Tag: Trump Administration

What Isn’t Donald Trump Hiding?

The following article by @LOL was posted on the National Memo website April 17, 2017:

Given all that he’s hiding — including his tax returns, the reasoning behind his campaign’s contacts and possible coordination with Russia, the visitor logs for the White House, and his private lobbying theme park Mar-A-Lago as well as the details of nearly all his economic proposals — it’s amazing what Donald Trump isn’t hiding.

Let’s start with his impressive ignorance.

After years of insisting at every chance he got that China is ripping off the United States, Trump informed the Wall St. Journal that Xi Jinping, the president of the world’s most populous nation, had schooled him — on North Korea. Continue reading “What Isn’t Donald Trump Hiding?”

With Trump Appointees, a Raft of Potential Conflicts and ‘No Transparency’

The following article by Erik Lipton, Ben Protess and Andrew W. Lehren was posted on the New York Times Website April 15, 2017:

D. J. Gribbin, an infrastructure specialist on the White House’s National Economic Council, with President Trump this month. Mr. Gribbin used to work for Macquarie, a bank that specializes in infrastructure and stands to gain from such undertakings. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump is populating the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who in many cases are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck.

The potential conflicts are arising across the executive branch, according to an analysis of recently released financial disclosures, lobbying records and interviews with current and former ethics officials by The New York Times in collaboration with ProPublica.

In at least two cases, the appointments may have already led to violations of the administration’s own ethics rules. But evaluating if and when such violations have occurred has become almost impossible because the Trump administration is secretly issuing waivers to the rules. Continue reading “With Trump Appointees, a Raft of Potential Conflicts and ‘No Transparency’”

DeVos Pick to Head Civil Rights Office Once Said She Faced Discrimination for Being White

The following article by Annie Waldman was posted on the ProPublica website April 14, 2017:

Candice Jackson’s intellectual journey raises questions about how actively she will investigate allegations of unfair treatment of minorities and women.

Candice Jackson MIKE WINTROATH (AP Photo)

The new acting head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights once complained that she experienced discrimination because she is white.

As an undergraduate studying calculus at Stanford University in the mid-1990s, Candice Jackson “gravitated” toward a section of the class that provided students with extra help on challenging problems, she wrote in a student publication. Then she learned that the section was reserved for minority students. Continue reading “DeVos Pick to Head Civil Rights Office Once Said She Faced Discrimination for Being White”

Trump asks why people are still talking about his taxes a day after protesters asked for his returns

The following article by John Wagner was posted on the Washington Post website April 16, 2017:

President Trump lashed out Sunday at the protesters who took part in marches across the country Saturday to demand that he release his tax returns, declaring on Twitter that “The election is over!”

Trump’s comments followed a nationwide Tax March that drew thousands of people in dozens of cities on the country’s traditionally recognized deadline to file taxes, April 15. Continue reading “Trump asks why people are still talking about his taxes a day after protesters asked for his returns”

Even Canadians are skipping trips to the U.S. after Trump travel ban

The following article by Abha Bhattarai was posted on the Washington Post website April 14, 2017:

Airplanes sit on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. San Francisco is one city expected to lose tourism dollars this year after President Trump promoted a travel ban. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The cancellations came quickly and in rapid succession. Within days of President Trump’s first executive order restricting travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, a number of European travel groups pulled their plans, amounting to a loss of 2,000 overnight stays for Hostelling International USA.

The ban would complicate travel for citizens of the countries cited — among them Iran, Syria and Libya. But Canadians and Europeans and others were dropping their plans, too. As group organizers put it, people suddenly had an unsettling sense that the United States wasn’t as welcoming a place as it once was. Continue reading “Even Canadians are skipping trips to the U.S. after Trump travel ban”

Trump’s pledge to allow churches to support candidates may be part of tax bill

The following article by John Wagner was posted on the Washington Post website April 14, 2017:

As Republicans struggle to craft a sweeping tax package — a process already rife with political land mines — they are preparing to add another volatile element to the mix: a provision that would end a six-decade-old ban on churches and other tax-exempt organizations supporting political candidates.

The repeal of the “Johnson amendment” is being written into tax legislation developed in the House of Representatives, according to aides. President Trump has vowed to “totally destroy” the provision at the behest of evangelical Christians who helped elect him. Continue reading “Trump’s pledge to allow churches to support candidates may be part of tax bill”

Trump doesn’t know much about history. It’s making his on-the-job training harder.

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website April 14, 2017:

Donald Trump salutes after laying a wreath at the tomb of Andrew Jackson after touring The Hermitage in Nashville on March 15. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump believed he could convince China to pressure North Korea to stop its nuclear activities. Then President Xi Jinping tutored him on the history of the region.

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized that it’s not so easy,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, recounting the session at Mar-a-Lago. “You know, I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power over North Korea. But it’s not what you would think.”

This comment is funny because, in 2011, Trump claimed that he has read “hundreds of books about China over the decades,” including works by Henry Kissinger, American journalists and Chinese novelists. Looking to do more business with Beijing, he provided a list of 20 books about China to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, that he said had helped him understand the country, its politics and its people. “I know the Chinese. I’ve made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind,” Trump said six years ago. His list had some surprising titles on it, including “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.” Continue reading “Trump doesn’t know much about history. It’s making his on-the-job training harder.”

Trump to discontinue Obama policy of voluntarily releasing White House visitor logs

The following article by John Wagner was posted on the Washington Post website April 14, 2017:

The Trump administration announced Friday that it would discontinue former president Barack Obama’s policy of voluntarily disclosing the names of most visitors to the White House complex, citing “grave national security risks and privacy concerns.”

Instead, the Trump administration said it would release information only under far more limited circumstances: for those visiting components of the White House classified under the law as separate agencies, such as the Office of Management and Budget. Under the new policy, it will be up to the White House to decide whether to release names of visitors coming to meet with the president, vice president and their senior staff. Continue reading “Trump to discontinue Obama policy of voluntarily releasing White House visitor logs”

What happens to political satire when the real world goes mad? ‘Veep’ is about to find out.

The following article by Ben Terris was posted on the Washington Post website April 9, 2017:

On Nov. 8, as the nation picked its 45th president, Julia Louis-Dreyfus spent the night observing a fake election.

The scene, filmed for an upcoming episode of the political comedy “Veep,” unfolded in what was supposed to be a polling station in a post-Soviet republic. Actors dressed as villagers — wool caps, scarves, an unruly chicken tucked under an arm — ambled across the set to dip their fingers in ink, as Louis-Dreyfus, in character as ex-president Selina Meyer, kept watch. Continue reading “What happens to political satire when the real world goes mad? ‘Veep’ is about to find out.”

New Poll Suggests Donald Trump’s Brand Is Going Right Down The Tubes

The following article was posted on the Trumpaccountable website April 11, 2017:

Photo Credit: FlickR/Gage Skidmore

President Trump this morning, while speaking to a gathering of CEOs, falsely claimed responsibility for the creation of 600,000 jobs in his first 100 days:

“You see what’s going on,” Trump asserted. “You see the numbers. We’ve created over 600,000 jobs already in a very short period of time, and it’s gonna really start catching on now because some of the things that we’ve done are big league, and they are catching on. Already, we’ve created more than almost 600,000 jobs.” Continue reading “New Poll Suggests Donald Trump’s Brand Is Going Right Down The Tubes”