The following article by Matea Gold was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:
The flag fluttering above the U.S. Capitol is emblazoned with a crescent and star. Chants of “Allahu Akbar” rise from inside the building.
That’s the provocative opening scene of a documentary-style movie outlined 10 years ago by Stephen K. Bannon that envisioned radical Muslims taking over the country and remaking it into the “Islamic States of America,” according to a document describing the project obtained by The Washington Post. Continue reading “Bannon film outline warned U.S. could turn into ‘Islamic States of America’”
The following article by Karen Tumulty and David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:
President Trump often stokes the nation’s anxieties in arguing for his agenda. (Washington Post Staff Illustration/The Washington Post)
The machete-wielding man was quickly shot and arrested Friday morning by French police and soldiers, but from the vantage point of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it was a crisis dire enough to put a nation 4,000 miles away on high alert.
“A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again. GET SMART U.S.,” President Trump tweeted. Continue reading “Trump’s rallying cry: Fear itself”
The following article by Amy Brittain and Drew Harwell was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:
Eric Trump and members of his entourage walk outside La Huella, a beachfront restaurant, during a private business trip in early January to Punta del Este, Uruguay. (Cristian Cordoba)
When the president-elect’s son Eric Trump jetted to Uruguay in early January for a Trump Organization promotional trip, U.S. taxpayers were left footing a bill of nearly $100,000 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff.
It was a high-profile jaunt out of the country for Eric, the fresh-faced executive of the Trump Organization who, like his father, pledged to keep the company separate from the presidency. Eric mingled with real estate brokers, dined at an open-air beachfront eatery and spoke to hundreds at an “ultra exclusive” Trump Tower Punta del Este evening party celebrating his visit. Continue reading “Eric Trump’s business trip to Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,830 in hotel bills”
Just so we don’t forget the President Trump’s first executive action was one that impacted the public’s ability to purchase homes. So much for being a populist.
The following article by Gregory Korte was posted on the USA Today website January 20, 2017 (updated January 23, 2017):
Photo: Susan Walsh/AP
The very first executive action by the new Trump administration wasn’t a sweeping order on immigration, trade or health care — but rather to block an Obama administration policy change that would have reduced the cost of mortgages for millions of home buyers.
In the first hour of Trump’s presidency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a letter to lenders, real estate brokers and closing agents suspending the 0.25 percentage point premium rate cut for Federal Housing Administration-backed loans.
The following article by James Rufus Koren was posted on the L.A. Times website February 3, 2017:
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act is named after former Democratic Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, left, and Barney Frank, shown in 2010. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)
An administration official told reporters that the law “in many respects was a piece of massive government overreach” and that some of the rules within the law, passed in the wake of last decade’s financial crisis, “may have even been unconstitutional.” Continue reading “Here’s what’s at stake as Trump moves to unravel Dodd-Frank”
The following article by Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2017:
Welcome to the fourth installment of Fact Checker’s series highlighting what President Trump got wrong on Twitter in a given week. Last week, we fact-checked Trump’s tweets as a part of a larger round-up of inaccurate and exaggerated statements from his first week in office.
The following article by Franco Ordonez, Anita Kumar and Kevin G. Hall of the Tribune Content Agency was posted on the National Memo website February 3, 2017:
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia, September 2, 2016. Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei Druzhinin/via REUTERS
WASHINGTON — The Trump White House has loosened financial sanctions against Russia’s powerful security agency that the Obama administration had imposed as punishment for Russia’s meddling in November’s presidential election and for Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The administration downplayed the importance of the action, but the decision drew fire from Democrats and raised eyebrows among Republicans who oppose lifting any sanctions against the Russians.
“U.S. intelligence agencies have thoroughly detailed the Russian security services’ brazen assault on American democracy in support of candidate Donald Trump,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Less than two weeks after walking into the White House, President Trump lifts sanctions on the Russian Security Service. Vladimir Putin’s thugs meddle with an American election, and President Trump gives them a thank you present.” Continue reading “Trump Administration Relaxes Sanctions Against Russia’s Security Agency”
