The White House Press Secretary announced that Sarah Huckabee Sanders will take President Trump’s place at the White House Correspondent’s Association annual dinner, Axios reports.
Mueller Has Evidence Contradicting Prince’s Testimony
Special counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year, when he described a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian financier close to Vladimir Putin as a casual chance encounter “over a beer,” sources tell ABC News.
“Well-connected Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, has been interviewed seven times by prosecutors on a wide range of subjects. He told investigators that he set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, mere days before Trump was inaugurated.”
South Korea’s Ex-Leader Jailed for 24 years for Corruption
“South Korea’s former President Park Geun-hye has been sentenced to 24 years in jail after she was found guilty of abuse of power and coercion,” the BBC reports.
“The verdict was broadcast live and represents the culmination of a scandal which rocked the country, fuelling rage against political and business elites.”
Trump and Generals Have Different Ideas on Warfare
Washington Post: “Trump and the military hold frequently opposing ideas about exactly what winning means. Those differences have played out in heated Situation Room ¬debates over virtually every spot on the globe where U.S. troops are engaged in combat, said senior administration officials. And they contributed to the dismissal last month of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster who as national security adviser had pressed the president against his instincts to support an open-ended commitment of U.S. forces to Afghanistan.”
“Trump’s words, both in public and private, describe a view that wars should be brutal and swift, waged with overwhelming firepower and, in some cases, with little regard for civilian casualties. Victory over America’s enemies for the president is often a matter of bombing ‘the shit out of them,’ as he said on the campaign trail.”
Trump Freezes Out John Kelly
Associated Press: “When President Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, White House chief of staff John Kelly wasn’t on the line. When Trump tapped John Bolton to be his next national security adviser, Kelly wasn’t in the room. And when Trump spent a Mar-a-Lago weekend stewing over immigration and trade, Kelly wasn’t in sight.”
“Kelly, once empowered to bring order to a turbulent West Wing, has receded from view, his clout diminished, his word less trusted by staff and his guidance less tolerated by an increasingly go-it-alone president.”
“Trump recently told one confidant that he was ‘tired of being told no’ by Kelly and has instead chosen to simply not tell Kelly things at all.”
Quote of the Day
“Thank you very much everybody. I’ll see you back in New York. Thank you.”
— President Trump, in a press gaggle on Air Force One, headed to Washington, D.C.
Warren Says She’ll Serve Full Senate Term If Elected
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said she would serve her full six-year term in the Senate if reelected this November, Politico reports.
Said Warren: “Yes, that’s my plan. I’m running for the United States Senate in 2018. I am not running for president of the United States. That’s my plan.”
Mueller Tracking Down Trump Business Partners
“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators this week questioned an associate of the Trump Organization who was involved in overseas deals with President Donald Trump’s company in recent years,” McClatchy reports.
“Armed with subpoenas compelling electronic records and sworn testimony, Mueller’s team showed up unannounced at the home of the business associate, who was a party to multiple transactions connected to Trump’s effort to expand his brand abroad, according to persons familiar with the proceedings.”
“Investigators were particularly interested in interactions involving Michael D. Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and a former Trump Organization employee. Among other things, Cohen was involved in business deals secured or sought by the Trump Organization in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia.”
Trump Claims Californians Vote Many Times
President Trump “claimed that there is widespread voter fraud in California, suggesting that Democrats are in favor of family-based immigration, so-called chain migration, and the visa lottery program because they believe they are gaining votes,” ABC News reports.
Said Trump: “They’re doing it for that reason. A lot of them aren’t going to be voting. A lot of times it doesn’t matter because in many places like California, the same person votes many times. You probably heard about that. There was like they say oh — not a conspiracy theory, folks. Millions and millions of people. It is very hard because the state guards their records.”
