President Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took off Friday for a golfing weekend at Mar-a-Lago. While they were there, North Korea launched a ballistic missile test into the Sea of Japan.
Trump's joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was exactly what you might expect: polite, formal, and not especially newsworthy. The highlights...
Is Flynn in? Mike Flynn was spotted taking his seat at the presser. Trump only called on friendly media outlets at the (a local Sinclair affiliate and The Daily Caller), successfully avoiding any questions about Flynn's job status.
Key points of agreement between both leaders: Greater infrastructure investment, a joint council to benefit women entrepreneurs in North America, and a fight against opioids crossing the border.
Comparing their statements on different issues:The Canada-U.S. relationship
Trump: "We share much more than a border, we share the same values...America is deeply fortunate to have a neighbor like Canada."
Trudeau: "Relationships between neighbors are pretty complex — and we won't always agree on everything."
Trade between the U.S. and Canada
Trump: "It's a much less severe situation than what's taking place on the southern border."
Trudeau: "We know that by working together — by ensuring the continued integration of our two economies — we will be continuing to create good opportunities for the middle class."
Refugees and security
Trump: "We want to have to have a big beautiful, open door, but we cannot have the wrong people come in."
Trudeau: "The last thing Canadians expect is for me to come down and lecture another country on how they choose to govern themselves."
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to Washington:
The hot issues:
That embassy, which — according Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Bob Corker — Trump's team wanted to move right away from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem right away. "They were ready to move the embassy at 12:01 on Jan. 20...That was going to be their first move."
Israeli settlements, which Trump has rejected, opting for a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
CNN's Brian Stelter says "this story reads like a cry for help" from NSC staffers. It's the two-column lead of the N.Y. Times, "Tensions and Chaos Rattle National Security Council: Foreign Policy Made via Twitter Tests Staff," by David Sanger, Eric Schmitt and Peter Baker, "based on conversations with more than two dozen current and former council staff members and others throughout the government." Top nuggets:
"K. T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, said that early meetings of the council were brisker, tighter and more decisive than in the past, but she acknowledged that career officials were on edge."
Sign of the times: "Two officials said that at one recent meeting, there was talk of feeding suggested Twitter posts to the president so the council's staff would have greater influence."
"Many [officials] who remain, who see themselves as apolitical civil servants, have been disturbed by displays of overt partisanship. At an all-hands meeting about two weeks into the new administration, Ms. McFarland told the group it needed to 'make America great again,' numerous staff members who were there said."
"New Trump appointees are carrying coffee mugs with that Trump campaign slogan into meetings with foreign counterparts, one staff member said."
"Nervous staff members recently met late at night at a bar a few blocks from the White House and talked about purging their social media accounts of any suggestion of anti-Trump sentiments."
Bloomberg's David Tweed, based in Hong Kong, describes how India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam have all "escaped Trump's glare" on trade, but they may soon become high on his radar. "The U.S. runs trade deficits with all of them, in some cases quite big ones," writes Tweed.
"Almost every country in Asia exports somewhere between an awful lot and a lot to the United States," said Deborah Elms, executive director of the Asian Trade Centre, a Singapore-based consultancy. "Trade deficits are a problem. At any moment there could be an angry Donald Trump in your face or a Twitter coming your way. Have other countries woken up to this problem? Perhaps not."
The Asian economy most vulnerable to a trade attack by the U.S.? "After China and Japan, Vietnam is probably next," says Tweed.
Why these economies should be jittery: Higher levies could be imposed for U.S. imports from all of these countries.
The backstory: :Peter Navarro, head of Trump's National Trade Council, and Commerce Secretary-nominee Wilbur Ross last year wrote a paper for Trump's campaign where they pinpointed America's trade gaps as a cause for what they described as its 'slow growth plunge.'"
Imagine you're Reince Priebus. Every day, you hear speculation that your days as White House chief of staff are numbered. You wake up on a Sunday and read that colleague Kellyanne Conway's dream job is, well, yours.
It's the most important under-covered story of the early weeks of the Administration. While President Trump pops off tweets and executive orders, the Republican House has been quietly overturning significant elements of Obama's late presidency.
At the White House roundtable around noon on Monday, President Trump and left-wing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will launch the "Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders."
The purpose of the council, according to a White House aide, is to "encourage more connectivity and business activity between women business leaders between our two countries." That includes taking on barriers faced by female entrepreneurs and small business owners.
Ivanka Trump is expected to be there: She'll be joined by her right-hand woman Dina Powell. Other expected attendees include Elyse Allan, CEO of GE Canada; Carol Stephenson from the General Motors board of directors, and Julie Sweet, Group CEO of Accenture North America.
Why this matters: The meeting shows how Ivanka can both guide the President's policy goals and, in subtle ways, his diplomacy. The Trump-Trudeau relationship may yet prove contentious — in fact we bet it does, with issues like climate change and refugees — but tomorrow's event is a smart play for common ground.
President Trump's lone representative on the Sunday shows today was his senior policy advisor Stephen Miller.
Miller, a true believing populist nationalist, was a prime mover of the controversial travel ban. He didn't retreat one inch or acknowledge a single Administration mistake during his appearances today.
A big reason the first three weeks of the Trump presidency have been such a rollercoaster: the intense, daily competition between two very different world views in the West Wing — those who want radical confrontation at home and abroad, versus those who want to conform better to Washington and international norms.
Hence, the wild swings from confrontation over a "One China" policy to total accommodation, or a full-court fight over extreme vetting to growing momentum to simply fix it.
As Jonathan Swan pointed out last week, in the wake of a devastating election season, Dems are rallying together with a slew of grassroots supporters to fight Trump and the reigning GOP. Although there are differences between the goals and methods of the conservative Tea Party and the liberal resistance, in some ways, it feels like we've seen this all before.
The only person grabbing headlines as often as Trump these days is Steve Bannon, who quietly advised Trump during the campaign and now serves as the White House Chief Strategist.
While some of the many accusations and theories about him may be true, there's more to the story. Unlike SNL's comedic depiction of him as a soulless skeleton, Bannon's long-formed, nuanced and highly controversial beliefs make him a far more complex character. Here's some surprising facts about Steve Bannon...
