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Presented by BP: Playbook is POLITICO's must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Washington \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c \u200c Jul 27, 2018 View in browser
By Anna Palmer, Jake Sherman, Daniel Lippman, Eli Okun and Akela Lacy

Presented by

SPOTTED -- ROBERT MUELLER and DONALD TRUMP JR. both waiting for their flights this morning at the 35X gate at DCA. And yes, there is a photo. Picture of the two waiting at America's worst gate

BEST GDP NUMBERS SINCE 2014 ... NYT'S BEN CASSELMAN breaks it down: "United States gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter, up from 2.2 percent in the first three months of the year. It was the strongest quarter of growth since 2014.

"Consumer spending rose 4 percent, but private investment fell slightly as the housing market cooled. ...

"Economic growth surged in the second quarter - but don't expect the boom to last.

The second-quarter acceleration was widely anticipated by economists, a result of a confluence of events unlikely to recur. Most economists expect growth to slow in the second half of the year. Still, recent data does suggest that the pace of growth has picked up this year.

"Some economists think full-year growth in gross domestic product could hit 3 percent in 2018 for the first time in the nearly decade-long recovery, a prospect that became more likely following Friday's strong numbers.

"The second quarter was the first time since 2014 that economic growth topped 4 percent in a quarter; the economy reached that level or higher just four times during the eight years of the Obama administration." NYT ... The stats

-- PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP touted the growth on the White House's South Lawn on Friday: "These numbers are very, very sustainable. This isn't a one-time shot." More from Louis Nelson: POLITICO

-- BEN WHITE: "Trump gets his big moment to boast about trade war: The battle over tariffs sped up U.S. exports in the second quarter, lifting economic growth in ways likely to be reversed in the coming months." POLITICO

Good Friday afternoon. HAPPENING TONIGHT -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will appear on "Jeopardy!" tonight. Local listings

WHAT'S ON THE PRESIDENT'S MIND -- @realDonaldTrump at 7:26 a.m.: "Arrived back in Washington last night from a very emotional reopening of a major U.S. Steel plant in Granite City, Illinois, only to be greeted with the ridiculous news that the highly conflicted Robert Mueller and his gang of 13 Angry Democrats obviously cannot find Collusion..."

... at 7:38 a.m.: "....,the only Collusion with Russia was with the Democrats, so now they are looking at my Tweets (along with 53 million other people) -- the rigged Witch Hunt continues! How stupid and unfair to our Country....And so the Fake News doesn't waste my time with dumb questions, NO,...."

... at 7:56 a.m.: ".....I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary's lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!"

TOP TWEET -- NBC NEWS' PETER ALEXANDER (@PeterAlexander): "THEN & NOW: Giuliani on Michael Cohen: MAY 2018: 'The man is an honest, honorable lawyer.' LAST NIGHT: 'He's been lying for years... he's lied all his life.'"

NBC NEWS' LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: "Time is running out for a divided Congress to finish its #MeToo legislation: The House and Senate remain divided over personal liability and the definition of sexual harassment." NBC

ANDREW WHEELER WATCH -- "Top Trump Officials Clash Over Plan to Let Cars Pollute More," by NYT's Coral Davenport: "Senior administration officials are clashing over President Trump's plan to roll back a major environmental rule and let cars emit more tailpipe pollution ...

"The rollback, one of the most consequential proposals of the Trump administration, not only would permit more planet-warming pollution from cars, it would also challenge the right of California and other states to set their own, more restrictive state-level pollution standards.

"On one side is the Environmental Protection Agency's acting chief, Andrew K. Wheeler, who has tried to put the brakes on the plan, fearing that its legal and technical arguments are weak and will set up the Trump administration for an embarrassing courtroom loss. ... On the other side are top officials at the Transportation Department, Jeffrey A. Rosen and Heidi King, two of the proposal's chief authors." NYT

MARC SHORT -- UVA SPEAKS: William Antholis, director and CEO of the University of Virginia's Miller Center, sent a letter Friday clarifying the center's stance on the appointment of Marc Short as a senior fellow ...

