Here is my take on the upcoming Trump-Xi meeting on @CNN this morning. Zooming out a bit, this Administration came in talking about the need to focus on Asia, including pulling resources from other parts of the world to do so. But this is the next week will mark the first time that Trump has gone to the region and focused his attention on Asia Pacific allies and the troubled relationship with China. In the past decade, there have usually been two lines of effort for such trips: shoring up allies and working the competitive/confrontational relationships with China. Critics have noted that this Administration, with its focus on “reciprocal tariffs,” has fallen short on the former. Instead of reassuring allies and reinforcing U.S. influence in the region, Trump will need to smooth relationships shaken by huge tariffs (most of Southeast Asia, including our close ally, the Philippines) now face a 19% tariff, not counting sectoral tariffs. Without much leverage, the leaders in Southeast Asia will be polite and still work on lowering barriers to the U.S. market, but tensions linger under the surface, no doubt. That said, the President’s Asia week-plus is off to a good start, marked by a positive

I joined CNN AC360 tonight, alongside Adam Kinzinger and Spider Marks, to discuss the President’s apparent acknowledgment today of a Presidential Finding for CIA to conduct lethal covert action inside Venezuela. A couple of points. First, oopps…or shhhhhh…covert operations are supposed to be, well, covert (definition: not openly acknowledged or displayed). Enough said. Second, these activities beg a fundamental question: why? The rationale is that we need to stop drugs from flooding into the US. But Venezuela isn’t a major source of drugs; @13% of cocaine transits Venezuela, and pretty much 0% of fentanyl. (Let me also provide some correct data about deaths, @82,000/year, not 300,000, from drugs, with 48,000 of that from fentanyl, and probably none of those from Venezuela). If this is about stopping illegal drug flows, then you have to go after the Mexican cartels. So is this about drugs, or is it about trying to precipitate regime change in Venezuela? There are way too many US military assets for the drug trade through that area, but not enough for an invasion. CIA operations do not require (or desire) that many military assets as backup or facilitators for limited operations against drug facilities/cartels inside Venezuela. I doubt