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Video of the Day
President Trump Holds a Joint Press Conference with Secretary General Stoltenberg


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Today’s Hill Action
Senate Floor Schedule
The Senate meets in a pro forma session.
Committee Hearings
None.
House Floor Schedule
The House is not in session.
Committee Hearings
None.
Joint Committee Hearings
9:30 a.m.: China’s Maritime Periphery
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Two Months In, Trump Finds Big Promises Are Hard to Keep
President Donald Trump’s declaration that he won’t label China a currency manipulator stands as the clearest example of the difficulty he’s having delivering on big campaign promises.
Trump backed away from a signature pledge of his White House bid on Wednesday, days before release of a closely watched Treasury Department report on the currency practices of major U.S. trading partners.

“They’re not currency manipulators,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.
The currency decision is one among many instances of Trump reversing course since taking office a little less than three months ago. Within the space of a few hours Wednesday, Trump changed previously critical stances on the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the value of NATO, interest rates and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

Likewise, his promises to renegotiate NAFTA, slap tariffs on Chinese goods and repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in his first days have been stymied, delayed or abandoned. The cruise-missile strike on a Syrian airfield last week was the sort of foreign military intervention that candidate Trump had warned against.
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At Meeting, Putin and Tillerson Find Very Little to Agree on
Vladimir V. Putin kept his guest, Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, dangling all day.

It was not clear until around 5 p.m., when Mr. Tillerson’s small motorcade eased out of the Ritz-Carlton in one of the fanciest parts of Moscow and slipped into Red Square that Russia’s president was willing to engage in his first face-to-face meeting with a senior member of President Trump’s administration, even one who is an old business partner who used to show up on behalf of Exxon Mobil.

If a few weeks ago critics of the Trump administration feared that Mr. Tillerson would simply fold on the sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, they need not have worried. In a two-hour meeting, as later described in sketchy terms by Mr. Tillerson, they did not agree on much – certainly not on who was responsible for fatally poisoning Syrian civilians with the nerve agent sarin, or for the interference in the American elections last year and the European elections underway now.
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Trump’s Army pick faces tough confirmation fight
President Trump is facing a tough confirmation battle in the Senate over Mark Green, his nominee for Army secretary.

Liberal groups are firing up opposition to Green, who has said that “transgender is a disease” and that “armed citizens” should fight against efforts to allow transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice.

The remarks could make supporting Green tough for centrist Democrats and Republicans alike.
David Stacy, government affairs director at the Human Rights Campaign, said Trump “couldn’t have picked a worse nominee to pick a fight with Congress.” His group started outreach to Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon and has heard a “high degree of concern” from Democrats and moderate Republicans.
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Until tomorrow,
Lobbyit.com