"Especially here in Charlottesville after the events of August 2017, people might question the appointment. Given the concern, I wanted to provide our community a broader explanation. ...

"Marc's appointment is a one-year fellowship; it is not a faculty position. ... In this case, knowing the controversies surrounding President Trump and some of his appointees, I also consulted more extensively than in previous senior fellowship appointments ... Those who know Marc gave him high marks for his intelligence and effectiveness, not to mention his integrity and collegiality. The decision to make this appointment was ultimately mine." The letter

VALLEY TALK -- "The Trump administration is talking to Facebook and Google about potential rules for online privacy," by WaPo's Tony Romm: "The government's goal is to release an initial set of ideas this fall that outlines Web users' rights, including general principles for how companies should collect and handle consumers' private information ... The forthcoming blueprint could then become the basis for Congress to write the country's first wide-ranging online-privacy law, an idea the White House recently has said it could endorse." WaPo

-- "How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies: The West Coast is a growing target of foreign espionage. And it's not ready to fight back," by Zach Dorfman in POLITICO Magazine: "[E]specially because of increasing Russian and Chinese aggressiveness, and the local concentration of world-leading science and technology firms-there's a full-on epidemic of espionage on the West Coast right now. And even more worrisome, many of its targets are unprepared to deal with the growing threat." POLITICO Magazine

2018 WATCH -- "A test in Delaware: Can an old-school politician succeed in a campaign season defined by tumult?" by Delaware's own WaPo's David Weigel in Harrington, Delaware: "This year, [Tom] Carper is the No. 1 target of the people who helped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez oust the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, with one of her top staffers relocating to Delaware to help challenger Kerri Evelyn Harris in the Sept. 6 primary. He's being watched closely by Republicans, who are running as Trump-style outsiders, and who wonder if a Democrat who once ran as 'a senator for our future' may stumble or show his age." WaPo

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WAR REPORT -- MORE ON THE SYRIA ATTACKS: "Sweida province: Isis knocked on doors then slaughtered families," by The Guardian's Kareem Shaheen: The Guardian

-- "Britain Withdraws Cooperation With U.S. Over Islamic State Fighters," by WSJ's Will Horner in London: "Britain has halted cooperation with the U.S. in the case of two British Islamic State fighters pending an appeal, the government said Friday, after concerns that they could face the death penalty provoked a backlash.

"The U.S. has designated the two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, as global terrorists and accuses them of being part of a cell that beheaded U.S. citizens. They are currently being held by Kurdish forces in Syria." WSJ

ON THE WORLD STAGE -- "U.S. Probes Web of Businesses for Ties to Alleged Hezbollah Supporters," by WSJ's Ian Talley, Nazih Osseiran and Asa Fitch: "Under scrutiny are individuals and companies tied to two men sanctioned in 2014 for purchasing sophisticated electronics for Hezbollah to develop military drones. ... Public and private documents gathered by a nonprofit advising the U.S. on national security threats point to a broad web of associates tied to the Amhaz network, potentially operating in violation of U.S. sanctions." WSJ

-- "Mattis: U.S. military teams may go to North Korea to look for more war remains," by Military Times' Tara Copp: Military Times

POLITICO GETS RESULTS -- WAPO'S DAN LAMOTHE (@DanLamothe): "[Jim] Mattis also tells media poolers on the record that he will try and visit the press corps later today to discuss more issues. That comes one day after @politico explored the Pentagon becoming less and less transparent with the American people." Our original story by Jason Schwartz

RUSSIA UPDATE -- "Russia's Putin tells Trump: 'Be my guest in Moscow,'" by Reuters' Denis Pinchuk in Johannesburg: "Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday he had invited Donald Trump to Moscow and that both he and the U.S. president want further summits, despite the uproar in Washington after the two leaders met in Helsinki last week. ...

