The Harasser in Chief

Locker Room Talk:  While one epic harasser was being held responsible for his actions, another one played golf with Senators Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham, two of his many enablers, while his team hit the Sunday news shows providing conflicting explanations and justifications for his foreign policy and health care decisions.   Secretary Tillerson, who still won’t deny calling Trump a moron, but who couldn’t let Senator Corker’s assertion that he’d been castrated stand assured CNN’s Tapper that he was intact, before optimistically saying that he expects US allies around the world to be “very supportive” of the Trump administration’s efforts to rework the Iran nuclear agreement.  He made that remark even though UK Prime Minister May, German Chancellor Merkel and French President Macron said they stood committed to the agreement “and its full implementation by both sides,” pointing out that it was the “culmination of 13 years of diplomacy.”  Tillerson confirmed that Iran was in technical compliance with the nuclear pact but said that now is the time to address Iran’s other aggressive actions particularly their intercontinental missile program, because we don’t want to be in a position where Iran turns into the next North Korea.  Tillerson also said that a secondary agreement is a possibility, something that Macron had earlier mentioned proposing to Trump and that Iran had recently said they would consider or at least pretend to discuss.  To date it’s not clear that Trump considers a secondary agreement an acceptable approach.  Tillerson, whose efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the North Korea stand-off have been ridiculed by Trump, not so reassuring promised that “Those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.” Tillerson also said that Trump has made it clear to him that he doesn’t want to go to war. It would probably make sense for Trump to say that loudly and clearly because that’s not how Pyongyang is interpreting things.  Another round of US-South Korea military exercises off the Korean Peninsula begin this week. Despite US assertions that the drills are defensive in nature, Pyongyang views them as threatening and claims they are rehearsals for a US-led invasion.   UN Ambassador Haley, who enthusiastically encouraged Trump’s decision to refuse to recertify, also said that the hope is to stay in the Iran agreement adding that the agreement was just an incentive to convince Iran to stop doing certain things, they haven’t stopped doing certain other things, so now “what do we do to make Iran more accountable?” Haley’s answer is that Trump will be working “very closely with Congress to try and come up with something that is more proportionate.”  She said that knowing that Trump hasn’t managed to do much of anything with Congress and neglecting to mention that whatever they do, to be effective, they will need allied support.  She ended by saying the “whole reason we are looking at this Iran agreement is because of North Korea,” a situation we are trying to avoid with Iran.  Her point is well taken, unfortunately North Korea is likely looking at the rejection of the Iran deal as an indicator of what would happen if they ever stepped to the table to negotiate.  Security adviser McMaster, one of the proponents of recertifying the Iran deal, also supported Trump’s decision to push it back to Congress for a fix, now saying that it’s a “weak deal that’s being weakly monitored.”  He asserted that our allies would be fully supportive of better monitoring and inspections but avoided addressing whether they would support opening the deal to cover issues beyond Iran’s nuclear program.

Emergency Care:  By killing the Obamacare insurance subsidy payments, Trump has pushed Obamacare back to the front of the ever growing list of things that Congress needs to address.  Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray are expected to introduce their plan as soon as they can agree to what’s in their plan and Republican Senator Ron Johnson is expected to introduce a more conservative plan that will likely push for major concessions as a condition for reinstating the payments something that won’t fly with Democrats Nancy and Chuck.  Senator Collins, the last of the moderate Republicans, has decided not to run for governor of her home state, Maine, because she feels that her Republican counterparts, need her to stick around to prevent them from more destructive actions.  Speaking in her usual measured tone, Collins said that “I don’t agree with his (Trump’s) decision on the subsidies that help low-income people afford their deductibles and co-pays,” though it’s likely she was thinking why won’t this moron just stop screwing around with health care.  Obamacare subsidies aren’t the only thing on the table.  Congress still hasn’t renewed CHIP, the popular children’s health care program, which is now hanging by a thread and despite Trump’s assertion that he was declaring the opioid addiction epidemic a national emergency, he’d done nothing to put his words into action, unless you count his selection of Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino as his drug Czar a productive action.  Marino, is known for being the opioid industry’s advocate in Congress, he supported legislation preventing limitations on the monitoring and shipment of opioids.  Another case of draining the swamp?   

Mr. Outside:  Steve Bannon who is proving to be more damaging outside of the White House than he was when he was inside under the watchful eye of Chief of Staff Kelly spoke at the Christian Conservative Values Summit over the weekend.  He continued to call for a war against main stream Republicans, and by Republicans he means the “imperial political class” let by his nemesis Senator Mitch McConnell.  He threatened McConnell by saying that “up on Capitol Hill, it’s like the Ides of March.  They’re just looking to find out who is going to be Brutus to your Julius Caesar.  We’ve cut your oxygen off, Mitch.  Bannon, who takes credit for former Judge Roy Moore winning the Republican nomination for Senate in Alabama, is looking for more like-minded candidates to support.  So far he’s lined up Staten Island’s former Congressman Grimm who was just released from jail and billionaire soldier of fortune Erik Prince.  Grimm, who was in jail for financial improprieties, will fit in well with Moore, it was just revealed that Moore was receiving $180,000 annually in undisclosed payments from his foundation for Moral Law.  For his part, Mr. Inside, Donald J. Trump, will be meeting with Senator McConnell today to discuss Senate priorities and how to even begin to do all the things that they need to do before the end of the year.  Nancy and Chuck who are likely to complicate any plans by threatening a government shutdown if things don’t go their way on DACA, subsidy payments, tax reform and wall funding aren’t invited but VP Pence will be sitting in to keep things on an even keel and to supervise group prayer. Before sitting down, McConnell should check the closets and under the desk for signs of Brutus.