Tag: Trump Administration

Their lives were transformed by DACA. Here’s what will happen if it disappears.

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

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Sept. 5 that the Trump administration is rescinding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, calling the program “an open-ended circumvention of immigration laws.” (Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

A former waiter, born in El Salvador, now writes code for a U.S. Navy contractor. A young man from South Korea is using the money he makes selling pastries to help pay for community college. And a psychology major from Ecuador, who feared she’d be stuck babysitting all her life, now plans to earn a doctorate and move to New York. Continue reading “Their lives were transformed by DACA. Here’s what will happen if it disappears.”

Two top Trump advisers were asked why they don’t quit. Their answers speak volumes.

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website September 2, 2017:

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and White House chief economic adviser Gary Cohn at the White House on June 26. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

For the second time in two days Friday, one of the most senior members of the Trump administration was asked why he doesn’t resign. And for the second time in two days, that official did nothing to dispel the notion that he is very conflicted about serving President Trump.

Both Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn have offered comments in recent days that suggested they were seeking distance from the president. Given those comments, each was asked some version of “Why do you continue to serve?” Continue reading “Two top Trump advisers were asked why they don’t quit. Their answers speak volumes.”

How Jeff Sessions Misrepresented the Trump Administration’s Expansion of Military Supplies for Police

The following article by Isaac Arnsdorf was posted on the ProPublica website September 1, 2017:

The attorney general mischaracterized Obama-era restrictions while citing a study that actually says new computers reduce crime more than heavy weapons do.

Credit: Cristobal Herrera/EPA

Update, Sept. 1, 2017, 1:55 p.m.: This story has been updated with a quote from Sheriff Mike Bouchard of Oakland County, Michigan.

The Trump administration made false assertions to justify an executive order expanding police forces’ access to military equipment such as tanks and grenade launchers.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday that President Trump would make defensive gear available to police again by undoing a policy from the Obama administration. Trump then signed an executive order whose title emphasized that branding: “Restoring State, Tribal, and Local Law Enforcement’s Access to Life-Saving Equipment and Resources.” Continue reading “How Jeff Sessions Misrepresented the Trump Administration’s Expansion of Military Supplies for Police”

Batch of Shadowy Trump Appointees

The following article by Derek Kravitz, Isaac Arnsdorf and Marina Affo was posted on the ProPublica website August 31, 2017:

The administration continues to quietly hire political staffers — more than 1,000 so far, many of them regulating industries they previously worked for — but we’ve uncovered more identities. “The swamp continues,” says a Trump campaign official who is now a lobbyist.

Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House on Jan. 26, 2017. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump has left hundreds of government jobs unfilled that require a vote by the Senate. Yet his administration has installed more than 1,000 people through political appointments at every major federal agency, handing over control of the government’s day-to-day operations to industry insiders and loyalists to an unprecedented degree.

Among the latest Trump administration appointees is a lobbyist who until March worked for a leading hepatitis C drugmaker that priced its treatment at $1,000 a pill and is now leading a White House working group setting drug pricing policies. The list includes the new head of the government’s offshore oil drilling safety and enforcement agency, who previously sat on the board of Sunoco Logistics and who told an industry conference earlier this month that deepwater drilling should ramp up. Then there’s the Hollywood actor who has called global warming and climate change a “leftist political tool” and “not sound science” on Twitter and who is now the communications director at the Department of Health and Human Services. Finally, this group also includes the 80-year-old retired chief legal officer of Morgan Stanley, who once told government lawyers he was “going to kick your ass” and is now a deputy attorney general in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, overseeing litigation while his boss awaits Senate confirmation. (At the time, Kempf denied using the expletive in exactly those terms.) Continue reading “Batch of Shadowy Trump Appointees”

Trump preparing withdrawal from South Korea trade deal, a move opposed by top aides

The following article by Damian Paletta was posted on the Washington Post website September 2, 2017:

President Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in enter the White House Rose Garden in Washington on June 30. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)

President Trump has instructed advisers to prepare to withdraw the United States from a free-trade agreement with South Korea, several people close to the process said, a move that would stoke economic tensions with the U.S. ally as both countries confront a crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

Withdrawing from the trade deal would back up Trump’s promises to crack down on what he considers unfair trade competition from other countries, but his top national security and economic advisers are pushing him to abandon the plan, arguing it would hamper U.S. economic growth and strain ties with an important ally. Officials including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and National Economic Council director Gary Cohn oppose withdrawal, said people familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations. Continue reading “Trump preparing withdrawal from South Korea trade deal, a move opposed by top aides”

Trump claimed he witnessed Harvey’s devastation ‘first hand.’ The White House basically admits he didn’t.

