Trump Was Tweeting About Hillary Clinton Nonsense Before His Meeting With Putin

Welcome to WHAT NOW, a morning round-up of the news/fresh horrors that await you today.

It is with no great joy that I must inform you: Donald Trump is tweeting, again, this time about how all the world leaders gathered in Hamburg for today’s G20 summit can’t stop talking about John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

After tweeting to thank everyone, “including the haters,” for the positive reviews of his speech in Poland yesterday, Trump pivoted:

Why is Trump laying into Podesta anew while half a world away? As Mediaite points out, the timing could have something to do with Peter Schweizer, the Clinton Cash author and a perennial Trump favorite, dropping a new piece in the New York Post on Wednesday night detailing Podesta’s own ties to Russia.

With North Korea consolidating its nuclear might, the Islamic State holding scores of civilians hostage in Mosul, and Trump’s first formal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled for today at 9:45 ET, it’s good to know the president has his eye on the prize.

Ahead of the meeting, the two briefly shook hands and Trump patted Putin on the back, something which sent the world’s body language experts into a tizzy.

WHAT ELSE?

• A Catholic bishop in El Paso called Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton a hypocrite for threatening to sue the federal government for not pulling the plug on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients fast enough.
• A 19-year-old rape survivor was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder after having a stillbirth in El Salvador.
• House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was shot at a congressional baseball league practice three weeks ago, underwent surgery to manage growing infection in his wounds on Thursday, his doctors said. His status has been downgraded from “serious” to “fair,” but he remains in the hospital.