The Washington Post National Weekly - February 3, 2019

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019

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Field of dreams The Rams’ $5 billion stadium complex is bigger than Disneyland.

It might be perfect for Los Angeles. PAGE 12

Politics Challenging Trump from both sides 4

Nation A resistant superbug 8

5 Myths Globalization 23

FEBRUARY 3, 2019 2 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019

3 SUNDAY, February, 3, 20193

KLMNO WEEKLY KLMNO WEEKLY

THE FIX THE FIX

Trump’s war war on intelligence Trump’s on intelligence A ARON B LAKE

claims were so over-the-top. claims were soassessments over-the-top.

What’s interesting is these A ARON B LAKE interesting don’t all err in the sameWhat’s direction, accordingis to these assessments resident Trump has questioned the errchiefs in the same direction, according to Trump. He’s sayingdon’t the all intel are too Trump has questioned the findings of his ownresident U.S. intelligence Trump. State He’s saying the intel chiefs are too harsh about the Islamic and North of hisnew own U.S. intelligence community before. findings But he broke harshenough about about the Islamic Korea, but not harsh Iran. State and North community before. ground this past week — and in the But he broke new butinnot There’s no consistentKorea, direction theirharsh allegedenough about Iran. ground past week — and in the process set quite a precedent for thethis dissemino consistent direction in their alleged failures, except awayThere’s from Trump.

That says a process set quite athreats. precedent for the dissemination of information about America’s failures, except away from Trump. That says a lot. of information about America’s threats.

Much of Trump’snation feuding with the intel Similarly, Trump’slot. arguments are undercut Much of He Trump’s feuding with the intel community has been indirect. has sprinSimilarly, Trump’s arguments are undercut by the fact that his own assessments on these has been He has sprinkled doubt upon itscommunity Russia findings, andindirect. he by the fact that in his own assessments on these issues have changed markedly recent kled doubt upon itsSaudi Russia findings, and he has mischaracterized what it said about issues have markedly in recent weeks. While he previously said changed the Islamic has mischaracterized what it said about Saudi Arabia’s role in the murder of journalist Jamal weeks.

While he previously State was “defeated,” he said Wednesday the said the Islamic Arabia’sofrole in the Intellimurder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. When Director National was “defeated,” “Caliphate will soonState be destroyed.”

Whilehehesaid Wednesday the When gence Daniel CoatsKhashoggi. seemed to ventDirector about of National Intelli“Caliphate will be destroyed.”

While he previously said North Korea was “nosoon longer a Daniel CoatsVladiseemed to vent about Trump’s talks with gence Russian President said North Korea nuclear threat,” he previously now says there is only a was “no longer a Trump’sadvisers talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, White House privately nuclear threat,” he “Decent chance of Denuclearization.”

Sonow evensays there is only a mir Putin, White House advisers privately SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST fumed, but a public clash was averted.

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST his“Decent chancechiefs of Denuclearization.”

So even as Trump says intelligence are fumed, a public averted. of National Intelligence Daniel Apparently, Trump can’tbut hold backclash any-wasDirector Coats Trump moved says his intelligence chiefs are wrong, heCoats has veryaspublicly toward Apparently, Trump can’t contradicted hold back anyDirector of National Intelligence Daniel more.

Trump’s claims on North Korea. wrong, he has very publicly moved toward their assessments. more. Wednesday, Trump contradicted Trump’s claims on North Korea.

In a series of tweets their assessments.

Those nuances, though, will be lost on his a series of tweets Wednesday, Trump — he will do what he can to political interests suggested Coats and In other top intelligence though, will be lost on his And as he nuances, has successfully political — hehas will dosupporters. what he can to just Those other undermine top intelligence it. Previously, withinterests Russia, that officials were flat-outsuggested incorrect Coats in theirand assesssupporters.

And just as he has successfully Republican faith in law enforcement, undermine Previously, Russia, that has officials incorrect in their assess- more been somewhat subtleit. and veiled.withreduced ments of the threats posedwere by flat-out Iran, North reduced faith in law enforcement, he has targetedRepublican the intelligence been somewhat moreas-subtle andincreasingly veiled. mentsState of the posed Trump

by Iran, North didn’t outright attack intelligence Korea and the Islamic at threats a Tuesday has increasingly targeted the intelligence message in all of it seems Trump didn’t attackcommunity, intelligencetoo. as- Thehe Korea andviewed the Islamic at a Tuesday sessments, but he pretended theyoutright didn’t say hearing. Trump rather clearly each ofState community, too. The message in all of it seems be twofold: 1) People in my administration butKhashoggi, he pretendedtothey didn’t say hearing.

Trump clearlywhat viewed each of Insessments, they said. the case of these assessments as an affront torather his own be twofold: 1) People in my administration not say thingsto I don’t like (or I’ll publicly whatabout they said. the casebetter of Khashoggi, assessments an affront to its his conclusions own where Saudi InCrown leadership, given hethese canceled the Iranasdeal, better not say things Iand don’t shame 2) Expertise is overrated, I like (or I’ll publicly where its conclusions Saudithem), Crown he canceled the Iran deal, Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s culpabilityabout has negotiated with leadership, Kim Jong Ungiven and recently shame them), 2) Expertise is overrated, and I am really the only one you can trust.

Mohammed bin Salman’s culpability negotiated with Kim aJongwere Un and notrecently public butPrince reported via anonymous claimed victory overhas ISIS while announcing am about really athe only Whatever you think loss of one faithyou in can trust. were not the public but reported via anonymous claimed victory over ISIS while announcing sources, Trumpa pretended intelligence withdrawal from Syria.

Whatever you about a loss of faith in the legal process, undercutting thethink intellisources,And Trump pretended intelligence withdrawal said something it didn’t. he got other “Perhaps Intelligence shouldfrom go Syria. back to theliterally legal process, undercutting the intelligence community a life-or-death said something didn’t. And he got other is “Perhaps go back to administration members of his to itmislead school!” Trump said. He added Intelligence that the offi- should gencehere community literally a life-or-death issue.to The question from is whetheristhose members ofwith his him. administration mislead school!”

Trump said. Heinadded thatthose the findings offiabout right along cials were “extremely passive and naive” issue. questionoffrom here is whether those officials tone it down, likeThe Secretary State right along with him. were “extremely passive and naive” in itabout But in this case, was those all outfindings in the open. saying Iran was stillcials in compliance with the it down,Jim like Secretary of State Defensetone Secretary But in flatly this case, it was all Mike out in Pompeo the open.andofficials saying IranObama was still in compliance with the Here were the officials disputing nuclear deal President Barack forged Mike Pompeo andgetDefense Secretary Jim Mattis disputing did on Khashoggi, or maybe rewereState thehas officials Obamaclaims forgedthat Here Trump’s the Islamic been flatly and Trump voided. nuclear deal President Barack Mattis did oncomfortable Khashoggi, or maybe get replaced are more Trump’s the Islamic State by haspeople been who and Trump voided. defeated, that North Koreaclaims is nothat longer a And that’s the common thread running placed by people who are more comfortable line. a defeated, that North Korea toeing is no the longer And that’s the common nuclear thread threat running and that Iran had been flouting through all of this. When the intelligence thefor line. is a goodtoeing recipe truly undernuclear threat and that Iran hadNeither been flouting through all — of and this.espeWhen the nuclear intelligence deal. They couldn’t pretend otherdoesn’t serve Trump’s purposes Neither a good recipe for truly understanding dangers the UnitedisStates faces. the on nuclear deal. They couldn’t pretendthe otherdoesn’t Trump’s purposes wise—orand put espea good spin it, because Trump’s cially when it runs afoul serve of his personal n standing the dangers the United States faces. n wise or put a good spin on it, because Trump’s cially when it runs afoul of his personal BY

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BY

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LMNO KLMNO WEEKLY

CONTENTS

This publication was prepared by editors at The This publication was prepared Washington Post for printing and distribution by our by editors at The Washington Post forAllprinting partner publications across the country. articlesand anddistribution by our partner publications and columns have previously appeared in The across Post or the on country. All articles POLITICS columns have edited previously in The Post on washingtonpost.com and have been to fitappeared this THEorNATION and have been edited toTHE fit this format. For questionswashingtonpost.com or comments regarding content, WORLD format. For questions or comments regarding content, please e-mail weekly@washpost.com.

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WEEKLY

CONTENTS ON THE COVER A rendering of the 4 ON COVER A rendering of the Los Angeles Stadium, theTHE future 4 8POLITICS Angeles Stadium, the future home of the NFL’s Angeles 8 LosLos 10THE NATION home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.

10 12THE WORLD Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.

Rendering STORY by HKS 12 ARCHITECTS 16COVER Rendering by HKS ARCHITECTS INC. 16 18LIFESTYLE INC. 18 20BOOKS 20 23OPINION FIVE MYTHS 23

3 21 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019

SUNDAY, February, 3, 20193, 2019 22 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY

KLMNO WEEKLY

OPINIONS

OPINIONS

KLMNO WEEKLY

TOM TOLES

BY JOE HELLER FOR THE GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE

Howard This Taliban Schultz’s deal ishesitant a surrender faithful RYAN HELAINE OLEN CROCKER is diplomat a contributor in residence to Washington at Princeton Post University Opinions and a former and U.S. the author of “Pound Foolish: ambassador to Exposing the Iraq, Afghanistan, Dark Side of the Personal Pakistan, Syria, Finance Kuwait Industry.” and Lebanon.

The last time January 2002.Howard I arriveSchultz in Kabul decided to reopen he no thelonger U.S. Embassy. wanted to run Destructionheisreturned Starbucks, everywhere. eightKabul yearsairport later. His is closed, successor, its runways a former Walmart and cratered executive, litteredwasn’t with destroyed doing it right aircraft.

