Tag: Trump administraiton

Trump’s ‘Tremendous Success’ Abroad Is Overstated

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website November 15, 2017:

President Trump speaking on Wednesday in the Diplomatic Room of the White House. He listed many achievements against terrorism and for United States workers in claiming that “America is back.” Credit Tom Brenner/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump marked his return from a five-country tour of Asia by recounting on Wednesday its “tremendous success” and that of his other trips abroad.

Deterred only by a struggle to quench his thirst, Mr. Trump listed numerous achievements against terrorism and for United States workers in claiming that “America is back.” But some of those statements don’t hold much water. Here’s an assessment.

He spoke of dealing ISIS ‘one crushing defeat after another’ since his meeting with Arab allies.

In detailing his May trip to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump said he spoke about “our strategy to defeat terrorists by stripping them of financing, territory and ideological support” and urged Arab states to drive terrorists from their societies.

It is true that the Islamic State has lost significant territory, including its de facto capital in Syria, “since that time,” as Mr. Trump said. But the extremist group had begun losing territory well before Mr. Trump’s trip to Riyadh, and he has largely kept to plans laid out under President Barack Obama. Continue reading “Trump’s ‘Tremendous Success’ Abroad Is Overstated”

Exclusive: Carter Page testifies he told Sessions about Russia trip

The following article was posted on the CNN website November 3, 2017:

Credit: Sergei Karpukhin, Reuters

Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page privately testified Thursday that he mentioned to Jeff Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — as new questions emerge about the attorney general’s comments to Congress about Russia and the Trump campaign.

During more than six hours of closed-door testimony, Page said that he informed Sessions about his coming July 2016 trip to Russia, which Page told CNN was unconnected to his campaign role. Page described the conversation to CNN after he finished talking to the House intelligence committee. Continue reading “Exclusive: Carter Page testifies he told Sessions about Russia trip”

President Trump’s incomplete history of Schumer and the Diversity Visa Lottery Program

The following article by Meg Kelly was posted on the Washington Post website November 3, 2017:

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) was involved in creating the diversity lottery program, but the story doesn’t stop there. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“The terrorist came into our country through what is called the ‘Diversity Visa Lottery Program,’ a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.”
— President Trump, in a tweet, Nov. 1, 2017

“We are fighting hard for Merit Based immigration, no more Democrat Lottery Systems. We must get MUCH tougher (and smarter). @foxandfriends”
— Trump, in a tweet, Nov. 1

“Senator Chuck Schumer helping to import Europe’s problems” said Col. Tony Shaffer. We will stop this craziness! @foxandfriends”
— Trump, in a tweet, Nov. 1 Continue reading “President Trump’s incomplete history of Schumer and the Diversity Visa Lottery Program”

President Trump’s Agenda Undermines His Rhetoric on Opioid Misuse

The following article by Eliza Schultz and Lea Hunter was posted on the Center for American Progress website November 2, 2017:

AP/Susan Walsh
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), center, chairman of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, speaks at the beginning of the first meeting of the commission, June 16, 2017, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House complex in Washington. From left are Dr. Bertha K. Madras, a Harvard Medical School professor who specializes in addiction biology; Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R); Christie; North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D); and former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D).

It’s no secret that opioid misuse has risen to the level of an epidemic. On November 1, 2017, the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, appointed by President Donald Trump last March, released its long-awaited recommendations on how best to tackle the nation’s opioid crisis.

The stakes have never been higher. Preliminary data indicate that in 2016, 64,000 people—more than the combined number of people killed by gun homicide and in car accidents in 2015—succumbed to drug overdoses. In most of these cases, opioids were involved. Natural and semisynthetic opioids were linked to more than 14,400 overdose deaths, while synthetic opioids other than methadone, which is often used in treatment, contributed to more than 20,100 fatalities. Heroin contributed to roughly 15,400.

Even so, President Trump drew sharp criticism last Thursday when he declared the opioid epidemic a nationwide public health emergency—a designation that does little more than shift grant money away from other public health needs, such as combating HIV/AIDS, and lift some red tape. Indeed, the declaration freed up just $57,000 from the Public Health Emergency Fund to go toward tackling opioid misuse, which is half the amount that the city of Middletown, Ohio, could spend on naloxone—a life-saving opioid antagonist that reverses overdoses—in a single year. Trump also highlighted a discredited tactic—essentially telling people to “just say no” to drugs—that has historically failed to mitigate drug use, betraying what is at best his own ignorance around the risk factors that lead to substance misuse.

