May 30, 2017

Emmanuel Macron Challenges Putin on Syria and Gay Rights

By ALISSA J. RUBIN and AURELIEN BREEDEN MAY 29, 2017

VERSAILLES, France — France’s newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, came out of his first meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday with a message of stark challenge, promising French military reprisals for any use of chemical weapons by Russia’s allies in Syria and saying he would closely monitor the curtailing of civil rights for gay people in Chechnya.

Against the gilded backdrop of the Palace of Versailles, Mr. Macron and Mr. Putin pledged to work with each other to fight terrorism. But their body language was at times tense, and the sometimes confrontational tone of the meeting was made clear in Mr. Macron’s comments afterward during a joint news conference, where he signaled his intent to play a forceful role on the global stage and not be cowed by other world leaders.

With Mr. Putin standing beside him, he accused two news organizations with ties to Russia of acting as “organs of influence” rather than as true outlets for journalism. And he publicly warned the Russian leader that the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” for France. “The use of chemical weapons by anyone will be the object of reprisals and immediate retaliation on the part of France,” he said.

Mr. Putin has strongly backed President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose forces have been accused of using chemical weapons as recently as April. The Russian president did not respond directly to Mr. Macron’s implicit challenge.

The visit by Mr. Putin, at Mr. Macron’s invitation, was described as a working meeting timed to coincide with the opening of a show at the Grand Trianon, a chateau within the Versailles complex. The exhibition celebrates the ties between Russia and France forged 300 years ago by Peter the Great when he visited France after encouraging diplomatic ties between the two countries.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/world/europe/emmanuel-macron-putin-france-russia.html?emc=edit_th_20170530&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284

May 30, 2017

Investigation Turns to Kushner's Motives in Meeting With a Putin Ally

Source: New York Times



Monday, May 29, 2017 9:18 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, was looking for a direct line to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia — a search that in mid-December found him in a room with a Russian banker whose financial institution was deeply intertwined with Russian intelligence, and remains under sanction by the United States.

Federal and congressional investigators are now examining what exactly Mr. Kushner and the Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov, wanted from each other. The banker is a close associate of Mr. Putin, but he has not been known to play a diplomatic role for the Russian leader. That has raised questions about why he was meeting with Mr. Kushner at a crucial moment in the presidential transition, according to current and former officials familiar with the investigations.

The New York Times first reported the meeting between Mr. Kushner and Mr. Gorkov in March, but the White House at the time did not explain its aim. That article quoted a White House spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, who said that the meeting came at the request of the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak, with whom Mr. Kushner had met earlier in December at Trump Tower to discuss opening a communications channel with Russian officials during the presidential transition. But the half-hour meeting with Mr. Gorkov since has come under increasing scrutiny. The current and former American officials now say it may have been part of an effort by Mr. Kushner to establish a direct line to Mr. Putin outside of established diplomatic channels.

The meeting came as Mr. Trump was openly feuding with American intelligence agencies and their conclusion that Russia had tried to disrupt the presidential election and turn it in his favor.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/us/politics/jared-kushner-russia-investigation.html

May 30, 2017

He's Back: Trump Lashes Out at Germany, 'Fake News' Media

President says trade deficit with Berlin 'will change,' but offers no plan

May 30, 2017 8:01 AM

John T. Bennett

President Donald Trump on Tuesday blasted Germany for its trade practices and what he views as its shortchanging of other NATO members, further weakening a partnership widely viewed as key to global stability.

The chief executive started his first full work day since arriving back in the U.S. Saturday night from his first foreign trip by firing off tweets that criticized Germany and the “fake news” media over its continuing coverage of a mounting scandal centered on possible ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign and transition teams.

Trump used his first morning tweet to lash out at the European powerhouse, noting the United States has “a MASSIVE trade deficit with Germany” and griping that the Germans “pay FAR LESS than they should on NATO & military.”
[Pence’s Battleground Stops, PAC Raise Eyebrows Amid Trump Scandals]

The U.S. president labeled both things “very bad for U.S.”

“This will change,” he added, though he provided no details on how his administration would force Berlin to pay more to the Western military alliance or shrink what the U.S. Census Bureau says was a $64.8 billion trade deficit with Germany in 2016 (down from $74.8 billion in 2015).

