Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 -- Trump's rising obsession * How the White House gamed the N.Y. Times on China * 1 Drumpf thing
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2017 10:49:07 -0500 (EST)

Presented by The Boeing Company:

Trump's rising obsession * How the White House gamed the N.Y. Times on C=ina * 1 Drumpf thing

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Presented By The Boeing Company

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Feb 11, 2017

1 big thing: A thought for the West Wing

If this sentence is true, it should worry people who wo=k for President Trump -- and people who're thinking about it. And bringing=in good people is a challenge right now: Talented, experienced Republicans=who have turned down big jobs tell me it's partly because it just seems to= risky right now.

Here's the sentence, from the N.=. Times' First 100 Days Briefing last night: "Trump has been=increasingly focused on who was with him or against him during his campaig=, according to several people who have spoken with him in recent days."That intel -- under the bylines of Maggie Haberman, Jo=athan Weisman and Eric Lichtblau -- came in the context of this news: "Tru=p overruled his newly minted secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, and rej=cted the secretary's choice for his deputy at the department ...

"The deputy's job was denied for Elliott Abrams, a conservative who had served under President Ronald Reagan and Presi=ent George W. Bush, [and] deals a blow to Mr. Tillerson in his first week=on the job. The rejection of Mr. Abrams leaves Mr. Tillerson without a she=pa to help guide the first-time government official around the State Depar=ment headquarters."

Mr. Tillerson isn't the type wh= likes to have blows dealt to him, especially blows that are apparent to, =nd trumpeted by, The New York Times. Trump has gained credibility from imp=essive Cabinet picks -- Generals Mattis (Pentagon) and Kelly (Homeland Sec=rity), Tillerson, Elaine Chao (Transportation), etc.

But th=re be dragons: If one of them gets fed up and quits (not impossib=e, we told), it's a fiasco. Mattis chafed during the transition at efforts=by Trump's team to impose underlings. And there are other grievances that =abinet members express privately.

Why did Elliott Abram=, who was preparing to bring along some impressive young talent, =et the death penalty from The Donald? This is amazing: "Trump had a produc=ive meeting with Mr. Abrams on Tuesday, according to a White House officia= and a person close to Mr. Abrams. But after it took place, Mr. Trump lear=ed of Mr. Abrams's pointed criticisms of the president when he was running=for president ... Among those criticisms was a column headlined 'When You =an't Stand Your Candidate,' which appeared in May 2016 in T
We all need to show we're=capable of growth (hence Axios AM). And if the president is obsessing abou= past slights on Day 23, he's losing precious time, expertise and goodwill=-- playing into the hands of those unwilling to give him a chance.

<=trong>P.S. Another juicy item from the same briefing: "Charles J.=Cooper [a conservative D.C. lawyer who argued against gay marriage in Cali=ornia] ... said he was withdrawing as a possible nominee for solicitor gen=ral," the official who argues the administration's case before the Supreme=Court]."

"His withdrawal appears to leave G=orge T. Conway, a New York lawyer who is married to Kelly=nne Conway ... as the leading contender ... Trump said Thursday t=at he expected to select a new nominee in about a week."

2. Signs he CAN change

We're not even a month into the Trump presidency, and t=e foreign-policy radicalism has faded into a conventional crouch. Trump ..=

... has made up with the Chinese, affirming the "One China" policy.

... told th= EU that he'll stick to =he Obama and European standard on the Iran deal, after campaigning on =ipping it to shreds.

... warned the Israelis on settlements.

3. Top talker

"Trump Secretly Called Xi, Then Blamed the New York Times for 'F=ke News,'" by Weekly Standard senior writer Mike Warren: N.Y. Times White House r=porter"Mark Landler had emailed the White House Wednesday to alert them th= Times was preparing a story, and his colleague Maggie Haberman c=lled a White House source on Thursday afternoon just before 4:00 pm. Neith=r was informed by the White House that the call with Xi would occur later =n Thursday evening.

"Landler se=t an email at 7:14 p.m., just over an hour before the phone call,=to the White House asking about the administration's position One China. B=t Landler received no response, and so the Times published a stor= online at 9:00 p.m. ... Trump, the article [said], had not spoken with Xi=since November 14. That wasn't true, since Trump had just begun his call w=th Trump half an hour before the Times story ran. ...

"It was only after the administra=ion released a readout of the call at 11:04 p.m.—two hours after t=e initial Times story ran—that the paper updated the arti=le online. ... [E]ven after the online version had been corrected to refle=t newly obtained facts, President Trump accused the paper of 'fake news' f=r what an incomplete story that ran in its [D.C.] print edition.

"And what does all this drama a=out 'fake news' and an unreported phone call obscure? The fact that Trump'= Chinese policy had become more conciliatory toward Beijing than what he h=d been indicating during the campaign and transition."

=/a>

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4. Smart sentence

From "Fixing Trump Executive Order's Legal Problems Is =o Easy Task: President may issue revised travel ban as early as Monday," b= Bloomberg's =reg Stohr and David Voreacos:

"A rewrite of the travel ban =/strong>would almost certainly trigger a new round of legal challenges on = topic that has riveted the nation and sparked turmoil around the globe ov=r the past two weeks."

