With all eyes on the G20 this week, French Ambassador Gérard Araud says Trump isn’t the leader of the free world and that no one is now.

“This world order, the traditional liberal world order, is more or less undermined, really, or looks injured. Where [is] the United States?… I think it’s impossible to move on without America, and I think also that the United States really can’t let the world move on.”

Araud also points out that President Obama delegated the Ukraine response to Angela Merkel and took a hands-off approach to Syria. ”America First, in a sense, was raised in a discrete way, also under President Obama.”
Here’s what else happened this week…

Russia:

1. Large U.S. oil companies lobby against the bills passed by the Senate to toughen sanctions against Russia and to make it harder for the president to rescind them.
2. Investigators look into whether Russia colluded with far-right, pro-Trump sites to spread fake stories smearing Hillary Clinton. There were at least 1,000 paid internet trolls in Russia putting out the information.
3. Trump meets with Putin at the G20. Before the meeting, Putin criticizes Trump’s trade policies and sanctions in an op-ed, and reaffirms Russia’s commitment to the Paris accord.
4. Tillerson says that Putin denied meddling in our elections when Trump pushed him on it. Like he would admit it?
5. Key points from the meeting:
   • Trump is ready to move on from the election hacking with no consequences for Russia.
   • The U.S. and Russia will cooperate on cybersecurity issues. Trump later walks this one back.
   • They agree not to meddle in each other’s domestic issues, making it sound like it was equally bad that we try to spread democracy while they try to undermine it.
   • They agree to a cease-fire in Syria, the fifth such agreement in six years.
   • They discuss the Ukraine, sanctions, and terrorism.
6. Trump, Tillerson, and Putin all emerge with differing accounts of the meeting.
7. Trump is reportedly focused on how to move forward in working with Putin.
8. Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov says that Putin denied involvement in our elections, that Trump said reports of meddling were exaggerated, and that Trump accepted Putin’s denials.
9. Russian hackers are suspected to be behind a breach of over 12 power plants in the U.S.
10. After the G20 Trump tweets, “Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.” Republicans and Democrats alike say ummmm….no. Why don’t we just give them our passwords and be done with it?
11. New documents show yet another undisclosed meeting between Russians and the Trump campaign. This one occurred two weeks after Trump became the Republican nominee, and was between a Russian lawyer and Kushner, Manafort, and Donald Trump Jr. A spokesperson for Trump’s lawyer says the meeting was a setup.
12. Trump Jr. first explains the meeting as being about Russian adoptions, and then says it was supposed to be about obtaining dirt on Hillary but it ended up being about adoptions.
13. Trump says the media lied when they said that all 17 intelligence agencies signed off on the statement that Russia meddled in our elections, saying that only four did. Technically he’s right, but one of those four who signed off, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, includes the remaining agencies.
14. James Clapper warns that the 2016 meddling in the election was just a practice run for 2018.
15. The State Department continues to issue temporary visas to suspected Russian operatives.

Courts/Justice:

1. A Florida judge rules that changes to the stand your ground gun law are unconstitutional. The changes would’ve increased protections for people who kill someone using the stand your ground defense, giving protections even to those who have an opportunity to flee the situation.
2. Eighteen states and Washington D.C. filed suit against the Department of Education and Betsy DeVos, saying they broke the law by rescinding the Borrower Defense Rule. The rule protects students from fraudulent, for-profit institutions (like Trump University, for example).

