Tag: Donald Trump

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Nancy Pelosi To Trump: Come To The House When The Government Has Been Opened

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a letter today to Donald Trump reiterating that she does not intend on hosting the annual State of the Union address in Congress until the ongoing federal shutdown comes to an end.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a letter today to Donald Trump reiterating that she does not intend on hosting the annual State of the Union address in Congress until the ongoing federal shutdown comes to an end.

From CNBC:

In a letter to Trump, Pelosi escalated a standoff over the annual address hours after the president said he would give the speech in the House chamber next week as planned. Earlier this month, Pelosi urged him to reschedule the remarks or deliver them elsewhere during a partial government shutdown.

Pelosi wrote that the Democratic-held House would not pass the resolution needed to approve the joint session of Congress where he would deliver the address. She said lawmakers “will not consider a concurrent resolution authorizing the President’s State of the Union address in the House Chamber until government has opened.”

“Again, I look forward to welcoming you to the House on a mutually agreeable date for this address when government has been opened,” Pelosi wrote. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he introduced a resolution Wednesday to allow Trump to deliver the address, but it is unlikely to pass without Pelosi’s support.

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Polls: Trump’s Rating Continue To Sink As He Clings To Border Wall Demand

Recently polling shows the longer the current Trump shutdown of the federal government continues, the more it wears on his approval rating.
Donald Trump

Recently polling shows the longer the current Trump shutdown of the federal government continues, the more it wears on his approval rating.

New results from the Morning Consult/POLITICO poll shows Trump’s approval rating has dropped to 40% while his disapproval rating has hit an all-time high for this poll of 57%.
More results:
• 54% put the onus on Trump and Congressional Republicans for the government shutdown, while 35% blame Democrats.
• In regarding to the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a solid majority – 57% – believe Russia has compromising information on Trump.
The results of the latest CBS News poll aren’t any better for Trump:
• 66% of those polled say Trump should agree to the current budget proposal without insisting on his wall.
• Regarding the current shutdown, 47% approved of the way Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is handling the situation versus 35% approving of Trump’s approach.
• Trump’s approval rating in the CBS News poll has dropped to 36% while 59% disapprove of the job he’s doing.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi isn’t shy about spreading the news…

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Anti-Transgender Military Ban To Go Into Effect

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down orders that allow Donald Trump’s ban of transgender military service members to go into effect immediately while appeals work their way through the lower courts, according to The New York Times.
Transgender Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland

The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down orders that allow Donald Trump’s ban of transgender military service members to go into effect immediately while appeals work their way through the lower courts, according to The New York Times. The high court issued a brief, unsigned order this morning saying SCOTUS had lifted the injunctions that, until now, blocked the anti-trans policy. The vote was 5-4 with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen dissenting. This morning’s orders stay the injunctions initially issued by Federal District Court judges in Washington State (Trump v. Karnoski) and California (Trump v Stockman), both in the Ninth Circuit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had previously vacated a third injunction on January 4.

For the time being, current trans soldiers will not be booted out immediately. The policy, as tweaked by former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, allows transgender service members who are already serving openly to continue to do so and to receive transition-related care. In July of 2017, President Trump surprised American military leaders and the world when he announced his plan to ban trans military service members after “consultation with my Generals and military experts” due to the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. At the time of Trump’s announcement, Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland (pictured above) told Air Force News, “I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military.” “You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life,” he added. The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement saying there is ‘no medically valid reason’ for banning transgender people from serving in the United States military, but all four service chiefs (Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force) have testified they’ve seen no negative effects from transgender military personnel serving the country they love. According to a 2016 RAND Corporation study, there are an estimated 1,320 to 6,630 transgender individuals out of the 1.3 million service members on active duty. From The New York Times: The policy, announced on Twitter by President Trump and refined by the defense secretary at the time, Jim Mattis, generally prohibits people identifying with a gender different from their biological sex from military service. It makes exceptions for several hundred transgender people already serving openly and for those willing to serve “in their biological sex.”

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Trump Offers Temporary DACA Relief In Exchange For His Permanent Wall To End #TrumpShutdown

Donald Trump, in a national address from the White House, offered a temporary extension of protections for some undocumented immigrants in exchange for $5.7 billion to fund his beloved wall.

From the New York Times:

In casting the proposal as a compromise, Mr. Trump sought to shift pressure to Democrats to end the government shutdown.

The president, delivering a 13-minute address from the White House, said he would extend the legal status of those facing deportation and support bipartisan legislation that would allow some immigrants who came to the United States illegally as children, known as Dreamers, to keep their work permits and be protected from deportation for three more years if they are revoked.

“That is our plan,” Mr. Trump said. “Straightforward, fair, reasonable and common sense with lots of compromise.” The proposal, Mr. Trump said, was intended to “break the logjam and provide Congress with a path forward.”

But he reiterated his demand for $5.7 billion in funding for a border barrier, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of his remarks that she considered his proposal a “nonstarter,” in part because it offered no permanent pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

I agree with Pelosi. If he wants a permanent wall, then we want permanent protections for the DACA Dreamers.

Last year, Republicans rejected a Democratic bill for $25 billion in border wall funding in return for DACA amnesty.

It’s worth noting that Trump himself started the issue with DACA. So, now he’s merely offering a temporary solution for a mess he made.

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Trump Plans To Offer DACA Protections In Exchange For His Wall

Axios' Jonathan Swan is reporting Donald Trump plans to offer passage of the BRIDGE Act for DACA recipients to Democrats today in exchange for the $5.7 billion he wants for his beloved wall.
Donald Trump

Axios‘ Jonathan Swan is reporting Donald Trump plans to offer passage of the BRIDGE Act for DACA recipients to Democrats today in exchange for the $5.7 billion he wants for his beloved wall.

