while visiting both Saudi Arabia and Israel is a welcome gesture, Richard Nixon tried the same thing in 1974, and nobody was distracted.
.. It’s true that during the campaign Trump suggested the Saudis were somehow involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, that they “push gays off buildings” and “kill women and treat women horribly.” On the other hand, he also told one rally that he got along “great with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
Whatever else you complain about, give the man credit for flexibility.
.. Peter Baker reported in The Times that as heads of state were preparing for the big trip, all of them were being primed to remember to bring up that Electoral College thing a lot.
.. Pope Francis, with whom Trump conducted a verbal war over wall-building. But that’s all over, and the president now clearly appreciates Francis as the great moral leader he is. (“I think he’s got a lot of personality.”)
.. When the meeting is over, the other people at the table often come away very pleased with themselves, unaware he has already forgotten everything they said.
.. The Vatican talk will probably be about refugees and immigration. It’s possible Francis will feel they had a real meeting of the minds. The president will recall that the pope is shorter than he is.
.. There definitely is something about him that makes people want to increase their defense budgets.
.. Trump has spent his entire political career warning Americans that “the world is laughing at us.” But now it really, really is. Europe is awash in stories about the two-to-four-minute limit on remarks during the NATO discussions.
Trump’s Worst Nightmare Comes True
President Trump fired James Comey. He got his old pal, Robert Mueller, instead—and years of trouble.
But it’s hard to imagine that this new job is any more intimidating than the one Mueller confronted on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the newly arrived FBI director was forced to deal with the aftermath of terrorist attacks
.. On 9/11, Mueller had been on the job at the FBI for exactly one week.
.. The wide scope suggests an inquiry that is almost certain to last for years, given the history of these sorts of investigations, and will have an unpredictable impact on the congressional midterm elections and the early jockeying in the 2020 presidential campaign.
.. reaction within the bureau to Mueller’s appointment as the special counsel was “jubilation”
.. It would be no surprise, then, if Mueller’s investigation lasted beyond Trump’s presidency. All the while, White House staffers will inevitably be distracted and fearful about being dragged into the maelstrom.
.. Graham has long been critical of what he says are Mueller’s repeated attempts to protect the bureau from embarrassment over its pre-9/11 failures as well as the former FBI director’s failure to hold the government of Saudi Arabia accountable for its possible ties to the hijackers.
U.S. Nears Deal on Arms Coveted by Saudis
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are working on a package of arms deals and financial investments aimed at elevating economic and security cooperation between Washington and Riyadh after several years of strained relations over the U.S. diplomatic outreach to Iran.
Mr. Trump’s scheduled arrival in Saudi Arabia this week or his first stop outside the U.S. since taking office, include a missile-defense system and heavy arms the Obama administration either refused to sell Saudi Arabia or pulled back from amid concerns about Riyadh’s role in the conflict in Yemen
.. Trump’s goal is to get the Gulf states, principally Saudi Arabia, to help him achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
.. “every system that we’re talking about” with the Saudis maintains Israel’s military advantage over its neighbors, known formally as its Qualitative Military Edge.
.. Israel isn’t objecting to the U.S. selling an advanced antimissile system, known as Thaad, to Saudi Arabia
.. Discussions over arms sales have been assigned higher priority over economic initiatives
.. Saudi officials promising Mr. Trump they would invest $200 billion in the U.S., and the White House committing to green-light the new arms sales to Riyadh.
.. Driving the outreach between the two countries are the Saudi king’s 31-year old son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, and the president’s 36-year-old son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner
.. “The Saudis know that the person who is trying to get Trump on our side is Kushner,” said Ahmed al-Ibrahim, a Saudi businessman and political commentator. “He is the guy who has the Middle East portfolio.”
.. The monarchy felt betrayed by the Obama administration’s conciliatory approach toward Riyadh’s No. 1 foe, Iran,
.. “The narrative of the Obama administration was that Saudi Arabia and Iran must share the region,”
.. Riyadh’s plans to open up new business opportunities for American companies in the Kingdom, stepped-up counterterrorism operations, and support for the Trump administration’s renewed campaign to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
.. The presentation was created for Saudi Arabia by the U.S. consulting firm Booz Alan Hamilton, according to these officials. It was designed “to have the maximum” impact on Mr. Trump
.. Mr. Trump responded to the crown prince’s offer of $200 billion by saying he wanted much of the money to be funneled into Rust Belt states, such as Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin
Mr. Trump Plays by His Own Rules (or No Rules)
the very day that two of Ivanka Trump’s and Jared Kushner’s children were serenading the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at Mar-a-Lago, the People’s Republic of China approved new trademarks allowing Ivanka to peddle jewelry, bags and spa services to a nation of 1.4 billion where she is a role model for aspirational oligarchs.
.. a culture of self-enrichment and self-dealing in which corporate C.E.O.s, lobbyists and foreign officials seeking the first family’s favor hold parties at Mar-a-Lago and at the Trump International Hotel in Washington
.. Mr. Trump struggled for years to close deals across the Middle East; now that he’s president, doors are opening. His family is seeking or holds trademarks in Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, where the president’s sons just opened a golf course in Dubai, and in Jordan, whose King Abdullah II just visited the White House to discuss joint efforts against ISIS.
.. That leaves Jason Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has the legal authority and the resources to investigate and hold the administration to account. Anyone familiar with Mr. Chaffetz’s record of partisan, ineffectual witch-hunting won’t be surprised to learn that he’s done nothing.
.. But that’s hardly a match for an administration filled with people who seem determined to wring every last dollar and ounce of trust from the American people.