The NYT's Laura Holson has a profile of Donald Trump Jr. that explores his relationships with his father and the outdoors. Described by a longtime friend as "the more chill version of any of the kids," Don Jr.'s worldview seems shaped more by the forest of his grandfather's Czech Republic than Fifth Avenue.
Hunting as family: "In our family, if you weren't competitive you didn't eat. You had to fight for what you wanted."
Hunting as solace: "I know that the benefits I got from being in the woods…kept me out of so much other trouble I would have gotten into in my life"
Hunting as politicking: "Too much of hunting has turned into the notion of the kill. It's a component, the meat. But so much is experiential, so much is relationships."
Hunting as authenticity: "For some people — you see that in New York a lot — they go hunting once every other year and they talk about it at a cocktail party for the next two years until they do it again. For me, it is the way I choose to live my life."
The highlights from a 7,700-word NYMag cover story on Kellyanne Conway, the Trump adviser the magazine dubs the "Real First Lady of Trump's America":
Her Secret Service code name: "Blueberry"
On whether she'd take the job as WH press secretary: "Slit my wrists, bleed out, put cement shoes on, jump off the bridge, and then I'll take the job — are you kidding me?"
Steve Bannon's quote: "I do think it was a little overplayed when she was quote-unquote the Trump whisperer. There's no Trump whisperer. There's just not. It doesn't function like that. He doesn't absorb information like that. Everybody that's looked at as a Trump whisperer? It's always meant to demean him."
And Conway's response to Bannon: "You realize I go on TV to defend you more now than Donald Trump? So while you're sound asleep and my husband is trying to master how to flip a pancake, I'm actually defending you."
Trump's unwillingness to back off his wiretapping tweet (now two weeks old!) is exacerbating differences with allies abroad and exasperating allies on the Hill, while heightening the risk of embarrassment when investigations are complete.
In a pair of tweets on Saturday morning, President Trump said Germany needs to pay up on NATO, the day after Axios reported that his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a component on NATO:
Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, Germany owes..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017
...vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 18, 2017
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has given an interview in his new role. Highlights from his conversation with IJR's Erin McPike:
The big question on China: "I think there's a question, perhaps even in the minds of the Chinese: How will the American people, the Chinese people, live with each other in this world for the next half century?"
Denied cutting short his meeting with the South Koreans: "They never invited us for dinner, then at the last minute they realized that optically it wasn't playing very well in public for them, so they put out a statement that we didn't have dinner because I was tired."
On Trump's North Korea tweet, which said: "North Koreans are behaving badly and China has done little to help." Tillerson said it came without warning, but was in line with their private conversations.
Defended his decision to only take one reporter (McPike) on his plane: "[W]e're trying to save money ... and we're going to destinations that, by and large, the media outlets have significant presence already... I spend my time working on this airplane. The entire time we're in the air, I'm working."
Welcome back for another roundup of a crazy week in Trumpland. There have been a few minor international incidents, but nothing we can't handle. So buckle up because you're going to be the only pool reporter on this jaunt around Trumpland.
Although she hasn't entered into Washington politics, FLOTUS has been busy the past several weeks — suing for defamation, entertaining the Spouse of the Prime Minister of Japan and opening the White House for tours.
