Here was one notable detail in the Monday report on White House chief of staff John Kelly, who (sources claim to NBC News) figures himself as someone who is saving the country from President Trump’s rash decisions: “In one heated exchange between the two men before February’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, Kelly strongly—and successfully—dissuaded Trump from ordering the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the Korean Peninsula, according to two officials.”
American troop presence in South Korea has long been a crucial part of America’s strategic defense of its allies South Korea and Japan against North Korean aggression. The successive Kim regimes in Pyongyang, likewise, have consistently blasted that presence as a threat to North Korea’s security. The possibility that Trump might be willing to offer such a massive concession before any assurances, let alone concrete steps, from North Korea to denuclearize seems to have animated Kelly to intervene. The scene was even more notable given what Defense secretary James Mattis said when asked last Friday if troop withdrawal from the Korean Peninsula was up for negotiation.
“That’s part of the issues that we’ll be discussing in negotiations with our allies first, and of course with North Korea,” Mattis said. House speaker Paul Ryan, however, pushed back on the idea that the United States should be entertaining the idea so early in the process.
“I’m very suspicious of that point,” Ryan said Monday at the WEEKLY STANDARD’s Midwest Conservative Summit in Milwaukee. “I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. I think there are a lot of things we can and should do to guarantee denuclearization, but we shouldn’t just overnight think all is just well and good forever.”
Ryan praised the diplomatic developments in the region, particularly the meeting last week between Kim Jong-un and South Korean president Moon Jae-in. But the Wisconsin Republican urged caution about taking Kim’s gestures too seriously.
“I think it’s a good development, but actions are what matter here. The words are good. The visuals are good. But it’s the actions that truly matter. We have reason to believe he really, truly is willing to denuclearize, but we better verify this. We’ve had Lucy with the football before with this regime, with his dad, not with him. And so we have to be very cautious in that area,” Ryan said.
Ryan credited the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against North Korea for the emerging opportunity for a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear question. “I think what is under-reported is probably the role the Chinese are playing in this area to try and be constructive,” Ryan said. “In this case our interests more or less align. More or less. And so I think this is a hopeful development but we have to be very clear-eyed about it, and let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
One More Thing—Asked Tuesday about the possibility, raised earlier this week by President Trump, that his planned meeting with Kim could take place in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to answer. “I’m not going to get into the deliberations on this at this point, but the list has been narrowed, as the president said,” Sanders said of the location for the meeting. “And we expect to have an announcement on that soon.”
No exact date has been set for the meeting, which could happen in the next two months, the White House has said.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday attempted to tamp down the NBC report alleging tension between President Trump and John Kelly, saying the two men were “very happy” with their relationship and that Kelly was not under consideration for Veterans Affairs secretary.
“Both the president and the chief of staff are very happy with his position that he currently holds, which is chief of staff to the president at the White House,” Sanders said.
In response the report, which also claimed the retired Marine general called the president an “idiot” in conversations with other White House officials, Kelly issued a statement calling the report “total BS” and “another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.” Sanders reread Kelly’s response in full from the White House podium Tuesday.
Mueller Watch—From the Washington Post: “In a tense meeting in early March with the special counsel, President Trump’s lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. But special counsel Robert S. Mueller III responded that he had another option if Trump declined: He could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury, according to four people familiar with the encounter.”
Trump Tweet of the Day
It would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened! Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 1, 2018
Now and Then—From an official White House blog post, May 1, 2018: “Service in the CIA is largely quiet, behind-the-scenes work to keep America safe. The names of these men and women are often unknown to the wider public, but their contributions to national security are indispensable.”
From the Trump transition, responding to the CIA’s finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, December 9, 2016: “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and ‘Make America Great Again.’”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed Tuesday that Ronny Jackson, President Trump’s former pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, is not returning to his job as the president’s personal physician, a change Politico first reported over the weekend. “He’s still an active-duty Navy doctor assigned to the White House,” Sanders told reporters. “But upon his nomination to the Department of Veterans Affairs as the Secretary, an acting doctor was put in his place, and Dr. Conley will remain there.”
Jackson’s nomination to the VA job ran aground last month after former employees made allegations of professional misconduct, including that Jackson drank on the job and improperly dispensed medication to White House staffers. Jackson denied the allegations, and President Trump remained fiercely supportive of his former doctor both before and after Jackson elected to withdraw from the nomination, insisting the allegations were spurious and calling for the resignation of one senator at the center of the controversy.
Before Tuesday, the White House had declined to address questions about whether Jackson would resume his former role.
2018 Watch—My colleague David Byler has another helpful election analysis, this one examining how to view the state of the race for control of the House of Representatives as the midterm elections approach.
“For the last month or so, there’s been a sort of rough consensus about the battle for control of the House: Democrats need to be ahead by about 7 points on the generic ballot in order to have a 50-50 shot at taking the House. Some analysts and elections watchers might put the bar a bit higher or lower, but I think most would say that that’s a reasonable estimate,” Byler writes. “But someone who doesn’t run these numbers for a living might ask—Where does that 7 points idea come from?” Read the answer here.
Song of the Day—“Crooked Teeth” by Death Cab for Cutie
