|
Capital Journal
|
Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
|
|
|
Trump's Day: President Trump and first lady Melania Trump welcome Polish President Andrzej Duda and his wife, Agata Kornhauser-Duda, to the White House. The presidents hold a joint press conference at 2 p.m. EDT.
Congress: The House is expected to begin debate on the "minibus" appropriations bill. Donald Trump Jr. meets behind closed doors with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
SALT Deduction: Treasury released final rules that shut down a tax-planning strategy for residents of high-tax states, nixing a workaround that could have helped some skirt the new cap on state and local tax deductions. Democrats argue that the cap was aimed directly at their states.
|
|
|
|
|
|
PHOTOS BY JIM WATSON,DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images
|
|
|
President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden exchanged barbs in Iowa, offering a preview of a potentially fiery general election face-off, report Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas. While both sought to talk policy, neither could resist taking some shots at each other.
-
“‘I have absolute power.’ No, you don’t, Donald Trump! ‘Only I can fix it.’ Fix yourself first, Donald Trump,” Mr. Biden said.
-
“When a man has to mention my name 76 times in his speech, that means he’s in trouble,” Mr. Trump said.
|
|
|
Inside Look: WSJ's CFO Network Meeting
|
|
|
Mick Mulvaney's Rallying Cry for the White House Staff
|
|
|
|
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney tells Jerry Seib that he has found a management approach that suits Mr. Trump's unconventional style while also unifying the West Wing staff. You can see more highlights from the CFO Network event here. And read more about life in the West Wing under Mr. Mulvaney below.
|
|
|
|
Trump Likes His White House Not Too 'Wild' or 'Militaristic'
|
|
|
|
President Trump’s acting chief of staff said the West Wing has found a happy medium between the wide-open, undisciplined days of the president’s first chief of staff and the rigid structure of his second.
Speaking at The Wall Street Journal CFO Network meeting, Mick Mulvaney addressed changes at the White House since Mr. Trump took office, when competing power centers and infighting weighed heavily on the administration.
In particular, he reflected on his two predecessors: Mr. Trump’s first chief of staff, former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, and retired four-star Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly. Mr. Trump named Gen. Kelly, formerly the Homeland Security secretary, as chief of staff at a time when he was seeking to impose order and discipline in his White House.
“We’re back now in sort of a mix between the complete free-wheeling, wild, wild west of Reince Priebus and the militaristic Marine camp of John Kelly. We found a happy medium between those two things. And I think the president is happy.” (Watch more of Mr. Mulvaney's interview with the WSJ's Jerry Seib above)
The president “likes the environment we’re in now because there is a lot less in-fighting,” Mr. Mulvaney said. “We had a morale problem when I took over.”
He said that Mr. Kelly made a management mistake when he “let everyone around him know he hated his job,” adding that it was terrible for morale. “The president fixed it,” he said. He said that he tells staffers: “Unless you are Jared and Ivanka,” referring to the president’s son-in-law and daughter, “this is the best job you’ll ever have.”
Gen. Kelly and Mr. Preibus didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Mulvaney also defended the president’s decision not to appoint him as a permanent chief of staff, saying there was no effective difference.
“There is a difference between an acting secretary of Defense and a permanent secretary of Defense,” Mr. Mulvaney began. “There is no difference between an acting chief of staff and a chief of staff.”
The president “can make me the permanent chief of staff and fire me on Thursday,” he added.
— Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com.
|
|
|
|
The slain half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had been in touch with the security services of several countries in the region, including South Korea, China and Japan, a person familiar with the matter said, in relationships he cultivated alongside his ties to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, reports Alastair Gale.
-
President Trump responded to the report that the CIA had used North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half-brother as a source: "I wouldn't let that happen," he said.
