He started Tuesday by tweeting about Sinclair Broadcasting and “fake news” and the refugee “caravan” of migrants and his dubious 50 percent polling coup from maligned pollster Rasmussen. Then he sat for a meeting with Baltic leaders from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who, more than anything, wanted to hear him take a strong stand in support of NATO and against Russia's continued aggression around the world. Donald Trump didn’t exactly do that, but he had a lot of other things to say. From the White House pool report:
On Russia: "probably nobody's been tougher to Russia than Donald Trump."
"If we got along with Russia, that would be a good thing not a bad thing."
"And just about everybody agrees with that, except very stupid people."
Gut check: Even as his administration moved to expel Russian diplomats, Trump urged his staff not to talk Russia policy to the press. He also called Russian President Vladimir Putin, famously congratulated him on his sham election and, as we learned from the Kremlin Monday, invited Putin to meet with him—potentially in the White House—thereby rewarding Putin for hacking our elections and deploying a chemical agent in England to commit murder.
On Amazon:
"The post office is losing billions of dollars ... because it delivers packages for Amazon" at a lower rate.
"You have retailers all over the United States that are going out of business."
"If you look at the cost that we're subsidizing, we're giving a subsidy to Amazon."
Gut check: The United States Postal Service is getting a boost from Amazon business. Trump’s main beef with Amazon is that it’s owned by the same person who bought the Washington Post, which deals in facts that Trump doesn’t like. He is also apparently not intellectually capable of separating the two.
On embattled EPA chief Scott Pruitt:
"I hope he's going to be great."
Gut check:
Instead of reaffirming U.S. commitment to using NATO as a deterrent to Russia ...
POTUS claimed credit for pushing more NATO members to meet their defense commitments
"A lot of years they weren't paying, they were delinquent."
POTUS encouraged the leaders to make remarks about how he has increased defense spending by NATO members.
Trump also plans to militarize the border:
On the border: "We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That's a big step."
"We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing, and by the way never showing up for court."
No word yet on whether the Pentagon knows about Trump's plan, though Defense Sec. Mattis sat next to him in the meeting.
As for the caravan of refugees—Trump's new punching bag now that he's taking heat from his nativist supporters like Ann Coulter:
POTUS also brought up the caravan of Central Americans that was recently stopped by Mexico as it traveled to the border.
"If it reaches our border our laws are so weak and so pathetic … it's like we have no border."
"They did it because you really have to do it."
POTUS said of Mexico's decision to break it up.
"The caravan doesn't irritate me, the caravan makes me very sad that this could happen to the United States."
"President Obama made changes that basically created no border."
Gut check: Obama deported more immigrants than any previous president. The caravan is full of migrants seeking protection and/or asylum from their native-born countries.
Did we mention that Monday was the West Wing’s first day without Hope Hicks—an occurrence many White House staffers looked to with trepidation? Can’t imagine why.