NEW: THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK AHEAD: MONDAY: The president will hold a Cabinet meeting. He will have lunch with VP Mike Pence. WEDNESDAY: Trump will deliver remarks at the 9th Annual Shale Insight Conference in Pittsburgh. THURSDAY: Trump will participate in the Diwali ceremonial lighting of the Diya. He will present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Roger Penske. FRIDAY: Trump will speak at the 2019 Second Step Presidential Justice Forum in Columbia, S.C.
THE BIG NEWS OF THE WEEKEND … TRUMP CANCELS G-7 AT DORAL -- “Trump says his Doral golf resort will no longer host next year’s G-7 summit, bowing to criticism,” by WaPo’s Philip Rucker and David A. Fahrenthold: “President Trump announced abruptly Saturday night that he would no longer host next year’s Group of Seven summit at the Trump National Doral Miami resort in Florida, bowing to criticism for having selected his own property as the venue for a major diplomatic event.
“Trump was buffeted by two straight days of allegations of self-dealing and exasperation from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including some Republican allies who said the selection of Doral as the venue for a gathering of world leaders was indefensible.
“The decision — while it lasted — was an unprecedented one in modern American politics: The president awarded a huge contract to himself. The White House promoted Doral as the single best venue in the United States to host the G-7 summit in June, and the meeting would have brought thousands of guests in the offseason to a resort that is struggling financially.” WaPo
-- TRUMP’S ANNOUNCEMENT: @realDonaldTrump at 9:18 p.m.: “I thought I was doing something very good for our Country by using Trump National Doral, in Miami, for hosting the G-7 Leaders. It is big, grand, on hundreds of acres, next to MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, has tremendous ballrooms & meeting rooms, and each delegation would have...
“.....its own 50 to 70 unit building. Would set up better than other alternatives. I announced that I would be willing to do it at NO PROFIT or, if legally permissible, at ZERO COST to the USA. But, as usual, the Hostile Media & their Democrat Partners went CRAZY!
“....Therefore, based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility, we will no longer consider Trump National Doral, Miami, as the Host Site for the G-7 in 2020. We will begin the search for another site, including the possibility of Camp David, immediately. Thank you!”
-- “Mulvaney: Trump ‘surprised’ over Doral pushback,” by Maya Parthasarathy
-- ANITA KUMAR: “Trump can't stop bragging to foreign leaders about his resorts”: “Trump constantly brags about his properties around the globe when he speaks with foreign leaders in person or by phone, even more than the public instances witnessed out in the open, according to three people familiar with Trump’s conversations with foreign officials. The remarks are permeating every membrane of his presidency so much that they’ve left aides and allies mastering verbal jiu-jitsu to defend his unprecedented approach to fusing personal business interests with his position in high office.
“The interactions have led House Democrats — who have already launched an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump is illegally profiting off the presidency — and sometimes even his own staff to question whether his namesake businesses are influencing U.S. foreign policy.” POLITICO
THE STEPBACK -- WAPO’S PHIL RUCKER: “Trump’s season of weakness: A president who prizes strength enters key stretch in a fragile state”: “President Trump, whose paramount concern long has been showing strength, has entered the most challenging stretch of his term, weakened on virtually every front and in danger of being forced from office as the impeachment inquiry intensifies.
“Trump now finds himself mired in a season of weakness. Foreign leaders feel emboldened to reject his pleas or to contradict him. Officials inside his administration are openly defying his wishes by participating in the impeachment probe. Federal courts have ruled against him. Republican lawmakers are criticizing him. He has lost control over major conservative media organs. Polling shows that Americans increasingly disapprove of his job performance and support his impeachment.” WaPo
SUNDAY BEST -- CHRIS WALLACE spoke to Acting White House Chief of Staff MICK MULVANEY on FOX NEWS’ “FOX NEWS SUNDAY”: MULVANEY on what he said during his press briefing this week: “Here’s what I said. I’ll say it again. Uh. And hopefully people will listen this time. There are two reasons that we held up the aid. Um. We talked about this at some length. The first one was the, the rampant corruption in Ukraine.
“Ukraine, by the way, Chris, is so bad in Ukraine that in 2014 Congress passed a law making it – making us, requiring us to make sure that corruption was moving in the right direction. So corruption is a big deal. Everybody knows it. The president was also concerned about whether or not other nations – specifically European nations – were helping with foreign aid to the Ukraine, as well. We’ve talked about that, uh, for quite a while.
