The Dealmaker: The US threw relations with China into question yesterday with the announcement that the administration has agreed to sell $1.4 billion worth of weapons to Taiwan and is imposing sanctions on a Chinese company and bank for dealings with North Korea.

The announcement came on the same day representatives of both countries were celebrating China’s lifting of its import ban on American beef. They were carving a big steak.

The trouble is that China does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, and China is the 800-pound gorilla in world affairs.

A Chinese representative said in calmly veiled diplomatic language, “We hope the United States administration could correct its mistakes and bring China-U.S. relations back to the right track of healthy, stable and long-lasting development, so as not to affect bilateral cooperation in other important fields.”

Also yesterday, President Trump after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced that he will re-negotiate an Obama-era trade agreement that he described as a “rough” deal for the US.

War of Words: The co-hosts of “Morning Joe,” Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, said yesterday that White House aides offered to kill an unflattering story about the pair planned for publication in the National Enquirer if they would call the President and apologize for critical things they’ve said about him on their show. Scarborough said he received multiple phone calls pleading with him to do as asked.

Trump defended himself with a tweet saying, “Watched low rated @Morning Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show”

Scarborough replied with, “Yet another lie. I have texts from your top aides and phone records. Also, those records show I haven’t spoken with you in many months.”

It’s simply amazing that the President of the United States spends his time on this sort of thing.

Repeal Only: With his fingers working faster than his mind, the President suggested via Twitter yesterday that maybe the Republican majority should just take Obamacare away from as many as 32 million Americans and give them nothing. “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!”

Voter Integrity: After the President’s Commission on Election Integrity asked for the personal information of every registered voter in the country, Paul Waldman writes for The Plumline in The Washington Post that, “Under the guise of fighting ‘voter fraud,’ they’ll use it as a tool to disenfranchise thousands, perhaps even millions of people, in order to solidify the Republican advantage in elections.”

One target is removing from the rolls people who have moved and are registered in two places, although they vote only in one.  At least 25 states say they will not cooperate.

Waldman says, “Republicans complain that there is some huge voter fraud problem that requires sweeping new laws in order to solve, but when it’s investigated, it turns out that the problem is somewhere between microscopic and nonexistent. But in the meantime, they’ve stolen thousands of people’s voting rights — people who just happen to disproportionately be Democrats.”

Gunbeat: A doctor who resigned before he was fired for sexual harassment, killed one person and wounded six others yesterday at Bronx Lebanon hospital before killing himself. The injured were treated by hospital employees even as the shooting continued. Police said Dr. Henry Bello, who was armed with an assault rifle, set himself on fire and then shot himself.

The Obit Page: Simone Veil, who survived the Holocaust and was a prime mover in the legalization of abortion in France, has died at age 89.

Veil was a popular politician who in 1979 became the first directly elected president of the European Parliament.

Originally from Nice, Veil was sent to Auschwitz when she was 16 and tattooed with the number 78651. Her parents and two of her siblings were killed during the war.

Veil crusaded for a woman’s right to both use birth control and to have an abortion. She said, “No woman resorts to an abortion with a light heart. One only has to listen to them: It is always a tragedy.”

By The Numbers: CBS radio reporter Mark Knoller, the unofficial statistician of the White House press corps, has tracked where the President has spent his weekends so far: White House ,11 ½; Mar-a-Lago, 7; Bedminster NJ; 3 Foreign Trip, 1 ½; Camp David, 1.

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