They gave up on one fight while Donnie Twoscoops was out of town.

The White House unexpectedly backed down Friday in a confrontation with the government’s top ethics officer, announcing it will publicly disclose waivers that have been quietly handed out since January to let certain former lobbyists work in the administration.

The reversal came after the White House wrote last week to the Office of Government Ethics and asked its director to suspend his request for copies of the waivers. Such waivers are needed when officials want to work on policies or other government issues that they were directly involved in recently as private-sector lobbyists or industry lawyers.

The debate over the waivers — which were routinely made public

Oh and that thing about the Trump Organization donating the profits from its DC hotel to the Treasury Department? It’s not going to do that. It doesn’t want to.

In early January, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer promised that the Trump Organization would donate hotel profits from foreign governments to the U.S. Treasury. It was Trump’s way of trying to relieve concerns about receiving foreign emoluments without giving up his stake in his company. “This way it is the American people who will profit,” the lawyer said.

Less than six months later, the Trump Organization has said it does not plan to fulfill that promise. The announcement comes by way of a newly released pamphlet from the Trump Organization that

Look at this imbecile.

After an appearance alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, President Donald Trump paused to push back against reports that he had disclosed highly classified information to the Russians.

“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel’,'” Trump told reporters in Jerusalem. “Never mentioned it during that conversation. They were all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel’.”

He told them it using his tiny stunted repertoire of gestures – the pinch on “never mentioned,” the point on “during that conversation.” The two little hands pushing at the invisible barrier on “Never mentioned the word ‘Israel’.” The gestures always underline how stupid he … Read the rest

Keep pressing it. Don’t let go. Whatever you do, don’t lose contact. Grab it. Grab it hard. Grab it like a president.

"Everyone grab on to the cosmic sphere. It's much better than a cosmic cube…believe me!" (HT @PresVillain) #HailHydra pic.twitter.com/7jKLQIdXRt

— Ben Gross (@bhgross144) May 21, 2017

https://twitter.com/cinegirl14/status/866452737445076992

What a time to be alive pic.twitter.com/cJvtGaCVgH

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) May 21, 2017

Via the Post.

Updating to add one more, that captures his innocent awe and wonder:

… Read the rest

I’ve been away for a few hours – anything new?

Not much – just Trump telling Lavrov and Kislyak that Comey is a “nut job” and a White House official being a suspect in the Russia investigation. Just another day in the world of Donnie Twoscoops. (Double meaning there, geddit?)

The Times scoop:

President Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office this month that firing the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a document summarizing the meeting.

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official.