— theThe smell drive of newly south from the introduced military base sandwiches at Bagramwas is through overwhelming a wasteland. the aroma Nothing of Starbucks’ grows. No signature beverage structures stand. Inand the sales city itself, were entire falling.blocks Schultz have staged beena reduced coup, to replacedrecalling rubble, his replacement images ofand Berlin restored in 1945.

Starbucks to profitable glory.

Schultz More than exited twothe decades Starbucks of almost CEO job constant again war in 2017. left But a terrible this time legacy. he’s got his The damage eye onwas another not only system to the and physical job thatinfrastructure. he believes is not Thegetting Afghan done tohad people his exacting suffered standards. enormouslyThis through time the thestench civil war of special that began interests in the and 1970s late common andgreed the tyranny is overwhelming of the Taliban our democracy that followed. andNone national had finances.more than Afghan women and girls. suffered Schultz After theisU.S. considering invasionainrun for October 2001 president as an ousted independent. the Taliban He’s published for harboring a book, the al-Qaeda “From the Ground Up: planners of the A Journey 9/11 terrorist to Reimagine attack, the human the Promise toll from of the America.”

Taliban rule Heisdeclares why thethe United political States’ initial system assistance broken. He efforts blames both focused on people parties, rather but, much than like a spurned lover, he keeps things. coming I remember back totaking what he our believes first the Democratsvisitor, congressional have done Joe wrong, Biden likely because (D-Del.), who was he rightly then chairman believes hethe of would Senate swiftly Foreign lose ifRelations he ran in the party’s primary.

Committee, to visit a girls school that The weDemocrats had helpedare to too open. farAto the left, Schultz first-grade classbelieves. that Biden Their politicians visited hadare students promising in a range too of manyfrom ages, “free”6things, to 12. The such older as health girls carereached had and education. school age Schultz, whenwho the enjoys awas Taliban net worth in power, in excess so they ofhad $3 billion, been denied huffily antold education.

NPR on They

weren’t embarrassed Tuesday that Sen. Elizabeth now to be in aWarren’s class with (D-Mass.) children proposed half their wealth age — they tax on were people just worth happy an to be excess of $50 million is “punitive.” learning.

Medicare-for-all?

At the end of Taliban We can’t rule, afford it, he declares. roughly 900,000 Also, children it’s “not were in correct all school, andof“not them American.” boys. When I leftPresident Afghanistan Trump as ambassador is jubilant, sensing in 2012, blood there were in the8Democratic million waters. No40 students, doubt percent attempting of them to egg Schultz on, the president girls. tweeted We also Tuesday encouraged night that Afghan Schultz lacks women to play the their “guts” rightful to make roles a run. in business, The Democratic in the legislature, Party, it’s fair to say, would elsewhere in like government to groundand in Schultz the military, up posthaste. and they “The did. The consultants implicit message who sign was on that with if you the Howard step forward, Schultz we’ve campaign got your may help facilitate back.

It was a time the second when Trump term,” opined American interests President and Barack Obama’s former American valueschief werestrategist in

BY BAGLEY FOR THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

harmony.

David Axelrod.

I hosted “Done receptions with to @HowardSchultz recognize Afghan women and done ofwith StarbucksThrough courage. coffee,” tweeted the U.S. Center for American Agency for International Progress President Neera Tanden. we funded efforts Development, to establish But a billionaire shelterswith for women a book and an idea fleeing spousal needs or to other feelfamilial the love.

So Schultz abuse — a reminder came to a that Manhattan in Barnes & Noble Afghanistan’s male-dominated on Monday night.

Speaking society, it to wasn’t a crowd onlymade the Taliban up of family, who threatened friends, employees women’s safety. and fans Now of his the“pull United yourself Statesup is by the bootstraps” business negotiating directly with books, the Schultz did Taliban.

A framework not exactlyagreement face a critical was announced audience.on When Monday an interlocutor calling for a cease-fire heckler called that could Schultz lead to the an “egotistical full withdrawal billionaire of U.S. a**hole,” troops.

The andTaliban suggested would he “go back to Davos,” commit to not harboring the group terrorist booed.

When he avoided organizations thatanswering could threaten a question U.S. security.

— for Inexample, other words, why the Starbucks Taliban promised can successfully no 9/11 replay. operate The framework in countries was where reached the government without the involvement guarantees health of the care, butgovernment.

Afghan he still complains The Taliban the United has saidStates all along can’tthat afford it refuses to do so — audience to negotiatemembers with the didn’t push the point. government, considering the government Schultz, like themany illegitimate a businessman, puppet of the U.S. looks occupation. at the bottom By line: “If America acceding to this Taliban was a company demand, … we we have would ourselves be facing delegitimized insolvency.”

Thegovernment the message appealed we claim in this to room. New York City is forever support. perceived This current as a liberal process city, bears but an Schultz was speaking unfortunate resemblance in to the Manhattan, Paris peace talks where during Wall Street the and multibillion-dollar Vietnam War. Then, as now, real estate it interests was clearduel thatfor by going supremacy to theand

table we where many wereconsider surrendering; themselves we socially were just liberal, negotiating but economically the terms of — well, our surrender. moderate.

The Taliban will offer The any crowd number also of applauded when Schultz questioner commitments, knowing that Andrew Ross Sorkin when we areasked gone and Schultz the if his candidacy Taliban is back, wouldwe ultimately will haveserve no as a spoiler, means of enforcing delivering anyanother of them. four It years does not of Trump. have toSchultz go like said this. no, he The United plansStates to appeal could to slightly more than that announce 40 percent talks won’t of the electorate proceed beyond who identifies the framework, as independent. to matters of substance, without thePolitical full inclusion analysts of say the this Afghan analysis is highly government.

Right suspect. now, the Many independents inclusion of the lean Afghans toward isone only party or the other. theoretical.

We could As Michelle also note Goldberg that unless points someout, other one solution of the is few independent found, U.S. troopselected will remain in politicians onasCapitol Afghanistan long asHill theis Sen. Bernie Sanders. current government The number wants them, of Americans the protecting who, United like Schultz, States’ describe themselves national security interests as socially and liberal andcore defending fiscally values, conservative, such as and would women’s rights, cut their thatown we have Social Security check fostered there since before2001. running up thePresident deficit any Barack further, Obama would fill up several proved in Iraq Acela that trains the at United best.

States Perhaps cannot he should end a war have bywalked about the room withdrawing itsat forces Barnes — the & Noble.space battle Even his is simply faithful left have to our qualms. OneIn adversaries. said Afghanistan, she would like to “look atTrump President the field” hasbefore a choice. He committing. can follow Obama’s Anotherexample said he so and believes leave theincountry Schultztothat thehe Taliban, thinks Schultz or he can will make “do clear the right thatthing” the if it looks States United like Trump has interests, would win if he entered values and the allies, race. and will stand behind We can them. onlynhope. n

4 22 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019

KLMNO WEEKLY

SUNDAY, February,3, 3, 2019 2019 21 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY

OPINIONS

OPINIONS

KLMNO WEEKLY

TOM TOLES

BY JOE HELLER FOR THE GREEN BAY PRESS-GAZETTE

This Taliban Howard Schultz’s deal ishesitant a surrender faithful HELAINE RYAN CROCKER OLEN is a diplomat contributor in residence to at Princeton Post Washington University and a former Opinions and U.S. the author ambassador of “Pound Foolish: to Afghanistan, Exposing the Iraq, Dark Side of Pakistan, the Personal Syria, Finance Kuwait and Lebanon.

Industry.”

January The last time 2002.Howard I arriveSchultz in Kabul decided to reopen he no thelonger U.S. Embassy. wanted to run Starbucks, heisreturned Destruction everywhere. eightKabul yearsairport later. His is closed, successor, its runways a former cratered and Walmart executive, litteredwasn’t with destroyed doing it right aircraft.

— theThe smell drive of newly south from the military base introduced sandwiches at Bagramwas is through overwhelming a wasteland. the aroma Nothing of Starbucks’ grows. No structuresbeverage signature stand. Inand the sales city itself, were entire falling.blocks Schultz have staged beena reduced coup, to rubble, recalling replaced his replacement images ofand Berlin restored in 1945.

Starbucks to profitable glory.

More than Schultz exited twothe decades Starbucks of almost CEO job constant again war in 2017. left But a terrible this time legacy. he’s Thehis got damage eye onwas another not only system to the and physical job thatinfrastructure. he believes is not Thegetting Afghan people done tohad his exacting suffered standards. enormouslyThis through time the thestench civil war of special that began interests in the late 1970s and common andgreed the tyranny is overwhelming of the Taliban our democracy that followed. andNone national had suffered more than Afghan women and girls. finances.

After theisU.S. Schultz considering invasionainrun for president2001 October as an ousted independent. the Taliban He’s for harboring published a book, the al-Qaeda “From the plannersUp: Ground of the A Journey 9/11 terrorist to attack, the human Reimagine the Promise toll from of the Taliban rule America.”

Heisdeclares why thethe United States’ initial political system assistance broken. He efforts focusedboth blames on people parties, rather but, much than things. like a spurned lover, he keeps coming I remember back totaking what he our believes first congressional the Democratsvisitor, have done Joe wrong, Biden (D-Del.), likely because who was he rightly then chairman believes of the he would Senate swiftly Foreign lose ifRelations he ran in Committee, the party’s primary. to visit a girls school that The weDemocrats had helpedare to too open. farAto first-grade the left, Schultz classbelieves. that Biden Their visited hadare politicians students promising in a range too of ages, from many “free”6things, to 12. The such older as health girls had reached care and education. school age Schultz, whenwho the Talibanawas enjoys net worth in power, in excess so they ofhad $3 been denied billion, huffily antold education.

NPR on They

Tuesdayembarrassed weren’t that Sen. Elizabeth now to be in a class with Warren’s (D-Mass.) children proposed half their age — they wealth tax on were people just worth happy an to be learning. excess of $50 million is “punitive.”

Medicare-for-all?