"'Regarding our meetings, I understand very well what President Trump said. He has a desire to have further meetings,' Putin said. 'I am ready for that. We need for the appropriate conditions to exist, to be created, including in our countries,' Putin told a news conference. 'We are ready for such meetings. We are ready to invite President Trump to Moscow. Be my guest. He has such an invitation, I told him that.'" Reuters

-- The White House response, from Sarah Huckabee Sanders: "President Trump looks forward to having President Putin to Washington after the first of the year, and he is open to visiting Moscow upon receiving a formal invitation."

THE BIG PICTURE -- SUSAN GLASSER in The New Yorker: "The Helsinki Summit and the Awkward Art of Cleaning Up Trump's Messes": "On Monday morning, the world woke up to President Trump's all-caps tweet to the President of Iran, sent late the night before. 'NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,' the President warned Hassan Rouhani. By Tuesday, it seemed that nuclear war was not, in fact, imminent.

"When I spoke on Wednesday with Mark Dubowitz, an expert on Iran who advises the Trump Administration, he had an entirely different theory. The Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, had delivered a major speech on Sunday night, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in California, accusing the Islamic Republic's leaders of corruption and encouraging protests in the country ... 'But it wasn't even one news cycle,' Dubowitz said, 'before Trump had to send his all-caps tweet and stomp on Pompeo's messaging.'

"In the space of two days, Trump had once again utterly confused the world as to his Administration's Iran policy. And no one really knew why: Was it to distract from the continued political outcry over the summit in Helsinki with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin? Because he couldn't stand Pompeo having a moment in the spotlight? Because he saw something on late-night TV that got him stewing over Iran?" The New Yorker

YIKES -- "Lacking direction from White House, intelligence agencies scramble to protect midterm elections from hackers," by CNN's Jenna McLaughlin and Donie O'Sullivan: "[G]overnment officials working to counter election interference from Russia have been operating with no strategy from the top, including from President Donald Trump's fractured National Security Council, leaving each agency to fend for itself without White House support or direction, according to lawmakers and national security officials." CNN

FLASHBACK -- Gabe Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti): "'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing' -- candidate Donald Trump, exactly 2 years ago today."

SCOTUS WATCH -- "Top Senate Democrat presses former president George W. Bush for Kavanaugh documents," by WaPo's Seung Min Kim: "In a letter being released Friday, Schumer writes to Bush with a 'time-sensitive' request: to make public all of Kavanaugh's paperwork, including from his three years as Bush's staff secretary, a period when Kavanaugh controlled all the documents that flowed to and from the Oval Office." WaPo

ON THE BORDER -- "See America's New Ellis Island: A South Texas Bus Terminal," by NYT's Manny Fernandez, Mitchell Ferman, Ilana Panich-Linsman and Sarah Almukhtar in McAllen, Texas: "They line up daily, newly released from detention, having had no time even to put the laces back on their shoes. They hold government-issued bags with their few belongings close, and their children even closer.

"Like Ellis Island, the bus station is a portal - an entry and exit point in the migrants' monthslong journey to America's Southwest border and beyond. Yet unlike that historic gateway on New York Harbor, all of the immigrants passing through the McAllen bus terminal - young or old, healthy or sick - have effectively been jailed by the authorities when they first arrived in the United States." NYT

WAPO'S PHILIP BUMP: "Help us identify Trump's unknown golf partners": "On 81 of the 111 days we think Trump has played golf as president, we have no idea who his partner might have been." WaPo

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WHAT WOODY JOHNSON IS UP TO -- "Inside U.S. Ambassador Woody Johnson's New Job: Reality TV Star: Trump's mouthpiece in the UK is starring in a series about the U.S. Embassy. How is that possible?" by Washingtonian's Amanda Whiting: "'Inside the American Embassy' doesn't shy from Trump's British scandals-like his criticism of the 'lousy' new billion-dollar US Embassy in London, the very embassy Woody Johnson, 71, is gearing up to open in a scene from the season premiere. 'We're actually taking it up a notch,' Johnson, the billionaire heir to Johnson & Johnson, assures his staffers. 'It's a story we're going to write together. What is it and why is it exciting? Why is it the best thing ever?
Right?' He looks expectantly at his people.

