Mensa Calling?

Fredo Trump:   Ignoring advice that the best way to limit interest in Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury book would have been to pretend it was a nothing burger, Trump instead attacked the book and its contents head on, driving sales through the roof and causing Wolff to ask whether Trump wanted his box of “thank you” chocolates sent to Mar a Lago or Washington. It’s not clear what bothered Trump most about the book, the suggestion that he is stupid, the comments that so many White House insiders made about his mental state and declining capabilities, or the suggestion that his son had committed treason.  Off to Camp David to strategize, Trump tweeted out a lengthy diatribe reminding us all that he went to a the best college and is like, really, smart, and just in case, we hadn't gotten the message, he managed to squeeze in reminders that Hillary is really crooked and that there was no collusion, but if there was it would be okay because he's can collude if he wants to.  He followed up with a press conference where he was surrounded by a largely white male cohort of Republican legislators and selected cabinet members, with the new Home Land Security Secretary, the sole woman, standing off to the side and without elfin Sessions who was left home amidst rumors that he's on his way out, possibly to be replaced by EPA head Scott Pruitt, who having despoiled the environment is ready to move on to wreaking havoc at Justice.  At the press conference, Trump, the man of few coherent sentences, threw off the same staccato words that he had earlier tweeted.  In addition to defending his intellect, he attacked the Wolff book as a work of fiction, by a disgraced author brought into the White House by the newly nicknamed “Sloppy Steve” Bannon, an accurate but strangely benign moniker.  Trump also took a stab at the First Amendment, saying that if it were up to him the libel laws would be much stronger so that he could throw his critics and the members of the Fake Press into jail or at the very least sue them into oblivion.

Sunday Follies:  With his threatened lawsuit against the author and publisher of Fire and Fury off the table, Trump sent some sidekicks on to the Sunday talk shows to defend his mental state and to attack Wolff. Stevie Miller, the robotic onetime Sessions and Bannon sidekick who now stands alone defending the country from hordes of marauding murderous immigrants got shut down by CNN's Jake Tapper when he ranted instead of responding to Tapper's questions.  Before Miller got cut off he called the book a “grotesque work of fiction” by a garbage writer, Bannon vindictive and CNN a “purveyor of negative anti-Trump hysterical coverage. Miller had to be escorted off the premises.  Tapper, who had accused him of playing to an audience of one, was proven right after Trump tweeted that “Jake Tapper of Fake News CNN just got destroyed by Stephen Miller.” CIA Director Pompeo was more composed as he assured Fox News’ Chris Wallace that despite his preference for picture books, Trump does know how to read.  While Pompeo and Miller were trying to defend Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham was on Meet the Press, trying to explain his new found Trump love and defending his decision to join Senator Grassley, the Republican Chair of the Judiciary Committee, in sending a request to the Department of Justice to consider criminal charges against Christopher Steele, the guy who put together the dossier on Trump's Russian adventures. That request was sent without the approval or knowledge of the Democratic members of the committee.   Graham seems to have forgotten that it was his mentor, John McCain who first passed the dossier to the FBI because of his concerns that its contents were spot on.  Graham and Grassley are accusing Steele of misrepresenting conversations with European press outlets though they are being squirrelly about what exactly provoked their ire.  It’s not clear that Steele has done anything wrong, and in any case, its highly likely that Special Counsel Mueller and the FBI already know what he did or didn’t do.  Graham did express belief that the Russians were up to no-good during the 2016 election, and said that he supports Mueller, however, he also called for a special counsel to investigate the FBI.  As to Sloppy Bannon, he is really feeling the pain, so much so that on Sunday he issued an apology of sorts, saying that though he called Don Jr's meeting with the Russian lawyer treasonous, he didn't mean that it was Don Jr who was committing treason, rather he meant to malign only Paul Manafort. However, he does stand behind any disparaging comments he made about Jared and Ivanka.  Bannon isn't just sloppy, he's desperate, faced with the loss of financial support from his billionaire Mercer buddies, he's groveling, trying to get himself back into Trump's good graces or at least off of his sh-t list. Oh and poor Hillary, not only isn't she president, but the Sessions led Justice department appears to have succumbed to Trump’s ongoing entreaties, they’ve reopened their investigations into everything that she ever did or didn't do because if Trump is being investigated, it’s only fair that she is too.    

