On Politics: Trump’s Trade Style Could Cost U.S.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/us/politics/trump-trade-agreements.html

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Good Tuesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

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• President Trump’s aggressive and unpredictable style has brought other countries to the negotiating table. But his approach is causing concern among business groups and foreign officials, with many wondering if it will undermine the United States’ traditional role in setting global trade rules, hampering economic growth in the process.

• The Center for American Progress, founded by top Clinton aides and traditionally a stronghold for the Democratic Party, is facing a series of missteps that are putting the organization at odds with progressive leftists and leaving its role in the 2020 presidential race in flux.

• During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump targeted Muslims as a supposed threat against the United States. With his recent attack on Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, he has resurrected the same theme for his re-election bid.

• Oil purchases by China and India are undermining American sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, but halting them could be costly. As a deadline approaches to decide if China and India should receive waivers to buy Iranian oil, the United States must choose between oil markets and diplomacy.

• Attorney General William Barr will release a redacted version of the special counsel’s report on Thursday to both Congress and the public, the first step in what promises to be a protracted fight with Democratic lawmakers over how much of the document they are allowed to see.

• Next week, the Supreme Court will consider whether the Trump administration may add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census. The consequences will be vast if the question is added, particularly a possible decrease in participation.

• The Internal Revenue Service is facing an April 23 deadline to hand over Mr. Trump’s tax returns to House Democrats. But the president’s personal lawyer claims that the move would turn the I.R.S. into a political weapon.

• The two presidential candidates who entered 2019 with the largest bases of supporters — Mr. Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders — led the 2020 field in fund-raising in the first quarter of the year.

• Mr. Sanders has disclosed 10 years of tax returns, revealing that after his presidential bid, his income topped $1 million in 2016 and 2017, and put him within the top 1 percent of taxpayers.

• At a town-hall-style event hosted by Fox News, Mr. Sanders rejected the idea that his newfound millionaire status was a testament to capitalism and the “American dream.”

• Pete Buttigieg kicked off his 2020 campaign with a speech on what kind of president he hoped to be. Read the full text, annotated with our observations.

• Senator Elizabeth Warren has unveiled a public lands proposal, pushing the environment into the 2020 election spotlight and setting the pace on policy among Democratic presidential candidates.

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Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Margaret Kramer in New York.

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