At the end of Taliban We can’t rule, afford roughly it, he declares.

900,000 Also, children it’s “not were in school, all correct andof“not them American.” boys. When I leftPresident Afghanistan Trump as ambassador is jubilant, in 2012, blood sensing there were in the8Democratic million students, waters.

No40 doubt percent attempting of them to girls.Schultz on, the president egg tweeted We also Tuesday encouraged night that Afghan women lacks Schultz to play the their “guts” rightful to make roles a in business, run.

The Democratic in the legislature, Party, it’s fair elsewhere to say, would in like government to groundand in the military, Schultz up posthaste. and they “The did. The implicit message consultants who sign was on that with if you the step forward, Howard Schultz we’ve campaign got your may back.facilitate help It was a time the second when Trump American term,” opined interests President and Barack Americanformer Obama’s valueschief werestrategist in

BY BAGLEY FOR THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

David Axelrod. harmony.

I hosted “Done receptions with to recognize Afghan women @HowardSchultz and done ofwith courage. Through Starbucks coffee,” tweeted the U.S. Center Agency for American for International Progress President Development, Neera Tanden. we funded efforts to establish But a billionaire shelterswith for women a book fleeing and an idea spousal needs or to other feelfamilial the love. abuse So Schultz — a reminder came to a that Manhattan in Afghanistan’s Barnes & Noble male-dominated on Monday night. society, it to Speaking wasn’t a crowd onlymade the Taliban up of who threatened family, friends, employees women’s safety. and fans Now of his the“pull United yourself Statesup is by the negotiating business bootstraps” directly with books, the Taliban.did Schultz A framework not exactlyagreement face a was announced critical audience.on When Monday an calling for a cease-fire interlocutor heckler called that could lead to the Schultz an “egotistical full withdrawal billionaire of U.S. troops. The a**hole,” andTaliban suggested would he “go commit back to Davos,” to not harboring the group terrorist booed. organizations When he avoided thatanswering could threaten a U.S. security. question — for Inexample, other words, why the Taliban promised Starbucks can successfully no 9/11 replay. operate The framework in countries was where reached the without the involvement government guarantees health of the Afghan care, butgovernment. he still complains The Taliban the has saidStates United all along can’tthat afford it refuses to do so to audience — negotiatemembers with the didn’t push government, the point. considering the government Schultz, like themany illegitimate a puppet of the U.S. businessman, looks occupation. at the bottom By acceding line: “If America to this Taliban was a company demand, wewe … have would ourselves be facing delegitimized insolvency.” the government The message appealed we claim in this to support. room.

New York City is forever perceived This current as a liberal process city, bears but an unfortunate Schultz was speaking resemblance in to the Paris peace talks Manhattan, where during Wall Street the Vietnam and multibillion-dollar War. Then, as now, real estate it was clearduel interests thatfor by going supremacy to theand

wherewe table many wereconsider surrendering; themselves we were just socially liberal, negotiating but economically the terms of ourwell, — surrender. moderate.

The Taliban will offer The any crowd number also of applauded commitments, when Schultz questioner knowing that Andrew whenSorkin Ross we areasked gone and Schultz the if his Taliban is back, candidacy wouldwe ultimately will haveserve no means as a spoiler, of enforcing delivering anyanother of them. four It years does not of Trump. have toSchultz go like said this.

Thehe no, United plansStates to appeal could to slightly announce more than that 40 percent talks won’t of the proceed beyond electorate who identifies the framework, as to matters of substance, without independent. thePolitical full inclusion analysts of say the this Afghan government. analysis is highly Right suspect. now, the Many inclusion of the independents lean Afghans toward isone only theoretical. party or the other.

We could As Michelle also note that unless Goldberg points someout, other one solution of the is found, few independent U.S. troopselected will remain in Afghanistan politicians onasCapitol long asHill theis Sen. currentSanders.

Bernie government The number wants them, of protecting the Americans who, United like Schultz, States’ national themselves describe security interests as socially and defending liberal andcore fiscally values, conservative, such as women’s and would rights, cut their thatown we have Social fostered check Security there since before2001. running up thePresident deficit any Barack further, Obama would fill proved up several in Iraq Acela that trains the at United best.

States Perhaps cannot he should end a war have bywalked withdrawing about the room itsat forces Barnes — the & battle space Noble.

Even his is simply faithful left have to our adversaries. qualms.

OneIn said Afghanistan, she would like President to “look atTrump the field” hasbefore a choice. He can follow Obama’s committing.

Anotherexample said he so and leave theincountry believes Schultztothat thehe Taliban, thinks or he can Schultz will make “do clear the right thatthing” the if United it looks States like Trump has interests, would win if values he entered and the allies, race. and will stand behind We can them. onlynhope. n

5 23

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KLMNO WEEKLY

FIVE MYTHS

Globalization BY

S TEVEN A . A LTMAN

While world leaders converged on Davos, Switzerland, this past month to discuss “Globalization 4.0” at the World Economic Forum, President Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May stayed home to deal with globalization­related crises: a government shutdown over Trump’s demand for a border wall and Parliament’s rejection of May’s Brexit deal. Meanwhile, U.S.­China trade tensions continued to roil financial markets, and trade conflicts contributed to another downgrade of global growth forecasts. The political crossfire over globalization has propagated a raft of myths. Here are five of the most prevalent.

MYTH NO. 1 Populist nationalism has begun to reverse globalization.

After 2016’s electoral surprises (Brexit and Trump), many predicted globalization’s imminent demise. The actual interactions that take place among countries, however, tell a different story.

The new DHL Global Connectedness Index, coming this month, shows that globalization — measured based on flows of trade, capital, information and people — rose to a record high in 2017. For the first time since 2007, all four types of flows crossing national borders increased significantly.

Trade in goods grew at its fastest pace since 2011, and international tourism the fastest since 2010. Free calls over the Internet continued to power strong growth in international communications.

MYTH NO. 2 We live in a world of borderless markets.

NYU Stern and IESE Business School professor Pankaj Ghemawat has been debunking this myth for more than a decade: The vast majority of activities that could happen either within or across national borders are still domestic rather than international. For example, only about 20 percent of

economic output is exported, 17 to 19 percent of tourism is international, 9 percent of global output comes from the foreign operations of multinational firms, roughly 7 percent of phone call minutes are international (including calls over the Internet), and 3 percent of people live outside the countries where they were born.

Furthermore, trade, capital, information and people flows are all still dampened significantly by distance.

MYTH NO. 3 The U.S. is one of the world’s most globalized countries.

Surprisingly, the United States is actually the advanced economy that imports the least relative to its size. In 2017, it imported goods and services worth 15 percent of its gross domestic product. Japan is the only advanced economy that comes close (18 percent), and even China imports more intensively than the United States does (19 percent). The United States ranks higher on immigration, but there are still more than 30 countries where a larger share of the population was born abroad. America also has fewer immigrants than most Americans think: 15 percent of the population, compared with the average guess of 29 percent in a 2018 survey.

JASON ALDEN/BLOOMBERG

This year’s World Economic Forum had a special focus on the future of globalization, whose effects has many myths surrounding it.

MYTH NO. 4 Emerging markets are globalization’s new leaders.

This notion gained traction after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vigorous defense of globalization at the World Economic Forum three days before Trump’s inauguration.

Actually, though, advanced economies are much more globalized than emerging economies, which trade about as intensively as advanced economies do but are only onethird as integrated into international capital flows, onefifth as active in movements of people and one-ninth as linked to information flows. Emerging economies are also less globalized in the sense that they maintain strong connections to a narrower set of countries. They had been closing the gap with advanced economies on the intensity of their international flows, but their progress has stalled, in part because of China’s rebalancing away from exportled growth.

MYTH NO. 5 Globalization is the main culprit behind rising inequality.

While economists continue to debate the relationship between globalization and inequality, research suggests that other factors, such as technological change and domestic policies, have contributed more to rising inequality. Simple measures help reinforce this conclusion.

Since the United States is the advanced economy that imports the least relative to its size, it’s hard to see how imports could explain its ranking near the top on inequality among developed nations. In contrast, eight of the 10 most globalized countries are in Europe and maintain more equitable income distributions. n Altman, a senior research scholar at the NYU Stern School of Business, is executive director of NYU Stern’s Center for the Globalization of Education and Management and a coauthor of the DHL Global Connectedness Index.

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LIFESTYLE

‘Golden Girls’ no longer just a sitcom BY

A DINA S OLOMON

J

ane Callahan-Moore was living with her daughter and granddaughter in a Chicago suburb, but she felt something missing.

“While I loved being with them and seeing them every day, I found myself getting increasingly depressed because I didn’t have any contact with people my own age,” Callahan-Moore, 69, said.

So, in late 2017, she made a change. Callahan-Moore became housemates with Stefanie Clark, 75, and moved into Clark’s highrise condo in Edgewater, a lakefront neighborhood in Chicago.

Now, the pair share both space and time. They cook each other meals, go out together and provide support.

And neither owns a car. Edgewater is a walkable neighborhood with rail and bus access nearby, plus restaurants and shopping.

“Everything is just here at our fingertips,” Callahan-Moore said.

“I would not have access to a condominium half as beautiful or half as beautifully located if I didn’t have a roommate situation.

I probably would still be living with my daughter and being very unhappy because I miss my senior companions.”

Callahan-Moore and Clark are in the minority of people 65 and older. Almost 80 percent of Americans in that age group live in car-dependent suburban and rural communities. As older people lose the ability to drive, many find themselves trapped in their homes, unable to run errands or meet with friends. This can lead to social isolation.

Walkable areas have a mix of amenities nearby, allowing people to get around without a car.

But these areas also tend to be more expensive, a financial burden for the many people over 65 — especially women — who don’t have enough savings.

One solution? Split the costs with a roommate. CallahanMoore and Clark are part of the “Golden Girls” trend, named after the 1980s sitcom that featured four older women as housemates.

