Tag: Trump White House

White House Won’t Deny Trump’s Slur About Haiti, African Nations

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website January 11, 2018:

The White House is not denying that President Donald Trump used a derogatory term when talking about immigrants from Haiti and African countries. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The White House is not denying that President Donald Trump used a vulgar expression Thursday when talking about immigrants from Haiti and African countries during a meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office.

The president allegedly called those nations “shithole countries” when complaining about their immigrants to the United States.

He also allegedly said he wants more immigrants from places like Norway. The Washington Post and other outlets have reported Trump’s comments, citing sources briefed on the meeting.

“Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people,” Raj Shah, principal deputy White House press secretary, said in a statement. Continue reading “White House Won’t Deny Trump’s Slur About Haiti, African Nations”

‘Outrageous,’ White House Says of DACA Ruling, as Trump Calls Court System ‘Broken’

The following article byEileen Sullivan was posted on the New York Times website January 10, 2018:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said the fate of the program should be addressed by Congress. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump called the United States courts system “broken and unfair” on Wednesday, the morning after a federal judge’s ruling that ordered the administration to restart a program that shields young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Republicans and Democrats are in the middle of a legislative battle over the program created by President Barack Obama, called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Lawmakers met with President Trump on Tuesday to discuss the program’s future.

“We find this decision to be outrageous, especially in light of the president’s successful bipartisan meeting with House and Senate members at the White House on the same day,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said in a statement released Wednesday morning.

Hours after the White House meeting, Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court in San Francisco wrote that it was not proper to kill the program, and that the administration must “maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis” as the legal challenge to the president’s decision in September to end the program moves forward.

Mr. Trump has previously criticized the courts system after judges have halted or held up his policy initiatives.

Ms. Sanders said the fate of the program should be addressed by Congress.

“President Trump is committed to the rule of law, and will work with members of both parties to reach a permanent solution that corrects the unconstitutional actions taken by the last administration,” Ms. Sanders said.

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Republicans: Budget deal prospects are dimming

The following article by Racael Bade, Seung Min Kim and John Bresnahan was posted on the Politico website January 8, 2018:

“[R]ight now, the Democrats are holding that deal hostage for a DACA negotiation,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Congressional Republicans and White House officials are increasingly skeptical that they’ll reach a long-term budget agreement with Democrats in the next 11 days, accusing progressives of slow-walking a spending deal until they get what they want on immigration.

Party leaders from both sides of the aisle have been quietly working to raise stiff spending caps to avert a government shutdown before Jan. 19, when federal agency funding runs dry.

But Republicans claim Democrats won’t back a long-term spending plan until Congress agrees to shield hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation. The Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave safe harbor to “Dreamers,” formally ends March 5, although some immigrants have already started losing their protections. Continue reading “Republicans: Budget deal prospects are dimming”

s The White House struggles to silence talk of Trump’s mental fitness

The following article by Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website January 8, 2018:

As some critics question President Trump’s mental fitness, many psychiatrists are being reminded of the Goldwater Rule. Here’s what you need to know about it. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

The White House is struggling to contain the national discussion about President Trump’s mental acuity and fitness for the job, which has overshadowed the administration’s agenda for the past week.

Trump publicly waded into the debate spawned by a new book, “Fire and Fury” — Michael Wolff’s inside account of the presidency — over the weekend by claiming on Twitter that he is “like, really smart” and “a very stable genius.” In doing so, the president underscored his administration’s response strategy — by being forceful and combative — while also undermining it by gleefully entering a debate his aides have tried to avoid. Continue reading “s The White House struggles to silence talk of Trump’s mental fitness”

Why ‘executive time’ is a particularly bleak scoop about President Trump

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website January 8, 2018:

President Trump sometimes seems to miss his “other life” before becoming commander-in-chief. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

For the past week, all of Washington has been chewing over Michael Wolff’s new book about President Trumpand trying to assess which damning conclusions are actually true. But one of the bleakest scoops about Trump popped up elsewhere on Sunday night.

