President Donald Trump shifted his outrage from the news media to the Koch brothers, calling the powerhouse GOP billionaire conservatives “a joke” and trashing their “bad ideas.” The Utah Inland Port may still be little more than a vision dancing in the heads of developers, but its board is now a reality. So too are scooter wars on the streets of Salt Lake City.
Happy Tuesday! In a major fracture within Republican circles, President Donald Trump has lashed out at the Koch brothers, whose oil fortune and conservative ideology has played a powerful role in shaping the GOP and its candidates in recent years. Trump in another assault-style tweet storm said, “The globalist Koch Brothers ... have become a total joke in real Republican circles. ... I don’t need their money or bad ideas." [CNN]
Topping the news: The Utah Inland Port Authority board of directors unanimously elected Salt Lake Chamber president Derek Miller as its chairman and SLC Councilman James Rogers as vice-chairman in its first meeting since procedural and conflict-of-interest concerns were raised last month. [Trib] [Fox13]
-> After several environmental groups spoke out at the inland port board’s inaugural meeting, Republican Rep. Francis Gibson suggested in the future they designate a single person to express their views on the project that has been marred by criticisms of short-circuited public input. [Trib] [Deseret News]
-> Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams joined a group of 45 mayors and county executives nationally to ask federal officials to reduce the waiting time for becoming a U.S. citizen. Last year, Utah’s backlog of legal immigrants seeking citizenship approval grew faster than any other state. [Trib]
Tweets of the day: From @samstein: “Nothing screams ‘I’m in it for you, the forgotten working man,' like going around Congress to get a $100 billion tax cut for the ultra wealthy.”
-> From @MEPFuller: “My brain is so broken from the internet, I can’t even listen to the interpreter for the Italian Prime Minister without thinking of the Italian Elon Musk twitter account.”
-> From @StephenAtHome: “I want to see the Religious Liberty Task Force fight the Space Force.”
Happy Birthday: To former Utah Republican Party Chairman Joe Cannon, a one-time Deseret News editor and former Geneva Steel chairman.
In other news: The Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office is planning on auctioning off more than a half-million acres of land for oil and gas leasing, showing how the Trump administration’s vision of an American “energy dominance” is beginning to take shape. [Trib]
-> A second company, Lime, has dropped 250 dockless e-scooters in Salt Lake City streets, marking the beginning of “scooter wars” in Utah’s capital. [Trib]
-> Despite the LoveLoud Festival’s main purpose being support for LGBTQ youths, a transgender woman said she felt “very frustrated and very unsafe” at the event after a volunteer told her she was in the wrong restroom. [Trib] [Fox13]
-> A clause in the Utah Constitution could be the undoing of the inland port. Or could it? Experts disagree. [DNews]
-> The Unified Police Department will follow a state audit’s recommendation to list the names and genders of officers on the state’s transparency website except those undercover, but declined to implement new restrictions on officers working second jobs with private security firms. [Trib]
-> Robert Gehrke says Utah’s population explosion and shifting demographics may eventually shift Utah from a solidly red state politically to a “more purplish hue.” [Trib]
Nationally: Department of Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview at the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina that the Trump administration is considering a unilateral capital gains tax cut of $100 billion. [NYTimes] [WaPost]
-> California is ablaze. The 17 wildfires that have caused the evacuations of tens of thousands of homes, killed several firefighters and residents, consumed houses and thousands of acres make up what is considered the ninth most destructive blaze in state history. [AP]
-> Days after President Donald Trump’s declaration that Iran would face severe “consequences” if it threatened the U.S., the president said he is willing to meet with Iran’s leaders “any time they want to.” [Politico] [CNN] [CNBC]
-> Newly obtained evidence from U.S. spy agencies suggests that North Korea is constructing missiles, despite Trump’s declaration weeks ago that the country is “no longer a nuclear threat.” [WaPost] [BBC]
-> For the second time in two days, Trump repeated his vow to shut down the government if Congress fails to meet Republican demands to crack down on immigration and build his promised wall at the U.S.-Mexican border. [NYTimes] [Politico]
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-- Dan Harrie and Connor Richards
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