Weekend Takeaways

Revealing Minutes:   For the most part, ever since Trump stepped in doo doo by telling NBC’s Lester Holt that he fired former FBI Director Comey over the Russia thing, he has limited his televised interviews to his friends at Fox so the fact that the interview that aired last night on 60 Minutes even took place was unusual.  Also unusual was Leslie Stahl’s probing questions, it was refreshing to finally see a correspondent push back at Trump’s platitudes and obvious lies. She asked him about his views on climate change and this time he pulled back a little from his earlier assertion that the whole climate change thing was just a Chinese hoax saying instead that he’s not convinced it’s man made and anyway he’s not all that concerned because it will probably reverse itself on its own someday and anyway who cares if we lose a few coastal cities anyway.  She pushed him to address the worrisome UN report, the one based on the conclusions of an international panel of scientists.  When he said that the report wasn’t necessarily correct because there are scientists on “both sides,” and “people say” otherwise, she pushed him to name those people and those scientists. On international relations, he said that he totally trusts North Korea’s Kim Jong Un because the two have developed a really good friendship and rapport and he’s closing down his nuclear facilities. Again, Stahl pushed back asking him how he can profess love for a guy who runs gulags, starves his own people and assassinates members of his own family. She also pointed out that it’s not clear that he is actually closing down any nuclear facilities. This time, Trump went with the “nobody really knows” defense and again reiterated that they really liked each other so it will all turn out well. He acknowledged that all wasn’t hunky dory with China, but then said that he has a great relationship with President Xi, because they really like each other too and had a great time together at Mar a Lago, and that kind of stuff is really important, you know. When asked about Russian election interference and Putin, another guy who engages in assassination of his enemies, Trump acknowledged that Russia might have meddled in US elections but then quickly added that China had too, and they were far worse.  Stahl pressed him on that too, in response Trump said that Putin might be a killer but it wasn’t a real problem because none of those overseas chemical poisonings had taken place in the US.  Given the recent Skripal nerve agent poisoning, our allies in the UK must find that one a wee bit disturbing.  As to the disappearance and likely assassination and dismembering of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabians acting under the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salem (MBS), Trump said that he was still looking into it, and that it certainly would be a bad thing if true but then, echoing the phrase he’s frequently used with regard to Putin and Russian election interference, he added that MBS has forcefully denied it ever happened so who knows if it did?  As to getting rid of dissenters, sadly it is an all too common Saudi policy, what makes this killing particularly shocking is that, to the extent it took place, and it most likely did, it was so obvious.  The Saudi’s have gone after dissidents before, but they are generally more discrete when they kill people overseas, think accident late at night in a deserted locale rather than in an embassy.  More and more corporate sponsors of the Saudi’s upcoming investor conference, one that they see as a “Davos in the Desert,” are pulling their sponsorship and/or cancelling their attendance.  Last night Ford Motors and JP Morgan announced that neither Bill Ford or Jamie Dimon will attend.  Major news organizations such as CNN, the Financial Times, the New York Times, CNBC and Bloomberg have pulled out. The Fox Business Network, the only Western news outlet still heading to the conference, is reviewing that decision. As of now Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is still going.  And Trump is resisting pressure to cancel any of the $110 billion in defense sales he’s been bragging about since last year’s globe and sword ceremony, even the ones that probably were illusory anyway, because money is money and Khashoggi was only a US resident, not a citizen. As to Khashoggi, Donald Trump Jr spent part of his weekend attacking him as a terrorist because it’s always easier to blame the victim than acknowledge the real problem.  As to blaming victims, while speaking with Leslie Stahl Trump justified making fun of Brett Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford during his Mississippi campaign speech because it energized the crowd and helped get his poll numbers up.  Lastly, when asked if he’d made any mistakes during his first two years in office Trump turned the tables on Stahl saying that he’d done a great job but that the press was dishonest.  To that end he cited a question that she asked him about his zero tolerance policy and how she tricked him into saying that the policy was a good thing because it was just meant to dissuade immigrants from seeking refuge in the US, because you know, everything has consequences.   

