Essential Washington

Britain and Germany are balking at the Trump administration’s call for a ban on equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, threatening a global U.S. campaign to thwart China’s involvement in future mobile networks.

Both countries are expected to limit Huawei and other Chinese companies from providing core components including routers. But other types of Chinese equipment for next-generation, high-speed communications could still be installed on British and German networks, officials and analysts say.

The U.S. push to ban Huawei has provoked a global dispute in recent weeks, with senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, publicly urging NATO allies in Europe to exclude the company and warning that the United States might limit its military presence in countries that did not do so.

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Hanging red lanterns welcome visitors to the University of Maryland’s Confucius Institute, the oldest of about 100 Chinese language and cultural centers that have popped up over the last 15 years on American campuses, subsidized by millions of dollars from China’s central government.

But last fall, when four U.S. Senate investigators walked into the Confucius offices in Maryland and spent hours questioning staff, they weren’t looking for an educational exchange. The committee has been seeking detailed information from the university about the program, including contracts, email exchanges and financial arrangements that school administrators have kept under wraps since it started in 2004.

American colleges once viewed these jointly funded institutes as an economical way to expand their language offerings — one that could also bring warmer ties with China and, importantly, an influx of Chinese international students paying full tuition.

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For decades, China had no closer American friend than Dianne Feinstein.

As San Francisco mayor in the 1970s, she forged a sister-city relationship with Shanghai, the first between American and Chinese communities. As U.S. senator, she dined with Chinese leaders at Mao Tse-tung’s old Beijing residence. And in the 1990s, she championed a trade policy change that opened a floodgate of Western investment into China.

Today the Democratic senator sees China as a growing threat, joining a broad array of Trump administration officials, national security strategists and business executives who once favored engagement with Beijing and now advocate a confrontational approach instead.

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An attempt by Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin to calm plunging financial markets backfired Monday, further rattling investors with new fears about whether major U.S. banks have enough cash on top of worries about interest rates, political instability in Washington and a slowing global economy.

Adding to the volatile mix was a fresh attack on the Federal Reserve by President Trump, who declared that the central bank was the U.S. economy’s “only problem” and that it didn’t “have a feel for the market.”

“The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch -- he can’t putt!” Trump said on Twitter.

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He’s a failed U.S. Senate candidate with an undistinguished congressional record who, for the moment, is a blazing-hot 2020 presidential prospect — despite the fact that he may not run and faces long odds if he does.

Beto O’Rourke suggests the will-he-or-won’t-he speculation is something he himself can’t quite fathom.

“I think that’s a great question,” he responded in a Dallas Morning News interview when asked whether his unsuccessful November Senate bid merited a promotion to the White House. “I ask that question myself.”

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Months after President Trump took office, Russia’s disinformation teams trained their sites on a new target: special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Having worked to help get Trump into the White House, they now worked to neutralize the biggest threat to his staying there.

The Russian operatives unloaded on Mueller through fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and beyond, falsely claiming that the former FBI director was corrupt and that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election were crackpot conspiracies. One post on Instagram — which emerged as an especially potent weapon in the Russian social media arsenal — claimed that Mueller had worked in the past with “radical Islamic groups.”

Such tactics exemplified how Russian teams ranged nimbly across social media platforms in a shrewd online influence operation aimed squarely at American voters. The effort started earlier than commonly understood and lasted longer while relying on the strengths of different sites to manipulate distinct slices of the electorate, according to a pair of comprehensive new reports prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and released Monday.

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Timberg, Romm and Dwoskin report for the Washington Post.

President Trump says budget director Mick Mulvaney will serve as acting chief of staff, replacing John F. Kelly in the new year.

Democrat Gavin Newsom has yet to become California governor, but already a candidate for state Republican Party chairman is promoting a recall effort.

In Michigan and Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers have rushed through legislation to thwart their incoming Democratic governors and hamper others in the opposing party from doing the jobs voters chose them to do.

In Congress, GOP leaders have echoed President Trump and sought to undermine the legitimacy of Democrats’ strong midterm performance, raising unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and political malfeasance.

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On her first full day leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger said she won’t be a puppet of Mick Mulvaney, the controversial acting director whom she replaced in the powerful regulatory position.

