Tag: Trump White House

As the national debt has risen, Trump officials kept saying it would fall

Washington Post logoWhen Republicans cut corporate and individual taxes in 2017, they promised two things: It would grow the economy and it would not add to the national debt. Neither of those have borne out.

Not only has economic growth slowed, in part because of President Trump’s ongoing trade war with China, but the deficit has grown to its highest level in seven years, in part due to reduced tax revenue.

To counter these trends, the Trump administration has engaged in economic double-talk, including repeatedly saying, falsely, that the federal deficit — and by extension, the national debt — was falling or would fall in the future. You can watch Trump officials do this again and again — even as the debt rises — in the video above.

View the complete September 23 article by JM Rieger on The Washington Post website here.

Kellyanne Conway lashes out at Democratic voters as ‘racist and sexist’ during Ohio GOP dinner

AlterNet logoMaking an appearance at a Republican Party dinner in Columbus, Ohio, Kellyanne Conway accused Democratic voters of being “racist and sexist,” in a diatribe as she tried to boost the fortunes of her boss, President Donald Trump.

According to a report from Cincinnati.com, Conway attacked the leading Democratic presidential nominees before making her claim.

“Their top three candidates are white, career politicians in their 60s and 70s, which I have nothing against except they (Democrats) certainly do,” Conway reportedly told the crowd. “I don’t know why the heck the Democratic party electorate is so racist and sexist. I can’t figure it out.”

View the complete September 22 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

DeVos Demands Universities Revise Mideast Curricula To Favor Christians, Jews

President Donald Trump, for all his isolationist tendencies, has repeatedly proclaimed himself to be a staunch and unwavering supporter of Israel. And Trump’s secretary of education Betsy DeVos, according to the New York Times, has been forcefully cracking down on what she views as a bias against Israel in higher education.

The Times’ Erica L. Green reported on Thursday that the Department of Education, under DeVos’ direction, has ordered two major universities — Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — to revise their Middle Eastern studies programs in a way that shows more “positive” images of Judaism and Christianity in the Middle East. The Department of Education is saying that the Middle Eastern studies programs at those universities didn’t meet the standards of a federal program that gives funding to international studies and foreign language programs.

Miriam Elman, who is an associate professor at Syracuse University and an opponent of anti-Israel boycotts, told the Times, “What they’re saying is, ‘If you want to be biased and show an unbalanced view of the Middle East, you can do that. But you’re not going to get federal and taxpayer money.’”

View the complete September 19 article by Alex Henderson from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

For Trump, a Time of Indecision

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — Speaking to a Fox News reporter near the Mexican border on Wednesday, President Trump seemed taken aback when asked if the White House was preparing to roll out gun control proposals the next day, a timeline administration officials had suggested was likely.

“No, we’re not moving on anything,” Mr. Trump said. “We’re going very slowly in one way because we want to make sure it’s right.”

The result is that almost two months after the back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio, when Mr. Trump said he wanted to pass “very meaningful background checks,” warnings from gun rights advocates and Republican lawmakers about the political blowback that would result from doing that have led to indecision about what to do and what the time frame is for sharing it.

View the complete September 19 article by Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman on The New York Times website here.

Issa hearing delayed after dispute over background investigation

Democratic Sen. Menendez says White House has ignored its requests for additional information

A confirmation hearing for former Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, who was nominated to a key trade post, was interrupted and then delayed on Thursday as the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee fought over information in Issa’s FBI file that could be potentially disqualifying.

Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, had decided to hold confirmation hearings for two nominees whose FBI background files contained classified and potentially disqualifying information that the White House declined to release to anyone other than Risch and ranking Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

In going forward with the hearing, Risch broke with decades of bipartisan tradition in the committee, which normally would not schedule confirmation hearings without the agreement of the ranking member of the opposing party. Menendez had opposed the scheduling of the hearing.

View the complete September 19 article by Rachel Oswald on The Roll Call website here.

