Tag: Donald Trump

Posted on

Trump Looking To Tap Ben Carson For HUD Secretary

Retired neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson is expected to be tapped as secretary of housing and urban development.

HUD is responsible for administering low-income housing assistance, fair housing laws, housing development and aid to neighborhoods in distress.

Carson endorsed Donald Trump shortly after dropping out of the race.

He was highly expected to be considered for a spot in Trump’s administration, with many guessing the Health and Human Services department.

But soon after the election, Carson said didn’t feel he had the experience to serve in Trump’s Cabinet, calling himself “a fish out of water” when it comes to being a federal bureaucrat.

Regarding his cabinet picks, Trump told the New York Times on Tuesday, “We’re trying very hard to get the best people — not necessarily people that will be the most politically correct people, because that hasn’t been working,” Trump said. “So we have, really, experts in the field. Some are known and some are not known, but they’re known within their field as being the best. That’s very important to me.”

Considering Carson’s background in medicine, it is not entirely clear what experience he has with housing and urban development policy.

Posted on

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley To Be Trump’s United Nations Ambassador

Donald Trump taps South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations, according to an announcement by the Trump transition team.

Haley becomes the first face of diversity in the Trump team as she is younger than most of Trump’s appointees thus far (44 years old), female and the daughter of Indian immigrants.

She has been considered a rising star in the Republican party, currently serving her second term as governor of South Carolina.

Haley comes as somewhat of a surprise pick in that she campaigned for Sen. Marco Rubio during the Republican primary, and ultimately endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for the GOP nod.

Trump has been critical of Haley along the way:

In January, Trump characterized Haley’s position on immigration as “weak” after the South Carolina governor welcomed properly vetted legal immigrants into her state.

From CNN:

In a statement released Wednesday, Haley said the US “faces enormous challenges” both at home and internationally. She cited a “sense of duty” in accepting Trump’s offer.

“When the President believes you have a major contribution to make to the welfare of our nation, and to our nation’s standing in the world, that is a calling that is important to heed,” Haley said. “The second is a satisfaction with all that we have achieved in our state in the last six years and the knowledge that we are on a very strong footing.”

Haley was also among those being considered by Trump for secretary of state. Her pick leaves former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and a handful of others among those still in the running for the top diplomat position.

Haley will keep serving as governor until the Senate confirms her nomination.

Posted on

Outtakes From Donald Trump Meeting With New York Times

Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman live-Tweeted insights from this morning’s Donald Trump / New York Times confab.

The meeting was scheduled then briefly cancelled, then reconfirmed hours later apparently due to an erroneous report from Trump advisor Reince Priebus to the Trumpster that the Times had changed the terms of the meeting. The Times confirmed no terms were changed on their part.

While part of the meeting was off the record, both sides agreed some of the exchange would be for public consumption.

Some highlights:

• Regarding the end of the campaign, Trump went into Michigan because his team learned Clinton’s campaign was worried about the state.

• While he admits “We had a great victory” in the election, he did mention he’s well-aware he did not win the popular vote. “I’ll see every once in awhile someone says, ‘Well, the popular vote.'” Says he was never a fan of the Electoral College “until now.”

• Trump on alt-right supporters: “It’s not a group I want to energize. And if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why.”

• Trump says “no” when asked if he is taking investigations off the table for Clintons but adds he doesn’t want to “hurt the Clintons.” He added “I think it would be very very divisive for the country.”

• Regarding the concerns about his businesses and conflicts of interest: “The law’s totally on my side, the president can’t have a conflict of interest.” Furthermore, “I’d assumed that you’d have to set up some type of trust or whatever and you don’t.”

• On Bannon:”If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn’t even think about hiring him.” Regarding Breitbart: “Breitbart is just a publication. The cover stories like you cover stories.”

• Regarding Congress: “Paul Ryan, right now, loves me. Mitch McConnell loves me,” Trump says. Then says, “I’ve liked Chuck Schumer for a long time.”

