Trump Watch: Day 171 Wrap-Up
Good Monday evening, Trump watchers. There’s a LOT to cover tonight! Here’s the latest:
— The biggest story of the past few days was the revelation over the weekend that Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump, Jr., met with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign in an attempt to learn damning information about Hillary Clinton. Trump’s then-campaign director Paul Manafort also attended the meeting, as did Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The meeting took place at Trump Tower in New York City on June 9, 2016, shortly after Trump had clinched the Republican nomination for president. According to the New York Times, the meeting is significant because, “While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and the Russians, the episode at Trump Tower is the first such confirmed private meeting involving his inner circle during the campaign — as well as the first one known to have included his eldest son.” When questioned about the meeting, Trump, Jr. first said the meeting was meant to focus on the issue of international adoption, and then later revealed that he was actually meeting with the lawyer to learn damaging information about Clinton. Politico reported today that both Democrat and Republican lawyers and political operatives agree that Trump, Jr.’s meeting was “out of step with common campaign practices”. Trump, Jr. has hired a lawyer, New York criminal defense attorney Alan Futerfas, in light of the Russian meeting revelations.
— Senate Republicans are expected to release yet another version of their healthcare bill later this week. Despite his insistence on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), CNN reported today that Trump “has no plans to play a larger role in selling the Republican health care bill this week”. The healthcare bill has just a 17% approval rating amongst Americans. Of the updated bill to be released this week, Politico reported that “there are major questions about how it will address roiling GOP disagreement over a proposal touted by conservative senators.” Stay tuned.
— Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, claiming that the commission violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act and is not transparent. The ACLU also claims in its suit that the commission was “created to veil the fact that Trump did not win the popular vote in the 2016 presidential race,” according to Politico. As reported on Trump Watch last week, 44 states have already refused to comply with some requests for voter information from Trump’s commission.
— As I’m writing this, there is breaking news that Trump threatened to sue the United States Golf Association (USGA) if the organization moved its 2017 U.S. Women’s Open from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminister, New Jersey. The threat reportedly came about two years ago. The USGA began to face scrutiny for its choice to hold the tournament at Trump’s club in 2015 when he decided to run for president, and it intensified after Trump’s Access Hollywood conversation with Billy Bush (“grab ’em by the pussy”) was made public, especially given that a tournament for women would be played there. Based on Trump’s threat to sue, the organization decided to go ahead with its plans to hold the tournament at Trump’s course.
— Another breaking news story also just came in from the Washington Post. This one reported that the Trump administration will announce tomorrow that it has canceled plans to build a new FBI headquarters building in Washington, D.C. The current headquarter, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, is literally crumbling and its poor conditions “constitute serious security concerns” according to the Post. The FBI has been trying to move out of that building for over a decade.
— Democratic Congressmen Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland and Hakeem Jeffries of New York are questioning Trump’s 4% ownership in Starrett City, the nation’s largest federally subsidized housing complex, located in Brooklyn, New York. Trump stands to make millions off of the complex, according to the New York Times. All of this is a conflict of interest, as Trump’s profits on the housing complex are directly tied to decisions made by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The lawmakers sent a letter to Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., the Trump Organization’s CFO, Allen H. Weisselberg, the Secretary of the Housing Department, Ben Carson, and the Chair of the House Oversight Committee, Republican Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, to express their concerns over the matter.
— One of Trump’s campaign promises was to “help U.S. factory workers by slapping tariffs on foreign steel” according to the Associated Press. Taxing foreign steel would mean higher prices for American consumers and manufacturers who rely on steel (such as car manufacturers), but others say it would cut back on China’s excess steelmaking. Trump, however, missed last month’s deadline to impose the tariffs. It is not clear whether Trump will actually follow through with the tariffs or not, and the AP reports that “administration officials are leaving plenty of wiggle room on what direction he’ll take”.
— As you know, Trump attended the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, this past weekend. USA Today reported that Trump used his time there to conduct several one-on-one meetings with world leaders in his own “mini summits” to promote his personal agenda instead of engaging with the larger group. In his absence, he appointed his daughter Ivanka Trump to represent the U.S. on the floor of the G20, a move that was widely criticized. Additionally, despite the fact that all of the other nations present declared the Paris Climate Agreement “irreversible”, Trump continued his stance of withdrawing support from the U.S.
— Over the weekend Trump tweeted that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed creating “an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” during their meeting at the G20 Summit in Germany. Very few seemed to be fans of this idea, and even Republicans said it was a bad idea and that Moscow could not be trusted. Trump later tweeted that he didn’t think it could happen. Bullet dodged?
That’s all for tonight. Stay tuned for the next wrap-up on Wednesday evening!
