Remember that inviting the Taliban to Camp David in September 2019 was designed to draw attention from the looming problem of the Ukraine aid shake-down that led to impeachment. It was also to help cover-up any issue of the Russian bounty, because the vig would just be increased. Russia, Russia, Russia.
https://t.co/NrNPNWq6pc
Lest there be any doubt, Trump will now go full Nixon-nutty since Kushner’s advice has only gotten him into deeper trouble, beginning with firing Comey in order to expedite the Flynn cover-up in 2017. Remember Bolton resigned in protest of Trump’s decision to invite the Taliban to Camp David. The drug deal had gotten out of hand.
President Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner's political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president's thinking tell Axios.
Behind the scenes: One person who spoke with the president interpreted his thinking this way: "No more of Jared's woke s***." Another said Trump has indicated that following Kushner's advice has harmed him politically.
Why it matters: This could be the final straw for federal police reform legislation this year, and it could usher in even more incendiary campaign tactics between now and November.
[...]
Between the lines: Trump never really wanted criminal justice reform, according to people who have discussed the subject with him privately. He's told them he only supported it because Kushner asked him to. Though he has repeatedly trumpeted it as a politically useful policy at times.
- Trump now says privately it was misguided to pursue this policy, undercutting his instincts, and that he probably won't win any more African American support because of it.
- "He truly believes there is a silent majority out there that's going to come out in droves in November," said a source who's talked to the president in recent days.
The president also pays close attention to Fox News' Tucker Carlson. A few weeks ago, in a brutal monologue, Carlson blamed Kushner for giving Trump bad advice.
- "In 2016, Donald Trump ran as a law-and-order candidate because he meant it," Carlson said. "And his views remain fundamentally unchanged today. But the president's famously sharp instincts, the ones that won him the presidency almost four years ago, have been since subverted at every level by Jared Kushner."
- It hasn't escaped Trump's attention that Carlson has recently been the highest-rated host on cable news. Trump, generally skeptical about polls, views television ratings as a kind of substitute poll, according to a person who's discussed the subject with him.
www.axios.com/...
Speaking of Trump’s screw-ups in that whole bilateral trade war.