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website August 31, 2017:

President Trump has broadcast his involvement in the government response to Hurricane Harvey loud and clear, and been accused of keeping the focus on him as Texans respond to the record storm. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

President Trump clearly and unmistakably exaggerated the “horror and devastation” he witnessed in Texas. The White House’s response? To pretend words don’t mean what they mean.

Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that he had seen this horror and devastation “first hand.” Continue reading “Trump claimed he witnessed Harvey’s devastation ‘first hand.’ The White House basically admits he didn’t.”

Gary Cohn: ‘Only morons pay the estate tax’

The following article by Jennifer M. Wood was posted on the Death and Taxes Magazine website August 29, 2017:

Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn doesn’t always see eye to eye with his boss, but when it comes to cold, hard cash, they both think that paying taxes is for suckers. According to The New York Times, Cohn managed to piss off a group of Senate Democrats when he joked that “only morons pay the estate tax.”

The comment was made earlier this year in response to a conversation Dems wanted to have about whether it might make sense — including financially — to repeal the estate tax. Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs, didn’t hesitate to make his opinion on the matter known. The comment was repeated by more than one person who was present, though a source close to Cohn told NYT that he never used the “m” word and that his comment was about “rich people with really bad tax planning.”

It’s also worth repeating The Times’ description of Cohn in the piece: Continue reading “Gary Cohn: ‘Only morons pay the estate tax’”

Top Trump Organization executive asked Putin aide for help on business deal

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman, Carol D. Leonnig and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website August 28, 2017:

The Washington Post’s Carol Leonnig and Tom Hamburger explain the Trump Organization’s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. (Jenny Starrs, Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

A top executive from Donald Trump’s real estate company emailed Russian President Vladi­mir Putin’s personal spokesman during the U.S. presidential campaign last year to ask for help advancing a stalled Trump Tower development project in Moscow, according to documents submitted to Congress on Monday. Continue reading “Top Trump Organization executive asked Putin aide for help on business deal”

DeVos continues carrying out ALEC’s agenda by dismantling for-profit college accountability

The following article by Brett Robertson was posted on the Media Matters website August 25, 2017:

In a little-noticed action, on August 18, the Department of Education announced a rule change that will further loosen accountability of for-profit colleges. The move signals a continuation of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ American Legislative Exchange Council-inspired agenda: favoring the interests of fraudulent for-profit colleges over victimized students, and dismantling higher education accountability structures.

In 2010, the administration of then-President Barack Obama announced new rules designed to ensure that for-profit career preparatory colleges yielded appropriate levels of “gainful employment” for their graduates. According to The Washington Post, the rule “effectively would shut down for-profit programs that repeatedly fail to show, through certain measures, that graduates are earning enough to pay down the loans taken out to attend those programs.” After a series of court challenges, and a process of negotiated rulemaking, the final guidelines were set to be instituted on July 1, 2017. Even before the rules were implemented, evidence indicated that the pending gainful employment regulations were already having an impact, with many colleges proactively shutting down programs that might have been noncompliant. Continue reading “DeVos continues carrying out ALEC’s agenda by dismantling for-profit college accountability”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she’ll get back to you on that. Chances are she won’t.

The following article by Paul Farhi was posted on the Washington Post website August 26, 2017:

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pauses to listen to a reporter’s question during the daily news briefing at the White House in Washington on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. (Carolyn Kaster/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

It’s a stock response of every White House press secretary who’s either caught off guard or is trying to dodge a sticky question. When a reporter asks a tough question during a briefing, the reply from the podium is often a punt: “I’ll get back to you on that.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump’s press secretary, invoked some version of IGBTYOT 10 times on Thursday , which may be a record for a single briefing, if records for such things were kept. Among other topics, she vowed to get back to reporters after they asked questions about: foreign aid to Egypt; the president’s ban on transgender members of the military; the arrest of a Russian dissident; the possibility of a presidential pardon for former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio; the job status of the Internal Revenue Service commissioner; and the White House’s reaction to federal approval of Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for her to follow up. Continue reading “Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she’ll get back to you on that. Chances are she won’t.”