Donald Trump’s predictable unpredictability on Twitter has gone from a frustration to a mere annoyance for Capitol Hill, his cabinet, and his White House staff. Amazingly enough, Washington seems to have factored Trump’s tweets into the complex equation of how government works. But the president still has the ability to shock on the social media platform—and now with double the characters.
The first jaw-dropping tweet came Sunday morning. Last week Trump had egged on UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball after the 18-year-old and two of his teammates were released from a Chinese prison, where they were being held for shoplifting. The president, having just visited China on his foreign trip, had taken credit for securing their release and wondered on Twitter if the three college students would say “thank you” to him. LiAngelo promptly did just that, and so the would-be flame-war went nowhere. That is, until LiAngelo’s overbearing and attention-seeking father LaVar Ball downplayed Trump’s role in his son’s release. Then this happened:
Now that the three basketball players are out of China and saved from years in jail, LaVar Ball, the father of LiAngelo, is unaccepting of what I did for his son and that shoplifting is no big deal. I should have left them in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
Trump went on to say that “shoplifting is a very big deal in China, as it should be” and said the Balls were “very ungrateful.”
To say Trump’s tweets were counterproductive and unnecessary would be an understatement. Regardless of what LaVar Ball said, LiAngelo and his teammates did, in fact, publicly thank Trump and his administration for securing their release. Should the gracious son suffer for the sins of the obnoxious father? Trump seems to think so.
But more importantly, the president’s suggestion, even if it was made in jest, that he has reconsidered his effort to save American citizens from cruel and unusual punishment in a foreign, authoritarian country—and that the punishment was justified—may embolden other authoritarian governments to target Americans. It’s demoralizing to any American held on trumped up charges (no pun intended) in another country. It’s also just plain wrong for a president to say such things about his fellow citizens.
And Then There’s Tax Reform—The second confounding tweet came a little bit later and targets one of the president’s more regular foes, Arizona senator Jeff Flake:
Sen. Jeff Flake(y), who is unelectable in the Great State of Arizona (quit race, anemic polls) was caught (purposely) on “mike” saying bad things about your favorite President. He’ll be a NO on tax cuts because his political career anyway is “toast.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2017
Put aside that what Flake was “caught” saying about Trump was fairly anodyne and in line with what the Arizona Republican has said many times in public. Trump’s taunting continues to target one of the handful of on-the-fence Republican senators who can make or break his must-pass tax reform.
We’re used to Trump’s inability to let go personal disputes, but when it threatens his own political interests at such a precarious moment for his presidency, it’s still shocking.
As the Senate prepares to vote on tax reform, Democrats have excoriated the Republican package for slashing corporate taxes permanently while extending to individuals only a temporary cut, which would expire at the end of 2025. But Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin argued on Sunday that making the cuts temporary wouldn’t matter—because a later Congress would most likely extend them.
“We’re changing from an international system to a territorial system,” Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday. “We need to make the corporate tax cuts permanent. You can’t tell corporations they’re going back to a worldwide system. Because of that, we were forced to phase out the personal tax side, but nobody thinks that’s going to be the case. Of course Congress is going to vote down the road to keep these cuts.”
Asked how he could so confidently predict what future Congresses would do, Mnuchin argued that the economic growth generated from the bill would make extending the cuts a no-brainer.
“We think this is going to create growth, and we’ll know by then whether this creates growth or not,” Mnuchin said. “If it does create growth, we’re going to have an incredible economy and an incredible tax system for businesses and creating huge amounts of jobs. And if it doesn’t, Congress will deal with it at the time.”
Photo of the Day
Members of the University of Maryland women’s lacrosse team react to something President Donald Trump said after posing for photographs on the south side of the White House during an event on November 17, 2017. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Mueller Watch—ABC News has a report on the latest request for documents by the special counsel investigation:
Mark It Down— “[T]his investigation is a classic Gambino-style roll-up. You have to anticipate this roll-up will reach everyone in this administration.” —a “person close to the administration” in the Washington Post, November 19, 2017
Op-Ed of the Day—“What if Ken Starr Was Right?” by Ross Douthat
Song of the Day— “Rumble” by Link Wray
