Tag: Trump Administration

Emails show Trump appointees undermined Facebook CEO Zuckerberg’s Glacier visit

The following article by Lisa Rein was posted on the Washington Post website September 7, 2017:

A hiker in Glacier National Park. Credit: Ben Herndon

When Facebook’s communications chief approached the National Park Service to ask the agency to show company founder Mark Zuckerberg how the warming climate is melting ice sheets at Glacier National Park, scientists, park rangers and public affairs staff were giddy with excitement.

“This is going to be great!” wilderness specialist Kyle Johnson wrote in an email June 21 to Facebook’s Derick Mains as planning for a July 15 tour got underway. When Mains had approached him two days earlier, Johnson responded, “I think something like this would be outstanding for all. … Thanks for helping us showcase Glacier.”

The U.S. Geological Survey’s public affairs office was thrilled to make the park’s top climate scientist, a USGS staffer, available to Zuckerberg to explain how global warming is altering the ecosystem of the northern  Rockies. Continue reading “Emails show Trump appointees undermined Facebook CEO Zuckerberg’s Glacier visit”

For Conservatives, Trump’s Deal With Democrats Is Nightmare Come True

The following article by Jeremy W. Peters and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website September 6, 2017:

Supporters of President Trump at a rally last month in Laguna Beach, Calif. Credit David McNew/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — It is the scenario that President Trump’s most conservative followers considered their worst nightmare, and on Wednesday it seemed to come true: The dealmaking political novice, whose ideology and loyalty were always fungible, cut a deal with Democrats.

If Mr. Trump’s agreement with the two Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, to increase the debt limit and finance the government for three months did not yet represent the breaking point between the president and his core, hard-right base of support, it certainly put him closer than he has ever been to tipping his fragile political coalition into open revolt.

Stunned and irate, conservative leaders denounced news that Mr. Trump had agreed to rely on Democratic votes to win congressional approval for a temporary extension of the debt ceiling and funding of the government until mid-December. Continue reading “For Conservatives, Trump’s Deal With Democrats Is Nightmare Come True”

GOP leaders prevent votes to ban federal spending at Trump businesses

The following article by Cristina Marcos was posted on the Hill website September 6, 2017:

Credit: Greg Nash

House GOP leaders won’t be allowing votes this week on Democratic proposals to prevent taxpayer funds from benefiting businesses owned by President Trump.

Multiple Democrats had filed amendments to a government spending package set to be considered on the House floor this week to ensure the president is not personally enriched by the federal government.

Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who are among the fiercest critics of the president, proposed measures to prohibit federal funds from being used to enter contracts with or spend money at Trump-owned businesses.

Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, also submitted an amendment prohibiting the Secret Service from spending money at entities owned or operated by Trump. Continue reading “GOP leaders prevent votes to ban federal spending at Trump businesses”

Why Attacking Immigrants Endangers Every American’s Economic Security

The following article by Nancy Altman was posted on the National Memo website September 6, 2017:

Donald Trump reportedly will announce on Tuesday that he will end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the legal protection accorded to 800,000 young people, known as “Dreamers,” who have lived in the United States since they were children. Dreamers are contributing members of society who grew up here but happened to be born in another country to mothers who moved here without the proper papers.

So much for not being punished for the sins of our parents. And for not being arbitrary and capricious in our public policy. Two siblings, a year apart in age, could face very different circumstances simply because the younger one was born inside the United States and the older one outside. One would be, thanks to our Constitution, an American citizen, with all the rights and privileges citizenship grants. The other could be a demonized “other,” subject to the whims of Trump. Continue reading “Why Attacking Immigrants Endangers Every American’s Economic Security”

The Trump administration’s claim that DACA ‘helped spur’ the 2014 surge of minors crossing the border

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website September 6, 2017:

“The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of minors at the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences.”
— Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in remarks announcing the rescission of DACA, Sept. 5, 2017