“I did then mention that in the past, the president has mentioned to me from time to time about the DNC server. He’d mentioned the DNC server to other people publicly. He even mentioned it to President Zelensky in the phone call. But it wasn’t connected to the aid. And that’s where I think people got sidetracked this weekend at that press conference.”
-- ON QUID PRO QUO: WALLACE: “You were, you were asked by Jonathan Karl … described a quid pro quo and you said that happens all the time.” MULVANEY: “And, again, reporters will use their language all the time. My language never said ‘quid pro quo.’”
-- BEHIND THE SCENES: “Mulvaney faced White House ouster threat before impeachment crisis took over,” CNN’s by Kaitlan Collins, Dana Bash, Jim Acosta and Gloria Borger: “Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney faced internal efforts to oust him before House Democrats moved ahead with their impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, multiple sources tell CNN.
“Top aides including Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner were in the process of reaching out to at least two potential replacements for the top West Wing job shortly before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced in late September that she would move ahead with an impeachment inquiry.
“These previously unreported efforts did not come to fruition, but underscore the weakness of Mulvaney's position even before his headline-generating performance in the briefing room last week. One person familiar with Mulvaney's thinking said the search came as Mulvaney himself was looking for an exit after ten months in the role, though people close to Mulvaney have denied he wanted to leave.” CNN
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS spoke with Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO on ABC NEWS’ “THIS WEEK”: POMPEO on Syria: “The counter-ISIS campaign, I'm proud of the work that our team has done under President Trump's leadership, not only encountering ISIS in Syria -- you know, George, Syria's been a mess for an awful long time, but encountering ISIS all around the world. We've been serious about it. We've been thoughtful. We've been strategic. And we will continue to make sure that we take the primary effort, which is to make sure we keep the American people safe from the threats from radical Islamic terrorism wherever we find it.”
STEPHANOPOULOS: “But didn't the president put those gains at risk by pulling the troops out? We saw the fighting immediately.” POMPEO: “I'm very confident that this administration's efforts to crush ISIS will continue.”
-- ON THE CEASE-FIRE: STEPHANOPOULOS: “The Turks said they got everything they wanted.” POMPEO: “Yeah, I was there. It sure didn't feel that way when we were negotiating. It was a hard fought negotiation. It began before the vice president and I even arrived in Ankara. It lasted hours while we were there. We achieved the outcome that President Trump sent us to achieve.”
-- More from POLITICO on contentious back-forth with Stephanopoulos and Pompeo over Ukraine probe
MEANWHILE, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST … GOP Rep. FRANCIS ROONEY (Fla.), who made waves this week for criticizing President DONALD TRUMP announced on “Fox News” that he would not run for reelection. The decision comes after the two-term congressman, who represents a conservative district, said he would consider impeachment. He has also called on departing Energy Secretary Rick Perry to comply with a subpoena and to cooperate with the House impeachment investigation.
"I thought the idea was you do your public service and left, you accomplish what you want to accomplish and I'm also tired of the intense partisanship that stops us from accomplishing what needs to be solved," Rooney said on “Fox News.” More from POLITICO
THE LATEST IN SYRIA … TROOPS NOT ACTUALLY COMING HOME -- “Pentagon chief says US troops leaving Syria for western Iraq,” by AP’S Lolita C. Baldor in Kabul, Afghanistan: “U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says that under current plans all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the American military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence.
“Esper, who arrived in the Afghan capital on Sunday, did not rule out the idea that U.S. forces would conduct counterterrorism missions from Iraq into Syria. But he told reporters traveling with him that those details will be worked out over time.
“His comments were the first to specifically lay out where American troops will go as they leave Syria and what the counter-IS fight could look like. Esper, who flew overnight to Afghanistan, said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift the more than 700 troops leaving Syria into western Iraq.” AP
-- “Pelosi Visits Jordan to Discuss Syria Crisis Amid Shaky Cease-Fire,” by NYT’s Patrick Kingsley in Istanbul: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi has traveled to Jordan to meet with the Jordanian king for “vital” discussions about the Turkish incursion into Syria and other regional challenges, amid uncertainty about whether an American-brokered cease-fire with Turkey in northern Syria was holding.
“The visit by senior United States officials came as sporadic clashes continued on Sunday morning along the Turkish-Syrian border, where, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry, a Turkish soldier was killed by Kurdish fighters in the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad. Confusion and continued shelling have marred the cease-fire deal announced by Vice President Mike Pence last week, with both Turkey and Kurdish leaders accusing each other of violating the truce.