The Sessions Saga:  Although some Democrats want Attorney General Sessions to remain, viewing his longevity as the key to Special Counsel Mueller and the Russia investigation’s survival, others are furious about his efforts to throw the weight of the Justice Department against the marijuana industry and aren’t sure that its worth putting up with a guy who lives to erode civil rights. They are also outraged about last week’s report that he sent one of his aides to dig up dirt on former FBI Director Comey to justify his firing.  On the Republican side, a number of states rights libertarians are angered by his pot stance and the crackadoodle wing of the party, led by Representatives Stewart of Utah, Jordan of Ohio and Meadows of North Carolina, just want him gone so they can end the Russia investigation. They called on him to resign last week arguing that leaks about the Russia investigation show that he doesn't have control over his department, a spurious claim since the leaking is probably coming from Congress, people who’ve been interviewed by Mueller’s team, or former government employees.  For his part, when asked if he still stands by Sessions, Trump said that he does, at least for now.  Despite his tenuous position Sessions has been busy.  Last week he appointed seventeen interim, or interim until they are confirmed, US Attorneys to replace the acting attorneys who had been standing in for their fired bosses.  The interim US Attorney for the Southern District of NY, formerly Preet Bharara’s home, is now Geoffrey Berman, from Rudy Giuliani’s Greenberg Traurig law firm. NY Senator Gillibrand has already expressed her opposition to his appointment.  Richard Donoghue, a former prosecutor has been appointed to the Eastern District, which includes Brooklyn. Trump took particular interest in both appointments given the location of his personal assets and the Districts’ responsibility for “follow the money” issues.  The Eastern District together with the SEC recently issued subpoenas to the Kushner Companies seeking details about their use of the EB-5 visa program, an investigation that was triggered after Jared Kushner’s sister promised favorable visa treatment to Chinese investors in Kushner apartments. Follow-up now falls into Donoghue’s hands. 

Immigration Battles: Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic point man on immigration and DACA, said the list of demands that the White House presented last week are old news and reflect none of the ongoing bipartisan discussions. Trump has added a demand for $18 billion to fund his Mexico wall saying “We want the wall, the wall is going to happen, or we are not going to have DACA.” He still asserts that Mexico will pay for the wall, though now he adds the word eventually to the end of his promise.  Trump is so oblivious to financial reality that he refuses to acknowledge that having given so much away in corporate tax cuts there just isn’t or shouldn’t be money available for his vanity project unless he thinks that the wall warrants another increase in the deficit, a cut in some essential social program or is more important than real infrastructure needs.  He also wants to eliminate “chain migration,” the anti-immigrant expression for family reunification, and the immigrant visa lottery.  The lottery is unlikely to be a sticking point, but the other issues, especially wall funding, are a problem.  Republican and Democratic leaders are scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday to talk about the immigration legislation and the terms of the next budget resolution. To avoid a government shutdown some form of funding resolution has to passed by  January 19^th.  Patience is running out and the DACA kids are still out in the cold.

The Trumpies:  Trump, who cited his bigly accomplishments as a reality TV star as proof that he is qualifies for Mensa membership, still plans to announce his “Fake News Awards,” those going to the “most corrupt and biased of the mainstream media,” but he’s postponed his planned award show from today to January 17.  It turns out he has other more pressing plans for this afternoon.  He is traveling to the national championship football game in Atlanta instead.  Many in the mainstream media and virtually every night time host are hoping to receive at least one award because despite Trump’s intent, they’d view victory as a badge of honor.  To the extent that Trump’s award show ever takes place, those “truthtellers” at Fox and Breitbart are likely to go home empty handed.