Tag: kellyanne

Week 23 in Trump

Posted on July 3, 2017 in Politics, Trump

With friends like these… as the healthcare battle heats up, Republicans start turning on their own, with a GOP PAC pushing ads against holdout senators and major donors threatening to shut their purses until they start seeing some action.

After the PAC attack on Dean Heller, Josh Holmes, Mr. McConnell’s former chief of staff, said, “That the White House is asking people to take a tough vote and then running ads against members while we’re still in negotiations is so dumb it’s amazing we even have to have the conversation.”

Here’s what happened this week in Trump:

Russia:

  1. Trump remains quiet about what he plans to do to prevent Russian interference in our elections in the future. He has never asked Comey how to stop a future cyber/disinformation attack, and Jeff Sessions has never received a classified briefing on the issue.
  2. Paul Manafort reveals that his firm received over $17 million from the Ukraine’s Party of Regions, which is affiliated with the Kremlin. He didn’t reveal this at the time it happened, which is required by law.
  3. Matt Tait, a security consultant, says that Peter Smith, a Republican opposition researcher, recruited him to authenticate the veracity of some hacked emails that were claimed to come from Clinton’s private server. He never completed the task and the emails seem to have been a hoax, but…
  4. It turns out that Smith claimed to represent Michael Flynn in an effort to find emails that Clinton deleted hoping to use them against her in the election. Smith also supported Flynn in his effort to establish relations with Russian officials. Smith spoke to the Wall Street Journal about this story 10 days before he died on May 14 (at age 81, no foul play suspected). Interesting fact: Smith funded the troopergate investigation into Clinton, bankrolled David Bock to smear Clinton, and tried to find a woman who would initiate a paternity suit against Clinton.
  5. Tait says he received a recruitment document from Smith listing these senior officials of the Trump campaign or staff: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and Lisa Nelson.
  6. The document also lists a company Smith had set up, KLS Research, to avoid campaign reporting. It’s not clear who all was involved in that.
  7. U.S. intelligence reports that Russian hackers were looking for an intermediary through which they could get emails to Flynn last year, which fits into the role Smith was playing.

Courts/Justice:

  1. The Supreme Court rules that state grants that are available to nonprofits can’t be denied to a church-run school. This ruling applied specifically to playground safety, but it opens the door for taxpayers to provide funds to religious organizations.
  2. The Supreme Court says they’ll hear the gay wedding cake case (the one where some business owners want it to be legal to discriminate against gay couples).
  3. The compliance counsel at the DOJ, Hui Chen, resigns saying that the administration doesn’t live up to the standards she’s supposed to be enforcing in the business world.

Healthcare:

  1. After a group aligned with Trump and Pence went after Nevada Senator Dean Heller last week for his refusal to support the healthcare bill, Mitch McConnell called the White House to complain, calling the attack “beyond stupid.” The group pulls the ad campaign.
  2. The CBO scores the Senate’s healthcare plan. They estimate that 22 million Americans will lose healthcare coverage over the next decade, just slightly better then the 23 million that would lose it under the House plan. The CBO also estimates that premiums would rise before falling to less than under the ACA, out-of-pocket costs would increase, and there would be fewer covered benefits. But hey, we’ll save about $320 billion over 10 years.
  3. Senate republicans add a provision to their bill that would prevent someone with a lapse in coverage from receiving coverage for 6 months.
  4. Kellyanne Conway says people who lose Medicaid should look into getting jobs. Nearly 70% of able recipients already do work, but maybe we could find jobs for some of those folks in nursing homes?
  5. Despite continual promises that, no matter what, a vote will be held on the healthcare bill, Mitch McConnell abruptly announces that he’s postponing the vote until after the July 4 recess. Earlier he had warned that if the repeal doesn’t get done this week, the GOP would lose all leverage and be forced to compromise with Democrats.
  6. Trump invites all Republican senators to the White House for a meeting, during which he says “This will be great if we get it done. And if we don’t get it done, it’s just going to be something that we’re not going to like. And that’s OK, and I understand that very well.”
  7. After the meeting, some senators express that they don’t think Trump understands the bill and that Trump seemed surprised that some are calling it a tax break for the rich.
  8. A bipartisan group of governors who have been conspiring quietly on blocking the healthcare bill come out strongly against it this week. When Republican senators come home for July recess, these governors push back hard.
  9. But never ones to give up hope, GOP senators are working behind the scenes to change the bill enough to bring on more votes. Expect this to continue throughout the recess.
  10. While the hardliners want to cut more money from the healthcare bill, Trump says in a speech this week, “Add some money to it!”
  11. Trump later says they should just repeal the ACA and replace it at a later date. This is concerning because they don’t have anything they can agree on after 6 years of wanting it, and not having a replacement will knock even more people off insurance.
  12. The White House later denies that Trump has changed his mind on this.
  13. Forty economists write a letter to McConnell saying that the healthcare bill is a giant step in the wrong direction.
  14. Educators and school leaders come out against the healthcare bill, especially in depressed areas where the school nurse and therapists are reimbursed through Medicaid and tools are provided for students with special needs.

International:

  1. French President Macron invites Trump to France for Bastille Day.
  2. Trump looks at cracking down on Pakistani militants launching attacks on neighboring Afghanistan, including drone strikes and withholding aid from Pakistan.
  3. Trump is behind on getting foreign ambassadors nominated and confirmed. His are taking an average of 77 days, Obama’s took 26 days, and Bush’s took 11 days. The holdup seems to be in his formal submissions for approval.
  4. The CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation expresses concerns over the massive foreign aid cuts in Trump’s budget (which is less than 1% of our budget). A large amount of global progress in health and development is because of us. Private philanthropy can’t make up for it. The cuts would:
    • Make it harder for NGOs to eradicate diseases (the ebola outbreak is an example of how this affects us at home).
    • Make it harder to help women with reproductive health and choice.
    • Make it harder for President Bush’s PEPFAR program to prevent AIDs. In countries where PEPFAR is established, political instability has dropped 40%.
  5. The House Appropriations Committee approves an amendment that would revoke the president’s war authority, requiring congressional approval. It would repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) bill passed in response to 9/11. Representative Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) has been trying to get this passed for years.
  6. The U.S. plans a $1.42 billion arms deal with Taiwan, sure to invoke a reaction from China.
  7. Tillerson and Mattis continue to work behind the scenes to find a solution to the stand-off in the Mideast between Qatar and four other nations. They are still at odds with Trump and Kushner on this because Qatar is actually a strategic ally for us.
  8. The UN agrees to a $570 million budget cut for its peacekeeping missions. The administration had fought for even larger cuts.

Legislation:

  1. The House passes two bills that target undocumented immigrants. Kate’s Law increases maximum penalties for deported immigrants who repeatedly try to enter the U.S. The No Sanctuary for Criminals Act eliminates federal grants for sanctuary cities and allows victims of crimes by undocumented immigrants sue those cities.
  2. Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin signs HB 128 into law, letting schools teach bible classes. No word on whether the Quran and Bhagavad Gita are also allowed.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The Supreme Court agrees to hear the travel ban in the next session, but reinstates parts of it with strict guidelines. The ban won’t affect anyone with a bona fide relationship with an entity in the U.S. People can come here for family, work, school, and so on. The court agrees to hear it in October, by which point it could be moot. That’s plenty of time for the administration to review it’s vetting policies. For an idea of how the justices feel about immigration and discrimination, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch all would have reinstated the ban in its entirety.
  2. The administration issues guidelines for implementing the ban. People coming from the banned countries must have work, school, or close family ties—extended family (like grandparents, aunts and uncles, or nieces and nephews) does not count. Anyone with legal documents should be allowed in. Refugees are banned for 120 days. Somehow a step-sibling is defined as closer than a grandparent.
  3. Khaled Almilaji is a renowned Syrian doctor who ran a campaign to vaccinate 1.4 million Syrian children. Because of the ban, he gives up on returning to the U.S., opting for Canada instead.
  4. The Supreme Court overturns an Arkansas court and says that Arkansas discriminated against a lesbian couple by forcing them to go to court to get both women’s names on their child’s birth certificate. Under Arkansas law, a woman’s husband is listed as the father even if he’s not the biological father; gay couples want the same treatment.
  5. About a thousand military recruits are waiting for basic training but had their visas expire during their wait, leaving them undocumented. They were recruited for a fast-track citizenship program for their medical and language skills.
  6. The Texas Supreme Court rules against government-sponsored spousal benefit requirements for same-sex marriages. See you in the Supreme Court, I’m sure.
  7. Trump appoints Bethany Kozma, an anti-transgender activist, to the office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
  8. The administration disbands the White House Council on Women and Girls.
  9. Jim Mattis delays a plan to allow transgender recruits in the military.
  10. June ends with no recognition of Pride Month from White House.
  11. White House aide Stephen Miller pushes Rex Tillerson to get tougher on immigration, which just seems to piss Tillerson off.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Emails show that the EPA’s chief of staff pressured one of the agency’s top scientists to change her testimony in a congressional hearing to downplay the firing of 57 scientific advisors. Scientists think the firings are evidence of the weakened role of science in the Trump administration. “The Board of Scientific Counselors had 68 members two months ago. It will have 11 come Sept. 1,” Dr. Swackhamer said. “They’ve essentially suspended scientific activities by ending these terms. We have no meetings scheduled, no bodies to do the work.”
  2. The House Science Committee majority sends daily emails to members and staff. This isn’t new, but now the emails include links to conservative media that deny global warming, including Breitbart, the Daily Mail, and Koch media sources like the Washington Free Beacon and the Daily Caller.
  3. Per Trump’s executive order, Scott Pruitt delivers a proposal to rescind Obama’s Waters of the United States (Wotus) protections. This will likely be a long legal battle. Wotus adds onto the Clean Water Act by protecting not only large bodies of water, but also smaller waterways that feed into them. The reversal removes protections from one-third of U.S. drinking water, and the administration openly admits it’s a business decision.
  4. Less than a month after meeting with the CEO of Dow Chemical, Scott Pruitt announces that the EPA would no longer pursue a ban on a Dow pesticide known to impact the development of brains of fetuses and infants.
  5. It looks like Rick Perry is going to get his wish for a red-team, blue-team climate study, which pits scientists with opposing views against each other basically trying to poke holes in the other’s research. Scott Pruitt plans to launch a critique of climate science with the goal of challenging mainstream climate science. Fingers crossed that they’ll do this right.
  6. Florida Governor Rick Scott sign HB 989, which lets Floridians object to specific teaching tools. This bill is widely regarded to be aimed at global warming and evolution. Anybody can complain, even if they don’t have a child in school, and a hearing officer must review each complaint.
  7. A coal power plant in central Mississippi gives up on it’s efforts to create clean coal power by capturing emissions. The technology isn’t working, so they plan to burn natural gas instead.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Janet Yellen says she doesn’t expect another major financial crisis in her lifetime, thanks to the consumer protections written into the banking reforms under Obama. She adds that unwinding those reforms would be a bad thing. Also that same day I got an email from Paul Ryan touting the House bill that reverses some of those banking reforms…
  2. The fight over tax reform is on in the House, upending a tentative agreement that would’ve initiated the process of tax reform and causing the budget committee to cancel their work this week.
  3. The dollar falls to 12-month low against the euro.
  4. Some Republican-dominated states are starting to approve significant tax increases after working for years under the theory that lower taxes lead to a stronger economy. Notably Kansas, South Carolina, and Tennessee are raising taxes to meet revenue requirements. This could pose a challenge to tax reform at the federal level.

