Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Parallel universes — Trump's longtime fascination with taping — NYT: 'far-reaching shakeup'
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 May 2017 08:21:07 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by Koch Industries:

Parallel universes — Trump's longtime fascination with taping =E2�� NYT: 'far-reaching shakeup'

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Presented By Koch Industries

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·May 13, 2017

1 big thing: ​Parallel universes

Data: SocialFlow; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

President Trump may wind up paying a huge price for the=Comey debacle. But so far, it's playing out a bit like the "Access Hollyw=od" tapes where Trump bragged to Billy Bush about groping women: Washingto= freaks and Trump Country yawns.

Instead of get=ing caught boasting of groping a woman's genitals, Trump kneecapp=d the FBI's top man. This time, the stakes are even higher: Trump has rais=d the possibility of secret taping in the People's House. And by his own a=count, he crossed traditional lines of independence between the White Hous= and the FBI.

Out in the country, though, =em>the parallels in the public reaction are striking:

Trump stands accused of doing something that would sink most =oliticians, or at least elicit remorse.

Instead of lying l=w or backing off, Trump escalates.

His staff pani=s but sticks with him.

Democrats feel certain he's toast.

All of us in the media spring i=to 24/7 outrage.

And like Trump himself, the firi=g is broadly unpopular: In Gallup, 46% disapprov=, while 39% approve.

But just like with the "=ccess Hollywood" tape, the vast majority of Republicans — and esp=cially the Trump base — seem unfazed. For all the media/Democrat/=witter histrionics, consider:

The Gallup daily tracking po=l shows Trump's approval has held steady (40% the day of the =iring, 41% two days later).

Polls show two countries: In NBC News/=urvey Monkey, 79% of Rs thought Trump acted appropriately, and 13% of =ems.

Most elected Republicans are backing Trump o= staying silent. AP rep=rts that at the Republican National Committee's spring meeting out in =oronado, Calif., party leaders defended the president's actions and insist=d that they would have little political impact.

The Comey =opic is hot in traditional media, but cold on Facebook: Seven other events of the Trump presidency trended=harder.

Be smart: Don't underestimate how mu=h wiggle room Trump bought himself with his voters and conservatives by pu=ting Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, enforcing the red line in Syria, and mu=cling a partial repeal of Obamacare through the House. He has a long leash=with Trump Country.

See Ax=os' "The not-so-viral Comey firing<=a>," by Stef Kight.

2. Inside the parallel universe

Vice President Pence (foreground, no hat) tours th= Westmoreland Coal Company's Absaloka Mine yesterday with Interior Secreta=y Ryan Zinke, right, and Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont), second right, on t=e Crow Indian Reservation near Hardin, Mont. / Photo by Billings Gazette's=Larry Mayer via AP

Elected Republican officials are publicly defending Tru=p but privately are dumbfounded, disgusted and demoralized by this turn of=events.

We haven't had a single conversation with a top Republican t=at doesn't reflect this. The worries are manifold:

This kills m=mentum on legislating, and unifies Democrats in opposition to everything t=ey want to do.

This makes it easier for Democrats to recruit quali=y candidates and raise money for the off-year elections.

It sours =wing voters.

It puts them on the defensive at home. They want to t=lk tax reform and deregulation -- not secret tapes and Russian intrigue.
But mainly it reinforces their greatest fear: Trump will never chang=. They keep praying he'll discipline himself enough to get some big things=done. Yet they brace for more of this.

So=nd smart — CNN's Brian Stelter"[T]he White House doesn't seem to be providing any spokespeopl= for the Sunday shows. 'Fox News Sunday' host Chris Wallace said: 'We can'= even reach anybody' at the White House — 'they're not available, =hey're not answering the phone."

3. Breaking: Global "ransomware" attack

"The cyber-attack that spread rapidly around the globe =as stifled when a security researcher disabled a key mechanism used by the=worm to spread, but experts said the hackers were likely to return as many=computers remain at risk," per Bloomberg's Jordan Robertson:

"More than 75,000 =omputers in 99 countries were compromised, ... with a heavy conce=tration of infections in Russia and Ukraine."

