| | | | Trump's campaign style lost in translation | | Donald Trump anchored his presidential campaign on defying convention and flouting political norms, and it worked better than anyone ever expected. But now the President-elect is applying the same unorthodox, off-the-cuff style of leadership to sensitive diplomatic procedure and it's causing a storm at home and overseas, writes CNN's Stephen Collinson.
A diplomatic crisis in China: Trump flew in the face of four decades of international protocol and precedent Friday when he became the first President or President-elect known to speak directly to the leader of Taiwan since the US established formal relations with Beijing in 1979. The conversation with President Tsai Ing-wen caused a diplomatic crisis with Beijing, sent shock waves through the foreign policy establishment in Washington and caused concern around Trump's looming presidency. The stunning move raised fundamental questions about how Trump's foreign policy inexperience and brash style as a disruptor will translate to the intricacies of international statecraft, where an ill-advised phone call or off-message sentence can cause a diplomatic incident.
The Taiwan "courtesy call": Trump's decision to buck diplomatic protocol and accept a call from the leader of Taiwan didn't necessarily reflect a shift away from the "One-China" policy, Vice President-elect Mike Pence says. "This was a courtesy call of the democratically elected president of Taiwan, and a call to congratulate the President-elect," Pence said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." Pressed by host Chuck Todd on whether anything should be read into the call, Pence said: "Well, I don't think so."
And yet Trump sounded ready and willing to anger China with these tweets this evening: | | | For the record: The United States does, in fact, tax imports from China. | | "I don't vote, so that's an easy answer." -- David Petraeus, on who he told Donald Trump he voted for, on ABC's "This Week." | | | | "Saturday Night Live" skewered Donald Trump's Twitter habits in its cold open. Just a little bit later -- and apparently without irony -- Trump tweeted this: | | | Here's Alec Baldwin's response: | | Pence, Priebus embrace Trump's false illegal vote claim | | President-elect Donald Trump's incoming vice president Mike Pence and chief of staff Reince Priebus both on Sunday stood by Trump's false claim that millions of people voted illegally in this year's election. "You don't know that that's not true," Priebus said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's his right to express his opinion as President-elect of the United States," Pence said on ABC's "This Week."
Asked for proof to back up Trump's statement, Pence said: "Well, look, I think he's expressed his opinion on that. And he's entitled to express his opinion on that. And I think the American people -- I think the American people find it very refreshing that they have a president who will tell them what's on his mind."
Will Trump keep playing fast and loose with the truth? Here's what Pence said: "He's going to say what he believes to be true and I know that he's always going to speak in that way as president." | | Donald Trump promised strict protectionist policies -- including 35% tariffs on products made overseas -- in a Sunday morning tweetstorm.
What Trump hasn't addressed is a hugely important question to thousands of American companies: How he'll prevent other countries from responding with their own punitive tariffs, making it impossible to sell US-made goods overseas. | | Transition watch: Huntsman is in the State race | | Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who was President Barack Obama's first ambassador to China and ran a failed campaign for the 2012 GOP nomination, is among the candidates to become Donald Trump's secretary of state, a transition source told CNN today -- confirming a scoop from The Associated Press' Laurie Kellman.
Who's in the running now? On NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President-elect Mike Pence dropped these names: 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Gen. David Petraeus, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and former UN Ambassador John Bolton.
Also on the list, per Politico's Alex Isenstadt, are two candidates expected to meet with Trump this week: Exxon Mobile CEO Rex Tillerson and retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis. | | Will Trump reward donors with ambassadorships? | | From John King's "Inside Politics" notebook: Rewarding big campaign donors with plum ambassador slots is a time-tested, bipartisan tradition. And despite his "drain the swamp" campaign mantra about shaking up Washington, there are early indications that Trump and his administration will follow the norm.
On today's show ... Julie Pace of The Associated Press shared reporting about how big GOP donors, including some who were at first reluctant to join Team Trump, are now angling for an overseas stint in, say, Paris, Rome or London. "Some of these big Republican donors who came around and donated to his campaign in the general election are expressing interest in jobs," Pace explained. "I'm told they're getting a pretty warm reception. When it comes to ambassadors, this is one of those areas where every time you have a new president you get complaints about the influence of money in our politics, and yet it always seems to play out the same way." | | | Defense Secretary Ash Carter signaled his support for Donald Trump's pick to replace him: former Gen. Jim Mattis. ... Hillary Clinton's political opponents are vowing to continue pursuing her emails even after her defeat. ... Michigan's attorney general is going to court to stop Jill Stein's recount. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out CNNMoney's Reliable Sources, an insider's look into the media brought to you by Brian Stelter. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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