The Note: Trump redraws Syria lines

— -- TRUMP’S FIRST 100 DAYS with ABC’s RICK KLEIN and SHUSHANNAH WALSHE

Day No. 77

THE BIG STORY: President Trump said Wednesday that his view of Syria has changed, and he did it by embracing a familiar metaphor. “That crosses many, many lines. Beyond a red line, many, many lines,” the president said. That sets up a lesson for Trump that he knows well from his predecessor’s experiences, but one that he hasn’t come close to internalizing as president himself: in international affairs, words matter. They matter on Syria, as they matter on Iran and Russia. They matter when it comes to North Korea, where the State Department this week chose a lack of words to respond to the latest missile test. It’s likely no accident that world affairs are testing Trump in a week when he is being forced to put policy behind his words, by dint of his meetings with heads of state. The rest of the world won’t care about the president’s default position – that the messes aren’t his fault because he inherited them – or about the shakeup on the National Security Council that takes a seat away from senior counselor Steve Bannon. The next two days, with Trump’s playing host to the Chinese president, could be among the most consequential of his still-young presidency.

THE SLEEPER STORY: Where are the gangs? The Senate has been close to the brink before. But what makes this march toward the nuclear option different is that it’s eerily quiet in the provinces of bipartisanship. It’s not that efforts to save the Senate from itself are failing. It’s that they never even began. So it is that Senate rules and precedents take another step toward obliteration – not with excitement, on either side of the aisle, but with resignation. The “nuclear” metaphor may never have been apt. This was a slope more slippery than steep. And it’s hard to stop sliding when both sides are using both hands to point fingers.

THE SHINY STORY: It would appear that President Trump, at the rate of roughly once a month, feels free to accuse a prominent member of the prior administration of a shocking national-security crime, without providing a shred of evidence. It started with President Obama and the presidential tweet it has taken four weeks for the White House not to be able to prove. Now it’s Susan Rice’s turn, with Trump telling The New York Times that he believes the former national security adviser committed a crime, which he would detail “at the right time.” Pardon us some skepticism while we wait for the report from the investigators Trump almost certainly didn’t dispatch to Hawaii, the ones who Trump had said could not “believe what they are finding” about Obama’s birth status. Pardon him for using his office to defend Bill O’Reilly in the same interview that he made a baseless accusation about Rice. This is a classic from the Trump playbook, made only more powerful, and potentially dangerous, by dint of the fact that he is now the president of the United States.

TLDR: A day after he said he was changing course on Syria, the president heads to Palm Beach today for a summit with the Chinese president at the Mar-a-Lago estate, where the focus will likely be confronting the North Korean threat.

PHOTO OF THE DAY: All eyes Wednesday were on President Trump and King Abdullah of Jordan, but at the same time the first lady was hosting Queen Rania, Abdullah's wife. The two had lunch at the White House and then they visited the Excel Academy Public Charter School, the first charter school for girls in Washington, D.C., with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. This photo of their walking at the White House was taken from Queen Rania's Twitter account.

NOTABLES

--PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS SYRIA ATTACK 'CROSSED MANY, MANY LINES’: President Donald Trump said that the attack in Syria on Tuesday "crossed a lot of lines for me," but he did not specify how he would respond to it. His comments came during a press conference with Jordan's King Abdullah II that began with Trump's condemning the "heinous actions," which left at least 72 people dead. Trump was asked if the attack crossed a red line for him, a reference to then-President Barack Obama's 2012 threat that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be seen as doing so, reports ABC's MEGHAN KENEALLY. http://abcn.ws/2oKzA79

--TRUMP SUGGESTS, WITHOUT CITING EVIDENCE, SUSAN RICE MIGHT HAVE COMMITTED CRIME: President Donald Trump said he thinks Susan Rice, a national security adviser for President Barack Obama, may have committed a crime when she had the names of Americans -- who turned out to be Trump associates -- unmasked in intelligence reports, according to a report. "Do I think? Yes, I think," Trump told The New York Times in an interview in the Oval Office, while declining to give evidence or say if he viewed intelligence to back his claim. He was unclear what crime specifically he is accusing her of committing, ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI notes. http://abcn.ws/2nZYAY9

--TRUMP FACES MAJOR DIPLOMATIC TEST IN SUMMIT WITH CHINA'S XI JINPING: President Trump is set to wrap up a week’s worth of meetings with world leaders by undergoing what will arguably the most crucial diplomatic test of his presidency so far. The president will host Chinese President Xi Jinping at his lavish Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, for a two-day summit. The agenda will include urgent items such as North Korea’s rising aggression and nuclear capabilities and China’s controversial trade practices. ABC’s ALEXANDER MALLIN has more: http://abcn.ws/2o0uDXH

--WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE SENATE TO 'GO NUCLEAR' ON GORSUCH NOMINATION: The Senate is expected to alter longstanding practice for confirming Supreme Court nominees today as members vote on advancing the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch. Republicans on their own do not have enough votes to end the floor debate on Gorsuch’s nomination, a move known as cloture, under the current rules requiring 60 votes, ABC’s ALI ROGIN reports. They accuse Democrats of unfairly obstructing a qualified jurist, while Democrats argue that Gorsuch is too radical for the court. In order to bypass Democrats’ opposition, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, is expected to invoke the so-called “nuclear option,” which would allow him to change Senate precedent on voting on Supreme Court cloture votes from a 60-vote threshold to a simple majority of 51 votes. http://abcn.ws/2nNuqGA

