White House Watch: ‘Toughness Includes the Death Penalty’

President Trump on Monday unveiled new plans for programs to combat America’s opioid epidemic, including educational campaigns, an anti-drug advertising blitz, and harsh new penalties for drug dealers. “Defeating this epidemic will require the commitment of every state, local, and federal agency,” Trump said at a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire. “Failure is not an option. Addiction is not our future. We will liberate our country from this crisis.”

The White House’s policy proposal advocates for tougher enforcement in several areas, including more border security and increased criminal penalties for drug dealers and traffickers. But the proposal pulled back somewhat from Trump’s prior calls to institute the death penalty for dealers, instead saying that “DOJ will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers, where appropriate under current law.” That’s a distinction that seemed to escape Trump in New Hampshire.

“If we don’t get tough on the drug dealers, we’re wasting our time,” Trump said. “And that toughness includes the death penalty.” Trump also talked up another of his recurring favorite ideas: a national ad campaign designed to scare kids off using drugs.

“This has been something that I’ve been very strongly in favor of: spending a lot of money on great commercials showing how bad it is,” Trump said. “That’s the least expensive thing we can do, where you scare them from ending up like the people in the commercials. And we’ll make them very, very bad commercials. We’ll make them pretty unsavory situations.”

On the President’s Schedule—President Trump will meet with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salam of Saudi Arabia at the White House Tuesday afternoon. He will also attend a dinner for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s fundraising committee.

White House chief of staff John Kelly has selected a new deputy for policy: Chris Liddell. A former executive at Microsoft and General Motors, Liddell currently works in Jared Kushner’s Office of American Innovation. Kelly told Politico, which first reported the move, that Liddell is “widely respected across the administration” and is highly qualified to take on the new role.

The OAI was created last year with a remarkably broad mandate to “bring together the best ideas from Government, the private sector, and other thought leaders to ensure that America is ready to solve today’s most intractable problems.” Politico reported last year that the office has come to function as the Trump administration’s de facto link to Silicon Valley; in that role, Liddell has busied himself working on the White House’s initiatives to bring the federal government’s internet infrastructure up to code. Liddell will reportedly continue to work with the OAI as well.

On Your Radio—Listen to my appearance on NPR’s On Point Monday, where I talked about President Trump’s “troubled cabinet” and the potential shakeup in the West Wing. And on the Daily Standard podcast, Charlie Sykes and I discuss the president’s “wild weekend” on Twitter and whether there will be fallout from Trump calling out special counsel Robert Mueller by name.

Mueller Watch—There’s a new lawyer on President Trump’s legal team: Joe diGenova, a veteran D.C. attorney who has been fairly active on cable news in recent months. Here’s a recent appearance on Fox News in which diGenova suggests a “brazen plot” by the FBI to “illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton” and “frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.”

Andrew Cuomo, the two-term governor of New York who is seeking a third this year will have a challenger in the Democratic primary: actress and progressive activist Cynthia Nixon. One of the stars of HBO’s hit series Sex and the City, Nixon released a video announcing her bid against Cuomo, focusing her fire on the state’s income inequality and poorly managed government.

Nixon’s entry into the race doesn’t just concern Democratic politics in New York. Since Cuomo may run for president in 2020, his reaction in this gubernatorial primary to a challenge from his left could suggest how the 60-year-old New Yorker might perform in the presidential primary contests two years from now.

Surreal Bit of Trivia of the Day—Here’s a video of Nixon winning an Emmy in 2004 for her work on Sex and the City. The presenter was none other than Apprentice star Donald Trump.

Putin Watch—My colleague Jenna Lifhits has a round-up of all the world’s dictators and strongman leaders congratulating Russian president Vladimir Putin on winning reelection.

Save the Date—Join us at the 2018 Weekly Standard summit this May 17-20 at the historic Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs Join THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Stephen F. Hayes, Fred Barnes, John McCormack, and yours truly, along with special guests Bret Baier, Senator Tim Scott, Congressman Trey Gowdy, A.B. Stoddard, and Jonah Goldberg for discussion about politics, policy, national security, and more. Sign up here.

Song of the Day—“Working Man” by Rush