Political Wire

Members should sign in for the full experience.

Trump’s Real Plan for 2018

February 12, 2018 at 6:47 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mike Allen: “President Trump today will unveil a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan that his own aides don’t think will pass, and a $4 trillion budget that reads like ‘science fiction.’ It’s the strangest of year-ahead plans for a party that controls the White House and both chambers of Congress: Top Republicans see Job 1 for this year as promoting the tax cut they passed last year.”

“A source close to the White House tells me that with an eye to getting Republicans excited about voting for Republicans in midterms, the president this year will be looking for ‘unexpected cultural flashpoints’ — like the NFL and kneeling — that he can latch onto in person and on Twitter.”

The source said Trump “is going to be looking for opportunities to stir up the base, more than focusing on any particular legislation or issue.”

What Does Mitch McConnell Want on Immigration?

February 12, 2018 at 6:40 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “No one knows the GOP leader’s endgame, nor how he personally prefers the stalemate over Dreamers be resolved. It’s highly unusual for a Senate majority leader, particularly one as calculating as McConnell, to bring a divisive issue to the floor with no clearly intended result in sight. Even his top lieutenants aren’t sure whether McConnell would ultimately support a final immigration deal that can clinch the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate.”

Bloomberg: “The path ahead is even less certain in the House, where conservatives aren’t giving any ground. Speaker Paul Ryan would commit only to considering legislation that would meet Trump’s approval.”

Trump Seeks Deep Budget Cuts for Domestic Programs

February 12, 2018 at 6:36 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump is expected to renew his call for drastic reductions to nondefense programs in rolling out his budget request Monday, even with hundreds of billions in new cash at hand,” Politico reports.

“While Congress busted strict spending caps last week — allowing for an extra $300 billion to be spent over the next two years — the Trump administration is still urging severe austerity for some arms of the federal government. Trump’s budget will lay out ‘an aggressive set of spending reforms’ to reduce the deficit by $3 trillion over a decade, according to a preview released by the White House on Sunday.”

Playbook: “The White House’s budget is especially irrelevant this year. In most years it’s treated with an eye roll. But this year, the president just signed a two-year spending framework into law.”

Bannon Floated Idea of Running for President

February 12, 2018 at 6:32 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook has exceprts from the paperpack version of Devil’s Bargain by Joshua Green:

“If Trump quit or was impeached, Bannon told friends, it would eliminate the first great champion of Trumpism—but it wouldn’t be a negative judgment on the politics that had swept him into office. In such a scenario, who better to succeed Trump than the man who got him elected? Bannon shared his interest in running for president with only a few close friends, and even they were never quite sure how seriously to take these flights of fancy.”

“But Bannon had thought hard enough about a path to the White House that he’d even toyed with starting a new political party and settled on a name: the National Union Party. That was the temporary name that Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party had adopted in 1864 to attract War Democrats and Unionists. In Bannon’s vision, it would now unite disaffected populists on both ends of the political spectrum. With support from financial benefactors like the Mercer family, he seemed to imagine such a path might be viable, and that a true devotee of right-wing nationalism — rather than a charlatan like Trump—could succeed where his predecessor had failed.”

The Coming Information Apocalypse

February 11, 2018 at 10:51 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

BuzzFeed News: “Aviv Ovadya saw early what many — including lawmakers, journalists, and Big Tech CEOs — wouldn’t grasp until months later: Our platformed and algorithmically optimized world is vulnerable — to propaganda, to misinformation, to dark targeted advertising from foreign governments — so much so that it threatens to undermine a cornerstone of human discourse: the credibility of fact.”

“But it’s what he sees coming next that will really scare the shit out of you.”

”That future, according to Ovadya, will arrive with a slew of slick, easy-to-use, and eventually seamless technological tools for manipulating perception and falsifying reality.”

Abuse Claims Expose Fissures in the White House

February 11, 2018 at 10:15 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The furor over spousal abuse allegations that forced the resignation of one of President Trump’s top advisers last week has exposed fissures within the White House that had been papered over since John F. Kelly took over last summer as chief of staff with a mandate to end the dysfunction,” the New York Times reports.

“Aides to the president said they remained confused and upset over the handling of the accusations against Rob Porter, the staff secretary who stepped down. Days after his departure, the White House was still struggling on Sunday to provide a consistent explanation of who knew what and when, even as questions swirled about whether anyone might be felled as a result.”

Trump Budget Gives Up on Deficit Reduction

February 11, 2018 at 9:09 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump on Monday will offer a budget plan that falls far short of eliminating the government’s deficit over 10 years, conceding that huge tax cuts and new spending increases make this goal unattainable,” the Washington Post reports.

“Eliminating the budget deficit over 10 years has been a North Star for the Republican Party for several decades, and GOP lawmakers took the government to the brink of default in 2011 when they demanded a vote on a amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit the federal government from spending more than it takes in through revenues.”

The Mysterious Oppo Researcher In the White House

February 11, 2018 at 7:15 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Few people in or close to the White House have any idea what Michael Roman does all day,” Politico reports.

“Officially, Roman works as a special assistant to the president and director of special projects and research, a vague title that reveals almost nothing. He earns $115,000 a year for this work, according to White House salary records, and keeps an office inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.”

