President Trump on Thursday said he does not have to prepare “very much” for his high-stakes summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un because he believes “it’s about attitude.”

“I think I'm very well prepared,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I don't think I have to prepare very much. It's about attitude. It's about willingness to get things done.”

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So Trump will wing it!

I suspect Trump and Kim will come to an agreement at their meeting but since neither are into details that afterwards there will be long and ongoing arguments about what they actually agreed to

Trump says he'd invite Kim to US if summit goes well
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Apparently if summit does not go well Kim will have to visit the WH twice

A spokesperson for Melania Trump on Thursday said the first lady has had no discussions with Rudy Giuliani in response to questions about his remarks that she believes her husband did not have an affair with adult-film star Stormy Daniels.

"I don't believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani," Stephanie Grisham, the first lady's communications director, said in a statement to The Hill.

Of course he is. Probably not for his salary as POTUS (which, if memory serves, he donates) but for what he can gain from holding the position.

In 2005 he had to pay $38mln in federal taxes due to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) on some $150mln income. Without the AMT his tax bill would have been $5.3mln.

Incidentally (cough), the tax cut that was introduced late last year does away with the AMT. So much for a self-serving use of the position.

That's very much in line with his style and his experience as a CEO. You meet for a bit to come to a soft agreement, and then your minions hammer out the details. It may be fore the best that way. He gets the photo op and the credit, and someone who really knows what's going on comes up with the agreement.

I believe that. Giuliani just wants a slice of the limelight, so he'll say what he thinks keeps him in it. The media is going nuts over Melania's non-appearance in public for a few weeks, so he threw them a bone to gnaw.

Done a few of those "post CEO agreement" negotiations in my time; consequently I believe CEOs who are not into details should be locked up somewhere where they can do no harm.

Funniest example was here in Switzerland where we were into a really intractable discussion which dragged on for a couple of acrimonious days with no end in sight.
There were two teams both staffed by people from their relevant departments. Then I thought to ask the people about their backgrounds.

Turned out we were all external consultants! So I said "come on people we have no skin in this game so let us agree anything and get out of here".
We did and had a nice celebratory dinner.
Result did not matter, the CEOs had no clue about the topic anyway

Trump to leave G-7 summit early on Saturday 9th June, travel directly to Singapore for his June 12th meeting with Kim.

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Wonder what he will do in Singapore for three days before the meeting?

MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski accused President Trump on Thursday of complaining that he can't watch porn in the White House.

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Maybe Trump can catch up in Singapore?

I hope Kim turns up otherwise Trump will have been sitting 3 days in Singapore waiting for a no-show.

It is really Friday

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She should pack her cane for meetings with Spanky!

She's got a much better spokesperson than him then.

I was not surprised the article says it's more about getting away from the G7 meeting than getting to Singapore.
He'w a coward.

Yes, insulting people over twitter instead of face to face is not a mark of bravery?

I guess in the past there have been other leaders who have "bristled" at their international counterparts, found them dull, rude, brash, irritating, whatever. And maybe they ranted, hinted, whispered it behind the hand to their aides or secretaries.

What I don't get is why his supposed inner circle is so keen to constantly drop him in it with the press.

"Source" close to the president suggests *negative personality trait du jour" to his press contact.
*Negative personality trait du jour* appears next day in the news, followed by the usual analysis, memes, discussion, head-shaking...
White House acts all insulted and rebukes as "fake news".

Rinse and repeat.

I can see how people explain it away with bizarre reasons that "he means for it to happen" and how everyone is so gullible. Like it's some moronic game which only the WH seems to want to engage in, but it stacks up to just hot air and no substance.

If it wern't for all the gossip and the BS - what would they actually have to report about Trump? If they stuck to what he does re his job only, there would be what? A report once a month? Not even? Without the blablabla around the summit with Kim Jong-un there would have been three reports: It' on - it's off - it's on again

Trump might even know that and delivers the "fillers" because of that?

For someone who's not into the gossip it is very difficult to spot the interesting/important stuff. If it wern't for marton I would have given in to boredom = ignoring the fuss all together long ago. And even with this thread I sometimes give myself a treat and ignore it for a few weeks only to come back and find a max. of 2 infos that "one should know".

So marton is kindly wading through all the sludge for me, putting up little flags/markings which I can chose to pick on - or not - dry-shod.
I don't know how he does it and I hope he will keep sane.

__________________
It's all a matter or perspective.
So move your butt and look at it from the other side

Too late

No worries, staying at Burghölzli is on health-insurance. Should we reserve a place for 2022?

That explains it

Still Friday!

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And
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In a statement, Ali's attorney, Ron Tweet, said that although he appreciated "President Trump's sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary."
"The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Muhammad Ali in a unanimous decision in 1971. There is no conviction from which a pardon is needed," he said.

Still Friday!
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Hopefully they will take over the summit and make an agreement

New indictments against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

Special counsel Robert Mueller filed the indictment Friday in a D.C. court, accusing Manafort and an associate of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, false statements and conspiracy to launder money, among other charges.

Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort aide, was also indicted.

Kilimnik had previously been mentioned, but not named, in documents filed by prosecutors as having ties to Russian intelligence.

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Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) on Friday mocked President Trump's call for reinstating Russia into the Group of Seven, saying that Trump "sure is loyal to the country that elected him."

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A federal judge ruled Friday lawyers for Michael Cohen, Trump and Trump Organization's must publicly file any challenge they make against a decision to declare as not privileged most of the materials seized by FBI agents during raids of Cohen's home and office.

Just 162 of the over one million items seized by FBI agents earlier this year in a no-knock raid of Cohen's home, offices, and safety deposit boxes were declared protected by attorney-client privilege by a special master appointed by the court to review the documents!

"Now that President Trump and Mr. Cohen are challenging whether certain of these documents may be turned over to government investigators, the public has a right to know what they assert are the bounds of the attorney-client privilege"

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Now the lawyers will have to give reasons for each item that they want protected by attorney-client privilege but publicly so they will not want to describe in detail the sensitive stuff they are trying to protect!!