The Palestinian presidency slammed the upcoming trip to the region by the White House Middle East peace team — Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt — on Saturday, further illustrating the deep crisis between the Trump administration and the Palestinian Authority.
Awaiting the White House Middle East peace plan, the U.K is organizing a meeting of Foreign Ministers from the main European powers and leading Arab states with President Trump's peace team, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.
Between the lines: Western diplomats briefed on the British move told me the aim of the meeting will be to present parameters the European and Arab countries expect to see in the Trump administration peace plan in order for them to support it. The main concern in European capitals is that the peace plan will be biased in favor of Israel.
U.S. intelligence identified a "suspect" that worked for Russian intelligence to pass Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails and documents to WikiLeaks, James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, told Yahoo News’ Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman on their podcast “Skullduggery.”
Yes, but: Clapper said he doesn’t know whether the suspicions were validated. He also doesn’t know whether they were conveyed to Special Counsel Bob Mueller. Intelligence officials were "pretty confident at the time" about the suspect, "but not sufficient enough to publicize it," Clapper said. Clapper served in his role until January 20, 2017.
Defense Secretary James Mattis, speaking at Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Friday, said that by illegally annexing Crimea in 2014, Vladimir Putin had, "for the first time since WWII ... redrawn international borders by force” — a direct contradiction of what President Trump said just hours earlier.
Be smart: Last week, and again Friday morning, Trump blamed former President Obama because he said he "let Crimea get away." But in reality, as Mattis stated in his remarks, Putin invaded Crimea illegally, marking the first violation of a European country’s borders since WWII. Putin also rigged the results of a sham referendum to make it look like the decision was a popular move.
Despite President Trump's warning not to retaliate to the administration's new tariffs on Chinese goods, China's Commerce Ministry announced that the country will be implementing their own tariffs "of the same scale and the same strength" on U.S. imports in response to announcement.
Be smart, per Axios' Jonathan Swan: The $50 billion in tariffs the U.S. imposed on China is relatively minor, and Trump gave Chinese President Xi Jinping a major concession on ZTE. Xi made a personal request to Trump when it looked like ZTE could collapse as a result of U.S. actions, and the Trump administration gave the company effectively a slap on the wrist, allowing it to stay in business.
President Trump lavished praise on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a Fox News interview this morning. The president said the two had "great chemistry" and he respects that Kim is a "strong" leader who “wants to make his country great.”
"He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same."
President Trump's meeting with Kim Jong-un in Singapore was heavy on drama but ultimately light on specifics. Kim agreed to complete denuclearization, and the U.S. to provide benefits, but all without articulated steps or timetables.
What's next: For all the to-ing and fro-ing ahead of the summit, it may well turn out that the Trump-Kim meeting was the easy part. Now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his North Korean counterpart must negotiate an actual plan that leads to complete denuclearization.
The U.S. economy is leaving the rest of the world behind: While U.S. economic growth is ramping up, Europe's and other major economies are slowing down, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The big picture: Though the United States' economic growth has been modest in its progression, the country's counterparts across the globe have seen their economies lose steam, which could end a rare period in which the world' largest economies have been growing simultaneously.
President Trump's plan to turn threats against China into actual tariffs could turn a trade spat into a trade war, and sources familiar with his thinking say he has no hesitation about potentially disrupting the world economy.
What to watch: Today, Trump "will announce a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of Chinese products," the WashPost reports. "The tariffs, which Trump set in motion in March, are a response to China’s practice of compulsory technology licensing for foreign companies and its efforts to steal U.S. trade secrets via cybertheft."
