Peepers and Magoo

Who’s Worried Now:  After the NY Times published a story co-authored by Trump’s once favorite reporter Maggie Haberman that suggested that Trump’s lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen would, in the not so distant future, flip on Trump in part because Trump has a history of treating Cohen with disdain and in part because Cohen ultimately will decide that he would rather see his kids grow up from the vantage point of an NYC apartment, rather than from the distance of a prison cell, Trump blew up on twitter.  He slammed Haberman, calling the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, a third rate flunky who relied on “non-existent ‘sources’ and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is  a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected.”  Not cowed by Trump’s verbal onslaught, Haberman slammed back, attacking Trump’s  use of "drugged up" as showing little compassion for those struggling with drug problems, such as victims of the opioid crisis. She then named Trump’s onetime campaign aide Sam Nunberg as the target of Trump’s vicious dig. Although Trump insists that Cohen will stick by him,  he’s not once argued that Cohen has nothing to spill.  In any case Haberman doesn’t stand alone with her assertion that Cohen spells trouble for Trump, virtually every other armchair shrink and pundit agrees with her assessment. As to Cohen, Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniel’s loquacious lawyer, believes that Cohen will be indicted sooner rather than later and while it’s easy to discount Avenatti given that he represents the adult movie star who may have triggered the investigation into Cohen’s possible illegal campaign contributions, Avenatti has been right more often than he’s been wrong so he probably shouldn’t be ignored.  It doesn’t help Cohen’s case that Keith Davidson, the other lawyer involved in the “hush” agreement payoffs, the guy who not so ably represented Stormy and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, is now cooperating with the federal authorities investigating Cohen.  Davidson has now hired his own attorney, one with extensive white collar crime experience.  Trump also lashed out at his other major irritant, the equally talkative James Comey. He called the former FBI Director a leaker and a liar profiting from a “third rate book,” just days after calling him a slime ball who belonged in jail.  Comey’s consistency is notable, few beyond Trump’s circle of Republican flunkies believe that he’s a liar and though many of them continue to assert that Comey illegally leaked his memos, most legal pundits agree that Comey is in the clear on that front and that the information that he provided was not classified, especially when he provided it.  As to his book, though some have suggested that it hurts Mueller’s investigation, Mueller and the FBI read drafts and Comey was careful to remove anything that concerned them.  He’s also been careful not to address any issues or respond to any questions that might reveal anything that remains classified or that Mueller would prefer him not to address.  Trump has also been raging against both Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and his boss, Attorney General Sessions. Though he’s denied that he calls them Mr. Peepers and Mr. Magoo in private claiming he doesn’t even know who those well known 60s era cartoon characters are.  The Washington Post, Trump’s other newspaper nemesis, reports that last week Sessions, AKA Mr. Magoo, told White House Counsel McGahn that he “would consider resigning” if Trump fires Rosenstein, AKA Mr. Magoo.  It’s not clear that he would quit, but he clearly was trying to send a message to the White House that firing Rosenstein would be a really, really bad thing.  As of now Rosenstein, who this week will fulfil his lifetime goal by arguing a case in front of the Supreme Court, is still employed.  