Elections:

  1. Trump’s voter fraud commission asks states to provide detailed information about every voter in their systems, including addresses, 10-year voting histories, party registrations, and the last four digits of SSNs. This commission is headed by Mike Pence and Kris Kobach, who has written some of the harshest and most litigated voter suppression laws.
  2. While some states merely express concern about the request, at least 24 say they will not comply. Primary concerns are constitutionality, privacy, what the commission plans to do with the data, and how the data will be protected from Russian hackers.
  3. Trump wonders what these states are trying to hide.
  4. Kobach tried to implement a smaller version of this database in Kansas, and has been sued repeatedly for it and even fined in the process.
  5. Kobach promises to make some of the collected information public, though not the most sensitive information.
  6. The commission told states to send the information to an unsecured email address.
  7. And finally, Mike Pence’s state of Indiana says they won’t comply, and Kobach announces that his own state, Kansas, won’t comply with the request. WTF??

Miscellaneous:

  1. The AP releases an analysis showing how partisan gerrymandering has benefited the GOP, finding that Republicans widened or retained power because of the district lines they drew. The AP looked at all 435 House races and about 4,700 state seats. Four times as many states have Republican skewed districts than Democratic ones.
  2. Sean Spicer continues to ban live broadcasts and video recordings of the daily briefings.
  3. Europe gets hit with another ransomware attack called Petya.
  4. Time magazine finds that fake covers featuring Trump are hanging in many of his country clubs. They ask the Trump Organization to remove them all.
  5. Trump’s lawyer, Jay Sekalow, is accused of filtering millions from his charity to his family and himself.
  6. Spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders accuses the media of being fake news while telling them to watch a video that might be fake news. In a briefing, she denounced the media (to a room full of the media) for producing fake news, using CNN’s recent retraction as an example AND telling journalists to watch a video by the discredited James O’Keefe as proof, though with the caveat ″whether it’s accurate or not I don’t know…″ Playboy reporter Brian Karem unloaded on her for inflaming a room full of journalists who’re just trying to get the story right while the White House continues to lie to them (and can I say, that was a beautiful moment).
  7. Tillerson blows up—I mean really blows up—at a high-level aide, apparently from building frustration about not being able to staff up his department because of White House oversight.
  8. Trump holds a fundraiser for his re-election campaign in 3 years at his own hotel.
  9. Trump continues to call Democrats on the Hill obstructionists, even though they tried working with him at first and they’ve offered to work together on healthcare. Everyone probably could’ve worked together on an infrastructure bill, but that good will is gone now.
  10. Trump goes on a bizarre Twitter rant where he says Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (of Morning Joe) tried to get into Mar-a-Lago last winter and that Mika was bleeding from a bad facelift.
  11. This results in a unified, bipartisan chorus of protests that the tweets went too far…from pretty much everybody except Sarah Huckabee Sanders who defended the tweet.
  12. Then Joe and Mika accuse White House staff members of trying to blackmail them by promising to stop a negative story about Mika in the Enquirer if they apologized to Trump for their coverage of him.
  13. While the majority of Democrats are counseling against talk of impeachment, a group of House Democrats push a bill that would create a commission to investigate Trump and, if applicable, use the 25th amendment to remove Trump from office.
  14. Ivanka Trump, senior advisor to the president, says she tries to stay out of politics.
  15. The Inspector General clears the National Park Service of charges that they altered pictures of the sizes of crowds at Trump’s and Obama’s inaugurations. Whew. I was worried.
  16. Trump reportedly watches five hours of TV per day.
  17. The birth rate for teenage girls dropped 67% from 1991 to last year. It’s now at an all-time low and doctors point to knowledge of and access to contraceptives.
  18. Trump sends federal agents to help Chicago deal with its crime problem.
  19. Jason Chaffetz’ last day as a representative is this week. I don’t understand at all why he quit 6 months into his term.
  20. Impeachment marches and counter protests are held across the country.
  21. The last staffers of the science division at the White House leave this week. They were charged with policy issues like STEM education, biotechnology, and crisis response.
  22. Public beaches in New Jersey are closed Sunday due to a budget impasse. Chris Christie takes his family to the beach while all other beach goers are turned away.

Polls:

  1. The annual Pew Research Global Attitudes survey shows that 22% of people outside the U.S. have confidence that Trump will do the right thing, compared with 64% who had confidence in Obama at the same stage of his presidency. Trump rated higher than Obama in only 2 of the 37 countries polled: Russia and Israel.
  2. 74% in the Pew survey don’t trust Trump to do the right thing versus 59% who think the same of Putin.
  3. The survey also finds that U.S. favorability abroad has dropped from 64% to 49% under Trump.

Week 20 in Trump

Posted on June 12, 2017 in Politics, Trump

Attribution: Getty Images

Sorry for the long post but a lot happened again this week—though the news was all about Comey, all the time.

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes.” The White House won’t confirm the existence of the tapes Trump tweeted about, but if they do exist we could get through this a lot faster.

Comey:

  1. The Great America Alliance PAC takes out an attack ad against Comey the day before he testifies. The White House tries to undermine Comey and the RNC mobilizes its base by issuing an email: “Talking Points and Digital Packet for Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing.” Tip: This is not a court of public opinion.
  2. Trump’s lawyers urge him not to tweet during Comey’s testimony, and Trump’s staff keeps him busy throughout most of the hearing.
  3. Comey testifies in front of a Senate committee (as if you didn’t know). Half of the committee asks about the Russia probe and alleged interference by Trump while the other half asks about Clinton’s email investigation. Main takeaways:
    • Trump wasn’t personally under investigation at the time of Comey’s firing, though the issue of collusion is being taken up by Special Prosecutor Mueller.
    • Trump asked Comey to take it easy on Flynn in a conversation where he asked everyone but Comey to leave the room. Mueller is looking into this.
    • The day after the above, Comey asked Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump, saying private interactions were inappropriate.
    • After Trump tweeted that he had tapes of their conversations, Comey leaked his own memo about the Flynn conversation in order to force the appointment of a special prosecutor. He has since provided copies of all his memoranda to Mueller. Note that this is not illegal but is also not consistent with FBI employment agreements.
    • Sessions never questioned why Trump kicked everyone but Comey out of the Oval Office for a private meeting.
    • Comey was so worried about misunderstandings and lies in his conversations with Trump, he made copious notes of all of them.
    • Comey suspected beforehand that Sessions would have to recuse himself and also didn’t seem to trust Sessions to keep sensitive information from the White House. The only way Comey would have known this beforehand is if Sessions’ name had come up in the investigation.
    • Comey believes Trump when he says he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. Comey also accused the administration of defaming both him and the FBI as part of that firing.
    • Neither Sessions nor Rosenstein expressed dissatisfaction with Comey’s job performance prior to the letters they sent to Trump (at Trump’s request).
    • Russia interfered in our elections and will continue to do so.
    • There is still a lot of information Comey can’t talk about.
    • Comey said an article published last February in the NY Times was largely inaccurate, though the NY Times stands by their reporting and much of the substance of the story has already been shown to be true.
  4. Paul Ryan defends Trump’s actions with Comey, saying “he’s new to this.”
  5. Trump basically says Comey lied under oath and that he’d go under oath to dispute Comey’s testimony. But he also says that Comey vindicated him… so either Comey lied under oath or he cleared Trump.
  6. Trump calls Comey’s testimony “an excuse by the Democrats, who lost an election they shouldn’t have lost,” though Comey’s a lifelong Republican. And also Republicans control congress and the committees investigating Russia ties.
  7. In his rebuttal to Comey’s version of events, Trump’s lawyer gets the timeline wrong for what the NY Times reported and when they reported it in relation to the release of Comey’s memo.
  8. Both sides are claiming victory here, or as was heard over the weekend “Comey Poisons Trump: Trump Claims Victory.”
  9. Representative Al Green (D-Texas) begins writing articles of impeachment against Trump for his firing of Comey. #premature

