Trump Insists He’s Doing a Great Job
“Friends say President Trump has grown frustrated that his greatness is not widely understood, that his critics are fierce and on TV every morning, that his poll numbers are both low and ‘fake,’ and that his White House is caricatured as adrift,” Politico reports.
“So on Monday, the consummate salesman—who has spent his 71 years selling his business acumen, golf courses, sexual prowess, luxury properties, and above all, his last name—gave the Trump White House a Trump-sized dose of brand enhancement.”
“With both the Roosevelt Room and Rose Garden as backdrops, he mixed facts and mirage, praise and perfidy in two head-spinning, sometimes contradictory performances designed to convince supporters and detractors alike that everything’s terrific, moving ahead of schedule and getting even better. His opponents were cast as misguided, deluded or even unpatriotic.”
Trump Falsely Claims Obama Didn’t Call Soldiers’ Families
President Trump falsely asserted that Barack Obama and other presidents did not contact the families of American troops killed in duty, the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “If you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate.”
“Mr. Trump’s assertion belied a long record of meetings Mr. Obama held with the families of killed service people, as well as calls and letters. Mr. Obama regularly traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to greet the caskets of troops, a ritual that began early in his presidency before he decided to deploy 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.”
Hostage Thought Captors Were Joking About Trump
“The Canadian man who was held hostage with his family by the Taliban for five years thought his captors were kidding when they told him Donald Trump was president,” the New York Post reports.
Said Joshua Boyle: “It didn’t enter my mind that he was being serious.”
Let Trump Be Trump
Coming soon: Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency by Corey Lewandowski and Dave Bossie.
Trump Says He’ll Talk to Bannon
President Trump said that he would try to talk his former top strategist, Steve Bannon, out of backing primary challenges against at least some incumbent Republican senators, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Said Trump: “Steve is doing what Steve thinks is the right thing. Some of the people that he may be looking at, I’m gonna see if we can talk him out of that.”
Republicans Have No Other Ideas
Jonathan Chait: “The last time Republicans had control of government, they explained that cutting taxes would not get in the way of fiscal responsibility. Not only would tax cuts produce faster growth, they argued, they would also force Congress to restrain spending. Their strategy utterly failed. Not only did the tax cuts fail to produce higher growth, they also failed to encourage spending restraint…”
“And so there they are, back to the exact same policy they tried in 2001: Pass a huge tax cut and hope somehow it leads to cutting spending. That this policy is now being carried out by the same people who rose to power by denouncing the failure of the exact same policy last time tells you everything you need to know about the state of economic policy thought in the Republican Party now.”
North Korea Rejects Diplomacy
A North Korean official reaffirmed Pyongyang’s commitment to developing a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching “all the way to the East coast of the mainland U.S.,” telling CNN that the rogue nation is currently not interested in diplomacy with the U.S. until it achieves that goal.
Trump Claims He’s Closer to McConnell Than Ever
President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “held a surprise press conference following their lunch meeting at the White House Monday,” Axios reports.
Said Trump: “McConnell and I have been friends for a long time. We’re probably now, despite what you read, closer than ever before.”
However, earlier the New York Times reports Trump “offered support to Stephen Bannon, his former White House adviser, who has declared political war against members of the Republican establishment, including several senators like McConnell.”
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Bredesen Mulls Senate Bid In Tennessee
Former Gov. Phil Bredesen (D), the last Democrat to win a statewide race in Tennessee, is considering a bid to succeed retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) in the U.S. Senate, the AP reports.
Cochran Still Not Back at Work
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) “will not return to Washington on Monday as planned due to continued health problems — denying Senate Republicans a reliable vote as they take up a must-pass budget later this week,” Politico reports.
A statement from his office said that he will “return to the Senate when his health permits.”
USA Today: “Cochran’s failure to return to work Monday has prompted numerous national news reports saying GOP leaders are worried about an extended absence of a key member of the budget-setting process and a Republican vote they can’t afford to lose on pending measures.”
Quote of the Day
“I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020? My answer was, ‘I hope so!'”
— President Trump, on Twitter.
Judge Refuses to Dismiss Menendez Corruption Charges
“After raising Sen. Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) hopes last week, a federal judge crushed them on Monday morning,” Politico reports.
“U.S. District Court Judge William Walls refused to toss any of the 18 charges in the corruption case against Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, despite last week casting doubt on a legal theory that’s at the heart of the prosecution’s case.”
Trump Allies Worry Losing House Means Impeachment
“In more than a dozen interviews, Republicans inside and outside the White House told CNN conversations are ramping up behind the scenes about whether Trump fully grasps that his feuds with members of his own party and shortage of legislative achievements could soon put the fate of his presidency at risk.”
“Donors who trekked to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in support of House Speaker Paul Ryan were treated to a slide show late this summer to fundraise off those very fears, according to multiple attendees. Among the slides: An overview of the Democrats who would be tapped to lead key committees if the GOP loses control, including Rep. Elijah Cummings as the head of the House Oversight Committee.”
“To some attendees, the subtext was clear. If Republicans forfeit the House, Democrats will almost certainly create a spectacle that will derail conservatives’ agenda and the remainder of Trump’s first term — a spectacle complete with a raft of new subpoenas, a spotlight on the Russia investigation and, many are convinced, impeachment proceedings.”
What Will Bannon’s ‘War’ Actually Look Like?
BuzzFeed: “Steve Bannon has sucked up gobs of political oxygen with his budding operation to take down establishment Republicans in next year’s elections. But his political army, and the secretive financiers backing it, so far are just loosely organized upstarts in an ecosystem dominated by well-established groups.”
“As the GOP appears to be on the verge of another civil war and reports of Bannon’s 2018 plans dominate headlines, the big question Republicans are still trying to figure out is: Beyond a photo op, what does Bannon’s support actually mean for Michael Grimm and several other candidates he is backing?”
Asked that question directly, a close Bannon ally responded: “It’s actually still TBD.”
Congressional Candidate Says She Was Abducted by Aliens
“Florida has a U.S. senator who once flew aboard the Space Shuttle,” McClatchy reports.
“A congressional candidate from Miami can go one better: Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera (R) says she’s been aboard a spaceship too. But this one was crewed by aliens. As in extraterrestrials.”
“Three blond, big-bodied beings — two females, one male — visited her when she was 7 years old and have communicated telepathically with her several times in her life, she says.”
Cotton Eyed for Possible CIA Vacancy
Mike Allen: “We told you about internal administration conversations about sliding CIA Director Mike Pompeo over to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whenever he heads back to Texas.”
“Now we’re hearing about a top possibility for the next chess move: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) was considered for CIA director (and SecDef) during the transition, and is a candidate for CIA again.”
“Cotton is one of the few senators with an easy relationship with Trump, talking to him a few times a week, giving him advice about top jobs (that Trump has taken), and planting the seed for the Iran policy announced Friday.”