‘Doomed To Failure’: Bolton Dishing Dirt On Trump White House

Newly ousted National Security Adviser John Bolton has already begun disparaging his former boss, President Donald Trump, according to a new report from Politico.

The outlet revealed details of Bolton’s comments at a private lunch Wednesday in Manhattan hosted by the conservative Gatestone Institute.

Unsurprisingly, the report revealed that Bolton, a notorious warmonger, was at odds with the president over his recent effort to bring the Taliban to Camp David to negotiate a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan. He also reportedly said that Trump’s policy toward Iran and North Korea was “doomed to failure.”

View the complete September 18 article by Cody Fenwick of AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Robert O’Brien ‘Looks the Part,’ but Has Spent Little Time Playing It

New York Times logoMr. O’Brien, President Trump’s new national security adviser, is said to bring milder views and a sunnier personality to the job than John R. Bolton.

WASHINGTON — Even his many critics conceded that the former national security adviser John R. Bolton brought useful credentials to the job: decades of foreign policy experience and a keen grasp of how the gears of government turn.

Mr. Bolton’s main problem, as it turned out, was that he knew too much. Confident in his experience to a fault, he was unwilling to shade his deeply held hawkish views, which he defended with a prickly personality that alienated colleagues — and ultimately President Trump himself, leading to his ouster last week.

Robert C. O’Brien, Mr. Trump’s choice to succeed Mr. Bolton, flips that equation. He is a former Los Angeles lawyer with limited government experience before he became the State Department’s point man for hostage negotiations. But his friends all cite an affable, ingratiating personality that has earned him allies throughout the Trump administration, notably including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, both of whom supported his appointment.

View the complete September 18 article by Michael Crowley, Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman on The New York Times website here.

Sean Spicer mocked for tweet suggesting people who vote against him on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ are discounting Christ: ‘The grift of victimhood’

AlterNet logoFormer Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer made his premiere performance on “Dancing With the Stars” Monday night, and was widely mocked for his outfit – and his dancing:

The Washington Post

✔@washingtonpost

In last night’s “Dancing With the Stars” premiere, Sean Spicer wore a neon ruffled shirt that was skewered on social media. The judges were also not impressed. https://wapo.st/2AnOc3e 

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Continue reading “Sean Spicer mocked for tweet suggesting people who vote against him on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ are discounting Christ: ‘The grift of victimhood’”

Tracking turnover in the Trump administration

The rate of turnover among senior level advisers to President Trump has generated a great deal of attention. Below, we offer four resources to help measure and contextualize this turnover. The first set of resources tracks turnover among senior-ranking advisers in the executive office of the president (which does not include Cabinet secretaries), whereas the second set of resources tracks turnover in the Cabinet.

President Trump’s “A Team” turnover is 78% as of Sept. 17, 2019

The following chart and table reflect turnover among the most influential positions within the executive office of the president. This data is compiled and tracked by Brookings Nonresident Senior Fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who refers to this group of advisers as the president’s “A Team.” The list of positions that make up the “A Team” is based on National Journal “Decision Makers” editions, and Dunn Tenpas’s methodology is described in detail in a report she published in January 2018. The chart and table below will be updated as additional members of the “A Team” depart their positions. It is important to note the following:

View the complete September article by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas on the Brookings Institute website here.

The DOJ is suing Omarosa for violating the same law Brett Kavanaugh is accused of violating: Ex-White House ethics chief

AlterNet logoOn Monday, former Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub noted a massive double standard at the Justice Department, pointing out that government attorneys are suing Omarosa Manigault Newman for financial disclosure violations — while giving a free pass to Brett Kavanaugh, who is accused of even more serious financial disclosure violations.

In fact, noted Shaub, not only is the DOJ not pursuing that allegation, Attorney General Bill Barr is giving the DOJ employees who helped fast-track Kavanaugh through Supreme Court confirmation hearings a prestigious award, usually reserved for prosecutors who take down terrorists and mob bosses: Continue reading “The DOJ is suing Omarosa for violating the same law Brett Kavanaugh is accused of violating: Ex-White House ethics chief”