Financial Deception:  Given his various bankruptcy filings and questionable financial history, not to mention all of those Trump branded products that failed, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump has worked hard to inflate reports of his wealth.   Still his efforts during the 1980s to convince Jonathan Greenberg, a reporter from Forbes magazine, is notable both for the stream of lies he advanced and the fact that he posed as John Barron, a fabricated spokesperson, to get on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest individuals.  Greenberg recently rediscovered the tape of his conversations with Barron/Trump and decided that his promise that the conversations were confidential don’t apply since Trump was acting deceptively so he’s shared them with the press.  Using a barely disguised voice Barron/Trump lied about the ownership of the Trump family properties, alleging that they had all been transferred into his name.  Though Greenberg didn’t buy into all of what Trump/Barron had to say, he did include him on the list, assigning him a net worth of about  $100 million, though now he realizes that the mendacious Trump probably was worth no more than $5 million at the time.  Given Trump’s history of deception, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that EPA head Scott Pruitt is still a member of his cabinet. It should also surprise no one that Pruitt has a long history of deception and financial manipulation, one that predates his appointment to the cabinet.  The NY Times reports that he’s long benefitted from questionable financial dealings with people and companies seeking favors from him, in one case he managed to purchase a house he shouldn’t have been able to afford at a deep discount with the help of a representative of a telecom company lobbying him for favorable regulatory treatment.  Trump’s appointees aren’t the only ones engaging in odd business practices.  Yesterday The Guardian reported that Trump booster and advisor Sean is “linked to a web of shell companies that spent at least $90 million buying more than 870 homes across seven states over the past 10 years,” and that many of these homes were in foreclosure.  HUD helped him get mortgages worth $17.9 million to fund the purchases by insuring the loans under a National Housing Act program.  Not surprisingly Hannity has never mentioned these investments or his interaction with HUD during any of the times that HUD Secretary Ben Carson appeared on his show. Hannity’s lawyer defended the failure to disclose his investments by saying "most people prefer to keep their legal and personal financial issues private. Mr. Hannity is no different."  Most people don’t host a widely watched national talk show.  Though no one is accusing her of any financial improprieties, Kellyanne Conway proved once again that irony is a word not in her vocabulary.  Yesterday she “flipped out” at CNN’s Dana Bash when asked a question about her husband, George Conway’s snippy tweet retorts to some of Trump’s most ridiculous tweets and statements.  Kellyanne who has gone after Hillary Clinton for her husband’s transgressions, attacked Bash for holding her to an unfair standard.  No one, least of all Bash bought Kellyanne’s assertion, particularly in light of the repeated attacks that Trump has made on Andrew McCabe related to his wife’s run to serve as a Virginia legislator.  It’s also worth noting that a number of Republican operatives have recently questioned NBC’s Chuck Todd  because his wife is a “Democrat” and many of the same people are outraged that former FBI Director James Comey’s wife and daughters marched in the Women’s marches that followed Trump’s election.        

The International Front:  North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un says that his country will be suspending nuclear testing ahead of this week’s planned talks with South Korea and the anticipated meeting with Trump. Trump followed this announcement with a series of tweets, the first one celebrating North Korea’s promise to “denuclearize,” the second one walking back the first after his aides advised him that Kim only promised to hold off future tests, that, as of now, there is no promise of denuclearization.  To that end, though Trump deserves some credit for helping to push Kim to the negotiating table it’s worth noting that the North Korean’s have followed this playbook before and in the past, after extracting more agricultural aid, the North Koreans have backtracked, returning to form.  At this point, most experts believe that it is highly unlikely that Kim will give up his nukes.  As to nukes, and the value of the US as a negotiating partner, the Iran deal is up for recertification.  To that end, during his state visit, France’s Macron is expected to press Trump to keep the US in the deal.  Macron is also expected to ask Trump to revisit the Paris climate accords.  On Sunday, Macron told Chris Wallace of Fox News that his message to Trump is that "It's too complicated if you make war against everybody. You make trade war against China, trade war against Europe, war in Syria, war against Iran. Come on ... You need allies."

Politics Unusual:  Mitt Romney will probably be the Republican candidate for Senator in 2018, but his path to that spot just got a little bit more complicated.  He failed to get the required 60% of the vote at the Utah Republican convention, in fact he didn’t even get the most votes, he came in second to Utah State Representative Mike Kennedy.  Apparently the convention delegates were peeved that Romney had gone around them, securing a position on the primary ballot by obtaining signatures, a method that circumvents the convention process.  Romney is still expected to win his primary.  Senator Bob Corker has doubled down on his comments about the upcoming Senatorial election is his home state Tennessee, the retiring Corker still has only nice things to say about the Democratic candidate, much to the chagrin of Republicans in the state, but not much to say about his Republican opponent.  Needless to say Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t all that happy either, losing Tennessee to a Democrat is not in his plans.  As to the Democrats, Tom Perez, the DNC chairman, announced the filing of a civil suit against the Russian government, various members of the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks for their “alleged” nefarious acts during the 2016 presidential campaign.  Although a number of pundits, a lot of Republicans, and even a few Democrats have criticized his action, it’s worth noting that there is precedent for this lawsuit.  The Democrats sued the Republicans for $1 million, an amount of money that used to be considered a bigly amount, during the Watergate era and though they were initially widely ridiculed for that action, once the facts about Watergate came out and after several Nixon era characters were sent to jail, the Democrats collected a $750,000 settlement from the Nixon campaign committee.