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/869503804307275776

After a series of private meetings with Trump and other Western leaders last week during separate NATO and G7 summits, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her countrymen during a campaign rally on Sunday that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands.”

- See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/hes-back-trump-lashes-germany-fake-news-media/

May 29, 2017

When the World Cheered a Visit from the U.S. President

Everyone in Saigon—students, office workers, street vendors, grandmothers—wanted a glimpse of Obama.

JOSEPH BABCOCK
05.28.17 1:29 PM ET

-snip-

It was May, 2016. Ho Chi Minh City, which everyone still called Saigon, was hot and muggy. Days before the President’s arrival, the city started to transform. Streets downtown were lined with sawhorses and metal barricades. Cleaning crews wearing orange jumpsuits and carrying bamboo brooms worked overtime, shuffling up and down the crowded sidewalks. Elaborate neon lights were draped above the busy central thoroughfare of Le Duan. Commuters on their motorbikes found random streets blocked by the police—contingency preparations, apparently, for the President’s visit.

By the time Air Force One landed at Ton Son Nhat, Saigon felt primed for its moment. Crowds lined the streets around the President’s hotel and in front of the embassy. Everyone—students, office workers, street vendors, grandmothers—wanted a glimpse of Obama. They said his name with the flat monotone that Vietnamese speakers use when saying a word that doesn’t contain diacritics, the last syllable drawn out so that it sounded like “Obam-aaah!” People in the crowd waved little Vietnamese and American flags, a sight that was kind of amazing in itself considering that this was right around the corner from the War Remnants Museum, formerly called the Exhibition House for U.S. and Puppet Crimes.
The White House entourage had a packed schedule of events, but my friend and I made plans to meet up later that night at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel where they were staying. He showed up accompanied by other members of the White House team.

“Seems like that crowd’s going to be out there all night,” one of my friend’s colleagues said as we all sat down on small plastic chairs arranged around an Inox folding table, dining in typical Saigon street-side style. He was referring to the throngs of Vietnamese still lining the barricades in front of the hotel, waving flags, holding signs and smartphones, hoping to get a glimpse of the President, even though he’d clearly clocked out for the day hours earlier.

“I guess the Vietnamese really love Obama,” I said.

“Dude,” my friend said, “it’s like this everywhere.”

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/28/when-the-world-cheered-a-visit-from-the-us-president

May 29, 2017

Some of Trump's supporters ... well, they can't really explain it either - Tom Toles

By Tom Toles May 29 at 10:00 AM



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2017/05/29/some-of-trumps-supporters-well-they-cant-really-explain-it-either/

May 29, 2017

'Back channels' are protocol for a president -- but not for a president-elect

By David Ignatius May 29 at 12:10 PM

“Back channels” have been used by every modern president, from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. If that’s so, what’s the problem with the pre-inauguration contacts between White House adviser Jared Kushner and two Russian intermediaries?

It’s a fair question. But that doesn’t mean that the right answer is a reflexive approval of Kushner’s contacts, as offered Sunday by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, who said of such offline communication: “It’s both normal, in my opinion, and acceptable.”

The devil here, as in most things, is in the details. Most analysts agree that it’s appropriate for presidents and their senior aides to use secret contacts to advance U.S. foreign policy goals. And it’s fairly routine for incoming administrations to have get-acquainted talks with foreign governments, too. Such back channels can add stability and predictability in foreign relations.

What’s not okay is when an incoming administration seeks to undermine the policies of the incumbent. We have “one president at a time.” That’s not just a political truism but a matter of law, enunciated back in 1799 in the Logan Act, which prohibits private meddling with official policy during a dispute. The fact that this statute has never been enforced criminally doesn’t blunt its importance. And it’s not okay, either, for any citizen, even the son-in-law of the president-elect, to propose contacts that would use the communications tools of a foreign intelligence service to evade detection. As Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday: “You have to ask, well, who are they hiding the conversation from?”

The secret Kushner contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Kremlin-friendly banker Sergey Gorkov raise similar questions to Michael Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak. Flynn resigned as national security adviser in February after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Pence and the public about whether, in a Dec. 29 conversation with Kislyak, he discussed easing anti-Russia sanctions after Trump’s inauguration.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/05/29/back-channels-are-protocol-for-a-president-but-not-for-a-president-elect/

May 29, 2017

The Coat of Arms Said 'Integrity.' Now It Says 'Trump.'

