 |  | | Washington, Fast. | | | | | | | Good Monday morning. Congress (well, the Senate) is back; vaccination rates in the U.S. have fallen off during Biden's "last mile"; and Supreme Court justices are sprinting to wrap up their work this month…This is the Power Up newsletter – thanks for waking up with us. | | | At the White House BON VOYAGE: The Biden administration is seeking to revamp the U.S.'s reputation with allies in various pockets of the world this week as President Biden and Vice President Harris are set to meet with world leaders whose relationships with the U.S. were left bruised after four wrenching years with former president Donald Trump. - Harris touched down in Guatemala on Sunday and will stop in Mexico on Monday evening for her first foreign trip in office, where she's expected to outline the administration's plans to remedy the "root causes" of migration from Central America to the U.S.
- Biden will head to the U.K. on Wednesday for a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the G-7 summit in Cornwall. He'll head to Belgium on June 14 to participate in the NATO Summit, followed by a stop in Brussels for the U.S.-EU Summit. The president will wrap his trip in Geneva where he'll hold his first bilateral with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump's first meeting with leaders of the G-7 pitted the U.S. against our top allies over several issues, including Trump's refusal to endorse the Paris Climate Accord. And his first visit with NATO leaders in 2017 was marked by forceful handshakes, a shove of Montenegro's prime minister, acerbic criticisms of the alliance, and an initial refusal to endorse Article 5 of the NATO treaty. It's unlikely Biden will make the same shocking headlines, but whether he can fully repair the damage inflicted during four years of Trump remains to be seen. Regardless, Biden made clear in an op-ed for The Washington Post over the weekend that he intends on trying:  A sign is pictured at South West Coast path in Carbis Bay, ahead of the G-7 summit, in Cornwall, Britain (REUTERS/Tom Nicholson) | - "In this moment of global uncertainty, as the world still grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this trip is about realizing America's renewed commitment to our allies and partners, and demonstrating the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age," Biden wrote.
- "This is a defining question of our time: Can democracies come together to deliver real results for our people in a rapidly changing world? Will the Democratic alliances and institutions that shaped so much of the last century prove their capacity against modern-day threats and adversaries? I believe the answer is yes. And this week in Europe, we have the chance to prove it."
Those expecting high drama from the visit are likely to be disappointed but foreign policy experts are already skeptical of Biden's ability to successfully heal some of what they view as more lasting wounds: - "Don't underestimate the Trump years as a shock to the E.U.," Rosa Balfour, the director of Carnegie Europe, told the New York Times's Steven Erlanger. "There is the shadow of his return and the E.U. will be left in the cold again. So the E.U. is more cautious in embracing U.S. demands."
- World leaders fear "that it can happen again — that America has changed, and that Mr. Biden is 'an intermezzo' between more populist, nationalist presidents, said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, vice president of the German Marshall Fund," Erlanger reports.
And Trump's absence doesn't mean that policy disagreements between the U.S. and Europe have also disappeared. The European Union has resisted efforts to waive intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines and submitted an alternative plan last week "to the World Trade Organization that it believes will more effectively broaden supply of coronavirus vaccines than the intellectual property (IP) rights waiver backed by the United States," Reuters's Philip Blenkinsop reports. - The withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan is also likely to be a tense topic of conversation: " … German officials in particular believe that Mr. Biden's decision to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by Sept. 11 was made unilaterally in the old pattern, with Washington deciding and the allies following along, said [Jana Puglierin, the Berlin director of the European Council on Foreign Relations]," Erlanger reports.
- 'Us-or-them'?: European allies have also refrained from joining the Trump — and now the Biden administration's — tough line on China. During his visit in March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned "that the West needed to show authoritarian states that democracy was superior," per Reuters's Robin Emmott. But Blinken told reporters that the U.S. "won't force allies into an 'us-or-them' choice with China."
Some of the administration's policies, however, have already been well received by allies overseas: "The G-7 group of advanced economies announced a historic accord to set a minimum global corporate tax rate on Saturday, taking a first step to reverse a four-decade decline in the taxes paid by multinational corporations," our colleagues Jeff Stein and Antonia Noori Farzan reported over the weekend. - "The deal reached at the G-7 meeting in London by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. is a major breakthrough for the Biden administration's efforts to enact a floor on the taxes paid by corporations worldwide."
