Tag: Trump White House

Wall Street Journal torches top Trump adviser for being the architect behind US economic chaos

AlterNet logoIn a blunt and uncharacteristically sarcastic broadside aimed at Donald Trump’s administration, an obviously furious editorial board of the conservative Wall Street Journal trashed adviser Peter Navarro for being the driving force behind policies that appear to be driving the entire world’s economy into recession.

With the market plummeting and the president trying to blame the Fed for the crashing economy, the editors of the Journal said the source of the economic chaos can be found in the White House.

“After we warned last week that U.S. trade policy was courting recession, White House aide Peter Navarro took to Fox Business to denounce us for sounding like The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist propaganda arm,” the editorial began before snarling, “That was novel as criticisms of these columns go, but perhaps Mr. Navarro would care to comment again after Wednesday’s recession warning from the bond and equity markets? Are they Commies too?”

View the complete August 15 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump pressured Mnuchin to label China ‘currency manipulator,’ a move he had previously resisted

Washington Post logoPresident Trump personally pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to label China as a “currency manipulator” two weeks ago, a move Mnuchin had previously resisted, three people with direct knowledge of the push said.

The pressure from Trump revealed a more forceful West Wing role in the highly controversial decision. Mnuchin had repeatedly refused to designate China as a currency manipulator because China’s currency moves didn’t meet the Treasury Department’s established criteria for that action.

But Trump exerted immense pressure on Mnuchin earlier this month, after the Chinese let their currency, the yuan, cross a symbolic threshold that it had not passed in some time.

View the complete August 15 article by Damian Paletta and Philip Rucker on The Washington Post website here.

Nadler subpoenas Lewandowski, former White House official for testimony

The Hill logoHouse Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) subpoenaed former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former White House official Rick Dearborn on Thursday, marking Democrats’ latest efforts to receive testimony from key figures in the Mueller report.

Nadler said he is seeking the public testimony on Sept. 17 from two individuals who were “prominently” involved in President Trump’s attempts to persuade then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal from overseeing the Russia probe.

“Corey Lewandowski and Rick Dearborn were prominently featured in the Special Counsel’s description of President Trump’s efforts to obstruct justice by directing then-White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire the Special Counsel, and then by ordering him to lie about it,” Nadler said in a statement.

View the complete August 15 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

How a Trump Ally Tested the Boundaries of Washington’s Influence Game

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — Elliott Broidy had the kind of past that might have given a more traditional White House reason to keep him at a distance: A wealthy businessman, he had pleaded guilty in 2009 to giving nearly $1 million in illegal gifts to New York State officials to help land a $250 million investment from the state’s pension fund.

But on a fall day in 2017, Mr. Broidy was ushered into the West Wing. For about two hours, he met with a handful of the most powerful people on earth, including President Trump, his chief of staff, his national security adviser and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, discussing everything from personnel recommendations to the Republican Party’s finances.

Mostly, though, according to a detailed account he later sent to an associate, Mr. Broidy talked about the Middle East, a subject that had long been important to him personally and was becoming increasingly important to him financially.

View the complete August 13 article by Kenneth P. Vogel on The New York Times website here.

International programs favored by Ivanka Trump and Mike Pence will be spared by federal budget cuts: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has been calling for extensive cuts to foreign aid programs. But on Monday, a senior Trump Administration official told Roll Call that that programs favored by Vice President Mike Pence and White House adviser Ivanka Trump will not be affected by a package of foreign aid cuts.

President Trump is “not going to touch those,” the anonymously quoted official told Roll Call.

The foreign spending package would include cuts to U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development programs. But the programs that will survive the cuts, according to Roll Call, will include programs that promote women’s economic development in other countries (an Ivanka Trump favorite) and programs to protect Christians from persecution in other countries (a Mike Pence favorite).

View the complete August 13 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

Scaramucci breaks up with Trump in now-familiar pattern

The Hill logoFormer White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has broken forcefully with President Trump, engaging in a Twitter feud with his former boss and suggesting Republicans should consider a change to the top of their ticket ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

It’s a remarkable divorce between Trump and an associate who was once one of his foremost public allies, but follows a familiar pattern of former aides stoking the anger of a president who puts a premium on loyalty.

