Both Sides Again

Amnesty Don:  Trump’s DACA dinner agreement with his good friends Nancy and Chuck provoked strong responses yesterday. Basically the right wing press is outraged that Trump is even talking to Nancy and Chuck and the idea that he would allow the DACA kids to stay, possibly with a path to citizenship, is beyond their worst fears.  They are also fixated on the wall and can’t envision life in the US without it.   Ann Coulter said “put a fork in Trump, he’s dead, if we’re not getting a wall I’d prefer President Pence.” Mark Levin called him a RINO (Republican in Name Only) and Rush Limbaugh asked “is he this ignorant?”  Last weekend Steve Bannon told 60 Minutes that allowing the DACA kids to stay in the country would alienate Trump’s base and lead to the destruction of the Republican party; he’s doing his best to make his prediction come true,  Breitbart News is now calling Trump Amnesty Don.  Trump has been all over the place. On the one hand he’s said that Nancy and Chuck’s assertion that he agreed to push for DACA legislation without requiring border wall funding wasn’t true, even though it probably was since he seems to want to make the DACA problem go away, desperately wants to pass some legislation and tweeted out “Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military? Really!...” Trump’s political committee is trying to reassure his base, they sent out an email that said “There’s been a lot of noise today… Let me set the record straight in the simplest language possible:  WE WILL BUILD A WALL.”   Later in the day, while flying home from a show of compassion in Florida, Trump dismissed wall concerns by claiming that it is already under construction citing ongoing projects including a wall renovation begun under Bush, another wall related project undertaken by Obama, and the building of prototypes as proof. He then went on to say that there will be massive border control and that the whole wall will eventually be built.  As upset as he is about Trump’s DACA pronouncements, Representative Steve King admitted that the jury is still out on how Trump’s base will react.  Majority Leader Ryan said that there was no agreement between Trump, Chuck and Nancy, just a “discussion, not a negotiation” but also said that he’s supportive of moving forward with legislation once terms are worked out between Trump and Republican leadership. McConnell, still annoyed that he missed out on egg rolls and spare ribs with Chuck and Nancy and unhappy with the Trump process, said that he was looking forward to receiving the administration’s proposal.  Despite McConnell’s dour demeanor, members of the Senate will likely be more supportive of a plan that solves the DACA dilemma than members of the House. For DACA kids the clock is ticking.

Smarmy Sessions:  The New York Times shed more light on the end of the Trump-Sessions bromance yesterday.  In May, upon learning that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had decided to appoint Special Counsel Mueller to run the Russia investigation, Trump exploded, blaming Sessions for his earlier decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, the worse decision ever made.  An out of control, livid Trump then called Sessions an idiot and asked for his resignation on the spot.  Later that day, Sessions submitted a formal resignation letter.  Trump wanted to accept it but didn’t because VP Pence, then Chief of Staff Priebus, and then strategist Bannon told him that firing Sessions in the aftermath of firing Comey would inspire even more backlash.  Later in the summer, Trump again threatened to fire Sessions, but was once again talked down by his advisors.  For his part the punctilious Sessions was humiliated by Trump’s theatrics but decided to stay on as Attorney General because killing the DACA program, banning Muslim immigrants, and increasing incarceration rates are his life dream.  Sessions can’t be happy that Trump’s flip flop on DACA could foil one of his dreams.

Both Sides Again:  Earlier this week Trump met with South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Republican African American currently serving in the Senate.  Senator Scott initiated the meeting to personally express his dismay about Trump’s Charlottesville response in the hope that he could educate Trump about the history of White supremacism.  His attempt to explain why neo-Nazis and KKK members are not “nice people” was not all that successful, yesterday in an Air Force One press gaggle Trump repeated his Charlottesville remarks, again blaming the violence and tragedy in Charlottesville on “both sides.”  Apparently, he’s been studying up on the Antifa movement or, more likely, watching a lot of Fox News, but no one at Fox told him that at Charlottesville the Antifa guys protected the counter protesters and stood guard outside of the local synagogue but didn’t kill anyone.  When he got home from Florida, Trump reluctantly signed the resolution condemning White supremacism that Congress passed earlier in the week, not because he has a problem with bigotry but because he had no choice.  Flying brings out Trump’s inner Chatty Cathy.  While on Air Force One he again attacked Senator McCain’s health care vote, holding him responsible for Bernie Sanders single payer plan.  He claimed that his still unformed tax reform plan, the one that will be released by the end of September, will be revenue neutral but only if the annual growth rate, currently around 3% or less goes to 4 or 5%.  He promised middle class tax cuts, dramatic corporate cuts, the repatriation of billions of corporate dollars from overseas and a possible increase in taxes on the wealthy, though he didn’t specify what counts as wealthy.  That last point about increasing taxes on the rich echoes a comment Steve Bannon made last month.  Bannon may be gone from the White House but he’s not forgotten.

Russia, Russia, Russia:   Jason Maloni, former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s spokesman, is scheduled to testify in front of Mueller’s grand jury about Manafort’s business practices today.  It’s not clear what he knows but Manafort can’t be happy that he’s been called.  Later this month, Roger Stone, Trump’s on again, off again advisor and confidante is scheduled to testify in front of a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee. The dramatic, eccentric Stone wanted to testify in public but with Representative Nunes serving as its chair the House Committee already has one public drama queen too many.

International Affairs:  Despite, or maybe because of the new sanctions that were passed by the UN Security Council, Pyongyang launched another ballistic missile last night, this one flew over Hokkaido an island in the northern part of Japan.  Intelligence had revealed test site activity so the launch was anticipated.  Secretary Tillerson responded with a strong statement and the UN will be meeting later today to discuss a response to the launch.  Trump is also focused on the Iran nuclear agreement which he hates. He had been considering re-imposing sanctions on Iran in violation of the terms of the agreement, however instead, after Cabinet officials and aides convinced him that scuttling the deal would damage alliances and free Iran to proceed with its nuclear ambitions, he decided to keep it alive, at least for now, but he is likely to press for additional actions against Iran soon.  Trump also is planning to travel to Asia in a month or so to visit China, South Korea, and his good friend President Duterte of the Philippines.  Jared and Ivanka were supposed to go to China first to lay the groundwork for his visit.  However, their plans have been cancelled because someone in the administration, possibly Chief of Staff Kelly, has decided that given Ivanka’s clothing line, Jared’s ongoing search for real estate financing and involvement in the Russia investigation, not to mention their lack of applicable experience, they are not the right people for that job.