“Ms. Pelosi, a California Democrat, led a nine-member bipartisan congressional delegation to Jordan that included Representatives Adam Schiff, Democrat of California; Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York; and Mac Thornberry, Republican of Texas. The group met with King Abdullah II of Jordan on Saturday evening.” NYT
Good Sunday morning. It’s official: The Nats have an opponent for the World Series, the Houston Astros. Game one will be Tuesday evening at 8:08 p.m. in Houston. They’ll be back in Washington on Friday.
MORE SUNDAY BEST -- CHUCK TODD interviewed PETE BUTTIGIEG on NBC NEWS’ “MEET THE PRESS”: BUTTIGIEG on the future of Syria: We know that we need to promote stability, that we need to stand by our allies, and that there will be legitimate Turkish security concerns that will also be part of the equation. But right now what is happening is the future over there is being decided by everybody but the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and we are nowhere because American leadership has been withdrawn.
“And the implications of this aren’t just the regional security picture in the Middle East, it’s the credibility of the United States ourselves. And the first order of business will be to restore U.S. credibility, not just with regard to the Middle East, but globally.”
TODD: “Does Turkey belong in NATO?” BUTTIGIEG: “Well, what we know is that they are not behaving in a way that is consistent with stability, and I think if they continue to behave in this way, there have to be consequences, but right now —”
TODD: “Is kick – a suspension or kicking out, some form of suspension from NATO, one of those consequences?” BUTTIGIEG: “Well right now what we have got to do is engage Turkey as an ally. You know, I served alongside Turkish troops in Afghanistan. That alliance is important and it’s leverage for us to make sure that we use our influence to prevent bad outcomes like the one that Donald Trump green lighted that they’re doing right now. If they don’t act like an ally in the long run, that is going to have consequences.”
-- TODD also spoke with Michigan Rep. JUSTIN AMASH (I): TODD: “100% you're running for Congress? Or could you still run for another office?” AMASH: “No, I wouldn't say 100% of anything, you know—” TODD: “Right. But there had been talking about a Libertarian presidential candidate.” AMASH: “Yeah. I'm running for Congress, but I keep things open and I wouldn't rule anything out.”
-- JAKE TAPPER interviewed BUTTIGIEG as well on CNN’S “STATE OF THE UNION.” BUTTIGIEG reaction to Trump calling what’s happening on the Syria-Turkey border as the “ultimate solution”: “My reaction is that those kinds of phrases have the darkest rhymes in world history. We don't talk about cleaning out people, especially when there is an ethnic minority that has faced atrocities and appears to be facing crimes against humanity and atrocities, perhaps beginning right now.”
2020 WATCH ...
-- “Trump Campaign Floods Web With Ads, Raking In Cash as Democrats Struggle,” by NYT’s Matthew Rosenberg and Kevin Roose
-- “'I am back': Sanders tops Warren with massive New York City rally,” by Holly Otterbein in Long Island City, New York: “Bernie Sanders one-upped Elizabeth Warren. In his first rally since he suffered a heart attack, the Vermont senator delivered a speech Saturday to a crowd his campaign estimated at 26,000 people, the largest number any presidential candidate has drawn this year. And he was joined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the star liberal congresswoman who made her endorsement official onstage.
“It was a triumphant moment for Sanders, coming after his hospitalization triggered questions about his candidacy. The crowd apparently eclipsed the 20,000 people that Warren's team said attended her September rally a few miles away in Washington Square Park, as well as the estimated 20,000 at Kamala Harris' campaign kickoff in January.
“Against the backdrop of the Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing complex in the nation, Sanders railed against President Donald Trump, income inequality, racial disparities, status quo politics and the economic elite.” POLITICO
-- “‘It’s not like she hates lobbyists’: Warren’s Senate record doesn’t match her campaign rhetoric,” by Theodoric Meyer: “[W]hile Warren’s campaign rhetoric has made the influence industry nervous, many lobbyists who’ve worked with the Massachusetts senator’s office say she’s far from antagonistic when it comes to doing business with K Street. Six lobbyists who interacted with her office said they’d never had trouble getting meetings.
