* Damian Paletta reports on President Trump’s subtle new industrial policy:
President Trump on Tuesday threatened the iconic motorcycle company Harley-Davidson with severe taxes and predicted a public revolt that he said would eventually put the 115-year-old firm out of business, blasting the Wisconsin company for a plan to move some operations outside the United States as a way to avoid getting caught in the middle of an escalating trade war.
Trump also accused Harley-Davidson, without providing any evidence, of intentionally misleading Americans by saying the firm was moving some operations out of the United States in response to new tariffs imposed by the European Union.
The intensity of these attacks, which he typically reserves for political opponents, came in Twitter posts.
He alleged that Harley-Davidson’s Monday announcement that it would move some more operations outside the United States was long planned and that it was using Europe’s new tariffs as an excuse. He threatened to hit the company with an unspecified tax if it attempted to sell motorcycles in the United States that were made outside the country.
Try to imagine for a moment if President Barack Obama had threatened a single American company by saying that, since they displeased him, “they will be taxed like never before!” They would have rent their garments in agony, then immediately filed articles of impeachment.
* Mike DeBonis and Sean Sullivan report that the ace legislators in the GOP are getting things done:
Top Democratic congressional leaders said Tuesday that concerns about holding migrant families in detention indefinitely make it unlikely that they would back a Republican effort to fix the separation crisis created by President Trump.
The lack of support dimmed prospects for any quick legislative action before lawmakers leave Washington for their week-long Fourth of July recess as the government continues to grapple with the fallout from Trump’s policy.
Congressional Republicans have struggled to pass any immigration legislation, and Trump has been an unreliable partner, equivocating on bills and then telling GOP lawmakers not to bother until after the midterm elections, when he predicted Republican gains.
The president summed up what he would like immigration law to be in a White House meeting with GOP lawmakers: “It’s called, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t come in.’ ”
So, he’s looking for common ground then.
* Paul Sonne and Lisa Rein report that Trump’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affair is a big fan of the Confederacy. How on earth did someone like that get through their careful vetting process?
* Michelle Goldberg says the real crisis is not one of civility but democracy.
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