The Washington Post - 22.08.2019

A4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 , 2019

his full embrace of Netanyahu to advance both policy and political goals. The controversy over Tlaib and Omar’s visit and their posture toward Israel has taken it to another level, and the president has sought to brand the entire Democratic Party with their criticism and their support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. Most of what he said Tuesday was a repetition of previous comments about the two lawmakers and about two other first-term congresswomen, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D- N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D- Mass.). Toward the end, however, he veered into dangerous territory. “Where has the Democratic Party gone?” he said. “Where have they gone where they’re defending these two people over the state of Israel? And I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Trump allies characterized what he said as a poor choice of words, but those words, whether deliberately chosen or spoken without any sense of historical context, brought quick and strong condemnations as echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes used in the past. Whatever the motivation, they are now words spoken by a president of the United States sitting in the Oval Office. Asked Wednesday what he meant, Trump left ambiguity. “In my opinion, you vote for a Democrat, you’re being very disloyal to Jewish people,” he said, “and you’re being very disloyal to Israel.” After the past two days, there is only one thing to say: Be braced for Thursday. [email protected]

among Republicans, independents and Democrats. He had climbed this hill before, after previous mass shootings, only to roll back down, so there was plainly skepticism about whether he would ever follow through, particularly as he had married the idea of background checks with an immigration policy overhaul. Internally he faced resistance to moving forward on gun legislation. In recent days, his language changed as he indicated that the current background checks were working. On Tuesday, in a telephone call he initiated with Wayne LaPierre, CEO and executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, Trump made clear that those background checks are no longer in his sights. That news was first reported by the Atlantic’s Elaina Plott. On Wednesday, he denied that he had indicated to LaPierre that background checks were no longer on the table. “I have an appetite for background checks,” he said, without explicitly saying what changes he supports or how far he is willing to go to get a bipartisan agreement. But he hedged, suggesting that Democrats could want more than he’s prepared to give. At his Oval Office photo opportunity with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday, the president renewed his feud with Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over their planned trip to Israel that was blocked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. U.S. support for Israel has long been a bipartisan enterprise, but that bipartisanship has been strained in recent years. Those strains have grown as Trump has used

pleaded for optimism about the future. Navarro assured viewers that China is absorbing the full cost of the trade war that has been stalemated for some time. The president buttressed those statements with comments about the strength of the U.S. economy, which many economists say could be slowing down. Trump also said he is prepared for anything. Other administration officials dismissed any cause for concern. On Monday, The Washington Post’s Damian Paletta reported that, with concerns rising about a possible recession, administration officials were discussing options, including a cut in the payroll tax. A White House official publicly denied the report. On Tuesday, in the Oval Office, the president made that denial inoperative, confirming that in fact, administration officials were considering a cut in the payroll tax, along with other possible changes, including in the capital gains tax. “Payroll tax is something that we think about, and a lot of people would like to see that,” he said. On Wednesday, he took it back: “I’m not looking at a tax cut now; we don’t need it. We have a strong economy.” Despite the claim of a strong economy, he once again pushed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell to cut interest rates, saying, “If he does it, you’ll see a rocket ship; you’ll see a boom.” After the horrific shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, the president made a point of saying he was keenly interested in doing something about guns. He spoke specifically about expanding background checks for firearm purchases, an idea that has overwhelming support

that he was interested in having
the United States purchase
Greenland from Denmark. The
president confirmed those
reports and said there were
strategic reasons to be interested
in that kind of a deal. But he
played down the idea that this
was an urgent issue on his
agenda. “It’s not number one on
the burner, I can tell you that,”
he said.
Roll forward 48 hours, when
he tweeted that he was
scrubbing his upcoming visit to
Denmark because Danish Prime
Minister Mette Frederiksen had
“no interest in discussing the
purchase of Greenland.”
That caught Carla Sand, the
U.S. ambassador to Denmark, by
surprise, as she had tweeted
earlier in the day: “Denmark is
ready for the POTUS... Partner,
ally, friend.” By Wednesday
morning, she was trying to
assure everyone that Trump
“values & respects [Denmark]
and looks forward to a visit in
the future.”
Rufus Gifford, who was
ambassador to Denmark under
Barack Obama, offered a more
caustic view of the decision to
cancel the visit. “He is a child,”
he wrote in a tweet.
In his conversation with
reporters Wednesday, the
president indicated he had
canceled the trip because he was
upset with the Danish prime
minister’s dismissal of the sale of
Greenland, calling her reaction
“nasty” and adding, “You don’t
talk to the United States that
way, at least under me.”
On Sunday, Larry Kudlow and
Peter Navarro, two of the
president’s economic advisers,
appeared on talk shows with the
message that all was well with
the economy, despite unsettling
signs in previous days. Kudlow