-
Mr. Trump also said Tuesday he had received a "very warm" letter from Kim Jong Un and suggested a third round of nuclear talks with North Korea could happen soon.
|
|
|
Officials say the president and his Polish counterpart will make a major announcement on troop deployments today, Alex Leary and Nancy A. Youssef report, an outcome of talks over a Polish proposal for a permanent U.S. military presence at a facility to be called “Fort Trump.”
|
|
The administration is planning a new initiative aimed at giving women a bigger role in global peace and security efforts, reports Catherine Lucey. Ivanka Trump has been a champion of the effort and will discuss it at the Capitol with a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
|
|
The U.S. intends to expand offensive cyberoperations to counter digital economic espionage and other commercial hacks, White House national security adviser John Bolton said at The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network annual meeting.
|
|
|
|
Google has fired several lobbying firms that make up about half of its more than $20 million annual lobbying bill. PHOTO: JEFF CHIU/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
Google is slashing more than half of its external lobbying budget and reallocating resources internally. The moves are part of a major overhaul of its global government affairs and policy operations amid the prospect of greater government scrutiny of its businesses, Brody Mullins and Ted Mann report.
|
|
The Justice Department’s top antitrust official said he would act to protect competition in the digital marketplace. The comments from U.S. Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim were his first public remarks on the issue since news reports that the department was preparing to investigate Google, report Brent Kendall, Kristina Peterson and Keach Hagey.
|
|
A group of state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to block the proposed merger of T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp., a highly unusual challenge that comes as federal antitrust officials are still reviewing the more than $26 billion deal, report Drew FitzGerald and Brent Kendall. The suit alleges that the union would drive up prices for cellphone services.
|
|
Chinese cash is suddenly toxic in Silicon Valley. Behind the shift is an effort by the U.S. government to stem a talent and technology outflow it fears could threaten U.S. economic and military superiority, reports Rolfe Winkler. Some American venture investors say Washington is overreacting.
|
|
|
|
|
House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.)/PHOTO: CLIFF OWEN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
|
|
The Democratic-led House authorized Congress to go to court to enforce subpoenas of current and former Trump administration officials over the Mueller probe, a gambit designed to keep pressure on the White House without opening a full-blown impeachment inquiry, reports Siobhan Hughes.
|
|
A small but growing number of Republican lawmakers are urging action on climate change, driven by changing sentiment among GOP voters and the effects of global warming, from stronger hurricanes to more-destructive wildfires, reports Arian Campo-Flores.
|
|
Congress is poised to shore up the finances of the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund, months after the trust said it would have to severely cut back on claim awards, Gabriel T. Rubin reports. Legislation that would fund it through 2090 has more than 300 House co-sponsors.
|
|
What's happening with the retirement bill in the Senate?
|
|
A bill that would encourage annuities in retirement accounts and delay mandatory distributions to age 72 is still on hold in the Senate, Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) says. The Senate could clear the House-passed version unanimously if lawmakers can work through individual members' concerns. Or, Mr. Grassley said, "a few weeks from now [we] put it in some must-pass bill."
|
— Richard Rubin | richard.rubin@wsj.com
|
|
|
|
|
Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, plans to submit proposals to Congress as early as this week to return Fannie and Freddie from government control to the private market, reports Andrew Ackerman.
|
|
|
Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan asked U.S. military personnel to remain apolitical at all times. The memos were meant to dispel fears that the military was bending to political demand after the White House asked defense officials to keep the USS John S. McCain “out of sight” ahead of Mr. Trump's visit to Japan, Nancy A. Youssef reports.
|
|
“DoD is saying we should uphold the rules we breached two weeks ago.
But it’s not clear who breached it.”
|
— Brad Carson, a former undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness
|
|
|
|
Defense industry consolidation continues as spending priorities shift. But Pentagon officials have also discouraged further mergers, concerned that bigger companies wield so much clout that investment decisions can be distorted, Doug Cameron and Ben Kesling report.
|
|
|
-
An Arizona jury couldn't reach a verdict on whether to convict a college professor of conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants for providing food, water and housing to two immigrants. (Associated Press)
-
In his first big speech on foreign policy, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg attempted to put himself safely in the mainstream of Democratic Party thinking on national security. (U.S. News)
-
There's a good chance Democrats, the party of women, minorities and milliennials, will nominate an old white man to be president. (American Conservative)
|
|
|
This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
|
|