Revolving Door:  When asked during his 60 Minutes interview if Secretary of Defense Mattis would be leaving the administration anytime soon, Trump pointed out that no one stays forever and then added that he thinks the General is a Democrat, clear indications that the respected Mattis’ days in the Trump Cabinet are numbered.  As to Mattis’ party affiliation, it’s not clear that he has ever expressed one, most senior members of the military don’t, but from Trump’s standpoint since he’s viewed as a moderating force and has even resisted implementing Trump’s push to boot transgender troops from the armed forces, he must be a card carrying member of the Democratic party, right? Speculation continues as to who will be selected to serve as Trump’s next UN Ambassador.  Currently the leading contenders are Kelly Knight Craft the current Ambassador to Canada and Jamie McCourt, the current Ambassador to France and Monaco. The thought is that since both women have already been confirmed once by the Senate another confirmation hearing would be smooth sailing.  Craft who gets credit for helping to negotiate the revised NAFTA agreement is, together with her “coal baron” husband, a major contributor to Trump’s campaign.  McCourt, an attorney, is the former co-owner of the LA Dodgers. It’s quite possible that, if selected, neither would become a member of the Cabinet since Trump is being pressured by Secretary of State Pompeo and security advisor Bolton to bump the position down a notch so that the new UN Ambassador would report to Pompeo rather than directly to Trump. While that organizational change wouldn’t be that unusual, Trump’s decision to include Nikki Haley in the Cabinet was unusual for a  Republican president as most of his Republican predecessors kept their UN Ambassadors subordinate to State with only Democratic presidents elevating the position to Cabinet level, it also reflects a power grab by Pompeo and Bolton.  Having gotten rid of one independent women neither one wants to have to deal with another one, especially one as outspoken as Haley. This may be one of the reasons that Dina Powell decided to stay put at Goldman. White House counsel Don McGahn is exiting soon, his replacement is likely to be Pat Cipollone, who in addition to being the founder of National Catholic prayer breakfast, is also an experienced litigator who is expected to be more combative with Special Counsel Mueller than McGahn was. As to Mueller, Trump wouldn’t pledge to Leslie Stahl that he’d keep him around  much longer either.  Son-in-law Kushner isn’t going anywhere soon, however he did get treated to a bit of that NY Times scrutiny over the weekend.  They report that though he earned scads of money from his real estate portfolio, he hasn’t paid much in the way of federal taxes for years. They know this because somehow they managed to get their hands on some private information that he had submitted to a bank as part of a loan application.  In any case, unlike the NY Times’ earlier expose on the Trump family business and their questionable and likely illegal wealth accumulation practices, no one is suggesting that anything Kushner did to avoid taxes was illegal primarily because it wasn’t, he just managed to benefit bigly from the tax laws that allow real estate investors to take large deductions for depreciation and to defer, and by defer think avoid, taxes on capital gains, provisions that were enhanced in last year’s tax legislation for obvious reasons.  Despite the fact that she believes that she is the most trolled person in the universe, first lady Melania Trump appears to be staying put too.  During her recent ABC interview, the one she gave while traipsing around Africa in colonial garb, she attempted to appear more caring than her husband, revealing that she was very upset about the administration’s family separation policy and that she had expressed her disapproval to her husband.  However, in many other ways she came off as fairly tone deaf and self-interested, in other words, typically Trumpian. She said that the “me too” movement has gone too far, because some of those accused guys, particularly the one named Trump, are probably very innocent and where are the witnesses to the offenses anyway?  She also acknowledged that despite the White House party line that her “who cares” jacket, the one she wore when she went to check out the facilities for the separated migrant children, was just a jacket with words on the back, it was intended to send a message to the “liberal media” that she really doesn’t care what they have to say about her because her parents are now US citizens, chain migration is good when it admits white Europeans, and she’s living in the lap of luxury and they’re not, and if the price of that is a philandering husband, so be it!