- "It's an early and quick win for Yellen and Treasury, and it's sort of remarkable," Steve Rosenthal, a tax expert at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think-tank, told Jeff and Antonia. "This has been lingering for years and years — though of course Trump did not believe in multinationalism — and to start these negotiations in January and have a tentative agreement in June is pretty impressive."
As for the day-long summit between Biden and Putin, an official familiar with the meeting told our colleague Matt Viser that a range of topics are expected to be discussed "including nuclear proliferation, Russian interference in U.S. elections, climate change and the coronavirus pandemic." - "Biden is expected to raise concerns about Russian troops massing at the Ukrainian border, as well as Belarus, a Russian ally, recently forcing a civilian jetliner to land so it could arrest Roman Protasevich, an opposition journalist on board," per Viser.
- "At the same time, I have also imposed meaningful consequences for behaviors that violate U.S. sovereignty, including interference in our Democratic elections. And President Putin knows that I will not hesitate to respond to future harmful activities. When we meet, I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and like-minded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity," Biden added.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Biden to continue efforts to block Nord Stream 2, a Russia-to-Germany pipeline that Ukraine has deemed a national security threat. In an interview with Axios's Jonathan Swan, Zelensky also asked Biden for a meeting before the June 16 bilat with Putin.
 Harris waves with Guatemala's Minister of Foreign Affairs Pedro Brolo upon her arrival in Guatemala City on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) | Harris, meanwhile, is highlighting the Biden administration's push to address mass migration from Central America's Northern Triangle region to the U.S. with "pledges for hundreds of thousands of coronavirus vaccine doses, $310 million in regional humanitarian aid, and a $4 billion long-term plan to boost development and security across Central America," our colleagues Nick Miroff, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Kevin Sieff report. - "Those sweeteners may be used to offset what are expected to be tougher messages about battling corruption and upholding democratic norms."
- Harris is expected to announce "new measures to fight smuggling and trafficking, and hopes to announce additional anti-corruption efforts as well on Monday, a senior administration official said," per the Associated Press's Alexandra Jaffe and Christopher Sherman.
- "Corruption really does sap the the wealth of any country, and in Central America is at a scale where it is a large percentage of GDP across the region," special envoy Ricardo Zuniga told Jaffe and Sherman.
Harris's challenge?: "After years of the United States flooding Central America with aid, migration from the region soared in 2019 and is on the upswing once more," the New York Times's Natalie Kitroeff and Michael Shear report. - "Here in Guatemala, which has received more than $1.6 billion in American aid over the last decade, poverty rates have risen, malnutrition has become a national crisis, corruption is unbridled and the country is sending more unaccompanied children to the United States than anywhere else in the world."
- "That is the stark reality facing Ms. Harris as she assumes responsibility for expanding the same kind of aid programs that have struggled to stem migration in the past. It is a challenge that initially frustrated her top political aides, some of whom viewed the assignment from Mr. Biden as one that would inevitably set her up for failure in the first months of her tenure."
| | | The campaign REMEMBER HIM?: "A day after being suspended from Facebook for a total of two years, former president Donald Trump returned to the political arena Saturday night, furthering election lies and returning to a cynical and dark view of America," NPR's Domenico Montanaro reports. - "When he spoke to the North Carolina Republican convention, Trump was both a diminished figure and an oversized presence in American life, with a remarkable — and many say dangerous — hold on his party," the New York Times's Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman write.
- "He has been able to impose his anger and version of reality on a substantial slice of the American electorate — with the potential to influence the nation's politics and weaken faith in its elections for years to come."
"Trump's appearance Saturday illustrates a continued conundrum for the Republican Party: While he remains overwhelmingly popular among the party's faithful, he potentially poses a problem for the GOP as it looks to win over voters ahead of the 2022 midterms who are wary of his divisive style," our colleagues Josh Dawsey and Julie Watson report. - But "there are few signs that Trump is losing his grip over the party's base, and party leaders remain wary of crossing him or leveling even the slightest bit of criticism at the former president. One who did, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), was kicked out of her House leadership post last month."
- "There are two types of Republicans inside the Beltway," Jason Miller, an adviser to the former president, told Karni and Haberman. "Those who realize President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party and those who are in denial."