President Trump plans to use remarks from the Diplomatic Reception Room on Saturday afternoon to propose a notable immigration compromise, according to sources familiar with the speech.

Details: The offer is expected to include Trump’s $5.7 billion demand for wall money in exchange for the BRIDGE Act — which would extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — and also legislation to extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, according to a source with direct knowledge.

For their part, Dems are reportedly preparing to pass a package of six spending bills next week which will include an extra $1 billion for additional border security measures.

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Buzzfeed: Trump Instructed His Lawyer To Lie To Congress

Buzzfeed is reporting that Donald Trump instructed his former 'fixer,' Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress regarding plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Donald Trump


Buzzfeed is reporting that Donald Trump instructed his former ‘fixer,’ Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress regarding plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

The Buzzfeed article is said to be based on “interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents.”

President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. “Make it happen,” the sources said Trump told Cohen.

And even as Trump told the public he had no business deals with Russia, the sources said Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates about the real estate development from Cohen, whom they put in charge of the project.

Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying about the deal in testimony and in a two-page statement to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Special counsel Robert Mueller noted that Cohen’s false claim that the project ended in January 2016 was an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and Individual 1” — widely understood to be Trump — “in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.”

Now the two sources have told BuzzFeed News that Cohen also told the special counsel that after the election, the president personally instructed him to lie — by claiming that negotiations ended months earlier than they actually did — in order to obscure Trump’s involvement.

There’s much more at the link.

Trump’s current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, responded to the report saying, “If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge.”

But as many point out, the Buzzfeed report doesn’t rely on information from Cohen.

The report dropped at 10:11pm ET last night, so the Trumpster came out swinging this morning on Twitter:

Folks are now looking back at the testimony Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, gave this week with new eyes as he was directly asked if “a president persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction?”

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New Poll: 57% ‘Definitely Will Not Vote’ For Donald Trump In 2020

Donald Trump

More bad news today for Donald Trump as a new poll from PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist shows 57% say they will ‘Definitely not’ vote for Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

On the other end of the spectrum, only 30% said they will ‘definitely’ vote for Trump.

According to Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, “The president has had his base and not much else.”

Trump’s approval rating shows exactly that as 39% of those polled approve of the job he’s doing versus 53% who disapprove. This has been pretty much the average for the two years Trump has been in the White House.

When it comes to possible Democratic candidates, it’s very early to get a decent read but 76% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents said they had a favorable view of former Vice-President Joe Biden.

Sen. Bernie Sanders garnered 57% favorable approval, and 53% see Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a positive light.

When it comes to the current government shutdown, 54% of respondents said they blame Trump, while 31% blamed congressional Democrats.

Full results of the new poll can be found here.

Click over to NPR for additional insight into how folks are viewing the 2020 presidential race.

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Michael Cohen Admits He Paid Tech Firm To Rig Online Polls For Trump

Michael Cohen

There’s a new revelation in the ever-unraveling saga of twists and turns behind the scenes of the 2016 Trump campaign today.

The Wall Street Journal (a conservative newspaper I’ll point out) is reporting that the Trump campaign paid a small IT company to rig online polling on websites like Drudge and CNBC in Trump’s favor.

And the company was paid by none other than Trump’s former ‘fixer,’ Michael Cohen.

The tech guy was, apparently, John Gauger, chief information officer at Liberty University in Virginia, where Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr. is president.

The WSJ‘s story is behind a firewall, but check this from CNN:

According to the paper, Cohen paid John Gauger, the owner of RedFinch Solutions LLC, between $12,000 and $13,000 for activities related to Trump’s campaign, including “trying unsuccessfully to manipulate two online polls in Mr. Trump’s favor” and creating a Twitter account called “@WomenForCohen” that “praised (Cohen’s) looks and character, and promoted his appearances and statements boosting” Trump’s candidacy.

In making the claim, Gauger told the paper he wasn’t fully paid for the work, though the Journal said Cohen was reimbursed $50,000 — the amount the two originally agreed on for Gauger’s services — by the Trump Organization. Gauger, according to the paper, also received a boxing glove “worn by a Brazilian mixed-martial arts fighter” along with the cash payment.

The payment to Gauger was mentioned by prosecutors in Cohen’s charging documents.

https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/1085900900835778560

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Gallup: Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Sinks To 37%

The latest polling from Gallup shows Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to a dismal 37%.

The latest polling from Gallup shows Donald Trump’s approval rating has dropped to a dismal 37%.

Those who disapprove of the job Trump is doing has risen to 59%.

According to CNBC political reporter John Harwood, Trump is the only president in the history of polling never to reach 50% approval in their first 2 years.

Additionally, Trump is the only president whose average approval for first 2 years (39%) was below 40%.

Harwood reports the averages for the Donald’s predecessors as: Barack Obama 52%, George W. Bush 70%, Bill Clinton 48%, George H.W. Bush 70%, Ronald Reagan 50%, and Jimmy Carter 54%.

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Trump: “I Never Worked For Russia”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump finally gave reporters a clear ‘no’ today when asked about the allegations that he’s been trying to conceal his communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I never worked for Russia,” Trump told reporters. “It’s a disgrace that you even asked that question because it’s a whole big fat hoax. It’s just a hoax.”

Trump also said he doesn’t know anything about what happened to the notes taken by an interpreter when he met with Putin last summer in Finland.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters today that she believes Donald Trump seized his translator’s notes after a 2017 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because the West Wing had been “suffering from a great number of leaks” at the time.

She also admits, however, that she hasn’t discussed the issue with Trump.