Tag: Trump Administration

Trump picks antiabortion activist to head HHS family planning section

The following article by Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website May 2, 2017:

Credit: Flickr/Steve Rhodes

President Trump is placing antiabortion activist Teresa Manning in charge of the Title X program, which provides family planning funding for poor Americans or those without health insurance.

Manning’s selection as the Department of Health and Human Services’ deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, which HHS officially confirmed Tuesday, marks the second agency appointment within a week that has pleased abortion foes and angered abortion rights proponents. On Friday, the White House announced that Trump had picked Charmaine Yoest, former president of Americans United for Life, as the department’s assistant secretary of public affairs. Continue reading “Trump picks antiabortion activist to head HHS family planning section”

Reckless Endangerment: President Trump and the Use of Military Force

The following article by Peter Juul and Ken Gude was posted on the Center for American Progress website May 1, 2017:

AP/Ford Williams  The guided-missile destroyer USS Porter launches a tomahawk land attack missile in the Mediterranean Sea, April 7, 2017.

During his first 100 days in office, it has become clear that President Donald Trump views military force as his primary—if not only—foreign policy tool. From a botched special operations raid in Yemen to a cruise missile strike against an Assad-regime airfield in Syria, Trump has proven more than willing to order America’s armed forces into action. Moreover, his administration’s proposed “hard-power budget” cuts U.S. State Department funding by more than one-quarter to help pay for a $54 billion increase in military spending.1

President Trump’s reliance on military force at the literal expense of America’s other foreign policy tools is bad policy. No U.S. foreign policy failure this century has been due to insufficient military power. Having chosen to buy more ammunition rather than fully fund the Department of State—something his own secretary of defense, James Mattis, advised against when he served as the commander of American forces in the Middle East—Trump is painting America into a dangerous corner.2 In crisis situations, he will be faced with a stark choice between using military force or backing down. Continue reading “Reckless Endangerment: President Trump and the Use of Military Force”

Frustrated by failures, Trump now demands more power

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

Update: Trump is indeed going ahead with a push to get rid of the filibuster, tweeting Tuesday morning that the GOP should consider it if it can’t get 60 votes to overcome the filibuster. He apparently even threatened to allow a government shutdown to prove his point.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We….

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good “shutdown” in September to fix mess!

The below post is from Saturday, after he first hinted at this in a Fox News interview: Continue reading “Frustrated by failures, Trump now demands more power”

GOP Establishment Shrugs As Democracy Crumbles Under Trump

The following article by Steven Rosenfeld was posted on the Alternet website April 28, 2017:

Many of Trump’s working-class supporters actually believe he’s got their backs. Really?

Credit: www.whitehouse.gov

It’s become the new abnormal: Trump’s decrees, accusations and posturing; his transparent lies, threats and reversals. Then comes the cleanup crew, the White House propagandists, pretending he’s serious.

Half the media plays it straight, according Trump a gravitas unsupported by facts or details. Others, from TV comedians to seasoned political columnists, cannot keep a straight face. Whatever being presidential or serious governing is, they know that’s not Trump. Continue reading “GOP Establishment Shrugs As Democracy Crumbles Under Trump”

On Trade, a Politically Feisty Trump Risks Economic Damage

The following article by Peter S. Goodman was posted on the New York Times website April 30, 2017:

Trucks waiting to enter the United States at the border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, in February. Credit Jorge Duenes/Reuters

As political theater, the threat last week from the Trump administration that it would pull the United States out of the North American Free Trade Agreement effectively enhanced the White House story line. From the campaign through his first 100 days in office, President Trump adroitly exploited the most conspicuous downsides of trade in portraying himself as a hero to those who go to work in coveralls.

But as economic policy, the feisty words — quickly downgraded to a pledge to “renegotiate” terms of trade with Mexico and Canada — potentially imperil significant swaths of the American economy. Continue reading “On Trade, a Politically Feisty Trump Risks Economic Damage”

Republicans are tethered to Trump politically and need to act accordingly

The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website April 29, 2017:

As President Trump passes the 100-day mark of his administration, House Republicans should be starting to worry about next year’s midterm elections.

The midterms are a referendum on the presidency, and preliminary signs point to problems for the party in power unless things change. Continue reading “Republicans are tethered to Trump politically and need to act accordingly”

Trump’s One Great Accomplishment? Implicating The Entire GOP In Potentially Impeachable Crimes

The following article by @LOL was posted on the National Memo website May 1, 2017:

You don’t have to be a foreign agent to work for Donald Trump.

You don’t need decades of association with a Nazi-allied group.

You don’t even need to be a liar, though that is necessary if you’re going to say that Trump “has given more financial disclosure than anybody else” when he hasn’t even released one tax return, after promising to release them dozens of times, becoming the first president not to make this bare minimum of disclosure in more than 45 years. Continue reading “Trump’s One Great Accomplishment? Implicating The Entire GOP In Potentially Impeachable Crimes”

Art of the Bluff: The Limits of Trump’s Negotiation Strategy

The following article by Neil Irwin was posted on the New York Times website April 27, 2017:

Illustration by Antonio de Luca/The New York Times; Photo by Al Drago, via The New York Times

In 1987, the real estate developer Donald J. Trump wanted to buy an airplane. He sensed that the seller of the Boeing 727 was desperate, so he first offered a mere $5 million, “which was obviously ridiculously low,” he wrote in “Art of the Deal.” He boasts of buying the plane, worth $30 million new, for just $8 million.

This week, we saw the public policy equivalent of a $5 million offer for a $30 million plane.

The Trump administration demanded funding of its border wall as part of a deal to keep the government open, proposed a huge cut in taxes on businesses that would reduce government revenue by trillions, and leaked plans to abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement to try to force Canada and Mexico to agree to better conditions. Continue reading “Art of the Bluff: The Limits of Trump’s Negotiation Strategy”

Trump now agrees with the majority of Americans: He wasn’t ready to be president

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website April 28, 2017:

Donald Trump spent a great portion of 2016 insisting that being president would be easy — at least for him. HuffPost compiled a number of examples of him dismissing the problems that accompany the job as being easily dispatched. Building a wall on the border with Mexico is easy. Beating Hillary Clinton would be easy. Renegotiating the Iran deal would be easy. Paying down the national debt would be easy. Acting presidential? Easy. Continue reading “Trump now agrees with the majority of Americans: He wasn’t ready to be president”

This is how Trump looks out for the people who voted for him

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website April 28, 2017:

This is how Trump looks out for the people who voted for him

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump said yesterday morning that his phone calls with the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada persuaded him to not withdraw from NAFTA. In fact, he had already made up his mind to stick with the agreement before either conversation.

It wasn’t pleas from foreign leaders or CEOs that prompted the president to change his mind. It was a map of the United States that apparently proved decisive in the tug-of-war between the populists and the globalists inside the administration. Continue reading “This is how Trump looks out for the people who voted for him”