Inside the White House-Cabinet battle over Trump’s immigration order

The following article by Josh Rogin was posted on the Washington Post website February 4, 2017:

Editor’s Note: Prior to publication of this column, The Post sought comment from the Department of Homeland Security but not from the White House. We should have done both. The article has been updated. – Fred Hiatt

UPDATE (Feb. 4, 6:13 p.m.): The article has been updated to reflect comments from White House press secretary Sean Spicer. The article previously stated that Stephen K. Bannon visited Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly’s office on Jan. 28. Spicer said Bannon did not make such a visit. He also said that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Bannon did not participate in a 2 a.m. conference call on Jan. 29. The article also previously stated that President Trump approved a pause in executive orders pending new procedures. According to Spicer, it was White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, rather than the president, who approved the new procedures, but not a pause.

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly pauses while speaking at a news conference in Washington on Jan. 31. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

Over the weekend of Jan. 28-29, as airport protests raged over President Trump’s executive order on immigration, the man charged with implementing the order, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, had a plan. He would issue a waiver for lawful permanent residents, a.k.a. green-card holders, from the seven majority-Muslim countries whose citizens had been banned from entering the United States.

White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon wanted to stop Kelly in his tracks and told him not to issue the order. Kelly, according to two administration officials familiar with the confrontation, refused to comply. That was the beginning of a weekend of negotiations among senior Trump administration staffers that led, on Sunday, Jan. 29, to a White House decision to change the process for the issuance of executive orders. Continue reading “Inside the White House-Cabinet battle over Trump’s immigration order”

It’s Time to Take America’s Billionaire Class Head On

The following article by David Morris was posted on the AlterNet website February 2, 2017:

Combatting defeatism may be our single most important psychological objective in the wake of the election. We need to revive the spirit embodied in Barack Obama’s vague but hopeful campaign slogan in 2008, “Yes We Can.” At the federal level this is a time to expose, to educate and to resist. But at the state and local level we can act proactively to fashion strategies that both embrace progressive values and directly benefit those who mistakenly voted for Donald Trump as an economic savior. This is the first in a series of pieces focusing on what can be done.

The Giveaway

Over the next 6-12 months Congress will almost certainly give the richest 1 percent of the population an income tax gift totaling some $75-150 billion. The 1 percent, with annual incomes averaging $1.3 million, will capture 47 percent of the tax cuts for an average annual tax saving of $214,000 each, the non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates based on Trump’s proposal, which does not differ dramatically from that of the House Republicans. Continue reading “It’s Time to Take America’s Billionaire Class Head On”

This Der Spiegel Trump cover is stunning

The following article by Callum Borchers was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:

Edel Rodriguez came to the United States from Cuba as a political refugee in 1980. Like many immigrants, he was angered by President Trump’s executive order temporarily banning entry to the United States for travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and refugees from around the world.

“I was 9 years old when I came here, so I remember it well, and I remember the feelings and how little kids feel when they are leaving their country,” Rodriguez said. “I remember all that, and so it bothers me a lot that little children are being kept from coming to this country.”

Unlike most immigrants, however, Rodriguez channeled his anger into a piece of art that is now on the cover of one of the world’s leading magazines.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel on Friday unveiled its latest issue, bearing Rodriguez’s striking work. In the illustration, Trump wields a bloody knife with which he has beheaded the Statue of Liberty. His orange face is featureless, except for a hollering mouth. Two words appear beside him: America First.

“It’s a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol,” Rodriguez said, noting that the Statue of Liberty represents the United States’ history of welcoming immigrants. “And clearly, lately, what’s associated with beheadings is ISIS, so there’s a comparison” between the Islamic State and Trump. “Both sides are extremists, so I’m just making a comparison between them.”

In December 2015, after Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” the New York Daily News pictured him beheading the Statue of Liberty.

nydn trump

The New Yorker on Friday revealed a new cover illustration called “Liberty’s Flameout,” in which the statue’s flame has been extinguished.

The New Yorker

✔@NewYorker

An early look at next week’s cover, “Liberty’s Flameout,” by John W. Tomac: http://nyer.cm/jZ9jWiu 

Rodriguez, a freelance artist, did not draw those covers, but you might remember two memorable illustrations he did for Time magazine during the presidential election.

Frank Thorp V

✔@frankthorp

New @TIME with illustration of a melting Donald Trump:

Meltdown.http://time.com/magazine/ 

· Florida, USA

Why does Rodriguez draw Trump with missing facial features?

“That’s the way I see him,” Rodriguez said. “I see him as someone that’s very angry, and it’s pretty much his mouth that’s moving all the time, so that’s how I tend to show him in some of my work.”

Rodriguez added that the Der Spiegel cover is a statement about the kind of country he wants to live in.

“I don’t want to live in a dictatorship,” he said. “If I wanted to live in a dictatorship, I’d live in Cuba, where it’s much warmer.”

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Rightward Turn By Supreme Court Will Greatly Affect Women

The following article by Cynthia Tucker Haynes was posted on the National Memo website February 3, 2017:

Activists hold signs as they rally in support of Planned Parenthood on “National Pink Out Day” on the steps of City Hall in Los Angeles, California September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

A new right-wing justice won’t change the Supreme Court. The confirmation of Neil Gorsuch — and he is quite likely to be confirmed — won’t alter its makeup. A committed ultraconservative, Gorsuch would take the place of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was also a committed (and combative) ultraconservative.

