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Donald Trump made it clear at the beginning of his campaign that he wasn’t going to follow the normal rules or tone of politics. We’re keeping track of all the ways his presidency veers from the norm in terms of policy and rhetoric.
See updates from early in July here.
Day 182 July 21
Donald Trump reportedly exploring pardons in the Russia probe
Donald Trump has apparently been enquiring into whether he has the power to pardon himself, his family members, and his aides – as investigations into possible collusion between his campaign and the Russian government heat up.
In recent days, the Washington Post reports, Trump has been asking advisers about the reach of his pardoning authority, as he seeks to understand the powers available to him. Trump’s lawyers have also been discussing the issue among themselves. One adviser tried to frame Trump’s inquiries as more curiosity than anything else. “This is not in the context of, ‘I can’t wait to pardon myself,’” a close adviser said.
Last weekend Trump’s personal lawyer Jay Sekulow told ABC: “He can pardon individuals, of course. That’s because the founders of our country put that in the United States Constitution: the power to pardon.” However, Sekulow told ABC News Friday that “pardons are not being discussed and are not on the table.”
Correction: A previous headline in this piece mischaracterized the extent of President Trump’s pardon inquiries. This piece has also been updated to include Sekulow’s comments.
Trump and Putin may have met more than three times at the G-20
First there was a handshake. Following that, an official meeting. Then there was an unsanctioned after-dinner conversation. But now the number of times Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met during the G-20 summit in Hamburg has been called into question again, this time by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who told NBC the pair “might have met even much more than just three times.”
The latest revelation comes just days after Trump denounced media coverage of his after-dinner meeting with Putin as “sick” and “dishonest” – a chat at which only a Russian government translator was present.
Lavrov shrugged off the significance of the two leaders possibly have met more times than had previously been reported. In order to illustrate his point, Lavrov oddly likened Putin and Trump to a pair of children:
“When you are bought by your parents to a kindergarten do you mix with the people who are waiting in the same room to start going to a classroom?” he asked, adding: “I remember when I was in that position I did spend five or ten minutes in the kindergarten before they brought us to the classroom.”
Lavrov also reaffirmed Russia’s stance on Syria, saying the Kremlin did not want a leadership change. He went on to assert the theory that the North Korean missile launched in June was not an intercontinental weapon, as was widely reported in U.S. media. “Our objective data we received from our radars located just on the border with North Korea and according to that data it is not an intercontinental missile.”
Day 181 July 20
Trump is reportedly considering investigating the man hired to investigate him
President Donald Trump’s team is reportedly looking for ways to curtail or discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election, both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers and aides are digging through the backgrounds of Mueller and his investigative team, hunting for possible conflict of interests that could undermine the results of the Russia investigation, both outlets report. Trump’s administration is also reportedly watching the investigation closely, ready to complain if they believe it exceeds its mandate.
Trump is apparently rattled by the possibility that the investigation could shift to his family’s financial dealings, including his tax returns, which Trump has long resisted calls to release. According to the Post, Mueller’s investigative team is authorized to look into any evidence of a crime connected to its probe.
Trump has also hinted at some kind of opposition research, telling the New York Times, earlier this week of Mueller that, “There were many other conflicts that I haven’t said, but I will at some point.” But if Trump really is scouring Mueller’s background, former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted, Team Trump may be in big trouble.
Trump has also sought to understand the limits of his ability to pardon people, the Post reports — specifically, whether he can pardon himself.
And as if that weren’t enough chaos, Trump’s legal team also appears to be in disarray. While Trump’s longtime New York lawyer Marc Kasowitz previously headed the group, he’ll now take on a “reduced role,” according to the New York Times. The team’s legal spokesperson, Mark Corallo, also reportedly outright resigned Thursday.
Trump hotels celebrate “Made in America” week by requesting permission to hire foreign workers
The Trump administration has declared this week “Made in America” week, but apparently no one told President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Largo club — the Palm Beach, Florida golf club has requested permission to hire 70 new foreign workers, according to Department of Labor records released Thursday. Another Trump for-profit business, a golf club in Jupiter, Florida, also asked for permission to hire six more foreign workers.
