Tag: Donald Trump

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Trump Orders US Forces To Kill Head Of Iran Military

Donald Trump
From CBS News:

Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds military Force, was killed Thursday night in an airstrike in Baghdad. The U.S. Defense Department said late Thursday that the “decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel” was ordered by President Trump.

“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the Defense Department said. Mr. Trump tweeted a photo of an American flag late Thursday.

The missile attack comes hours after Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the U.S. military will be ready if Iran and its allies plan new attacks, like the one this week at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The U.S. Defense Department blamed Soleimani and the Quds Force for the embassy attack, as well as the attack on December 27 that killed an American defense contractor. 

The Pentagon issued this statement:

At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.

He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months – including the attack on December 27th – culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel. General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.

Trump took to Twitter to share a pixelated image of the American flag:

NBC News reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling on the Trump administration to immediately brief lawmakers on the U.S. airstrike that killed a top Iranian commander in Iraq and what the White House plans to do next. “Tonight’s airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America — and the world — cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return,” Pelosi said in a statement late Thursday. Pelosi added that the strike was carried out without an “authorization for use of military force” against Iran and without the consultation of Congress. Past tweets from Trump immediately went viral recalling the Donald’s claims that President Obama would begin a war with Iran in order to secure his re-election. All of this comes, of course, amid Trump being impeached over his dealing with the president of Ukraine regarding a phony investigation about his presumed political opponent in the upcoming 2020 presidential election.

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Trump, Sanders, Yang & Buttigieg Announce Fundraising Totals

Mayor Pete Buttigieg campaigns in Iowa
Pete Buttigieg raised more than $24.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the New York Times. Buttigieg’s campaign announced it had now received more than two million donations from more than 733,000 people since he entered the race, and 326,000 people had donated to the South Bend mayor’s effort in the fourth quarter. Since entering the race, the 37-year-old White House hopeful has raised more than $76 million. CBS News reports Sen. Bernie Sanders scored $34.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Sanders’ best fundraising month was December, when he collected 900,000 donations totaling over $18 million. Still seeking a last-minute boost in the polls that would allow him to qualify for the January Democratic debate, entrepreneur Andrew Yang’s presidential campaign announced he had raised $16.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 putting him among the Democratic field’s top five fund-raisers. And over in Trump Land, the Donald’s re-election campaign pulled in $46 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The Trump campaign begins the 2020 re-election year with cash on hand of $102.7 million. Update – Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign announced the Democrat from Hawaii raised $3.4 million in the last quarter of 2019. The New York Times reports Joe Biden reported raising $22.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, a significant improvement from his lackluster fund-raising performance in the previous three months.

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Trump Tells NY & CA He’ll Help With Homelessness If They Ask “Politely”

Donald Trump

Donald Trump took to Twitter today to rant about the issue of homelessness in America. Well, not exactly. The Trumpster tweeted specifically about the homelessness problem in two very blue states: California and New York. Trump wrote, “California and New York must do something about their TREMENDOUS Homeless problems. They are setting records! If their Governors can’t handle the situation, which they should be able to do very easily, they must call and ‘politely’ ask for help. Would be so easy with competence!” It’s worth noting, however, that a Rockefeller Institute of Government study this year found that New York’s residents and businesses consistently send more revenue to the Federal government than any other state, and the state continues to contribute more in taxes than the state receives back in federal spending. And residents of California pay one of the highest rates of federal taxes per capita in the country. As president, states shouldn’t have to beg or “politely” ask for help. That’s what the federal government is there for, and what they pay taxes for. And in the case of these two states, a LOT of taxes. Trump forgets that he’s not a king whose ring should be kissed. He’s an employee of the people of the United States. The Donald’s real issue here isn’t worrying about the homeless (which he’d rather just not see), but the fact that California and New York have governors who won’t bow down to him. Later in the day, Trump took another swipe at New York tweeting, “So sad to see that New York City and State are falling apart. All they want to do is investigate to make me hate them even more than I should. Governor Cuomo has lost control, and lost his mind. Very bad for the homeless and all!”

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Study: Trump Tariffs Led To Higher Prices & Job Losses

Donald Trump
A new study from the Federal Reserve shows Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports led to higher prices for American consumers and job losses. Trump told Americans his tariffs would boost the economy. From The Hill:

“We find that tariff increases enacted in 2018 are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices,” the report by Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce reads.

MarketWatch first reported the study, noting that 10 primary industries were hit by retaliatory tariffs and higher prices, including producers of magnetic and optical media, leather goods, aluminum sheet, iron and steel, motor vehicles, household appliances, sawmills, audio and video equipment, pesticide, and computer equipment.

In September of this year, U.S. consumers and businesses paid a record $7.1 billion in tariffs.