Russia:

  1. A classified document shows that Russian military intelligence ran cyberattacks against voting system software vendors. They used the hacked data to send spear-phishing emails to over 100 local election officials before last year’s elections. They targeted multiple states and got into at least one voter database.
  2. The above information was leaked to The Intercept. The Feds arrest the suspected leaker, Reality Winner, confirming the existence of the document.
  3. It turns out that the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee, which recently issued subpoenas to learn more about the unmasking of names of U.S. citizens, had also themselves asked to unmask the names of organizations and individuals last year. Devin Nunes signed off on all subpoenas.
  4. Putin denies that he has compromising information on Trump.
  5. This was under International last week, but all things come around to Russia. After four nations—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE, and Bahrain—cut ties with Qatar, the FBI joins the Qatar government in investigating the involvement of Russian hackers. They suspect the hackers planted a false story with Qatar’s state news agency, launching a Mideast crisis.
  6. Trump is smart to get private counsel from outside the White House. When Ken Starr was investigating Clinton, he got attorney/client privilege thrown out when it came to conversations with White House counsel, setting a precedent that could still be used.
  7. Intelligence Director Dan Coats corroborates Comey’s story that Trump requested that he lay off Flynn in the Russia probe. Officials corroborated that story in March. In testimony, though, both Coats and Rogers say they’ve never felt pressured to do something immoral, illegal, or inappropriate. They both refuse to discuss specifics of conversations between them and Trump, and refuse to answer questions directly.
  8. The Kremlin turns its attention to our military members and veterans by ratcheting up hacks, trolling, fake news, and propaganda directed at them. Russians set up fake Facebook accounts posing as attractive young women to friend service members and target the DoD on Twitter for phishing attacks.

Courts/Justice:

  1. Once again, the Supreme Court upholds a lower court ruling that threw out North Carolina state legislative district lines that discriminate against voters based on race. This is the latest in a string of rulings against NC’s highly gerrymandered districts. Literally, NC is the poster child for how not to run a democratic republic.
  2. Trump is frustrated with AG Sessions because Session’s recused himself from the Russia investigations and because Trump thinks that the DOJ should’ve stuck with the first travel ban, not the “watered down, politically correct” [though still unconstitutional] version. Sessions had apparently offered to step down at one point.
  3. The Justice Department considers major changes to the H-1B visa program, including forcing companies to advertise jobs online first and hire U.S. workers first, as well as reducing cap and duration of visas.
  4. Trump nominates Christopher Wray to FBI chief. The law firm where Wray works represents Rosneft, the Russian oil company at the center of the Russia probe.

Healthcare:

  1. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants a Senate vote on the ACA replacement bill by the July 4 recess. He’s bypassing procedure and trying to schedule a vote without going through committee hearings. Props to Claire McCaskill for calling him out on this. For the ACA, there were committee hearings, amendments, and a public comment period.
  2. Senators don’t sound positive, and word is McConnell just wants this done. It’s possible he’ll bring up the vote whether it can pass or not, just so they can move on to tax reform.
  3. The healthcare committee starts sending the bill piecemeal to the CBO.
  4. McConnell seems optimistic he has the votes needed to pass a replacement, but the bill is still being modified to accommodate various factions, including moves to accommodate moderates that will likely alienate more conservative Republicans.
  5. Meanwhile, five states—California,New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts—all have single payer legislation floating around.
  6. The Department of Health and Human Services signals a reversal of an Obama-era rule that prevented nursing homes from forcing tenants to sign an arbitration agreement as a requirement of being admitted.

International:

  1. As we learn of potential Russian hacking in the Qatar/Saudi issue, Trump takes credit for causing the situation, calling it “hard but necessary” (and apparently forgetting they’re a strong ally). He says the nations spoke to him about it before they cut ties, and that he and Tillerson agreed it was time to end funding to Qatar. Just before Trump said that, though, Tillerson asked the four nations involved to ease their blockade because it’s causing humanitarian problems for Qatar and logistics issues on our military base there. Trump later offers to help mediate the conflict.
  2. Trump doubles down on his criticism of London’s mayor after being called out for taking the mayor’s words out of context, tweeting: “Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement.” Londoners love Khan. This would be like Tony Blair calling Rudy Giuliani pathetic after 9/11.
  3. Mayor Khan suggests that the U.K. should cancel Trump’s state visit.
  4. Trump puts his visit to England on hold amid worries of protests.
  5. A man attacks a police officer with a hammer at Notre Dame. It’s being looked at as a terror attack.
  6. The death toll in the Kabul bombing from the previous week rises to over 150.
  7. Terrorist attacks in the parliament building and Ayatollah’s mausoleum in Iran kill at least 12 and wound dozens. ISIS claims responsibility, though Iran points the finger at Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The White House sends a message of support, but then closes out by blaming Iran for sponsoring terrorism.
  8. It turns out no real deal-making happened on Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia. According to the Brookings Institution, there are no deals or contracts, just letters of interest or intent. The Senate hasn’t received anything to review, and so far all the deals began during the Obama administration.
  9. Theresa May’s Tory party suffered a setback in a snap election, losing their parliamentary majority while the Labour party gained several seats. She called a snap election three years early to bolster her negotiating power with the EU over Brexit, but now it looks like her position is weakened and she’ll have to form a coalition.
  10. Unlike May’s party, French President Macron’s party is about to win a very large majority of parliamentary seats. Round one of votes was this week; candidates who didn’t win outright go on to round two next week.
  11. US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces break into Raqa, an ISIS stronghold in Syria.
  12. The U.S. provides military air assistance to Philippine troops fighting off a Muslim militant siege in Malawi.
  13. The U.S. launches an airstrike in Somalia, killing 8 in an action that was only possible because Trump changed the designation of that part of Somalia to a war zone.
  14. The Senate confirms former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown as Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, who credits former opponent Elizabeth Warren with moving his nomination through Senate.
  15. Romanian President Ioannis contradicts Trump in a joint press conference. When asked about including Romania in our Visa Waiver Program (VWP), Trump says they didn’t talk about it, but Ioannis says they did and that it’s very important to Romanians.

Legislation:

  1. After nearly half a year, the only notable legislative achievements of the administration are rollbacks to existing legislation and regulations.
  2. Congress looks at Trump’s push to privatize air traffic control through a non-profit company, which has bipartisan support and has already been done in several European countries with success. However, this has been around before and not passed Congress.
  3. It’s looking possible that Congress might raise the debt ceiling and continue funding Planned Parenthood without repealing the ACA, reforming taxes, or passing an infrastructure bill.
  4. Senators from both parties push for a vote on harsher sanctions against Russia, making it harder to rollback any current sanctions.
  5. The House votes along partisan lines to roll back parts of Dodd Frank, passing a bill named the Financial Choice Act. They’re calling it a jobs bill, but it really gives banks more freedom to pull the same risky crap that led to the financial crisis. The Senate has a bipartisan effort going to rewrite the regulations as well.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. Kellyanne Conway’s husband sends out a series of tweets critical of Trump’s tweets about the travel ban, saying it only hurts his chances of winning the lawsuit.
  2. This isn’t really new news, but it’s in the news this week. School kids often quote Trump to bully classmates, with many reported incidents of white students bullying Latino, Middle Eastern, Asian, black, or Jewish classmates using the same rhetoric as Trump. How do you convince kids that even though the president of the United States does it, it’s not OK?
  3. Anti-Sharia marches around the country are met with counter-protestors of similar sizes. We need better education on what Sharia is and isn’t.
  4. It’s Pride month, but annual parades around the country morph into a mixture of pride and resistance, as hundreds of thousands of marchers show up not to just support LGBTQ rights, but also to resist Trump’s agenda.