To underscore that point, the former White House aide said she would even reconsider a Mulvaney action that critics saw as a gratuitous jab at Democrats who championed the agency’s creation: changing its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

Kraninger’s declaration during a meeting with reporters Tuesday addressed one of the main criticisms of her selection. She is considered a protege of Mulvaney, her boss at the White House Office of Management and Budget who has executed a dramatic, industry-friendly shift at the watchdog agency.

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Nick Ayers, right, with Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, at the funeral service for George H.W. Bush on Dec. 3.

(Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Associated Press)

President Trump’s top pick to replace John F. Kelly as chief of staff, Nick Ayers, is no longer expected to fill that role.

That’s according to a White House official who is not authorized to discuss the personnel issue by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ayers is Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.

The official says that Trump and Ayers could not agree on Ayers’ length of service. The father of young children, Ayers had agreed to serve in an interim capacity though the spring, but Trump wanted a two-year commitment.

The official says that Ayers will instead assist the president from outside the administration.

Trump announced Saturday that Kelly would be departing the White House around the end of the year.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

(Dylan Stewart / HS Insider)

The morning after the Nov. 6 congressional midterm election in California, state, county and media websites reported that 100% of precincts had turned in their results.

It was highly misleading: The final tally, released Friday, showed that a staggering 5.2 million of the 12.1 million ballots cast — 43% — remained uncounted that morning. Most of the outstanding votes were from mail ballots.

The website charts listing results from “100 percent” of the precincts feed public mistrust in the counting despite California’s stringent protections of ballot integrity, said Mindy Romero, the director of USC’s California Civic Engagement Project, a nonpartisan research center in Sacramento.

Precinct results are just for ballots cast in person on election day — a shrinking share of California’s vote.

“It doesn’t really match the reality,” Romero said.

Alex Padilla, a Democrat just reelected as secretary of state, acknowledged that the description of the early results might lead the public to wonder why the vote count continues for weeks, with a gaggle of second-place candidates then pulling into the lead.

“Can the terminology be modernized a little bit there? Yeah, I’m open to that,” he said.

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Job growth slowed significantly in November but still was solid, indicating the economy remains in good shape but not expanding so quickly that it will lead to sharply higher interest rates.

U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs last month, well below analyst expectations and a steep decline from October’s strong 237,000 figure, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Still, monthly job gains are averaging 206,000 this year, the best since 2015. Even the slower pace of 170,000 over the last three months is close to last year’s average of 182,000 and well above the amount needed to keep up with population growth.

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Heather Nauert at a briefing at the State Department on Aug. 9, 2017.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

President Trump is expected to nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Two administration officials confirmed Trump’s plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trump’s announcement.

Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to replace Nikki Haley, who announced in October that she would step down at the end of this year.

Trump has been known to change course on staffing decisions in the past.

Nauert was a reporter for Fox News Channel before she became State Department spokeswoman under former Secretary Rex Tillerson.

The Senate, in a party-line vote Thursday, confirmed White House aide Kathy Kraninger to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and experts predicted a continuation of the industry-friendly shift it has taken since President Trump installed an acting director last year.

Kraninger is a protege of acting director and White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, an outspoken critic of the agency that was created in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and other abuses that led to it.

Democrats and consumer advocates have denounced him for sharply departing from the aggressive watchdog role the bureau had pursued under its first director, Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, including scaling back enforcement and moving to reassess tough new rules on payday loans and narrow the definition of abusive practices by banks and other firms.

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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), shown at the Capitol on Tuesday, says President Trump’s border wall is a waste of money.

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Congress passed a two-week stopgap spending bill that will delay the chance of a partial government shutdown until Dec. 22 as lawmakers and President Donald Trump negotiate over his demands to pay for a wall on the southern border.

The House and Senate passed the measure Thursday without dissent, and Trump has indicated he’ll sign the bill before the current shutdown deadline of midnight Friday. Negotiations were delayed by memorial services this week for former President George H.W. Bush.

The temporary measure gives Democrats and Republicans more time to find a resolution to their biggest hurdle: funding a wall on the U.S. Mexico border wall.