“Several of them said that while they’d be reluctant to bring corporate clients to meet with Warren’s leading progressive rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), they’d have no qualms about having them sit down with Warren.” POLITICO
-- “Inside Joe Biden’s brawling efforts to reform Ukraine — which won him successes and enemies,” by WaPo’s Matt Viser and Paul Sonne
TRUMP’S SUNDAY -- The president has nothing on his public schedule.
NAHAL TOOSI: “The revenge of the State Department”: “They’ve been derided as a ‘Deep State,’ slurred as ‘Obama holdovers,’ threatened with draconian budget cuts and told that President Donald Trump doesn’t even need them. Now, America’s diplomats are taking their revenge. In recent days, current and former Foreign Service officers have defied Trump administration orders and trudged to Capitol Hill to testify before House committees investigating whether to impeach the president. Colleagues inside the State Department and their allies in the broader foreign policy community are quietly hailing them as heroes, with special praise for those testifying despite still being on the government payroll.
“In their testimonies, the diplomats have described being sidelined on Ukraine policy as Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and other Trump political appointees — apparently at the president’s direction — pursued a ‘shadow’ foreign policy that included withholding some $400 million in military aid to Kyiv. Their boss, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has attacked the House process as ‘troubling’ and defended the legitimacy of Giuliani’s efforts.
“Overall, the diplomats’ testimony has bolstered allegations that Trump tried to improperly pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a political rival. But some also used the platform to air long-held grievances over Trump and his aides’ treatment of the State Department’s career staffers, several of whom were demoted or sidelined following attacks by the conservative media.” POLITICO
ABOUT THAT BREXIT DEAL -- “UK MPs force Boris Johnson to seek a Brexit extension,” by POLITICO Europe’s Emilio Casalicchio and Eleni Courea in London: “Boris Johnson was so close — but still so far.The British prime minister achieved what many said was impossible and secured a new Brexit deal with the EU, and was ready to put that deal to MPs in the House of Commons for a so-called ‘meaningful vote.’
“It even looked as though he might just win that vote, and could then get on with passing the legislation required to put the deal into law with a solid mandate from parliament. But he was thwarted once again. In the first Saturday sitting of the Commons for 37 years, MPs backed an amendment that compels the government to request a Brexit delay from the EU until all the legislation required to leave has been ratified.
“Ambassadors from the 27 remaining EU countries are due to meet Sunday morning to discuss the result. EU leaders will be exasperated by what they see as yet more political instability in the U.K. They could refuse to grant an extension to negotiations but will be keen to avoid a no-deal Brexit and the uncertainty that could bring.” POLITICO Europe
-- “Financial Markets Face Fresh Wave of Political Uncertainty: ‘There’s Literally Nowhere to Hide’,” by WSJ’s Steven Russolillo: “The U.K. Parliament’s decision on Saturday to postpone a final vote on the country’s exit from the European Union marks the latest geopolitical development likely to swing financial markets, highlighting the extreme levels of uncertainty that some investors worry isn’t being properly accounted for with U.S. stocks near all-time highs.” WSJ
N.Y. POST: “Steve Bannon says Trump may be impeached ‘in six weeks,’ face challenge from Bloomberg, Clinton”
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):
-- “The China Connection: How One D.E.A. Agent Cracked a Global Fentanyl Ring,” by Alex W. Palmer in the NYT Magazine: “Fentanyl is quickly becoming America’s deadliest drug. But law enforcement couldn’t trace it to its source — until one teenager overdosed in North Dakota.” NYT Magazine
-- “My Years in the Florida Shuffle of Drug Addiction,” by Colton Wooten in The New Yorker: “Cycling through relapse and recovery, and the industry that enables both.” New Yorker
-- “Have You Seen My Dog?” by Lauren Paige Kennedy in the September 2001 issue of Washingtonian: “Newcomers to Washington, we found our Georgetown neighbors distant. But that all changed when Ruby ran away.” Washingtonian
-- “No One Really Knows Why Humans Can Walk,” by Bill Bryson in Lithub: “Serious, dogged, long-distance running is the one thing we do superlatively well. We are not the speediest of creatures: The very fastest humans can run about 20 miles an hour, though only for short bursts. But put us up against an antelope or wildebeest on a hot day and we can run it into the ground. Most large animals can’t run for more than about nine miles before they drop.” Lithub (hat tip: TheBrowser.com)
-- “TheRealReal’s Online Luxury Consignment Shop,” by The New Yorker’s Susan Orlean: “How the reseller brings designer goods into the ‘circular economy.’” New Yorker
