“You love your dad. I get that. But you’re just another staffer who doesn’t know what you’re doing.”
— Stephen Bannon to Ivanka Trump, quoted in Howard Kurtz’s Media Madness.
Archives for January 2018
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Trust In U.S. Plummets
The Edelman Trust Barometer found trust in U.S. institutions crashed last year, “posting the steepest, most dramatic general population decline the Trust Barometer has ever measured.”
“Among the informed public, the trust crash is even steeper, with trust declining 23 points, dropping the U.S. from sixth to last place out of the 28 countries surveyed. The informed public trust crash is universal across age, region and gender. As a result, the gap in trust between the informed public and the mass population has been all but eliminated.”
Mike Allen interviewed CEO Richard Edelman: “It’s the first time we’ve seen such a trust drop delinked from either a major event, or economic chaos.”
Negotiating with a President Not Sure of What He Wants
New York Times: “Both sides have reason to be confused. Each time Mr. Trump has edged toward compromise with Democrats, he has appeared to be reined in by his own staff, which shares the hawkish immigration stance that fueled his campaign. And Republican leaders, bruised by past experience with a president who has rarely offered them consistent cover on a politically challenging issue, are loath to guess at his intentions.”
“The result has been a paralysis not only at the White House but on Capitol Hill, complicating the chances for an ultimate resolution of how to protect hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, the problem underlying the shutdown. And it has raised questions not only about Mr. Trump’s grasp of the issue that animated his campaign and energizes his core supporters, but his leadership.”
Another Book Describes Chaos in the White House
Washington Post: “The White House — and the politerati diaspora — has just barely stopped reeling from author Michael Wolff’s account of life in Trump’s West Wing, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, and now another life-in-the-White-House book is about to drop, this one from Kurtz.”
“Like the books that came before it, and almost certainly like the ones still to come, Kurtz’s book, Media Madness: Donald Trump, The Press, And The War Over The Truth, offers a portrait of a White House riven by chaos, with aides scrambling to respond to the president’s impulses and writing policy to fit his tweets.”
Democrats Hold Wide Lead in Congressional Ballot
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll more voters prefer a Democratic candidate for Congress than a Republican one, 51% to 39%.
“The poll finds Democrats holding a 57% to 31% advantage among female voters, double the size of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s margin in the 2016 election. Nonwhite women favor Democrats by a 53-point margin, somewhat smaller than Clinton’s 63-point advantage over Trump in 2016. But white women have moved sharply in Democrats’ direction, favoring them over Republicans by 12 points after supporting Trump by nine points in 2016 and Republican candidates by 14 points in the 2014 midterm election, according to network exit polls.”
More Voters Blame Republicans for Shutdown
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds more voters blame Republicans in Congress for the government shutdown than Democrats, 41% to 36%.
“Yet the shutdown is no clean political win for Democrats. Americans don’t necessarily approve of the party’s strategy to insist on a legislative solution for undocumented immigrants brought here as children before voting to reopen the government. In fact, both parties’ immigration stances — Democrats’ efforts to protect the so-called Dreamers and Trump’s insistence on funding a border wall with Mexico — are viewed by voters as less important than keeping the government open.”
No Vote Tonight to End Shutdown
The Senate has adjourned for the night without a deal to end the government shutdown.
Politico: “The Senate will vote at noon Monday on a bill to reopen the government through Feb. 8, though passage is not assured. Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer are continuing to negotiate on a deal to reopen the government and begin legislative work on protecting some young immigrants, but Schumer said ‘we have yet to reach a path forward.’”
Chief Justice Has Shifted His Positions
“Thirteen years into the job, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. remains a conservative — but he has shifted to a more moderate position among the conservative justices on the court, a small change with potentially dramatic consequences,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Among the justices appointed by Republican presidents, Roberts agreed least with Justice Anthony Kennedy in Roberts’ first two terms leading the court — and the most with Kennedy in the two most recently completed terms.”
“That kind of shift could have significant effects on how the current court decides major issues and — if it represents a permanent change — on how Roberts leads the court into the next decade.”
Trump Turns on His Interior Secretary
Jonathan Swan: “Two weeks ago, Zinke made an announcement that surprised the White House (and over Twitter, no less, after telling reporters at the Tallahassee airport): the waters around Florida would be exempt from his agency’s offshore oil and gas leasing program. Zinke’s announcement came shortly after he met with the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.”
