Wiretap: No longer a campaign promise, border wall could mean a government shutdown

Showdown alert: Remember Donald Trump’s border-wall promise? Well, it’s back. And this time it may be more than just a campaign promise. Instead of demanding that Mexico somehow pays for the wall,  Trump is now demanding that Democrats help pay for it, and if they don’t agree — which is the way to bet — it could mean a government shutdown. Via The Washington Post.

The favorite to win the French presidency in the coming run-off election may be a political centrist, but this election was a clear rejection of the parties at the center of French politics. It’s the first time in decades that neither the dominant center-right or center-left party made the run-off round. Via The Atlantic.

France shows in the first round of its presidential election that it remains the opposite of TrumpWorld. Marine le Pen may have finished second, thus moving past the first round, but nearly all the other candidates in the race soon united against her and her National Front Party. “This,” the Socialist Party candidate said, “is deadly serious now.” Via The New York Times.

At just 39, Emmanuel Macron is now the overwhelming favorite  to become France’s next president. He formed a new party — En Marche! (On the Move!) — and maybe a new movement. But is that enough for the political novice to become a leader? Via the BBC.

It may be hard to believe that in the year 2017, we needed to march in cities across America to protect science. But that’s what happened. And Bill Nye, the science guy, tried to explain it in terms that the president could relate to: It was science, he writes, that made America great. Via CNN.

Bill McKibben: At this critical moment for keeping climate change in check, it becomes increasingly worrying that the planet may not survive this presidency. Via The New York Times.

A transcript of AP’s interview with Trump, in which the president says, among other news, that he has kicked the CNN habit. As Trump would say, enjoy. The Assoicated Press.

The lesson as we near Trump’s first 100 days is that it’s not enough to simply recognize the severity of Trump’s threat to our liberal democracy, writes The New Yorker’s David Remnick, but we must also work to create a post-Trumpian future.

George Will writes that Trump has such disdain for his supporters that, unlike most politicians, he doesn’t even bother to hide it. Via The National Review.

The Trumpian war against so-called fake news is for public consumption only. Behind the scenes at the White House, there’s no war at all. Via Politico.

Doyle McManus: If Democrats are going to have a real chance at winning back the House, they’re first going to have to end the still-heated Sanders-Clinton primary fight. Via The Los Angeles Times.

Was the sex scandal that doomed Bill O’Reilly really about sex? Or was it about the future of Fox News? Andrew Klavan writes at PJMedia that this could portend the end of Fox News as we know it and that conservatives won’t like what comes next.

Photo by Allen Ormond via flickr: Creative Commons