Pruitt Out

Pruitt Pruned:  Well it looks like we won’t have Scott Pruitt to kick around anymore.  Just one day after he dined on free hotdogs at the annual July fourth festivities on the White House lawn, Pruitt “submitted” a letter of resignation to Trump.  The letter expressed his honor at having had the opportunity to serve Trump and cited the Lord too many times to count, even suggesting that serving Trump was akin to serving that other higher authority.  He also blamed the unrelenting and unfair attacks from the press for his demise.  He didn’t express any remorse and somehow or other failed to mention his preference for special lotions, used mattresses, expensive flights, extreme security protections and tactical pants nor any of his other absurd ethical violations because given another opportunity he would do all of them over again.  For the foreseeable future, Pruitt’s replacement will be EPA’s Deputy Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist who previously worked for Oklahoma Republican Senator Imhofe, one of the Senate’s most vocal climate change skeptics.   Expectations are that Wheeler will follow in Pruitt’s footsteps at least with regard to policy, not with regard to lotion preferences,  although he is likely to be friendlier to the biofuels industry.  To that end Iowa Senator Grassley, who didn’t care all that much about Pruitt’s ethics violations but was very concerned about his disdain for ethanol, applauded Pruitt’s resignation and Trump, who also cared little about Pruitt’s ethics but who does care a lot about votes, may have secured support from a few more farmers, blunting some of the pushback that he’s now getting as a result of his trade war.  As to that trade war, $34 billion in US tariffs against Chinese products went into effect at midnight, China responded in kind all while a ship full of US soybeans raced to a China, hoping to pull into port in time to beat the midnight tariff deadline.  

Not So Shining Light:  Yesterday, former Fox co-president Bill Shine formally joined the Trump administration as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications.  Shine resigned from Fox last year after being accused of covering up a series of sexual harassment scandals, just one of those things that makes him particularly attractive to Trump.  He is also close with Sean Hannity, Trump’s shadow chief of staff, who was instrumental in his hiring. Gretchen Carlson, the former Fox star lamented Shine’s hiring, tweeting about the irony of his joining the Trump team on the second anniversary of her filing her harrassment lawsuit, the one that led to former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes demise and Shine’s Fox “resignation.” At least so far, no one has explained how Shine will manage to complete his security forms and whether or not he will manage to get a clearance. His problems may pale in comparison to former aide/wife abuser Rob Porter.  With Shine on board, Trump has officially merged the White House communications team with Fox News.  Shine got right to work, accompanying Trump on his trip to Montana and sadly he is likely to be quite effective at helping Trump deliver his message.  While in Montana, in addition to campaigning for Matt Rosendale, the Republican seeking to unseat Montana’s Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who Trump holds responsible for highlighting just how unsuited former White House physician Ronny Jackson was for the VA Secretary position, Trump spewed an unusual number of lies, repeated false claims and went after several of his favorite targets.  It was most fitting that with the abuser enabler Shine by his side, he attacked Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, again throwing shade at “Pocohantas” for her assertion that her family has native American roots while also dissing the “MeToo” movement.  Perhaps because shining was on his mind, he also questioned the meaning of a George HW Bush speech, the one advocating volunteerism as "points of light" a concept that he just doesn’t get.  During his flight to Montana Trump expressed his undying support for Freedom Caucus Congressman Jim Jordan, saying that he doesn’t believe any of those men who have come forward to accuse Jordan of covering up for the Ohio State doctor who is now being accused of molesting members of the school’s wrestling team.   Trump told reporters that Jim Jordan is one of the “most outstanding people” he’s ever met since coming to Washington. Adding “I believe him 100 percent. No question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an outstanding man.”  Trump didn’t mention that another accuser has come forward, supporting the accusations against Jordan that have already been expressed by three other former wrestlers.  Jordan, Shine and Trump, what an impressive trio. 

Cohen Chronicles:  Michael Cohen, who Trump once believed in 100% or at least trusted enough to have him cover up sexual misdeeds and advance his less than above board business dealings in places like Russia, continues to distance himself from his former mentor.  Yesterday Cohen added former Bill Clinton lawyer Lanny Davis to his legal team.  Davis, who is skilled at public relations, is likely to deal with the press and work on Cohen’s public image, while his other new lawyer, Guy Petrillo, focuses on cutting Cohen the best possible deal with federal prosecutors.   Davis confirmed his role by saying that  "Like most of America, I have been following the matter regarding Michael Cohen with great interest….. Michael Cohen deserves to tell his side of the story - subject, of course, to the advice of counsel.   Rudy Giuliani, who has been a little bit quieter than normal over the past week responded to Davis’ hiring by saying Cohen "should have the attorneys who he has the most confidence in,”  which probably translates to holy crap, Cohen is flipping and his lawyers are really good, we are in for it now.  It is ironic that Cohen now has a more rounded and competent legal and PR team than Trump.

Immigration Blues:  Yesterday Health and Human Secretary Azar who reportedly has been spending longs days and nights trying to figure out where his department stashed all of the kids who been separated from their parents, admitted that more of those children than was previously acknowledged are under his care.  He still isn’t all that sure where all the boys and girls are or where their parents are currently being held or, to the extent they’ve already been deported, how to find them, but now thinks that all told there are about 3,000 separated children, more than the 2047 previously acknowledged.  He reports that Health and Human Services is doing its best to “comply with the artificial deadlines created by the courts,” his way of saying that he knows he’s supposed to get all of the children under five years of age back to their parents by July 10, with the others following shortly thereafter, he just doesn’t know how he is going to manage to meet the deadline because although the INS and Homeland Security were really good at grabbing kids from their parents arms, it never occurred to anyone to keep track of the children or to make any plans for their return.  At this point he is relying on a combination of faulty records and children interviews to gather information about the children’s parentage, clearly a problem given that a number of the children are too young to communicate.   HHS is considering swabbing children and parents, to the extent that they can find them, in order to match-up DNA samples, a plan that is scientifically sound but which is unlikely to fly with the families or the ACLU because no one trusts that the DNA won’t end up in another government database.  The government may be awful at tracking kids but seems skilled at maintaining DNA records.  As to migrant rights, Trump continues to believe that they don’t have any, and to the extent that they do, the law should be changed so that they don’t.  Yesterday he tweeted “When people, with or without children, enter our Country, they must be told to leave…..without being forced to endure a long and costly trial. Tell the people “OUT,” and they must leave, just as they would if they were standing on your front lawn. Hiring thousands of “judges” does not work and is not acceptable - only Country in the World that does this!” Separately a federal judge in California on Thursday denied a request by the Trump administration to suspend California’s so-called sanctuary policies that limit cooperation between federal immigration authorities and state and local law enforcement.  As to courts, Trump is still expected to formally announce his newest Supreme Court nominee on Monday night during primetime, because when else would he and his newest hire Shine want to make such an important announcement.  Indications are that Trump has already made up his mind and that his choice is Brett Kavanaugh, the establishment’s preference.  However, a lot can happen between now and Monday so Trump and Shine recommend that you stay tuned, to Trump TV available on Fox networks everywhere.