The Note: President Trump's First Monday at the Office
— -- Trump’s First 100 DAYS with ABC’s RICK KLEIN and RYAN STRUYK
Day No. 4
THE BIG STORY: Since the president declared Day Four to be his real Day One, this is when the action starts. Expect a flurry of executive orders and public declarations that will start to churn policy wheels into motion on immigration, healthcare, trade, and border enforcement, just for starters. President Trump even has his first showdown with Congress, in the committee vote for his pick for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. (Will Marco Rubio really put himself out there like that?)
THE SLEEPER STORY: Look for Trump to get tested, early and perhaps often, by friends and foes alike. His team has telegraphed an Israeli embassy move to Jerusalem so explicitly that it will be hard to walk back now. The same goes for undoing the Iran nuclear deal. North Korea, China, Russia – the list of countries that may want to provoke a response from the new and unpredictable Trump Administration is long. And the president stepped on his own message in his first meeting with US intelligence officials, when he used the appearance to declare “war” on the media.
THE SHINY STORY: Facts matter. Crowd counts don’t. The Trump team’s decision to aggressively peddle false metrics to “prove” a better turnout than at the Obama inaugurals marks an audacious attempt to create “alternative facts,” in Kellyanne Conway’s instant classic of a description. It makes White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s first full-fledged briefing appointment programming, with reporters now rightly questioning whether they can expect truth or fiction from the government’s most prominent spokesperson. But a fight over crowd counts affects no lives and advances the public debate not at all. Trump started it, yet it need not continue.
TLDR: After a spat with the media over the size of his inauguration's crowd, President Trump kicks off his first full week by signing his first executive orders and meeting with Congressional leadership to push forward on major initiatives.
PHOTO OF THE DAY: If you've been on the internet in the last 48 hours, you've probably seen this photo comparing the crowds at President Obama's 2009 inauguration and President Trump's 2017 inauguration. But since there's been some disagreement about which crowd was bigger, here's the photo one more time, just for good measure.
TODAY'S TRUMP TWEETS:6:38 AM: Busy week planned with a heavy focus on jobs and national security. Top executives coming in at 9:00 A.M. to talk manufacturing in America.
NOTABLES
--A BIG MONDAY FOR THE NEW WHITE HOUSE: President Trump has a packed first Monday at the office. He's holding a breakfast and listening session with business leaders this morning at 9 a.m. and then will sign executive orders later this morning. The executive orders could range from declaration of intention to withdraw from the the Trans-Pacific Partnership, intent to negotiate NAFTA and a new cyber-security review. This afternoon, President Trump will hold a listening session with union workers and American workers as well as a meeting tonight with U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer will also hold his second briefing this afternoon.
--MARCO RUBIO'S BIG DECISION ON REX TILLERSON: The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee will debate and vote on the nomination of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State today -- and Sen. Marco Rubio is still on the fence. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have already announced they plan to back Tillerson in a vote on the floor, leaving Rubio still weighing his decision on how to vote. The panel is expected to vote on the confirmation late this afternoon. The full U.S. Senate will also consider Mike Pompeo's nomination for CIA Director, with a vote expected later tonight.
--TRUMP'S BORDER WALL A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY, RETIRING BORDER CHIEF SAYS: Donald Trump’s most consistent campaign promise -- to build a wall on the United States’ southern border to keep immigrants out -- will be a waste of time and money, the former head of the Customs and Border Protection agency told ABC News in a final warning just days before leaving office. “I think that anyone who’s been familiar with the southwest border and the terrain...kind of recognizes that building a wall along the entire southwest border is probably not going to work,” Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of CBP during the Obama Administration, said shortly before leaving office last Friday. Kerlikowske says that supporters of the wall are missing the real issue when it comes to the immigration inflows that they are concerned about. ABC's BRIAN ROSS, BRIAN EPSTEIN and PAUL BLAKE have more: http://abcn.ws/2jRIW18
--WATCHDOG GROUP SUES TRUMP OVER EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE: The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is bringing a federal lawsuit this morning that says President Donald Trump is violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution by receiving payments from foreign governments via his hotel and other business interests. It was expected to be filed this morning in the Southern District of New York. Expect to hear more about this little-known clause in the Constitution in the coming weeks and months.
SPEED READ with ABC's RYAN STRUYK
YESTERDAY ON 'THIS WEEK': KELLYANNE CONWAY 'DIDN'T SEE THE POINT' TO WOMEN'S MARCH ON WASHINGTON. Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said she "didn't see the point" to the Women's March on Washington on Saturday. "I frankly didn't see the point. I mean you have a day after [President Trump] is uplifting and unifying, and you have folks here being on a diatribe where I think they could have requested a dialogue. Nobody called me and said, 'Hey, could we have a dialogue?'" Conway told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" on Sunday, according to ABC's NICKI ROSSOLL. "You have celebrities from the podium using profanity-laced insults. You have a very prominent singer who's worth hundreds of millions of dollars not going over to a woman's shelter here in D.C. to write a check, but instead saying that she thought of, quote, 'burning down the White House,'" Conway said. http://abcn.ws/2jm7eNo
PRESIDENT TRUMP INVITES ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU TO WASHINGTON. President Donald Trump today invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington next month, making the Israeli one of the first foreign leaders with whom Trump will have met after taking office. During a phone call today, one of Trump's first with a foreign leader, Trump and Netanyahu discussed Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to the White House and the prime minister's office. They also touched on the U.S.-Israel relationship, ISIS "and other radical Islamic terrorist groups," according to a statement from the White House, ABC's BEN GITTLESON reports. http://abcn.ws/2j1HwwI
MCCAIN DOESN'T KNOW IF HIS HAS 'UTMOST CONFIDENCE' IN PRESIDENT TRUMP. Sen. John McCain praised President Donald Trump's cabinet picks and revealed he will vote in favor of Rex Tillerson, Trump's pick to lead the State Department, despite concerns about the nominee's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I will be voting in favor of his nomination," McCain said of Tillerson in an interview Sunday with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." "Listen, this wasn't an easy call. But I also believe that when there's doubt the president, the incoming president, gets the benefit of the doubt, and that's the way I've treated every president that I've had the obligation to vote for or against as a member of the United States Senate." ABC's NICKI ROSSOLL and BENJAMIN SIEGEL have more: http://abcn.ws/2jNdaC2
SCHUMER PREVIEWS BILL TO CURTAIL TRUMP AUTHORITY ON RUSSIAN SANCTIONS. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that he and a bipartisan group of senators will take steps to block President Trump from being able to singlehandedly weaken U.S. sanctions on Russia. Schumer said Sunday on ABC News' "This Week" that the bill, to be introduced this coming week, is in response to the possibility that the Trump administration could offer to lift sanctions against Russia in exchange for Russia's reducing its nuclear arms, reports ABC's ALI ROGIN. The New York senator said such an exchange would be misguided. http://abcn.ws/2jcJAoW
WHO’S TWEETING?
@varadmehta: Why does everyone hate media? Compare "conservative obstruction" narrative to "progressive resistance" narrative and there's your answer.
@terrymoran: Four-year-old daughter kicks two-year-old son in the face. In front of us. Denies it. My wife:"We don't do ALTERNATIVE FACTS in this house."
@wikileaks: Trump Counselor Kellyanne Conway stated today that Trump will not release his tax returns. Send them to: wikileaks.org/#submit so we can.
@merriamwebster: A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality.
@peterbakernyt: White House statement on Trump call with Netanyahu reaffirms support for Israel security but makes no mention of moving embassy to Jerusalem