Trump says he wants $5 billion for parts of a concrete wall on the southern border and is willing to shut down the government if he doesn’t get it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said Democrats will provide no more than $1.6 billion for “border security,” because the wall is a waste of money.

The president’s demands for wall funding from Congress come after he said during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it. This week he said on Twitter that a $25 billion border wall would pay for itself in two months, without providing evidence.

Most of the U.S. government’s $1.2 trillion discretionary budget has been appropriated already by Congress for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1. Departments at a risk of a partial shutdown late this month include the departments of State, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security.

Talks to resolve the differences have been on hold since a meeting among Trump, Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California originally slated for Dec. 4 was postponed due to Bush memorial events. The three are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama told reporters the rest of the seven-bill spending package being negotiated is “basically done.”

Shelby in recent weeks had tried to broker a compromise in which Trump’s $5 billion request would be split over two years, but Schumer has rejected that.

Some Democrats have been willing to trade border wall funding for deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants. Pelosi ruled out such a deal in remarks to reporters Thursday.

The stopgap government funding measure also would extend the National Flood Insurance Program, which provides subsidized coverage for homes in flood-prone areas, to Dec. 21.

A bipartisan group of senators filed a resolution Wednesday condemning Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as responsible for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, directly challenging President Trump to do the same.

“This resolution -- without equivocation -- definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr. [Jamal] Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardizing our national security interests on multiple fronts,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement accompanying the release of the resolution. “It will be up to Saudi Arabia as to how to deal with this matter. But it is up to the United States to firmly stand for who we are and what we believe.”

The resolution put forward by Graham and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who are expected to lead the Judiciary Committee together next year, comes just one day after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leading senators about the details of the agency’s assessment that Mohammed ordered and monitored the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Senators emerged from that closed-door briefing furious not only with Saudi Arabia, but Trump as well for dismissing the heft of the CIA’s findings.

“You have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi,” Graham said following the briefing, referring to Mohammed by his initials. He added that Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, who briefed senators last week, were at best being “good soldiers” and at worst were “in the pocket of Saudi Arabia” for presenting the evidence of Mohammed’s involvement as inconclusive.

The release of the resolution condemning Mohammed also comes as the Senate is preparing to move ahead with debate on a resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen. Though the Yemen resolution does not directly address Khashoggi’s murder, its popularity is a sign of how strained the United States’ patience with Saudi Arabia is on multiple fronts, including its role in worsening the civilian cost of the war in Yemen, cited by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Last week, the Senate voted 63 to 37 to advance the Yemen resolution past an opening procedural hurdle. But Graham and Feinstein’s resolution on the crown prince has the potential of drawing broader support, especially from Republicans, who are deeply divided about how fiercely to punish Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi’s killing.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been an outspoken advocate for human rights and is seen as one of the more influential foreign policy voices in the GOP, did not vote for the Yemen resolution last week or sign on to a bipartisan measure last month to sanction Saudi officials and cease weapons transfers to the kingdom. But he is an original co-sponsor of the resolution condemning Mohammed over Khashoggi’s death.

So is Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who represents the other end of the GOP spectrum in terms of recent Saudi-related votes and endorsements. Young was an initial co-sponsor of the bill Graham wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) to sanction Saudi officials deemed responsible for Khashoggi’s killing and stop the sale of anything but exclusively defensive weapons to the kingdom until it ceased hostilities in Yemen. Young also voted to advance the Yemen resolution — something Graham did as well, though Graham has signaled he will not be lending any similar support to the measure, fearing it may establish a precedent of invoking the War Powers Act too broadly.

Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are listed as original co-sponsors of the resolution condemning Mohammed, which also urges Saudi Arabia to negotiate with Houthi rebels to end the Yemen war, work out a political solution to its standoff with Qatar and release political prisoners.

But how much sway the resolution has probably comes down to how forcefully the administration decides to heed it -- and thus far, Trump has not shown any interest in condemning the crown prince the way the senators hope he will.

Demirjian reports for the Washington Post.

The Honor Guard carries the casket of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush following his funeral on Dec. 5 in Washington, DC.

(Doug Mills - Pool/Getty Images)

The U.S. Postal Service will suspend regular mail delivery Wednesday, which President Trump has declared a national day of mourning in honor of former President George H.W. Bush.

