Axios

According to a senior U.S. official, Russia might serve Edward Snowden up to the U.S. as an early "gift" to "curry favor" with Trump, per NBC. Snowden, who Trump has called a "spy" and a "traitor," faces federal charges and a minimum of 30 years in prison for revealing National Security Agency secrets exposing surveillance programs.

Snowden's ACLU lawyer told NBC they aren't aware of this plan, and the Kremlin called it "nonsense."

What reception would Snowden get? Trump and CIA Director Mike Pompeo have said Snowden deserves to be executed, but the White House gave no comment to NBC. The DOJ said it would welcome Snowden's return.

Why this matters: Former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate told NBC accepting Snowden would be a bad call:

"For Russia, this would be a win-win. They've already extracted what they needed from Edward Snowden in terms of information and they've certainly used him to beat the United States over the head in terms of its surveillance and cyber activity."

Trump called it: "[I]f I were president, Putin would give him over," he said in July.

On his way to Florida, Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One and revelaed he's planning a new executive order on immigration, per the AP. Any details, Mr. President?

I'd like to surprise you.

He said the next order would change "very little" from the first one. Expect a new order Monday or Tuesday, he said, since he's needs to move quickly "for reasons of security."

Update: Trump said his team will be weighing its options still, including making changes to the order, per a pool report.

President Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe board Air Force One with their wives, First Lady Melania Trump and Akie Abe. The four of them are headed to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort for the weekend.

Trump tweeted he would take the recent 9th Circuit Court ruling against his travel ban up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court disagrees with the 9th Circuit often, somewhere between 61% and 80%. This rate could predict a win for Trump's legal team.

Why it matters: The higher rate of 80% includes both when the Supreme Court reversed or vacated decisions from the 9th Circuit, both of which signal disagreement with the ruling at stake, just to different degrees.

What this means: The Supreme Court reverses a lot of cases from a lot of federal courts, but the 9th Circuit Court tends to get reversed more than the other courts on average.

Don't get caught in this trap: It is tempting to focus on the 80% rate — but this shows when the Supreme Court reversed decisions combined with the times it vacated decisions. The Supreme Court REVERSED 9th Circuit decisions 61% of the time (which excludes decisions that were vacated), which signals disagreement to a greater extent.

• The immigration ban: The president said he has "no doubt" he'll eventually prevail in court and hinted that something is coming "very rapidly" next week on national security.
• TPP: Prime Minister Abe dodged multiple questions on TPP. Instead, he said he remained focused on a plan for VP Pence to begin a new economic dialogue with Japan's Deputy PM.
• 1 fun thing: Trump reportedly didn't wear his translation earpiece for Abe's opening statement.

Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to Trump, is serving as a "shadow secretary of state," working behind the scenes with foreign leaders and diplomats to guide the president on foreign affairs communications, the Washington Post reports.

So is it working? Somewhat. Kushner had some success in mitigating Trump's comments on Mexico and though foreign officials have said they were skeptical at first of Kushner, they say he's turned out to be a "good listener and courteous intermediary."

Areas to Watch:

1. Mexico: Kushner and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray have formed a personal bond through mutual friends, so this could come back into play for Mexico-U.S. relations
2. The Middle East: Trump has publicly assigned Kushner the tasks of pushing along a Middle East peace and ambassador selections for the region

Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough says that "several sources" tell him the White House is working on redrafting Trump's executive order on travel ban suspension.

Yesterday the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that the order to block the executive order will stay in place.

A new Politico report today paints the picture of a White House rife with leaks and a businessman-turned-president attempting to come to grips with the realities of running a government. Key sentence:

In interviews, nearly two dozen people who've spent time with Trump in the three weeks since his inauguration said that his mood has careened between surprise and anger as he's faced the predictable realities of governing, from congressional delays over his cabinet nominations and legal fights holding up his aggressive initiatives to staff in-fighting and leaks.

Highlights:

• Trump's planned directive to his staff on leaks: "Cut this shit out."
• Return of Christie?: The New Jersey governor is reportedly telling people that he'll be a part of a "second wave" in the White House once Trump's initial hires are shown the door.
• There's no place like home: Trump's aides joke that he should spend more time at Mar-a-Lago, where he's noticeably more relaxed.
• Spicer Soaker: After Melissa McCarthy's SNL sendup, Sean Spicer wanted to blast the press corps with a water gun during a press briefing, but Trump said no.

This morning:

Why Trump is confused: As Axios detailed in Trump 101, the president reads the Times in print. He's seeing their front page today, which has that quote.

But... The NYTimes story he is reading this morning was published before 9pm last night, while the White House released the details of the call around 11pm. The Times has since updated their story to reflect his phone call, which Trump would see if he read them online.

One of Washington's best-connected Republicans passes along this bit of gallows humor that's going around establishment D.C.:

Trump is like Ollie North. He actually believes the stuff he's lying about.

The Washington Post and the New York Times are out with new stories contradicting National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's claim that he didn't talk sanctions during his Russia phone call back in December. Details:

• WaPo cites 9 former and current officials in a position to know: "All of those officials said ­Flynn's references to the election-related sanctions were explicit."
• NYT: "The officials said that Mr. Flynn had never made explicit promises of sanctions relief, but that he had appeared to leave the impression it would be possible."
• Flynn's shifting denials: Flynn told WaPo twice on Wednesday that he didn't discuss sanctions. On Thursday, a spokesman said while "[Flynn] had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn't be certain that the topic never came up."
• The FBI is still investigating Flynn: But a case against him remains unlikely. The Logan Act has never been prosecuted.

The president talked on the phone last night with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The White House says it was a cordial call. No leaks yet on whether any officials in the room disagreed on the tone.

The big news: Trump told Jinping the U.S. will respect the "one China" policy, a significant walk back from taking a phone call from the president of Taiwan before Inauguration Day.

The backstory, via the NYT: "Mr. Xi, stung by Mr. Trump's unorthodox telephone call with the president of Taiwan in December and his subsequent assertion that the United States might no longer abide by the One China policy, had not spoken to Mr. Trump since Nov. 14, the week after he was elected. ... Administration officials concluded that Mr. Xi would take a call only if Mr. Trump publicly committed to upholding the 44-year-old policy..."

See the Axios Facts Matter on the "one China" policy

Editor's Note: This article was updated after publishing to reflect the most recent version of the New York Times story, which was significantly edited without telling its readers.

THE ISSUE:

President Trump, before he took office, took a phone call from the president of Taiwan. It didn't go well. But in a call with the leader of China, Trump has now agreed to respect the "one China" policy.

THE FACTS:

In 1949, China split between the mainland, ruled by Communists, and Taiwan, ruled by Nationalists. In 1992, the two agreed that there was one China. In practice, that's meant China leaves Taiwan alone, while Taiwan doesn't try to declare formal independence.

The current ruling party in Taiwan, the DPP, wants to declare independence. That means they won't always abide by One-China niceties. For the U.S. government, that requires being careful about things like taking phone calls from the head of state in Taiwan (especially when the DPP is in power).

WHY IT MATTERS:

Trump used China as a punching bag during the campaign, saying they're stealing our jobs and tanking our economy. The phone call from Taiwan was an escalation of that. But if the Trump call with China has been reported accurately, it looks like even the Trump administration recognizes the benefits of respecting the status quo. And one reason that matters is because of the South China Sea.

The president chatted about the 9th Circuit Court decision to maintain a block on his travel ban:

Trump weighed in on taking it to the Supreme Court, per the AP:

This is a decision that we'll win in my opinion very easily.