The strategy was on full display on Tuesday — in both his keynote address and in his eagerness to begin bilateral trade negotiations with a handful of foreign partners. During sit-downs with his Pakistani, Swiss and Iraqi counterparts, Trump assured each leader that trade topped his list of priorities.
Trump was making his case to foreign leaders and business tycoons that his controversial approach to the global economy — trampling long-held norms on trade, tariffs and taxes — had contributed to a “blue-collar boom” in the United States. In lieu of his typical impeachment bombast, Trump spent his day challenging claims that his protectionist impulses have disrupted global trade.
Meanwhile in D.C., Trump’s aides were establishing an impeachment war room and plotting how to make their case to the American public that the president is being railroaded by a Democratic Party intent on doing everything it can to oust the president.
“The Democrats are an utter joke,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a statement circulated by the press office Tuesday morning.
The group of White House aides, Republican Party officials and outside advisers crafted talking points for Trump surrogates designed to sway public opinion. Elsewhere, Trump’s top GOP allies from the House impeachment process, tapped as presidential impeachment advisers, made plans to defend the president on TV.
One senior administration official described the White House’s goal as making sure Democrats are held accountable in the public arena. Because the Senate is controlled by Republicans who are expected to acquit Trump, the White House aides are more focused on trying to sway public opinion.
“We’re not messaging to senators personally,” the official said.
Back in Switzerland, Trump began his morning speech with a brief brag about the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement and his incremental trade deal with China — both of which were finalized last week.
“The two biggest trade deals ever made [and] they just happened to get done in the same week,” Trump said, accusing dignitaries and business leaders in the room of turning a blind eye to “chronic problems” in the international trade system “that have been ignored or enabled for decades.”
Trump took credit for upending and improving that system, alluding to the wary reception he received during his only other trip as president to the Davos forum in 2018.
“When I spoke at this forum two years ago, I told you that we had launched the great American comeback. Today, I’m proud to declare that the U.S. is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen before,” the president said.
He continued, “America’s economic turnaround has been nothing short of spectacular. We regained our stride, rediscovered our spirit and reawakened the powerful machinery of American enterprise.”
But Trump’s celebratory remarks accompanied a stern warning to the elite global audience. Nodding to his “America First” agenda, the president cautioned his foreign counterparts not to pollute his efforts to level the field of international trade and said his top priority is U.S. workers.
Hours after Trump’s remarks, House Democrats made the case on the Senate floor that Trump’s priority is actually himself.
Democrats have accused Trump of withholding financial aid and an official White House visit as leverage to pressure Ukraine to announce probes of Joe Biden, a potential Trump 2020 rival. They impeached him over the matter and on Tuesday made their opening arguments in the Senate trial that will determine Trump’s fate.
Yet Trump didn’t bite.
He deferred to his staff — both in Davos and back in D.C. — to respond to the specifics of the Democrats’ initial statements. “He has a full day here in Davos, but will be briefed by staff periodically,” insisted White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
On the White House complex, the burgeoning war room was forming in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the West Wing. Officials from Trump’s legal team, legislative affairs team and communications office planned how to respond to the impeachment trial in real-time and coordinated with outside allies.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the chatter throughout the day focused on other issues, such as the Trump administration’s attempts to negotiate with French officials over a contentious digital tax that takes money from revenue that American tech companies earn in France.
Source: politico.com
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