Dr. Feelgood

Cabinet Shuffle:  When White House physician Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson announced that Trump was the picture of health and a beneficiary of good genes and then went on to exaggerate Trump’s height while understating his weight, many suspected that he might have been under the influence of something.  It turns out that those suspicions might not have been all that off base.  Late yesterday, several news sources reported that Dr. Jackson’s confirmation hearing to serve as VA Secretary have been postponed to some unspecified future date. Although senators from both sides of the aisle had already raised concerns about Jackson’s qualifications to run the massive VA system the hearings are being put off not because of his lack of managerial experience but because of new concerns about character issues.  Anonymous sources have accused Dr. Jackson of creating a hostile work environment, for excessive on the job drinking and for improperly dispensing medicines.  At this point its not clear that the accusations are true but, to the extent they are, Jackson can say goodbye to serving on the cabinet and may also lose his position as White House physician.  As to Trump, he surprised everyone, including his chief of staff, when he nominated Jackson because he hadn’t taken the time to have him adequately vetted, not too surprising since as we known by now, Trump isn’t all that into vetting. The Jackson situation is just one of the White House’s cabinet problems, EPA head Pruitt is still on the job but in recognition of the ever growing list of controversies surrounding his service, Bloomberg News reports that the White House has directed allies to stop defending him, a sign that he may be eased out of his position in the not so distant future.  Coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler was recently installed as Pruitt’s deputy administrator so Pruitt may now be dispensable, and since there is little doubt that a former coal lobbyist would be happy to continue stripping environmental protections, Pruitt isn’t really needed anymore.  The news isn’t all that bad for Trump, yesterday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee backed the nomination of former CIA head Mike Pompeo to serve as Secretary of State.  The vote was close, but after a firm shove from Trump, the attention grabbing Senator Rand Paul who had expressed concerns about Pompeo switched his vote to yes.  Despite concerns about his strong anti-Muslim views and frequent rejection of diplomatic solutions when war is an option,  Pompeo is expected to win the support of the full Senate.  The vote is expected to be largely partisan with no more than three Democrats including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, North Dakota’s Heidi Heitkamp and Indiana’s Joe Donnelly, all up for reelection in red “Trump” states, expected to support him.  As to his stated views on Muslims, Pompeo won’t be alone, he joins national security director John Bolton who until last month chaired a nonprofit that has promoted misleading and false anti-Muslim news, some of which was amplified by a Russian troll factory.  It’s worth noting, that both Pompeo and Bolton are on record opposing the Iran Nuclear Agreement which is up for recertification in early May.  The preservation of that deal is high on the list of items that France’s President Macron will be discussing with Trump during his visit.  Macron, who stated the case for staying in the agreement over the weekend on Fox TV in the hope of getting Trump’s attention is expected to forcefully but with oodles of his French charm argue that the agreement is the only thing preventing Iran from becoming a member of the nuclear “club.”  Germany’s Chancellor Merkel is expected to press the same argument during her visit later in the week, she will make the same points but unfortunately is likely to be less effective since Trump finds her far less charming.  Both leaders are all for pushing for further limits on Iran, but believe that trashing the nuclear deal would be a bigly problem, one that would make any positive outcome with North Korea that much less likely.  Macron has a full plate, he also plans to argue against tariffs and to push for Trump to reconsider joining the Paris Climate accords.  As to the Paris pact, former NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced that he plans to pick up the $4.5 million bill to fulfil the US commitment.  Bloomberg’s comment is that  “America made a commitment and as an American if the government’s not going to do it we all have responsibility.  I’m able to do it. So, yes, I’m going to send them a check for the monies that America had promised to the organization as though they got it from the federal government.”   

More Comey Fallout:  During his many interviews former FBI Director Comey talked about how concerned Trump was about the Steele Dossier, particularly the dossier’s report that he had spent some time in the company of prostitutes during his visit to Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant.  Trump dismissed the assertions saying that because he was a  germaphobe, it was ridiculous to think that he could have been any kind of participant in that  “pee tape thing.”  Trump bolstered his claim that he hadn’t hung with the prostitutes by asserting that his Moscow trip had been so brief that he hadn’t spent the night.  He repeated that assertion several times even though Comey never asked him for any details about his trip.  Trump probably should have remained silent.  Over the weekend NBC showed social media postings and pictures of Trump in Moscow which prove that he was there for more than one day and yesterday Bloomberg News produced flight records that prove that Trump was in Moscow for 45 hours and 43 minutes. Yesterday, Alana Evans, a friend of adult film star Stormy Daniels said that she plans to sue Trump’s fixer/lawyer Michael Cohen for defamation for claiming that she was lying when she corroborated parts of Daniels’ story about her encounters with Trump as well as Daniels’ assertion that she had been threatened with physical harm. Evans also says that Trump offered her $10,000 to come up to his hotel room, another one of those accusations that makes it easier to believe that Trump has no problem hanging with prostitutes. Separately, it was also reported that Trump encouraged Attorney General Sessions and current FBI Director Christopher Wray to find damaging information about senior FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and turn it over to congressional Republicans investigating alleged anti-Trump bias and corruption within the FBI and Justice Department.  Strzok and Page are the two FBI agents who engaged in some questionable texting and across the board politician bashing in the course of their inappropriate but not illegal relationship.  Trump’s targeting of Page and Strzok came after he was told by his then-criminal defense attorney, John Dowd, that Page was likely a witness against him in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.  Page is one of the people who Comey kept in the loop after each of his Trump meetings, the meetings that he then memorialized in his contemporaneous memo.  Trump has been doing his best to push all of the people who Comey confided in to the curb and to a large extent he’s been successful though Page and Strzok, who are both career civil servants and harder to fire, are still employed.  

Today’s Special Election: Republican Debbie Lesko is expected to beat out her Democratic challenger Dr. Hiral Tiperneni in today’s special election in Arizona.  The two women are competing for the seat left vacant by Congressman Trent Franks, the conservative family values Republican who was forced to step down after he tried to get one or more of his female staffers to agree to be serve as a surrogate for his wife who was having fertility issues.  Since Trump won the district by 21 points it is highly unlikely that Tiperneni will pull an upset so the focus will instead be on the comparative size of Lesko’s margin of victory.