Climate/EPA:

  1. While discussing our withdrawal from the Paris agreement, Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, says, ”I think the rest of the world applauded what we did in Paris.” First, this is the EPA. And also, no, much of the world chastised us out loud.
  2. The second highest ranking U.S. diplomat at the Beijing embassy resigns in the wake of the Paris agreement withdrawal, refusing to officially notify the Chinese of our withdrawal. He was a 27-year diplomat and was acting ambassador until the new ambassador arrives. The acting ambassador to England and the ambassador to Qatar have also publicly broken with Trump.
  3. California Governor Jerry Brown takes a leadership role by meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping to discuss climate change, highlighting how Trump’s ‘America first’ policy is sidelining him on the world stage.
  4. The United States Climate Alliance expands to include 13 states representing about 35% of our economy. Ten additional governors and the mayor of D.C. express support for the Paris agreement, but have not yet joined the coalition.
  5. I don’t know whether this falls under climate or travel ban, but Trump floats the idea of putting solar panels on the wall to pay for it, since Mexico for some reason still says they won’t.
  6. Hawaii becomes the first state to enact legislation supporting the Paris agreement. Under the new law, Hawaii will measure the sea level rise and set a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases.
  7. Democratic Senators question Betsy DeVos on whether the DOE was behind the recent mailings sent out by the Heartland Institute to 300,000 science teachers about how to teach that climate change is not manmade. Interesting Fact: Heartland Institute tried to convince us smoking doesn’t have adverse health effects.
  8. A federal court gives the EPA until June 15 to justify why they should be able to pause regulations limiting methane emissions while they do a review.

Budget/Economy:

  1. Trump’s infrastructure briefing includes no written plan, not even bullet points.
  2. Scott Pruitt implies that almost 50,000 jobs have been created in coal since Trump took office. The actual number is 1,000; the rest are in mining in general.
  3. Kansas legislators override Governor Brownback’s veto of their tax reform bill. Kansas has been undergoing a failed experiment since 2012, working under the theory that low taxes would result in a thriving economy. But it’s done the opposite and Kansas is in a world of hurt. Even still, the state congress barely pulled enough votes together to override his veto.
  4. In the aftermath of the vote, Kris Kobach launches his run for governor on an anti-immigration platform. Kobach’s the author of the strident and much-litigated voting laws in Kansas, leading many to accuse him of voter suppression. Kobach also serves on Trump’s voter fraud committee.
  5. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin takes his first foreign trip, meeting with Canadian officials on trade, economy, and national security issues.
  6. Trump withdraws Obama-era guidance on how employees are classified; a win for business, a loss for workers being misclassified as independent contractors (which are cheaper for business than actual employees). He also withdraws guidance that made parent companies liable for labor violations by their franchises.
  7. The U.S. and Mexico avert a trade crisis by coming to an agreement over Mexican sugar exports.
  8. The DOJ ends the practice of forcing companies to make payouts to affected groups when settling law suits. For example, when cases against banks for predatory lending practices were settled, the banks had to pay reparations to affected homeowners. No more.
  9. Trump proposes charging retailers a fee for accepting food stamps, a move that will largely affect small grocers but will also generate over $2 billion over the next decade.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Frustrated by Trump’s order to only comply with information requests from Republican congressional leaders, Democratic congressional leaders consider posting all questions publicly. DHS Secretary Kelly says his department will respond to all congressional requests, regardless of who they come from.
  2. Trump blames Democrats for holding up his ambassadorship nominations, even though there aren’t enough Democrats in the Senate to block them. It turns out that while he’s tapped several nominees, he hasn’t officially submitted them to the Senate even though he selected some as far back as April.
  3. Four law firms have turned down requests to represent Trump in the Russia probe amid concerns he wouldn’t listen or wouldn’t pay.
  4. Sean Spicer says we should consider Trump’s tweets to be official statements.
  5. It appears that, while Eric Trump’s foundation started out doing good work, at some point Donald Trump decided the foundation should be billed for everything for events held at a Trump golf course. So Eric ended up funneling charity dollars back into the Trump business. This is under investigation.
  6. Newly elected Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte published an apology to the Guardian reporter he assaulted, saying his actions were unacceptable. He also donated $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists. He still faces legal charges, but there won’t be a civil suit.
  7. Trump headlines the luncheon kick-off event of the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s 2017 Road to Majority gathering in D.C.
  8. For all you Trey Gowdy fans, he’s the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee where he’ll lead oversight of the Trump administration.
  9. Melania and Barron Trump move into the White House.
  10. The Michigan Democratic Party agrees to pay a $500,000 fine for misreporting contributions raised by bingo fundraisers prior to 2014. It’s the largest fine paid for breaking campaign finance laws.
  11. Trump’s approval rating drops to near lows of 36% in the Gallup Poll and to 34% in the Quinnipiac poll.

Week 19 in Trump

Posted on June 5, 2017 in Politics, Trump, Uncategorized

The big news of the week is our withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. At an Asian security forum in Singapore, James Mattis gave a speech reiterating our support for national alliances and institutions in an effort to reassure our allies. When asked whether moves like leaving the Paris accord meant the U.S. is abandoning these alliances and institutions, here was his response (referring to a Winston Churchill quote on democracy):

“To quote a British observer of us from some years back, bear with us. Once we have exhausted all possible alternatives, the Americans will do the right thing…. So, we will still be there, and we will be there with you.”

In other words, once we’re done fucking around, we’ll start doing the right thing again.

Russia:

  1. The Russia investigation expands to include Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who is refusing to cooperate with investigations, former adviser and White House aide Boris Epshteyn, and campaign aide Michael Caputo.
  2. The Kushner investigation includes looking into why Kushner met with Sergey Gorkov, a Russian banker and associate of Putin’s. This is part of finding out why he was setting up a confidential line of communication.
  3. Trump makes moves to reopen two Russian compounds in the U.S. that Obama had closed when he expelled 50 Russian spies last fall. Trump wants to return the compounds to Russia.
  4. Putin changes his tune somewhat and says it’s possible that “patriotically minded” Russians might have been involved in last year’s email and DNC server hack, as well as in meddling in the elections. He still denies that the Russian government was involved, and adds that it could’ve been some kid sitting in their living room.
  5. The house intelligence committee issues seven new subpoenas in the Russia investigation, indicating they are ramping things up. Three of these are about the unmasking, however…
  6. …In an apparent misunderstanding of the word “recuse,” Devon Nunes, the Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee who “recused” himself from the Russia investigation two months ago, issues subpoenas looking for info not about Russian ties or meddling, but about the unmasking of Trump associates caught up in foreign surveillance.
  7. Almost immediately after taking office, Trump officials asked the State Department to work on lifting sanctions with Russia and returning diplomatic compounds in the U.S. to them. State Department officials were so concerned by this they began lobbying Congress to pass legislation to block it.
  8. Special Counsel Mueller’s Russia probe is expanding to include the investigation into Michael Flynn and a criminal investigation into Paul Manafort, and it could be expanded to include the DoJ’s involvement in the Comey firing.
  9. According to Mark Warner, Democrat ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, there are reports that the Kremlin paid over a thousand internet trolls to create fake anti-Clinton news stories and to use botnets to target the stories to key states. He reconfirms the hacking and selective leaks.
  10. The Russia investigations hamper Trump’s ability to fill government jobs. There are hundreds of open positions, but candidates are nervous about coming on to this administration and the people who are doing the hiring are distracted by the probe. They’ve only nominated 117 out of 559 major Senate-confirmed positions.
  11. NBC and CNN report that, according to several U.S. officials, the Russia investigations include a meeting in April of last year at the Mayflower Hotel between Trump, Sessions, Kushner and Kislyak.

Courts/Justice:

  1. A federal judge in D.C. throws out a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton brought by the parents of one of the people who lost their lives in Benghazi. The lawsuit alleges that Clinton’s use of a private email server directly resulted in the deaths, and that Clinton had called the parents liars. The judge ruled against both of these, and said about the latter, “To the contrary, the statements [made by Clinton] portray plaintiffs as normal parents, grieving over the tragic loss of their loved ones.” The parents are expected to appeal.

Healthcare:

  1. Senator John Thune says that their caucus is done with preliminary meetings and is now drafting the base language for their replacement plan for the ACA.
  2. John Cornyn promises there will be a bill by the end of July at the latest.
  3. Governors from both sides are relieved that the House healthcare bill is stalled, and voice concerns about the Senate version, specifically around block grants. Senate Republicans want to solicit governor input for their version of the bill.
  4. Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) says it’s not likely that they’ll get a healthcare deal at all, and Senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) says he doubts they can pass a healthcare bill before the August recess.
  5. The California Senate passes a statewide single-payer healthcare bill, which now moves on to the Assembly for approval. Funding is only partially worked out, so it’ll be up to the Assembly to plan that before approving.
  6. Trump says we should spend more on healthcare to make our system the best, but his budget cuts anywhere from $800 billion to $1.4 trillion from Medicaid and doesn’t request any additional healthcare spending.

International:

  1. A car bomb went off during rush hour in Kabul, killing an estimated 90 people and injuring over 400. This happened in what should be a highly secure area near the embassies.
  2. Concerns about security arise on news that Trump hands out his cell phone number to world leaders and tells them they can call him directly. On an unsecured line. Without the meeting preparation needed to hold an informed discussion.
  3. French President Macron took some hard lines with Putin in their meeting this week, and called him out on Russian interference in the French election (if you remember, there was a last minute document leak after the media blackout). While Macron took a firm stance with Putin, Trump has been taking a softer stance with Putin.
  4. A gunman attempts to rob a Manila resort and casino, leaving 37 dead. This was not a terrorist attack, but a lone gunman, though Trump calls it a terrorist attack in his Paris agreement speech.
  5. Trump announces that the U.S. Embassy in Israel will remain in Tel Aviv for now instead of relocating to Jerusalem.
  6. A group of three assailants drive a van into pedestrians on London Bridge, and then jump out and begin stabbing people, leaving at least seven dead and 48 injured. Police kill all three assailants and neutralize the threat within eight minutes. Later police arrest 12 in connection with the terrorist attacks. This attack comes a week before the elections and is the third recent attack (though the attacks are said to be not connected).
  7. Trump and other world leaders express condolences and support to England, but then Trump criticizes London’s mayor in a tweet, taking his words out of context. He also tries to use this as support for his travel ban.
  8. Putin says that if Sweden becomes a part of NATO, Russia will consider it a threat and will think about how to eliminate that threat.
  9. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties with Qatar for sponsoring terrorist groups, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood. This could make things a little harder for the U.S. in the war against ISIS since our military operations are spread throughout the region.
  10. H.R. McMaster and Gary Cohn pen an op-ed where they claim Trump expressed support for NATO’s article 5, though he never said that in his speech.