All retail postal outlets will be closed, and package delivery will be limited.

In Los Angeles, all nonessential county departments, offices and libraries will be closed for the day, L.A. County officials said. The Los Angeles County Library said no overdue fines will be assessed for books, and due dates will be moved forward one week.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health offices also are closed Wednesday. The Sheriff’s Department, Fire Department, clinics and hospitals will continue to operate, the county said. The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health clinics are being operated with reduced staffing, and the department asked patients to confirm or reschedule any appointments.

All county courts and the disaster recovery centers for the Woolsey fire in Malibu and Agoura Hills will remain open.

Larger federal government operations will be closed Wednesday.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick speaks during an interview in Boston on Dec. 15, 2014.

(Elise Amendola / Associated Press)

Former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts will soon announce he won’t launch a 2020 presidential campaign, according to three sources familiar with his plans. They did not say why the Democrat decided against a run.

A formal announcement was delayed as the country observed a day of mourning for President George H.W. Bush, one source said. News of Patrick’s plans was first reported by Politico.

Patrick, 62, served two terms as governor, from 2007 to 2015, was assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration and since leaving the governor’s office has been a managing director for Bain Capital. Patrick traveled the country in support of Democratic candidates in the recent midterm election.

Earlier this year, some of Patrick’s supporters and close advisors started the Reason to Believe political action committee, “a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing a positive, progressive vision for our nation in 2018 and 2020.” Reason to Believe PAC had been holding meetups across the country, including in early presidential primary states.

While Patrick is opting against a 2020 run, dozens of Democrats are considering jumping in, including nearly a half-dozen members of the Senate, several House members, and other Massachusetts politicians. On Tuesday, Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult film star Stormy Daniels and a vocal critic of President Trump, said in a statement that he would run.

Patrick had previously expressed some concerns about breaking through if he sought the nomination, telling David Axelrod, a former advisor to President Obama, that he wasn’t sure he could stand out in such a large field.

“It’s hard to see how you even get noticed in such a big, broad field without being shrill, sensational or a celebrity, and I’m none of those things and I’m never going to be any of those things,” Patrick said in a September interview with Axelrod.

Roger Stone in 2017.

(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Roger Stone, an associate of President Trump, says he won’t provide testimony or documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

An attorney for Stone said in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s top Democrat, that Stone was invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in refusing to produce documents or appear for an interview.

Stone has been entangled in investigations by Congress and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about whether Trump aides had advance knowledge of Democratic emails published by WikiLeaks during the 2016 election.

Stone has not been charged and has said he had no knowledge of the timing or specifics of WikiLeaks’ plans.

In the letter to Feinstein, Stone said the committee’s requests were “far too overbroad, far too overreaching” and “far too wide-ranging.”

The grades for major U.S. infrastructure would give any parent indigestion if they were on a child’s report card.

Roads: D; bridges: C+; dams: D; ports: C+: railways: B; airports: D; schools: D+; public transit: D-.

The nation’s overall grade: D+, which translates to being “in fair to poor condition and mostly below standards” with “significant deterioration” and a “strong risk of failure,” according to an evaluation last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

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President Trump says his former lawyer Michael Cohen is “lying” to get a reduced sentence.

The president is reacting to Cohen’s guilty plea Thursday to lying to Congress about work he did on a Trump real estate project in Russia.

During a surprise court hearing, Cohen admitted to lying in testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen in his guilty plea said he made the false statements to be consistent with Trump’s “political message.”

Cohen’s lawyer says he continues to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates.

When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment.

As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights.

Fewer than half will be returning in January.

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When the House voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Kevin McCarthy trooped with other Republican lawmakers to a splashy Rose Garden celebration, smiling alongside President Trump as they celebrated the moment.

As majority leader, McCarthy had helped round up the votes to narrowly pass the hard-fought legislation, convincing 13 other California Republicans to go along, even though several faced tough reelection fights.

Fewer than half will be returning in January.

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Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, pursued a Russian real estate project on candidate Trump’s behalf well into the 2016 campaign, he said Thursday while pleading guilty to lying to Congress.

