Trump Obsession 

Crowd Obsession:  Together with a contingent of Cabinet Secretaries and an oddly spike heeled Melania, Trump traveled to Corpus Christie, Texas to view the Hurricane Harvey disaster.  He didn’t really get to see the extent of the catastrophe because Corpus Christie isn’t as devastated as the Houston area however, his decision to stay away from Houston was wise, there is no point in diverting strained resources for a publicity tour.  He probably should have stayed home all together but since presidents tend to show up in the middle of disasters to lend support, promise help and improve their ratings his visit wasn’t out of the norm. However, Trump’s obsession with crowd size distinguishes him from his predecessors.  Instead of hugging a displaced person or two or expressing any compassion for the suffering, he excitedly described the storm as the biglyest ever, said that the whole world is really impressed with the stellar way that the Trump led Federal government and Texas are dealing with Harvey’s aftermath and then looked around and commented on the size of the boisterous crowd of flag waving Texans that had been trucked in to celebrate his arrival. Trump is really stressing over crowd size these days.  Still smarting from his smaller than Obama inauguration crowd, he had a fit over the anemic attendance and empty seats at last week’s Phoenix campaign rally and fired long term aid George Gigicos, the contractor responsible for failing to fill the room. In addition to Melania, Trump’s traveling squad included HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Small Business Administration Head Linda McMahon, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, and the new FEMA Head Brock Long, who Trump noted “has really become famous on television” due to all the storm coverage.  Long should start watching his back, Trump hates it when his appointees get favorable press.  Trump flew Carson, McMahon, Price and Long out to talk about how each department would contribute to Harvey relief and reconstruction without noting that his budget plan calls for slashes in all of their programs.  Before anyone in Texas receives funding, Trump will have to get an authorization through Congress, just one more thing on his September to do list.  Historically, some Republican legislators have been particularly stingy with regard to disaster relief funding, requiring offsets to other budgetary items.  This time around, the Texas contingent is likely to be more cooperative than usual, but some of the other budget hawks reside outside of the Harvey impact area so despite the extent of the destruction, getting all the promised funding isn’t a slam dunk and could complicate passage of debt ceiling and budget legislation.  Trump’s wall money may end up funding a Houston sewer or two.

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Special Counsel Mueller has subpoenaed former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s public relations person, Jason Maloni and one of his former lawyers, Melissa Laurenza from Akin Gump.  Maloni, the PR guy, has been told to send over all of his Manafort related documents going back as far as 2000, which is excessively comprehensive because he only started working for Manafort in March.  He will also be appearing before Mueller’s grand jury.  The Laurenza subpoena is unusual, going after someone’s lawyer is an aggressive tactic intended to increase pressure and it raises questions about lawyer-client privilege.  It’s fair to say that the noose is tightening around Paul Manafort.  Separately, the Senate Judiciary committee has finally reached a deal with Don Jr, he is now scheduled to testify before a closed meeting of the panel.  He will need the practice, the intelligence committees want to speak with him too.  Not everyone in Congress is happy about Mueller’s methodical investigation.  Florida congressman Ron DeSantis plans to introduce legislation that would halt funding for Mueller’s probe six months after the amendment’s passage.  It would also limit Mueller’s investigation to events that occurred after June 2015, a not so subtle way of trying to keep Mueller away from Trump’s business activities and personal finances.  DeSantis’ legislation won’t go anywhere, but if things don’t work out in Congress, he could consider applying for a position at the White House.  Vanity Fair reports that Jared and Ivanka, also known as Javanka, are planning to return to New York in 2018.  Kushner’s departure would open up a dozen or more positions including Middle East peace negotiator where much remains to be done.  Kushner is just back from his most recent visit to the region and it doesn’t look like he has managed to move either side closer to a resolution.   

Missile Response:  Yesterday morning Trump finally responded to Pyongyang’s most recent missile launch by saying that “all options are on the table,” whatever that means. The reality is that there are few viable options and Trump is still hoping that China will “fix” the North Korea problem, but instead of immediately condemning North Korea for its missile launch, China again called for the removal of the THAAD missile defense system that the US deployed to protect South Korea. China blames the presence of the system for destabilizing the region. To the extent that it matters, the UN did issue a condemnation. Bottom line is that at least for now, the scary stalemate continues.   

Transgender Ban:   Secretary of Defense Mattis has frozen Trump’s transgender ban.  He announced that transgender people currently serving in the military will be allowed to continue while he impanels a committee of experts to conduct a study on the their impact on military preparedness.  After his experts complete their review Mattis will provide his advice to Trump “concerning implementation of his policy direction.”   Mattis may be hoping that Trump is long gone before his panel’s results are in, but sadly that probably wouldn’t put an end to the transgender ban.  VP Pence is hardly enlightened.  For now, the policy of not allowing transgender recruits will stand unless suits already filed by both the Human Rights Campaign and the ACLU prevail.