5. Mar-a-Lago as magnet

Jared and Ivanka arrive in Florida with their children / AP's Wilfredo L=e

Mar-a-Lago -- the Palm Beach estate that has become Tru=p's Winter White House (two weekends this month) has become "a magnet for=anti-Trump protesters and the subject of an ethics debate over his invitat=on to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to join him this weekend," AP reports (Darlene Superville and Jill Colvin, with Julie Pace):
"Demonstrators plan to assemble [tomorrow] near =he estate to protest Trump's decision on the Dakota Access oil pipeline. .=. During Trump's other weekend in Florida, several thousand people marched=near the property to protest" his travel restrictions.

"Trump's e=ection is also putting charitable organizations, such as the American Red =ross, in an awkward position for choosing Mar-a-Lago for events booked mon=hs in advance."

Trump and Abe, accom=anied by the first ladies, intended to spend the weekend holding more talk= and playing golf, likely at another Trump club across the Intracoastal Wa=erway in nearby West Palm Beach."

Sean Spicer=said Abe's free-of-charge stay at Mar-a-Lago is Trump's gift to A=e, who in NYC in November "gave Trump a pricey, gold-colored Honma golf dr=ver; Trump reciprocated with a golf shirt and other golf accessories."

6. Kellyanne's cover

Jesse Dittmar

Conway in tomorrow's WashPost Magazine, "HER WAY ... 'A= anchor in the storm,'" -- Q&A by Joe H=im:

Twenty-five years from now what do you want people to say about you?

That I was an excellent mothe= and a great friend and I brought honor and respect to what I did. I was f=ir and judicious to people. I had compassion and empathy for those less fo=tunate than me. I made a difference inside and outside of government and t=at I was kind and generous and honest.

=nd I want to be famous for my children. I want one of them to cure cancer =r win the Nobel Peace Prize or be the first woman president. One of my dau=hters said, "Mom, I don't want to go to Washington and be known as Kellyan=e Conway's daughter." And I said, "Well, then cure cancer, and I'll be kno=n as Claudia Conway's mother." That's the way I look at it.

7. Tops in media trends

"Enemies with benefits: Trump and the NYT," by Stef Kig=t and Sara Fischer: "Since the inauguration, Trump has tweeted 6 diffe=ent times, complaining about NYT's coverage of his presidency. ... Beneath=Trump's outward anger towards The New York Times lies a need for their app=oval."

How the mutually beneficial relationship wor=s:

Trump benefits from publicity, which he h=s used to build his brand and run a successful campaign.

T=e Times benefits from a fascinating character who drives readers,=subscribers and clicks to their reporting. The Times added 276,000 net sub=cribers in the fourth quarter of last year.

8. Trending in business

Autonomous autos ... "Ford Motor Co. plans to invest $1 billion over the next five years in tech startup Argo AI to help the =etroit automaker reach its goal of producing a self-driving vehicle for co=mercial ride sharing fleets by 2021. ... The investment in Pittsburg-based=Argo AI, founded by former executives on self-driving teams at Google and =ber, will make Ford the company's largest shareholder." (Reuters)=/p>

9. The talk of tech

"Twitter's Downward Dive Is a Warning to Snap IPO Inves=ors" -- Barron's: "While Twitter's revenues rose to $=.5 billion in 2016 from $665 million in 2013, earnings based on convention=l accounting standards have proved elusive. Snap, the parent of Snapchat, =s going public at an even earlier stage. Its sales last year were $404 mil=ion, and it is operating deeply in the red."

"Twitter's fourth-quarter earnings release last week=was one of the worst in what has been a series of disappointments. The rep=rt prompted a flurry of downgrades from analysts, who focused on weak firs=-quarter financial guidance and what that portends for this year and beyon=."

10. 1 Drumpf thing

Mark Seliger / Rolling Stone

"John Oliver Takes on the Trump Era: The Rolling Stone Interview," by senior writer B=ian Hiatt:

What did [the B=exit] vote reveal for you?

It's hard to unpack the general shift toward the right in America and=in certain parts of the world. The moment in that pathetic Brexit campaign=that seemed to resonate most afterward was [conservative member of Parliam=nt] Michael Gove saying in an interview, "People in this country have had =nough of experts." And that turned out to echo throughout the year, especi=lly in the U.S. You can understand, right? Being lectured is annoying, whe= you're a kid and throughout your life. But it turned out there was less c=llective investment in facts than people thought.

There's this endless debate over whether th= use of his Twitter account is strategic or whether they're tantrums. Wher= do you fall?

Is Trump strategic, =r is he sophisticated enough to know the power of the kind of linguistic h=nd grenade that he has become? Because even if he isn't, it's a classic ma=ician's misdirection trick, isn't it? Is he sophisticated enough to unders=and the power to distract people from what you're doing with ridiculous be=avior? And the party he nominally belongs to is definitely sophisticated e=ough to know that. They could get a lot ... done while people are gasping =ver the things that Trump has said. You could do hard legislation in the s=adows, because if a magician comes onstage and releases a chimpanzee into =he room who starts throwing feces at people, it's going to be pretty easy =or him to make a couple of moves and end up with a woman sawed in half [la=ghs]. They could get an incredible amount done while people are distracted=by just the volume of nonsense.

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