On Monday night, Trump nominated Bret Kavanaugh to replace Kennedy on the Supreme Court.
This despite the fact that McConnell had quietly urged the White House against picking him because his extensive paper trail may make confirmation more difficult.
At the NATO summit Trump attacked NATO and Germany in particular; he also suggested that NATO countries should increase their contribution from 2% to 4%.
Trump went from the NATO summit to visit England. He gave an interview in the Sun tabloid where he criticized May for her handling of Brexit, that he told her how to handle it but that she did not follow his advice. This after Boris Johnson resigned on Monday over disagreements about a “soft” Brexit policy May is perusing.
Child Separation
As of July 12, Department of Homeland Security says they have 103 children under five who have been separated; 57 have been reunited; 46 have not been reunited; 12 cannot be reunited because the adults have already been deported; 1 cannot be reunited because the parent cannot be found.
Russia Investigation
The White House ordered the FBI to release classified information about the informant the FBI used to contact members of the Trump campaign, Stefan Halper, to all members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. Many intelligence officials including Wray and Coates opposed the expansion of access.
On Thursday Peter Strozk testified before the House Intelligence Committee. He gave a robust defense of FBI protocols and integrity, and explained in detail how and why it would have been impossible for his or anyone’s personal political views to shape the Clinton or Trump-Russia investigations: “At every step, at every investigative decision, there were multiple layers of people above me, assistant director, deputy director, director of the F.B.I., and multiple layers of people below me, section chiefs, unit chiefs and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions. They would not tolerate any improper behavior in me any more than I would tolerate it in them.” The hearing devolved into a circus when several members of the conservative caucus over-reached in their attacks.
On Friday morning Rosenstein announced the next set of indictments in the Mueller investigation. It names 12 Russian GRU officers responsible for stealing Democratic documents through hacking. Read the indictment here. In contains vast amounts of forensic detail, which Mark Warner said was mostly new information to him and the Senate intelligence committee. This suggests that the Mueller investigation is the only one with the capabilities to provide a complete summary of what happened in 2016.
This was seen as a major step forward in the investigation, one that brings the walls in closer around Trump. By making the legal case that a major theft happened, it sets up the potential next round of incidents of Americans citizens (and Trump campaign officials) who used those stollen goods.
Jonathan Chait writes another one of these Trump-Russia recaps wherein he connects certain dots to remind us that there may be a much wider conspiracy here, dating back to the late 1980s. The most vivid detail is the reminder of the pinging off a server between Trump Tower and Russian Alpha bank, which was reported on during the summer of 2016. Will it turn out to be verifiable collusion? Only time–and Mueller–will tell.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 42%