Nannycam Duties

White House Nursery:  On Saturday, just two days after he said that now “was the calm before the storm, Trump tweeted that 25 years of agreements with North Korea have failed “making fools of US negotiators…only one thing will work.”  Later in the day, when reporters asked him about his comment he ominously said “You’ll figure that out pretty soon.”  Sarah Huckabee Sanders who has gotten frighteningly good at backing Trump’s inane remarks then confirmed that “all options are still on the table before saying she had nothing further to add at this time.  Having raised the specter of nuclear war, Trump than moved on to a vitriolic series of tweets attacking his one-time supporter, Tennessee Senator Corker.  First he said that Corker, before announcing his decision not to run for reelection in 2018, had come to him begging for his endorsement and that when the endorsement was withheld,  he decided not to run because he “didn’t have the guts.”  Corker denies that account and asserts instead that Trump begged him to run; he responded to Trump’s tweets by saying that “it’s a shame the White House has become an adult day care center, someone obviously missed their shift this morning.”  Later in the day Corker added that Trump was “treating his office like a reality show with reckless threats towards other countries that could set the nation on the path to World War III …. He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”  Corker, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, may not be seeking reelection in 2018 but until then he will remain a powerful force in the Senate and a thorn in Trump’s side.  He’s already spoken out about his distaste for a tax reform plan that raises the deficit and will likely oppose Trump’s plans to decertify the Iran nuclear agreement.  More significantly, his willingness to talk truth to power could become contagious, hopefully very contagious.  Tillerson, one of those guys who seems to be infected by the Corker bug, is still hanging on and may stay in place through Trump’s upcoming China trip.  In the meantime, rumors abound that he will eventually be replaced by CIA Director Pompeo, an ardent Trump supporter, with Senator Cotton, another ardent supporter stepping into Pompeo’s CIA shoes. Cotton’s ascension to the cabinet would cost Trump some support in the Senate but would stack the cabinet providing additional protection against attempts at a 25^th Amendment removal over diminished mental capacity.  Trump could be planning ahead.    

Dreamless Nights:  Last night Trump proved once again that his word can’t be trusted by releasing a proposed immigration bill that protects the DACA Dreamers but includes provisions to eliminate funding for so-called sanctuary cities, cracks down on unaccompanied minor children crossing the border, eliminates family based immigration, and most significantly funds his border wall, the one that he promised would be paid for by Mexico.  The plan lets the Dreamers stay but does not provide them with a path to citizenship.  Nancy and Chuck are seething, they thought they had reached an agreement with Trump to protect the Dreamers in exchange for additional border security and a promise that he wouldn’t tie their salvation to wall funding. Nevertheless, there had been rumblings that Trump was backing off his promise in response to pressure from his anti-immigration cabal made up of advisor Stephen Miller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Senators Cotton and Perdue, the authors of the proposed RAISE Act that seeks to drastically curtail immigration, so the harsh plan shouldn’t be a surprise.  It’s not just Democrats who will find the proposal unacceptable, a number of Republicans will also oppose his plan, although, with some exceptions, their objections will be based more on the budget busting wall than the harsh immigration provisions. Moreover, although attacking sanctuary cities strikes a populist note, there are legal impediments that prevent local officials from coordinating immigration violations, which are civil offenses, with criminal actions, making the sanctuary city provision more populist kabuki theatre than practical reality.  With hurricane relief financing burning through cash, Trump will have to get back to Nancy and Chuck soon for another debt limit increase.  They may require future promises be written in blood and memorialized with a presidential seal.      

Racial Politics:  In addition to backtracking on his Dreamer promise, Trump and his team are going after Puerto Ricans and Football players.  During an interview with Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s father, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Governor, sometime presidential candidate, and now a talking head for Trinity Broadcasting, a Christian TV network, Trump once again attacked San Juan’s Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz for being a “lone negative voice” who isn’t a “capable person.”  He also talked about how much fun he had throwing those really soft paper towel rolls during his visit to Puerto Rico getting a chuckle from Huckabee who like his daughter has no problem serving as a conduit for Trump’s nonsense.  As an aside, Trump again said that he was really close to passing really great health care legislation, something that is important to him because he doesn’t want to be in the business of fixing someone’s knee or back anymore.  Trump also used the opportunity to distance himself from Harvey Weinstein’s gross behavior by saying that he wasn’t at all surprised about that Democrat Weinstein’s behavior but in no way could it be compared to his own history of misogyny which only consists of “locker room talk.”  Trump’s attitude towards Mayor Cruz is now the official administration line.  Yesterday, in response to Cruz’s complaints about a lack of responsiveness to another electrical failure that was putting more lives in jeopardy at a San Juan hospital, FEMA spokesperson Brock Long dismissed her by saying “we filtered out the mayor a long time ago, we don’t have time for her politics.”  White supremacists conducted a flash march in Charlottesville over the weekend, brandishing torches and chanting Jews will not replace us as they marched to the now shrouded statue of their hero Robert E Lee.  It doesn’t sound like that freedom of expression generated any White House concern, but football players expressing their protected First Amendment views about racial injustice remains  front and center.  VP Pence flew from Las Vegas to Indianapolis on the taxpayer’s dime ostensibly to watch his beloved Colts play the San Francisco 49ers and to see a ceremony honoring former quarterback Peyton Manning. In what appears to be a highly orchestrated performance, he left after the National Anthem was played because a number of 49ers “took a knee.”  Before jumping on a taxpayer funded flight to California, Pence said he left without seeing the game or Manning because he was disgusted but failed to mention that he left under orders from his exalted leader.  He got busted when Trump revealed that he had directed Pence to leave as soon as someone “took a knee,” an action that was fully expected.  A little more Trump reality programming.               

Russia, Russia, Russia:  Trump’s weekend antics may have been a reaction to the week’s Russia news. It turns out that Special Agent Mueller has already met with former 007 agent Christopher Steele and negotiations are underway for a follow-up meeting with the Senate’s Intelligence Committee.  Though Steele’s dossier can’t be used as evidence, it can be used as a roadmap to source material.  To that end it’s likely that Mueller has been seeking out original sources and is fact checking the disclosed information.  Yesterday, Senator Diane Feinstein, who just about confirmed that she is running for reelection, said that to the best of her knowledge much of  contents have already been verified.  One can only hope she is right.