NY Gov. Kathy Hochul mocks Trump’s Iran toll plan: ‘So ... congestion pricing?’

NEW YORK — Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday mocked President Donald Trump’s plan to share Strait of Hormuz shipping tolls with Iran, comparing the proposal to another transit pricing scheme the president has vehemently opposed.

“So let’s get this straight. Trump’s plan is… congestion pricing?” Hochul’s press office tweeted. The sarcastic missive came a couple of hours after Trump told ABC News that the U.S. hopes to launch a “joint venture” with Iran to collect revenue from oil tankers and other ships passing through the Straits of Hormuz.

“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture” Trump said. “It’s a beautiful thing.” The Iranians have so far been charging up to $2 million per tanker for the right to sail through the strategic waterway that handles about 20% of the world’s oil supply.

The putative plan to divvy up the cash from friend and foe alike would appear to mark a dramatic shift from Trump’s threats to blow Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong.”

—New York Daily News

Epstein’s ties to Arab royals: An offer to tutor crown prince, a gift from Mecca

In his attempts to position himself at the confluence of money and power, Jeffrey Epstein cultivated myriad relationships among the ruling elite of the Middle East, according to an extensive Miami Herald review of several million pages of documents recently released by the U.S. Justice Department.

From his Palm Beach and New York mansions and his luxurious apartment in Paris, Epstein enjoyed a remarkable level of access to sensitive information like the outcomes of political meetings and the itineraries of Gulf royals.

The disgraced financier, the Herald found, regularly corresponded with members of the ruling classes in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. He invited them to his properties and gave them business advice — even suggesting to Saudi palace officials that he tutor the crown prince about the ways of Wall Street.

He asked that he be given a “small palace” to live in while schooling the prince and demanded that the Saudis give him sweeping oversight over the kingdom’s fortunes. When Qatar was accused of supporting Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, Epstein detailed to a Qatari royal a four-point campaign on how the country could clean up its image. Epstein also intervened on behalf of a Yemeni billionaire’s son to help him fight murder and rape allegations in Britain.

—Miami Herald

Trump hoped to break up Ivanka’s wedding with dirt on Jared Kushner’s family

Once upon a time, Donald Trump apparently was not so crazy about his son-in-law Jared Kushner and went so far as to enlist a former friend and ally, Chris Christie, to supply him with damaging information about Kushner’s family.

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and the leader of Trump’s 2016 transition team, revealed Trump’s plans to derail his daughter’s 2009 wedding during an event at Harvard on Monday, the Daily Beast reported.

Christie alleged that Trump’s request came when he was still the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, an office he held from 2002 to December 2008, the Daily Beast reported.

At the time, Ivanka Trump was planning to marry Kushner, who was born and raised in New Jersey. Kushner’s real estate developer father, Charles Kushner, had served 14 months in federal prison after Christie prosecuted him on charges of making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering.

—The Mercury News

As Trump bullies NATO, Europe questions a deferential Rutte

In NATO’s glass and steel corridors, calls and texts were coming in from European governments: Mark Rutte needs to tone it down. This isn’t our war.

Less than 48 hours earlier, on Feb. 28, European leaders had watched in shock as the U.S. and Israel pummeled Iran without consulting their allies. Across the continent, leaders anxiously braced for chaos and economic calamity.

Yet there was the NATO chief on TV, championing Trump’s decision and saying that Europe was “extremely glad.” It wasn’t. In fact, European allies are starting to question whether Rutte’s deferential approach to Trump — which at times turns into political cheerleading — is appropriate or even working, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to describe private conversations.

Despite Rutte’s unique ability to connect with Trump, the U.S. president has cut aid to Ukraine, boosted Russia’s finances and sent the global economy reeling with his war in Iran. There is also concern that Rutte’s Iran war bullishness may have caused Trump to expect NATO would back him, one of the people said.

—Bloomberg News