Today’s edition of quick hits:
* In light of what we saw this morning, this claim plainly isn’t true: “The United States is speaking with ‘one voice’ on North Korea, the State Department said Wednesday, after President Donald Trump’s promises one day earlier of ‘fire and fury’ in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear provocations.”
* Trade: “The United States has decided to levy an import tax on shipments of aluminum foil from China, penalizing the country for what U.S. trade officials say are unfair subsidies of its products. It’s a decision that could add to mounting tensions between the world’s two biggest economies over trade.”
* What a bizarre story: “The State Department has expelled two diplomats from the Cuban Embassy in Washington following a series of unexplained incidents in Cuba that left U.S. officials there with physical symptoms that one official said includes potentially permanent hearing loss.”
* This is weird, too: “President Trump has publicly called the widening federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling a ‘witch hunt.’ But through his lawyer, Trump has sent private messages of ‘appreciation’ to special counsel Robert Mueller.”
* Does he actually believe the stuff he says? “Donald Trump has made Earth ‘a safer place,’ his senior advisor Stephen Miller has claimed, just hours after the US President warned North Korea it faces ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen.’” * The public-service sacrifice: “Robert S. Mueller III left a $3.4 million partner job in the white-shoe law firm WilmerHale … to serve as the special counsel overseeing the law enforcement investigation into whether the Kremlin and the Trump campaign coordinated to impact the 2016 election, according to documents released Tuesday.” * This sounds like a pretty bad deal: “Wisconsin is not projected to break even on a $3 billion incentive package for a proposed LCD screen plant by Taiwan’s Foxconn for at least 25 years, a legislative analysis showed on Tuesday.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