These workers will potentially serve as temporary cooks, servers, and housekeepers, and in asking permission to hire them, these businesses are saying that they could not find Americans to hire. Trump has previously defended his hiring of foreign workers, saying it’s “very, very hard” to find Americans to take on seasonal or temporary work.
Yet the request comes in the middle of a week purportedly dedicated to celebrating American-made products, and follows months of promises that under Trump’s leadership, the United States would “buy American, hire American.” And this isn’t the first time that Trump’s “America first” political messaging has failed to line up with Trump’s business tactics — much of his clothing brand is manufactured overseas, as is his daughter Ivanka Trump’s.
Now, the Department of Labor, which is overseen by President Trump, must has been tasked with deciding whether to grant Trump’s request.
Jeff Sessions plans to keep the job Trump wishes he’d never hired him for
One day after President Donald Trump very publicly gave Attorney General Jeff Sessions a blistering performance review, revealing to the New York Times that he’d wished he’d never hired Sessions on, Sessions promised to stay in his role at the Justice Department “as long as that is appropriate.”
Trump told the New York Times Wednesday that, had he known that Sessions would recuse himself from the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, he would never have hired him as attorney general.
“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” Trump said. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”
Sessions originally declined to comment to the New York Times, but he couldn’t avoid reporters’ questions during a Thursday press conference.
“We are serving right now,” Sessions said. “The work we are doing today is the kind of work that we intend to continue… I am totally confident that we can continue to run this office in an effective way.”
When not answering reporters’ questions, the attorney general refused to make eye contact and kept a blank face, according to the New York Times.
Though Sessions was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump, the two men’s relationship has been strained for some time. Sessions even reportedly offered to resign after his recusal from the Russia investigation, following the revelation that he’d failed to disclose meetings with a Russian ambassador.
But on Thursday, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that if Trump wanted Sessions out of a job, he would be. Sanders added that the president hasn’t spoken to the attorney general since the New York Times’ interview was published.
The 7 most outrageous things Trump said in his Times interview
In his interview with the New York Times, President Trump argued special counsel Robert Mueller should restrict his inquiry to the question of whether his campaign colluded with the Russians and that he did not believe he was being investigated.
Turns out this was wishful thinking. According to a Bloomberg report, Mueller is investigating Trump’s personal business dealings, including a failed deal to build a hotel in Manhattan’s SoHo district, the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow, and the sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch for a record sum in 2008.
Here are some other highlights from Trump’s interview with the Times:
Trump said it’d be wrong for Mueller to investigate his personal businesses
NYT: “If Mueller was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia — is that a red line?… Would that be a breach of what his actual charge is?”
Trump: “I would say yeah. I would say yes.”
NYT: “Would you fire Mueller if he went outside of certain parameters of what his charge is?”
Trump: “I can’t, I can’t answer that question because I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Well, it’s happening. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Mueller is, in fact, investigating Trump’s businesses.
Trump said he wouldn’t have hired Jeff Sessions as attorney general if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the Russia probe
“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.”
Sessions recused in early March after it emerged he’d had meetings with Russian officials but failed to disclose them during his confirmation hearing.
Trump thinks Comey tried to blackmail him with the salacious Russian dossier
Trump: “So anyway, in my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there.”
NYT: “As leverage?”
Trump: “Yeah. I think so.”
Trump denied Comey’s testimony that the president asked everyone to leave the room
NYT: “Did you shoo other people out of the room when you talked to Comey?”
Trump: “No, no.”
NYT: “Did you actually have a one-on-one with Comey, then?”
Trump: “Not much. Not even that I remember.”
Trump said he’s never made a deal or money from Russia
“They said I made money from Russia. I don’t. It’s not my thing. I don’t, I don’t do that. Over the years, I’ve looked at maybe doing a deal in Russia, but I never did one. Other than I held the Miss Universe pageant there…”
The second meeting with Putin at the G-20 was really just Trump going over to say hi to Melania
“So the meal was going, and toward dessert I went down just to say hello to Melania, and while I was there I said hello to Putin. Really, pleasantries more than anything else. It was not a long conversation, but it was, you know, could be 15 minutes.”
Trump said he’s super popular abroad
“I have had the best reviews on foreign land.”
Not exactly. In fact, confidence in the U.S. leader has “plummeted,” according to a Pew Research Poll published in June. Of 37 countries surveyed, nearly three-quarters (74 percent) had little to no confidence in Trump.