“Roman, whose 25-person intelligence-gathering unit was officially disbanded by the Kochs in 2016, was hired by Donald Trump’s campaign to oversee poll-watching in the final weeks before the election and was among a handful of unannounced hires who quietly joined the White House soon after Trump’s inauguration.”

Senate Conservatives Introduce Immigration Plan

February 11, 2018 at 6:01 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Heading into an open-ended immigration debate, some of the Senate’s most conservative members are offering a package heavy with border security and provisions aimed at quickly deporting unauthorized migrants,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The plan also includes cuts to family-based immigration and the elimination of the diversity lottery that would ultimately reduce total legal immigration to the U.S. by about a third, as well as a path to citizenship for young undocumented people brought to the U.S. as children.”

CNN: “The proposal is expected to be one of several amendments the Senate will consider this week as it debates immigration. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has used a bill unrelated to immigration as the starting point for the debate, which will allow senators to offer proposals that can compete for 60 votes to advance.”

White House Still Can’t Get Its Story Straight

February 11, 2018 at 5:22 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Swan: “It’s been five days since domestic violence allegations toward Rob Porter surfaced. Within 24 hours, Porter was out of a job. The scandal has rocked the White House and one of its most astonishing components is that Chief of Staff John Kelly and the White House press shop are still providing conflicting stories about what happened.”

“This is crazy. Even in a White House that’s famous for chaos, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Democrats Have Made Only Marginal Gains In Party ID

February 11, 2018 at 5:17 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Charles Franklin, Director of the Marquette Law School Poll, offers this deep dive into party identification trends just for Political Wire members.

There has been a good bit of discussion about what has happened to party identification, specifically Republican identification since Trump took office. So let’s look and see what the data show.

Join now to continue reading.

Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.

If you’re already a member, sign in to your account.

Trump Privately Says Porter Is Guilty

February 11, 2018 at 4:48 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jonathan Swan: “Behind closed doors: The president has told multiple people that he believes the accusations about Porter, and finds him ‘sick.'”

“Four sources who have spoken directly with Trump tell me his private comments about ex-aide Porter — whose two ex-wives accused of violent attacks — have been brutal.”

“But his public comments don’t reflect that, at all. This is the strongest indicator yet that Trump will reflexively defend his male allies from any and all accusations, even when he thinks those accusations are true.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

February 11, 2018 at 4:21 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In light of the President’s and the White House’s continued dismissal of me and Colbie, I want to assure you my truth has not been diminished. I own my story and now that I have been compelled to share it, I’m not willing to cover it up for anyone. And for any men, women, or children currently in situations of abuse, please know: It is real. You are not crazy. You are not alone. I believe you.”

— Jennie Willoughby, ex-wife of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, writing in Time about President Trump’s skepticism that she was a victim of domestic abuse.

Mulvaney Says He Wouldn’t Have Voted for Budget

February 11, 2018 at 1:37 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney told CBS News that the two-year budget bill — passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump — is a “very dangerous idea” and explodes the deficit.

He added he would “probably not” have voted for it as a congressman.

Corker May Be Reconsidering Retirement

February 11, 2018 at 1:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) “has had conversations with a few colleagues in recent days about whether he should reconsider his decision to leave Congress and not seek re-election this year,” CNN reports.

“Whether it is a serious reconsideration, or just chatter with colleagues is the subject of some disagreement. There are also conflicting accounts of whether Corker has initiated the conversations, or whether he has had them with colleagues who are pushing him to think again.”

“But several sources say the issue has come up in recent conversations Corker has had with fellow Tennessean Sen. Lamar Alexander and with South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, two of Corker’s friends.”

Quote of the Day

February 11, 2018 at 11:17 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I think the real problem, as I’ve tried to mention, is that we are seeing now as normal things that we shouldn’t see as normal. And this degradation of the political culture is a real concern, where we’re no longer outraged when we ought to be.”

— Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), in an interview with NBC News.

Democrats Dominating Senate Fundraising Battle

February 11, 2018 at 10:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Republicans started the election cycle with designs on expanding their Senate majority, but the GOP’s candidates are far behind Democrats in fundraising going into 2018,” Politico reports.

“The numbers are stark: No Republican running for a Democratic-held seat raised more than $1 million from contributors in the fourth quarter of last year, but two Democrats running for seats held by Republicans did. By contrast, of the 10 vulnerable Democrats up for reelection this year in states President Donald Trump carried in 2016, all but West Virginia’s Joe Manchin raised more than $1 million.”

Catholic School Threatens to Expel Student Over Sticker

February 11, 2018 at 9:52 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A Catholic high school in Greenwich, CT told Sophomore Kate Murray that “if she does not remove a Planned Parenthood sticker from her laptop, she cannot attend the school next year,” the Greenwich Time reports.

“Murray was told by the private Catholic school’s administrators Tuesday she has a choice: If she keeps the sticker, she can leave the school now or leave at the end of the academic year, her parents said. If she removes the sticker, she can continue to attend the school.”

“The sticker states ‘I stand with Planned Parenthood’ and is one of many on Kate’s laptop.”

In response, more than 2,500 people have signed a petition saying “I Stand with Kate Murray.”