“The temporary implementation of DACA by the Obama Administration, after Congress repeatedly rejected this amnesty-first approach, also helped spur a humanitarian crisis — the massive surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America including, in some cases, young people who would become members of violent gangs throughout our country, such as MS-13.”
— President Trump, in a statement on DACA, Sept. 5 Continue reading “The Trump administration’s claim that DACA ‘helped spur’ the 2014 surge of minors crossing the border”

Trump Chooses Sessions, Longtime Foe of DACA, to Announce Its Demise

The following article by Matt Apuzzo and rebecca R. Ruiz was posted on the New York Times website September 5, 2017:

WASHINGTON — As an up-and-coming politician in Alabama, Jeff Sessions watched as his state’s poultry industry illegally hired Mexican and Central American immigrants to jobs that had once been filled by poor, unskilled American workers. As a senator, Mr. Sessions argued that displaced American workers like these — not the people replacing them — deserved compassion.

So when President Trump chose Mr. Sessions, now the attorney general, to announce on Tuesday the end of an Obama-era immigration program that shielded young immigrants from deportation, there was no doubt what message he would deliver. Mr. Trump has expressed conflicting emotions about those who were brought to the country as children, but Mr. Sessions expressed no such qualms. Continue reading “Trump Chooses Sessions, Longtime Foe of DACA, to Announce Its Demise”

Apple and 7-Eleven show why Trump’s threat to sever China trade over Korea rings hollow

The following article by Greg Wright was posted on the Conversation website September 5, 2017:

President Donald Trump tweeted on September 3 that the U.S. “is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea” after it performed a nuclear test.

Though North Korea currently trades with nearly 100 countries, this threat was almost certainly aimed at China, by far its biggest trading partner.

And it is technically something that a U.S. president can do. Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, the president can impose trade restrictions in the face of an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

Continue reading “Apple and 7-Eleven show why Trump’s threat to sever China trade over Korea rings hollow”

DACA reaction shows how immigration has become a litmus test for Democrats

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website September 6, 2017:

THE BIG IDEA: The House passed a Dream Act in 2010 that would have allowed illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship if they entered the United States as children, graduated from high school or got an equivalent degree, and had been in the United States for at least five years.

Five moderate Democrats in the Senate voted no. If each of them had supported it, the bill would have become law, DACA would have been unnecessary, and this manufactured political crisis now facing Congress would have been averted. Continue reading “DACA reaction shows how immigration has become a litmus test for Democrats”

8 Immigration Horror Stories From Trump’s Radicalized And Empowered ICE Agency

The following article by Alex Anderson was posted on the AlterNet website September 1, 2017:

Law enforcement officials are terrorizing immigrant communities, with the government’s approval.

ICE raid, San Jose, California, February 2017 Credit: ICE

During his eight years as president of the United States, Barack Obama deported a staggering 2.5 million people. That figure represents a 23 percent increase over the Bush administration, without including the hundreds of thousands who self-deported or were turned away at the border. In 2014, Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), labeled Obama the “deporter-in-chief.”

The title seems almost quaint in the age of Donald Trump.

Within weeks of his taking office, arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased 32.6 percent. By mid-March, the number of arrests of immigrants with no prior criminal record had doubled. Dan Satterberg, head prosecutor in King County, Washington State, asserts that ICE has been “emboldened in a way that I have never seen.” NCLR and other immigrants’ rights groups are the first to say that the U.S.’ immigration system is badly in need of reform. But under Trump, ICE has terrorized immigrant communities, discouraging them from reporting crimes or working with law enforcement.

Here are eight ICE horror stories from Trump’s seven-plus months in office.

Continue reading “8 Immigration Horror Stories From Trump’s Radicalized And Empowered ICE Agency”

EPA now requires political aide’s sign-off for agency awards, grant applications

The following article by Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website September 4, 2017:

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the unusual step of putting a political operative in charge of vetting the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the EPA distributes annually, assigning final funding decisions to a former Trump campaign aide with little environmental policy experience.

In this role, John Konkus reviews every award the agency gives out, along with every grant solicitation before it is issued. According to both career and political employees, Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout for “the double C-word” — climate change — and repeatedly has instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in solicitations. Continue reading “EPA now requires political aide’s sign-off for agency awards, grant applications”