The Lowdown: Barely keeping up with his own headlines, President Trump said he’s considering another $100 billion worth of tariffs on China; he didn’t know anything about the Stormy Daniels deal; he wants 2,000-4000 troops on the border until his wall is completed; and he repeated his fiction that millions of people voted illegally, costing him the popular vote.

The Trade War That Isn’t: Stock futures were way down overnight after Trump proposed another $100 billion worth of tariffs on China. The Dow Jones rose 240 points yesterday on hopes that the tariff squabble is just a bluff before getting a new dose of Trump’s reality.

“Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers,” Trump said, adding that he has told the  US trade representative to determine if another $100 billion in tariffs are necessary and, “if so, to identify the products upon which to impose such tariffs.”

This started with Trump placing $50 billion worth of tariffs on China, and the Chinese responding in kind. They can be expected to meet Trump dollar for dollar on tariffs.

Analysts point out that because it is heavily dependent on exports to the US, China has more to lose economically, but because China is not a democracy, President Xi Jinping can tough it out. Not so with President Trump. Once things go bad for soybean farmers who voted for Trump, he’s going to have trouble.

Hear No Evil: Trump said aboard Air Force One yesterday that he didn’t know about the $130,000 payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about the relationship she had with him back in 2006.

Asked by a reporter whether he knew about the payment to the actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, he said simply, “No.” Asked why the President‘s personal lawyer Michael Cohen made the payment, Trump answered, “You’ll have to ask Michael.” As to whether he knew where the money came from, Trump said, “No, I don’t know.”

Daniels claims the two had a one-night stand and that she signed a nondisclosure agreement days before the 2016 election.

Her lawyer Michael Avenatti tweeted, “The strength of our case just went up exponentially. You can’t have an agreement when one party claims to know nothing about it.”

Fraud: Speaking in West Virginia, the President pushed his undocumented claim of widespread voter fraud. “In many places, like California, the same person votes many times — you’ve probably heard about that,” Trump said. “They always like to say ‘oh that’s a conspiracy theory’ — not a conspiracy theory folks. Millions and millions of people.”

If people have heard about it, they heard it from him, and he has no proof. It is a conspiracy theory.

Environmental Damage: At least five officials at the Environmental Protection Agency were reassigned, demoted, or requested new jobs after they objected to the spending and management by the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, The NY Times reports. The only political appointee among the five, Kevin Chmielewski, was placed on administrative leave without pay.

The officials, four of them in senior positions, expressed concern about Pruitt’s lavish spending on office furniture and first-class travel, and his demands for stepped-up security, including  a bulletproof vehicle and an expanded 20-person security detail, the Times reports according to EPA sources.

The Times story says Pruitt “bristled” when he was confronted. CBS News also reports that a member of Pruitt’s security detail who refused to turn on lights and sirens when the administrator was late for dinner was later removed from his position.

Talking to reporters on Air Force One, President Trump suggested that he’s reviewing complaints about Pruitt. “I’ll make that determination,” Trump said. “But he’s a good man, he’s done a terrific job. But I’ll take a look at it.”

Nation: The Surgeon general issued a national advisory yesterday, suggesting that more people should carry the drug naloxone, a remedy for opioid overdose. Opioid use and overdoses have cause about a quarter million deaths in the last 10 years, 42,000 of them in 2016. — Maj. Stephen Del Bagno, a recent addition to the Air Force’s precision flight team The Thunderbirds, was killed in a crash of his F-16 this week. — A Massachusetts judge has ruled that The Berkshire Museum can go ahead and sell dozens of artworks, including a Norman Rockwell painting the artist donated himself. The museum says it must sell art to survive.

World: Former South Korean president Park Geun-hye, 66, was sentenced today to 24 years in prison after being found guilty of charges including bribery, coercion, and abuse of power.

The Obit Page: Actress Susan Anspach, a lovely star of the counterculture movies in the 1960s and 70s has died in Los Angeles at age 75. Early on she was in the Off-Broadway production of “Hair” but didn’t get cast with the show when it went to the big leagues. She played a new age intellectual who went to bed with Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces” despite being engaged to the character’s brother. She left the straight-laced George Segal for hippieish Chris Christofferson in “Blume in Love.” — William Prochnau, who wrote the book “Once Upon a Distant War,” about skeptical reporters who were ignored when they warned that the US wasn’t winning in Vietnam, has died at age 80 in Washington. Prochnau’s Vanity Fair  article “Adventures in the Ransom Trade” became the basis for the 2000 movie “Proof of Life” with Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe. He was 80.

Charles in Charge: At the end of his press gaggle aboard Air Force One yesterday President Trump said, “Thank you very much everybody. I’ll see you back in New York. Thank you.”

The plane landed in Washington.

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