Cohen had previously said that the project was abandoned in January 2016, but he now admits he continued to pursue a deal and says he updated Trump and members of his family about the negotiations, according to a new court document.

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Acting Atty. Gen. Matthew Whitaker speaks at the Justice Department in Washington on Nov. 14.

(Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

Former FBI Director James B. Comey apparently isn’t too impressed with the mental prowess of President Trump’s acting attorney general.

Matthew Whitaker “may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer,” Comey said during a radio interview on Monday night in which he sized up the man Trump installed this month to replace ousted Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.

Comey was asked by WGBH News in Boston if he thinks Whitaker could derail the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Whitaker has spoken critically of the probe, and Trump — as recently as Tuesday — continues to call it a “witch hunt.”

“I think it’s a worry, but to my mind not a serious worry,” Comey said. “The institution is too strong, and [Whitaker], frankly, is not strong enough to have that kind of impact.”

“He may not be the sharpest knife in our drawer, but he can see his future and knows that if he acted in an extralegal way, he would go down in history for the wrong reasons, and I’m sure he doesn’t want that,” added Comey, who was fired by Trump last year and later wrote a book that portrays the president as an ego-driven congenital liar.

Whitaker, a former U.S. attorney in Iowa, was Sessions’ chief of staff before being picked by Trump to lead the Justice Department.

Trump has called Whitaker “a very smart man.” Earlier this year, Trump called Comey “an untruthful slime ball.”

Wagner writes for the Washington Post.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, third from the left, and Gov. Jerry Brown tour fire damage in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 14.

(Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)

The Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General has cleared Secretary Ryan Zinke in a probe of whether he redrew boundaries of a national monument in Utah to aid the financial interests of a Republican state lawmaker and stalwart supporter of President Trump.

In a Nov. 21 letter to Zinke’s deputy, David Bernhardt, Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall wrote that her office “found no evidence” that the secretary or his aides changed the boundaries of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in an effort to help former Utah state representative Mike Noel, who serves as executive director of the Kane County Water Conservancy District. Last December, Trump shrank the monument, first established by President Clinton in 1996, by 46% based on Zinke’s recommendation.

Noel owns 40 acres that had been surrounded by the monument, but now lies outside its boundaries. The new boundaries also would make it easier to construct the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, which would deliver water to sites in Kane County that include Noel’s property. Earlier this year, the Interior Department had proposed selling off 120 acres of federal land from the former monument that lay adjacent to some of Noel’s land holdings, but later reversed the plan.

“We found no evidence that Noel influenced the DOI’s proposed revisions to the [monument’s] boundaries, that Zinke or other DOI staff involved in the project were aware of Noel’s financial interest in the revised boundaries, or that they gave Noel any preferential treatment in the resulting proposed boundaries,” Kendall wrote.

Neither the Interior Department nor the inspector general’s office would release the actual investigative report. In the letter, Kendall writes that her office will provide the report to Congress “no sooner than 31 days” from Nov. 21, when it is provided it to Zinke’s office.

The Associated Press first reported the inspector general’s conclusions Monday night, but did not provide details from the report itself.

Noel emailed Zinke about the effort to alter Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to emails released by Interior under the Freedom of Informational Act. But those emails do not make references to Noel’s land holdings. Noel also pushed to rename a Utah highway in honor of Trump, but abandoned that effort in March after some of his fellow Republicans objected to the idea.

Noel did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The inspector general’s office still has at least two ongoing probes of the secretary, including one focused on his real estate dealings in Whitefish, Mont., and another regarding his decision to deny a permit to two Connecticut tribes who were hoping to jointly run a casino after MGM Resorts International lobbied against it.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift welcomed the watchdog’s conclusions.

“The report shows exactly what the secretary’s office has known all along — that the monument boundaries were adjusted in accordance with all rules, regulations and laws,” she said in an email. “This report is also the latest example of opponents and special interest groups ginning up fake and misleading stories, only to be proven false after expensive and time consuming inquiries by the IG’s office.”

But Kendall’s spokeswoman, Nancy DiPaolo, defended the inquiry, even though she said the report has not been publicly released “and we will not be speaking specifically about the matter at this time.”