Legislation:

  1. Trump calls for changes to senatorial proceedings to allow things like healthcare and tax reform to pass with a simple majority instead of the currently required 60 votes. Senate Republicans are using reconciliation to pass these through, which doesn’t require 60 votes.
  2. The California Senate passes a bill that would require presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to be allowed on the primary ballot. The bill moves to the Assembly.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The tourism industry estimates that international tourism will drop by an additional 800,000 in Southern California over the next three years. International tourism in Southern California dropped 16% from the first quarter of 2016.
  2. The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to allow the travel ban to go ahead, filing a petition to overturn the appeals courts rulings blocking the ban.
  3. The administration calls for tougher visa vetting, including social media checks.
  4. A federal court rules that a 17-year-old transgender student can use the men’s bathroom. Earlier in the year, the administration overturned the bathroom rule that allowed students to use the bathroom corresponding to the gender they identify with. This ruling is consistent with the previous administration’s stance that Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination allows students to use the bathroom consistent with their self-identity.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Trump indicates he’s planning to pull out of the Paris agreement, but tries to keep us all in suspense like on a reality TV show. When he does announce the withdrawal, his speech is peppered with much misinformation. Critics say it weakens efforts to combat climate change and weakens our global standing. Proponents say it will save us money and now the world can’t tell us what to do… except this whole thing was our idea.
  2. Trump opts for the withdrawal process laid out in the agreement, which could take nearly four years.
  3. In his statement on the withdrawal, Trump issues a few untruths:
    • He called the attack at the Manila casino a terrorist attack, though it turned out to be a robbery gone very bad.
    • He said the tax bill is progressing through Congress, though there is no tax bill.
    • He uses incorrect statistics about slowing the increase in global temperature with numbers from a draft done before the deal was even signed. The actual reduction was expected to be between 0.6 and 1.1 °C.
    • He says that India could double their coal production, which is technically true. However that also means we could do what we want to since the accord is nonbinding. Also, both India and China are on track to exceed their promises to the agreement.
    • He says we’ll ″begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris Accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers.″ Uh, Europe says no thanks– not renegotiable. According to Christiana Figueres, a former UN official who worked on the deal, “You cannot renegotiate individually. It’s a multilateral agreement. No one country can unilaterally change the conditions.”
    • Figueres also says Trump shows a lack of understanding of how international agreements work. Apparently we can’t even submit our intention to exit the accord until November 2019, and then the process would take a year.
    • Trump says the agreement puts draconian burdens on the U.S. and that we’ll have massive legal liability if we stay in. But an agreement can’t really be both nonbinding and impose draconian burdens, and a nonbinding agreement can’t have legal implications. The point of the agreement is to use public accountability.
    • He says China and India are the two largest emitters. Actually, China and the U.S. are, but no one tops the U.S. in per capita emissions; China’s are about half ours per capita.
    • There are more misstatements–I can’t get into them all here. Here are a few links: factcheck.org, politifact, WaPo.
  4. Days before Trump announces his decision on the Paris agreement, Russia expresses support for the agreement.
  5. Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Fox News correspondent, says Trump called her the morning of the decision for advice.
  6. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Disney’s Bob Iger leave Trump’s advisory council due to the exit from the climate deal. The CEOs of 25 leading tech companies signed a letter against the withdrawal. Even Exxon Mobile thinks we should keep our seat at that table.
  7. Major companies say the accord would’ve helped create jobs in clean energy fields.
  8. Three states, 80 universities, more than 200 mayors, and more than 100 businesses vow to remain in the Paris agreement and to adopt and uphold the commitments to our original goals by working together to create a clean energy economy.
  9. More Americans say the U.S. should stay in the Paris agreement by a ratio of more than 5 to 1.
  10. Michael Bloomberg says he’ll cover the cost of the U.S. portion of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change to the tune of about $15 million.
  11. In response to our withdrawal from the agreement, Macron expresses his says his country still supports the American people and our efforts against climate change. He invites scientists to his country if their research is cut here, inviting brain drain from the U.S.
  12. The 2017 hurricane season starts with no one at the helms of FEMA and NOAA. Trump nominated someone to head FEMA a month ago, but is waiting on confirmation. He hasn’t appointed anyone to head NOAA.
  13. A California court rules against Monsanto and says California can label RoundUp weed killer with cancer warnings.
  14. The California state Senate passes a bill guiding the state to get its energy from 100% renewable sources by 2045. The bill moves on to the Assembly.
  15. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke starts a review process on opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. The review should take a month and will include input from locals. The results of opening ANWR are unpredictable, with the high cost of exploration and drilling in the difficult terrain and the low cost of oil with the current glut.
  16. The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) goes live.

Budget/Economy/Trade:

  1. The unemployment rate continues its steady decline to 4.3% last month even though job growth continues to slow, likely because we’re near full employment.
  2. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he’s open to completing a trade agreement with the EU, called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
  3. It appears that the relationship between corporate American and Trump is cooling off, with fewer CEOs and other executives meeting in the White House and future meetings falling apart. Many business titans criticize the decision to leave the Paris accord saying it will hurt us economically and take us out of a leadership role.

Miscellaneous:

  1. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this: Trump tweets ″Despite the negative press covfefe…″ Social media hilarity ensues.
  2. The directors of the CIA and National Intelligence worry that because of the casual nature of security briefings, Trump doesn’t retain all the intelligence he gets. Briefings are very visually driven (charts, graphs, pictures) as opposed to data-driven.
  3. Continuing to make violence more acceptable, a Texas legislator threatens to ″put a bullet″ in the head of a colleague after a disagreement over an illegal immigrant rally.
  4. For the first time, a U.S. test of the ground-based system for intercepting ballistic missiles completes successfully.
  5. The White House finally makes public the ethics waivers granted so far to staffers, some of whom were lobbyists and some whose current position overlaps with work they did in the private sector. The waivers exempt them from certain ethics rules. Waivers were granted to Kellyanne Conway, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon. The number of waivers granted by the administration so far is equal to the total number granted by Obama’s administration over 8 years.
  6. Bannon’s waiver allows him to maintain his relationship with Breitbart.
  7. The White House is complying with Senator Burr’s request for all copies of the 2014 report on torture. This report is the result of a years-long investigation and it details CIA methods for detention and interrogation, including water boarding and sleep deprivation. Burr’s request has lead some to believe that Congress wants this information to disappear.
  8. The Secret Service is short agents, and in an effort to bulk up their ranks, they’re relaxing their drug policies for new hires. Agents have been working double-duty to keep up with the president’s far-flung, jet-set family.
  9. This is news to me, but not new this week: Richard and Rebekah Mercer pushed for these positions in the Trump campaign: Steve Bannon as CEO, Kellyanne Conway as Manager, and David Bossie as Deputy Manager. This led even William Kristol to dub it the ″merger of the Trump campaign with the kooky right.” Among other things, Mercer is the multi-million dollar investor in Cambridge Analytica, a firm used by both the Trump and Brexit campaigns to pinpoint and target demographics using ″secret psychological methods.″
  10. Jared Kushner gets in own intelligence briefing every morning before Trump gets his.
  11. The White House has been ignoring oversight requests from Democratic legislators, but this week they make it official by telling federal agencies to ignore the requests.
  12. This isn’t newsworthy for any reason other than the hypocrisy of Trump’s (and the right’s) criticism of Obama. Trump goes golfing for the 23rd times in his 19 weeks in office.
  13. Mike Dubke, Trump’s communication director, resigns after just under three months in the job.
  14. Kellyanne Conway’s husband, George T. Conway III, withdraws from consideration to lead the Civil Division of the DoJ.
  15. Tom MacArthur resigns as chair of the Tuesday Group caucus, a group of moderate Republicans in the House, amid his work on the healthcare bill (the waiver amendment).
  16. Polls show that 43% of Americans want Congress to start impeachment proceedings… even though they don’t think Trump is guilty of an impeachable offense? Weird.

Week 13 in Trump

Posted on April 24, 2017 in Politics, Trump

You sunk my battleship!

After a week of raucous town halls, I was expecting there to be a lot of entries under “Stupid Things Politicians Say” but I couldn’t find anything worthy. So here’s what really did happen in Trump’s 13th week.

But first, I missed a few things in the previous week’s recap:

  1. A blast from a suicide car bomber struck several buses that were evacuating civilians from towns around Aleppo, killing over 100 people including children and aid workers.
  2. British intelligence was aware of the links between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives as far back as late 2015.
  3. Paul Manafort borrowed $13 million from Trump-related businesses on the day he left the campaign.
  4. When Trump said that NATO was no longer obsolete, he credited himself with the change, saying his tough stance had made the other countries take their responsibilities more seriously.