ALYSSA SCHUKAR FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Shared housing in walkable areas is improving lives for retirees outliving their ability to drive “In the broader population, shared living in the last decade has exploded, especially in cities where housing costs are quite high,” said Gary Painter, professor in the University of Southern California’s School of Public Policy.

The number of people 65 and older who live as roommates is small — just under 2 percent in 2016 — but rising quickly, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. In the decade leading up to 2016, the older population grew 33 percent, while the number of older homesharers jumped 88 percent.

This practice could allow more people to live in walkable areas that support independence.

“We have a huge issue and problem with elders aging in this country in huge amounts, not living as we should,” said Marianne Kilkenny, founder of Women for Living in Community, an organization that brings women together in communities for growing older. “We’re wanting

the social cohesion, and know that we need to be connected and want to be, but the path isn’t there.”

Driving is the only way to reach services and social activities in much of the United States, but older people are outliving their ability to drive safely by an average of seven to 10 years, according to AAA. This can lead to otherwise healthy adults having a decreased capability to engage with the outside world.

Homes close to stores, parks and transit can fill this need.

“My cohort is more interested in walkable, generally speaking,” Kilkenny said. “It’s like, if needed, I can walk various places, so I feel better about that. The next thing is, then you can meet with friends, which then makes your sphere larger, as well. And then you can meet people because you can walk to meet them.”

Doris Richardson, 74, has discovered this herself. Richardson shares a home in Lyons, a mountain-surrounded town in north-

Jane CallahanMoore, left, and Stephanie Clark at their home in Chicago. The pair shares both space and time. They cook each other meals, go out together and provide support.

western Colorado, with another older woman. “We baby boomers, I think, are redefining that whole senior thing,” she said.

Richardson walks to restaurants and neighbors, often strolling around the lake outside her front door.

“What I see so many times with seniors is they just get so inward and kind of stay in a cave and they don’t reach out,” she said.

This presents a challenge among older people. Social isolation and loneliness in that group are associated with increased mortality, poorer cognitive performance and poorer self-reported physical and mental health.

Older people can be more susceptible to isolation because they may be retired and not have family nearby, Painter said.

“If you have a community which is more connected, and the ability to kind of engage within that community in a way that is safe and that you can walk, you not only get physical exercise, which we know is linked to longer-term [positive] health outcomes,” but staying connected to the community could also improve mental health, Painter said.

The urgency to address where older people live and how they can stay socially engaged will only grow. By 2030, one in five U.S. residents will be 65 or over, and older people are projected to outnumber children for the first time in the country’s history, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Painter said the share of older roommates will probably continue to increase.

“We have a housing stock that has a lot of single-family homes, and those single-family homes often have rooms that are empty,” he said. “When people are thinking about ways that they can generate more income for themselves, they’re going to start thinking about those kinds of shared living arrangements. And then people who have that need but don’t have the ability to actually pay for an apartment on their own are going to start looking to those situations as a way to mitigate their housing cost.” n

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COVER STORY

Model for the future Privately funded stadium being studied as a possible prototype for NFL

BY LIZ CLARKE in Inglewood, Calif.

B

efore off-track betting gutted the allure of Hollywood Park Racetrack and before Los Angeles’s Staples Center coaxed the Lakers and Kings away from the Forum, Inglewood was known as the City of Champions.

Today, from a window of his ninth-floor office, Mayor James T. Butts Jr. sees his city rising again after hard times and double-digit unemployment further damaged Inglewood’s psyche following the loss of its identity as a sports mecca. The future is taking shape in the concrete pillars and sloped canopy roof of a transformative new stadium that will serve as home to the Super Bowl-bound Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers when the world’s most expensive sports complex opens in 2020.

“The city’s brand has changed,” Butts said with a broad smile in a recent interview.

“We’ve gone from being known for high crime, poverty and failing infrastructure to the next big thing.”

The development of a new stadium comes at a fortuitous time for the NFL as it seeks to reclaim a foothold in the country’s secondlargest media market after a 22-year absence.

ALLISON ZAUCHA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

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That goal only will be buoyed by the emergence of the high-scoring Rams, who play the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday, as one of the league’s most dynamic young teams in just the third season since their return to Los Angeles.

Moreover, after decades in which taxpayers shouldered much of the cost of new sports arenas, the privately funded stadium is being closely watched as a potential new model for first-rate NFL venues built without public subsidies. To succeed, the development’s proponents say, the stadiums of tomorrow can’t exist as stand-alone buildings used for just 10 or 20 NFL home games a year; they must be flexible, multipurpose facilities embedded in complex commercial developments that attract customers and events year-round.

“If you’re going to build a stadium in a city, it has to play a larger role than the NFL. It has to bring people together in a meaningful way — both on Sunday and on every other day of the week, both in the fall and every other season. That’s the driver,” said Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer. “If you’re looking at a stadium project, everybody now is trying to figure out how you make it the epicenter of day-to-day life. Hopefully, this project will serve as a great model for that.”

At a cost estimated at more than $5 billion, the development — its formal name is the LA Stadium & Entertainment District at Hollywood Park — includes a 70,240-seat stadium and 6,000-seat performance center under one roof that will anchor a 298-acre complex of office buildings, shops, restaurants, residential units, hotels and parks. It’s 31/2 times the size of Disneyland and twice as big as Vatican City. It is the vision of Rams owner E. Stanley Kroenke, a Missouri-born billionaire developer and sports mogul, who took to heart NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s insistence that any new stadium built for pro football’s return to Los Angeles must be iconic and serve as home to two teams. In addition to the Rams, who moved back from St. Louis in 2016, the city is also the new home of the Chargers, who used to play in San Diego.

But even in a copycat league such as the NFL, it’s far from clear that Kroenke’s new-era model can be replicated. Its staggering expense is the primary barrier.

NFL’s most expensive stadium Though the Kroenke organization won’t confirm the cost or provide details of its privately funded financing plan, NFL owners in March agreed to raise their debt waiver to accommodate the Los Angeles project. That will help cover the cost of the stadium and essential infrastructure such as utilities, parking lots and roads, according to a person familiar with the multiyear plan.

The surrounding multiuse development, which includes a 250,000-square-foot West Coast headquarters for NFL Media and the NFL Network, will be constructed in stages and drive the total project’s cost well over $5 billion.

ALLISON ZAUCHA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES

“If you’re looking at a stadium project, everybody now is trying to figure out how you make it the epicenter of day-to-day life.”

Kevin Demoff, Rams’ chief operating officer

Beyond the loan, Kroenke is investing $1.6 billion of personal equity — an unprecedented investment among NFL owners, who have a rich tradition of building stadiums with other people’s money. (Even among fellow NFL owners, Kroenke’s wealth is notable, valued at $8.5 billion by Forbes magazine. His wife, Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke, has her own fortune, valued at $6.6 billion, although it is his money that’s backing the Los Angeles development.)

The sale of seat licenses, which has become a significant source of NFL stadium funding over the past 20 years, will also defray construction costs. Both the Rams and Chargers require the purchase of stadium seat licenses, or SSLs, in addition to the regular ticket price. The Rams’ SSL prices are slightly more than the Chargers’, ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 per seat, depending on location and amenities. SSLs for club seats, which come with additional privileges, run $15,000 to $100,000. In a first, however, both teams will refund the full price of the SSLs after 50 years.

Pricing the seat licenses is challenging, Demoff acknowledged, but necessary in the calculus of financing a multibillion-dollar stadium that isn’t built on the backs of taxpayers or on the backs of fans.

“In a market like Los Angeles, people will always pay for the Lakers’ sideline seat or behind-the-dugout seats at Dodger games.

There’s always going to be those people who will pay a great amount for the best in a market like this,” he said. “But for those fans who have been with us for three or four decades, we need to make sure their voice is heard, too. And priced into the building, as well.”

Additional funding will come from stadium naming rights and sponsorships of other facets of the project, such as a futuristic, suspended, dual-sided video board called the “Oculus” that will span the length of the field.

The NFL, as it does with every new stadium in the league, will extend its standard loan — in this case $200 million per team — toward the new venue’s construction costs.

Stanford University economist Roger Noll, who has written extensively about publicly subsidized sports venues, gives Los Angeles’s NFL project high marks for its reliance on private financing, in-town location, surrounding mixed-use development and ready access to four major freeways.

“This is a really good deal [from a public-policy standpoint] compared to virtually any football stadium that has been built in the last 30 years,” Noll said, adding a caveat about potential lost revenue from developments that might otherwise have been constructed on the 298-acre site.

But until Kroenke joined forces in 2015 with Stockbridge Capital, which owned most of the Hollywood Park land, the site had sat fallow, with the economic downturn in 2008 stalling previous development plans. According to Butts, who in 2014 had negotiated a

9 15

SUNDAY, February, 3, 20193, 2019 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY

COVER STORY major renovation of the Forum, the community embraced the idea of anchoring the site with an NFL stadium and entertainment complex, as well as the skilled jobs and apprenticeships it has created (30 percent are dedicated to local residents).

When completed, it will more than double the cost of the next-most expensive NFL stadium — the $1.8 billion Las Vegas stadium being built for the relocating Oakland Raiders and also due to open in 2020. Noll characterizes its heavily subsidized funding as one of the worst deals in sports history, with Las Vegas and Clark County handing the Raiders a $750 million subsidy and the state of Nevada committing $200 million to upgrade freeways to reach the site.

Just behind the Las Vegas stadium in terms of cost are New York’s MetLife, home of the Giants and Jets — it was privately funded but built on land owned by the state of New Jersey — and Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, host of this year’s Super Bowl. Each cost $1.6 billion. The Falcons’ home is owned by the state of Georgia and was constructed with help from roughly $600 million in public funds.

