Tag: Trump fake border crisis

Trump’s $4.5 billion border demand slows disaster aid talks

McConnell said Republicans are ready to compromise on Puerto Rico aid, but border funding adds new wrinkle

Prospects for a bipartisan disaster aid package appeared dimmer Tuesday after the Senate’s top GOP appropriator said the Trump administration and congressional Democrats are voicing fresh objections.

“I don’t know of a disaster aid bill in recent years that has been this protracted,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby told reporters.

“We keep working on it and working on it and working on it,” Shelby said. “It’s got some obstacles — some of them coming from the White House, some of them coming from the Democrats.”

View the complete May 7 article by Jennifer Shutt on The Roll Call website here.

Trump thinks auto tariffs against Mexico will solve border ‘crisis’

If the president really believes the U.S. is being “invaded” by “gang members,” a tariff sure is a weird way to respond.

In an apparent reversal on the position he so firmly stated over the weekend, President Donald Trump now says that he will not immediately shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, opting instead to wait for a year.

Although he had threatened to shut down the border this week, the president told the press at the White House on Thursday that Mexico should consider this a “one-year warning.”

While his threat to shut down the border was intended to force Mexico to stop Central American migrants from reaching the U.S. border, the president focused on drugs when he said he plans on imposing tariffs on Mexican products, “particularly cars.”

View the complete April 4 article by D. Parvaz on the ThinkProgress website here.

Arizona city officials want border wall’s razor wire removed


NOGALES, Ariz. — Officials in a small Arizona border city passed a resolution Wednesday night condemning the installation of new razor wire that now covers the entirety of a tall border wall through downtown.

The City Council in Nogales, which sits on the border with Nogales, Mexico, wants the federal government to remove all concertina wire installed within the city limits.

Otherwise, Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino said the city will sue.

View the complete February 6 article from the Associated Press on The StarTribune website here.

Trump just played a round of golf with Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus

Credit: Trump Twitter feed screen capture

West Palm Beach, Florida — President Trump golfed with professionals Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus on Saturday, ending the longest stretch of his presidency without a round at one of his courses.

The White House is usually reluctant to confirm the president is golfing. But on Saturday, aides alerted reporters that Trump was at his course in Jupiter, Fla., with Nicklaus and Woods. They even ushered journalists inside the club for a peek.

The president later shared a photo of the trio on social media, and a Trump Organization official bragged about the matchup, noting that Woods and Nicklaus design courses for the company.

Trump has spent more than 150 days at his golf courses since becoming president, playing significantly more than his predecessors, whom he had mocked for golfing too much. Aides used to worry about how much time Trump spent playing but have largely accepted it. They say the president is calmest when he’s on the greens.

View the complete February 2 article by Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Border lawmakers press Trump to beef up existing security

President Trump is facing pressure from lawmakers in border districts to abandon plans for a wall and focus instead on modernizing security for the nation’s border crossings.

The border lawmakers say Trump should be seeking funds for technology and staffing at legal ports of entry on the Mexican border to improve security and improve crossing times.

Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) on Wednesday called for a $4 billion investment for those efforts in place of what he said was Trump’s “misguided insistence on physical barrier funding.”

View the complete January 6 article by Rafael Bernal on The Hill website here.

Here are 6 ways the Trump shutdown is immediately hurting the country and raising risks for Americans

We are now two weeks into President Donald Trump’s petulant gambit to shut down the federal government until Congress gives him his border wall. He has even threatened to keep the government closed for months or years. And while not everyone is immediately feeling the effects, for many it is profound: some 800,000 federal workers have either been furloughed or are being made to work without pay. All of this has serious consequences.

Here are just some of the consequences of the ongoing shutdown:

  1. Families in public housing are facing risks to their health and safety.

If you live in public housing funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, you might be having a lot of trouble getting in touch with anyone for help. That’s because, according to NBC News, HUD workers have largely been furloughed as the agency’s funding has dried up:

View the complete January 5 article by Matthew Chapman on the AlterNet.org website here.

Want to Know More About: Border “National Emergency”

Paula Reid: “President Trump Will Argue That The Situation Along The Southern Border Is A Humanitarian And Security Crisis That Requires Immediate Action. He’s Demanding $5.7 Billion To Build His Border Wall.” PAULA REID: “In his address, president Trump will argue that the situation along the southern border is a humanitarian and security crisis that requires immediate action. He’s demanding $5.7 billion to build his border wall.” [CBS This Morning, CBS, 1/8/19; Video]

Joe Lockhart: “It Is Absolute Fiction There Is A National Emergency Here. We Have National Emergencies. Climate Change Is A National Emergency, Gun Violence Is A National Emergency. This Is Not, This Is Politics.” JOE LOCKHART: “If there is a humanitarian crisis here, he created it, he can fix it. It is absolute fiction there is a national emergency here. We have national emergencies. Climate change is a national emergency, gun violence is a national emergency. This is not, This is politics. Tonight, one of two things is going to happen. We will find out Donald Trump is even more cynical than we ever knew and that he used yesterday’s briefing with the vice president to build this up so he could get his seven minutes and we’ll just get more lies or we will have a constitutional crisis, where he for no reason at all, declares a national emergency and starts violating U.S. Law.” [New Day, CNN, 1/8/19; Video]

Peter Alexander: “President Trump In A Speech To The Nation Will Cast The Situation At The Southern Border As A Crisis. His Critics Say The Real Crisis Is An Economic, Political And Human One. Hundreds Of Thousands Of Federal Employees Out Of Work As The Government Shutdown Stretches On.” [Today, NBC, 1/8/19; VIDEO] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: Border “National Emergency””

Impact of Border Deployments Is Felt by Troops at Home and Away

Soldiers last month at Base Camp Donna in Texas. The deployment of 5,900 to the border was to end Dec. 15, but has been extended through January. Credit: Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Instead of preparing for a coming deployment to Europe, soldiers with the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Tex., are checking IDs at the base’s entrance gates, filling in for troops who have been sent to the southwest border.

Nearby, a medical company is not getting ready for its overseas deployment, either; the soldiers are instead building aid stations in southwestern Texas.

And in Nogales, Ariz., public affairs officers who are supposed to be heading to Poland, Romania and Germany in April have spent the last month not studying the internecine rivalries that govern the former Soviet bloc, but fielding telephone calls from “The Daily Show” and other media asking if border troops are playing cards all day.

View the complete December 24 article by Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Helene Cooper on The New York Times website here.