NIKKI HALEY/RUSSIA/SANCTIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “A consensus emerged Tuesday [4-18-18] at the White House and Mar-a-Lago about how to clean up the administration’s suddenly muddled plans to crack down on Russia: Blame Nikki Haley. Several administration officials said the US ambassador to the United Nations got ahead of President Donald Trump’s decision-making when she hit the Sunday [4-16-18] talk show circuit and said the US would level new sanctions the next day targeting Russian companies that facilitated the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons program. The sanctions have yet to come. ‘She got ahead of the curve,’ National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday near the President’s Florida estate, a day after a report claiming Trump ‘put the brakes’ on plans for new Russia sanctions… ‘There might have been some momentary confusion about that.’ Haley struck back with a stunning statement later in the day that opened a new rift in the administration and raised questions about the White House’s explanation of her comments. ‘With all due respect, I don’t get confused,’ she said in a statement obtained by CNN’s Jake Tapper. A White House official said Kudlow apologized to Haley for saying that she might have been confused.”
–Jeremy Diamond, Kevin Liptak, Kaitlan Collins and Elise Labott, “Haley’s response to WH blame over sanctions: ‘I don’t get confused’,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, April 18, 2018 8:07 am