The Trump administration was notified ahead of Monday’s decision by four Arab countries to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. Qatar has long been considered the most recalcitrant of the Arab states when it comes to curbing its financing of terrorism. The Trump White House, in fact, celebrated the fact that it had convinced the Qataris to sign an anti-terrorism financing agreement last month in Riyadh.
But it was the discovery of a $1 billion ransom deal paying off Iran’s security forces and an al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria which prompted Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain to sever ties with Qatar. “The ransom payments are the straw that broke the camel’s back,” one Gulf observer told the Financial Times.
For now, according to an administration source, the split between Qatar and its neighbors will have no affect on the Qataris’ relationship with the United States, nor the thousands of U.S. military personnel stationed there. Both U.S. Central Command and U.S. Air Force Central Command are headquartered at Qatar’s Al Udeid air force base, west of Doha. “They’ve assured us everything is normal,” says the source. “The operation of the bases goes on.”
An Update on Extreme Vetting
If the United States is making strides in the effort to more strictly vet foreign nationals coming into the United States who could seek to cause Americans harm, the White House doesn’t want—or isn’t able—to talk about it. White House press secretary Sean Spicer told me Sunday to contact the State Department about the status of what President Trump promised would be a system of “extreme vetting.” Another White House aide directed me to the Department of Homeland Security.
Then, at Monday’s White House briefing, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked what the administration has done to implement extreme vetting.
“Extreme vetting is taking place,” Sanders asserted. Pressed for more details, she directed questions about the process elsewhere.
“Look, I think that, if you want to get down into the details, I would refer you to the Department of Justice on some of those points,” she said. “But one of the things I can tell you is that there are over 300 people that are under investigation that are part of this process—under investigation for terrorist-related activity in our system. And that’s a large part of the vetting process that the president has stepped up.”
A Justice Department spokesman directed me to contact DHS about extreme vetting. DHS spokesman David Lapan noted that the temporary restraining order on the travel ban stopped the department’s action on vetting related to the refugee program and the six countries covered by the ban. “We’re not able to conduct those detailed reviews to identify what additional information might be needed to determine if an individual from one of the named countries presents a national security or public safety threat, or to determine what additional procedures should be taken regarding refugee applications,” said Lapan.
But what about extreme vetting for travelers to the United States from other countries? “We continue to review and take actions regarding the information we gather from individuals seeking immigration benefits,” Lapan said. “We have made some changes…we’ve identified other possible improvements.” So far, DHS was unable to provide details of those changes.
Trump to Meet with Hill Leaders
The president will meet with Republican congressional leaders at the White House Tuesday, when both the House of Representatives and the Senate will be back in session after more than a week in recess. House speaker Paul Ryan, House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate majority whip John Cornyn will meet with Trump in the afternoon.
According to Hill sources, the goal of the meeting is to discuss the GOP’s legislative agenda, which includes the American Health Care Act and tax reform legislation. The House passed the AHCA, a partial repeal of Obamacare, last month. But the Senate is unlikely to move quickly on the bill, given McConnell’s publicly voiced concerns that he’s unsure how to find 50 votes among the 52 GOP senators. An expected rewrite of the AHCA could delay passage. The White House, on the other hand, would prefer a quicker resolution to Obamacare repeal.
No word if McConnell will mention his displeasure with Trump’s tweeting habits, which he has said make it “harder to achieve what you want to achieve.”
Pruitt’s Paris Payoff
Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has seen his star rise within the administration over the last few weeks, culminating in the decision last week by President Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate change accords. Here’s how the Washington Post put it Friday:
The opponents of Pruitt on the issue were Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Gary Cohn, all of whom seemed to have the president’s ear only a few months ago. When Trump signed an executive order intended to reverse Obama-era environmental regulations, Kushner and Ivanka reportedly convinced him to remove language specifically critical of the Paris agreement. According to Axios‘ Jonathan Swan, Ivanka put “intense” pressure on her father to remain in the deal.
Pruitt (with the help of other anti-Paris senior aides, such as Steve Bannon) spent a great deal of his political capital on pushing back against these close presidential aides, and the gamble seems to have paid off. That’s good news for conservatives opposed to the climate accords—and for Pruitt, who still has a political future ahead of him in Oklahoma after his tenure in Washington.