• Trump asked about potential pushback on an infrastructure plan from GOP leaders. “Right now, they’re in love with me,” Trump says.

• Trump says he is “seriously considering” Mattis for DoD, says he asked Mattis about waterboarding, was surprised he didn’t favor it.

• Asked about son in law Jared Kushner, Trump says he will probably not have a formal position in the White House but could “could be a player on Mideast peace.

• Trump gets asked about his commitment to first amendment, says, “I think you’ll be happy.”

Haberman is an excellent reporter you should definitely follow on the Twitter – @maggieNYT

For more details on the meeting, click over to the New York Times.

Posted on

Trump On Again With New York Times Meeting Only Hours After Cancelling Via Twitter

Donald Trump’s machinations with the press are beginning to cause whiplash for observers.

After initially scheduling a meeting with the New York Times editors and reporters, Trump abruptly cancelled via Twitter over “inaccurate” reporting and “nasty tone.”

Hours later, Trump changed course and announced the meeting would take place today.

CNN has the details:

Trump originally asked for the meeting with Times executives, and also agreed to meet on the record with reporters and columnists.

The Times announced the meeting on Monday. But on Tuesday morning, Trump said on Twitter that the “terms and conditions” had changed at the last minute — a claim The Times denied, saying it was in fact Trump who had tried to alter the conditions.

The Times said it only learned through Trump’s tweets that the meeting was off.

“We did not change the ground rules at all and made no attempt to,” Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy told CNNMoney.

Later, Trump tweeted that he had apparently changed his mind and would be traveling to the Times offices for the meeting.

A portion of the meeting will be an on-the-record interview, as the newspaper originally wanted.

“Mr. Trump’s staff has told us that the President Elect’s meeting with The Times is on again,” Eileen Murphy, head of communications for the Times, said in a statement. “He will meet with our publisher off-the-record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists.”

Posted on

Trump Won’t Prosecute Hillary Clinton Because He Wants To “Help Her Heal”

After months of campaign rallies that included Donald Trump followers chanting “Lock her up! Lock her up!” and declaring in clear language that if elected he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton for breaking the law, it looks like Trump Nation is going to be very disappointed.

During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway explained Trump would not be pursuing a Hillary Clinton investigation.

When asked if the announcement would be enough to convince Congressional Republicans from attempting their own investigation, Conway demurred.

“I think when the President-elect, who’s also the head of your party, tells you before he’s even inaugurated that he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges, it sends a very strong message, tone, and content to the members.”

Conway said that, in light of Hillary’s campaign defeat, Trump’s decision to not investigate was a benevolent gesture.

“If Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing to do,” Conway added, saying Clinton “still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest or trustworthy.”

Or – maybe – Trump knew all along Hillary has done nothing illegal, and he only used the insinuation as a way to fuel opposition against his opponent throughout the campaign.

Conway also alluded to the idea that perhaps other campaign promises were not going to materialize.

“I think he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign are not among them.”

Posted on

Trump Shows No Signs Of Attempting To Avoid Conflicts Of Interest

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump said during a debate that he would, if elected, turn over his far-ranging business interests in a “blind trust” to be run by his children to avoid any sense of impropriety or profiteering via the presidency.

“If I become president, I couldn’t care less about my company. It’s peanuts. I wouldn’t ever be involved because I wouldn’t care about anything but our country, anything.”

 Thirteen days after being president-elect, Trump shows no signs of doing just that.

By the way, I should point out that handing your children your business with whom you communicate with on a daily basis does not constitute a “blind trust.” Can you really imagine his children won’t discuss ANY business in private with their father?

In any case, Trump has grown testy over news coverage of several eyebrow raising incidents that have occurred over the past two weeks including:

• His first meeting with a foreign head of state, the Prime Minister of Japan, included his daughter Ivanka Trump and son in law Jared Kushner, neither of whom have security clearances. And both are involved in his business dealings.

