| | | | | President Trump speaks during a press conference with Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the East Room Wednesday. Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images | | | Our Daily Melania: FLOTUS announces three new hires
The Backstory of all Those Ivanka Fan Accounts: They're mostly set up by teenage girls
"Fire and Fury" First Week Sales: The book sold 28,567 copies in three days | | | What the White House is Talking About:
President Trump today hosts a roundtable discussion about prison reform, an initiative led by his adviser/son-in-law Jared Kushner and his Office of American Innovation.
What the White House Press Corps is Talking About:
FISA confusion via Trump's morning tweets.
FISA Says What?:
I remain unclear about this topic, but it's complicated. Maybe the President shares my confusion because this morning he criticized the surveillance program. | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
Almost two hours later, after what I am sure was a fun time for chief of staff John Kelly and other top aides, Trump tweeted again, you know, for clarity. | | Credit: @realDonaldTrump/Twitter
Either way, the FISA reauthorization act was passed this morning by the House, 256-164.
Our Daily Melania:
It's 2018 and Melania's here for it. This morning it was announced she hired three more people to join her staff in the East Wing, bringing the grand total to ... 12. My story here.
Which Wall Tho:
The border wall debate was a cornerstone of Trump's candidacy (see what I did there), but now the wall-ness of the actual wall is murky. CNN's Gregory Krieg has a helpful look at where things stand with the wall (also, see what I did there) and whether it's going to be a physical structure, an electronic system, or a combination of both or neither. The wall has become an impenetrable (ok I'll stop) political bargaining chip, says Krieg, that both Republicans and Democrats are attempting to maneuver for their own gain.
Fire and Fury, But Not *That* Fire and Fury:
People are buying "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," at an insane pace. But ... they're also buying "Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945" at quite the clip as well. The latter is a military book written in 2008 by a Canadian political science professor. "It amused me," Randall Hansen told The Guardian of the unexpected sales boost. "Part of me thought: can people really be that dumb to be confusing these books?" Yes, Professor Hansen, yes they can. On Friday, when Michael Wolff's book came out, Hansen went on Amazon and realized his book had made it on to three of the site's bestseller lists.
The Backstory of all Those Ivanka Trump Instagram Fan Accounts:
This Cosmopolitan feature on the people behind all the Ivanka fan pages on Instagram is fascinating. Spoiler: they're mostly set up by teenage girls who think Ivanka is ah-mazing. Says one Ivanka super-fan, curator of @IvankaUpdates (57,500 followers), "she was a model, firstly. Fashion, her brand is great. Now, she's in politics, and she's doing great. She's a supermom … Every day she wakes up and goes to work. She's so hardworking. It's so much to look up to. I wonder," she says, "how can someone be so perfect?" Fourteen-year-old Paige, who lives in Indiana, says that besides her own mom, Ivanka is her No. 1 role model. Paige's account, @ivankatrumpsbiggestfan, has thousands of followers -- one of whom is the first daughter herself. Fun Fact: while discussing this story, my CNN colleague Betsy Klein revealed what is now my favorite Betsy-ism: when she was 7 she started a "Spice Girls" fan newsletter that did very well with subscribers. | | What Washington is Talking About:
The House voted 256-164 to reauthorize a portion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also known as FISA, before it expired January 19. Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to filibuster it in the Senate because he worries the secret FISA courts "also collect information on millions of Americans, and I don't want that database to be searched without a warrant."
What America is Talking About:
Coca Cola is releasing four new flavors of Diet Coke in slim, Red Bull-style cans. And YouTube announced it's yanking Logan Paul from its Preferred program for top-performing channels and dropping him from a subscription web series on which he appeared.
Poll of the Day:
Quinnipiac asked more than 1,000 voters to describe what they thought of Trump's first year in office in one word, and their top response was "disaster," followed by "chaotic," then "successful." Here's the list, with the number of times each word was brought up: | | Credit: Quinnipiac
Mueller Hired a Cyber Prosecutor:
Special counsel Robert Mueller added a new member to his 16-person team from the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual property unit, per the Washington Post.
Missouri Gov Accused of Blackmail:
Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Repub, has been accused of blackmailing a woman with whom he had an affair. An investigation by television station KMOV included allegations from the woman's ex-husband that Greitens took nude photos of the woman without her consent, and threatened to publish them if she revealed their affair. Greitens said he did have an affair but denied blackmailing the woman.
Border Congressman: Invest in Ports of Entry, Not The Wall:
Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Texas Dem who represents the border city of El Paso, told CNN he believes "it's important that we invest additionally in security" on the border, but that building The Wall "is not the answer." He said:
"Most of what flows into this country comes from ports of entry. ... I think the best value for dollars spent is at our ports of entry where you have the greatest proportion of trade, both licit and illicit, coming through into this country. If you want to make us safer, invest there."
Rand Says He Still Has Pain "Every Day" From Attack:
Speaking to our Wolf Blitzer, Rand Paul said he's on the mend from the November incident at his Kentucky home where his neighbor allegedly assaulted him, but it's still pretty bad. He said:
"I still have pain every day, all day. But I don't have -- I had the pain of 1,000 knives for about six weeks. I could barely move and barely breathe. I couldn't sleep. And so I am better than I was, but I won't say I'm back to normal yet. But I am getting better."
Paul's neighbor, Rene Albert Boucher, pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault in November. | | Credit: CNN
"Fire and Fury" First Week Sales:
Michael Wolff's book sold 28,567 print copies in its opening sales week (1,637 of which were sold in Washington) per Publishers Weekly. That's enough to make it the best-selling book in America last week, but the numbers were relatively low, as its first week only included three days and, as PW noted, because the publish date was moved up and, "Shipments of the book that were timed to hit stores early this week may have been on the road over the weekend." | | Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images
Justice for Tiffany:
Tiffany Trump was spotted shopping for novelty items about her dad in Los Angeles this week. She was photographed with an $18 "President Trump Over-Reaction Figure" that depicts her father with his middle finger up. She also got a $15 book titled "Quotations from President Trump," per paparazzi photos. The store at which she was shopping, Kitson Kitross on Robertson Blvd., is a reboot of the boutique store Kitson that became an L.A. celeb-sighting hotspot for stars including Britney Spears and Paris Hilton until it was shuttered in 2015. | | Credit: Kitson Kitross
The Most Awkward Obama Meeting Story I've Ever Heard:
"I, Tonya" actress Margot Robbie said during an appearance on Wednesday's episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show" that she and her husband went to a hotel gym during their honeymoon, where Ellen and former President Barack Obama -- who was there working on his forthcoming book -- were exercising. Robbie's husband, Tom Ackerley, was wearing extremely short shorts that were a little too ... revealing if he stretched or lunged a certain way. 😳 You can watch Robbie explain the story herself here. | | | | | | |
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