Welcome to Friday’s edition of Washington Secrets. Today, we look back at a week that included a NATO summit, the resumption of war (if you think that a ceasefire ever actually existed) with Iran, and a whole lot more. Enjoy the weekend.Monday was a busy day domestically. President Donald Trump rang the stock market’s opening bell from the Oval Office to mark the launch of Trump Accounts, but made far more news by admitting that he spoke to FIFA about overturning the red card given to star USA striker Folarin Balogun that initially ruled him out of the clash with Belgium. Cue controversy, which ended only when the U.S. team was dumped out of the World Cup. To their credit, Balogun and most of the team failed to turn up.Trump flew to the NATO summit in Turkey later that day aboard his gleaming new Air Force One, which was a gift from Qatar. He later flew out of Ankara on one of the old modified 747s.
He claimed it was to allow service personnel in the United Kingdom to tour the new plane. No one believed him, particularly after it emerged there were new Iranian threats against him, and then aviation experts pointed out that there would not have been enough time to properly outfit the Qatari jet with the full range of missile countermeasures and communications gear usually fitted to a presidential plane.In Turkey, he praised President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “a great ally” to the United States during the Iran conflict and announced he was ready to lift sanctions imposed after Ankara purchased a Russian air defense system. That sets up a clash with Congress, which is reluctant to allow Turkey to buy F-35 warplanes.Trump left after shaking up NATO by once again setting his sights on Greenland and telling Spain he would cut off trade for its failure to agree on defense spending targets and not supporting his strikes on Iran.And he declared the ceasefire with Iran to be over amid continuing squabbles over who actually controls shipping transiting the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. Central Command announced “offensive” strikes on more than 80 targets in Iran in response to Tehran’s attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Thursday was a quiet day. After arriving home in the early hours of the morning, the president had no public events.Friday began with a bang. Trump announced he would not sign a bipartisan housing affordability bill. On Truth Social, he said that he was withholding his signature “in PROTEST over the fact that the United States Senate is not capable of passing THE SAVE AMERICA ACT,” his controversial voting restrictions measure.So what do our two political consultants make of it all?Jed Babbin: Grade F