“The OIG opens investigations based on credible allegations and reports our findings objectively and independently,” DiPaolo added. “Any time or resources spent investigating conduct or activity that may be a violation of law, regulation or policy is a service to the public, Congress and the Department.”

Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that he still intended to investigate the way Zinke and his colleague redrew the boundaries for Grand Staircase-Escalante and another Utah national monument, Bears Ears, next year.

“I have great respect for the inspector general, and I accept these findings, but Secretary Zinke should have known the people he listened to while destroying our national monuments had disqualifying conflicts of interest,” he said. “Should I chair the Natural Resources Committee in the next Congress, the process he and President Trump used to destroy Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will be front and center in our oversight and investigations efforts. We need to know why they ignored overwhelming public expressions of support for both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, why they ignored Native American tribes throughout their decision-making, and why they removed protections on parcels of land with known mineral deposits.”

Eilperin and Rein report for the Washington Post.

Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s top economic advisor, said Tuesday that China’s response to U.S. efforts to rework the two economic superpowers’ trade relationship has been “extremely disappointing” but the planned meeting this weekend between the nations’ leaders is an opportunity for a breakthrough.

“They have to do more. They must do more,” Larry Kudlow, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters ahead of a Saturday dinner between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 Summit in Argentina.

“I think the president is exactly right … to show strong backbone when prior administrations did not, to break through these Chinese walls,” Kudlow said. “They’re so resistant to change. We have to protect the country. We have to protect our technology, our inventiveness, our innovation.”

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Democrat TJ Cox slipped past Republican incumbent David Valadao on Monday to take the lead in the country’s sole remaining undecided congressional race, positioning Democrats to pick up their seventh House seat in California and 40th nationwide.

Cox, who trailed by nearly 4,400 votes on election night, has steadily gained as ballot counting continues nearly three weeks after the Nov. 6 election, a pattern consistent with the state’s recent voting history.

On Monday, he pulled ahead by 438 votes after Kern County updated its results.

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Then-CIA Director Michael Hayden testifies before a Senate committee in 2008.

(Saul Loeb / Getty Images)

Former CIA Director and retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke, his family said Friday.

“He is receiving expert medical care for which the family is grateful,” according to a statement issued by his namesake organization. “The General and his family greatly appreciate the warm wishes and prayers of his friends, colleagues, and supporters.”

Hayden, 73, served as director of the CIA and National Security Agency during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He retired from the CIA in 2009.

Hayden has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s campaign and presidency. Earlier this year, after Trump decided to revoke the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan, Hayden was one of several former intelligence leaders who signed a statement in opposition. Criticizing the president for crossing a line, he quickly became one of the individuals whose security clearance Trump threatened to review.

Deanna Paul writes for the Washington Post.

President Trump talks with troops via teleconference from his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., on Thanksgiving.

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

President Trump used his Thanksgiving Day call to troops deployed overseas to pat himself on the back and air grievances about the courts, trade and migrants heading to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump’s call, made from his opulent private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., struck an unusually political tone as he spoke with members of all five branches of the military to wish them happy holidays.

“It’s a disgrace,” Trump said of judges who have blocked his attempts to overhaul U.S. immigration law, as he linked his efforts to secure the border with military missions overseas.

Trump later threatened to close the U.S. border with Mexico for an undisclosed period of time if his administration determines Mexico has lost “control” on its side.

The call was a uniquely Trump blend of boasting, peppered questions and off-the-cuff observations as his comments veered from venting about slights to praising troops — “You really are our heroes,” he said — as club waiters worked to set Thanksgiving dinner tables on the outdoor terrace behind him.

It was yet another show of how Trump has dramatically transformed the presidency, erasing the traditional divisions between domestic policy and military matters and efforts to keep the troops clear of politics.

“You probably see over the news what’s happening on our southern border,” Trump told one Air Force brigadier general stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, adding: “I don’t have to even ask you. I know what you want to do, you want to make sure that you know who we’re letting in.”

Later, Trump asked a U.S. Coast Guard commander about trade, which he noted was “a very big subject” for him personally.

“We’ve been taken advantage of for many, many years by bad trade deals,” Trump told the commander, who sheepishly replied, “Mr. President, from our perspective on the water … we don’t see any issues in terms of trade right now.”