"'Sales! We've got to sell it.' An aide warns that there may be blowback. The old embassy was in Grosvenor Square, America's home on UK soil for a hundred years. D-Day was planned in Grosvenor Square. 'If you don't get any blowback,' says Johnson, a Sun Tzu of making America great again. 'You're not being aggressive enough.'" Washingtonian

WHAT BEN RAY LUJAN IS READING -- "Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Will Pay Its Interns: The change came after current interns said their class was overly 'white and wealthy,'" by HuffPost's Molly Redden: HuffPost

DRIP DRIP -- "GOP Rep. Jason Lewis called people on government assistance 'parasites,' said blacks on welfare 'plantation,'" by CNN's Nathan McDermott, Andrew Kaczynski and Chris Massie: "The Minnesota congressman's extreme rhetoric in his previous job, which he described as rooted in libertarianism, also included calling the part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that applied to private businesses 'unconstitutional' as well as calling the Americans with Disabilities Act 'one of the worst' laws and suggesting that it might be the cause of workplace shootings. He also said religious freedom laws didn't 'go far in enough in allowing discrimination.'" CNN

AFTERNOON READ -- "In China, #MeToo escalates as public figures are accused of sexual assault," by Reuters' Pei Lee and Ryan Woo in Beijing: "Accusations of sexual assault spread across China's social media this week as the #MeToo movement took aim at prominent activists, intellectuals and a television personality. ... The spread of accusations about prominent Chinese figures presents a challenge for the government, which has censored some but not all of the social media posts." Reuters

TV TONIGHT -- Bob Costa sits down with CBS' Nancy Cordes, Bloomberg's Josh Green, WSJ's Vivian Salama and NYT's Ana Swanson on PBS' "Washington Week" at 8 p.m.

MEDIAWATCH -- YASHAR ALI SCOOP in HUFFPOST: "Kimberly Guilfoyle Left Fox News After Investigation Into Misconduct Allegations, Sources Say": "Multiple sources told HuffPost that Guilfoyle's exit from Fox News, where she had worked since 2006, came after her alleged inappropriate workplace behavior could no longer be tolerated by the network. ...

"Six sources said Guilfoyle's behavior included showing personal photographs of male genitalia to colleagues (and identifying whose genitals they were), regularly discussing sexual matters at work and engaging in emotionally abusive behavior toward hair and makeup artists and support staff." HuffPost

-- Wendy Benjaminson is now Washington managing editor at McClatchy. She previously was a national editor. (h/t Morning Media) ... Megan Wilson is joining Bloomberg Government as a reporter covering lobbying. She was previously at The Hill.

WHITE HOUSE PROMOTION -- Giovanna Coia is now special assistant to Bill Shine, assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications. She most recently was a press assistant.

SPOTTED: Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) at DCA, reading a print WaPo and chatting with constituents before a JetBlue flight to Jacksonville ... Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in coach on an 11:50 a.m. American Airlines flight from BWI to Dallas ... Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic at the Monocle on Capitol Hill having breakfast with members of the Business Council for International Understanding.

TRANSITIONS -- Sam Rubino is now campaign manager for Eddie Edwards, a Republican candidate for the open seat in NH-01. He previously worked for Rep. Greg Gianforte's (R-Mont.) 2017 campaign.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- Joe Mansour, partner at FP1 Strategies and alum of Public Notice/Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, and Samantha Dorsey welcomed Elias Joseph David Mansour, who was born at Inova Fairfax and came in at 7lbs 9oz and 20 inches. Pic

-- OBAMA ALUMNI: Lindsey Berman, director of government relations at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and an Obama OMB alum, and Aaron Fanwick, senior account executive at Resonance Campaigns and a DOJ alum, welcomed Neys Abel, who came in at 7 lb 12 oz. Pic ... Family pic

BONUS BIRTHDAY: Alex Anderson (h/t Sarah)

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