In other news, the European Union (EU) has begun the process of retaliating against Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum. The initial list of products the EU may impose duties on includes "orange juice, make-up, motorcycles, motor boats and stainless sinks" among other things. The agricultural tariffs will likely hit the hardest.
Meanwhile, British police are now investigating the death of Russian businessman and Putin critic Nikolai Glushkov as a homicide. Glushkov was reportedly found with "compression to the neck" suggesting he had been strangled.
Finally, Trump admitted to a private gathering of campaign donors that he doesn't know shit about international trade and he just makes shit up when he feels like it.
President Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was true.
“Trudeau came to see me. He’s a good guy, Justin. He said, ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please,’ ” Trump said, mimicking Trudeau, according to audio of the private event in Missouri obtained by The Washington Post. “Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald, we have no trade deficit.’ He’s very proud because everybody else, you know, we’re getting killed.
“... So, he’s proud. I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know. ... I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid. … And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong, Justin.’ He said, ‘Nope, we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well, in that case, I feel differently,’ I said, ‘but I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, ‘Check, because I can’t believe it.’
Here are some other stories I didn't get to this week:
The Houston Chronicle reports that only 2 percent of 371,000 applicants have made it into temporary housing following Hurricane Harvey. The reason? Trump's FEMA asked the state to handle it and the state can't handle it.
One of Trump's lawyers, John Dowd, donated more than the maximum legal limit to Trump's campaign. Good lawyering.
Equifax CIO Jun Ying has been charged with insider trading. Ying dumped his stock after discovering the breach of the company's server and before alerting the public.
The Department of Defense has spent at least $138,000 at Trump properties, including nearly $60,000 spent at the Mar-a-Lago.
An ethics complaint has been filed against indicted Missouri Governor Eric Greitens that says his campaign lied about how it obtained donor list from a veterans charity. It looks like they straight up stole it.
A group of congressional Republicans have sent a letter to Jeff Sessions and ICE asking them to help a private prison company defend itself in court because forced labor is actually good for immigrants.