Today in Trumpworld — Nov. 20

TRUMP’S SCHEDULE TODAY

11 a.m.: President Donald Trump will receive his daily intelligence briefing in the Oval Office.


11:30 a.m.: Trump will hold a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room.

12:30 p.m.: Trump will have lunch with Vice President Mike Pence and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson at the White House.

1:30 p.m.: Trump will meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley in the Oval Office.

DAILY BRIEFING: Press secretary Sarah Sanders will brief the press at the White House at 2 p.m.

TRUMP’S TWITTER THIS MORNING: “Marshawn Lynch of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders stands for the Mexican Anthem and sits down to boos for our National Anthem. Great disrespect! Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down. … Under President Trump unemployment rate will drop below 4%. Analysts predict economic boom for 2018! @foxandfriends and @Varneyco.”

INSIDE THE WEST WING: From the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker and Carol D. Leonnig: “Six months into a special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, White House aides and others in President Trump’s close orbit are increasingly divided in their assessments of the expanding probe and how worried administration officials and campaign aides should be about their potential legal peril, according to numerous people familiar with the debate. Some in the West Wing avoid the mere mention of Russia or the investigation whenever possible. Others take solace in the reassurances of White House lawyer Ty Cobb that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will be wrapping up the probe soon and the president and those close to him will be exonerated. And a few engage in grim gallows humor, privately joking about wiretaps. The investigation reached a critical turning point in recent weeks, with a formal subpoena to the campaign, an expanding list of potential witnesses and the indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates. Some within Trump’s circle, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus, have already been interviewed by Mueller’s investigators, while others such as Hope Hicks — the White House communications director and trusted confidant of the president — and White House counsel Donald McGahn are expected in coming weeks.”

RUSSIA WATCH: From POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein: “What appear to be obscure details in a court filing against Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, may actually provide clues about what’s next for another target in the special counsel’s Russia investigation: former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates were charged late last month with a variety of crimes, including violation of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, or FARA, even though such a charge is rare. A 2016 Justice Department report found only seven FARA prosecutions in about half a century. Like Manafort, Flynn belatedly registered as a foreign agent after coming under scrutiny by Justice Department prosecutors for activity by his consulting firm. Lawyers tracking the investigation said Flynn is unlikely to be charged with violating FARA unless, as with Manafort, special counsel Robert Mueller feels he can show the former national security adviser broke the rules in especially egregious ways.”

THE MANDATE: From POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn and Paul Demko: “Repealing Obamacare's individual mandate might not be the devastating blow to health insurance markets that supporters of the law fear. Because the tax penalty for not having insurance is far less costly than what many Americans would have to pay for coverage, many have chosen to take the fine. Eliminating it, therefore, might not radically change behavior — or fulfill the dire predictions of spiking premiums and vast increases in uninsured people that economists, health providers and politicians once predicted. Even the Congressional Budget Office says it's rethinking its estimates of the consequences.”



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