Healthcare:

1. Congress moves toward preventing the IRS from enforcing the penalty for not having insurance, further weakening the ACA.
2. According to a new report released by Trump’s own Department of Health and Human Services, the ACA is doing better than reported. The report provides evidence that the ACA marketplaces were relatively stable in 2016. The customer base is healthier, the risk pools are stabilizing, and premiums are moderating.
3. Indiana GOP leaders, in an effort to gather ammunition to support the senate healthcare bill, posted a request on Facebook to “post your Obamacare horror stories here.” With about 1,500 posts, the vast majority were how the ACA had helped, not hurt.
4. The Washington Post and the New York Times each publish a fact check on healthcare claims and bills. Worth a read if you’re on the fence.
5. The GOP Twitter account tweets out to Hillary, Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Bill Clinton, and Joe Manchin asking where their health plans are. Hillary, for one, schools the GOP by pointing to her fully formed plan to fix the ACA and telling them to run with it.
6. Freedom Works and Club for Growth push McConnell to adopt the more conservative changes to the healthcare bill, but these will likely make passing the bill impossible.
7. Midweek, Mitch McConnell acknowledges that they might not be able to pass a replacement for the ACA, and in that case, Congress needs to do something to support the insurance markets.
8. Pat Toomey (R-Pa) sort of explains why Republicans are having trouble with the bill: “I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation.” In other words, we weren’t as ready as we said we were.
9. Ted Cruz says the ACA should be repealed if the Senate vote falls apart again, aligning himself clearly with Trump and against McConnell.
10. One thing missing from any healthcare discussions is the subsidy given to employers who offer insurance plans to their employees and the employees who receive them. Both employers and employees get a tax break, and employees get a good chunk of their premiums paid.
11. Senators John Hoeven of North Dakota, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and John Boozman of Arkansas are the latest Republicans to withhold support for the bill.

International:

1. North Korea fires another ballistic missile, but this time is more concerning because of the distance it was able to travel.
2. The U.S. and South Korea stage military drills in the waters off North Korea. Good to know: The missile defense system still can’t reliably stop ICBMs and has failed 3 of 5 tests.
3. After the launch, Trump sounds like he’s giving up on China. “So much for China working with us.”
4. Russia and China make a joint proposal that would ban North Korea missile tests and would also ban joint U.S. and South Korea military drills.
5. Some experts think Russian technology is behind North Korea’s huge advances in missile technology over the past two years.
6. Trump stops in Poland before the G20 meeting in Hamburg. The government bussed in Trump supporters to hear his speech.
7. Some hail his speech in Poland as one of his greatest and others say it’s just another one of his “failing dystopia” speeches. He criticizes the free press in a country where President Duda has restricted free press, and then watches Duda explain why he restricted Polish media from covering the parliament.
8. Trump does state support for article 5 of the NATO agreement, which he failed to do in his NATO speech.
9. Trump questions whether the West has the will to survive existentialist threats. I don’t know what he’s talking about here, though maybe ISIS?
10. Leaders from several countries, as well as U.S. states and cities, attend the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg just before the G20. The festival raises money to support global health, gender equality, and education. Trump isn’t invited.
11. Trump’s team waited too long to book a hotel for the G20 and by the time they tried, everything was booked. The German government hosts him in Hamburg while his staff stays at the U.S. consulate. The same happened to Tillerson when he attended the G20 ministers meeting in February.
12. At the G20, Trump’s message is “renegotiate everything.” Other leaders will either go along or forge their own deals without the U.S. (which they already seem to be doing, if that tells you anything).
13. The G20 highlights a major shift in geopolitical relations, as European nations, China, and Japan navigate through a shifting landscape where the U.S. is no longer a leader. The U.S. typically sets the agenda at the summit, but this time we alienate our allies and are isolated from the rest of the G20 nations on the big issues, including climate change and trade.
14. Germany and China have their own bilateral meeting, an indication that Xi Jinping wants to move into the widening gap between the U.S. and its longtime allies. He’s ready to move China into the U.S.’s position as the biggest defender of a global, multilateral system.
15. There is agreement among all nations over cracking down on people who smuggle in illegal immigrants.
16. Many leaders express concern that our new differences threaten the common good.
17. Trump meets with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and reminds him that Mexico has to pay for the wall.
18. Trump tweets from the G20: “Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!” So many things wrong here. Podesta never had anything to do with the DNC server; the CIA didn’t (and probably couldn’t) subpoena it; and the G20 has more pressing matters. Podesta’s twitter response is worth it, though, as is his WaPo op-ed.
19. Trump is caught daydreaming at a G20 meeting, saved when Theresa May awakens him for a photo-op.
20. Ivanka Trump sits in for the president during a G20 leaders session for a short period while he steps out of the room.
21. The final communiqué from the G20 highlights a victory for the G19 and the isolation of the G20. U.S. views on global warming and protectionism are not accepted.
22. 122 countries in the UN approve a ban on nuclear weapons, a potential start to nuclear disarmament…except that none of the nations that signed on are armed with nuclear weapons.
    