And throughout, Trump congratulated himself, telling the officers that the country is doing exceptionally well on his watch.

“I hope that you’ll take solace in knowing that all of the American families you hold so close to your heart are all doing well,” he said. “The nation’s doing well economically, better than anybody in the world.” He later told reporters, “Nobody’s done more for the military than me.”

Indeed, asked what he was thankful for this Thanksgiving, Trump cited his “great family” as well as himself.

“I made a tremendous difference in this country,” he said.

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President Trump makes a Thanksgiving Day call to U.S. troops.

President Trump delivered a Thanksgiving message to American service members on duty around the world, telling them by telephone, “Your courage truly inspires us.”

Trump told members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and U.S. Coast Guard that he and First Lady Melania Trump wanted to express their “profound gratitude.”

Trump is spending the holiday in Palm Beach, Fla., at his private Mar-a-Lago Club again this year.

He started Thursday morning tweeting as part of his extraordinary public dispute with Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump is warning of “bedlam, chaos, injury and death” if the courts block his efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws.

RELATED: Chief Justice John Roberts denounces Trump’s criticism of a federal jurist as an ‘Obama judge’ »

(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency “had feelings” but did not firmly place blame for the death.

Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing.

“He denies it vehemently,” Trump said. He said his own conclusion was that “maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.”

“I hate the crime .... I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do,” Trump said.

Asked who should be held accountable for the death of Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, Trump refused to place blame.

“Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place,” the president said.

He also seemed to suggest that all U.S. allies were guilty of the same behavior, declaring that if the others were held to the standard that critics have held Saudi Arabia to in recent days, “we wouldn’t be able to have anyone for an ally.”

Trump’s remarks came after he held a conference call with U.S. military officers overseas, during which he repeatedly praised his administration and sought to draw the officers into discussions of domestic policy.

Former FBI Director James B. Comey said he has received a subpoena from House Republicans, according to a Twitter post on Thursday.

Bloomberg News reported last week that Comey would be receiving a subpoena alongside former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch as part of continuing probes into their handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Russian election meddling, according to a top House Democrat.

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On election night, it looked like Rep. David Valadao had survived a close shave and was destined to return to Washington for his fourth term.

But on Wednesday, when Fresno County announced its latest vote totals, the Hanford Republican found himself in an increasingly harrowing cliffhanger against Democrat TJ Cox, with his lead in the Central Valley district shrunken to 447 votes. Thousands remain to be counted.

Valadao, a repeated Democratic target, finished election night with a lead of nearly 4,440 votes. Cox, an engineer and a business owner who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2006, has steadily gained ground in the 21st Congressional District ever since.

The trend is consistent with historic patterns showing Republicans in California tend to vote early and Democrats later, meaning their mail ballots continue to stream in past election day. Under California law, ballots postmarked up to midnight on Nov. 6 will be counted.

Democrats have already picked up six House seats in California. They ousted Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters, Steve Knight and Jeff Denham and won the seats of retiring Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa.

All six represented districts that backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in 2016.

Valadao was the seventh California Republican in a district Clinton won, though his previous successes – he last won reelection by a 14-point margin – suggested his ouster was a longer shot for Democrats.

If Cox prevails, it would give Democrats a 40-seat gain nationwide, far more than the 23 seats needed to take control when Congress reconvenes in January.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

(Rogelio V. Solis / Associated Press)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is pushing back against President Trump’s description of a judge who ruled against Trump’s new migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.”

It’s the first time that the leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him.

Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn’t have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by the Associated Press.

Roberts said on the day before Thanksgiving that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

Last year, the president used the term a “so-called judge” after the first federal ruling against his travel ban.

Related: Trump lashes out after judge rules that migrants who cross border illegally can seek asylum »

President Trump made it clear on Tuesday that he does not intend to punish Saudi Arabia or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, an American resident killed by Saudi officials in Turkey in October.

In a remarkable statement replete with exclamation points, Trump cast doubt on the CIA’s reported conclusions that it has a high degree of confidence that the crown prince ordered Khashoggi’s murder and sent his closest allies to Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to carry it out.

Read MoreThis article has been updated with staff.