Just a decade ago, it seemed the Dallas Cowboys had set a spending mark that wouldn’t be topped when they opened AT&T Stadium at a cost of $1.3 billion, with the city of Arlington helping team owner Jerry Jones finance the project with tax hikes and bonds.

If the Los Angeles stadium indeed represents a new model, it may not be replicable.

It’s doubtful a project so grand would work in markets outside New York or Los Angeles. In addition to hosting the 2022 Super Bowl, the stadium, whose capacity can be stretched to 100,000 for mega-events, will host the 2023 College Football Playoff championship and the 2028 Olympics’ Opening and Closing ceremonies and is vying to hold 2026 World Cup matches.

Moreover, the project is uniquely tied to Kroenke’s vision of where global sports and entertainment are heading and his zeal to be at the forefront. In addition to the Rams, Kroenke is the primary owner of London’s Arsenal soccer club. He owned the NBA’s Denver Nuggets and NHL’s Colorado Avalanche before placing them in a family trust.

“This project is really a confluence of Mr. Kroenke’s core competencies in [real estate] business, sports and entertainment,” said Jason Gannon, managing director of the LA Stadium & Entertainment District.

DNA of Southern California The stadium is roughly 60 percent complete, and on a recent day, 3,500 workers were busy despite a rare bout of rain in Southern California.

Inside the complex of trailers that serve as the nerve center, a large countdown clock ticked down the remaining days, hours and minutes until completion. Architects, engineers, carpenters and land-use managers were at computer terminals, reflective vests

KLMNO WEEKLY

ALLISON ZAUCHA FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Opposite page from top: The LA Stadium & Entertainment District Premiere Center houses a model of the new stadium.

Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke is investing $1.6 billion of personal equity in the project.

Above: Inglewood officials hope the stadium, future home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers, revitalizes a city that once proudly bore the moniker “City of Champions.”

and hard hats nearby, coordinating workflow on the 17,000 line-item tasks that remain.

Inside one of the large conference rooms, surrounded by full-color renderings and detailed elevations of the stadium, Demoff and Gannon discussed the vision behind the project.

“We started with, ‘How do we do something that has never been done?’ ” Demoff said. “ ‘How do we do something that’s completely unique within Southern California, that would change people’s view of sports and entertainment districts?’ ” The Rams wanted a roof, yet they didn’t want a dome or a structure that retracted.

They also weren’t wild about walls, instead envisioning fans sitting outside, feeling the ocean breeze as they watched football.

This posed a design challenge for the architect, Dallas-based HKS. The solution was an NFL stadium tailored to the Southern Californian lifestyle like a bespoke suit: the first indoor-outdoor stadium.

“If you go to a home, a business, a hotel or restaurant in Southern California, that indoor-outdoor feeling is embedded in the experience. It’s done in a beautiful way; there is never a hard edge,” said Mark Williams, who heads the sports and entertainment division at HKS. “That’s in the DNA of every Southern Californian, but nobody had ever done that on a large scale, let alone an NFL stadium.”

The landscaping will reflect that, bleeding from the outdoor to the indoor. And the canopy-style roof was treated like a piece of sculpture as much as utilitarian structure. Its tapered, sloping shape was modeled and refined over multiple iterations, in concert with data on wind flow and the sun’s movement. From Kroenke’s perspective, the roof needed to serve as the stadium’s “fifth dimension” — immediately identifiable and impressive from the airplane windows of the 40 million travelers who land at LAX each year.

To comply with Federal Aviation Administration height limits, given its proximity to the airport, the stadium had to be sunken in the ground — 100 feet down. That means its sixth tier of the seating bowl (of eight total) will sit at ground level, so most fans will walk down to their seats, as if to a sunken living room.

The remaining aboveground portion of the stadium, then, feels almost organic — not like a massive concrete and steel structure imposed on the landscape.

“If you were going to try to bring football back to the Los Angeles area after being gone 20 years, you couldn’t just count on there being a lot of fans who wanted NFL football.

They could watch on TV on Sunday, play fantasy football or go to local bars,” Demoff said. “It had to be a game-changer in terms not only of the NFL fan experience but, truly, the Los Angeles lifestyle experience.” n

810 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019

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Medical tourists return withpressure superbug Activists at border under L T ERESA ENA H .TSOMASSONI UN in San Diego amika Capone thought she was making a smart motions were high as call by 75 traveling Mexinearly people to congreco foroutside bariatric surgery. gated a local comHer doctor had urged to have munity centerherwearing the procedure to reduce her outhiking boots and backpacks and of-control weight and blood prescarrying dozens of water jugs. sure.

But the her rallying husband’s health This was point for insurance cover the volunteers would joiningnot local immi$17,500 bill. After friend got the grant rights groupaBorder Angels surgery in Tijuana for the $4,000, on its latest trek into arid Capone decided to do the same.to Southern California desert Nearly fourwater months later, the leave food, and warm Arkansas is one of at least clothes forwoman migrants crossing the asouthern dozen U.S. residents who reborder. turned from surgeries in Tijuana The group has been organizing with rare and potentially thesea“water drops” for 20deadly years. strain of days bacteria resistant to But these — with political virtually antibiotics, say federtensions all over illegal immigration al Some the at ahealth boilingofficials. point and withinsimigroup recovered, Capone, 40, lar activists in but Arizona facing remains despite becriminal seriously charges —illthe work has ing treated with a barrage of become increasingly controverdrugs. sial.

If the as bacteria spread togathher Even the volunteers bloodstream, say,met it could ered at 7 a.m.,doctors they were with be fatal. antagonism.

“I’ve yet hadyou a patient “Hownotabout focuswith on zero options, but this isa aspasserby close as American citizens!”

I’ve had,” criticizing said RyanDemocrats Dare, an shouted, infectious-disease doctor the for helping “illegals” and at ignorUniversity for in Mediing people ofofArkansas color born the cal Sciences United States.College of Medicine in “No Littleone Rock is treating her. is who illegal!” responded The Tijuana outbreak, which a volunteer. includes one death, prompted the “This is not a left-wing issue!”

Centers for Disease Control and yelled another.

Prevention issue an unusual This is a to humanitarian issue, warning in January, travBorder Angels activisturging Jacqueline elers to avoid at to Grand Arellano had surgery explained the View Hospital, to eight of volunteers a fewlinked minutes earlier. the infections, until auPeople are dying in Mexican this desert, thorities confirm and children are its at safety. risk — Hosand pital officialssaid, did not return yet, Arellano people whocalls are seeking Nor did the providingcomment. basic humanitarian medical agencyare Weight aid alongtourism the border now Loss which books probeing Agents, criminalized. cedures there and at other hospiIn January, four volunteers tals. from a similar organization in The Tijuana cases Arizona, called No Morehighlight Deaths, the number of Ameriweregrowing convicted of misdemeanor cans getting antibiotic-resistant charges of abandonment of propinfections overseasa after travelerty and entering wildlife refing get medical care abroad. uge to without a permit after leavSome whoand were not traveling for ing food water in a remote medical procedures but fell ill national wildlife refuge infamous and went to foreign hospitals for migrant fatalities. have contracted such infecThealso Pima County medical extions. aminer has documented 137 miOfficials sayinthey anxious grant deaths thisare area since BY

T E

ANDREA APU MORALES GOMES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Humanitarian Americans seeking groups to making save money ‘water ondrops’ surgeries for in Mexicosay migrants contract government a potentially intimidation deadly is infection rising 2001, to prevent although suchNo pathogens More Deaths from gaining a foothold advocates say thein number the United is States higher. much because they are so difficult Each to treat. volunteer could receive upAccording to six months to Patients in federalBeyond prison Borders, and a $500a fine medical for crimes tourism that guidebook, Judge Bernardo 1.7 million P. Velasco Americans wrote traveled a to“national eroded other countries decision in to 2017 for medical maintain the Refuge care,inand its pristhat number tine nature.” is expected to increase.

Many, Five such otheras volunteers Capone, will travel go to save money. trial for similar Mexico charges is among in the top 10 destinations. coming months. OneWeight-loss of them, surgery, Scott Warren, in vitro is facing fertility additional procedurescharges felony and cosmetic for allegedly surgeryproare among food viding the most and shelter soughttotreattwo ments generally,migrants. undocumented according to the Medical WarrenTourism was arrested Association, Januarya U.S.-based 2018, just hours organization after Nowhose More members Deaths published include hospitals, a report about clinicians andPatrol’s Border insurance interference companies.in their There humanitarian is little data about aid work, infectious diseases along with a video related showing to medical Bortourism. der PatrolBut agents the CDC destroying has docuwamented ter jugs and several other outbreaks, supplies left including for migrants severe in the skin desert. infections among Geenadozens Jackson, of patients a wilderness who had cosmetic EMT who hassurgery volunteered in thewith Dominican the groupRepublic since 2012, in 2013 said and she 2017. Several believes Warren’s of the arrest infections was re-

taliation. were drug-resistant. In 2014, five New Enrique York residents Morones,contracted who foundQ fever, ed Border a flulike Angels illness in 1986, causedsaid by bacteria such legalfound action in for goats, providing sheep and cows, afteraid humanitarian getting alonginjections the borof fetal der is unprecedented. sheep cells in Germany.

The World “Never has there Health beenOrganizathis sort tionanti-humanitarian of considers the superbug work cliinfecting mate as Capone there has—been carbapenemthese last resistant two years,” Pseudomonas he said, attributing aeruginosa —shift the one toof President its three Trump’s highest priorities foronnew crackdown immigration. antibiotics.

