The White House Mess: The President fired National Security Adviser, HR McMaster; Trump’s primary lawyer representing him in the Russia investigation resigned; the Dow Jones dropped 724 points on news of President Trump’s new China tariffs. And the Playmate spoke.
That was all yesterday.
So, one at a time.
National Security: The demise of Gen. McMaster was long predicted, despite White House denials. He and the president didn’t get along.
McMaster is being replaced by former UN Ambassador John Bolton, who is so frequently described as a “hard liner” that it might as well be his middle name. Bolton is a saber rattler who most recently has been a frequent guest on Fox News, where Trump gets his advice and some of his appointees.
Bolton supported the Iraq war, doesn’t like the Iran nuclear deal, and if he were left to himself, might bomb North Korea.
The Lawyer Leaves: Trump’s lawyer John Dowd appears to have given up in an internal fight over tactics in the Russia investigation and frustration that the President ignores his advice.
Dowd had been advising Trump to be calm and cooperate with the Special Counsel investigation, but it appears that Trump wants a more aggressive approach. He has publicly attacked lead investigator Robert Mueller and recently hired a lawyer who says the Russia investigation is an anti-Trump conspiracy.
The NY Times reports also that Trump is leaning toward sitting down for an interview with Mueller even though Dowd has been telling him not to do it.
Maggie Haberman wrote in the Times a few days ago that, “Ignoring that advice over the weekend was the decision of a president who ultimately trusts only his own instincts, and now believes he has settled into the job enough to rely on them rather than the people who advise him.”
What Goes Up: President Trump signed an order placing up to $60 billion worth of Chinese goods imported into the US and the stock market punched a hole in the floor on fears of a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
China quickly announced that it might place additional tariffs on 128 products from the US, like nuts, wine, and pork, all valued at about $3 billion. China imports about a third of the US soybean crop, so farmers could get hurt big time.
Shares of Boeing, which makes airplanes, and Caterpillar, which sells China farm and construction equipment, both fell by five percent.
Pillow Talk: Former Playboy model Karen McDougal sat down for a long interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper last night and said that after the first time she went to bed with Donald Trump he offered her cash afterwards. She said the two went on to have a 10-month affair while Trump was married to Melania.
McDougal said she learned much later that Trump struck up a romance with porn actress Stormy Daniels at a Reno golf tournament while McDougal was his date for the week.
See No Evil: The Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee has released its final report, concluding that there was no collusion between Russians and the Trump presidential campaign.
The report does say that there were Russian cyberattacks during the campaign months and that they used American social media to sow political discord.
Committee Democrats have described the Republican report as a political document intended to support the President.
Goodbye Columbus: Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said goodbye to the State Department staff yesterday. “This can be a very mean-spirited town,” Tillerson said to a burst of applause. He said, “But you don’t have to choose to participate in that.”
Like the Boy Scout leader he once was Tillerson said, “Each of us gets to choose the person we want to be, and the way we want to be treated, and the way we want to treat others.”
They were kind but strange words from a man who went a long way toward dismantling the State Department in just over a year, forcing people out of their jobs, declining to fill others, and erasing institutional knowledge and experience. Tillerson goes out playing the victim because President Trump fired him with a tweet, but he was a major perpetrator.
Black Lives: Outraged over the police shooting of an unarmed black man, protesters last night clogged a Sacramento, Calif. freeway and blocked entry to the arena where the Sacramento Kings play.
Two police officers shot and killed 22-year-old Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s backyard Sunday night. They fired 20 times and later said they mistook Clark’s cellphone for a gun.
Clark was being chased on suspicion of vandalism.
The Obit Page. Charles Lazarus, the founder of the big box toy store chain Toys “R” Us, has died at age 94. His death came just a week after the once mighty chain announced that it is dissolving. Lazarus was a hard-nosed and ambitious man who built a global business, but he said the key to success in toys is “to think like a child.”

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