Trump said the first lady of Japan couldn’t speak a word of English
Trump: “So, I was seated next to the wife of Prime Minister Abe [Shinzo Abe of Japan], who I think is a terrific guy, and she’s a terrific woman but doesn’t speak English.”
NYT: “Like, nothing, right? Like zero?
Trump: “Like, not ‘hello.’”
In fact, Akie Abe can speak English, quite well actually, though maybe she pretended not to just to avoid conversation with President Trump.
Trump said that French President Macron “loves holding his hand”
“He’s a great guy. Smart. Strong. Loves holding my hand.”
Moments later, Trump repeated it. “People don’t realize he loves holding my hand. And that’s good, as far as that goes.”
And then again, for the third time, seemingly unprompted, Trump said, “I think he is going to be a terrific president of France. But he does love holding my hand.”
Check it out if you haven’t seen the epic handshake between the two men in Paris this year.
Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort to testify before the Senate
As questions over Russian interference in the 2016 election intensify, Senate committees expect to hear from the president’s son, his son-in-law, and his former campaign manager next week in what are expected to be the most high-profile sessions so far.
Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has agreed to give evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee Monday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is then expected to hear from both Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort Wednesday. While Kushner’s evidence will be given in a closed-door session, Manafort and Trump Jr. will be questioned in public.
Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell has confirmed her client’s willingness to “provide whatever information he has on the investigations to Congress.” The Washington Post reports that Kushner is expected to answer the committee’s questions and not invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
While Kushner has confirmed, Manafort and Trump Jr. have yet to confirm if they will take up the invite to give evidence next week. Committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley and ranking Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein said they expect the pair to “comply voluntarily with invitations to testify,” but warned they ”have agreed to issue subpoenas, if necessary.”
Also scheduled to give evidence alongside Trump Jr. and Manafort is Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the company that commissioned the salacious — and strongly disputed — dossier on President Trump’s connections to Russia.
One of the main areas of questioning for all the men is likely to be the June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a “Russian government attorney” – organized by Trump Jr. and attended by both Kushner and Manafort.
Day 180 July 19
Trump wishes he’d never hired Jeff Sessions
President Trump sat down with the New York Times for an interview Wednesday, and in his typical style, the president didn’t hold back — even when discussing members of his own administration.
In fact, if Trump could rewrite history, his administration might’ve lost one of its key figures: Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump revealed he wouldn’t have hired Sessions for the job if he’d realized that the former Alabama senator would recuse himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” Trump said. “How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”
Sessions, who was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump, recused himself from the investigation after news broke in March that he had met with a Russian ambassador — a fact he failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who’s now heading the Russia investigation, also found himself in Trump’s crosshairs Wednesday. Trump told the Times that after he’d fired FBI Director James Comey, he interviewed Mueller — who had previously led the FBI — for the gig. But after Trump heard he’d taken the special counsel role, “I said, ‘What the hell is this all about?’ Talk about conflicts… There were many other conflicts that I haven’t said, but I will at some point.”
Trump also took the time to perpetuate some falsehoods about the FBI’s origin, saying that the organization hadn’t started reporting to the Department of Justice until President Richard Nixon took office.
“Out of courtesy, the FBI started reporting to the Department of Justice. But there was nothing official, there was nothing from Congress,” Trump said. “There was nothing — anything. But the FBI person really reports directly to the president of the United States, which is interesting.”
It’s not interesting; it’s inaccurate. The FBI originally formed as a task force that investigated certain cases for the Department of Justice, to which its director still reports.
If Trump isn’t careful, he may also push more than just Sessions away with his handling of Russia: Trump’s national security and foreign policy advisers are also frustrated and confused, the AP reported Wednesday, by the president’s refusal to take more caution when dealing with the country.
Military’s space in Trump Tower costs taxpayers $130K a month
American taxpayers are shelling out over $130,000 a month for the military to lease space in Trump Tower, but the president hasn’t even spent one night there since he took office.
The Wall Street Journal reports the White House Military Office, which helps handle the president’s vital logistics and communications equipment — plus the “football” with America’s nuclear launch codes — has leased out a 3,475-sq.-ft. space in the New York high-rise from April 2017 to September 2018, according to a contract from the General Services Administration, which negotiates office space agreements for the government.