 

And now here’s what happened in week 13 under Trump:

Russia:

  1. We learn that the FBI used the Trump dossier to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil Carter Page last year. This means that not only did the FBI think the dossier provided probable cause, but the courts thought so as well, lending credence to the information contained within the dossier.
  2. Documents show that a Russian government think tank developed a strategy to swing the U.S. election to Trump and to undermine our trust in our electoral system. The project was requested by Putin.
  3. U.S. Intelligence announces it’s preparing charges to arrest Julian Assange. A day later, U.K. Election Commission announces an investigation into Leave.EU, the organization behind Brexit led by Nigel Farage. Farage also has ties to Assange and has visited him in the Ecuadorian embassy.
  4. Amidst all the Russian hacking accusations from last year, Trump promised to put together a team to give him a cyber security plan within the first 90 days of his presidency. As of now there is no plan and no team.
  5. Russian military aircraft come near Alaska four times in four days, to be intercepted by American and Canadian fighter jets.

Courts/Justice:

  1. While AG Sessions shuffles the DoJ toward a policy of aggressive law enforcement, as of this week he has not replaced any of the U.S. attorneys who were forced to resign last month. Unless he gets staffed up, he’ll have a hard time getting tougher on crime and immigration.
  2. The DoJ debates bringing criminal charges against members of WikiLeaks over the 2010 leak of military and diplomatic documents, as well as the more recent 2017 leaks around CIA cyber tools. They’re on the hunt for the leakers.
  3. Sessions, speaking of the Hawaiian judge who put a stay on the travel ban, says he is amazed that “a judge sitting on an island in the pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power.” Later, given a chance to walk those comments back, he digs in deeper.
  4. Arkansas puts a prisoner to death for the first time on over a decade. After courts in Arkansas put a stay on the eight executions they wanted to carry out last week (because their execution drugs were expiring), the courts allow the state to go forward in one case. Seven are still on hold.
  5. After Trump’s lawyers failed to make their case that Trump couldn’t be named in a civil suit because he’s president, they argue that protestors had no right to “express dissenting views” during Trump’s campaign rallies.

Healthcare:

  1. Trump debates his next move on the ACA, with certain budget decisions having to be made soon. He can either cut the subsidies and risk pissing off over 11 million people, or he can continue funding, maybe even fix a few things, and risk making it more popular and harder to repeal.
  2. It looks like they’re gearing up to try again next week to repeal and replace the ACA, as House Republicans come up with a new proposal. This version gives states more flexibility, potentially removing protections for those with existing illnesses among other ACA provisions.

International:

  1. The number of civilian casualties in the Mideast has increased dramatically under Trump. It’s unclear if this is from more intensive fighting or policy changes.
  2. Israeli defense officials say that Syria still has chemical weapons.
  3. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May calls for a general election in June though she had previously said she would wait until the regularly scheduled elections in 2020. This could strengthen her hand in the Brexit negotiations with the EU if she wins. The pound rebounds to a six-month high after the announcement.
  4. Trump calls Turkey President Erdogan to congratulate him on winning his referendum that basically consolidates government powers and sets Turkey on a path away from democracy and toward authoritarianism.
  5. Trump says both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were “outplayed by this gentleman,” referring to Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Un has only been North Korea’s leader since 2012. Bill Clinton dealt with Un’s father.
  6. After a mixup between where the White House thought their warships were and where the warships actually were, the warships are now headed toward the Korean Peninsula.
  7. Vice President Pence pays a visit to South Korea and to the DMZ, putting North Korea on notice that the “era of strategic patience is over.”
  8. The North Korean envoy at the UN warns that they will retaliate in kind to any U.S. strike.
  9. Against Chinese opposition, South Korea is deploying an American missile defense system called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.
  10. While Trump continues to criticize Iran and say they’re not living up to their end of the deal, Tillerson says Iran is sticking to the rules of the nuclear agreement. He also says, though, that the agreement is still being evaluated for its efficacy.
  11. The Trump administration denies Exxon its requested waiver against Russian sanctions in order to complete a business deal with Russian oil company Rosneft. Waivers have been granted in the past, but this specific deal seems to have been frozen in 2014.
  12. China and Russian vessels follow Trump’s “armada” on its way to North Korea, saying they are just there to stabilize the situation.
  13. Trump announces the nomination of former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown to the position of ambassador to New Zealand.
  14. A shooter kills one policeman and wounds another on the Champs Elysees, with ISIS claiming responsibility for his actions. This is backed up by a note found in the gunman’s pocket.
  15. GM pulls out of Venezuela after the government says they’re taking over GM’s car manufacturing plant there. The plant hasn’t put out a car since 2015, and now all those employees are out of a job.
  16. The euro dips leading up to the elections in France. It looks like there will be a runoff election between the two candidates with the most votes, center-left Emmanuel Macron and far-right Marine Le Pen. This election is being billed as a referendum, and all other parties quickly united afterward against the far-right candidate.

Legislation:

  1. The Montana legislature is proposing a strange anti-abortion bill. “The bill, S.B. 282, defines fetal viability at 24 weeks’ gestation and prevents abortions past that point, even in a medical emergency. A pregnant person whose fetus stands a 50 percent chance of survival outside the womb would be forced to undergo a C-section or induced labor. Additionally, under the proposed law, a doctor who provides an abortion past 24 weeks could face charges of homicide.” This is the third anti-abortion bill they’ve put forward this year.
  2. As part of an effort to dismantle some of Obama’s financial regulations, Trump signs an executive order establishing a review of any major tax regulations Obama set last year. He also signed two memos that could change or eliminate parts of the Dodd-Frank reforms. If you remember, these reforms were designed to prevent the “too big to fail” problem from re-occurring.
  3. Trump signs a “buy American, hire American” executive order that directs federal agencies to crack down on fraud and abuse in the H-1B visa program, but that doesn’t change anything about the current program.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. An immigrant protected by DACA is deported. There are varying stories on this, but the gist is that he didn’t have his ID with him and couldn’t prove his DACA status. Within three hours he was back in Mexico with no due process.
  2. In a twist of irony, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, whom Trump said last year could not hear his case fairly because he was Mexican, is the judge who will hear the above case.
  3. The border wall, if built, will likely go through the middle of Big Bend National Park.
  4. Controversy continues around the wall over how much it will cost (estimates are anywhere from $20-70 billion) and who will pay (people who send money to Mexico, taxpayers, child tax credits – even if the child is a U.S. citizen, trade revenue).
  5. None of the congressional politicians in border states (Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico) support funding for the border wall.
  6. Due to the new, more restrictive policies on entering the U.S., Emirates airlines starts cutting flights to the U.S. They say that travel demand is down.
  7. Even Canadian travel to the U.S. is down because of the new travel policies. There’s a feeling that America isn’t welcoming like it used to be.
  8. AG Sessions says they can’t promise they won’t deport DREAMers, though Trump says they have no plans to deport DREAMers right now and that they should “rest easy.” Mm-hmm.
  9. Ever since the election, doctors report seeing a surge in children suffering from Trump-related anxiety related. Symptoms include panic attacks and physical pain, such as chest pain and headaches. These children largely belong to the minorities targeted by Trump’s early rhetoric.
  10. Nikki Haley denounces the detention and killing of gay men in Chechnya. If you aren’t following this story, you should be. They are committing horrendous atrocities against the LGBTQ community there.
  11. AG Sessions sends letters to nine jurisdictions, including all of California, requesting proof that they’re cooperating with ICE and threatening that they’ll lose funding if they don’t.
  12. As part of the above, Sessions accuses New York City of being soft on crime, saying that the city is “crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime.” Of note, murder is down 82% from its peak, and crime in general is down 76%. NYC crime is at its lowest recorded level in decades.
  13. Though Trump said it was a bad deal, Pence says the U.S. will honor the refugee agreement with Australia.

Climate/EPA:

  1. Even though business leaders listed eliminating EPA regulations as one of the top targets to increase business, many of America’s corporations (from Apple to Wal-Mart) plan to continue their plans to fight climate change and move toward renewable energy.
  2. Not really a climate event, but thousands of scientists and science supporters marched on Earth Day in support of science-driven policy in 600 cities on 6 continents.

Budget/Economy:

  1. The Institute of Library and Museum Sciences is on the chopping block in Trump’s proposed budget. This program finances programs at 123,000 libraries and 35,000 museums across the country.
  2. Trump is itching to get rolling on tax reform, but Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says that it’s not realistic to expect that a plan will be signed by August.
  3. I’m not sure if this exactly falls under Economy, but Trump starts an investigation into steel imports, specifically to see whether the U.S. makes enough of its own steel to defend itself if needed.
  4. While Congress is out on recess this week, everyone is bracing for a budget showdown. The money runs out on April 28, and a new budget needs to be passed to avert a shutdown. After weeks of negotiation between Democrat and Republican leaders, Trump says the budget must include funding for the border wall and an increased border patrol; Democrats say no way. Even Republicans say that’s an argument for another time. Looks like it will come down to border wall funding and ACA repeal.
  5. Politicians in Mexico consider retaliatory options to Trump’s constant criticism of Mexico and Mexicans, including aligning with China and reducing their dependence on American goods.
  6. The Dow Jones dips after Trump announces his massive tax cut plan to be presented next week.
  7. After opposition from the U.S., IMF leaders drop a pledge to fight protectionist trade policies, but still say they will work to reduce trade imbalances. Earlier they said that protectionist policies could throw a wrench in the currently improving global growth.