Still, President Donald Trump is likely to get the chance to change the court — and to abolish Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized reproductive rights. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing voter who has kept Roe alive, is 80 years old. The reliably liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83 and ailing. And liberal Justice Steven Breyer is 78. Their ages alone suggest relatively short service ahead.  Continue reading “Rightward Turn By Supreme Court Will Greatly Affect Women”

‘Populist’ Trump Punks His Credulous Fans (Again)

The following article by Joe Conason was posted on the National Memo website February 3, 2017:

After signing, President Donald Trump holds up an executive order rolling back regulations from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law on Wall Street reform at the White House, February 3, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

There was never any reason to think that Donald Trump’s stump-speech assaults on Wall Street banks and hedge funds were even momentarily sincere — but millions of working and middle-class voters loved his ‘populist’ rhetoric.  

Emerging from that gold-plated jet, Trump would roar about cracking down on the financial vultures who had fattened while everyone else suffered, as his fans cheered.

 He wouldn’t let those paper-shuffling crooks escape their share of taxes any more. He was paying for the campaign from his own massive fortune, so he would owe allegiance to nobody but the American people. He excoriated Hillary Clinton, who had accepted tens of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, warning that the Democrat would dance to Wall Street’s tune.  He even aired a television commercial, late in the campaign, that vowed to free the country from the “globalist” designs of Goldman chair Lloyd Blankfein and investor George Soros. Continue reading “‘Populist’ Trump Punks His Credulous Fans (Again)”

Cargill, dependent on trade and immigration, criticizes Trump’s trade stances

The following article by Kristen Leigh Palmer was posted on the Star Tribune website February 4, 2017:

CEO speaks out for his private company that usually keeps a low profile.

Agribusiness giant Cargill keeps a low-profile on most political issues, but its executives are stepping forward to criticize protectionist and anti-immigrant sentiments.

Cargill Inc., the Minnesota-based company at the center of the global food chain, is stepping out of its usual low-key profile to fight attacks on trade and immigration.

“We have to turn the tide on some of the current themes that we are seeing,” Chief Executive David MacLennan said in a speech in St. Paul on Friday. “Geopolitics are shifting and we are standing at the crossroads of some really important issues for business and for society.”

The Wayzata-based company is the nation’s biggest food processor, shipper and trader, touching every step of the food chain, from seeds and feeds used by farmers to the processing and delivery of food to restaurants and grocery stores. Continue reading “Cargill, dependent on trade and immigration, criticizes Trump’s trade stances”

President Trump likes to move fast. The public isn’t thrilled.

The following column by Chris Cillizza was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:

Almost half (47 percent) of those polled in a recent Gallup survey said that President Trump, right, is “moving too fast to address the major problems facing the country today.” (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump’s 14-day-old presidency is speed. The 45th president of the United States was fond of saying on the campaign trail that most politicians did too little and that he would be a man of action if he got into the White House. It was — and is — a point of pride for him.

“The administration has already racked up more than 60 significant actions,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer boasted at Friday’s news briefing, noting that the total included “21 executive actions, 16 meetings with foreign leaders and 10 stakeholder meetings.”

It’s clear that Trump views his willingness to make decisions — and fast — as a major feather in his cap. No dawdling for this president. Just making good on his campaign promises and being tough — I mean, cordial — with foreign leaders. It’s part and parcel of his brand. Continue reading “President Trump likes to move fast. The public isn’t thrilled.”

Bannon film outline warned U.S. could turn into ‘Islamic States of America’

The following article by Matea Gold was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:

 

The flag fluttering above the U.S. Capitol is emblazoned with a crescent and star. Chants of “Allahu Akbar” rise from inside the building.

That’s the provocative opening scene of a documentary-style movie outlined 10 years ago by Stephen K. Bannon that envisioned radical Muslims taking over the country and remaking it into the “Islamic States of America,” according to a document describing the project obtained by The Washington Post. Continue reading “Bannon film outline warned U.S. could turn into ‘Islamic States of America’”

Trump’s rallying cry: Fear itself

The following article by Karen Tumulty and David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:

President Trump often stokes the nation’s anxieties in arguing for his agenda. (Washington Post Staff Illustration/The Washington Post)

The machete-wielding man was quickly shot and arrested Friday morning by French police and soldiers, but from the vantage point of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it was a crisis dire enough to put a nation 4,000 miles away on high alert.

“A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.,” President Trump tweeted. Continue reading “Trump’s rallying cry: Fear itself”

Eric Trump’s business trip to Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,830 in hotel bills

The following article by Amy Brittain and Drew Harwell was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:

Eric Trump and members of his entourage walk outside La Huella, a beachfront restaurant, during a private business trip in early January to Punta del Este, Uruguay. (Cristian Cordoba)

When the president-elect’s son Eric Trump jetted to Uruguay in early January for a Trump Organization promotional trip, U.S. taxpayers were left footing a bill of nearly $100,000 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff.

It was a high-profile jaunt out of the country for Eric, the fresh-faced executive of the Trump Organization who, like his father, pledged to keep the company separate from the presidency. Eric mingled with real estate brokers, dined at an open-air beachfront eatery and spoke to hundreds at an “ultra exclusive” Trump Tower Punta del Este evening party celebrating his visit. Continue reading “Eric Trump’s business trip to Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,830 in hotel bills”