So what happened this weekend? For a full briefing on President Trump’s claim that President Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower during the election—what was alleged, what the president knew when he alleged it, and what to make of the various responses to those allegations—read editor in chief Stephen Hayes’s well-reported rundown. Hayes argues that March 4 may end up being the most consequential day of Trump’s presidency. What those consequences are depends on the truth.
So what do we know about the truth? Unfortunately, not much. In a special editorial, THE WEEKLY STANDARD editors call for sunlight: an explanation from FBI director James Comey about what wiretap, if any, occurred, with all the appropriate documentation; public hearings in Congress on this; and, if these efforts fail, an independent investigation. Read the whole editorial here.
Trump Is Mad, And He’s Not Going to Take It Anymore
The president is angry, according to reports. The first came Saturday from ABC News, which reported that Trump went “ballistic” on Friday in the Oval Office in front of senior staff. He was apparently mad at the decision by his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to recuse himself from any federal investigations into the Trump campaign—especially after Trump himself had publicly said Sessions did not need to recuse. That’s the mood the president began his weekend with, a day before sending his tweets alleging President Obama had ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower.
On Sunday evening, the New York Times‘s Maggie Haberman reported on Twitter that Trump was “frustrated” that his team didn’t defend well enough his Obama tweets on the Sunday morning political talk shows.
Finally, Sunday night, the Washington Post reported Trump was “steaming, raging mad” the whole weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, on everything from the Russia accusations to Sessions’s recusal to the feeling that his still-young presidency is not going smoothly enough:
Commenting Further
The White House’s official statement Sunday morning was that “Neither the White House nor the President will comment further” on Trump’s wiretap claims until after Congress reviews those allegations. But that promise didn’t last long, and not just with spokespeople on the political talk shows a few minutes after that White House statement.
Communications staffers, including Sean Spicer, tweeted some form of commentary about Trump’s allegations later on Sunday. Spicer promoted a statement of support for part of the president’s claim from former attorney general Michael Mukasey. The White House director of social media, Dan Scavino, tweeted from his non-official account a link to a National Review article titled “The Obama Camp’s Disingenuous Denials on FISA Surveillance of Trump.” And communications staffer Cliff Sims published a tweet on Sunday evening casting doubt on a denial from James Clapper, Obama’s Director of National Intelligence.
A New Travel Restriction Executive Order…When, Exactly?
An angry Trump may have been an unpleasant dining companion for Jeff Sessions, who joined the president for dinner Saturday night at Mar-a-Lago—along with new Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and his wife, DHS secretary John Kelly, White House counsel Don McGahn, and advisors Stephen Bannon and Stephen Miller.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer didn’t go into details about the conversation of that dinner. “He covered a wide range of issues with members of his team including the next executive order that seeks to keep the nation safe,” Spicer told me.
That would be the forthcoming executive order restricting travel into the United States, which aims to correct the mistakes of a previous “travel ban” executive order. Spicer did not say when the new order would be issued (“We will let you know when we have something to announce,” he said), but the assumption is that after weeks of talk about it, Trump will sign it sometime this week, perhaps as early as Monday.
North Korea Watch
In between the domestic drama unfolding in Washington and elsewhere, here’s something to watch: another North Korean missile launch, this one coming early Monday. U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that North Korea fired four projectiles into the Sea of Japan after Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe called the launch an “extremely dangerous action” to Japanese parliament.
“Abe said three landed within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from its coastline according to international maritime law,” CNN reported. “The move comes as South Korea and the United States hold joint military exercises, which Pyongyang views as preparations for an invasion.”
Neither the Defense Department nor the White House have released a statement about the launch.
Song of the Day
“It’s the Same Old Song,” the Four Tops