Capone, whose forweight-loss Representatives U.S. Cussurgery toms and to Border reduce her Protection stomachdid by about not provide 80 percent comment. was on Oct. 8, said The sheday is still afterill.volunteers from NoThree Moredays Deaths after the were procedure found at Grand guilty, an official View, as from shethe waited Bureau in the Land of San Diego Management, airport for which her return flight, monitors public she lands, said her warned main incision Angels Border started to volunteers leak. Home that in Jonesboro, leaving gallons she got of water worse.inOver the the next desert could few be weeks, considered she said, littershe was hospitalized ing, said Tanya Benitez, twice and thedevelmain oped an abscess volunteer leadingthat thisdoctors group. had She to cutthe said open official and drain. told them that Border By then, Angels tests would showed need she to had call no ordinary the bureau before infection. future Thehikes Arkanto sas Department report the exact of Health coordinates told Capone they where it waswere the first leaving time they sup-

Volunteers After havingwith the bariatric surgery nonprofit Border in Tijuana, Angels walk Tamika Jan. 19 Capone contracted through a remote a serious area in Jacumba antibioticHot resistantCalif., Springs, superbug.

“I’m at a breaking carrying water they point,” plan to she leave said. for “I’m so scared.” migrants crossing the nearby Mexican border.

plies,seen had something this organism. they said they had “They never werebeen worried asked about to othdo er people catching it, especially before. other Morones medical is staff,” now planning Capone reto called.with meet “Theythe told Bureau me if IofseeLand any doctor, I have to Management, which inform didthem.” not provide CDC’s comment Antimicrobial for this story, Resisto tance Laboratory figure out how his Network organization knew of three can continue patients providing with the humanisame infection. tarian aid along But there the border was nowithdiscernible out getting pattern in trouble. until Capone’s was “We reported plan in to mid-November stay within the — it wasbut law, the second we also linked believe to Grand that View Hospital. aid is never illehumanitarian gal,” Capone’s he said.condition, “We’re not meanstopwhile, grew worse. In mid-Deping.” cember, Bordershe Angels was referred volunteers to Dare, said the Little they started Rock noticing specialist. significant He said her only efforts to option deter their was work colistin, in the an antibiotic last year. Adiscovered month ago,ina helicopthe late 1940s ter circled thatfor is atseldom least 15used, minutes because it above a group causesof kidney volunteers and nerve condamage. aBut ducting water the drug drophas before resur-a faced asPatrol Border a last-line agenttreatment met them for on multi-drug-resistant foot asking about their organisms. activity, said Onthe hergroup’s secondleader, day Kirsten on the antibiotic, Zittlau, an Capone’s immigration lips attorney swelled.

Her tongue who volunteered and facewith went Border numb.

“I got tofor Angels themore pointthan where twoI years. could barely The helicopter talk,” shewas said. soShe close, hadZitto stop treatment. tlau said, group members couldn’t Now she hearhas eachaother hole talk. in her stomach “They’rethat tryingrequires to do anything daily cleaning. to intimidate, Capone to scare wearsus, gloves to stop to clean us from herproviding wound, then humanitarian throws her used said aid,” bandages Zittlau.in the trash outside.

LastHer March, husband a Border and teenage Patrol daughter agent asked are not volunteers at risk, nortois the see general their identification, public; the strain saying of bacthat teria does “illegal aliens” not spread had been in spotted the air.

She hassaid nearby, incurred James Cordero, more than who $30,000 was leading in medical the group. billsHe related says to her the agent infection. was searching for undocumented Now health migrants officials in in Arkanthe sas andbecause group other states most are Border contactAning infected gels volunteers patients are Latino. to tell them Ultithey may mately, thebe agent at risk let the for group diseases go that can be without showing transmitted identification by blood or other after Cordero bodily repeatedly fluids, such askedas if HIV, he was hepatitis being detained.

B and hepatitis C, because “We have equipment to make sure in Tijuana we stay may notour within havelegal been rights properly sosterwe ilized. end don’t Officials up in are the same urgingsituapatientsastoNo tion talkMore to their Deaths,” clinicians said about additional Cordero, who has led screening more than or testing.

50 water drops.

“I’m at Angels Border a breaking leadspoint,” hikes near Caponeborder the said. “I’m every so scared. other month.

I don’t want hikes Their to lose aremy open lifeto for the this. publicI don’t want because it’s important to have my for people family suffer to see because what is Ihappening chose to go here, to Mexico.” n Cordero said. n

119 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2019

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Medical tourists return withpressure superbug Activists at border under L T ERESA ENA H .TSOMASSONI UN in San Diego amika Capone thought she was making a smart motions were high as call by 75 traveling Mexinearly people to congreco foroutside bariatric surgery. gated a local comHer doctor had urged to have munity centerherwearing the procedure to reduce her outhiking boots and backpacks and of-control weight and blood prescarrying dozens of water jugs. sure.

But the her rallying husband’s health This was point for insurance cover the volunteers would joiningnot local immi$17,500 bill. After friend got the grant rights groupaBorder Angels surgery in Tijuana for the $4,000, on its latest trek into arid Capone decided to do the same.to Southern California desert Nearly fourwater months later, the leave food, and warm Arkansas is one of at least clothes forwoman migrants crossing the asouthern dozen U.S. residents who reborder. turned from surgeries in Tijuana The group has been organizing with rare and potentially thesea“water drops” for 20deadly years. strain of days bacteria resistant to But these — with political virtually antibiotics, say federtensions all over illegal immigration al Some the at ahealth boilingofficials. point and withinsimigroup recovered, Capone, 40, lar activists in but Arizona facing remains despite becriminal seriously charges —illthe work has ing treated with a barrage of become increasingly controverdrugs. sial.

If the as bacteria spread togathher Even the volunteers bloodstream, say,met it could ered at 7 a.m.,doctors they were with be fatal. antagonism.

“I’ve yet hadyou a patient “Hownotabout focuswith on zero options, but this isa aspasserby close as American citizens!”

I’ve had,” criticizing said RyanDemocrats Dare, an shouted, infectious-disease doctor the for helping “illegals” and at ignorUniversity for in Mediing people ofofArkansas color born the cal Sciences United States.College of Medicine in “No Littleone Rock is treating her. is who illegal!” responded The Tijuana outbreak, which a volunteer. includes one death, prompted the “This is not a left-wing issue!”

Centers for Disease Control and yelled another.

Prevention issue an unusual This is a to humanitarian issue, warning in January, travBorder Angels activisturging Jacqueline elers to avoid at to Grand Arellano had surgery explained the View Hospital, to eight of volunteers a fewlinked minutes earlier. the infections, until auPeople are dying in Mexican this desert, thorities confirm and children are its at safety. risk — Hosand pital officialssaid, did not return yet, Arellano people whocalls are seeking Nor did the providingcomment. basic humanitarian medical agencyare Weight aid alongtourism the border now Loss which books probeing Agents, criminalized. cedures there and at other hospiIn January, four volunteers tals. from a similar organization in The Tijuana cases Arizona, called No Morehighlight Deaths, the number of Ameriweregrowing convicted of misdemeanor cans getting antibiotic-resistant charges of abandonment of propinfections overseasa after travelerty and entering wildlife refing get medical care abroad. uge to without a permit after leavSome whoand were not traveling for ing food water in a remote medical procedures but fell ill national wildlife refuge infamous and went to foreign hospitals for migrant fatalities. have contracted such infecThealso Pima County medical extions. aminer has documented 137 miOfficials sayinthey anxious grant deaths thisare area since BY

T E

ANDREA APU MORALES GOMES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Humanitarian Americans seeking groups to making save money ‘water ondrops’ surgeries for in Mexicosay migrants contract government a potentially intimidation deadly is infection rising 2001, to prevent although suchNo pathogens More Deaths from gaining a foothold advocates say thein number the United is States higher. much because they are so difficult Each to treat. volunteer could receive upAccording to six months to Patients in federalBeyond prison Borders, and a $500a fine medical for crimes tourism that guidebook, Judge Bernardo 1.7 million P. Velasco Americans wrote traveled a to“national eroded other countries decision in to 2017 for medical maintain the Refuge care,inand its pristhat number tine nature.” is expected to increase.

Many, Five such otheras volunteers Capone, will travel go to save money. trial for similar Mexico charges is among in the top 10 destinations. coming months. OneWeight-loss of them, surgery, Scott Warren, in vitro is facing fertility additional procedurescharges felony and cosmetic for allegedly surgeryproare among food viding the most and shelter soughttotreattwo ments generally,migrants. undocumented according to the Medical WarrenTourism was arrested Association, Januarya U.S.-based 2018, just hours organization after Nowhose More members Deaths published include hospitals, a report about clinicians andPatrol’s Border insurance interference companies.in their There humanitarian is little data about aid work, infectious diseases along with a video related showing to medical Bortourism. der PatrolBut agents the CDC destroying has docuwamented ter jugs and several other outbreaks, supplies left including for migrants severe in the skin desert. infections among Geenadozens Jackson, of patients a wilderness who had cosmetic EMT who hassurgery volunteered in thewith Dominican the groupRepublic since 2012, in 2013 said and she 2017. Several believes Warren’s of the arrest infections was re-

taliation. were drug-resistant. In 2014, five New Enrique York residents Morones,contracted who foundQ fever, ed Border a flulike Angels illness in 1986, causedsaid by bacteria such legalfound action in for goats, providing sheep and cows, afteraid humanitarian getting alonginjections the borof fetal der is unprecedented. sheep cells in Germany.

The World “Never has there Health beenOrganizathis sort tionanti-humanitarian of considers the superbug work cliinfecting mate as Capone there has—been carbapenemthese last resistant two years,” Pseudomonas he said, attributing aeruginosa —shift the one toof President its three Trump’s highest priorities foronnew crackdown immigration. antibiotics.

