal, he signed a waiver pushing the decision to move the embassy off for another six months.