Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seemed almost to be answering his former House Republican colleagues, some of whom have been offering friendly warnings ahead of President Trump’s June 12 meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in Singapore. “We have our eyes wide open with respect to the fact that the North Koreans have not proved worthy of their promises,” Pompeo told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday. “We’re hoping this will be bigger, different, faster. Our ask is complete and total denuclearization of North Korea. And it is the president’s intention to achieve that.”
Brennan pressed Pompeo to define “denuclearization”—a term twisted by the North Koreans to refer to a withdrawal of the nuclear-backed American military presence in South Korea.
Pompeo insisted that Kim “understands” the amount of pressure the United States has placed on him through tougher sanctions and coordination with China—and may be willing to give up his prized nuclear program for sanctions relief and “more than that.”
“North Korea is desperately in need of energy support, electricity for their people. They are in great need of agricultural equipment and technology, the finest from the Midwest that I come from. We can deliver that,” he said. “And as I said earlier this week, we can create conditions for real economic prosperity for the North Korean people that will rival that of the south. And that is our expectation. It won’t be U.S. taxpayers. It will be American know-how, knowledge, entrepreneurs, and risk takers working alongside the North Korean people to create a robust economy for their people.”
Pompeo maintained the administration’s line of caution, but otherwise reiterated that the president is fully aware of past failures at curbing the Kims’ ambitions. “The president uses the language, says, we will see,” he said. “There is still a lot of work to do. The American leadership under President Trump has its eyes wide open. It could be that we won’t be successful. It’s possible. We acknowledge that.”
Mark It Down—“I don’t know if we are going to get a deal. You are talking to the guy who is the optimist and the happy warrior, and as we meet now, I don’t know . . . I don’t even want to go with the usual Kudlow optimist. I can’t go there.” —Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, on the possibility of a successful renegotiation of NAFTA, May 13, 2018.
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In the wake of America’s exit last week from the Iran nuclear deal, the agreement’s European signatories must decide how they will respond. The White House made that prospect more complicated Sunday when national security adviser John Bolton suggested that the United States might sanction European countries that continue to do business with Iran. “I think the Europeans will see that it’s in their interest ultimately to go along with this,” Bolton said on CNN’s State of the Union.
After Trump announced that America would leave the deal Tuesday, its three European partners—Germany, France, and England—issued a joint statement on Wednesday reconfirming their support for it. “This resolution remains the binding international legal framework for the resolution of the dispute about the Iranian nuclear programme,” the leaders said. “We urge all sides to remain committed to its full implementation and to act in a spirit of responsibility.”
But remaining in the deal—and thereby agreeing not to reestablish economic sanctions on Iran—will be much more damaging to Europe if the Trump administration decides to place secondary sanctions on Iran’s trading partners. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as well hinted at such a possibility last week when she referred to the White House’s strategy of “maximum pressure” against Iran—a reference to the so-named campaign against North Korea.
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Haspel Watch—Another red-state Democrat up for reelection has announced he will vote for President Trump’s nominee for CIA director. Joe Donnelly of Indiana issued a statement over the weekend saying he would support Gina Haspel, joining Joe Manchin of West Virginia as just two Democrats crossing the aisle on her confirmation.
The White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, expect Arizona Republican Jeff Flake will join Kentucky’s Rand Paul in opposition to Haspel but are not counting on any other GOP defections. With John McCain, recovering from treatment for cancer, unlikely to cast a vote next week, that gives Haspel at least 50 votes for confirmation.
New details about Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s shady post-election attempts to cash in on his closeness to Trump continued to trickle out over the weekend, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that Cohen had “talked to associates about building a huge practice” as he pitched his services to AT&T, Novartis, Uber, and Ford:
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Friday that Cohen’s contract with AT&T included providing advice on the company’s hopeful merger with Time Warner—a deal that would need to be approved by the Justice Department shortly thereafter. (Cohen did not need to register as a lobbyist to provide advice to AT&T, but would have needed to do so to legally plead their case before Trump.)
The new reports caused further White House headaches when Trump’s newest and chattiest outside lawyer Rudy Giuliani rushed to respond to them, saying the administration’s ultimate decision to deny the AT&T merger showed that Cohen had not influenced the president unduly. “Whatever lobbying was done didn’t reach the president,” Giuliani told the Huffington Post. “The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted.”
The only problem: The White House has insisted for months that Trump played no role in the merger decision, which was handled at the Justice Department. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said as much again in a brief statement Saturday, and Giuliani quickly walked back his own comment as well.
Op-Ed of the Day—From Gerard Alexander, in the New York Times: “Liberals can act as if they’re not so certain — and maybe actually not be so certain — that bigotry motivates people who disagree with them on issues like immigration. Without sacrificing their principles, liberals can come across as more respectful of others. Self-righteousness is rarely attractive, and even more rarely rewarded.”
Song of the Day—“We Used to Vacation” by Cold War Kids