Capone, whose forweight-loss Representatives U.S. Cussurgery toms and to Border reduce her Protection stomachdid by about not provide 80 percent comment. was on Oct. 8, said The sheday is still afterill.volunteers from NoThree Moredays Deaths after the were procedure found at Grand guilty, an official View, as from shethe waited Bureau in the Land of San Diego Management, airport for which her return flight, monitors public she lands, said her warned main incision Angels Border started to volunteers leak. Home that in Jonesboro, leaving gallons she got of water worse.inOver the the next desert could few be weeks, considered she said, littershe was hospitalized ing, said Tanya Benitez, twice and thedevelmain oped an abscess volunteer leadingthat thisdoctors group. had She to cutthe said open official and drain. told them that Border By then, Angels tests would showed need she to had call no ordinary the bureau before infection. future Thehikes Arkanto sas Department report the exact of Health coordinates told Capone they where it waswere the first leaving time they sup-

Volunteers After havingwith the bariatric surgery nonprofit Border in Tijuana, Angels walk Tamika Jan. 19 Capone contracted through a remote a serious area in Jacumba antibioticHot resistantCalif., Springs, superbug.

“I’m at a breaking carrying water they point,” plan to she leave said. for “I’m so scared.” migrants crossing the nearby Mexican border.

plies,seen had something this organism. they said they had “They never werebeen worried asked about to othdo er people catching it, especially before. other Morones medical is staff,” now planning Capone reto called.with meet “Theythe told Bureau me if IofseeLand any doctor, I have to Management, which inform didthem.” not provide CDC’s comment Antimicrobial for this story, Resisto tance Laboratory figure out how his Network organization knew of three can continue patients providing with the humanisame infection. tarian aid along But there the border was nowithdiscernible out getting pattern in trouble. until Capone’s was “We reported plan in to mid-November stay within the — it wasbut law, the second we also linked believe to Grand that View Hospital. aid is never illehumanitarian gal,” Capone’s he said.condition, “We’re not meanstopwhile, grew worse. In mid-Deping.” cember, Bordershe Angels was referred volunteers to Dare, said the Little they started Rock noticing specialist. significant He said her only efforts to option deter their was work colistin, in the an antibiotic last year. Adiscovered month ago,ina helicopthe late 1940s ter circled thatfor is atseldom least 15used, minutes because it above a group causesof kidney volunteers and nerve condamage. aBut ducting water the drug drophas before resur-a faced asPatrol Border a last-line agenttreatment met them for on multi-drug-resistant foot asking about their organisms. activity, said Onthe hergroup’s secondleader, day Kirsten on the antibiotic, Zittlau, an Capone’s immigration lips attorney swelled.

Her tongue who volunteered and facewith went Border numb.

“I got tofor Angels themore pointthan where twoI years. could barely The helicopter talk,” shewas said. soShe close, hadZitto stop treatment. tlau said, group members couldn’t Now she hearhas eachaother hole talk. in her stomach “They’rethat tryingrequires to do anything daily cleaning. to intimidate, Capone to scare wearsus, gloves to stop to clean us from herproviding wound, then humanitarian throws her used said aid,” bandages Zittlau.in the trash outside.

LastHer March, husband a Border and teenage Patrol daughter agent asked are not volunteers at risk, nortois the see general their identification, public; the strain saying of bacthat teria does “illegal aliens” not spread had been in spotted the air.

She hassaid nearby, incurred James Cordero, more than who $30,000 was leading in medical the group. billsHe related says to her the agent infection. was searching for undocumented Now health migrants officials in in Arkanthe sas andbecause group other states most are Border contactAning infected gels volunteers patients are Latino. to tell them Ultithey may mately, thebe agent at risk let the for group diseases go that can be without showing transmitted identification by blood or other after Cordero bodily repeatedly fluids, such askedas if HIV, he was hepatitis being detained.

B and hepatitis C, because “We have equipment to make sure in Tijuana we stay may notour within havelegal been rights properly sosterwe ilized. end don’t Officials up in are the same urgingsituapatientsastoNo tion talkMore to their Deaths,” clinicians said about additional Cordero, who has led screening more than or testing.

50 water drops.

“I’m at Angels Border a breaking leadspoint,” hikes near Caponeborder the said. “I’m every so scared. other month.

I don’t want hikes Their to lose aremy open lifeto for the this. publicI don’t want because it’s important to have my for people family suffer to see because what is Ihappening chose to go here, to Mexico.” n Cordero said. n

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POLITICS

Health care as a campaign weapon BY

A NNIE L INSKEY

W

hen Sen. Kamala D. Harris spoke about health care at a CNN forum this past week, she threw her support behind a Medicare-for-all plan, sounding similar to other candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

But when pressed by a moderator for more details, the California senator explained the idea in a way most Democrats avoid: She acknowledged “Medicare-for-all” also means private insurance for none.

“Let’s eliminate all of that,” Harris said, referring to private health insurance. “Let’s move on.”

In a single flourish, Harris drew attention to the fact that the Medicare-for-all plans backed by 16 senators — including five potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination — would in effect remove private health insurance from the estimated 251 million Americans who use it, broadly disrupting the industry and the way Americans experience the medical system.

The concept drew quick rebukes from Republicans — and billionaire coffee magnate Howard Shultz, who is considering an independent presidential bid — showing how easily the idea can be weaponized politically, especially as candidates are increasingly pressed for specifics.

“That’s not American,” Schultz, the former Starbucks chief executive, said on CBS News. “What’s next? What industry are we going to abolish next? The coffee industry?”

The details of how exactly to overhaul the American healthcare system have long befuddled presidential candidates — and presidents — of both parties. The issues are complicated and difficult to reduce to sound bites.

On the campaign trail, candidates often hear complaints from voters frustrated by rising drug prices, staggering and widely inconsistent medical bills, skyrocketing deductibles, unaffordable premiums, and difficult-to-con-

CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic candidates face political risks and policy challenges when pressed on specifics quer bureaucracies, creating pressure to offer a sweeping overhaul plan.

But the candidates’ slogans inevitably prove difficult to implement. And often it’s not exactly clear what those slogans meant to begin wtih.

Republicans tried repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act but could never agree on how to replace it, resulting in a politically embarrassing failure. Before that President Barack Obama pledged that “if you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan” when selling the ACA, a comment later widely criticized as misleading.

The contours of the health-care debate have also shifted radically.

Just six years ago when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced his first Medicare-for-all legislation, it attracted zero co-sponsors.

After making it a central part of his insurgent 2016 presidential campaign, the idea became more popular in Congress. A similar Sanders bill introduced in 2017

drew 15 co-sponsors. Democrats in the Senate who are running for president or considering a bid who have signed on to the bill include Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Cory Booker (N.J.), along with Harris.

Sanders, who is also considering a presidential bid, hasn’t yet re-introduced his bill, but plans to, according to Josh Miller-Lewis, a spokesman for the senator.

Sanders’s legislation would create a new government-run program that would cover all Americans. The new system, which eliminates deductibles and premiums, would be mandatory after a four-year transition. Private insurers would have a small role: They could only cover procedures that the government system refused to preform.

Harris is the first of the top-tier 2020 Democratic candidates to be pressed on the details of the Medicare-for-all bill. “It will totally eliminate private insurance, so for people out there who like their insurance, they don’t get to keep

Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) speaks to reporters at a CNN forum on Monday. There, she drew attention to the fact that Medicarefor-all plans would in effect remove private insurance.

it?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked at Monday’s event.

Harris answered, “The idea is that everyone gets access to medical care.”

Harris added that patients would be able to avoid insurers’ long approval process and voluminous paperwork.

The plan is estimated to cost $32.6 trillion by 2031, according to the Mercatus Center’s Charles Blahous.

Candidates can point to evidence that there is popular support for the idea. Fifty-six percent of respondents backed a Medicare-for-all plan, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey. The same polls showed 42 percent opposed it.

But enthusiasm for the idea plummets when respondents are told that the plan would largely eliminate private health-insurance companies: Only 37 percent favor eliminating private insurance.

And nearly 70 percent of those surveyed in a Gallup report released in December said they think their health coverage is either “good” or “excellent.”

Roughly 156 million Americans obtain health insurance from their employer via a private plan, according to 2017 figures from the Kaiser Family Foundation. An additional 20.5 million buy their own private insurance.

But that’s not the full picture: Roughly 20.4 million Americans use a private insurer via the Medicare Advantage program, and 54.6 million who are on Medicaid are using private plans, according to the foundation.

About 28.5 million Americans were uninsured in 2017, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Experience suggests voters, despite their complaints about the health system, often react negatively to proposals for sweeping change, possibly because of uncertainty about what would follow.

The gap between the public’s support for Medicare-for-all and its understanding of the details could explain why some Democrats are careful when discuss-

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POLITICS ing health care.

Warren didn’t include Medicare-for-all in her stump speech on her inaugural trip to Iowa after announcing her presidential bid.

Asked why, she played down the omission. “No one’s raised it,” Warren said.

When asked by a reporter on Tuesday about her position, she pointed to her own proposal on health care — one that envisions the continued existence of a health insurance industry. “It’s a consumer protection bill around health insurance,” Warren said, noting that it requires health insurance companies to offer coverage that is at least as good as the coverage offered by Medicare.

Ian Sams, a spokesman for Harris, said she could support an overhaul that preserves the health insurance industry in some form.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) plans to hold a hearing on Medicare-for-all type plans.

“As we continue to consider what a Medicare-for-All proposal could look like, I believe the potential role private insurance could play is an important part of that discussion,” Yarmuth said in a statement.

Another area Democrats have downplayed is the insurance employees whose jobs would be at risk. Roughly 512,000 Americans work directly for health insurance companies, and another 900,000 work in closely related industries, according to an estimate by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group.

“I think we could never afford that; you’re talking about trillions and trillions of dollars,” said Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor and potential 2020 candidate, said of Medicare-forall while visiting a factory in New Hampshire on Tuesday. He added that the idea would “bankrupt” the country.

Supporters, however, point out that many industrialized countries have managed to implement some kind of government-run health plan without financial calamity.

“This isn’t just about covering everybody,” explained MillerLewis, the Sanders spokesman.

