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Good morning.

I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily 202 for

Thursday July 5th. In today's news, President Trump has narrowed his Supreme Court shortlist down to three finalists.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading back to North Korea today.

And American companies in China are already feeling the sting of the trade war.

But first, the big idea.

Trump thought about invading Venezuela last summer.

Last August, President Trump alarmed the world

when he said off-handedly during a news conference that he was

considering a quote military option to remove Venezuelan president Nicholas

Maduro from power. The comments were overshadowed by Trump threatening at the same

time to rain down quote

fire and fury on North Korea. They were also laughed off by many in DC is the kind of

bluster that we've all come to expect from the reality TV star turned commander-in-chief.

But a new report from the Associated Press shows that Trump was not joking around.

The day before that news conference, it turns out there was a meeting in the Oval Office.

The ostensible point of it was to discuss sanctions on Venezuela.

But during the discussion, Trump turned to his top aides and asked an unsettling question, why can't the US just simply invade the troubled

country?

...