“Trump has made clear to Zinke that he’s angry about this move… Zinke’s decision is both legally and politically dangerous for the Trump administration. Zinke did not coordinate with anybody, and gave the White House no forewarning of his controversial action.”
Mueller Talking to Mysterious White House Visitor
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has been talking with George Nader, a little-known Bannon associate who boasts of his well-placed connections in the Middle East,” Axios reports.
“Nader has spoken with Mueller’s team at least twice, according to a source briefed on the investigation. A second source briefed on the investigation confirmed that Mueller’s team has brought Nader in for questioning in the past week.”
“Nader visited the White House frequently during the early months of the Trump administration. He became friendly with former chief strategist Steve Bannon, visiting his office regularly. A source familiar with the White House meetings said Jared Kushner also met Nader. After asking around about Nader, Kushner decided not to continue meeting with him.”
The Decline and Fall of Wilbur Ross
Jonathan Swan: “In a series of Oval Office meetings about six months into his presidency, Trump eviscerated Ross, telling him he’d screwed up, and badly.”
“Trump told Ross he didn’t trust him to negotiate anymore. Ross had tried in the early months of the administration, before Robert Lighthizer was confirmed as the U.S. Trade Representative, to take the lead on several crucial trade conversations. Once Lighthizer arrived there was a tussle for control over several issues. But after Ross botched — in Trump’s eyes — his dealings with China, he decided Lighthizer would be the lead negotiator on all trade issues.”
“During this period, Trump humiliated Ross in front of his colleagues, per three sources, and questioned his intelligence and competence.”
Bipartisan Group Suggests Deal Close on Shutdown
“A bipartisan group of roughly 20 senators are signaling they are nearing an agreement to reopen the government,” The Hill reports.
“The bipartisan group isn’t crafting separate legislation. Senators say the bulk of their talks were about how to get 60 votes for the bill to fund the government through Feb. 8 paired with a commitment that will satisfy Democrats on bringing up an immigration bill.”
“Senators predicted that Schumer and McConnell, who did not speak on Saturday, would be meeting shortly.”
Graham Blames White House Staff for Blocking Deal
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned that the White House staff is undercutting President Trump and Congress’s ability to get a deal on immigration, The Hill reports.
Said Graham: “Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members. As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we’re going nowhere.”
Duckworth Rips Trump as a Draft Dodger
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who lost both of her legs during an explosion in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army, blasted President Trump as a “five-deferment draft dodger” during her remarks on the Senate floor, WTVR reports.
Said Duckworth: “I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible. I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”
She added: “I have a message for Cadet Bone Spurs: If you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting Kim Jong-un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops — and millions of innocent civilians — in danger.”
SNL Russia Investigation Update
“You gotta understand, the guy didn’t leave me a trail of breadcrumbs. He left me full loaves.”
Who Is Winning the Shutdown Fight?
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Trump Stays on the Sidelines
New York Times: “Inside the White House, Mr. Trump, the neophyte president who has styled himself the ultimate dealmaker, remained remarkably disengaged from the complex process of hammering out a politically palatable deal that could provide a way out of the morass.”
“Senior advisers counseled him to do less, not more, negotiating, arguing that the shutdown was a political problem that Democrats had created for themselves, and had to find their own way to resolve. But Mr. Trump, a highly reactive personality who detests headlines questioning his leadership — like those that dominated cable TV throughout Saturday, during coverage of the shutdown and women’s marches throughout the country denouncing his presidency — felt stymied and wanted somehow to intervene.”
“Irritated to have missed his big event in Florida, Mr. Trump spent much of his day watching old TV clips of him berating President Barack Obama for a lack of leadership during the 2013 government shutdown, a White House aide said, seeming content to sit back and watch the show.”
Kushner Given Access to Classified Intelligence
Jared Kushner was granted access to classified intelligence reports despite not having a security clearance, the New Yorker reports.
Kushner was added to a list of recipients for the President’s Daily Brief, which contains some of the federal government’s most highly classified intelligence reports.
“By the end of the Obama Administration, seven White House officials were authorized to receive the same version of the P.D.B. that appeared on the President’s iPad. The Trump Administration expanded the number to as many as fourteen people.”
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