And the space comes with a Trump-sized price tag. The 18-month lease totals $2.39 million, according to government documents obtained by the Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request.
This is well above market rate for New York—even for Trump Tower. A similar-sized unit went for half as much in 2016, according to the Journal. That makes this lease one of the most expensive rentals in one of the most expensive cities in the country.
But authorities say the money isn’t going to Trump or the Trump Organization, which owns parts of the building. The GSA lease contract redacts the name of the property owner, but the Journal reports the GSA’s lease inventory shows Joel R. Anderson as the owner. The businessman from Alabama is Trump’s neighbor in the building, and according to Anderson’s website, he’s on the board of directors for Trump Tower.
It’s necessary to have this military unit near the president’s residence, but even for more discretional spending on space, the Trump administration has chosen Trump-branded properties. The State Department spent over $15,000 in February at the Trump hotel in Vancouver booking rooms for members of the president’s family, who were visiting the hotel for its grand opening, the Washington Post reported.
When the president does come back to stay at Trump Tower at some point, there’s still the question of paying for security: In May, lawmakers considered allocating $120 million to cover the costs of protecting the Trump family and its home base in Trump Tower, following requests from city officials in New York and around the country. No word on that yet.
Day 179 July 18
Special counsel Mueller is very interested in Trump Jr.’s Russia meeting
We think we now finally know all the people who were in the June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr.
Ike Kaveladze, a Russian-American vp of Emin and Aras Agalarov’s Crocus Group real estate firm, attended the meeting as the Agalarovs’ representative, their attorney confirmed to the Washington Post.
Scott Balber, the attorney for the Russian real-estate tycoons who hosted the Trump Organization’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, confirmed that someone in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office called him to ask about the identity of an eighth person in the meeting.
This is the first public indication that Mueller is investigating the now-infamous June 9, 2o16, meeting at Trump Tower in New York.
Balber said he believes that the names of everyone who attended the meeting are now public, according to the Washington Post.
In 2000, Kaveladze was implicated in a money-laundering scheme. He started some 2,000 shell corporations in Delaware for high-net-worth Russians and opened Citibank accounts for them, allowing them to launder funds through the American bank.
Here’s the full list of the people at the meeting, as far as we know: Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who Trump Jr. was told had damaging intel on Hillary Clinton; Paul Manafort, then chief strategist for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign; Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to the president; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet military vet and Russian-American lobbyist, who was looking to get sanctions on Russian officials lifted; Anatoli Samochornov, a translator and former State Department employee; Rob Goldstone, the Agalarovs’ publicist, who sent the email telling Trump Jr. that the Russian lawyer had dirt on Clinton; Kaveladze; and Don Jr.
Trump lied about signing more bills than Harry Truman
President Trump really likes to tell people how many bills he’s signed. He does it on Twitter, in speeches, and at rallies. When he marked his first 100 days as president, Trump claimed only President Harry Truman had signed more bills (55) than he had (28) in that time period.
Now he claims to have surpassed Truman — and everyone else, too.
At a “Made in America” event at the White House Monday, Trump boasted: “We’ve signed more bills — and I’m talking about through the legislature — than any president, ever. For a while, Harry Truman had us. And now, I think, we have everybody.”
Trump’s claim, like a lot of his brags, is completely bogus.
As Trump approaches his six-month anniversary as president, on Thursday, he has actually failed to match the 55 bills signed by Truman in his first 100 days, with Trump’s current score standing at 42 — 15 of which were to reverse Obama legislation and 14 that are described as “routine and ceremonial lawmaking.”
During his first six months, Jimmy Carter signed 70 bills into law, and Bill Clinton signed 50. Trump can say he’s well ahead of George W. Bush, who signed just 20, while his predecessor, Barack Obama, signed 39 — despite the fact he was dealing with a majority Republican House and Senate.
A New York Times analysis of the bills signed by presidents during their first six months in office concludes that Trump is “about average” — an assessment this president is unlikely to be happy with.
Trump did give himself an out while claiming to be the most prolific lawmaking president in history, when he turned to Vice President Mike Pence and said: “I better say ‘think’; otherwise they will give you a Pinocchio. And I don’t like Pinocchios.”
