* You have to wonder what French President Emmanuel Macron really thinks of Donald Trump.
Macron seems too smart, too savvy, too informed, too young, too short to be Trump’s best, non-authoritarian, geo-political bosom buddy. But how else do you get the U.S. to not abandon the cause of climate change and to not pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal without giving it your best bromantic shot? Making science-based, existential points is an obvious non-starter.
You can imagine what was going through Macron’s mind as photographers gathered for their historic handshakes and air kisses. Maybe: “I don’t mind taking one for the team, but–sacre bleu. He won’t hug Merkel. What would de Gaulle do?”
* It has now been confirmed that there will be further delay in releasing the rest of the JFK assassination records. They’ll remain classified for national security reasons until at least 2021. At least that’s what Trump has been told. Actually, it’s more out of scandalous embarrassment for reprehensible incompetence and rogue government elements involved in the assassination.
Hell, you would think Trump would actually like the distraction–even if there’s no confirmation that Ted Cruz’s father was involved.
* Trump is now set to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May in July. But it won’t be an “official” state visit by Trump. That’s a polite way of saying he won’t have to endure some awkward optics over a royal family visit.
* Amid the Nobel Peace Prize conjecture, let’s keep this in mind about the rapprochement now under way on the Korean Peninsula. There was a critically important move involving a key player that has led to what we’re now seeing. No, not by Trump. Not Kim Jong Un. Not Moon Jae-in.
It actually involved Park Geun-hye, the former president of South Korea. She was disgraced in a corruption scandal, driven from office and sentenced to 24 years in prison. She and her hard-line views toward the North were replaced last year by Moon, who was well known for his conciliatory approach to the North. There would be, quite arguably, no serious warming of relations if Park were still in office. Moon was a game changer, if not a Nobel Prize candidate.
BTW, there’s still no U.S. ambassador to South Korea, although Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, will reportedly be Trump’s nominee.
* Trump will soon formally decide whether to keep the U.S. in the Iran nuclear deal. The ripple effects of a unilateral rejection are worrisome from Iran itself to U.S. credibility with the other Iran-deal signatories–England, France, Germany, China and Russia–to North Korea, as it takes notes on, ironically, U.S. reliability while prepping for the Trump-Kim summit.
* The White House Correspondents’ Dinner didn’t help the cause if your cause is celebrating viable, professional media and accountability-holding criticism in the era of Trump. The featured comedienne, Michelle Wolf , was, on balance, tasteless and off-putting and did, ironically, a disservice to journalism by dragging everyone into the mud with Trump. How do you criticize Trump, for example, for all of his Administration’s vetting failures when you don’t properly vet your annual dinner’s headline comic performer? She was a room-service talking point for the Trump pushback on mainstream media as a biased, “witch-hunting” enemy.
She did, however, telegraph her punch lines from the start: “Like a porn star says when she’s about to have sex with a Trump, let’s get this over with.” Not soon enough.
I miss Seth Meyers.
* The Senate just confirmed Trump’s 15th appeals court nominee. This is in addition to the 17 Trump-nominated judges on district courts. We know Neil Gorsuch is on the Supreme Court, and we can’t help second guessing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, for not retiring while Obama was still in position to choose a replacement and not worry about Mitch McConnell. Stay healthy and feisty, albeit frail, RBG.
* So the controversial Dr. Ronny Jackson has withdrawn as Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, after denying allegations involving the dispersals of meds, a hostile work environment within the White House medical team and possible over-imbibing while on duty. Imagine if he had been accused of what Trump did?
* Trump and Kanye West. It is what it is: two obnoxious, self-serving, pop culture celebrities. If only one were not president of the United States.