Trump Throws Away His Speech
President Trump was supposed to talk about the new tax law in West Virginia today, but he “tossed the script — literally,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “This was going to be my remarks. It would’ve taken about two minutes, but… That would’ve been a little boring, a little boring. Now I’m reading off the first paragraph, I said this is boring. Come on. We have to say, tell it like it is.”
He then threw his speech into the air.
“Rather than zeroing in on a focused message about the tax cuts that congressional Republicans believe is the key to retaining their majorities this fall, Trump launched into a rambling diatribe of red-meat rhetoric that had nothing to do with the tax law.”
Mulvaney Hikes Pay of Top Aides at Consumer Bureau
“Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s appointee to oversee the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has given big pay raises to the deputies he has hired to help him run the bureau,” the AP reports.
“Mulvaney has hired at least eight political appointees since he took over the bureau in late November. Four of them are making $259,500 a year and one is making $239,595. That is more than the salaries of members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, and nearly all federal judges apart from those who sit on the Supreme Court.”
Trump Mulls Extra $100 Billion in Tariffs on China
President Trump said that he “will consider hitting China with an additional $100 billion in tariffs, on top of the $50 billion the White House has already authorized, escalating threats of a trade war with the Chinese that his top advisers had tried to minimize a day earlier,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s threat of additional tariffs is a marked escalation of a trade dispute that could have global economic ramifications and derail the economic expansion underway.”
Jonathan Swan: “This is exactly what the free traders who formerly worked in the White House feared, Trump in a macho pissing match against Chinese President Xi. Trump has a blunt understanding of leverage and believes the worst thing he can show is weakness.”
Trump Says He Didn’t Know Stormy Daniels Was Paid Off
President Trump said that “he did not know that his personal attorney paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 days before the presidential election to prevent her from publicly accusing Trump of having an affair,” the Washington Post reports.
“The president said he did not know where his attorney, Michael Cohen, got the money for the payment, and he declined to say if he ever set up a fund for Cohen to cover expenses like that.”
EPA Officials Sidelined After Questioning Pruitt
“At least five officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, four of them high-ranking, were reassigned or demoted, or requested new jobs in the past year after they raised concerns about the spending and management of the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt,” the New York Times reports.
“The concerns included unusually large spending on office furniture and first-class travel, as well as certain demands by Mr. Pruitt for security coverage, such as requests for a bulletproof vehicle and an expanded 20-person protective detail, according to people who worked for or with the E.P.A. and have direct knowledge of the situation.”
WikiLeaks Sought Files From Guccifer 2.0
“Twitter DMs obtained by BuzzFeed News show that in the summer of 2016, WikiLeaks was working to obtain files from Guccifer 2.0, an online hacktivist persona linked to by Russian military intelligence, the clearest evidence to date of WikiLeaks admitting its pursuit of Guccifer 2.0.”
Rob Porter Is Source of Leaks About Pruitt
“Rob Porter, a top former aide to President Donald Trump who was fired earlier this year over domestic abuse allegations, is reportedly a source of information about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s ethical transgressions that are threatening his future at the agency, after Porter’s relationship with a top former Pruitt aide soured,” Inside EPA reports.
“Porter did not respond to requests for comment but two sources say he leaked information about Pruitt after Samantha Dravis, his former girlfriend who resigned last week as head of EPA’s policy office, leaked information about his assaults on his two former wives to White House Counsel Don McGahn.”
“Press reports have indicated that Dravis leaked the information to the White House counsel’s office after finding out that Porter had been having an affair with now-departed White House Communications Director Hope Hicks.”
Trump Still Thinking of Replacing Sessions with Pruitt
“President Trump floated replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Scott Pruitt as recently as this week, even as the scandal-ridden head of the Environmental Protection Agency has faced a growing list of negative headlines,” CNN reports.
Said a source: “He was 100% still trying to protect Pruitt because Pruitt is his fill-in for Sessions.”
Stone’s Rules
This should be interesting: Stone’s Rules: How to Win at Politics, Business, and Style by Roger Stone.