“[Trump] requires loyalty, but it’s a one-way street,” said Omarosa Manigault Newman, one former White House aide who has become a critic of the president. “It’s not a two-way street. So he wants the people around him to be loyal to him, but he does not extend the same loyalty to others.”

View the complete August 12 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

Trump officials move to deny green cards, path to citizenship for poor immigrants

Washington Post logoImmigrants here legally who use public benefits — such as Medicaid, food stamps or housing assistance — could have a tougher time obtaining a green card under a policy change announced Monday that is at the center of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce immigration levels.

The new criteria for “Inadmissibility on Public Charge Grounds,” due to take effect Oct. 15, will set stricter standards for applicants seeking legal permanent residency in the United States, criteria that will skew the process in favor of the highly skilled, high-income immigrants President Trump covets. Since its first days, the Trump administration has been seeking ways to weed out immigrants the president sees as undesirable, including those who might draw on taxpayer-funded benefits.

Wealth, education, age and English-language skills will take on greater importance in the process of obtaining a green card, which is the main hurdle in the path to full U.S. citizenship. U.S. immigration law has long-
standing provisions to screen out foreigners who might be a burden on society, but the rule change amounts to an expansion of the government’s definition of “public charge” — and who is deemed likely to become one.

View the complete August 12 article by Abigail Hauslohner, Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Tracy Jan on The Washington Post website here.

Trump rolls back endangered species protections

The Hill logoThe Trump administration on Monday announced it has finalized a controversial rollback of protections for endangered species, including allowing economic factors to be weighed before adding an animal to the list.

The Interior Department regulations would dramatically scale back America’s landmark conservation law, limiting protections for threatened species, how factors like climate change can be considered in listing decisions and the review process used before projects are approved on their habitat.

“It means that in all likelihood that the federal government itself and individuals will be damaging the habitat and likely increase the timetable and likelihood of a species going extinct,” David Hayes, executive director of the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center and a former deputy of Interior, said in a previous interview with The Hill.

View the complete August 12 article by Rebecca Beitsch on The Hill website here.

Leaked draft of Trump executive order to ‘censor the internet’ denounced as unconstitutional edict

AlterNet logoCivil liberties groups are warning of a major threat to online freedoms and First Amendment rights if a leaked draft of a Trump administration edict—dubbed by critics as a “Censor the Internet” executive order that would give powerful federal agencies far-reaching powers to pick and choose which kind of Internet material is and is not acceptable—is allowed to go into effect.

According to CNN, which obtained a copy of the draft, the new rule “calls for the FCC to develop new regulations clarifying how and when the law protects social media websites when they decide to remove or suppress content on their platforms. Although still in its early stages and subject to change, the Trump administration’s draft order also calls for the Federal Trade Commission to take those new policies into account when it investigates or files lawsuits against misbehaving companies.”

While Politico was the first to report how the draft was being circulated by the White House, CNN notes that if put into effect, “the order would reflect a significant escalation by President Trump in his frequent attacks against social media companies over an alleged but unproven systemic bias against conservatives by technology platforms. And it could lead to a significant reinterpretation of a law that, its authors have insisted, was meant to give tech companies broad freedom to handle content as they see fit.”

View the complete August 11 article by Jon Queally from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

Trump lashed out at his aides even as they tried to protect him from the ‘debacle’ he created: reports

AlterNet logoEven when it comes to the solemn duties of the office, President Donald Trump can’t help but make everything about himself and obsess about the media coverage.

So it went for Trump’s trips to Dayton and El Paso this week, which featured the president pointlessly lashing out with lies at Democratic critics and  — and as a new video released Thursday revealed — bragging about his crowd sizes at the hospital where mass shooting victims were being treated.

And according to reports from CNN and the New York Times, the Trump grew angry with his aides during the trip even as White House staff tried to prevent the visits from becoming the disaster they inevitably devolved into.

View the complete August 8 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.