Tag: Trump White House

Jared Kushner doesn’t know whether he’ll alert the FBI if Russian officials offer political help in 2020

Jared Kushner was among the Trump campaign officials who was present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting of June 9, 2016, which was also attended by Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya (Trump’s campaign had been promised some dirt on Democrat Hillary Clinton by people in the Russian government). Journalist Jonathan Swan, during an interview with the White House senior adviser three years later for “Axios on HBO,” brought up that meeting — and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law was unsure whether or not he would notify the FBI if the same thing happened again.

Swan noted that three years ago, Kushner received an e-mail explaining that people in the Russian government wanted to help the Trump campaign. “Why didn’t you pick up the phone and call the FBI?,” Swan asked.

Kushner became testy, responding, “Jonathan, we’re in a place now where people are playing Monday morning quarterback, and they’re being so self-righteous. Let me put you in my shoes at that time. I’m running three companies, I’m helping run the campaign.”

View the complete June 3 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.

White House dramatically changes its story about Trump, USS McCain

It was just a few days ago when we learned about emails the White House sent to the U.S. Navy, directing military officials to move the USS John McCain “out of sight” ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to Japan. In the days that followed, the reaction from the president and his team has followed a circuitous path.

The initial response from the Trump administration was surprise and incredulity. For his part, the president told reporters on Thursday, “I would never have done that,” while insisting he wasn’t directly involved. By the end of the day, Trump turned to Twitter to say, in response to the reporting, “Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News.”

Two days later, the Navy confirmed that the story wasn’t “fake” at all.

View the complete June 3 article by Steve Benen on the MSNBC website here.

Kevin Hassett, President Trump’s top economist, to leave White House

Kevin Hassett, the White House’s top economist, will leave the administration, President Trump announced on Twitter late Sunday, on the eve of his trip to Europe.

Hassett, 57, who has served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers since September 2017, is leaving as Trump confronts an increasingly hostile trade war on two fronts — with China and with Mexico, the latter of which Trump threatened with tariffs last week if it doesn’t do more to stem illegal migration.

A longtime conservative economist, Hassett helped shape the 2017 Republican tax law and has been a staunch defender of the president’s policies on other issues. Historically, he has been an advocate of open trade policies, although in recent months he has been put in the position of defending Trump’s most confrontational approach.

View the complete June 2 article by Jeff Stein on The Washington Post website here.

Exclusive: Jared Kushner on MBS, refugees, racism and Trump’s legacy

Discussing the horrific death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in an interview with “Axios on HBO,” White House adviser Jared Kushner was noncommittal on whether Saudi Crown Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) must account for Khashoggi’s body.

Kushner said he’s still waiting for results of a U.S. investigation to assign blame, even though the CIA reportedly determined with a high degree of confidence that MBS ordered the murder, and the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that he was responsible.

Why it matters: Kushner, who shares the president’s view that Saudi Arabia is a crucial partner to counter Iran, has formed a close relationship with MBS and helped promote him as a great reformer. We see here that even eight months after Khashoggi’s death in a Saudi consulate, the White House still refuses to publicly hold the Saudi leader accountable.

View the complete June 2 article by Jonathan Swan on the Axios website here.

Trump’s White House lawyer quits: ‘Kiss of death’

President Donald Trump has lost another member of his legal team.

Emmet Flood, who was serving as special counsel to the president, after working as interim White House counsel, will be leaving the administration in two weeks, Trump announced on Twitter.

“Emmet Flood, who came to the White House to help me with the Mueller Report, will be leaving service on June 14th,” Trump announced.

View the complete June 2 article by Bob Brigham from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Trump antagonizes both parties on trade

President Trump is facing fire from all sides following his decision to impose new tariffs on exports from Mexico unless that country curbs illegal immigration into the United States.

Republicans caught off guard by the surprise move said it went beyond Trump’s authority and warned it would imperil the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade that the White House is pressing Congress to approve.

“Following through on this threat would seriously jeopardize passage of USMCA, a central campaign pledge of President Trump’s and what could be a big victory for the country,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said shortly after the announcement on Thursday.

View the complete May 31 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

White House brushes off Grassley, GOP concern over Mexico tariffs

‘Trade policy and border security are separate issues,’ Senate Finance chair

After abruptly announcing tariffs on imports coming from Mexico over a migrant dispute, the White House is brushing aside the concerns of powerful Republican lawmakers – including Senate Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley.

President Donald Trump green-lighted the import fees in an attempt to push the Mexican government to clamp down on the flow of Central and South American migrants moving through its territory toward the U.S.-Mexico border.

But Grassley, whose committee handles trade issues, issued a scathing statement Thursday night, calling the move a “misuse of presidential tariff authority and counter to congressional intent.” An Iowa Republican, Grassley has voiced concerns in the past about the trade battles hurting on farmers in his state who sell to foreign markets.

View the complete May 31 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Former Bush Official Says John Bolton Was ‘by Far the Most Dangerous Man We Had in the Entire 8 Years’

Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration, blasted the prospect of former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton replacing General H. R. McMaster as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser — a prospect that came to fruition Thursday.

“John Bolton was by far the most dangerous man we had in the entire eight years of the Bush Administration,” Painter tweeted last Friday. “Hiring him as the president’s top national security advisor is an invitation to war, perhaps nuclear war.”

Painter ended his post with a blunt and stark sentence: “this must be stopped at all costs.” He also linked to an article in the Atlantic titled “Hiring John Bolton Would Be a Betrayal of Donald Trump’s Base.”

View the complete March 22, 2018, commentary by Ben Brimelow on The Business Insider website here.

Trump Staff Dreads Traveling Overseas With Toddler President

Traditionally, White House staffers cherish the opportunity to travel with the president overseas on Air Force One as a perk of their service. But traditionally, the president they are traveling with is not Donald Trump. CNN reports on the dread and horror that has overtaken the White House staff when duty calls upon them to accompany the 45th president. “It’s like being held captive,” one source reports.

The experience of overseas travel with Trump is almost exactly like traveling overseas with a poorly behaved toddler:

Trump won’t stop watching television. The screen-addicted president just keeps doing what he does at home, which is binge-watch TV for hours and get angry. The difference is that, on the plane, they can’t get away:

Trump will spend hours reviewing cable news coverage recorded on a TiVo-like device or sifting through cardboard boxes of newspapers and magazines that have been lugged aboard. He’ll summon sleeping staffers to his office at moments the rest of the plane is dark, impatient to discuss his upcoming meetings or devise a response to something he saw in the media.

View the complete May 24 article by Jonathan Chait from The New York Magazine here.

Senior White House official: ‘The president’s insane’

In the Guardian today, Martin Pengelly reviews the forthcoming book The Enemy of the People by CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, and there are some doozy quotes from the book, which HarperCollins has scheduled for release on June 11. Pengelly writes that Acosta’s White House sources:

are often blunt in their assessment of their boss. A “senior White House official” tells Acosta: “The president’s insane.” A “former White House national security official” says staffers were not sure the president had not been “compromised” by Russia.

Well, duuuhhhh. The White House staff knows Trump is crazy, completely dishonest, and likely a Russian asset. But they still want to be there. They still work every day for their spoiled and demented would-be tyrant, so that they can — do what? get rich? gain power? satisfy their other deep cravings?

View the complete May 26 article from the Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.