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Who is Jim?
It's one of the enduring mysteries of the Trump presidency, and it's followed him to Paris, apparently once a favourite city of Donald Trump's mate.
Jim, you may (or may not) recall, first came onto the radar during the campaign last year and has been hanging around ever since.
"I hadn't seen him in a while, and I said, Jim, how's Paris doing?" Donald Trump recounted at one event.
"Paris?" Jim apparently replied. "I don't go there anymore. Paris is no longer Paris."
The line, repeated in various guises before and since, is a reference to terrorist attacks in France.
Donald Trump has used it repeatedly amid his policy rhetoric to support stronger borders and immigration policies and a forceful approach to terrorism.
But the Case of Jim remains curious, because he's never been unmasked, as AP points out (hilariously).
One enterprising French reporter also raised it at a press conference in Paris between presidents Trump and Macron, further asking the President if he would repeat his campaign comments that France and Germany are infected with terrorism and "it's their fault".
"That's a beauty," President Trump responded.
But we still don't know who Jim is.
Dang it.
The Curious Case of Jim continues.
Speaking of curious, or more to the point downright daft, there's the developing story of the pop star, the oligarch, the President, and the President's son.
When he asked Vladimir Putin point blank last week whether he and his Government had interfered with the 2016 election, Donald Trump and his team optimistically suggested the "Russia thing" to be over.
Nope.
In fact, the cloud has turned dark and stormy this week after the New York Times released an explosive report suggesting that Donald Trump's son, Don Jr., had met with a Russian lawyer who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Eventually, Don Jr. trumped the Times (see what I did there) releasing the emails in the name of "transparency":
When the emails dropped there was a collective gasp across Washington, specifically over the phrase:
"This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but it is part of Russia and its Government's support for Mr Trump."
(You can read it for yourself here.)
It left journos in the White House off-camera briefings with many questions:
And not a lot of answers.
The meeting was brokered by this man, music publicist Rob Goldstone:
He even checked into Trump Tower on the day of the meeting.
Rob Goldstone represents Russian pop star Emin Agalarov whose Dad Aras is a Trump-style real estate tycoon in Moscow.
Aras Agalarov and Mr Trump were partners on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant. Afterwards Donald Trump appeared in one of Emin's music videos.
(NB: Do not miss the incident involving Miss USA and a salad bowl at 1.55)
The President was surprisingly tight-lipped on the matter for much of the week — releasing a short statement through his spokeswoman:
"My son is a high-quality person and I applaud his transparency."
Earlier, he tried to pivot to his favourite topic — the Clintons, which led to a pointed response from Chelsea:
The President claims his son didn't tell him about the meeting. However, then candidate Trump promised a press conference dishing the dirt on the Clintons around the same time:
The New York Times is also reporting that Trump signed off on his son’s first statement to the media over the weekend.
The question is, did he fail to ask what the truth was or did his aides fail to explain what really happened?
Now, for a trip down memory lane, here's Donald Trump Jr. dismissing the Russia theory during the campaign (and after the meeting):
And, a series of denials from Paul Manafort, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence (twice) and the President himself:
It led to these pointed headlines, first, from Time:
And then the New York Post:
Here's the Post's response to this week's developments by the way.
Frustration from Capitol Hill was fast and furious.
Here's Republican Lindsey Graham's take:
And Trey Gowdy, had this to say, according to Politico:
"Someone needs to get everyone in a room and say, from the time you saw 'Dr. Zhivago' until the moment you drank vodka with a guy named Boris, you list every single contact with Russia."
Chuck Grassley, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he's trying to get Don Jr. to testify as early as next week — and if not, is considering whether to subpoena the President's son:
Kellyanne Conway was out defending the President on Thursday in perhaps the weirdest interview of the week:
Which says a lot after Mr Trump held this strange chat about Hillary and windmills with the Christian Broadcasting Network's Pat Robertson — a guy who has labelled a wide range of things as demonic — including Feng shui, yoga and karate, according to Media Matters.
Speaking of weird – the famous orb shot is now hanging in the White House:
Ahuh.
Also, there were prayers.
Other things you may've missed this week:
1. Health care — another iteration of the Republican health care bill was revealed as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell delayed the August recess to get the legislation passed. It's still not clear if it will but you can bet holiday flights were being cancelled all over the shop.
2. Military — Trump advisers Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner wanted to privatise the military effort in Afghanistan by sending thousands of for-profit contractors to end the war. Defence Secretary James Mattis politely declined.
3. Justice — The President's pick for FBI director (replacing sacked chief James Comey) was pushed on how he'd respond to Don Jr.'s scandal and made it very clear that he wasn't asked for a loyalty pledge from the President.
Casting ahead to 2020, Donald Trump might be caught between The Rock and a hard place. In West Virginia, Kenton Tilford, has created a campaign committee called "Run the Rock 2020" to draft actor, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to run for president.
He's not the only Rock putting his hand up for elected office.
Enter musician, Kid Rock:
The future is bright — like Hollywood, folks.
Finally, here's Andy Serkis, who portrayed Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films reading Trump's tweets.
ZD out.
For this week.
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, donald-trump, united-states
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