"Health-care=organizations are notoriously slow to apply security fixes, in pa=t because of the disruption caused by taking critical systems offline. Tha= has made them a reliable victim of ransomware attacks, such as [yesterday=s,] in which hackers encrypted data on infected computers and demanded $30= in bitcoin to unlock it."

"Ransomware is a parti=ularly stubborn problem because victims are often tricked into allowing th= malicious software to run on their computers, and the encryption happens =oo fast for security software to catch it. Some security expects calculate=that ransomware may bring in as much as $1 billion a year in revenue for t=e attackers."

Story is the two-=olumn lead of the N.Y. Times, "HACKERS USE TOOL TAKEN FROM N.=.A. IN GLOBAL ATTACK: A Digital 'Perfect Storm' Hits Hosp=tals, Businesses and a Russian Ministry."

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4. Shoes dropping everywhere

Trump =weet: "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of o=r conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"

Spic=r, when asked at ye=terday's briefing if Trump recorded conversations with Comey: =I've talked to the President. The President has nothing further t= add on that."

Q: "Are=there recording devices in the Oval Office or in the residence?"

Spicer: "As I've said f=r the third time, there is nothing further to add on that."

=op talker ... On WashPost front page, "Trump has long history of s=cretly recording calls, ex-associates say," by Marc Fisher:

=strong>"[T]he president's phone calls have been transmitted since=2011 using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), an Internet technology tha= sends voice messages as packets of digitized data. The technology allows =or retrieval of a text record of presidential conversations."

"Trump may have been referring to that technology when he put =he word 'tapes' between quotation marks in his tweet. The president has sh=rply criticized people who take literally the words he surrounds with quot=tion marks in his tweets."

"Trump's fascinati=n with recording his conversations reaches back to the early year= of his real estate career, when he installed in his 26th-story office in =rump Tower a 'system for surreptitiously tape recording business meetings,= according to an eyewitness account in Harry Hurt's 1993 biography, 'Lost =ycoon.'"

"BuzzFeed News reported last year that Trump listened in =n calls made by staff at ... Mar-a-Lago."

"Tr=mp sometimes informed reporters who were interviewing him by phon= that he was recording."

"Through the decades= Trump's top secretaries, Norma Foerderer and Rhona Graff, were u=front about the fact that they listened in on conversations taking place i= Trump's office."

5. Trump in his own words

Trump points to his top adviser.

Interview taped yesterday, airing tonight on Fox Ne=s:

Judge Jeanine Pirro: Are you m=ving so quickly that your communications department cannot keep up with yo=?

Trump: Yes, that's true.

Pirro: So what do we do about that? ...

We don't have press conferences [briefings] and we do= —

Pirro: You don't mean that.
=p>Trump: Well, just don't have them. Unless I ha=e them every two weeks and I do them myself, we don't have them. I think i='s a good idea. First of all, you have a level of hostility that's incredi=le and it's very unfair. Sarah Huckabee is a lovely, young woman. You know=Sean Spicer: He is a wonderful human being, he's a nice man.

Pirro: Is he your press secretary today and tomorrow? Wi=l he be tomorrow?

Trump: Yeah, sure �=94 he is. Well, he's doing a good job but he gets beat up.

<=m>Pirro: Will he be there tomorrow?

Trump:=/strong> Yeah, well he's been there from the beginning. ... He's gett=ng beat up. No, he just gets beat up by these people and, again, you know =hey don't show the 90 questions that they asked and answered properly. I'm=saying if they're off just a little bit, just a little bit, it's the big s=ory.

Pirro: When will you make a decision =s to whether or not you're gonna keep having him?

Trump: And here's ... the difference between me a=d another president.: Another president, I won't use names, but another pr=sident doesn't do what I'm doing — they really don't. ... I'm not =aying that in a bragging way. ... Another president, Jeanine, wil= sit in the Oval Office and do practically nothing all day."

