Donald Trump declined to comment directly on AT&T's $85 billion proposed purchase of CNN owner Time Warner during a conversation with Breitbart News, known for its often favorable coverage of Trump and ties to the White House, but had this to say:
"You have to have competition in the marketplace and you have to have competition among the media. And I'm not commenting on any one deal, but you need competition generally and you certainly need it with media."
Key context: Trump threatened to block the deal during the final stretches of the campaign. But his answer in Monday's interview is in line with what he told Axios about his views on media competition shortly before taking office — and don't rule out the government harshly reviewing the proposed sale.
On Wednesday Feb 8, West Virginia's Democratic Senator Joe Manchin welcomed the Breitbart News editorial team to his Capitol Hill office for an hourlong off-the-record "get to know you" session. It was part of a behind-the-scenes process — kicked off post-election and led by Manchin's communications director Jonathan Kott — to establish warmer relations with the right-wing news outlet.
Why this matters: No other Democratic Senator has done a session like this with Breitbart; and most Democrats wouldn't touch the website with a 30-foot pole. But getting on with the controversial populist nationalist site — which has its former chairman Steve Bannon as the President's top adviser — could prove helpful to Manchin, who faces a tough re-election in 2018.
ICYMI, Axios had an exclusive this morning on Sean Spicer's attempts to push back on reports that Trump campaign aides "had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election." And it was a hot topic at Spicer's press briefing today along with the budget and the revised travel ban executive order...
Rep. Devin Nunes is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, which has the power to investigate claims of Russian attempts to influence the election, in addition to claims of Russian contacts with the Trump campaign.
He said the only "major crimes" he'd seen had been committed by leakers: "We can't run a government like this. A government can't function with massive leaks at the highest level."
Nunes says he hasn't seen "any evidence of anyone from the Trump campaign or any other campaign, for that matter, that's communicated with the Russian government."
After a meeting with health insurance companies this morning, a reporter asked Trump about whether he supported a special prosecutor for investigating Russia
The president's response, after a pause: "I haven't called Russia in 10 years."
The reporter was asking about Russia's 2016 election hacking and potential contacts between Trump's campaign team and Russian intelligence officers, per an AP report.
The White House is sending Cabinet officials their first draft of budget numbers on Monday. The big changes you can expect will be severe cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, as Axios reported yesterday. Other targets include the State Dept. and social safety programs, with savings used to bolster military spending by $54 billion.
Negotiable factors: Resistance from federal agencies could lessen the severity of cuts in the original plan before a final budget request is sent to Congress. From there, Capitol Hill will have the final say. In order to pass Trump's defense request, lawmakers in both parties will have to agree to raise the government spending caps on defense and domestic programs imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
Precise timing: As the NY Times points out, his plan — which is a product of a collaboration between President Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney; National Economic Council director Gary Cohn; and chief strategist, Steve Bannon — is intended to make a "big splash." The release is carefully timed to come the day before the president's address to Congress.
From Matt Lauer's interview with former president George W. Bush on the TODAY Show:
On freedom of religion: "I think it's very important for all of us to recognize that one of our great strengths is for people to be able to worship the way they want to or not worship at all. A bedrock of our freedom is the right to worship freely."
On Russia: "I think we all need answers...if [Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr] were to recommend a special prosecutor, then it'd have a lot more credibility with me."
On Trump's immigration ban: "I am for an immigration policy that's welcoming and upholds the law."
On the media: "I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy…Power can be very addictive. It can be corrosive, and it's important for the media to hold people to account."
On presidential nostalgia: "People ask me, 'Do you miss being president?' The answer's not really, but I miss saluting people who volunteer to wear the uniform."
Buffett says he agrees with Trump on entitlement programs and industries with too many regulations, but disagrees with him on the proposed border adjustment tax, which he said would end up raising prices for the American consumer.
Apple: Buffett has almost doubled his stake in Apple, now holding 133 million shares of the company. He's avoided investments in tech companies in the past, but said that he sees Apple as a maker of consumer products.
Airlines: Buffett also bought $9 billion worth of shares in airlines because he thinks they're operating more efficiently than they used to. Late last year he invested in American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Continental and Southwest.