Elections:

  1. Jason Chaffetz says he won’t run again for office in 2018, and he might not even finish out his term. An opponent has out-raised him 4 to 1, and he’s drawn ire for recent comments on the ACA. Rumors abound about his reasons, but nothing holds water yet.
  2. Georgia’s 6th district holds a highly publicized primary election. Big news because this seat has been held by a wide margin by the GOP for decades, but a newcomer Democrat is giving them a run. Jon Ossoff needed just over 50% of the vote to win outright, but he received 48.1% so there’s a runoff between him and the leading Republican, Karen Handel, in June.
  3. Voting machines were stolen from an election officials vehicle days before the Georgia election.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The White House holds the annual Easter Egg Roll. Despite early reports that it would be a fiasco, the event went off fine though with a smaller crowd than previous years.
  2. Todd Ricketts withdraws his nomination to Deputy Secretary of commerce reportedly because it was too hard to divest from his finances well enough to meet the requirements of the Office of Government Ethics.
  3. Trump announces a campaign rally to be held on the same day as the press correspondents dinner.
  4. On the day the Ivanka had dinner with the president of China, she was awarded three Chinese trademarks.
  5. The legal team of fake news master Alex Jones says that his work on InfoWars is performance art and that the character he plays is a persona. Rush Limbaugh has said the same about himself. So for those of you listening to these two for a dose of reality, maybe it’s time to stop. A side note, Trump is friends with and listens to both of these guys.
  6. This isn’t really political news, but Bill O’Reilly and Fox cut ties after his sexual harassment suits become public. He will be paid $10s of millions as part of the exit agreement, and it took advertiser withdrawal to prompt the firing not the alleged sexual misconduct itself.
  7. The public sidewalk in front of the White House is closed indefinitely for safety reasons.
  8. Ivanka hires a chief of staff to assist her in her unpaid role in the White House.
  9. Trump replaces U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy with his deputy, Rear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams.
  10. Alabama politicians are having a rough year. First the Speaker of the House, Mike Hubbard (R) was forced to retire due to multiple felonies. Then Governor Robert Bentley (R) resigned pending impeachment. Now the Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, is removed from his position because he (again) told officials they don’t have to follow the Federal Supreme Court rules, this time on same-sex marriage.
  11. A lawmaker in Florida resigns after going on a (possibly alcohol aided) tirade laden with racial slurs.
  12. Trump, reverting to his old narrative, says that people who participated in the Tax Marches across the country are paid protestors.
  13. The main proponent of getting CalExit on the ballot withdraws the petition under controversy. One of the main leaders of the effort has decided to take up permanent residence in Russia. You can’t make this up.
  14. UC Berkeley cancels an upcoming speech by Ann Coulter on fears of violence, but later reverses the decision after receiving criticism. Score one for free speech.
  15. To back up the fact that it’s not UC Berkeley students responsible for violent riots, it turns out that the Patriot’s Day protestors in Berkeley traveled from all over the country to cause trouble there. According to the LA Times, “Many freely admitted they were there to make trouble and that peaceful protest… really wasn’t their goal.” Conversations on social media also show that they were working on ways to smuggle in weapons.
  16. After thousands of peaceful protests across since the election, Kellyanne Conway calls on Democratic leaders to tell people to stop the violent protests. Even though we know about the radical anti-fascists (antifa) and the black bloc instigating most of the violence, as in Berkeley above.
  17. According to an analysis by The NY Times and ProPublica, Trump is filling federal agencies with lawyers and consultants who will be creating policy for the very industries from which they received their last paychecks, setting up a huge potential for conflicts of interest.

Polls:

  1. A recent poll indicates that not only do politics alter both parties’ expectations about the economy, but politics also alter how voters think the economy is actually performing now. Last October, GOP voters in Wisconsin thought the economy had gotten worse over the last year by a margin of 28 points. In March, they thought it had gotten better by a margin of 54 points. Data show that economic indicators haven’t changed much at all, but the political landscape has.
  2. Trump’s approval rating is up a bit, to 42%.
  3. In February, 62% of Americans thought Trump was keeping his promises. That number dropped to 45% in early April.
  4. In February, 59% thought Trump was a strong and decisive leader. That number dropped to 52% in early April.
  5. 36% of Americans see Trump as honest and trustworthy.
  6. On his overall performance, 16% of voters give Trump an A; 24% give him an F. Congress didn’t get very high marks in this Politico poll either.

Week Ten in Trump

Posted on April 3, 2017 in Politics, Trump

As I mentioned last week, Congress is making extensive use of the Congressional Review process to reverse many of Obama’s regulations from last year. As of now, Trump has signed eight resolutions reversing regulations, and Congress passed six more with a couple dozen more yet to be voted on. Paul Ryan says “these things will help get people back to work, and after years of sluggish growth, give a real boost to our economy,” even though the rules being overturned were all enacted last year and have not really had a chance to affect the economy either way.

Trump is also using executive orders to make changes. One thing to remember as far as executive orders go is that many of them only start the process of changing the regulations. The relevant agencies still need to review and revise the regulations, and these things take time. And they’ll like hit legal challenges.

By the way, if you like these roundups, you might also like these two. Both are a bit further left than I am, but I love how the Vice newsletter rounds up the week in one big, long-assed sentence.

Russia Investigation:

  1. After last week’s questionable activities on the part of Devin Nunes around classified Russia documents, Democrats call for him to step down from the House Intelligence Committee and Senator Schumer says he should be replaced.
  2. Jared Kushner volunteers to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the Russia probe.
  3. According to the DoJ, the Trump administration tried to prevent Sally Yates, the fired acting AG, from testifying to the House Intelligence Committee, citing executive privilege. Yates had previously written the DoJ to be sure she could testify about this in a public hearing. She says her testimony will contradict previous statements made by the administration.
  4. Spicer refutes reports that the White House pushed to prevent Sally Yates from testifying in the Russia probe.
  5. Nunes subsequently cancels the hearing this week where Yates was supposed to testify. House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee provide a witness list, yet Nunes accuses them of stalling the investigation. It seems by the end of the week that the House investigation is on hold.
  6. It turns out Nunes did get his information about incidental surveillance last week from White House staffers Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, who both work on national security.
  7. In a twist of irony, Sean Spicer says in his briefing that it shouldn’t matter who talked to whom. That what’s important is the substance… Huh? I thought the leaks were the important thing in the Russia scandal, not the substance?
  8. Mike Flynn says he’ll testify in the Russia probe if he gets full immunity, a request that both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees rejected saying it was too early to justify it.
  9. The Senate Intelligence Committee begins their hearings on Russia’s meddling in the elections and ties to the administration. They have at least 20 interviews lined up. (FYI: Richard Burr (Rep.) and Mark Warner (Dem.) head this committee.)
  10. A USA Today review of court cases and legal documents shows that Trump’s businesses have been linked to ”at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with alleged ties to criminal organizations or money laundering.”
  11. It turns out that Russia wasn’t just helping Trump during the general election, they were helping during the primaries as well.
  12. In the initial Senate hearings, we hear testimony that there were 15,000 operatives around world who were involved in creating and spreading fake news around the election.
  13. Mark Warner says there are reports that Russia had upwards of 1,000 hackers working in a facility in Russia to troll social media and create fake news targeting key areas in the U.S. using a network of bots. They used advanced algorithms to directly pinpoint certain demographics with misinformation.
  14. The FBI investigation goes back further than we thought. They are looking into whether the Trump campaign or its associates were complicit (knowingly or not) in assisting with the hacks of the DNC and others in early 2016.
  15. While no evidence has surfaced to support Trump’s wiretapping claims, it is true that the Obama administration was careful to keep records of the investigation, including an indexed list of the existing documents on the Russian investigation out of concern for what might happen to the documents.
  16. Trump continues to tweet about the unproven wiretapping claims and to call the Russia probe fake news.
  17. Clinton Watts testifies in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. If you didn’t listen to it, you should. None of it should be much of a surprise, but the way he ties it together is interesting. Here are a few clips:

Court:

  1. Democrats threaten to filibuster the Gorsuch nomination, which Republicans call unprecedented… seeming to forget all about the unprecedented move of blocking Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for nearly a year due to it being an election year and all.
  2. Republicans need eight Democratic senators to support the Gorsuch nomination in order to avoid a filibuster. So far they have two – Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Heidi Heitkamp (ND). (Update today: Democrats have enough to filibuster).
  3. A federal judge says that the lawsuit against Trump for inciting violence at one of his rallies can proceed. Three protestors at a rally were roughed up by Trump supporters, and video shows Trump appearing to egg them on. Trump’s defense claimed freedom of speech, which the judge rejected.

Healthcare:

This is simmering on the back burner for now, but there were a few newsworthy items this week:

  1. Negotiations start up again in the House for the repeal of the ACA, but the Senate and the White House are not interested.
  2. Paul Ryan says he doesn’t want to work with Democrats on healthcare.
  3. Sean Spicer says Trump is absolutely willing to work with Democrats on this.
  4. After the Freedom Caucus fails to fall in line on the healthcare bill, Trump threatens to go after the them in the 2018 elections if they don’t get behind him.

