NEW … HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-Calif.) called the infrastructure meeting with PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP “a productive meeting.” She said Democrats are “very excited” about the conversation, and said the two sides decided that the package would be “big and bold.”
SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) said the size of the package was decided on: $2 TRILLION. That’s massive.
STICKING POINT: Schumer said Trump needs to find a way to pay for this package. The two sides will meet in three weeks, and they expect TRUMP to present ways to pay for the $2 trillion bill. Of course, that’s going to be the singular thing to watch over the next few weeks.
SPLIT SCREEN … HAPPY TUESDAY from Los Angeles. Wall Street and Washington have descended on Beverly Hills for the annual Milken Global Conference, which is being held at the Beverly Hilton.
USMCA NEWS … ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF MICK MULVANEY said this morning that Democrats should give an up-or-down vote to the USMCA. He said it was “unlikely” that the U.S. would renegotiate with Mexico and Canada. BUT … PELOSI has said multiple times — including in a Playbook Interview with us — that the administration needs to renegotiate parts of the deal with the other two countries and make changes in the treaty, not in accompanying legislation.
THESE TWO POSITIONS are irreconcilable at the moment.
FURTHERMORE, Mulvaney threw cold water on the infrastructure negotiations as Democrats were literally in the White House meeting with TRUMP. He also said the nation’s $22 trillion in debt is not holding the U.S. back. Quite a morning for the acting COS.
— AT LEAST ONE COUNTRY HOLDING UP THEIR END OF THE DEAL! … THE PRESIDENT’S TOP LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY … “Mexican Congress Passes Labor Law Tied to USMCA Trade Agreement,” by Bloomberg’s Eric Martin: “Mexican lawmakers raced to pass the bill before the end of their session Tuesday to allow their counterparts in the U.S. to take up discussion of the trade deal, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, before their August recess.” Bloomberg
— SPOTTED: House Minority Whip Steve Scalise at dinner at Joe’s with members of the USMCA whip team and Larry Kudlow. Members at dinner included GOP Reps. Kevin Brady (Texas), Vern Buchanan (Fla.), Mike Conaway (Texas), Lee Zeldin (N.Y.), Jackie Walorski (Ind.), James Comer (Ky.), Darin LaHood (Ill.), Tom Reed (N.Y.), Adrian Smith (Neb.), Steve Watkins (Kan.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Tom Rice (S.C.), Ted Budd (N.C.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Jason Smith (Mo.), Kenny Marchant (Texas) and Dave Schweikert (Ariz.).
SPOTTED in Los Angeles: Alex Rodriguez hugging Michael Avenatti at Craig’s in West Hollywood.
CARLA MARINUCCI: “Former Rep. Ellen Tauscher, arms negotiator and Wall Street ground-breaker, dies at 67”
IMMIGRATION FILES — “White House to seek billions of dollars in new funds for border crisis,” by John Bresnahan, Eliana Johnson and Sarah Ferris: “The White House is expected to soon ask Congress for billions of dollars in emergency funding to deal with the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to multiple sources, although none of these funds will be used for a border wall.
“The request, which has been under discussion for about a month inside the White House, could come as soon as this week, said the sources, although the timing is still unclear. … In addition to more money for the Homeland Security Department, the White House is also expected to seek additional funds for HHS and the Justice Department — ‘every stage of migrant processing,’ said one source familiar with the request.” POLITICO
BOEING FALLOUT — WSJ’S TED MANN: “Boeing Crisis Tests Elaine Chao’s Agenda at Transportation Department”: “As critical questions mounted after the second fatal crash of a Boeing 737 MAX jet in March, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao sent a one-page memo to the acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration.
“Ms. Chao’s tone was matter-of-fact: Find out how the FAA had seemingly lost its place as the world’s leading regulator of air safety, and figure out what to do about it. The missive to acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, which hasn’t previously been reported, offers a glimpse into how one of the Trump administration’s most seasoned government officials has used her veteran background to try to manage a crisis.” WSJ
THE INVESTIGATIONS … WAPO’S JOHN WAGNER: “Schiff says House will make a criminal referral of Trump ally Erik Prince for possible perjury”: “Among other things, [House Intelligence Chairman Adam] Schiff pointed to a meeting that took place nine days before Trump took office between Prince and a Russian financier close to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles islands.
