At the top of the program, Chuck Todd said that people are running out of ways to describe a week in the Trump presidency, alas Mr. Todd settled on 'crazy.' However, it's seems ever more clear that President Trump aspires to call a week such as this as 'typical,' because with this administration that's what a week like this has become. This 'typical' is also testing our national sanity on a weekly basis.
Each week there are so many things swirling that you inevitably hear someone in the TV media say, "That happened last week? It seems like a year ago." So next week, we'll be able to say that last year it was fmr. campaign aide Sam Nunberg, Tariffs, Gary Cohen, Stormy Daniels and the PA campaign rally. All this still does leave a columnist with the dilemma of where to start.
What stuck with Mr. Todd was the president's campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Friday night, particularly the president's continued attacks on the media, but when you're show is called "Meet The Press" it's understandable that such attacks would get up into your craw and stay there. Not to mention that little bitty about the press in the First Amendment in the Constitution and its freedom. And that's why it's totally justified for Mr. Todd to lay into the Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, about it because the president is supposed to uphold and defend the Constitution, something neither this secretary nor the president understand. Mr. Mnuchin dismisses vulgarity on the part of the president at a campaign rally as something of no consequence, indicative of a shill whose moral compass only points to money.
The campaign rally intended to support state legislator Rick Saccone's congressional candidacy instantly became a campaign for the president. Mr. Trump wouldn't have it any other way. Despite his appearance, Mr. Saccone's campaign is flagging and many political prognosticators are predicting that his opponent Connor Lamb is going to win in a conservative district in the Pittsburgh suburbs where the last Republican ran unopposed and Mr. Trump won by 20 points.
Mr. Trump's bombast and unpredictability keep growing as the undercurrent of these special congressional races show support for the president dwindling rapidly, which may fully manifest itself this November.
His appearance nor steel tariffs are going to turn this around in Pennsylvania or the country. In a conservative upper middle class district like PA18, it's more troublesome that the president's chief economic advisor Gary Cohn resigned over tariffs than it is keeping steel tariffs low. Never mind that he didn't resign over Charlottesville, which he should have, his exit is another sign of informed analysis and stability leaving the White House.
Or so it seems...
There may be a method to this madness if you'll indulge me for a few moments. Domestically, Mr. Trump attacks the press and anyone else (Republican, Democrat, celebrity or non) who vocally speaks out against him. Internationally, he's implementing steel tariffs that disproportionately hurt our traditionally allies setting off potential trade wars with Europe, while saying this week that he'll meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in May. If you look at all these steps in totality, Mr. Trump is realigning the United States to be more reflective of countries that we've stood opposed to in philosophy for the past 70 plus years. Russia's not a threat, Steel and Aluminum tariffs hurting our allies is good, Xi and Duterte are great guys and I'll meet with Kim Jong Un...
As The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson said about the Stormy Daniels story (which we'll get to in a minute), these things are a big deal as to what they're showing us about conservative Republicans. The Republican Party has never supported positions mentioned above, but now with a few exceptions are so neutered that they have nothing to say. On tariffs, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other leaders vocally opposed them but were too impotent to do anything. The President signed the tariffs into law on Thursday.
The evangelicals as Mr. Robinson explained have been left supporting a man they're giving 'mulligans' to on multiple affairs, the latest with a porn star. And let's not pretend that it's alleged. Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council clan have shown themselves to be more hypocritical than other group doing back flips to support this president, and they're becoming more and more irrelevant in doing so.
The panel debated whether the Stormy Daniels affair is of significant importance. Yahoo News's Matt Bai didn't think it a big deal while Andrea Mitchell spoke about the imperative of truthfulness and transparency in the presidency. The conversation reference The New York Times Michelle Goldberg's column that explained the Stormy Daniels story was not a sex scandal as much as it was a campaign finance scandal. Yes, but ultimately, this story will not damage the president politically. The big rub is that it will further damage the president's marriage and most probably his number one legal sycophant, personal attorney Michael Cohen will be disbarred. Maybe it will be confirmed that the president did in fact have the affair, something we already knew because Press Secretary Sarah Sanders admitted it this week from the podium.
Former campaign aide Sam Nunberg? As for him, we all know someone like him who will make a big deal of himself saying he won't do this or that, and I dare them... blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, he's going to do what's he told and he was told to testify, which he did. Mentor or not, if Roger Stone has to go down because of Mr. Nunberg's testimony then so be it in the mind of Sam Nunberg.
This leaves us with the big announcement on North Korea, in which the President of the United States of America agree to meet with dictator Kim Jong Un in may, the details for which have not yet been laid out. I state it like that because one would have to agree with the panel consensus that it's largely a win for Kim to get the meeting. They also pointed out that usually the diplomacy comes first and then the summit, but this seems to be the other way around. However, with this president it seems that these two things are going to happen simultaneously. And now that Gary Cohn is gone when you look around the room in the Trump administration you have to ask, who's going to get this done? As Andrea Mitchell pointed out, we have no Korean expert in the administration, no ambassador to South Korea.
We'll see how it all goes, but we probably know how this summit's going to start...
Kim: Do you know Dennis Rodman?
Trump: I do know Dennis, too much metal in his face but a good guy.
Kim: He is my friend...
Panel: Andrea Mitchell; NBC News; Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal; Matt Bai, Yahoo News; Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post
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