International:

  1. NATO changes the date of their meeting to accommodate Secretary of State Tillerson’s schedule, so he will attend the meeting with NATO foreign ministers after all.
  2. Britain formally starts the process of exiting the EU (better known as Brexit), ending a 44-year relationship. The process must be completed within two years.
  3. Trump loosens combat rules in Somalia, opening up greater areas to air strikes, putting more civilians at risk, and laying the groundwork for expanded military action against Islam militants in the area. These rules were in place to prevent civilian casualties.
  4. On the campaign trail, Trump called NAFTA the “worst trade deal” but now says he will keep major portions in place. He’s wants stricter enforcement of the rules, but indicates there will not be big changes to the agreement.

Legislation:

  1. The House introduces a bill to repeal the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. It establishes a voucher program and removes some of the nutritional standards set forth original bill.
  2. After a reporter asks Trump about Michael Flynn during a signing event, Trump leaves without signing the executive orders. Pence tries to bring him back for the signing, but Trump ends up signing them later, away from the media.
  3. Trump continues to cut back regulations by signing four bills into law this week:
    • The first is a congressional resolution that reverses Obama’s BLM resource management rule aimed at managing and conserving public lands. Obama’s changes were intended to use “science-based, landscape-scale approaches” to issues like wildfires, wildlife habitats, and renewable energy, which some feared would take away too much local control.
    • The second reverses the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule, which prevented the government from granting federal contracts to companies with a history of wage, labor, or workplace safety violations.
    • The next two remove requirements for teacher training and for how states execute the Every Student Succeeds Act. This act was a bipartisan law supported by the Chamber of Commerce along with civil rights and business groups.
  4. Trump signs executive orders to address the trade deficit and to create trade policies that are more supportive of US companies and consumers. As part of this, he commissioned a 90-day study on trade deficits and abuses.
  5. Following last week’s Senate vote, the House also passes the resolution to reverse the FCC internet privacy rules from last year. With the reversal, internet service providers won’t need to get your permission to use or sell your personal info, including your location and your browsing history. Trump is expected to sign it into law, though democrats are urging him not to, citing privacy concerns. Now’s the time to bolster up your internet security and look into setting up a VPN. Anonymous browsing doesn’t work against your ISP; they still know it’s you. Fun fact: Fundraising campaigns raised $250,000 to buy the browsing history of lawmakers who support the bill.
  6. Mike Pence casts a vote in the senate to break a 50-50 tie on a rule that would overturn Title X protections and essentially allow states to withhold funds from family planning centers that provide abortions, even if those funds are not used for abortions.
  7. The Senate votes to reverse a rule that made it easier for states to create retirement plans for workers who do not have a company-sponsored retirement plan. The House already passed this bill, so it is headed to Trump for a signature.
  8. The Kansas Senate passes House Bill 2044 to expand Medicaid and take advantage of those provisions in Obamacare. This should extend healthcare insurance coverage to an estimated 150,000 Kansas residents. Governor Sam Brownback vetoes the bill despite evidence that Medicaid works.
  9. Iowa is on a roll:
    • Governor Terry Branstad signed legislation not only blocking hikes to the minimum wage, but also bringing back down the minimum wage in localities that had already raised it above the current minimum. In essence, he defined a maximum minimum wage.
    • He also signed a law reducing worker compensation laws.
    • On a strictly party-line vote, a house committee adopted the 20-week abortion ban amendment. A Republican lawmaker catches flack when she says women should carry miscarried fetuses to term.
  10. The UN raises concerns about our basic right to protest. Since the election, 19 states have introduced legislation to criminalize peaceful protests, to increase penalties for blocking traffic, and to remove basic protections for protestors.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

  1. The judge from Hawaii who was the first to block Trump’s second travel ban decides to extend the blocking order.
  2. ICE arrests three people who were beginning the process of becoming citizens by applying for green cards. They kept their appointments despite their fear of being detained. One is a mother of three, married to a US citizen. Of the five, two had no criminal violations and three had minor traffic violations.
  3. Two doctors who run a pain management facility in Texas are threatened with deportation after an administrative error lists them as overstaying their visas. They were given 24 hours to leave, though they each had procedures, including surgeries, scheduled with their patients. They were able to obtain a stay.
  4. Men dressed in shirts that say “Jewish Defense League” beat a Palestinian-American school teacher with flag poles near the APAIC conference.
  5. North Carolina moves to repeal and replace the bathroom rule that stated you must use the restroom according to the gender on your birth certificate, buckling under financial pressure from NCAA boycotts. The deal was a compromise to get more Republicans on board, which included limiting cities’ ability to create any anti-discrimination rules until 2020. Members of the LGBTQ community say it doesn’t go far enough.
  6. The final version of the 2020 census questionnaire no longer includes questions about gender identity and sexual orientation. A draft version included these questions, which would have been the first time this information would have been included.
  7. AG Jeff Sessions says the DoJ will withhold grants for criminal justice programs from sanctuary cities. Mayors of sanctuary cities around the country say they’ll put up a fight in court if federal funds are withdrawn.
  8. Seattle sues the administration over the executive order demanding federal funds be withheld from sanctuary cities.
  9. The LA County Sheriff comes out against the current bill in the CA state legislature that would make CA a sanctuary state, saying it would make it too hard to deport felons. All CA sheriffs say that when ICE requests that they hold a parolee a few days over their release date (presumably so ICE can come pick them up), they do not comply (for constitutional reasons mostly).

Climate/EPA:

  1. Trump signed executive orders that basically halt efforts by the Obama administration to address climate change. The orders instruct the EPA to focus on clean air and water and to stop working on climate change — meanwhile, coal plants can now dump waste into waterways, so I’m not sure where the clean water part comes in.
  2. In the wake of the rollbacks, environmental groups already have lawsuits in the works.
  3. Staff in the Energy Department are prohibited from using the following phrases in written communications: “climate change,” “emissions reduction,” and “Paris Agreement.”
  4. Exxon sends a letter to Trump urging him to stay in the Paris climate accord, stating that it’s an ”effective framework for addressing the risks of climate change.”
  5. Trump lifts a moratorium on federal leases for coal mining, though few companies are interested in mining the newly available areas. Though Trump says he’ll bring back coal jobs, more and more power plants are moving to natural gas and 6 coal plants have either closed or plan to close since the election. Coal production has outpaced consumption, on average, since 2000.
  6. The House passes the Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act, which prohibits the EPA from using science that isn’t publicly available when creating new regulations. The EPA often uses scientific data that they don’t own and therefore don’t always have the right to release it publicly. This restricts the scientific studies and data they can use.
  7. Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, encourages companies to step up and fill in the void left by Trump gutting EPA regulations. Several companies (from Apple to Walmart), cities, and states say they’ll continue down the climate regulation path set out by Obama despite the rollback of regulations.
  8. EPA scientists conclude that the insecticide chlorpyrifos should be banned due to its affect on learning and memory. Scott Pruitt rejects their conclusion. It’s already been banned from household use, but is currently used on around 50 types of crops.

Miscellaneous:

  1. The economy is expected to grow more slowly than the 3-4% Trump promised. Economists expect it to grow 2.3% this year and 2.5% next year.
  2. A woman hits at least one police car and almost hits several officers in DC Wednesday morning. Terrorism is not suspected.
  3. Trump selects Chris Christie to run his drug commission.
  4. Felony charges are filed against the two anti-abortion activists who misrepresented themselves as researchers and secretly filmed Planned Parenthood meetings.
  5. The entire White House staff, in support of Trump, plans to skip the correspondents dinner.
  6. After taking heat for her non-government office in the White House last week, Ivanka will become a government employee after all. TBD what will happen with her business holdings.
  7. Some of Trump’s wealthier donors chip in millions for a 10-state ad campaign to bolster his approval ratings and highlight his achievements.
  8. Trump groups Democrats and the Freedom Caucus together as his enemy in a tweet: “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!”
  9. Three people at the inauguration in January claim to have heard George W. Bush remark afterward, “That was some weird shit.”
  10. Kushner is placed in charge of the White House Office of American Innovation, a group that will look at business-based solutions to government problems.
  11. Trump proclaims April 2017 to be National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I hope everyone sees the irony here.
  12. The Trump administration released the financial disclosures for White House staff. Notable findings:
    • Bannon made up to $2.3 million last year.
    • Gary Cohn, a former Goldman executive, is worth between $252-$611 million.
    • Ivanka and Jared retain their vast real estate and investment business.
    • Kellyanne Conway made over $800,000 last year.
  13. Mike Pence says he doesn’t dine alone with women other than his wife. It may seem a gallant gesture, but it limits the power of women who work with him. For example, he could eat alone and talk government with any one of his male staff members but not any of his female staff members. It harks back to the old boys club, it’s archaic, and it’s built on the premise that men can’t control themselves around women.
  14. Republicans indicate that they won’t fight support for Planned Parenthood as part of budget negotiations (but they might do it under reconciliation, which puts their decisions into law).
  15. Trump’s infrastructure plans had been put on hold until 2018, but now he wants to work on tax reform and infrastructure at the same time. This is seen as an attempt to get the support of Democrats and avoid the Freedom Caucus.