Insane, Incendiary and Ignorant

Threatening NATO: Although Trump takes credit for stabilizing NATO’s financial position and represents that the organization is now in a much better position because of his demand that all of its members ramp up their defense budgets to 4% of their respective GDPs, his assertion is a joke.  However, only Vladimir Putin is laughing, NATO members, several of whom report that during a last minute contentious emergency meeting Trump threatened to pull the US out of the alliance if his financial demands aren’t met, are frustrated and angry and remain concerned about the US’s long term commitment to the alliance.  That said few were surprised by Trump’s boorish behavior, ridiculous demands and false self-aggrandizing summary of his summit accomplishments.  For his part after the emergency session, Trump called an impromptu press conference where he announced that the NATO alliance was now stronger than ever because as a result of his demands, members had agreed to “substantially up their commitments….at levels they never thought of before.”  French President Macron threw water on his assertion, simply saying the agreed upon end of meeting “communique is clear. "It reaffirms a commitment to 2% in 2024. That is all."  Others just called Trump’s remarks insane, incendiary and ignorant.

Special Relationship?  After departing Brussels, Trump traveled to the United Kingdom where he was greeted by the comical, chubby Trump baby blimp, hostile crowds and British Prime Minister Theresa May.  As the two leaders were getting ready to sit down to a formal dinner, the Rupert Murdoch owned Sun tabloid released a no holds barred interview with Trump.  In the interview, which was also available on tape, Trump made several false statements about his accomplishments, asserting that he had more than doubled the US GDP during his one and a half years in office and that he had better poll numbers than Abe Lincoln, yes that Abe Lincoln.  More significantly he also went on to slam Prime Minister May, calling her plans for a soft Brexit, one that would involve keeping some trade ties with the European Union, a disaster.  He said that he had told her how to exit from the European Union, but that she didn’t follow his advice and now would have to face the consequences and that those consequences could involve a refusal by the US to enter into a bilateral trade pact with the UK which he would prefer to call England because it sounds better.  The lack of a trade pact with the US would be disastrous for Prime Minister May and could seriously damage the UK economy. He also attacked Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, mostly for being a Muslim but also for doing a “terrible job,” the UK immigrant community who he said was changing the fabric of Europe for the worse,  and called Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary who recently resigned from May’s cabinet over her Brexit plans, “a very talented guy” who would be a great prime minister, because “he’s got what it takes, and I think he's got the right attitude to be a great prime minister." Flattery of Johnson was hardly something that May wanted to hear from anyone, least of all Trump.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders who is still Trump’s press secretary though she has at least one foot out the door tried to clean up for Trump’s ill-timed interview and harsh comments by releasing a statement saying Trump “likes and respects Prime Minister May very much, as he said in his interview with the Sun she 'is a very good person' and he 'never said anything bad about her.' He thought she was great on NATO today and is a really terrific person. He is thankful for the wonderful welcome from the Prime Minister here in the UK."  A slightly better release than the one she issued in order to explain the visible disgust on Chief of Staff Kelly’s face during the NATO summit, the one where she said that he was just hungry and disappointed that his breakfast didn’t include a full spread of bacon and eggs. Trump and Melania are due to meet with the Queen today.  Assuming that the undoubtably disgusted Queen, doesn’t call in sick, she probably will avoid commenting on Trump’s poor behavior and disruptive comments only because royals tend not to comment on politics.  That said, she might decide that now is as a good a time as ever to alter tradition.  As to May, her future prospects and the UK’s efforts to work its way through the Brexit morass  have now taken a significant hit.  After a few days of golf in Scotland, Trump will next be meeting with a gleeful Putin, who will probably greet him with open arms since all the items on his world order destruction to-do list are almost checked off.  NATO weakened, the UK on tender hooks and in all likelihood by the end of the week Putin will have gotten Trump to formally recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea.  A great week for Russia, not so good for the rest of the free world.  As to the rest of the world, Trump found time to also share the lovely note that he received from his very good friend Kim Jong Un following the Singapore Summit.  Despite all evidence to the contrary, Trump says that the friendly note proves that North Korea is serious about denuclearization and that Kim and he are on solid footing.  He didn’t mention that a North Korean delegation failed to show up for a scheduled meeting, one to discuss the promised return of the remains of US soldiers from the Korean war.

