“North Korean officials didn’t show up for a planned meeting with U.S. counterparts to discuss returning the remains of American war dead… in the latest sign of tensions between the two sides,” Bloomberg reports.
“U.S. negotiators arrived Thursday at the militarized border between the two Koreas as previously announced by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and were kept waiting,”
“President Trump wants to update the paint job on the next version of Air Force One, ditching the iconic robin’s-egg blue (which he calls a ‘Jackie Kennedy color’) for a bolder, ‘more American’ look,” Axios reports.
President Trump “strongly recommitted American support for NATO,” saying that he “had won great concessions from allies on military spending, though he did not offer any details,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “The United States was not being treated fairly, but now we are. I told people that I’d be very unhappy if they did not up their commitments very substantially.”
“But if his public remarks were friendly, the tone behind closed doors was much harsher.”
President Trump again called himself a “very stable genius” after a Croatian reporter asked at the NATO summit if he’d change his tone on Twitter regarding the alliance once he’d left, Axios reports.
Said Trump: “No, that’s other people that do that. I don’t. I’m very consistent. I’m a very stable genius.”
“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 28-year old former waitress who shocked Democratic Party politics by defeating Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) in a primary last month, is deploying members of her growing campaign staff to help another liberal upstart seeking to unseat a longtime Democratic incumbent,” CBS News reports.
“Ocasio-Cortez this week decided to send at least three paid campaign staffers to Delaware to help Kerri Evelyn Harris, an Air Force veteran and community activist who is challenging three-term Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE) in a Sept. 6 primary.”
“Trump was in a good mood, he said Europe is a continent he appreciates and which has to develop its defense spending further. But he has WiFi on the plane, so we will have to see in the end.”
— Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on the NATO dinner last night.
“President Trump upended the NATO summit here Thursday by calling an emergency meeting of leaders and threatening that if all member countries do not immediately increase their defense spending commitments, the United States would go it alone,” the Washington Post reports.
“It was not clear whether Trump was threatening a U.S. withdrawal from NATO, but some diplomats perceived his comments that way.”
“Trump told NATO leaders that if they did not meet their defense spending targets of 2 percent of gross domestic product by January, the United States would go it alone… The officials said Trump threatened to ‘do his own thing.’”
Politico: “Some officials urged caution in interpreting Trump’s remarks, but say allies clearly heard a threat.“
“A recently filed financial disclosure shows Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) celebrated passing the House version of the Republican tax bill in quite the lavish way,” Florida Politics reports.
“According to the disclosure, Buchanan spent between $1 million and $5 million purchasing an Ocean Alexander yacht on Nov. 16, 2017, the same day he joined 226 other Republicans and no Democrats in voting for the first draft of the ‘Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.’l
Beto O’Rourke (D) “raised an eye-popping $10.4 million in the last three months — catching up to Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R) six-year haul in just over 15 months as he seeks to topple the Republican darling,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
“The first skirmishes in the battle over the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court are about timing, as Republicans seek to hold hearings and install him on the court before the new term in October,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been noncommittal on exactly how swiftly he can move, as well as on how to handle requests to review potentially millions of documents that crossed the desk of the nominee when he was a White House staff secretary for former President George W. Bush.”
”The prospect that the volume of the Bush papers could hold up the confirmation process was a late concern for the White House as it narrowed in on the nominee.”
“President Trump is remaking the global trade order without significant political resistance or penalty, unchecked by a largely compliant Congress and bolstered by the loyalty of his supporters — even those likely to be hurt by his burgeoning global trade war,” the Washington Post reports.
“Congress’s passivity in the face of Trump’s escalating trade conflict is one of several factors that have made it easier for the president to push on. Others have included markets that haven’t melted down, business leaders who have done little beyond using rhetoric to criticize the trade spat, and Republican voters who have stood by their president. In each of these cases, critics of his trade policy had hoped Trump would find reason to be dissuaded.”
Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-NY) campaign placed an electronic tracking device inside the lawmaker’s campaign signs, which was used to track down a sign allegedly stolen by a liberal activist, the Ithaca Journal reports.
Stan Collender: “The specific issue that will trigger yet another federal government shutdown showdown this September will be Donald Trump’s seemingly pathological obsession with building a wall between the United States and Mexico.”
“First, Trump may see this as his last opportunity to get funding for his wall… Second, a Trump-induced shutdown this September over full funding for the wall may be perceived by the White House as the best immigration issue to inflame his base just before the midterm election… Third, Trump may look at the GOP congressional leadership’s strong desire to get its members home to campaign as increased leverage to get the full $25 billion.”
“Fourth, especially if his Supreme Court nominee is confirmed by the Senate and the economy remains strong, Trump may be feeling politically invincible this fall.”
Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh “incurred tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt buying baseball tickets over the past decade and at times reported liabilities that could have exceeded the value of his cash accounts and investment assets,” the Washington Post reports.
The White House said Kavanaugh “built up the debt by buying Washington Nationals season tickets and tickets for playoff games for himself and a ‘handful’ of friends.”
“Kavanaugh’s most recent financial disclosure forms reveal assets between $15,000 and $65,000, which would put him at the bottom of the financial ranking of justices, most of whom list well over $1 million in assets.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is up for re-election this year, told Talkline radio that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh “has all the right qualities” of a Justice and that he will defer to his constituents when casting his vote.
Said Manchin: “I think he seems to be a very fine person of high moral standards. A family person who’s very involved in his community. Has all the right qualities. He’s well-educated. And with that, you know, we have to just look at making sure that the rule of law and the Constitution is going to be followed.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “has asked federal prosecutors to help review the government documents of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Rosenstein’s request was an unusual insertion of politics into federal law enforcement. While the Justice Department has helped work on previous Supreme Court nominations, department lawyers in Washington typically carry out that task, not prosecutors who pursue criminal investigations nationwide.”
“Exercise caution if unexpectedly in the vicinity of large gatherings that may become violent.”
— A U.S. Embassy statement in London warning Americans to “keep a low profile” during President Trump’s upcoming trip to the U.K.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.