TAKE FROM A

ernment ministers, who slammed Trump’s behavior as juvenile, undiplomatic and in- sulting. “It’s an insult from a close friend and ally,” Michael Aastrup Jensen, a member of the Danish Parliament with the influential center-right Venstre party, told The Washington Post. He said Trump’s interest in purchasing Greenland took the country by surprise and was initially widely considered to be a joke, before Danes realized the full extent of “this disaster.” Jensen said Danish lawmakers felt misled and “appalled” by the president, who “lacks even basic diplomatic skills,” he said. “There was no word [ahead of time] about: ‘I want to buy Greenland, and that’s why I’m coming.’ ” [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Dan Lamothe and Josh Dawsey in Washington and Jennifer Hassan in London contributed to this report.

presence and footprint up there. Thule is not a combatant base. It doesn’t have aircraft. It could have aircraft, if they’re able to operate in an inhospitable climate up there. So they’re probably looking at that.” Speaking at a news conference in Copenhagen before Trump’s appearance in Washington, Fred- eriksen said Trump’s decision to cancel his trip would not “change the character of our good rela- tions,” adding that an invitation “for stronger cooperation on Arc- tic affairs still stands.” On Wednesday evening, hours after Trump’s remarks, the Dan- ish prime minister told public broadcaster DR: “I think we have answered very nicely from the Danish side.” She was “not going to go into a war of words” with Trump, Fred- eriksen added in an interview with the TV2 network. Her measured remarks stood in strong contrast with Danish lawmakers from across the political spectrum and former gov-

But it is probably prompted in part by a growing realization across the U.S. government that more attention needs to be paid to the Arctic, in light of both climate change and Russia and China’s interest in the region, he said. U.S. officials involved in Greenland issues have long dis- cussed the island in national security terms, and the Air Force’s use of Thule Air Base on the northwestern coast already gives Washington a foothold there, said Townsend, now an adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Secu- rity. Melting sea ice raises the prospect that Greenland could be more centrally involved in tran- siting waterways to the north, he added. “I am certain that they want to expand Thule,” Townsend pre- dicted of the Pentagon’s long- term plans. “For sure for a while now, there has been interest in the Pentagon on what can we do to make sure we have our own

ident was annoyed at planned back-to-back trips to Europe in the coming days and the exten- sive flying involved and that the comments by Frederiksen gave him a reason to cancel the Den- mark leg. Trump is scheduled to leave later this week for a Group of Seven summit in France. “He is not looking forward to any of it,” said the adviser, who spoke to Trump this week and requested anonymity to share a private conversation. It remained unclear whether Trump will still go to Poland, as he had been scheduled to do for two days ahead of his trip to Copenhagen in early September. U.S. Arctic experts said there is strategic value in Greenland, but they questioned how the Trump administration is handling U.S. interests there. Jim Townsend, who handled Arctic and Europe issues in the Pentagon under the Obama administration, said proposing to buy Greenland from Denmark at this point is “foolish and stupid.”

ing so direct.” There were signs of damage control Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod. In a tweet, Kofod said the two had a “frank, friendly and constructive” talk affirming the strong bond between both countries. The United States and Den- mark “are close friends and allies” with a “long history of active engagement across the globe,” he said, adding that the two “agreed to stay in touch on [a] full range of issues of mutual interest.” But Trump continued to lash out. In his remarks to reporters, the president noted that others had also floated the idea of a U.S. purchase of Greenland, including President Harry S. Truman. Later, after departing on a trip to Kentucky, Trump took a shot at Denmark, writing on Twitter that despite being “a wealthy country,” it was falling short of a NATO goal for defense spending. A Trump adviser said the pres-

