TRUMP AGENDA: Who knew it would be this hard?
Trump is warning of a possible “major, major conflict” with North Korea.
And Trump told Reuters this: "I loved my previous life. I had so many things going. This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier."
The Washington Post spoke to Trump about his abrupt reversal on NAFTA: “President Trump was set to announce Saturday, on the 100th day of his presidency, that he was withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement — the sort of disruptive proclamation that would upend both global and domestic politics and signal to his base that he was keeping his campaign promise to terminate what he once called “a total disaster” and “one of the worst deals ever.” “I was all set to terminate,” Trump said in an Oval Office interview Thursday night. “I looked forward to terminating. I was going to do it.” There was just one problem: Trump’s team — like on so many issues — was deeply divided.”
Leigh Ann Caldwell, with the latest machinations in Congress: “President Donald Trump looks likely to pass his 100th day in office without successfully repealing Obamacare, but lawmakers appeared to have avoided a government shutdown for at least another week.”
And from the Washington Post: “Despite pressure from the White House, House GOP leaders determined Thursday night that they didn’t have the votes to pass a rewrite of the Affordable Care Act and would not seek to put their proposal on the floor on Friday.”
Benjy Sarlin notes that the path to tax reform is going to be a long slog.
The New York Times, on what the tax plan would do: “President Trump’s proposal to slash individual and business taxes and erase a surtax that funds the Affordable Care Act would amount to a multitrillion-dollar shift from federal coffers to America’s richest families and their heirs, setting up a politically fraught battle over how best to use the government’s already strained resources. The outline that Mr. Trump offered on Wednesday — less a tax overhaul plan than a list of costly cuts with no price tags attached, rushed out by a president staring down his 100-day mark in office — calls for tax reductions for individuals of every income level as well as businesses large and small. But the vast majority of benefits would accrue to the highest earners and largest holders of wealth, according to economists and analysts, accounting for a lopsided portion of the proposal’s costs.”
The Senate has confirmed Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
From POLITICO: “A firm co-founded by Donald Trump’s original campaign manager Corey Lewandowski appears to have been pitching clients around the world by offering not only policy and political advice, but also face time with President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and senior members of their administration, according to documents and interviews.”
What happened to GOP concerns about the deficit? The New York Times reports.
Charles Koch: “Trump’s policies must not benefit only big businesses like mine.”
And the Wall Street Journal writes that economic growth likely stalled in the first quarter of the year.