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“No one else writes like that on a map with a black Sharpie.”
— Washington Post: “It was Trump who used a black Sharpie to mark up an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map, which he displayed during an Oval Office briefing on Wednesday, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.”
“I would tell him to follow the Justin Trudeau model. President Trump is very intimidated by Justin Trudeau because he’s a good looking, smart kid and President Trump is like this orange fat blob. And so he’s very intimidated by the way the guy looks. And Justin Trudeau has been very, very smart at keeping his distance from President Trump.”
— Anthony Scaramucci, quoted by the HuffPost, on what advice he would give to a foreign leader dealing with President Trump.
“Donald Trump came to the presidency a complete novice to government and often found his corrupt, authoritarian impulses frustrated by its bureaucracy. But he is slowly learning how to control the machine that has stymied him. This is the story of 2019, as Trump has replaced institutionalists attempting to curtail his grossest instincts with loyalists happy to indulge them. It is playing out across multiple dimensions. This is the through-line between several seemingly disconnected episodes from the last several days.”
-22%
Associated Press: “China’s trade with the United States is falling as the two sides prepare for negotiations with no signs of progress toward ending a tariff war that threatens global economic growth. Imports of American goods tumbled 22% in August from a year earlier to $10.3 billion, customs data showed Sunday. Exports to the United States, China’s biggest market, sank 16% to $44.4 billion.”
29%
A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with29%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 19%, Elizabeth Warren at 18%. Kamala Harris is next at 7%, followed by Pete Buttigieg at 4%, Beto O’Rourke at 3% and Andrew Yang at 3%. Key takeaway: “Nearly 6 in 10 Democratic-leaning voters say they would consider switching to support another candidate for the party’s nomination or that they still don’t have a preference.”
“I just think they’re a dynasty. I think they’re all amazing people…with amazing capabilities. I think you see that from Don Jr. I think you see that from Ivanka. You see it from Jared. You see it from all.”
— Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, predicting that “the Trumps will be a dynasty that lasts for decades,” Politico reports.
30%
A new Kaiser Family Foundation/Cook Political Report survey finds that while 63% of voters are already firm about how they plan to vote in the 2020 presidential election, there are still 30% who say they have not made up their minds.
$850 billion
Reuters: “Trade policy uncertainty driven by the Trump administration’s escalating dispute with China means hundreds of billions of dollars in lost U.S. output and as much as $850 billion lost globally through early next year, research published this week by the Federal Reserve suggests.”
“Coal’s not back. Nobody saved the coal industry.”
— Cecil Roberts, the president of United Mine Workers of America, said that the coal industry is not “back,” despite President Trump’s claims, CNN reports. He added that coal-fired plants are closing all over the country, calling it a “harsh reality.”
$50 million
Mother Jones: “Donald Trump’s massive debts—he owes hundreds of millions of dollars—are the subject of continuous congressional and journalistic scrutiny. But for years, one Trump loan has been particularly mystifying: a debt of more than $50 million that Trump claims he owes to one of his own companies. According to tax and financial experts, the loan, which Trump has never fully explained, might be part of a controversial tax avoidance scheme known as debt parking. … Yet a Mother Jones investigation has uncovered information that raises questions about the very existence of this loan, presenting the possibility that this debt was concocted as a ploy to evade income taxes—a move that could constitute tax fraud.”
