It was a milder news week – for this administration. For any other administration, it would have been a disaster.
The Senate GOP and White House apparently plan a final, urgent blitz to pass Trumpcare before their month-long August recess. That seems unlikely to happen. As expected, G.O.P. support of Senate health repeal eroded during their Fourth of July break as their constituents made clear again how much they hate this bill. Even Mitch McConnell seemed to acknowledge difficulty, saying that if Senate Republicans couldn’t agree on Trumpcare, then a bill to support health-insurance companies and consumers would be needed. If Trumpcare does not pass, the Republicans’ plans for large tax cuts for the wealthy will be under stress, as the GOP hoped to use the savings from cutting Obamacare to fund that.
Meanwhile there was the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany this week. (The G-20 is a group of 19 nations plus the European Union; basically it’s the largest economies in the world, accounting for 80% of world trade.) All of the other members affirmed the Paris Climate Accord except, of course, Trump refused again on behalf of the United States; as one headline put it, it was Trump Against the World. (Under the Obama administration the U.S. had agreed to the accord.) Instead of being the primary leader of the world, under Trump the U.S. has become a pariah.
Also, a much-publicized meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin happened during the G-20 convocation. Many called on Trump to confront Putin over Russia’s election hacking in the U.S. While apparently Trump raised the topic, he didn’t press it. Putin said he thinks Trump ‘agreed’ with assurances that Russia did not interfere in U.S. elections. Even Rex Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of State, said that “I think what the two presidents — I think rightly — focused on is how we move forward”. One might somehow get the impression that the Trump Administration wants everyone to think this issue is over.
There was a bit of fun, though: NPR tweeted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, and Trump supporters thought it was an insult directed at Trump. Come to think of it, perhaps in a way it was.