Sunday's politics & policy stories

Trump wanted to veto bill to keep government open
Publicly, President Trump didn't seem overjoyed when, earlier this month, he signed a $1 trillion bill to keep the government open. Privately, his mood was much, much worse.
Behind-the-scenes: When the spending bill had been negotiated and finalized, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus phoned the former House Speaker John Boehner and told him the president doesn't like how the negotiation came out and is thinking about vetoing the bill. Boehner has told associates that Priebus asked him if he could talk Trump into signing the spending bill. Boehner said he would.

Trump budget to slash entitlements by $1.7 trillion
President Trump's 2018 budget proposal on Tuesday won't cut Social Security payments to retirees or Medicare, but it will make serious cuts to other entitlement programs. A source with direct knowledge tells me the Trump budget will save $1.7 trillion on the mandatory side over the next ten years.
Expected reaction: In the past couple days I've spoken to a number of White House officials about the budget proposal. The best summary, from one White House source: "Conservatives will love it; moderates will probably hate it." These mandatory cuts — especially to politically-sensitive programs like food stamps — will make some moderate Republicans as nervous as the recent health care bill did.

Trump's Saudi visit draws to a close
President Trump, pictured above with Egyptian President el-Sisi (L) and King Salman of Saudi Arabia at the opening of the Global Center for Combatting Extremist Ideology, has skipped the final item on his agenda in Saudi Arabia — a keynote address at the "Tweeps 2017" forum on using social media to combat extremism. Ivanka Trump appeared in her father's place.
- Saudi Arabia was Trump's first foreign stop as president, and he received a warm welcome — including an airport greeting from King Salman and an invitation to take part in a traditional sword dance.
- What the White House is saying, per the Washington Post's Philip Rucker: "Words senior White House officials used tonight to sum up Saudi leg of trip- "Historic," "ambitious," "action," "tough," "exhausted."
- Next stop: Israel. Follow along with the itinerary of the 8 day trip using this helpful card deck.

Trump's Saudi Arabia trip in six sentences
- "As Trump prepared for Riyadh visit, Saudis blocked U.S. on terrorist sanctions," by WashPost's Joby Warrick: "The plan to add the Islamic State's Saudi affiliate to a U.N. list of terrorist groups was quietly killed two weeks ago in a bureaucratic maneuver at the U.N. Security Council."
- "Corporate A-Listers Descend on Riyadh for Trump's CEO Summit," by Bloomberg's Anthony Capaccio and Kevin Cirilli: "Defense contractors were the big winners, but ... Trump's first day in Saudi Arabia yielded a slew of high-profile investment deals that showcased the administration's ability to draw support from major corporations."
- "To Saudis, ... Trump has become 'Abu [father of] Ivanka,'" by L.A. Times' Molly Hennessy-Fiske: "Saudi Arabia's fascination with Ivanka Trump highlights how far women have advanced in the kingdom, and how much further they have to go.
- NYT's Peter Baker and Mike Shear: "Trump and his team made clear they are willing to publicly overlook repression in places like Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states ... as long as they are allies in areas the president considers more important, namely security and economics."
- WSJ's Carol Lee: "Saudi Arabia, U.A.E. Pledge $100 Million to World Bank's Women Entrepreneurs Fund: Donation to be announced at event with Ivanka Trump, an advocate for businesswomen who proposed the fund." (White House notes it's not her fund — she's championing the issue and gave them the idea.)
- AP: Trump said this morning "he would accept an invitation made by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to visit Egypt. ... Trump was also overheard complimenting el-Sisi's shoes."

In speech to Muslims, Trump to push teamwork against terror
Seeking to reset both his own and his country's relationship with the Muslim world, President Trump will declare Sunday during a major speech in Saudi Arabia that he hopes the United States and Islamic countries can share "a hopeful future" while "stamping out extremism" together.
Trump also plans to sign an agreement among the U.S. and Persian Gulf countries to increase cooperation in tracking and prosecuting financiers of terror.
Why it matters: Trump's address, to the Arab-Islamic-American summit, follows an administration effort to get the Muslim world to take action in a united front against terrorism. This is part of a White House effort to shape a new Middle East coalition, with the aim an eventual Middle East peace agreement.

Co-founder: "I'm sorry" if Twitter helped elect Trump
On Friday, Twitter co-founder and Internet mogul Evan Williams said that if Twitter is to blame for the presidency then, "Yeah. I'm sorry." He added, "It's a very bad thing, Twitter's role in that." His remarks come less than a month after Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey said "it's important" the president has the power to tweet because it holds him accountable.
Why it matters: The conflicting perspectives resemble a familiar dilemma for tech media giants: Could their openness and accessibility, meant to promote democracy, be causing more political chaos than we are equipped to responsibly handle?

Wall Street watchers go bearish on Trump
Bearish talk on the Trump agenda from Barron's, which provides Axios AM readers with free links to three pieces behind the paywall:
- "The controversies swirling around the administration could thwart much of the president's agenda, per Randall Forsyth's "Up & Down Wall Street" column: "A flatter [Treasury market] yield curve is a classic sign of reduced market expectations of rising interest rates, inflation, and growth. That is how politics have affected the outlook for policy, the economy, and the markets."
- "Streetwise" column by Kopin Tan: "The same people who urged us to buy stocks in November because Trump will bestow on us big tax cuts and fiscal stimulus now say stocks can rally without Trump. Yes, global growth is healthy, but the rate of change in growth is turning lower in economies from the U.S. to China. ... Things are fine now, but someday the future will arrive."
- "Buffett's Berkshire Could Post Double-Digit Gains: Berkshire Hathaway will excel, Buffett or no Buffett."


Exasperated Trump WH staff admit his special resilience
As the the bombshell headlines flew with Air Force One en route Saudi Arabia yesterday, a top outsider adviser to the West Wing emailed me: "The drips are filling the bucket."
And a top official in another Republican White House told me in a phone call: "He may be abroad, but he can't escape."
In conversations all over town, people realized they were living history: momentous revelations about peril inside the West Wing, just as "The Trump Show" was headed overseas for the first time.

'MAGA' & other Trump slogans he didn't create
President Trump was not the first to use some of his most iconic phrases like "Make America great again" or "drain the swamp." In fact, he wasn't even the first U.S. president to use some of them:








