After a short stint at the White House, principal deputy chief of staff Kirstjen Nielsen is likely headed back to the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump nominated Nielsen for the top DHS job Wednesday, which has been vacant since July. The previous DHS secretary was John Kelly, who is now White House chief of staff.
Nielsen had been Kelly’s chief of staff at DHS before coming with him to the White House as his deputy. She has helped the retired Marine general run a tighter ship in the West Wing, restricting the much freer flow of information—some of it of dubious provenance—into the pre-Kelly Oval Office, as well as reining in the free-wheeling nature of meetings there.
A veteran of the George W. Bush administration, Nielsen would be the first DHS staffer to run the department, if she is confirmed.
Mark It Down—“I think I have a little bit different attitude on North Korea than other people might have.” —President Trump, when asked if he and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are “on the same page” on North Korea, October 11, 2017
In a speech Wednesday to promote Republican tax reform efforts, President Trump attempted to deflect criticism that the GOP plan disproportionately favors the wealthy with a novel argument: The rich don’t even want a tax cut!
“It’s a middle class bill. That’s what we’re thinking of. That’s what I want,” Trump said in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “I’ve had rich friends of mine come up to me and say they don’t want it—give it to the middle class, give it to people who want to spend it. You would be surprised.”
Over the course of his speech, Trump laid out a case for his tax reform package: simplifying income tax brackets, slashing corporate tax rates, repealing the estate tax, and in general giving people “so much money to spend in this wonderful country.” The reforms, he said, would give the typical American household a $4,000 raise.
“And you’re going to spend that money, it’s going to be put to work, and jobs are going to be produced, and we’re going to start making our product again,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t want to be a politician against that. They’re going to have a long, hard winter.”
Trump also apparently couldn’t resist making some audience-specific promises about the still-not-announced infrastructure bill that the White House is supposedly creating.
“You’re going to make more money. You’re going to do better than ever before,” Trump told the truckers in attendance. “American trucks will glide along highways. . . . They will be smooth, beautiful highways again.”
President Trump said Tuesday that the fate of the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement will be decided “in the not-too-distant future.”
NAFTA renegotiation was a central focus of Trump’s Tuesday meeting with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, with the president stressing to reporters that the two countries “have a great personal relationship” but that “we have to protect our workers.”
“And, in all fairness, the prime minister wants to protect Canada and his people also. So we’ll see what happens with NAFTA, but I’ve been opposed to NAFTA for a long time,” Trump said. “And I think Justin understands this: If we can’t make a deal, it’ll be terminated and that will be fine.”
In answer to a reporter’s question, Trump also suggested that the United States could still make a bilateral trade deal with Canada if NAFTA negotiations fell through.
“Oh, sure, absolutely,” he said. “It’s possible we won’t be able to reach a deal with one or the other. But in the meantime, we’ll make a deal with one. But I think we have a chance to do something very creative that’s good for Canada, Mexico, and the United States.”
Trump Tweet of the Day
Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017
Global Watch—This account of how the Burmese government is conducting its genocide of the Rohingya Muslims is horrifying—but worth reading all the same.
President Trump did not mention the Rohingya, Burma, or its prime minister Aung San Suu Kyi, in his address to the United Nations General Assembly last month. United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, when asked about this, said Trump is “very concerned about Burma.”
2018 Watch—My colleague Andrew Egger reports on the pro-Trump Great America PAC’s new endorsements in 2018 Senate primaries:
A follow-up to White House Watch’s deep reporting on whether or not President Trump shot a 73 on the golf course the other day, as his golfing partner, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, claimed on Twitter. Graham gave a 33-minute (!) interview to Golf magazine in which he detailed the president’s excellent day on the links.
Song of the Day—“Intimate Secretary” by the Raconteurs.