Warren's words of wisdom: Don't mix up investment decisions with politics.
Today, a progressive "Shadow Cabinet" will start tweeting under @ShadowingTrump to rebut the president and his administration's statements, actions and tweets in real time.
The "cabinet" includes scholars, authors and former Democratic officials assembled by former New York City Public Advocate Mark Green in six weeks of frantic phoning, emailing and fundraising:
We hear the White House tomorrow will send Cabinet officials their first draft budget numbers.
One budget we'll be watching especially closely is the EPA ,which is the leading edge of the first wave of Trump's planned "deconstruction of the administrative state." Expect massive, transformational cuts, particularly to climate-change programs, top officials tell us.
Trump has made clear he wants the EPA to get back to its core missions of clean air and clean water. He views many of the global-warming programs as superfluous additions made by an out-of-control Obama EPA.
But, but, but ... Don't expect the topline budget numbers to change dramatically. Money saved from cuts to EPA and other agencies will be used to bolster the military — which is exactly what Trump promised on the campaign trail.
President Trump, on the increased chatter on Russia:
Why it matters: A pair of prominent members of Congress, Reps. Darrell Issa and Nancy Pelosi, have separately called for a special prosecutor on Russia and Trump. This is a sign that Trump won't take such an effort in stride.
Sean Spicer did a phone check on White House communications staffers last week after several leaks about the administration painted a poor picture of the Trump team in the media. That crackdown on leaks was then leaked to Politico.
Spicer warned that using encrypted texting apps that delete messages — such as Confide, the use of which by DC Republicans was first covered by Axios — violates the Federal Records Act. He consulted with White House counsel Don McGahn before the meeting and White House lawyers were present during the meeting. The Federal Records Act pertains to federal agencies, while the Presidential Records Act covers the president and his or her staff.
Per Politico's Annie Karni: "Spicer also warned the group of more problems if news of the phone checks and the meeting about leaks was leaked to the media."
Trump tweeting two months in advance that he'll skip the White House Correspondents' Association dinner April 29. It's a fine night in a crammed room with episodic humor and celebrity sightings, with scholarships awarded to journalism students who have contagious enthusiasm and idealism. In the scheme of things, the president's presence doesn't make or break it.
Spicer cherry-picking media orgs for briefings. The briefings are marginally useful at best (transcript here of what the excluded reporters missed), and a terrific waste of time at worst. Twitter will tell you anything of substance that happened. So the time is better spent working the phones.
While bosses were home on recess last week, the White House held two bowling nights and a bowling lunch for top staff left in D.C. (The White House's two-lane alley has photos on the wall of past presidents bowling.) So far, 45 Hill aides have watched one of Washington's great spectacles — a Marine One departure from the South Lawn.
That's the president dining at Trump Hotel in DC with Ivanka, Jared, Nigel Farage, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and several other unidentified people, as photographed by IJR reporter Benny Johnson:
At Trump hotel. Secret Service swarms the place. Trump walks in, sits down next to me w/ Gov. Rick Scott, Nigel Farage, Ivanka & Kuchner pic.twitter.com/5ZgTUixvwR— Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 26, 2017
Why it matters: This will only amplify calls for Congress to investigate Trump's lease of the hotel, which Rep. Jason Chaffetz has promised to investigate, although he's produced nothing so far.
At CPAC Steve Bannon mentioned three White House priorities, the third of which was the deconstruction of the administrative state.
But the big lesson of CPAC is that there is a fourth, unmentioned in public white papers and executive orders. It's the deconstruction of the mainstream media.
What we learned this week: President Trump and his chief strategist Bannon made clear in the hierarchy of their speeches at CPAC that their war against institutions like CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times is no sideshow. It's a central, formalized, priority of this administration.
The desired outcome: A media environment where suspicion — or ideally outright disbelief — is the first instinct of American news consumers.
Interest in traveling to the U.S. has dropped 17% since Trump's inauguration, according to Hopper, an app for tracking flight price quotes. Hopper tracks between ten billion and fifteen billion airfare price searches every day.
Data: Hopper Research; Methodology: Comparing the weekly average flight searches to the U.S. on Hopper during Dec. 29, 2016 - Jan. 18, 2017 and Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, 2017; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
