First Run News

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • President Trump took to Twitter to criticize Germany, but his complaints about the U.S. trade deficit overstate Berlin’s ability to do much about it. Mr.

PARIS — France’s boyish president already has faced down Donald J. Trump, lectured Vladimir V. Putin and confronted the formidable French labor unions — all in less than three weeks. Seeking to shatter any doubts about his youthfulness and inexperience, President Emmanuel Macron, 39, has shown himself punchier and more decisive than the bland candidate he evoked in the campaign.

PARIS — France’s boyish president already has faced down Donald J. Trump, lectured Vladimir V. Putin and confronted the formidable French labor unions — all in less than three weeks. Seeking to shatter any doubts about his youthfulness and inexperience, President Emmanuel Macron, 39, has shown himself punchier and more decisive than the bland candidate he evoked in the campaign.

WASHINGTON — Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, said on Tuesday that he was refusing to cooperate with House and Senate intelligence committee investigations into Russian election meddling. The move may prompt lawmakers to issue subpoenas, compelling him to provide documents, testimony or other records. Mr. Cohen, a confidant of Mr.

WASHINGTON — Walter M. Shaub’s term as the government’s top ethics watchdog does not expire until next January, but his corner office here, just a few blocks from the White House, looks unoccupied. No diplomas line the wood-paneled walls. No family photos or mementos. Just standard government-issue furniture, his humming computer and four large paintings. Mr. Shaub wanted to get rid of those, too, but his chief of staff warned that it might scare the 70 other employees in the Office of Government Ethics. “I wanted to not be so attached to this office that I’d be afraid to lose it,” Mr.

WASHINGTON — And on the 132nd day, just after midnight, President Trump had at last delivered the nation to something approaching unity — in bewilderment, if nothing else. The state of our union was … covfefe. The trouble began, as it so often does, on Twitter, in the early minutes of Wednesday morning. Mr. Trump had something to say.

WASHINGTON — The last time relations between the United States and Europe were this bad — in the spring of 2003, during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq — the administration of George W. Bush decided to “punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia,” in a phrase attributed to the national security adviser at the time, Condoleezza Rice. Now, President Trump has flipped the formula, punishing Germany while largely ignoring France. (His conciliatory approach to Russia seems more or less in line with the Mr. Bush of 2003.) The difference this time is trade.

WASHINGTON — President Trump will interview two more candidates for F.B.I. director on Tuesday as he resumes his search for a replacement for James B. Comey, who was dismissed earlier this month, the White House said. Mr. Trump will meet with Christopher Wray, a former assistant attorney general overseeing the criminal division under President George W. Bush, and with John S. Pistole, a former deputy F.B.I. director who began under Mr.

WASHINGTON — Back from overseas and confronting an unforgiving political environment, President Trump appears increasingly isolated inside the White House, according to advisers, venting frustration over the performance of his staff and openly talking about shaking it up. But as he considers casting off old aides, Mr.

WASHINGTON — A divided White House staff, anxious corporate executives, lawmakers and foreign leaders are fiercely competing for President Trump’s ear this week as he nears a decision on whether to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, the landmark agreement that commits nearly every country to combat global warming. For a president not steeped in policy intricacies, the decision is vexing.