“The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be for Donald Trump Jr. to release a statement to get ahead of the story. They wanted to be truthful, so their account couldn’t be repudiated later if the full details emerged.” The boss had a different plan. The latest blockbuster story in a newscycle that never stops … from WaPo: Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer. (It was rough at times, but looking back, I’m glad my parents pushed me to come up with misleading statements all by myself…)

+ For now, this is only a claim in a lawsuit. But because it seems to fit a pattern, it’s big news. NPR: “The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the death of a young Democratic National Committee aide.”

+ “The conversation went a hundred seconds. It went from women in combat to Syria policy to the Chinese to energy independence, a little about public lands, a little about hunting access,” Zinke tells me. “Most of the conversation was not really Interior, per se.’ At one point, Trump proposed the Veterans Affairs post, to which Zinke quipped, ‘I don’t think you hate me that much.'” GQ on the former Navy SEAL tapped by Trump to be secretary of the Interior. Ryan Zinke, Trump’s Cowboy Enforcer, Is Ready for His Closeup.