I’d missed this. This is from a press conference at the G-7 Summit in Charlevoix, Canada. He seems to argue that Russia has done a kind of gut renovation in Crimea. Sort of like a hotel refurb …
Well, you know, you have to ask President Obama, because he was the one that let Crimea get away. That was during his administration. And he was the one that let Russia go and spend a lot of money on Crimea, because they’ve spent a lot of money on rebuilding it. I guess they have their submarine port there and such. But Crimea was let go during the Obama administration. And, you know, Obama can say all he wants, but he allowed Russia to take Crimea. I may have had a much different attitude. So you’d really have to ask that question to President Obama — you know, why did he do that; why did he do that. But with that being said, it’s been done a long time.
In the digital publishing world, there’s been a buzz about this article in Slate in which slate staffer Will Oremus detailed the impact on the publication of Facebook’s dramatic retreat from the news business. The numbers are stark but not surprising for people in the industry. Indeed, Oremus makes the point that most news organizations are not willing to release these numbers. (We’ll come back to that point in a moment.) In January 2017 Slate had 28.33 million referrals from Facebook to Slate. By last month that number had dropped to 3.63 million. In other words, a near total collapse.
One of the benefits of being a small, independent news outlet that I run is that I’m happy to share these numbers. And I don’t need to ask anyone’s permission. Read More
President Trump on trade, Crimea and NATO, per the pool report from Air Force One.
On WTO: “We’ve been treated very badly by the WTO…it’s a very, very unfair situation. When you look at the WTO, that’s where China emerged, when they joined the WTO. We have been treated very badly. We have lost many, many cases over the years…we’ve had minority judges..we’ve had a minority position in judges. WTO has to start treating the United States fairly because they have not treated us fairly.”
“I’m not talking about pulling out. I’m saying they haven’t treated us fairly. We have not been treated fairly.”
We’re far past the point where it matters whether President Trump is a ignorant and destructive fool or operates as some sort of agent of the Russian Federation. The upshot appears to be the same. The Washington Post reports that President Trump has tasked the Pentagon with analyzing withdrawing US troops from Germany. Quoting the nominal explanation the Post was given: “Trump was said to have been taken aback by the size of the U.S. presence, which includes about 35,000 active-duty troops, and complained that other countries were not contributing fairly to joint security or paying enough to NATO.” Read More
I have a whole backlog of posts to share with you – how to subpoena the President’s tax returns, the terribly run company Facebook and its impact on the news industry and a few other things. But my day hasn’t gone precisely as I’d planned. So more soon.
Federal judge in DC thrashes Trump administration’s approval of Medicaid work requirements for Kentucky. The devastating decision blocks the new requirements from taking effect Sunday.
The Times has a fascinating article tonight on the Trump White House’s courtship of Justice Anthony Kennedy, building a relationship and rapport to make Kennedy comfortable retiring on Trump’s watch and ahead of the 2018 midterm election. One particular detail grabbed my attention: Justice Kennedy’s son Justin was the global head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank and a key lifeline of capital to President Donald Trump. Read More
There’s a point about strategy about the new Supreme Court pick I wanted to discuss with you. It’s very important and I have a clear view. But I want to share some contrary views too. Read More
Some remarkable moments below from Rod Rosenstein’s testimony on Capitol Hill within the last half hour. It’s an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, former head of the so-called “Freedom Caucus,” which happens to be one of the most autocracy-friendly, anti-rule of law groups on Capitol Hill. The exchanges below are wild. They’re likely to take in a lot of journalists. But see them in the light of a broader overarching goal. All of these fights, all of these demands, this whole storm is part of a larger effort: defending President Trump from whatever Robert Mueller may find about what he, his associates and his family did. This could not be more important. Read More
I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about something that had been eating at me since Tuesday. Many of our assumptions about the course of the Mueller investigation are based on the premise or the backstop that Supreme Court will enforce the Nixon-era precedents about the rule of law and presidency. This seemed less clear to me after Tuesday’s decisions, though I didn’t return to that issue after yesterday’s news. I did last night at 3 a.m. The Mueller probe is the most immediate issue but it’s really just a proxy for our democratic institutions. I’ve said before that Trump is an autocrat without an autocracy. But he’s working on it and the question is whether there will be any check.
Looking through my email I found this from a former federal public corruption prosecutor …
I am deeply concerned that the Kennedy retirement will put the rule of law and our democratic institutions at graver risk than ever before. The President of the United States is the subject of a serious federal criminal investigation into (1) whether he conspired with a foreign adversary to help him win a narrow electoral college victory; and (2) whether he has obstructed that very investigation by, among things, firing the FBI director in charge of the investigation. The President will now be able to choose the person who, in a very real sense, may be the ultimate arbiter of whether or not he and others are ever held accountable.