Balance of Power: Trump’s Loose Lips
Balance of Power: Trump’s Loose Lips
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s campaign rallies often rang out with chants of “Lock her up!” as he proclaimed that Hillary Clinton should be jailed for mishandling classified information.
Now Trump stands accused of revealing top-secret intelligence. To the Russians in the Oval Office, no less.
“This is code-word information,” one U.S. official told the Washington Post. The newspaper reported that Trump boasted to his Russian visitors of new details of an Islamic State plot to bomb airliners with laptops. The dollar fell for a fifth day.
The White House was unapologetic and labeled the story false. But it creates two big problems for Trump.
First, the country that shared the intel didn’t want it shared widely, even among allies. U.S. spymasters now worry that it will be reluctant to hand over any more information about the inner workings of Islamic State. That could end Trump's dream of smashing the group.
Second, the furor risks pushing some Republicans to breaking point, one week after Trump fired his FBI director.
“The White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control,” said Senator Bob Corker, the head of the Senate's foreign affairs committee.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak meet in the Oval Office at the White House.
Global Headlines
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Iran's election is now a two-man race | Iran's presidential election has effectively turned into a straight fight between conservative Ebrahim Raisi and moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani after the mayor of Tehran pulled out of the race yesterday and backed Raisi. Polls suggest it's too close to call. Bloomberg’s Iran team has written more about the candidates and their positions here. The first round is on Friday.
May recruits a hard Brexit army | British Prime Minister Theresa May is packing her Conservative party with an army of Euroskeptics ahead of next month’s election. Bloomberg's London bureau surveyed the views of all her party's new candidates and the results suggest May will have strong backing for a so-called hard Brexit if the polls are right and she wins with a large majority.
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A peek at Trump's finances | Trump is about to let the U.S. public know how his finances fared in last year's presidential election. The White House said the president plans to release a 2016 financial disclosure form soon. Vice President Mike Pence put his out Monday, showing he earned $110,000 last year.
And finally... What is it about Bruce Springsteen and politicians? Ireland's prime minister was recently seen playing air guitar at a Springsteen concert in Dublin. Chris Christie's love for The Boss remains famously unrequited. Now comes news that France's new prime minister is also a fan. But what about President Macron? It turns out that his tastes are more old-fashioned. Asked by French radio about his favorite musicians, Macron named Italian opera composer Gioachino Rossini.
To contact the authors of this story: Craig Gordon in Washington at cgordon39@bloomberg.net, John Fraher in London at jfraher@bloomberg.net, Karl Maier in Johannesburg at kmaier2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J Barden at barden@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Titus