23. Iraq declares victory over ISIS in Mosul after a 9-month push.
24. Rex Tillerson works to personally defuse the situation in the Persian Gulf, which threatens our ability to combat terrorism because of our coordination with Qatar.
25. A group of senators travel to Afghanistan as part of a diplomatic effort. The ambassador role there has yet to be filled and is currently filled by a chargé d’affaires who was about to retire. This is a critical time for diplomatic relations with the country.
26. The ban on bringing laptops and other electronic devices on board flights from several Mideast countries was lifted for some countries.
27. There were large anti-government protests in both Turkey and Venezuela this week, as well as protests at the G20 meetings in Hamburg. But there are always protests at the G20 for a multitude of causes.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. The U.S. denies visas for an all-girl robotics team from Afghanistan who were hoping to come here along with groups from other countries to compete. Teams from Iraq, Iran, and Sudan received travel visas.
2. Businesses in North Carolina get hit hard by cuts to visas for seasonal workers. One business hasn’t opened for the season because they couldn’t get any visas, and not one local applied for their $15/hour positions.
3. As part of a PR campaign to educate the nation about Sikhs, a group of them chip in to sponsor a town’s fireworks display when the town can’t fund it. Part of the reason Sikhs are doing this is that people in the U.S. mistake them for Muslims and harass them.

Climate/EPA:

1. A federal appeals court rules that the EPA can’t suspend an Obama-era rule that would restrict methane emissions from new oil and gas wells. They could try rewriting the rule.
2. California Governor Jerry Brown and New York mayor Bill De Blasio speak at the Global Citizen Festival in Hamburg. Brown invites everyone to a global warming action meeting in San Francisco in 2018, saying Trump doesn’t speak for all of America on global warming.
3. Volvo announces it will phase out combustion-only engines by 2019. All the cars they make will either be electric or hybrid.
4. Germany, Japan, and other countries reiterate their commitment to the Paris accord ahead of the G20.
5. The U.S. stands alone in the G20 summit statement on global warming and the Paris accord.

Budget/Economy/Trade:

1. At a time when most countries are seeing solid recoveries from the 2008 crash, world leaders warn that nationalistic and protectionist trade policies will hamper global recovery, possibly causing a slide backwards. And this includes the U.S., but #MAGA, right?
2. The European Union and Japan sign one of the world’s largest trade agreements, calling it ambitious, free, and fair. Unfortunately, the U.S. auto industry will be one of the hardest hit.
3. And to top it off, the U.S. automobile industry says sales are slowing and jobs are declining. This is the sixth consecutive month of drooping sales.
4. The U.S. hasn’t even begun to negotiate or renegotiate any meaningful bilateral agreements as promised during the campaign last year.
5. The European Union and China are working on a broad trade agreement, as are Mexico and China.
6. Trump threatens new tariffs on steel imports from Europe. The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, says they’ll retaliate in kind, which could start a trade war.
7. Stephen Bannon pushes to raise taxes on the wealthy and cut them for middle and low-income earners. His idea would raise the highest bracket above 40%, at odds with Trump’s current plan and the House’s current plan.
8. Trump touts the latest job numbers, though growth as been a little slower so far this year than last.
9. Several states are finding themselves in economic trouble or at a budget impasse, including New Jersey, Illinois, Maine, Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Connecticut, and Kansas.
10. After a two-year standoff, Illinois lawmakers finally worked together to agree on a budget bill, which Governor Bruce Rauner promptly vetoed because it would raise taxes. Both the house and senate are expected to vote to override his veto.
11. Trump’s cuts to transportation in his proposed budget could cause 220 cities to lose access to passenger train service and would halt any high-speed rail development. This is the opposite of infrastructure investment.
12. Trump says he wants to make the U.S. an energy dominator, but his actual policies are pretty much the same as under Obama’s goal to make us energy independent.
13. Trump proposes eliminating heating aid for low-income Americans, saying the program isn’t needed any longer and it’s being abused. He claims utility companies can’t cut off utilities in the dead of winter, so these people will be just fine…
14. While domestic gas and oil development has been sluggish over several years due to low prices, Trump tweets, “Gas prices are the lowest in the U.S. in over ten years! I would like to see them go even lower.”

