With a friend like the United States … “German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron visit Washington this week with strains hanging over European economic relations with the U.S. The strains—over trade, sanctions and other matters—were evident during semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank … in Washington this weekend.”
She looked happy to be among kind companions. “The First Lady tweeted yesterday, ‘It was my honor to travel to Houston to give my respects to Barbara Bush and the remarkable life she led as a mother, wife, and fearless First Lady. My sincerest thoughts and prayers continue to be with George H.W., and the entire Bush family.'”
President Trump has managed to alienate our closest allies. “Mexico delivered a defiant political riposte to U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday by agreeing [to] a trade deal with the EU. Trump’s push to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement helped catalyze Mexico’s talks with Brussels over the past year, as the Latin American country sought to diversify away from dependence on an increasingly hostile U.S.” When do we start winning?
Trump signals that being a teammate of the United States isn’t worth much. “The limited strikes, in retaliation for a poison gas attack on the Syrian enclave on Douma, reflect a cold calculus: the United States has no intention of using its firepower to halt the mass killing of civilians through conventional means, degrade Syria’s military forces, or to challenge Russia and Iran’s military positions is Syria. … Serious questions remain about the extent of the damage inflicted on Syria’s chemical weapons program. According to a ‘senior official in a regional alliance that backs Damascus’ quoted by Reuters, ‘the sites that were targeted had been evacuated days ago thanks to a warning from Russia.’ ”
It’s embarrassing that we need private benefactors to fulfill our obligations. “Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) said on Sunday that he would cut a check for $4.5 million to fulfill the United States’s financial commitment to the Paris climate accord. ‘America made a commitment and as an American if the government’s not going to do it, we all have responsibility,’ Bloomberg said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ ”
Well, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and the ex-governor have been pals for years. “Outgoing Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker on Sunday defended his praise of the Democrat running in the race to replace him, but said he still plans to support the Republican nominee. ‘He is my friend,’ Corker said of the candidate, former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen,to CNN’s Dana Bash on ‘State of the Union.’ ‘I’m not going to campaign against him, but I’m supporting our nominee.’ … Corker commented on the race last Wednesday during a breakfast event hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. … ‘He was a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person,’ he said at the event.”
One of Trump’s confidantes should remind him that this is similar to what the Democratic National Committee did during Watergate. “The chairman of the Democratic National Committee on Sunday defended a new multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the Russian government, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, with talk show hosts asking whether it was distracting from efforts to rebuild the Democratic Party. ‘I don’t know when Director Mueller’s investigation is going to end, so we need to file now to protect our rights,” Tom Perez said … ‘We’ve got elections coming up in November. It’s hard to win elections when you have interference in elections. They’ve done it with impunity, and I’m concerned that it’s going to happen again. So, that’s why we did it now.’ ” Good for him.