6. A "far-reaching shake-up"?

Spicer yesterday / AP's Evan Vucci

Amid rising signs that change is coming to the West Win=, the N.Y Times' well-wired Glenn Thrush and Magg=e Haberman report on p. A13: "In private, ... Trump ... was st=ll raging over what he viewed as Mr. Comey's 'witch hunt' against=him — and blaming the bipartisan condemnation of his action on the=failures of his embattled and overworked communications team."

"Trump is growing increasingly dis=atisfied with the performance of his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; the c=mmunications director, Michael Dubke; and Mr. Spicer, a Priebus ally, acco=ding to a half-dozen West Wing officials who said the president was consid=ring the most far-reaching shake-up of his already tumult=ous term."

N.Y. Times Quote of the Day ... Alex Con=nt, a Republican strategist and adviser to Sen. Marco Rubio: "Trump is put=ing a lot on the backs of his spokespeople, while simultaneously cutting t=eir legs out from underneath them."

David Axelrod: "The most hazardous duty in Washi=gton these days is that of Trump surrogate ... You wind up looking=like a liar or a fool, neither of which is particularly attractiv=."

7. Tricky Trump

Today's Fin=ncial Times front page; used by permission

A "Nixonian week" in Washington, per the Financial Times' Courtney We=ver (paywall):

"[T]he president invited reporters to witness his Oval Office meeting with Nixon White House =eteran Henry Kissinger one day after Mr Comey's firing.

"W=ile other US leaders have shied away from Nixon parallels given t=e politician's fateful end, Mr Trump appears to have embraced the comparis=n, in some ways taking up Nixon's mantle, the Nixon scholar Douglas Brinkl=y said.

"Trump met Nixon in 1989 when the two men=attended a gala together in Houston and the New York real estate scion gav= the former president a ride back on his plane to New York."

"The current and former president share a fondness for folksy, =alty language — with similarly negative views of the Washington el=te and media."

Brinkley: "He's long been Nixon in=pired ... 'During his seminal years, Nixon was a powerful man.''

=/a>

8. Prison population expected to surge

Attorney General Jeff Sessions "restores tough drug war=policies that trigger mandatory minimum sentences," by L.A. T=mes' Joseph Tanfani and Evan Halper:

"In a memo, Sessions said federal prosecutors should 'charge and pursue the most=serious, readily provable offense' in drug cases, even when that would tri=ger mandatory minimum sentencing."

"The new ... policy cancels the Obama administration's attempts to pull back on harsh sen=encing strategies, which had produced a huge growth in prison populations.=

"Sessions has reversed an Obama administration a=tempt to phase out federal contracts with private prisons, saying the cell= will be needed for the boost in inmate population he sees coming."

Axios' Jonatha= Swan: "Koch network opposes Sessions restart of War on Drugs="

9. The talk of Wall Street

Despite market optimism about the Trump agenda, Barron's sees (paywall) "modest" growth this y=ar and next...

"Hopes for an Economic Trump Jump Look Overb=own: Netted out, the negatives and positives of the president's p=oposals don't point to any acceleration in GDP expansion," by columnist Ge=e Epstein:

The U.S. economy=under President Barack Obama expanded at the tepid annual rate of=2.1%, the slowest since World War II. The Trump administration claims that=growth can now accelerate to 3% to 4%. In the dicey world of forecasting, =lmost nothing can be ruled out. But, sad to say, between now and the end o= 2018 at least, the net effect of Trump and his policies should result in =he economic expansion continuing at the same dismal pace.

10. 1 fun thing: "Spicy's gonna explain it"

Melissa McCarthy, portraying Spicer, drives a motorized podium through M=nhattan traffic yesterday / AP's Bebeto Matthews

Spotted: Melissa McCarthy, who's hosting "Saturday Nigh= Live" tonight, in costume as Sean Spicer, driving a motorized version of =he White House podium on a busy Midtown Manhattan street yesterday as she =aped a bit for the show.

She was surrounded by=moving cars, yelling and gesturing at folks to get out of the way: "C'mon!=

See the video.

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