Elections:

1. So far, 44 states push back on the voter fraud commission’s request for personal voter information. Nine major investigations over 20 years on voter fraud have turned up no evidence of widespread fraud. Most cases were found to not be fraudulent at all. Of the cases found to be actually fraudulent, most result from misunderstandings of the rules or from clerical or administrative errors.
2. Maryland’s Republican deputy secretary of state, Luis E. Borunda, resigns from the voting commission. In fact, many people appointed to the commission don’t have election experience and don’t understand why they’re there.
3. Lawmakers who criticize Trump or don’t support him are feeling the political heat of his pressure. Others who have criticized him in the past start to court him to make sure he doesn’t capsize their chances of re-election.

Miscellaneous:

1. Workers still remaining at the State Department say the department is gutted at all levels of employment and that they can barely get anything done.
2. In an act of I-just-don’t-care-anymore, Chris Christie and his family are spotted on a private beach on the day that public beaches are closed to the public because of a budget impasse.
3. Trump signs an executive order aimed at reviving the National Space Council. Mike Pence will lead the effort.
4. After Trump tweets a GIF of himself taking down CNN WWF-style, CNN finds the originator of the GIF who apologizes and takes all his offensive stuff down. CNN refuses to divulge his identity but for some reason left a bit in the story saying they might if he reneges on his promise. Which leads certain alt-right groups to speculate that he was blackmailed into the apology by CNN, so they dox the CNN group responsible for the story. The reporters and their families have been threatened both online and in person at their homes.
5. Once again Trump reminds us that he is president and we are not. “The fake media is trying to silence us. But we will not let them. Because the people know the truth. The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president and they’re not.”
6. Whoa! NPR caught a little blowback on the 4th when it tweeted the entirety of the declaration of independence in 113 tweets. They get accused of partisan politics, using propaganda, and trying to start a revolution.
7. Steven Scalise is readmitted into ICU on worries of infection.
8. It looks like an investigation and crackdown on leakers is about to start. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman, Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), releases a report on national security risks from the leaks.
9. The government ethics chief, Walter Shaub, resigns saying he’s done all he can and criticizing the administration for a lack of transparency and the appearance of profiting from office. After repeatedly reaching out to the administration during the transition period and being ignored, Shaub took to trolling Trump on Twitter to get his attention. That didn’t work either. He’s never spoken with the president.
10. There’s a power struggle going on between red state governments and their blue city governments, with states cracking down on city legislation. States have tied city’s hands on issues like minimum wage, civil rights, birth control, and sanctuary cities.
11. The White House staff reveals it’s factional nature, as each has their own PR staffs to push their individual agendas, leaving behind the tradition of keeping a unified message.

Polls:

1. 54% of Americans believe Trump has done something illegal; 29% think he’s done something unethical.
2. A Pew survey shows that 56% of Americans have more confidence in Merkel than Trump, while 46% say they have more confidence in Trump.

Stupid Things Politicians Say:

Because this is what a free and open press is all about:

“I just love to sit in my office and make up wasters so [journalists] will write these stupid stories.”

– Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage bragging that he lies to reporters so they will write misleading “stupid stories” about his governorship.