-- “The Confidence Game,” by Adrian Chen in The Nation, reviewing “The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America,” by Margaret O’Mara: “How Silicon Valley broke the economy.” The Nation (h/t ALDaily.com)
-- “Investment protectionism is bad news for global economy,” by David McCormick in the FT: “Megafunds, what we call the largest sovereign wealth funds, national pension funds, and other massive public pools of capital, represent a relatively new phenomenon and the rapidity of their growth is noteworthy. ... Today, just 40 of these funds command approximately $12tn in assets.” FT
-- “The Way of the Critic,” by Craig Lambert in the November-December issue of Harvard Magazine -- per ALDaily.com’s description: “When the Times called A.O. Scott about a film-critic job, he had written just one film review and hadn’t been to the movies in a year.” Harvard Magazine
-- “‘We Are Inside the Fire’: An Oral History of the War in Afghanistan,” by Fahim Abed and Fatima Faizi in the NYT Magazine: “Afghans have endured four decades of conflict, with little prospect of peace. This is the story of the last 18 years since the American invasion, as told by the men and women who’ve lived it.” NYT Magazine
-- “When GoFundMe Gets Ugly,” by Rachel Monroe in The Atlantic’s November issue: “The largest crowdfunding site in the world puts up a mirror to who we are and what matters most to us. Try not to look away.” The Atlantic
-- “On Prison Nurseries,” by Naomi Schaefer Riley in National Affairs -- per TheBrowser.com’s description: “The number of women imprisoned in the United States has jumped sevenfold since 1980 to more than 213,000. About 5% of arriving women prisoners are pregnant. More and more prisons are adding nurseries for mothers to raise newborns. This seems to be good for the mothers’ morale; and for prison discipline; and, tentatively, even for the children.” National Affairs
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
SPOTTED: Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) getting a haircut Saturday at Bubbles on Capitol Hill with his daughter Cecelia tagging along for support. … Al Franken having dinner at Momofuku CCDC on Saturday night.
WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- Tom LoBianco, author of the Mike Pence biography “Piety and Power” and an AP and CNN alum, and Angelica Maria Cely Calixto got married Saturday night at Casa Pestagua, a boutique hotel in the walled old city of Cartagena, Colombia. They continued celebrating all night with their families in the hotel courtyard. The couple met in Indianapolis, when he was covering Pence as a governor. Pic … Another pic
-- Jean Roehrenbeck, COS for Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), and Philip Murphy, legislative director for Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), got married Saturday at the Line Hotel. They met while working for Doyle. Pic … SPOTTED: Katie Ott, Mark Howell, David Lucas and Chris Bowman.
-- “Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Jeffrey Moran,” via NYT: “The bride, who is 42 ... is the Houston bureau chief for The Los Angeles Times. She has reported nationally from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Mexico and Nepal, among other countries. … The groom, 48, is a senior manager of software application development at United Airlines in Houston.” With a pic: NYT
BIRTHWEEK (was Saturday): Will Cadigan of CNN’s “State of the Union” … Marc Sklar, director of communications for the National Air and Space Museum (h/ts Kevin Bohn)
BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) is 55 … Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is 64 … Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) is 47 … Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) is 54 … NYT’s Matt Apuzzo is 41 … Michelle Malkin is 49 … Greg Lowman, VP of digital advocacy and policy comms at Fidelity … former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, now a member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, is 62 … John Grandy … Kay Foley … WaPo senior editor at large Ann Gerhart … Gil Klein … Ellison Barber … Nelson Mullins’ Mick Nardelli … Colleen O’Kane … AARP’s Khelan Bhatia … New America’s Clare McCann … Jeffrey Zubricki … Erica Weinberger … Gordon Pennoyer of Chesapeake Energy …
… Pablo Manriquez … Benjamin Schwarz is 56 … Nicole Bunce of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce … Steve Moffitt, COS for Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) … Bart Marchant … Webber Xu … L.E. Simmons … POLITICO’s Jason Golomb and Katherine DePalma … Dmitrii Chechetkin … Katie Leslie Watkins … Matt Dogali, president and CEO of the American Distilled Spirits Association … Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani … Christie Boyden … Anneke Green … Whitney PakPour … Roddy Flynn, COS for Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) … Stephen Garrison … Chuck McCutcheon … Sally Stroup … Lamia Rezgui … Justin Hart … Thomas Willard … Taylor Gerlach … Beth Mason … Greg Propper (h/t Teresa Vilmain)
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine
