Tag: Trump White House

The Trumps host a July 4th pandemic party at the White House as new COVID-19 infections soar

AlterNet logoHundreds of thousands of people converged on a very hot Washington, DC Saturday afternoon, where U.S. President Donald Trump will host a private party in the midst of a pandemic. The Trumps are hosting a “2020 Salute to America” on the South Lawn of the White House. The “Salute” will include a speech that Trump says would celebrate American “heritage.” The invitation-only event, will culminate in watching flyovers of military aircraft and a large-scale fireworks show on the National Mall.

Disregarding Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s warnings of the risk of gathering as many U.S. states are spiking with record numbers of new COVID-19 cases.

Florida reported 11,458 new coronavirus cases Saturday, shattering its record for daily reported cases in the state since the pandemic began. Yesterday the US reported a third straight day with more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases. The US death toll has now risen to 132,223. Continue reading.

The political theater of Kayleigh McEnany’s scripted walk-offs

Washington Post logoKayleigh McEnany’s press briefings don’t just draw to a close. They tend to end with a flourish — a true walk-off moment.

It happened again at the White House on Monday. President Trump’s press secretary was speaking to reporters when one asked about his denial of reports that Russian operatives offered bounties to Taliban members who kill American troops in Afghanistan. But, a reporter noted, Trump had also claimed that he had never been briefed on the subject — so how could he be certain there were never any bounties?

McEnany was ready for this one.

Quickly flipping pages in her briefing binder, McEnany launched into an extended critique of the New York Times, which broke the Russia story last week. Reading from her notes, she rattled off a series of alleged errors published by the Times in its reporting about Russia over the past four years, including a claim that 17 intelligence agencies had agreed about Russian interference in the 2016 election. (Only four agencies had done so.) Continue reading.

Scoop: Trump regrets Kushner advice

Axios logoPresident Trump has told people in recent days that he regrets following some of son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner’s political advice — including supporting criminal justice reform — and will stick closer to his own instincts, three people with direct knowledge of the president’s thinking tell Axios.

Behind the scenes: One person who spoke with the president interpreted his thinking this way: “No more of Jared’s woke s***.” Another said Trump has indicated that following Kushner’s advice has harmed him politically.

Why it matters: This could be the final straw for federal police reform legislation this year, and it could usher in even more incendiary campaign tactics between now and November. Continue reading.

Trump Officials Didn’t Want to Tell Him About the ‘Russian Bounties’

Trump doesn’t like intel outside his comfort zone, and officials are reluctant to push information in person that he’ll resist. The chance he’ll read the briefs? “Basically zero.”

The Trump administration has for years gathered intelligence about foreign powers, including Russia and Iran, that use financial means to support and encourage armed militants in Afghanistan, according to six current and former U.S. intelligence and national security officials. And, those officials said, the president has been briefed about those wide-ranging efforts.

One current senior national-security official and two other former officials familiar with intelligence gathering in Afghanistan said the Trump administration has closely tracked ways in which Iran uses cash to support militants in the Haqqani Network who have killed U.S. soldiers.

But when intelligence emerged earlier this year that Russia had concocted a specific plan to pay bounties to mercenaries to kill American soldiers, intelligence and national-security leaders did not brief the president in person. A person with knowledge of the situation says that although they are aware that the intelligence has circulated in the White House and within Trump’s own national-security apparatus, they were unaware of any direct, face-to-face briefing that the president had received. Continue reading.

Here are 7 bombshell details from CNN’s new exposé on Trump’s disturbing calls with foreign leaders

AlterNet logoA new blockbuster CNN report from famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein published Monday documented his extensive findings about President Donald Trump’s disturbing conversations with foreign leaders.

Though the nature of Trump’s interactions with many foreign leaders has been explored before — his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led to his impeachment — Bernstein’s reporting expands the scope of past reporting and fills in new details.

It also reveals that an apparently wide circle of Trump’s aides has been and remains deeply troubled by Trump’s conduct in international relations. These worries, presumably, are what prompted officials to speak anonymously to Bernstein about what they’ve seen and heard. Continue reading.

Trump ‘white power’ tweet set off a scramble inside the White House — but no clear condemnationTrump ‘white power’ tweet set off a scramble inside the White House — but no clear condemnation

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s tweet landed at 7:39 a.m. Sunday morning, and senior White House advisers say they immediately realized they had a problem.

The president had shared a video on Twitter that included a Trump supporter shouting “white power” at counterprotesters during a demonstration at the Villages, a retirement community in central Florida, and had called his supporters there “great people.”

Senior staffers quickly conferred over the phone and then began trying to reach the president to convey their concerns about the tweet. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, son-in-law Jared Kushner and other senior advisers spoke with president, said several people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of private conversations. Continue reading.

Kayleigh McEnany paints a devastating picture of Trump — blinkered, ignorant, and bumbling

AlterNet logoWhen White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany took to the lectern on Monday to address reporters, it was presumably her intention to defend President Donald Trump. That is, as she sees it, her job. But whatever her intentions, the defense she offered of the president was anything but.

She portrayed the president as uninformed, steadfastly resistant to new information, and recklessly bumbling his way through presidential duties.

Addressing the most recent international scandal plaguing the White House, McEnany said the president was never briefed on intelligence reports that Russia put bounties on the heads of American soldiers to incentivize Afghanistan fighters to kill them. She said the intelligence community did not have a “consensus” on the reports of the Russian bounties. Continue reading.

White House goes through dizzying change in staff

The Hill logoPresident Trump has replaced his chief of staff, press secretary, legislative affairs director and domestic policy adviser and retooled his communications shop in a span of about three months and will soon bid goodbye to two top economic advisers.

Trump’s White House has experienced a dizzying amount of staffing changes that began following his impeachment acquittal and seemed to accelerate with the arrival of new chief of staff Mark Meadows. 

Trump has presided over a record amount of turnover in the Cabinet and senior levels of his administration, demonstrating a penchant for removing and replacing top officials as well as swapping existing staff into new roles.  Continue reading.

White House ordered NIH to cancel coronavirus research funding, Fauci says

The research was the target of a conspiracy theory about the origin of the new coronavirus.

The National Institutes of Health abruptly cut off funding to a long-standing, well-regarded research project on bat coronaviruses only after the White House specifically told it to do so, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci made the revelation Tuesday at a Congressional hearing on the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is caused by a coronavirus that is genetically linked to those found in bats. Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) asked Fauci why the NIH abruptly canceled funding for the project, which specifically worked to understand the risk of bat coronaviruses jumping to humans and causing devastating disease.

Fauci responded to Veasey saying: “It was cancelled because the NIH was told to cancel it.” Continue reading.

White House ‘Volunteer’ Got $2.4M Medical Supply Contract For Federal Prisons

A company created by a former Pentagon official who describes himself as a White House volunteer for Vice President Mike Pence won a $2.4 million contract in May — its first federal award — to supply the Bureau of Prisons with surgical gowns.

Mathew J. Konkler, who worked in the Department of Defense during the George W. Bush administration, formed BlackPoint Distribution Company LLC in August 2019 in Indiana, state records show, but had won no federal work until May 26. The Bureau of Prisons chose the company with limited competition for a contract to supply surgical gowns to its facilities.

It is at least the second contract awarded to a company formed by an individual who had worked in or volunteered for the Trump administration; a company formed by Zach Fuentes, a former White House deputy chief of staff, won a $3 million contract just days after forming to supply face masks to the Indian Health Service. The masks did not meet FDA standards for use in health care settings, and an IHS spokesman said this week that the agency is trying to return the masks to Fuentes. Members of Congress called for investigations into the contract, and the Government Accountability Office now plans to review the deal “in the coming few months, as staff become available,” spokesman Charles Young said last week. Continue reading.