White House Watch: Trump’s Advisers Are Speaking Out, in Ways Both Harsh and Subtle

There’s a protest of sorts happening among some of President Trump’s Cabinet officials and top advisers. It was Gary Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, who kicked things off on Friday by way of an interview with the Financial Times. Following the president’s broadly criticized response to the violent rally of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Cohn told the British paper that Trump “can and must do better” on race relations.

“I have come under enormous pressure both to resign and to remain in my current position,” Cohn told the Times. “As a patriotic American, I am reluctant to leave my post as director of the National Economic Council because I feel a duty to fulfill my commitment to work on behalf of the American people. But I also feel compelled to voice my distress over the events of the last two weeks. Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK.”

Then, on Sunday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared on Fox News Sunday and was pressed by host Chris Wallace about the challenge of spreading American values when “some foreign leaders question the president’s values” in light of his response to Charlottesville.

“Chris, we express America’s values from the State Department. We represent the American people. We represent America’s values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment to people the world over. And that message has never changed,” Tillerson said. “I don’t believe anyone doubts the American people’s values or the commitment of the American government or the government’s agencies to advancing those values and defending those values.”

“And the president’s values?” Wallace asked.

“The president speaks for himself, Chris,” Tillerson allowed. That incredibly deadpan response is even more awkward and telling on video.

Another video of different Cabinet member (and close Tillerson ally) that popped up on social media this weekend suggested a subtler critique of the president—or at least of the state of the country under Trump’s watch. Defense secretary James Mattis was visiting last week with troops stationed in Jordan, Turkey, and Ukraine. Mattis, in an unknown location, was captured on a camera phone giving an inspirational talk to a group of service members. The retired Marine general noted that America has “problems” but said the country looks to its young men and women serving in uniform.

“Just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other,” Mattis said. “We’re so doggone lucky to be Americans. We’ve got two powers: the power of inspiration—we’ll get the power of inspiration back—and we’ve got the power of intimidation, and that’s you if someone wants to screw with our families and our countries and our allies.” He’s not directly criticizing Trump, but Mattis isn’t exactly thumping his chest about how the president’s been making America great again, either.

Trump Tweet of the Day

Mueller Watch—A Washington Post headline: “Trump’s business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president.”

President Trump plans to travel to Texas on Tuesday to survey the catastrophic damage from Hurricane Harvey, as local and federal forces struggle to control the aftermath of the strongest storm the state has seen in half a century. And if the rains continue, it’s possible the president’s visit may get pushed back.

The National Weather Service released a statement Sunday saying the damage from Harvey was “unprecedented” and that “all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced.” At least five people have been reported dead.

On Friday, the president approved a disaster declaration in Texas, diverting federal funds to individuals affected by the devastation. Texas governor Greg Abbott said Sunday that 3,000 national and state guard troops had been called up to help control damage and casualties.

“Right now, we’re not doing recovery,” FEMA Administrator Brock Long told NBC’s Chuck Todd Sunday. “There’s no such thing as recovery right now. Right now we are deep into the life safety mission of helping people be rescued through swift water rescue, search and rescue.”

Trump has been following the situation closely from Camp David, tweeting regularly about the storm and praising government relief efforts.

But it’s far too early to tell how successful disaster relief efforts will be.

“What we have to worry about is not dropping the ball of coordination. All the resources are there,” Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We might drop off millions and millions of liters of water at an Air Force base, which we’ve done, or at different distribution centers. The states have to take that water or the other commodities involved, and they push it down into the local communities and then distribute it to the people who need it. And so that distribution effort requires a lot of time, coordination, and logistics expertise.”

A sad but not unexpected update on the search for sailors aboard the USS John S. McCain who had gone missing since the destroyer collided with an oil tanker near Singapore. “Divers have recovered the remains of all 10 sailors who went missing,” reports the Associated Press.

Mark It Down—“The answer is no, OK?” – Ohio governor John Kasich, a Republican, on whether he would run for president in 2020 on an independent ticket with former Colorado governor and Democrat John Hickenlooper, Aug. 27, 2017.

A terrific look at this weekend’s over-hyped bout between boxing great Floyd Mayweather and MMA upstart Conor McGregor comes from my WEEKLY STANDARD colleague Lee Smith.

“Mayweather was never in danger, even when McGregor scored with his best shot of the night, to the body, in the eighth,” writes Lee. “Yes, McGregor landed more punches, in 10 rounds with Mayweather, than several likely future hall of famers—Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, and Shane Mosley—who went the distance with Floyd. But out of 430 punches thrown, McGregor still scored at a rate of only 26 percent. Mayweather was twice as efficient, landing 170 punches out of 320, at 53 percent.”

Song of the Day—“Texas Flood” by Stevie Ray Vaughan.