Gary Cohn, the former Goldman Sachs executive who runs economic policy inside the White House, is getting star treatment this weekend. Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times popped highly choreographed pieces on Cohn's rise.
If this sentence is true, it should worry people who work for President Trump — and people who're thinking about it. And bringing in good people is a challenge right now: Talented, experienced Republicans who have turned down big jobs tell me it's partly because it just seems too risky right now.
Trump has been increasingly focused on who was with him or against him during his campaign, according to several people who have spoken with him in recent days.
The WSJ has a useful rundown of how a group of Mexican businessmen, politicians and activists are working to make it harder for Trump to deport Mexican nationals.
An ad campaign urging people to fight their deportations in court. The goal is to gum up the court system so badly it can't push through deportation and extradition orders.
$50 million from the government to help illegal immigrants facing deportation.
"President Enrique Peña Nieto has instructed the country's 50 consulates in the U.S. to defend migrants."
Politicians threatening to stop cooperating with the U.S. on anti-drug and counter-terror operations.
A group of lawmakers are working on legislation to ban Mexico paying for Trump's wall.
"I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the........design or negotiations yet. When I do, just like with the F-35 FighterJet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!"
The background: the estimated price tag of Trump's wall keeps getting higher and higher, as Axios noted last month. It's gone from $4 billion in 2015 (Trump) all the way up to Homeland Security saying nearly $22 billion in a report released by Reuters on Friday. That's not even the ceiling, as MIT estimates it will cost between $27-40 billion.
Why it matters: Trump is hoping that the public will trust him enough not to revolt against a potentially shocking price tag, enabling Congress to build the wall without a political mess. And he thinks the examples of the F-35 fighter and Air Force One will get him across that finish line.
Trump's hanging out and playing some golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. And he probably needs it. It hasn't been a great week for Team Trump.
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.
Data: American Bar Association; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
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:
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
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.
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.
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..."
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.
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.