LONDON — At the Trump National Golf Club outside Washington, which hosted the Senior P.G.A. Championship this weekend, the president’s coat of arms is everywhere — the sign out front, the pro shop], even the exercise room.

The regal emblem, used at President Trump’s golf courses across the United States, sports three lions and two chevrons on a shield, below a gloved hand gripping an arrow.

A different coat of arms flies over Mr. Trump’s two golf resorts in Scotland. The lions on the shield have been replaced by a two-headed eagle, an image the company has said represents the “|dual nature and nationality” of Mr. Trump’s Scottish and German roots. But this emblem was not just about honoring his heritage.

The British are known to take matters of heraldry seriously, and Mr. Trump’s American coat of arms belongs to another family. It was granted by British authorities in 1939 to Joseph Edward Davies, the third husband of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the socialite who built the Mar-a-Lago resort that is now Mr. Trump’s cherished getaway.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/28/business/trump-coat-of-arms.html?_r=0

May 29, 2017

The Latest: Macron attacks Russian media outlets

Source: Associated Press



1 hour ago

PARIS (AP) — The Latest on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to France (all times local):

5:50 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has made an extraordinary attack on two Russian media outlets, saying they acted as “propaganda” organs during France’s election campaign.

Speaking at a news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Macron accused the two outlets, Russia Today and Sputnik, of spreading fake news.

He said that’s why he banned their reporters from his campaign headquarters during the race for the French presidency, which he went on to win May 7.

###

Read more: https://apnews.com/c01121dbfc6740969cd0fefc629cc46d/The-Latest:-Macron-attacks-Russian-media-outlets

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---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Axios 58 mins ago

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a joint press conference today, highlighted by Macron publicly accusing two Russian media outlets of spreading propaganda against him.

The two outlets: Russia Today and Sputnik, both of which operate in the U.S.

The backstory: Much like in the U.S., Russian outlets were instrumental in backing the populist Marine Le Pen during the French election. Before Macon and Putin met, Le Pen tweeted that she "rejoices that V. Putin is being welcomed to France. Our relations must be normalized."

Putin's pushback, per AP: "Putin described Le Pen as a politician who wants to develop friendly ties with Russia. Putin says it would be strange if Russia rebuffed overtures from European politicians who want to strengthen relations. He says the meeting with Le Pen didn't represent an attempt to sway the race."

###

https://www.axios.com/french-president-calls-out-russian-propaganda-in-front-of-putin-2425894954.html

May 29, 2017

Bots push two-year-old story on Obama and Russia all the way to the top of today's Drudge Report

TRAVIS GETTYS
29 MAY 2017 AT 12:44 ET



A two-year-old report on “Obama’s secret outreach to Russia” hit the top spot on the conservative Drudge Report after hundreds of bot accounts flooded Twitter with links to the article.

The report published Dec. 31, 2014, by Bloomberg View outlines the Obama administration’s behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to improve relations with Russia, which were spearheaded by then-Secretary of State John Kerry and included input from several Cabinet-level agencies.

-snip-

The original Bloomberg report largely disappeared from Twitter after interest died down a few weeks after its publication, but it began recirculating over the weekend.

Two posts appeared to have been shared directly from the Bloomberg site early Saturday morning and Sunday evening, but then a deluge of posts using the same phrasing and tags burst forth starting at 12:48 a.m. and continuing every two or three minutes for the next 11 hours.

Many of those accounts, at least in the early hours of the social media push, display the distinctive traits of bots — with highly unbalanced posting-to-followers ratios, inscrutable account names, few public interactions and almost no original content phrasing.

The report gained traction later in the morning, as the report found its way into more apparently human accounts.

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http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/bots-push-two-year-old-story-on-obama-and-russia-all-the-way-to-the-top-of-todays-drudge-report/

May 29, 2017

To Believe Trump You Must Believe Contradictory Things

May 29, 2017 By Taegan Goddard

Washington Post: “You must believe that there are a slew of leakers in the executive branch who are providing damning details to the press illegally, and who must be rooted out and punished.”

“You must also believe that the press makes up imaginary leakers simply to slowly and incrementally report false stories that are tangentially embarrassing to the president.”

“Trump, unlike most politicians and, frankly, most people, will nonchalantly argue two logically inconsistent points at the same time.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2017/05/29/believe-trump-must-believe-contradictory-things/