The Strzok Hearing:  Yesterday the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees jointly hosted a live episode of Game of Thrones, Congress edition.  Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who pretty much destroyed his otherwise illustrious career as a counter intelligence agent by engaging in an illicit texting romance with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, was supposed to play the part of designated punching bag, sitting still while every Republican member of both committees attacked his texts, his bias and his morality.  Things didn’t turn out quite as planned.  Strzok was attacked mercilessly but he gave as good as he got, if not better.  He defended his texts, pointing out that one of his most controversial texts, one where he said that America would never let Trump become president, was written late at night, an emotional response to Trump’s campaign take down of Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father. He received applause from some of the appreciative people, no doubt all Democrats, sitting in the audience.  The usual cast of Republicans, including Trey Gowdy, who previously starred in the Benghazi Miniseries, laid into Strzok big time, trying to create sound bites for Fox News and local Sinclair TV stations.  Gowdy, who is leaving Congress at the end of the year was clearly angling for one of  Trump’s Federal Judiciary appointments. Texas Congressman Gohmert didn’t even pretend that the hearings had anything to do with the integrity of the Russia investigation, he went straight to the dirt, asking Strzok whether he was lying under oath the same way he "lied" to his wife while he carried on an affair with Lisa Page. He went on to ask how he could even look into his wife’s eyes.  Democrats, who had been objecting to almost everything said, went ballistic with  one yelling this is intolerable harassment of the witness" and another calling out to Gohmert, “You need your medication."  While Republicans focused on bias and the “tainted” Russia investigation, virtually every Democratic Congressperson began his or her questioning by first listing the litany of things that the Republican led Congress wasn’t investigating or holding hearings on, including the 3000 separated children, gun control and DACA.  Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings had his staff members hold large poster sized pictures of all the people who had already pleaded guilty in front of the camera a to make his point that the Russia investigation was no hoax.  For his part Jerry Nadler, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee used every opportunity to object to the Republican’s attacks, citing every parliamentary rule he could think of, including a few that sounded made up.  Nadler appeared to be practicing for the impeachment hearings that the Democrats plan to hold and that he would chair to the extent that the Democrats win back the House in November.  The hearings went on for the whole day, a colossal waste of time, energy and tax dollars but entertaining at a base level nevertheless. Tune in later for the Lisa Page hearing, soon to be coming to stations everywhere on the dial.

Slow Progress:  Early yesterday morning the government finally reunited more of the “tender” age migrant children with their parents raising the total of “returned” children from 4 to 57.   For a variety of reasons government agencies have determined that the remaining 47 children under five are not eligible for reunification at this time, if ever.  Those reasons include assessments that the parents present a danger to the children, assessments which in some cases may be valid but in others are just the excuse being used to justify bureaucratic incompetence, and, with regard to 12 of the children, because the parents have already been deported.  When asked about the prospects for the reunification of those 12 children, a government spokesperson said that returning them wasn’t the government’s problem because it’s not their job to worry about people who’ve been deported.  Judge Sabraw’s order mandating the return of the remaining 2900 “older” kids by July 26 remains in force, although at the government’s current “success” rate it looks highly likely that many families will remain separated long after that deadline passes.

Personnel Items:  As expected Marc Short, Trump’s legislative director formally resigned.  Charges against Stormy Daniels, who had been arrested while performing in Trump friendly Columbus Ohio, in what she characterized as a sting operation, were dropped.  The sting operation is now being investigated by local prosecutors.  And lastly it turns out that Jared Kushner’s security clearance problems aren’t over.  He doesn’t have the top most clearance and still isn’t allowed to see the highly secret information that someone in charge of negotiating Middle East peace should see.