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Trump’s Interior Dept Removes ‘Sexual Orientation’ From Ethics Guide

Donald Trump
The Trump administration just can’t stop trying to erase the LGBTQ community. The Department of the Interior removed language regarding lesbian, gay and bisexual people from its anti-discrimination guidelines. According to HuffPost, the words “sexual orientation” were removed from the department’s ethics manual. On page four of the 2017 edition of the manual regarding Basic Obligations of Public Service, one principle reads, “You shall adhere to all laws and regulations that provide equal opportunities for all Americans regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, or handicap.” However, the 2009 version of the ethics guide – during Barack Obama’s administration – included the categories “race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.” Bolding is mine. HuffPost also reports that on his first day on the job in August 2017, then-Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt redlined the words “sexual orientation” on an email to agency staff. When HuffPost asked the Interior Department about the edits, agency spokesperson Carol Danko replied saying the new language – substituting the word “sex” for “gender” and “sexual orientation” – was merely an effort to avoid redundancy. “Per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, under Title VII the term ‘sex’ includes gender, gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, and pregnancy,” Danko told HuffPost. The confusing part of that statement is the Trump administration’s Department of Justice recently took the completely opposite position on the issue at the U.S. Supreme Court. The DOJ argued that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not provide protections for LBG people via the word “sex” in the legislation. Assuring HuffPost that the Interior Department has “zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind,” Danko told the news site that since Bernhardt became the agency chief in April 2019, “our internal policies have been redrafted with a broader brushstroke to explicitly capture inappropriate conduct beyond the legal standards of harassment and discrimination such as political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, and status as a parent.” However the Interior Department parses this language, the fact is the Trump administration has led a continued assault on LGBTQ people since Donald Trump took office. GLAAD has been tracking the many ways the community has been diminished or erased since January 2017 including banning transgender people from serving in the military, making no mention of the LGBTQ community in World AIDS Day proclamations, and allowing tax-payer funded adoption agencies to use “religious beliefs” to deny placing children in homes of LGBTQ couples. (source: HuffPost, GLAAD)

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Poll: Support For Removing Trump From Office At All-Time High

(image via public domain)
The latest polling shows support to remove Donald Trump from office is the highest it has ever been. From The Independent:

Fifty-five percent of those asked said they were in favor of the US president’s conviction by the Senate, a figure which has shot up from 48 percent the week before.

Meanwhile, the number of people against Mr. Trump’s removal has dropped to an all-time low, according to the MSN poll.

On Christmas Day, 40 percent were opposed to the Senate voting to convict the president, who has been impeached over his dealings with Ukraine and an alleged subsequent attempt to obstruct Congress.

The gap between the two views has become much wider since last week when there was little to divide them (48 percent in favor of Mr. Trump’s removal, 47 percent against).

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Trump: Windmills Are Spewing Tremendous Fumes Into The Atmosphere

Donald Trump served up this rambling, nonsensical word salad during his speech at Turning Point USA. #sundowning

“I never understood wind. I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous — if you are into this — tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right?”

“So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right spewing, whether it is China or Germany, is going into the air.”

“A windmill will kill many bald eagles. After a certain number, they make you turn the windmill off, that is true. By the way, they make you turn it off. And yet, if you killed one, they put you in jail. That is OK. But why is it OK for windmills to destroy the bird population?”

You really have to watch it to understand how truly odd the remarks were:

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Nancy Pelosi Claps Back At Trump’s “Phony Complaints”

L-R Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump
Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to rant and whine about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and “the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress.” p.s. The House didn’t conduct a trial, but whatevs… Trump wrote, “Pelosi gives us the most unfair trial in the history of the U.S. Congress, and now she is crying for fairness in the Senate, and breaking all rules while doing so. She lost Congress once, she will do it again!” But Pelosi, who hasn’t held a vote on impeachment managers yet in the House (which would then send the articles of impeachment to the Senate), clapped back: “The House cannot choose our impeachment managers until we know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct. President Trump blocked his own witnesses and documents from the House, and from the American people, on phony complaints about the House process. What is his excuse now?”

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White House Froze Ukraine Aid Just Hours After Trump/Zelensky Call

Donald Trump
Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Center for Public Integrity, a federal judge ordered the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Pentagon to release documents related to the White House freezing military aid to Ukraine. From The Hill:

According to the documents, shortly after President Trump’s now-infamous July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, White House aides were tasked with halting the $391 million of military aid.

Trump’s phone call with Zelensky, and the withholding of aid, is at the center of the impeachment proceedings that began in the House and will now move to the Senate in the new year.

The obtained documents contain emails sent by senior White House official Michael Duffey. Duffey, a Trump appointee, works through the OMB and is responsible for overseeing national security money.

“Based on guidance I have received and in light of the Administration’s plan to review assistance to Ukraine, including the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, please hold off on any additional DoD obligations of these funds, pending direction from that process,” Duffey wrote to OMB and Pentagon officials on July 25.

“Given the sensitive nature of the request, I appreciate your keeping that information closely held to those who need to know to execute direction,” Duffey added.

The freeze of the aid apparently raised eyebrows at the OMB and other government agencies, with many worried that the delay of aid would make it hard for the assistance to go through before Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

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Christianity Today Calls For Trump To Be Removed From Office

Mainstream evangelical publication Christianity Today has called for Donald Trump to be removed from the presidency. In a stunning op-ed, editor in chief Mark Galli says the Trumpster is “morally lost.”

But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near-perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

[snip]

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency.

Trump responded, predictably, on Twitter calling the magazine “progressive” and “doing poorly:”

Franklin Graham, whose father Billy Graham founded Christianity Today in 1956, denounced the op-ed and defended his buddy Trump in a post on Facebook:

Yes, my father Billy Graham founded Christianity Today; but no, he would not agree with their opinion piece. In fact, he would be very disappointed. I have not previously shared who my father voted for in the past election, but because of this article, I feel it is necessary to share it now.

My father knew Donald Trump, he believed in Donald Trump, and he voted for Donald Trump. He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.

[snip]

Is President Trump guilty of sin? Of course he is, as were all past presidents and as each one of us are, including myself. Therefore, let’s pray for the President as he continues to lead the affairs of our nation.