| | | | | At one point during Thursday’s White House meeting on trade with governors and members of Congress from agriculture-heavy states, President Trump turned to Ben Sasse, seated two seats down to his left. Sasse is a Republican senator from Nebraska who has been sharply critical of Trump in general and of his trade policies in particular. Along with practically every other voice in the room, Sasse had expressed the view that the country’s farmers want open markets, not tariffs like those proposed by the Trump administration that have prompted threats of retaliatory tariffs from the Chinese on American agriculture exports. But Trump assured Sasse that they actually agreed. “We have the same goals,” the president said, saying that both Republicans don’t want tariffs on American exports. Sasse apparently isn’t so sure. The meeting attendees—which included three governors, eight senators, and five House members—Republicans all—told the president they wanted to support farmers in their states who just want to work hard and do well in the global ag market without too much government intervention. “Work, not welfare,” as Iowa senator Joni Ernst put it in the meeting. Read more... |
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| | Donald Trump’s position on another big trade issue zigged and zagged on Thursday, with the president telling two of his top economic advisers to look into rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That’s according to Ben Sasse and another Republican senator, Pat Roberts of Kansas, who say Trump issued the directive during their meeting at the White House.
This was something of a surprise, given Trump spent much of the 2016 election railing against TPP as a bad trade deal. And sure enough, the White House issued a statement edging away from what Sasse described as the president directing “Larry Kudlow and Ambassador [Robert] Lighthizer to negotiate U.S. entry into TPP.”
“Last year, the president kept his promise to end the TPP deal negotiated by the Obama administration because it was unfair to American workers and farmers,” said deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters. “The president has consistently said he would be open to a substantially better deal, including in his speech in Davos earlier this year. To that end, he has asked Amb. Lighthizer and Director Kudlow to take another look at whether or not a better deal could be negotiated.” | |
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| | Rosenstein Watch—Washington speculated what Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees the special counsel investigation, had been summoned to the White House for on Thursday. After Rosenstein was spotted outside the West Wing, the White House quickly issued a statement that the Justice official met with the president to discuss “routine Department business.”
A Justice Department source says Rosenstein and the department’s leadership are treating the speculation as just rumors. The source noted that Rosenstein had been at the dentist Wednesday with a follow-up appointment on Friday as evidence the DAG doesn’t expect to get canned. “I don’t think you go to the dentist if you think that’s about to happen,” said the source.
CNN, meanwhile, reports that the White House is “preparing talking points designed to undermine” Rosenstein’s credibility. “The plan calls on President Donald Trump's allies to cast Rosenstein as too conflicted to fairly oversee the Russia investigation,” reports CNN. “The talking points are still in their preliminary form, and not yet finalized, people familiar with their preparation said. The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment.” | |
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| | When he came before the Senate last January to be confirmed as President Trump’s new CIA director, Mike Pompeo faced stiff resistance from a group of Democrats who groused about his stances on data collection and his closeness to President Trump. With Pompeo back before them now as Trump’s nominee for secretary of State, Democrats haven’t given any indication they’ll be easier on him this time around, as they made clear during his testimony before the Foreign Relations committee Thursday.
During the five-hour session, Democrats subjected Pompeo to a litany of pointed questions, including whether he opposed spending cuts to the State Department and whether he would stand up to the president’s spasmodic personal diplomacy. Other lines of inquiry probed Pompeo’s conservative beliefs: New Jersey senator Cory Booker repeatedly pressed him to answer whether “being gay” is a “perversion.”
“Senator, when I was a politician, I had a very clear view on whether it was appropriate for two same-sex persons to marry,” Pompeo responded. “I stand by that.” Read more about the hearing from my colleague Jenna Lifhits, who spoke to some of the Democrats on the committee. | |
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One More Thing—The Washington Post editorial page, no friend to President Trump, is urging the Senate to confirm Pompeo. ”Mr. Pompeo should be deployed to Foggy Bottom in the hope that he will fulfill his promise to revive and reassert U.S. diplomacy,” the editorial reads in part.
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More Bolton Purge—Ricky Waddell, the deputy national security adviser, is also leaving the White House, Jonathan Swan of Axios first reported Thursday. His departure confirms what I’d been hearing about Waddell’s future and comports with the general thrust of things: Under new national security adviser John Bolton, the president’s natsec team is getting a purge.
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