CHINA/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump on Monday [12-3-18] cast his trade truce with President Xi Jinping of China as a success, promising rapid benefits for American farmers and automakers. But the deal includes no concrete commitments, deep divisions remain and a staunch China skeptic, Robert Lighthizer, will lead the American negotiating team. • Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, went to Ecuador in 2017 to talk to the incoming president about Chinese investment. Then talk turned to the possibility of handing Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, over to the United States. Nothing came of it. • Of all the Trump associates who have come under scrutiny in the Russia investigation, his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has undertaken perhaps the riskiest and most surprising legal strategy. Here’s why Mr. Cohen has decided to confess to a litany of crimes. • The president used Twitter on Monday to accuse Mr. Cohen of lying under oath, saying he should receive the maximum jail sentence. And he praised another former adviser for saying he would never testify against him.”
–Margaret Kramer and Isabella Grullón Paz, “On Politics: Trump Calls Trade Truce a Success, but Doubts Linger,” The New York Times online, December 4, 2018