“A White House lawyer and former counsel to the House Intelligence Committee under Devin Nunes has been named senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council, the latest instance of President Trump elevating a trusted loyalist to control the intelligence community,” Politico reports.
Ivanka Trump Registers as a Republican
New York Times: “Ivanka Trump’s transformation from a liberal New York socialite who donated to Democratic politicians and vocally supported gay rights to a card-carrying member of her father’s ‘Make America Great Again’ coalition is now complete.”
“Ms. Trump said on Monday that she had made the decision to officially change her voter registration from Democrat to Republican because she wanted to vote for her father in the New York primary, something she did not do in 2016 when she missed the deadline to register as a Republican.”
Said Trump: “I am a proud Trump Republican. I believe he’s broadened the reach of the Republican Party, which is really important to me.”
Trump Is Winning His War on Democracy
George Packer: “The political class were too sophisticated to see Trump’s special political talents—his instinct for every adversary’s weakness, his fanatical devotion to himself, his knack for imposing his will, his sheer staying power…”
“They didn’t grasp the readiness of large numbers of Americans to accept, even relish, Trump’s contempt for democratic norms and basic decency. It took the arrival of such a leader to reveal how many things that had always seemed engraved in monumental stone turned out to depend on those flimsy norms, and how much the norms depended on public opinion. Their vanishing exposed the real power of the presidency.”
Barr Takes Control of Tech Antitrust Probes
“Attorney General William Barr has spent months taking greater control of the Justice Department’s antitrust probes into the big tech companies, a development that could increase the peril for major players like Google and Facebook,” Politico reports.
“Barr has centralized oversight of antitrust matters under a handful of appointees in his office and that of his deputy attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen. Those moves have sidelined the Antitrust Division’s current leadership, headed by Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, who for the past year has been the public face of DOJ’s investigations into Silicon Valley’s treatment of its users and customers.”
Inside Trump’s Frantic Efforts to Downplay Coronavirus
Washington Post; “Since Trump touched down from a two-day trip to India early Wednesday morning, the administration struggled to cope with the fallout from the crisis — shaking up and centralizing its coronavirus response team under the leadership of Vice President Pence, floating plans to stabilize the markets and publicly seeking to minimize the threat posed by the potential pandemic.”
“Interviews with nearly two dozen administration officials, former White House aides, public health experts and lawmakers — many speaking on the condition of anonymity to share candid assessments and details — portray a White House scrambling to gain control of a rudderless response defined by bureaucratic infighting, confusion and misinformation.”
Trump Nominates Ratcliffe as Spy Chief
President Trump said on Friday that he intends to nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) as his permanent director of national intelligence, CNN reports.
Steve Vladeck: “Even if there’s no real chance that Ratcliffe will be confirmed by the Senate, the formal submission of his nomination will allow Richard Grenell to continue to serve as Acting DNI past March 11 — and for another 210 days after Ratcliffe’s rejection or withdrawal.”
Court Rules McGahn Can Defy Subpoena
“Former White House counsel Donald McGahn can defy a Congressional subpoena, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled Friday in a decision siding with President Trump, who had blocked top advisers from testifying as part of the impeachment proceedings,” the Washington Post reports.
“The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel, if it stands, means Trump’s former lawyer cannot be compelled to appear on Capitol Hill, and comes after Democrats lost their bid to call additional witnesses during Trump’s Senate trial.”
Huckabee Makes Bizarre Defense of Trump
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee told Fox & Friends that President Trump didn’t get enough credit for what he’s done to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Said Huckabee: “He could personally suck the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean.”
The comments sent the hashtag #SuckItTrump soaring on Twitter.
Mulvaney Blasts Media for Not Covering Barron Trump
Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney criticized the news media for refusing to cover what he described as President Trump’s loving relationship with his 13-year-old son, Barron, the New York Times reports.
“He said Mr. Trump is in frequent contact with his youngest son, calling to check in on him and let him know of his whereabouts. But, Mr. Mulvaney said, ‘the press would never show you that because it doesn’t fit that image of him, the press wants him to be this terrible monster.'”