“Prince later told congressional officials examining Russia’s interference in the presidential election that the meeting happened by chance and was not taken at the behest of the incoming administration — testimony that congressional Democrats now think was false. Prince told special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators a version of the Seychelles meeting that is at odds in several key respects with his sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in November 2017.” WaPo
— Anita Kumar sends us this dispatch: “Even after getting ensnared in the Russia investigation while working on Trump’s campaign, former foreign policy adviser Carter Page is still eager to meet Donald Trump.
“After hearing that Trump reached out last week to another former campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, following the conclusion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Page said he had not heard from Trump — but said he would like to talk to him.
“‘After all the damage that the DNC/DOJ’s lies have already done to President Trump and his administration plus the long uphill battle required to restore some basic level of integrity in the deep state over the coming years, my hope is to eventually meet him for the first time after he leaves office at the end of his second term in January 2025,’ he wrote in a text.
“Page said he has spent ‘many hours’ in Trump Tower and that his business was in an office building connected to Trump Tower but that the two never met. (That’s not what he reportedly said during a Moscow appearance in December 2016.)
“Page, the subject of an FBI surveillance warrant beginning in October 2016, suggested he and Trump could meet at Trump Tower, where he said ‘we each got illegally wiretapped by corrupt intelligence officials and their political masters beginning in 2016.’”
ON THE WORLD STAGE — “Trump Pushes to Designate Muslim Brotherhood a Terrorist Group,” by NYT’s Charlie Savage, Eric Schmitt and Maggie Haberman: “The White House directed national security and diplomatic officials to find a way to place sanctions on the group after a White House visit on April 9 by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, for whom the Brotherhood represents a source of political opposition.
“In a private meeting without reporters and photographers, Mr. el-Sisi urged Mr. Trump to take that step and join Egypt in branding the movement a terrorist organization. Such a designation imposes wide-ranging economic and travel sanctions on companies and individuals who interact with the targeted group. The president responded affirmatively to Mr. el-Sisi, saying it would make sense. Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers have interpreted that as a commitment, officials said.” NYT
… FLASHBACK — BLAKE HOUNSHELL and HALLEY TOOSI in POLITICO MAGAZINE in February 2017: “CIA Memo: Designating Muslim Brotherhood Could ‘Fuel Extremism’”
— “Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó, with troops, announces ‘final phase’ against President Maduro,” by WaPo’s Mariana Zuñiga and Anthony Faiola in Caracas: “Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó appeared early Tuesday to be staging a military-backed challenge to President Nicolás Maduro, issuing a video with troops that he said was recorded at a base in Caracas and urging other soldiers to join the final stage of ‘Operation Liberty’ meant to force the socialist leader from power. …
“Vice President [Mike] Pence tweeted U.S. support for the opposition. ‘To @jguaido, the National Assembly and all the freedom-loving people of Venezuela who are taking to the streets today in #operacionlibertad — Estamos con ustedes! We are with you!’ he wrote. ‘America will stand with you until freedom & democracy are restored. Vayan con dios!’ Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton echoed Pence.” WaPo
THE TWEETER IN CHIEF — “For inured foreign officials, the sting of Trump’s tweets has begun to dull,” by WaPo’s Karen DeYoung and Josh Dawsey: “Friendly countries that have been the target of Trump’s tweets have learned he is not always bluffing. Aluminum and steel tariffs really were imposed on allies, and the Pentagon is sending more troops to assist in Border Patrol operations.
“But few now take Trump’s Twitter fulminations at immediate face value. ‘He has shown us that what’s black at 9 a.m. can be gray at 3 p.m. and white at 7 p.m.,’ said a Mexican diplomat of the president’s revolving pronouncements. Most have learned that responding in kind only makes matters worse.” WaPo
WAPO’S AMY GOLDSTEIN: “Medicare-for-all advocates get their first hearing on Capitol Hill”
FOR YOUR RADAR — MARIANNE LEVINE: “Schumer presses for election security boost after Mueller report”
2020 WATCH — “Stacey Abrams won’t run for US Senate in Georgia,” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein: “‘I’ve been deeply honored by so many fellow Georgians asking me to serve,’ she said in an interview. ‘But my responsibility is not simply to run because the job is available. I need to run because I want to do the job.’