while also reiterating comments
that have already sparked several
rounds of controversy this week.
The president defended his
trade war with China despite
worries that his tariffs have be-
come a drag on the economy
while chastising his predecessors
for not taking a tougher line with
Beijing.
“Somebody had to do it,” he
said before looking skyward and
proclaiming: “I am the chosen
one.”
He said he still wants to end
birthright citizenship through an
executive order — an idea that
was dismissed by most legal
experts as unconstitutional when
he floated it late last year — while
also disputing reports that he is
backing away from a plan to
expand background checks fol-
lowing recent mass shootings.
Trump denied he is consider-
ing a payroll tax cut to head off a
recession, arguing that there is
no need to do so even after he
confirmed it was under consider-
ation the previous day.
He intensified his criticism of
Jewish voters who support Dem-
ocrats, calling them “very disloy-
al to Israel.”
And Trump continued to serve
as the loudest cheerleader for his
own record, while dismissing any
criticism of his actions or rheto-
ric.
“I was put here by people to do
a great job, and that’s what I’m
doing,” he said. “And nobody’s
done a job like I’ve done.”
His recent comments on Den-
mark and Greenland, including
his decision to ratchet up ten-
sions Wednesday, have con-
founded allies and critics, who
have called his rhetoric an un-
necessary provocation with a
trusted NATO ally.
“It doesn’t take a member of
the Intelligence Committee to
know that canceling meetings
with our foreign allies over the
momentary whims of the Presi-
dent is absurd,” Rep. Mike Quig-
ley (D-Ill.) wrote on Twitter. “We
can’t keep making foreign policy
decisions based on this Presi-
dent’s fantasy world.”
The announcement of Trump’s
change of plans Tuesday night
came two days after he told
reporters that owning Greenland
“would be nice” for the United
States strategically, even though
the island’s status was initially
not publicly cited as a scheduled
topic for his planned visit to
Denmark.
Trump’s public comments
Wednesday also struck a differ-
ent tone than on Tuesday night,
when he said in a tweet that
Denmark is “a very special coun-
try with incredible people” and
he thanked Frederiksen for “be-

DENMARK FROM A

Denmark’s prime minister tries to avoid ‘a war of words’

JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Icebergs float off Kulusuk in Greenland, which has become more geopolitically valuable as global warming opens routes for trade and resource exploration in the Arctic.

BY DAVID A. FAHRENTHOLD AND ANN E. MARIMOW

A federal judge Wednesday al- lowed President Trump to appeal rulings in a lawsuit that accuses him of violating the Constitution by doing business with foreign governments, putting the case on hold in the meantime. The ruling by District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan effectively pauses a lawsuit brought by more than 200 congressional Demo- crats, who say Trump’s compa- nies, which include hotels, should be prohibited from taking payments from foreign states. Trump has argued that the Democrats do not have legal standing to sue him in the first place. Sullivan’s ruling was not a surprise. In July, an appeals court in Washington had strongly sig- naled to Sullivan that he should allow this unusual appeal — ruling that Sullivan had probably “abused his discretion” when he denied an earlier attempt. In his ruling, Sullivan noted that this sort of appeal — done in the middle of a district court case instead of at its end — is warrant- ed when there is “substantial ground for difference of opinion” on a key matter of law. The appeals court had indicated that this was such a case, so he agreed to let the appeal go forward. One effect of Sullivan’s ruling will be to keep on hold the “dis- covery” process, a pretrial fact- finding period in which the Dem- ocrats wanted to serve 37 subpoenas on Trump businesses, asking about their foreign customers. Sullivan had paused that process in July after the appeals court’s ruling. Earlier, attorneys working with the Democrats said that subpoenas delayed would, in effect, be subpoenas denied — that Trump’s first term might run out before

the plaintiffs could get any an- swers. They also questioned Trump’s lawyers’ argument that the suit was a distraction. Sullivan rejected that argument. The decision is another set- back for those who hoped to use the courts — and the Constitu- tion’s emoluments clauses — to stop Trump’s private business from taking money from foreign governments. Those clauses — intended to prevent U.S. leaders from being corrupted through their wallets — prohibit presidents from taking payments from foreign states, U.S. states or the federal government. Until Trump’s presidency, they were seen as dusty footnotes from another era. But then Trump chose to keep ownership of his private businesses, including a D.C. hotel that has hosted embassy galas and visiting foreign leaders. Three plaintiffs filed suit — seeking to prohibit Trump from doing business with foreign countries, or at least require him to give details about who paid what. So far, his businesses have not done either. Two of the cases have been dismissed, as courts ruled that those plaintiffs — a nonprofit watchdog group in one case, and the attorneys general of the Dis- trict and Maryland in the other — did not have the legal right to sue Trump. The attorneys general have said that they are considering asking for a rehearing of the case and that they expect the issue eventually to reach the Supreme Court. [email protected] [email protected]

Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.

Trump cleared to appeal

emoluments suit rulings

THE TAKE

President provides another taste of a new ‘normal’

The Washington Post - 22.08.2019

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