It's far from over. "Saturday night's speech was an entrance of sorts to what is expected to be a busy political summer for the former president," Dawsey and Watson write. - "Trump is expected to speak to several more GOP state events and host rallies for candidates he supports — particularly those running against Republicans who voted to impeach him on charges that he incited the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol."
 Former president Trump acknowledges the crowd at the North Carolina Republican Convention over the weekend in Greenville, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward) | THE PURSUIT OF THE 'BIG LIE': In Pennsylvania, "the push to conduct unofficial election audits in multiple counties served as a last-ditch effort by allies of Trump to undercut Biden's win after failing in the courts and the state legislature," our colleague Rosalind S. Helderman reports. - "The early attempt to launch off-the-books audits in Pennsylvania counties shows the relentlessness of the campaign by Trump's allies to overturn the election."
- "The full scope of the endeavor to undermine the 2020 results is still coming into public view. On Friday, newly released emails revealed that Trump called the Republican president of the Arizona Senate late last year to thank her for trying to prove fraud in her state. Around the same time frame, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was pressuring the Justice Department to investigate unfounded claims about vulnerabilities in the election, the New York Times first reported Saturday."
A new 2020 autopsy report 🚨: "A review of the 2020 election, conducted by several prominent Democratic advocacy groups, has concluded that the party is at risk of losing ground with Black, Hispanic and Asian American voters unless it does a better job presenting an economic agenda and countering Republican efforts to spread misinformation and tie all Democratic candidates to the far left," the New York Times's Alexander Burns reports. - The report concluded that "the party 'leaned too heavily on 'anti-Trump' rhetoric,' without developing 'a strong economic frame.'"
- "Some campaign teams felt that the Party didn't have a message beyond 'Donald Trump sucks,' and this void led to split-ticket voting for Biden at the top of the ticket and Republicans down ballot," the report states.
| | | On the Hill HAPPENING TODAY: "Biden will discuss deal possibilities with the main Republican negotiator on infrastructure, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), on Monday for the third time, after rejecting Republicans's latest bill offer on Friday," Reuters reports. - The clock is ticking. "Democrats will start the process on Wednesday of preparing an infrastructure bill for a vote in the House, with or without Republican support, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told CNN on Sunday morning."
- "The administration's shift in tone on negotiations reflects disillusionment among officials that a satisfactory deal is possible. Some progressive lawmakers have already signaled the White House's downsizing on its initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan is unsatisfactory," USA Today's Matthew Brown reports.
But all eyes are on the other Joe, ICYMI: In an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said he would vote against the federal voting rights legislation known as the For the People Act, calling the bill a "partisan advantage." - "With Manchin's vow, passage of the full For the People Act appears to be impossible, though parts of it could pass in other ways if Democrats are willing to break up the bill, a move that they have resisted," the New York Times's Jonathan Weisman reports.
- "Manchin's blockade of filibuster changes makes other Biden initiatives far less likely to pass, including any overhaul of immigration laws, a permanent expansion of the Affordable Care Act, controls of the price of prescription drugs and the most serious efforts to tackle climate change."
| | | In the media THE BUSY WEEK AT HOME & ABROAD AT A GLANCE: Monday, June 7: - President Biden will meet with H.E. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to discuss the June 14 NATO Summit in Brussels.
- Vice President Harris visits Guatemala City.
- Congress returns from Memorial Day recess.
Tuesday, June 8 - Harris visits Mexico City.
Wednesday, June 9 - Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to the United Kingdom in their first overseas trip.
Thursday, June 10 - Biden will meet with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Friday, June 11 - Biden will attend the G-7 Summit in Cornwall.
Sunday, June 13 - Biden and Jill Biden will meet with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle.
| | | Viral PRINCE HARRY AND MEGHAN ANNOUNCE BIRTH OF BABY GIRL: "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced the birth of their second child, naming her after the Queen and Diana, Princess of Wales," the Times's Ben Hoyle and Valentine Low report. "Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on Friday in the southern Californian city of Santa Barbara, close to her parents's home in Montecito." - "The newborn is eighth in line to the throne with a position immediately behind her father and her brother, Archie."
- "'Lilibet' dates back to George V, who called his granddaughter, the future Elizabeth II, that in imitation of her efforts to pronounce her own name when she was a toddler."
👀: "Lilibet is the most senior royal in the current line of succession to be born overseas and she would be eligible to become president of the United States," BBC News's Dulcie Lee reports. | | | | | | | | |
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