“It triggers a new phase of the Senate race, which has been slow to develop while Abrams has deliberated. … And it opens a new round of scrutiny over whether she will join the growing presidential field, or emerge as a White House hopeful’s running-mate, a possibility that heightened after she delivered her party’s rebuttal to the State of the Union.” AJC
— @sarahnferris: “another miss for Schumer. Rep. Cindy Axne [D-Iowa] will run again for her House seat next year, NOT the Senate, per @JamesArkin.”
— CNN’S DAVID WRIGHT: “Joe Biden dominates digital ad spending after entering 2020 race”
— Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg will participate in the Black Economic Alliance’s presidential forum June 15 in Charleston, S.C., which will be broadcast by BET Networks. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have also been invited.
BURGESS EVERETT in Colorado Springs, Colo.: “The silver-tongued GOP star in danger of losing his job”: “Cory Gardner stormed into the Senate in 2014 at the height of anti-Obama fervor on the right, a fresh face vowing to be a ‘new kind of Republican’ in a state drifting toward Democrats.
“Now up for a second term in Colorado, Gardner is selling himself essentially the same way. Only this time Donald Trump’s in the White House, the president is deeply unpopular here and Gardner has a record in the Senate to defend — one that includes having the president’s back more often than not. Compounding his predicament: Colorado Republicans were just blown out in the midterms.” POLITICO
DEEP DIVE — THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY’S PETER CARY and ALLAN HOLMES: “The Secret Saga Of Trump’s Tax Cuts: Flip-flops, falsehoods, fantasies – and a 10-minute meeting that locked in trillions of debt.” CPI
DANIEL’S POSTCARD FROM HOOVER — MICHAEL MCFAUL, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia and now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, spoke at Monday’s Hoover Media Roundtable — on U.S. policy toward Russia: “I don’t see a big difference between the late Obama years and the early Trump years. They both hate it when I say that, but I see more continuity along the three big dimensions: strengthening NATO, punishing Russia for belligerent behavior and strengthening Ukraine with political and economic assistance. And to their credit the Trump administration has gone farther with respect to aid to Ukraine in providing lethal assistance …
“And there’s just one caveat to this. I said ‘Trump administration.’ There’s a big difference. There’s one guy who disagrees and he just happens to be the president of the United States. Sometimes he goes along reluctantly, sometimes he overtly goes against his administration as he did in Helsinki. But my strong sense is that he doesn’t like this strategy. He thinks it’s wrong and he thinks that through his own personal diplomacy, he could break through and forge a relationship with Putin.”
MEDIAWATCH — Gavin Bade will be a reporter for POLITICO Pro Energy, covering the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He previously was a reporter at Utility Dive.
SPOTTED: Roger Stone and Cory Booker sitting in separate rows on a JetBlue flight from FLL to DCA on Monday.
SPOTTED at a party for Melinda Gates’ new book, “The Moment of Lift” ($14.75 on Amazon), hosted by Donald Graham and Amanda Bennett at Bibiana on Monday night: Susan Rice, Christine Lagarde, Andrea Mitchell, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Reps. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Kellyanne Conway, Chris Wallace, Jeffrey Goldberg, Dana Priest and Sally Quinn.
SPOTTED at a dinner in West Hollywood hosted by The Wing and Time’s Up to celebrate the opening of a new Los Angeles space: Audrey Gelman, Shonda Rhimes, Valerie Jarrett, Marisa Tomei, Katie McGrath, Maha Dakhil, Gabourey Sidibe and Lake Bell.
TRANSITIONS — George David Banks and Marty Hall are now senior strategist and minority staff director for Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Banks previously worked on international energy issues on the NSC in the Trump administration. Hall previously was chief of staff for former President George W. Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality. (hat tip: Eric Wolff) …
… Meredith Blanford is now communications director for Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). She previously was press secretary for Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.). … MJ Kenny will be a principal at Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid. He most recently was deputy floor director for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
#GameOfThrones
Daily Trends Hunter 