National security adviser H.R. McMaster met with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea (Shotaro Yachi and Chung Eui-yong, respectively) in San Francisco this weekend, as Jonathan Swan of Axios first reported. The meeting, which had been planned months ahead of time, nonetheless came shortly after the recent bilateral meeting between the South Koreans and the North Koreans, in the demilitarized zone between the divided countries.
With this San Francisco meeting, McMaster had two purposes. The first was to bridge the divide between South Korea and Japan on some key security measures: joint military exercises and coordination on sanctions enforcement.
The second was to keep open the dialogue with the left-wing South Korean government, which the White House fears may be too-willing to make unilateral concessions with Pyongyang at a time when the United States is pursuing a campaign of maximum pressure on Kim Jong-un.
McMaster’s meeting occurred days before Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opened his summit in Vancouver with the 20 allied nations who fought with the United States in the Korean War. Tillerson is seeking broad support for the pressure campaign against North Korea—what the nation’s top diplomat called a “unified message” of opposition to a nuclear-armed regime in Pyongyang. |
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Mueller Watch—The New York Times reports that Robert Mueller has subpoenaed Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist, to appear before the grand jury empaneled by the special counsel. My colleague Eric Felten suggests that given the beating “Sloppy Steve” has endured from President Trump and his allies since the release of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, Bannon may be a “prosecutor’s dream”—that is, a willing witness with insider information.
Then again, it doesn’t sound like Bannon was interested in cooperating with the House Intelligence committee when he appeared before it on Wednesday. Here’s Politico, which reports the committee subpoenaed him “on the spot”: According to the source, Bannon's attorney told the committee that he wouldn't discuss anything about his time in the White House or during the transition after the 2016 election. During that period, Trump privately met and spoke with then-FBI Director James Comey, and the president allegedly sought a pledge of loyalty and asked Comey to go easy on former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Bannon was also in the White House when Trump fired Comey. |
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Photo of the Day
 Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev and President Trump during a joint press conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 16, 2018. Trump said he has 'no idea' whether money from Kazakhstan was invested in Trump SoHo, a condominium hotel in lower Manhattan, while meeting with the country's authoritarian president. (Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg)
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A thorough medical examination found President Trump overweight but otherwise in excellent health, his doctor said Tuesday.
“All clinical data indicates the president is healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency,” Dr. Ronny Jackson, a Navy admiral who has served as White House physician during the last three administrations, told reporters, adding that he was encouraging the president to exercise more and eat a healthier diet. According to Jackson, Trump clocked in at 239 pounds, one pound short of obesity for a man of his height.
Jackson also said he had given Trump a cognitive test at the president's own request, on which Trump achieved a perfect score. Questions of the president's mental health have been in the news in recent weeks after the publication of Michael Wolffe’s book Fire and Fury, which alleged that White House aides have worried about the president’s sanity, prompting Trump to claim on Twitter that he is a “very stable genius.” Read more... |
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With two days to go until the government shuts down Friday, Republicans and Democrats are in a standoff, with both sides signaling they are unwilling to compromise to pass a stopgap bill to keep the lights on.
At issue is the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which the Trump presidency has scheduled to sunset in March. Senate Democrats are threatening to withhold their votes from a continuing budget resolution to keep funding the government unless it also includes language reauthorizing DACA. Meanwhile Republicans insist DACA must be dealt with in a separate piece of legislation that also includes increased spending on border security and changes to how the country extends invitations for legal immigration to foreigners.
The Trump administration, for its part, is still striking an optimistic tone about a compromise, although press secretary Sarah Sanders on Tuesday spoke cuttingly of Democrats who “don’t want to see this president be successful.” Read more... |
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