SPEED READ with ABC’s ADAM KELSEY

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SUSAN RICE AND THE UNMASKING CONTROVERSY. Unmasking is the word of the week in Washington, D.C. What's in question is whether former national security adviser Susan Rice did anything wrong by unmasking names in a classified foreign intelligence report that turned out to include campaign and transition associates of President Donald Trump. Allies of Trump are suggesting that her actions prove the president's unsubstantiated claims from a month ago that he was wiretapped at Trump Tower by the Obama administration, write ABC's JUSTIN FISHEL and JAMES GORDON MEEK. http://abcn.ws/2oFKAFE

ANALYSIS: SENATE'S 'NUCLEAR OPTION' MAY HAVE LASTING CONSEQUENCES. The deterioration of bipartisanship in Washington is something that's been occurring for years -- but a development that may take place as soon as today will divide the Democrats and Republicans in the legislative branch even further. The filibuster and "nuclear option" does have support from the bases of the two parties, but it’s a slippery slope Congress may not recover from, writes ABC’s SHUSHANNAH WALSHE. http://abcn.ws/2nGUSAx

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT A SENATE FILIBUSTER. As the Senate gets closer to the confirmation vote on Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, there has been much discussion about what a “filibuster” is. The word itself isn’t in the Senate rule book and only started to pop up in the 1850’s, but it does have a commonly accepted definition in modern-day Senate procedure, explains ABC's ALI ROGIN. A filibuster, as the Senate Historical Office considers it, is an effort to delay or block legislative action by preventing a vote. http://abcn.ws/2p3jxAq

REPUBLICANS PREPARE TO LEAVE WASHINGTON WITHOUT RESOLVING HEALTH CARE DISPUTES. After days of internal negotiations with the White House about how to revive their Obamacare repeal and replacement plan, House Republicans are on track to leave Washington tomorrow for two weeks without resolving the major issues holding up a vote on the bill, reports ABC's BENJAMIN SIEGEL. The lack of progress frustrated some Republicans nearly two weeks after House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, was forced to pull the American Health Care Act from the House floor -- a major setback for President Trump and Republicans in Congress. http://abcn.ws/2nZwAns

SEN. MARCO RUBIO CITES REX TILLERSON'S REMARKS AS 'INCENTIVE' IN SYRIAN CHEMICAL ATTACK. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tcriticized the Trump administration for what he called Wednesday its conciliatory position on Syria, saying it's not "coincidental" that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on civilians just days after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States will no longer insist that Assad step down. ABC's ALI ROGIN has more: http://abcn.ws/2p3nipC

TRUMP COUNSELOR STEVE BANNON REMOVED FROM NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL ROLE, OTHERS ADDED. Steve Bannon, the controversial senior counselor to President Trump, was removed from his role with the National Security Council, according to a senior administration official. Bannon had been given the authority to participate in National Security Council Principals Committee meetings after Trump signed an executive memorandum in January. At the time, some experts called the move an unprecedented political appointment to the panel, note ABC's KATHERINE FAULDERS and JONATHAN KARL. http://abcn.ws/2oC57ex

55 PERCENT OF AMERICANS APPROVE OF OBAMACARE, POLL SHOWS. A majority of Americans approve of the Affordable Care Act — the signature health care legislation from President Barack Obama — for the first time, according to a new poll from Gallup. The health care plan was signed into law in 2010 and has drawn both praise and criticism since then, writes ABC's MEGHAN KENEALLY. Gallup reports that the shift was most noticeable among independents, with their approval going from 40 percent in November to 57 percent in the latest poll. http://abcn.ws/2nbhHkG

IN THE NOTE’S INBOX

AMERICAN BRIDGE RELEASES GUIDE TO TRUMP-CHINA TIES. On the day Trump is hosting Chinese President Xi for a two day summit at Mar-a-Lago, the progressive organization American Bridge is releasing a guide to Trump’s “financial ties and potential conflicts” of interest with China. “Chinese investments in Donald Trump’s businesses, his factories and newly granted trademarks, and his stake in nearly a billion dollars in debt owned in part by the Bark of China all raise concerns that the President is putting their interests ahead of those of the American people,” the guide reads. MORE: http://ab21.org/Kh

WHO’S TWEETING?

@mikedebonis: Late-night #AHCA news: House set to tweak health bill Thurs. at Trump admin's request, w/ @pw_cunningham & @eilperin https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/04/06/at-trumps-request-house-may-tweak-health-care-bill-before-leaving-washington/?tid=ss_tw

@kenvogel: NEW: Steve Bannon threatened to resign from WH, but Bekah Mercer urged him to stay b/c "this is a long-term play.” http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/bannon-resign-mercer-trump-236939

@maggieNYT: .@peterbakernyt @GlennThrush and me on Bannon and the NSC https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/national-security-council-stephen-bannon.html?_r=0&referer=https://t.co/ZlzndQ2TyK

@anniekarni: .@IvankaTrump quietly met with @CecileRichards talk about PP -- since then Richards has been publicly rebuking her. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/ivanka-trump-planned-parenthood-outreach-236940