This seems like a key paragraph in David Ignatius’s column on what appears to be unfolding in Saudi Arabia.
MBS is emboldened by strong support from President Trump and his inner circle, who see him as a kindred disrupter of the status quo — at once a wealthy tycoon and a populist insurgent. It was probably no accident that last month, Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, made a personal visit to Riyadh. The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy.
Aboard Air Force on en route to Tokyo, President Trump held a brief Q&A with reporters (from pool report) …
The reason our stock market is so successful is because of me. I’ve always been great with money, I’ve always been great with jobs, that’s what I do. And I’ve done it well, I’ve done it really well, much better than people understand and they understand I’ve done well.
From the Japan Times …
The U.S. president said he could not understand why a country of samurai warriors did not shoot down the missiles, the sources said.
Former Trump campaign advisor Michael Caputo went on MSNBC this afternoon and said George Papadopoulos was “stupid” and “had no business” being at that March 2016 foreign policy advisor meeting where he apparently talked up his ability to set up meetings with Russians or even with Vladimir Putin. He went on to say that Papadopoulos was only there because Donald Trump was getting slammed for not having any foreign policy advisors and a group was thrown together with basically zero idea of who the people even were. Read More
I have always had a great deal of respect for Donna Brazile. And I have tried to keep to a long time principle of not revising my view of a person simply because they do something I disagree with. I was stunned when I first read Brazile’s piece in Politico. But now having read it over a few times, I have a hard time not concluding that she’s done a serious disservice to the historical record and to all Democrats. Why this is the case, I truly don’t know. And there may be more facts to emerge that I’m not yet aware of. But here’s why I think this. Read More
I wasn’t terribly surprised when we reported a few weeks ago that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is tied to the ‘League of the South’, the pro-Southern secession/slavery apologism group that wants to lead the South in a second rebellion against the federal government in order to found a ‘white Christian republic.’ But I confess I was a bit surprised that Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who is currently the leading Republican candidate to succeed Sen. Bob Corker, does too. In 2004, Blackburn invited the Rev. David O. Jones, a neo-Confederate, secessionist and slavery apologist, to give the opening prayer in the House. And it happened! Here’s the story.
President Trump asked about his March meeting with Papadopoulos and his then foreign policy team: “I don’t remember much about that meeting, it was a very unimportant meeting. Don’t remember much about it.”
Trump on Papadopoulos meeting: "I don't remember much about that meeting, it was a very unimportant meeting. Don't remember much about it." pic.twitter.com/Z8C7XQfHlz
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 3, 2017
Carter Page testified in closed session this afternoon that he told then-Senator Jeff Sessions last year about his impending July 2016 trip to Russia.
This afternoon President Trump told a right-wing radio host that he’s sorry he can’t personally direct the DOJ and FBI ‘go after’ Hillary Clinton. Read More