“Mr. Mulvaney’s decision to discuss Barron Trump was curious, especially when Melania Trump, the first lady, and senior White House officials have gone to great lengths to make sure he enjoys the privacy afforded to other children of presidents growing up in the uncomfortable spotlight of the White House. The White House press corps has generally agreed to grant Barron Trump the same privacy.”
Why Trump Tapped Pence for Coronavirus Effort
Vice President Mike Pence was picked to lead the federal government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak because President Trump said he didn’t “have anything else to do,” The New York Times reports.
Trump Spends 45 Minutes With ‘Deep State’ Play Actors
“One day after briefing the press in an attempt to calm nerves about the spread of the coronavirus, President Trump spent forty-five minutes talking to the lead actors of a low-budget conservative play about the so-called Deep State,” the Daily Beast reports.
“Trump hasn’t seen the play, according to McAleer, but praised its concept: a script based entirely on congressional testimony and the text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who discussed the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia while having an affair.”
“The play’s leads — Superman actor Dean Cain and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress Kristy Swanson — also attended the White House meeting.”
Scottish Minister Raises Questions About Trump Land
Scotland’s government is being urged to seek an “unexplained wealth order” to investigate Donald Trump’s deals to acquire his Scottish properties, the Scotsman reports.
“An UWO is a relatively new – and rarely used – power which has been designed to target suspected corrupt foreign officials who have potentially laundered stolen money through the UK.”
“The mechanism, introduced in 2018, is an attempt to force the owners of assets to disclose their wealth. If a suspected corrupt foreign official, or their family, cannot show a legitimate source for their riches, then authorities can apply to a court to seize the property.”
Why Trump Can’t Pardon Roger Stone
Corey Brettschneider: “Speculation that President Trump might pardon Roger Stone has reached a fever pitch after Stone’s sentencing by a federal judge and the president’s repeated hints that he thinks the verdict unfair. But fortunately, the Constitution’s framers imagined this nightmare scenario—a suspected criminal president pardoning a co-conspirator—and they put in the Constitution language to legally prohibit the pardon power in exactly this kind of case.”
“Many scholars agree that once a president has been impeached, he or she loses the power to pardon anyone for criminal offenses connected to the articles of impeachment. Less noticed is that even after the Senate’s failure to convict the president, he or she does not regain this power.”
White House Confirms It’s Purging ‘Disloyal’ Employees
“The White House this week confirmed it is combing through federal agencies to identify employees not sufficiently loyal to President Trump to facilitate their ouster, sparking concerns the administration could run afoul of long-established civil service laws,” Government Executive reports.
“The administration is examining employees throughout the government to find anyone taking action officials decide represents an effort to undermine Trump, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Fox News Monday. Gidley did not specifically mention career employees, who are statutorily protected against political retaliation, but did note the ‘millions’ of individuals agencies employ. By contrast, there are only about 4,000 political appointees in government. “
Trump to Hold News Conference on Coronavirus
President Trump confirmed he will be holding a news conference at 6 p.m. ET about the coronavirus outbreak.
He also took a swipe at the media: “Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape!”
And yes, he spelled “coronavirus” wrong in his tweet.
A New Leader at White House Personnel Office
Politico: “The White House has hired a college senior to be one of the top officials in its powerful Presidential Personnel Office.”
“James Bacon, 23, is acting as one of the right-hand men to new PPO director John McEntee… Bacon, a senior at George Washington University pursuing a bachelor’s degree, comes from the Department of Transportation, where he briefly worked in the policy shop. Prior to that role, while still taking classes, he worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he was a White House liaison.”
Trump’s Doctor Hid Veggies In His Mashed Potatoes
Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor who is now running for Congress, told the New York Times that staff used to put vegetables in President Trump’s mashed potatoes in an effort to improve his diet.
Said Jackson: “The exercise stuff never took off as much as I wanted it to. But we were working on his diet. We were making the ice cream less accessible, we were putting cauliflower into the mashed potatoes.”
Trump Admits to List of ‘Disloyal’ Officials to Oust
President Trump acknowledged the existence of assembled lists of government officials that his administration plans to oust and replace with trusted pro-Trump people, Axios reports.
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