In other news, special prosecutor Robert Mueller gave a public statement this morning in which he explicitly said his report on the 2016 election did not exonerate Trump. Mueller also implied that Trump would have been charged with a crime if he weren't president.
Meanwhile, economists at Bloomberg say economic growth will drop by at least 0.5 percent if Trump imposes tariffs on all remaining Chinese goods. Growth could drop by almost 1 percent if his tariffs prompt a selloff in the market of at least 10 percent (and they probably will).
Finally, John Bolton is now having fantasies about Iran planting mines in the Persian Gulf.
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Wednesday that naval mines “almost certainly from Iran” were used to attack oil tankers off the United Arab Emirates this month, and warned Tehran against conducting new operations.
Bolton said the “prudent and responsible” approach taken by the United States, which has beefed up its military presence in the region, had made it clear to Iran and its proxies that such actions risked a “very strong” U.S. response. [...]
Tehran has denied involvement in either attack and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi dismissed Bolton’s latest remarks as a “ludicrous claim”, Fars news agency said.
I'm not qualified to say that Iran isn't planting mines in areas that their own ships may travel through, but really? Mines? It just sounds silly.
Programming note... I will be offline tomorrow. I have a couple important errands to run. I'll see you on Friday.