“There are millions and millions of people who have health insurance who are still going deeply in debt. It’s a huge problem.” n

KLMNO WEEKLY

Trump Organization admits gaps in vetting worker status

BY J ONATHAN O ’ C ONNELL, E LISE V IEBECK AND T RACY J AN

I

n fhe first acknowledgment

by President Trump’s private business that it has failed to fully check the work status of all its employees, the Trump Organization said this past week it plans to institute E-Verify, a federal program that allows employers to check whether new hires are legally eligible to work in the United States, in every one of its golf clubs, hotels and resorts.

The announcement follows a Washington Post report that a Trump Organization club in Westchester County, N.Y., employed undocumented immigrants for years.

“We are instituting E-Verify on all of our properties as soon as possible,” Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said Tuesday, acknowledging that the company uses the program only at some locations. “We’re starting with the golf properties, and we are going to be doing all of them.”

During the 2016 campaign, Trump claimed that he used E-Verify across his properties. At the time, he called for the program to be mandatory for all employers.

The decision by the Trump Organization is not likely to head off calls for an investigation by congressional Democrats, who on Tuesday began gathering signatures for a letter to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray seeking a probe into whether the president’s company broke the law by hiring undocumented workers.

The company’s new embrace of E-Verify highlights the sharp disconnect between Trump’s hard-line rhetoric on undocumented immigrants — including his dark warnings that they threaten the country’s safety and steal American jobs — and what

CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN/THE WASHINGTON POST

Two undocumented immigrants who were recently fired from Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, N.Y., show pay stubs.

appears to have been a lax approach by his own business to checking the legal status of its workers.

The Post reported that about a dozen undocumented workers from Latin America employed by the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County — roughly half its wintertime staff — were fired amid new scrutiny of its hiring practices.

The purge followed what Eric Trump told The Post was “a broad effort to identify any employee who has given false and fraudulent documents to unlawfully gain employment.”

Many of those fired had worked for the club for years, including an Ecuadoran maintenance worker who said he had been employed for nearly two decades. Several workers said that supervisors did not closely scrutinize their employment documents and, in at least one case, urged an employee to get better fake papers.

Another group of undocumented workers employed by Trump’s golf course in New Jersey was also fired in recent weeks — including one woman who says a supervisor helped her procure fake documents.

Both clubs, like six other Trump golf courses, are not enrolled in the E-Verify system,

according to a federal database that tracks employers that use it, and confirmed by Eric Trump.

Several Trump properties, including one in North Carolina, do use the system.

President Trump still owns his businesses, which include 16 golf courses and 11 hotels around the world. He has given day-to-day control of the businesses to his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

In an interview with The Post Tuesday, the president declined to answer why the Westchester County club employed undocumented workers and only recently fired them.

“This is why we have to fix our immigration system,” Trump said in a phone interview. “I am a big proponent for allowing people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally.”

The president did not respond directly when asked why he didn’t use E-Verify widely at his properties.

On Tuesday, Eric Trump told The Post that the company did not previously enroll all its resorts and golf courses in E-Verify because the program is not required by law in most states, many competitors do not use it, and the system is not foolproof. n

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POLITICS

An increasingly adversarial Congress

BY S EUNG M IN K IM, S EAN S ULLIVAN AND J OSH D AWSEY

S

enior Republicans are warning him away from a national emergency declaration to build a border wall. The Senate directly rebuked his national security policy in Syria and Afghanistan. And Democratic committee chairs are threatening subpoenas for his top officials.

For an administration that had largely been accommodated by Republican lawmakers during its first two years, President Trump is facing an increasingly adversarial Congress eager to assert itself on matters of foreign policy and oversight.

Senate Republicans — fresh off a bruising fight over the longest government shutdown in history — are sending fresh signals of discontent, challenging the administration on foreign policy and imploring it to stay out, for now, of talks to avert another shutdown this month.

And in the House, where Democrats came into power largely on a promise to serve as a check on the president, several Cabinet secretaries have already declined to testify before committees on contentious topics such as the impact of the shutdown and the administration’s abandoned policy of separating migrant families.

In one example, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) sent a blistering letter this past week to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for not appearing before the committee to discuss the administration’s border security policies.

“If she says she’s not coming, we’ll subpoena her to the committee,” Thompson said in an interview Wednesday. “We need to hear from her. If border security is important, we need to hear her vision.”

Testimony from top administration officials is just one area where Congress and Trump will clash frequently over the next two years, as the White House braces

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

Empowered Democrats, exasperated GOP ready to challenge Trump — and staffs up — for an onslaught of investigations and potential subpoenas from committee chairs hungry to exercise oversight. One powerful chairman, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), has already launched a probe into what he called “grave breaches” within the security-clearance process at the White House and on Trump’s transition team shortly after his November 2016 victory.

In private, Trump has told aides he wants to take an aggressive posture toward such oversight — including fighting any effort by Congress to obtain his tax returns all the way to the Supreme Court. He has told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that if House Democrats begin investigating his administration, he will

not negotiate with her on other issues, according to a White House official and a Democratic aide who heard the comments.

Yet at the same time, Trump has sought to strike a friendly tone with Pelosi, telling her that she is “great” and “terrific” in a phone call this past week and promising to work on infrastructure and prescription drug pricing, according to an aide with direct knowledge of the call.

For now, the nascent Democratic efforts to exercise oversight have largely been met with resistance.

One Cabinet official — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — is scheduled to appear before a House committee on March 14 to testify about the decision to in-

House Democrats are demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other administration officials testify on the Hill. One committee chairman has threatened to subpoena Nielsen.

clude a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census.

But Ross appears to be the exception. In addition to Nielsen, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar have declined invitations to appear before Congress. Azar and Mnuchin have instead offered to send other senior department officials to testify.

A DHS spokesman said Thompson’s initial request for Nielsen to appear Feb. 6 was “unworkable” and the secretary offered alternate dates later in February. But Thompson and a committee spokesman said the alternates were during the week of Feb. 18, when Congress is scheduled to be on recess and out of Washington.

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J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thompson said Nielsen has until the end of February to appear voluntarily in front of his committee before he begins considering a subpoena for her testimony.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans asserted their independence from Trump on several fronts this past week — a notable shift from a conference that spent much of the past two months marching in lockstep with the president in the standoff over a border wall that resulted in a 35-day partial government shutdown.

On Wednesday, some Senate GOP leaders rebutted Trump’s latest criticism of his own intelligence officials, which the president issued in a tweet.

“I would prefer the president would stay off Twitter,” said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the chamber’s second-ranking Republican.

“And, you know, particularly with regard to these important national security issues where, you know, you’ve got people who are experts and have a background and are professionals.”

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.), another top Republican, said, “This is an intel community that the president has largely put in place. And I have confidence in them. And I think he should, too.”

On Thursday, the vast majority

of Senate Republicans backed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a rebuke of Trump’s rationale for withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan, voting to declare that the Islamic State’s continued operations in both countries poses a serious threat to the United States military.

The measure was presented as an amendment to a greater Middle East policy bill that has yet to pass the Senate and will face challenges in the House, particularly due to a provision regarding Israel-focused boycotts. But the vote is nonetheless an unmistakable sign of Republicans’ growing frustrations with the president, particularly when it comes to some of the decisions he has made as commander in chief.

Last month, 11 Republicans sided with Democrats to try to stop the administration from lifting sanctions on Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Behind the scenes, administration aides whipped votes fervently to make sure the push failed. “It would have been an embarrassment,” one administration official said.

In making his case with GOP senators, Mnuchin tried to cast

Deripaska as a bad actor but someone who had fulfilled the terms of his sanctions. Mnuchin said if the United States didn’t follow through on lifting terms when the sanctions were met, it would be impossible to get others to follow the requirements.

When it comes to domestic policy, Republican senators are also sending some warning shots in Trump’s direction. Twice in his weekly news conference on Tuesday, McConnell underscored the need to reach an agreement on border security that both averts another shutdown in February and prevents Trump from concluding that he should declare a national emergency.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), a top McConnell confidant, said he is opposed to the declaration of a national emergency in part because of the precedent it would set and what it might empower a future Democratic president to do down the line.

“I think it would be a mistake,” Cornyn said. “There’d be a race to see who could get to the courthouse first to try to get an injunction. So, that means it would be tied up probably for the next couple years, sort of like his travel ban.”

Two senior GOP aides said

Trump told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.) that if Democrats begin to investigate his administration, he will refuse to negotiate on other issues, according to a White House official and a Democratic aide who heard the comments.

KLMNO WEEKLY

Trump and other top officials have continued to float a national emergency declaration to secure money for a border wall — though there is “widespread resistance” to it within the Senate, one of these people said.

Some Republican senators are urging the president to keep his distance from a 17-member committee tasked with coming up with a border security deal and leave it to lawmakers to haggle over the specifics. Republicans on the bipartisan committee were slated to go to the White House this past week for discussions on averting a shutdown, although that meeting appears to have been called off.

“Let us do our work,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). “Let the committee work through their process. You know, the president’s made his position clear.”

On Thursday, Trump offered a pessimistic assessment of the committee’s work.

In a spate of morning tweets, Trump wrote that Republicans involved in bipartisan House-Senate negotiations are “wasting their time.”

“Democrats, despite all of the evidence, proof and Caravans coming, are not going to give money to build the DESPERATELY needed WALL,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I’ve got you covered.

Wall is already being built, I don’t expect much help!”

There could be further scrutiny from the GOP-led Senate in the coming weeks and months as they take up confirmations for key Cabinet posts. One particular nominee who is likely to undergo rigorous questioning from Republicans is whoever is selected to replace former defense secretary Jim Mattis, whose abrupt announcement in December to leave the administration over disagreements with Trump on troop withdrawals and other policy matters alarmed many GOP senators.

“Getting someone through the confirmation process would be more challenging now,” Rounds, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said of Mattis’s successor. “They’re going to ask questions, and they’re going to want good answers about independence and about whether or not they feel comfortable in sharing good information with the president and how they would respond.” n

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