• His Washington D.C. hotel held an event last week pitching accommodations to foreign diplomats as a way to ingratiate themselves to the incoming administration

• During a congratulatory phone call with Argentinian President Mauricio Macri, Trump asked the president to clear some obstacles that have delayed Trump building an office building in Buenos

• Trump has asked UK politician Nigel Farage to help oppose a wind farm off the coast of Scotland near his golf resort because it would “spoil the views.”

After several news reports on the endless possible conflicts of interest, a defiant Trump took to Twitter to tell his constituents that this issue was basically priced into their vote.

Posted on

Trump Communicates Via YouTube Videos Directly To Public

It appears the Trump plan to side-step the “lying media” is to simply issue “video press releases” through his Facebook and YouTube channels.

I have to say the tone and style of this feels very Big Brother-esque.

In this first episode of “Trump TV,” the president-elect shares his plan for his first 100 days in office including:

• Withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership

• Directing the Labor Department to investigate abuses of visa programs

• New Rule – for every new regulation, two old ones must be eliminated

Along the way, he plans to strike down regulations that make your water safe to drink so energy companies can make more money.

Posted on

Trump Convenes Meeting With Media Execs: ‘It Was Like A F*cking Firing Squad’

And so it begins.

A group of 30-40 TV news executives and anchors were invited to Trump Tower today for what they thought would be a discussion with President-elect Trump about access their outlets could look forward to with his administration.

What they got was something completely different.

Via The New York Post (a conservative-leaning newspaper):

Donald Trump scolded media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower sitdown on Monday, sources told The Post. “It was like a f–ing firing squad,” one source said of the encounter. “Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said ‘I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,’” the source said.

“The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,” the source added. A second source confirmed the fireworks.

“The meeting took place in a big board room and there were about 30 or 40 people, including the big news anchors from all the networks,” the other source said.

“Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful dishonest media who got it all wrong.’ He addressed everyone in the room calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars,” the source said.

The hour-long session included top execs from network and cable news channels. Among the attendees were NBC’s Deborah Turness, Lester Holt and Chuck Todd, ABC’s James Goldston, George Stephanopoulos, David Muir and Martha Raddatz,

Also, CBS’ Norah O’Donnell John Dickerson, Charlie Rose, Christopher Isham and King, Fox News’ Bill Shine, Jack Abernethy, Jay Wallace, Suzanne Scott, MSNBC’s Phil Griffin and CNN’s Jeff Zucker and Erin Burnett.

Posted on

Brandon Victor Dixon Of HAMILTON: “There’s Nothing To Apologize For, Conversation Is Not Harassment”

Brandon Victor Dixon, one of the stars of the blockbuster Broadway hit, Hamilton: An American Musical, sat down with CBS This Morning to discuss the brouhaha surrounding Vice President-elect Pence’s visit to the show this past weekend.

After Dixon read a message to Mr. Pence during the curtain call – addressing him as “sir,” speaking in a calm, rational voice about their anxieties and concerns for the upcoming administration – Donald Trump angrily took to his Twitter account to denounce the cast and message as ‘harassment,” and demanded an apology.

Pence, himself, said he enjoyed the show very much and doesn’t feel the need for an apology.

When asked if there would be an apology forthcoming, Dixon said, “There’s nothing to apologize for. Conversation is not harassment.”

As I wrote over the weekend, if this is what sends our president-elect into a tailspin, he may need to consider taking a moment. Theater folks reading you a message is simple stuff, Donald.

You’ve got MUCH bigger fish to fry. Like explaining the $25 million settlement you just paid out in a class action lawsuit for fraud regarding the now-defunct Trump University.

Oh, and then there’s Russia.

Watch below:

Posted on

Green Day At AMAs: “No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!”

During a pyrotechnic-filled performance, Green Day turned the performance of their “Bang Bang” into an anti-Trump song.

“No Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong chanted during the bridge of the song.

While other artists made comments about incoming U.S. President Trump, Green Day was the most vocal.