The Daily 202: Trump’s DACA tweetstorm speaks volumes about his presidency
4) Proximity is power in Trump’s White House.
Most aides spent Easter with their families, including White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. But Trump was accompanied for the past four days at Mar-a-Lago by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller. The former spokesman for Jeff Sessions in the Senate is the leading advocate for nativist policies in the president’s orbit. More than anyone else, he’s torpedoed the prospect of a bipartisan breakthrough on immigration by encouraging Trump’s base instincts.
Because Trump lacks many core convictions, he’s often swayed by the last person he speaks with before making decisions. That’s one reason staffers are even more eager to travel with him and be around the Oval Office than during a more traditional presidency.
Trump also had dinner on Friday night with Fox News host Sean Hannity and then golfed with him on Saturday. Hannity has long been a hardliner on immigration, and something he said might have rubbed off on the president.
Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III shakes hands with Leonard Glenn Francis.(Photo obtained by The Washington Post)
PERSONNEL IS POLICY:
-- One of the Pentagon’s top choices to lead the Joint Chiefs of Staff was dropped from consideration after the corrupt defense contractor “Fat Leonard” told federal agents about his “unsavory past” with the finalist. Craig Whitlock reports: “Leonard Glenn Francis [said] that he had paid for opulent dinners and other favors for Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III [and shared] several photographs of him drinking and socializing with [him]. After separate investigations, the Justice Department declined to press charges, and the Navy cleared the four-star admiral of wrongdoing. But his association with the 350-pound contractor helped sink his chances to lead the Joint Chiefs ... Now retired, Locklear is the highest-ranking officer known to have been investigated in what has become the worst corruption scandal in Navy history.”
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