| With Trump in the middle of his trip to the Eastern Hemisphere, a terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in the UK killed 22, and British Prime Minister Theresa May says another attack could be imminent. Trump said he wouldn't brand the perpetrators as monsters, but instead referred to them with his favorite go-to disparagement: "losers." (No argument here.) |
| After meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Trump still has hope to work out the ultimate deal. Back in the states, the Trump budget proposal was released, the former director of the CIA doesn't have much to say to Congress. The details ... |
| Defense spending, education cuts and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots |
| The White House released President Trump's budget, and everyone in America had a collective freakout -- except that presidential budgets have about all the legal authority of your 6-year-old's Christmas wish list. Congress already is giving an exasperated sigh and saying, "We'll see, kiddo." |
| Among the highlights (some of which you may remember from the 2016 campaign): |
| • | $44.1 billion for Homeland Security (a 6.7% increase), including $2.6 billion for the border wall | | • | $639 billion for the military (and 56,000 additional troops) | | • | Cutting the budget for food stamps by $190 billion over 10 years | | • | A $1.2 billion cut for the Department of Education, but $1.4 billion more for charter schools and private schools | | • | A 31% budget cut for the Environmental Protection Agency | | • | An end to federal tax deductions for state and local income taxes | | • | A balanced budget within 10 years | |
| Still included in Trump's wish list: funding for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which was originally on the chopping block. Oh, and six weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave, which has very few fans among Trump's fellow Republicans in Washington. He should have asked for a pony instead. |
| The art of the Middle East deal |
| Trump has referred to peace between Israelis and Palestinians as "the ultimate deal," and told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that "frankly maybe not as difficult as people have thought" -- after all, it's essentially just a real estate deal, right? As it turns out, the decades-old (or centuries-old) clash couldn't be resolved within 28 hours. |
| Not that they expected to have a quick resolution. "You can't just walk in on Day One and sign a deal that no one has gotten done in 35 years," said one anonymous U.S. official, according to a pool report. "But we thought it was very essential to look at the work over the last 100-odd days and this trip is to do a lot of listening, build very strong relationships with all the different people, not just the parties involved, but all the people in the neighborhood. And also try to create a lot of momentum and optimism around the prospect for peace." |
| Still, the lowest bar of all couldn't be hurdled: Trump had hoped to meet with Abbas and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu at the same time, but had to settle for separate visits. |
| Former CIA director on Trump/Russia: ¯\_(°_°)_/¯��� |
| Whenever former intelligence officials speak to Congress, sparks might fly! |
| But not Tuesday. John Brennan, who served as CIA director under President Obama, said he left office with "unresolved questions" about the possibility of collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. And the only way he could describe those unresolved questions was through interpretive dance! Wait, sorry, not interpretive dance. He used dense legalese instead: |
| "I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign that I was concerned about because of known Russian efforts to suborn such individuals," Brennan told the House Intelligence Committee. |
| But wait, did the Russians try to collude with Trump? Did Trump try to collude with Russia? Brennan says if there were contact, it could have been "either wittingly or unwittingly," and "many times (Americans) do not know that the individual they are interacting with is a Russian," Brennan said. In other words, any of us could be colluding with Russians right now, and neither we nor the Russians would have any idea it was happening. Or something. |
| Here's hoping Comey's upcoming testimony will be more fun and less cryptic. |
| More from Politics Land |
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| Never tell me the odds! OK, fine ... just this once, tell me the odds |
| How long has it been since we covered the foreign betting markets? Long enough, right? Here are our faves on Ireland-based PaddyPower as of today: |
| • | Trump is 2/1 to win re-election in 2020; Elizabeth Warren is the top Democrat at 11/1 | | • | It's 1/5 (in other words, more than an 80% chance) that construction on the wall begins this year, but only 25/1 (less than a 5% chance) that Mexico directly pays for it | | • | 5/1 odds say Congress officially will declare that Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower | |
| And the possibility of Trump's impeachment? It's even money. |
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