Day 178 July 17
To celebrate Made in America week, White House explains why Trump products are not
President Trump wants everyone to make American, buy American, and sell American. But neither he nor his daughter Ivanka have heeded that advice in their own businesses, leaving Sean Spicer in yet another awkward position when the White House kicked off its “Made in America” week Monday.
The point of the themed week, as the White House explains, is to honor “the incredible workers and companies who make ‘Made in America’ the world standard for quality and craftsmanship.”
Unfortunately neither the Trump Organization nor Ivanka Trump’s eponymous clothing line qualify — both outsource work to foreign countries, and a Washington Post investigation found Ivanka’s clothing line is exclusively manufactured by foreign labor.
When asked in the daily press briefing about whether Trump products made abroad will ever be made in the U.S., Spicer demurred, saying, “It’s not appropriate for me to stand up here and comment on a business.”
Finally, when urged for an answer on the topic, Spicer said it “depends on the product.”
But Trump hasn’t been shy about flaunting his own businesses and using his own real estate to facilitate his presidential duties. In fact, Trump has spent 21 of the 26 weekends since he’s been in office at a Trump property, according to CNN Money. And it wouldn’t be the first time the government has gone on the record about Trump’s business — in April, the State Department released an article promoting Mar-a-Lago as a “Florida retreat” and “Winter White House” for foreign leaders. The post was eventually removed over “ethical concerns.”
Surprise — there was an eighth person at that Trump Tower Russia meeting
New reports indicate there was an eighth person at the now-infamous meeting at Trump Tower in New York where Donald Trump Jr. was promised possibly damaging details on Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer, Alan Futerfas, told CNN Monday that the new unidentified person was a U.S. citizen acting as a representative of the Agalarovs — the family who allegedly set up the meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, according to a CNN report last week.
That brings the total head count in the room to at least eight, after a Russian-American lobbyist, Rinat Akhetshin, revealed himself to the Associated Press in a story they published Friday.
President Trump has continued to defend his son through a series of tweets and statements.
“My son is a wonderful young man,” Trump said in a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron. “He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer.”
The president also added: “I think from a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting.”
Trump is taking his good old time filling key administration roles
Donald Trump has been staffing his administration at a glacial pace. But new research from the New York Times confirms the president still hasn’t nominated anyone for 120 top positions 25 weeks into his term.
That means Trump has filled just 36 percent of the 188 key roles below the secretary-level ones that the Times is tracking. For comparison, Barack Obama had filled 78 percent in the same time frame.
While Trump’s pace is largely to blame, Senate Democrats’ blocking efforts, as well as recruiting problems, have also caused some delays. By the same point in Obama’s presidency, 126 of his nominees had been confirmed, while Trump has gotten in only 33. Trump, however, is only waiting on 14 more unconfirmed nominees than Obama was by this point.
For example, the leading role for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the National Hurricane Center, still doesn’t have a nominee. (And we’re already more than a month into hurricane season.)
Read the full Times report here.
Secret Service pushes back on Trump team’s defense of Russia meeting
President Trump’s team just can’t seem to get their stories straight about the “nothing” meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer claiming to have incriminating information on Hillary Clinton.
The latest defense of the meeting came Sunday when a member of the president’s legal team claimed there could be nothing troubling about the meeting because the Secret Service had vetted those in attendance.
“Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in,” Jay Sekulow said on ABC’s “This Week”. “The President had Secret Service protection at that point, and that raised a question with me.”
That was all very well, until the Secret Service piped up with a statement of their own, directly contradicting Sekulow’s version of events. “Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” the statement said.
At the time of the meeting, then Republican nominee Donald Trump was under the protection of the Secret Service – meaning that if he’d attended the meeting himself, those he met would have been vetted.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN he was skeptical that the president would have had no knowledge of the meeting, saying: “The level of credibility from the senior level of this administration really is suspect.”
Since news broke about the meeting on June 8, the Trump administration has been attempting to get ahead of the story, claiming it did not prove collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Having initially denied ever meeting with any Russians, Trump Jr. has been forced to amend his version of events several times as more details of his meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya emerged. The latest update came Friday when it emerged a former Soviet counterintelligence officer and current Russian-American lobbyist also attended the meeting.