Axios’s Jonathan Swan reports that Trump has significantly curtailed his official schedule as president — to the point where his first meeting is often held at 11 a.m., and he spends almost the whole morning in his White House residence — rather than the West Wing or the Oval Office — watching TV, tweeting and making phone calls. That chunk of his day, generally between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., is dubbed “executive time,” a phrase that is bound to become the butt of plenty of jokes. Trump then has other periods of “executive time” sprinkled in throughout his official work schedule, which is usually between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. (Nice work if you can get it. And a short commute, too!) Continue reading “Why ‘executive time’ is a particularly bleak scoop about President Trump”

Trump’s work day said to start late to allow time for TV, Twitter

The following article by Mike Murphy was posted on the Morningstar website January 7, 2018:

Daily schedule includes hours of ‘executive time,” Axios reports

President Trump arrives back at the White House yesterday after playing golf at his club in Sterling, Va. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

President Donald Trump’s work day has shrunk since the early days of his presidency, Axios reported Sunday (https://www.axios.com/scoop-trumps-secret-shrinking-schedule-1515364904-ab76374a-6252-4570-a804-942b3f851840.html), often not starting until 11 a.m. and including hours of “executive time” that he largely spends watching TV, tweeting and talking on the phone.

Axios, which was shown copies of his private schedules, also reported that Trump is holding far fewer meetings than previously in his term. Continue reading “Trump’s work day said to start late to allow time for TV, Twitter”

Wolff: Concept of 25th Amendment ‘alive every day’ in Trump’s White House

The following article by Mallory Shelbourne was posted on the Hill website January 7, 2018:

Michael Wolff, author of the blockbuster new book about President Trump, said in a new interview that the concept of the 25th Amendment is “alive every day” in Trump’s White House.

“This is alarming in every way. And then this went on, ‘OK, this is a little 25th Amendment.’ So the 25th Amendment is a concept that is alive every day in the White House,” Wolff told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet may proclaim the president is unfit to serve and therefore remove the president from office.

Continue reading “Wolff: Concept of 25th Amendment ‘alive every day’ in Trump’s White House”

Trump’s extraordinary tweetstorms mark an unsettling start to 2018

The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website January 6, 2018:

President Trump lashed out Saturday on Twitter in response to charges that he is unfit for office, writing that “mental stability and being, like, really smart” have long been his two greatest assets. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

In a White House marked by a string of high-level comings and goings, an extraordinary level of palace intrigue and a general sense of unpredictability, there remains but one constant. That is the disorder at the center, perpetrated by a president who continues to break the norms of his office. It’s the reason 2018 could eclipse 2017 for political turbulence.

The first week of the year was breathtaking for its shock value: a presidential tweetstorm of personal animus and policy provocation that overshadowed positive news about the economy. That has become the running story of the Trump presidency: a chief executive whose personal behavior has become the administration’s defining feature rather than the gains of a growing economy or the significant course reversal from the Obama years.

The tweets took another stunning turn on Saturday morning, when the president defended himself against charges that he lacks the fitness for office. He accused “Democrats and their lapdogs” and the “Fake News Mainstream Media” of going after him the way he said they went after President Ronald Reagan, by “screaming mental stability and intelligence.” Continue reading “Trump’s extraordinary tweetstorms mark an unsettling start to 2018”

Trump World frustrated, angry over new book

The following article by Jordan Fabian was posted on the Hill website January 5, 2018:

Allies of President Trump are aghast at the damage caused by a new book that paints a picture of a chaotic, dysfunctional and incompetent early months of the Trump administration.

Current and former Trump aides believe many of the juiciest stories in “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” are exaggerated or wholly fictional and don’t think the book is resonating outside the Beltway among the president’s core supporters.

But they are shocked that the author, Michael Wolff, was given access to the White House for months to work on the project and stunned at the seemingly low regard some staffers have for the president as described in the book. Continue reading “Trump World frustrated, angry over new book”

As Trump fumes, White House staff spread blame on Wolff book

The following article by Andrew Restuccia and Matthew Nussbaum was posted on the Politico website January 4, 2018:

President Donald Trump’s lawyers are threatening a ferocious legal assault on Michael Wolff and those who cooperated with him, including Steve Bannon. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

White House staffers are poring over copies of Michael Wolff’s forthcoming book, scanning the index for their names and crossing their fingers that they aren’t mentioned.

The president, for his part, is still fuming behind the scenes, even though in remarks to reporters Thursday he appeared to be pleased that Steve Bannon, his newly forsaken former chief strategist, called him a “great man” in a recent radio interview. Continue reading “As Trump fumes, White House staff spread blame on Wolff book”