Continue reading “President Trump’s Agenda Undermines His Rhetoric on Opioid Misuse”

Federal notices about ACA enrollment season get cut in number and messaging

The following article by Amy Goldstein was posted on the Washington Post website November 1, 2017:

Consumers will receive scaled-back notices about their enrollment options during the Affordable Care Act’s fifth sign-up season. (HealthCare.gov)

In preparation for the Affordable Care Act’s latest enrollment season, the Trump administration sent notices about the sign-up options to millions fewer Americans than in past years and deleted themes known to be most effective in motivating consumers to sign up.

Emails went in advance only to people with current health-care plans through marketplaces created under the law, leaving out most of the names in a database of about 20 million consumers who once had such coverage or at some point explored the federal website HealthCare.gov.

The greatly reduced outreach is reflected in a set of internal documents obtained by The Washington Post, which also shows a sharp change in the tone and content of the messaging ahead of Wednesday’s sign-up start. Continue reading “Federal notices about ACA enrollment season get cut in number and messaging”

Jeff Flake and the G.O.P.’s Complicity Problem

The following article by Amy Davidson Sorkin from the November 6, 2017 issue of the New Yorker was posted on their website October 30, 2017:

Even after the Senator spoke, his colleagues went on as if being accused of selling out the Republic for personal gain were nothing out of the ordinary.

President Donald Trump and Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price arrive in the Capitol to meet with House Republicans on March 21.

When Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, explained why he had chosen to denounce President Donald Trump from the Senate floor last Tuesday afternoon as being “dangerous to a democracy,” he cited the moment, in 1954, when Joseph Welch, a lawyer representing the Army in the Army-McCarthy hearings, confronted Senator Joseph McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin. In an op-ed for the Washington Post, titled “Enough,” Flake recalled how Welch’s plain language—“Have you no sense of decency, sir?”—seemed to break the spell of McCarthyism. He had hoped to do something similar.

There are parallels in the two events, in that both McCarthy and Trump seem to have bewitched members of their party with a promise of power, coupled with a fear of being the next target, whether of a hearing or of a tweet. (And the man seated next to McCarthy during the hearings, Roy Cohn, became Trump’s mentor.) But what was particularly powerful about the Welch moment was that he was rejecting an offer of complicity from McCarthy. The Senator had just announced, on national television, that a lawyer in Welch’s firm had once belonged to a left-leaning legal organization, and added that he assumed that Welch hadn’t known. Welch had known, and he said so without hesitation. By contrast, when Flake finished speaking, it was clear that, despite the force of his rhetoric, the spell had not been broken. The G.O.P. still has not come close to addressing its complicity problem.

Continue reading “Jeff Flake and the G.O.P.’s Complicity Problem”

Republicans’ horrible week (and not-great year) was entirely predictable

The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website October 28, 2017:

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said on Oct. 24 that he will not run for reelection in 2018. Flake said the GOP is at risk of becoming a “fearful, backward-looking minority party.” (U.S. Senate)

Nine months into gaining full control of Washington, Republicans are not where they hoped they’d be. Very far from it, actually. They have no major legislative accomplishments to tout. After this week, they are tipping into a civil war. And early polls suggest voters would rather elect a generic Democrat than a generic Republican in next year’s congressional elections.

All of this was entirely predictable  — not that there was much Republican leaders could do about it. And yes, I’m referring to President Trump. But Republicans’ fracturing was evident long before Trump rode down that escalator in Trump Tower two and a half years ago. Continue reading “Republicans’ horrible week (and not-great year) was entirely predictable”

The GOP Is Plowing Ahead with an Audacious Effort to Hijack the Vote and Rig Elections

The following article by Steven Rosenfeld was posted on the AlterNet website September 15, 2017:

From Trump’s “election integrity” commission to Mitch McConnell, the GOP targets the levers of power.

Credit: facebook

The Republican Party’s efforts to disrupt voting and thwart representative government was on full display this past week, when despite ridicule in the press, the GOP’s leading proponents of undermining voters and rigging elections were unbowed and forged ahead.

First came Kris Kobach’s willfully incorrect—but headline-grabbing—accusation on Breitbart.com that more than 5,000 people illegally voted last fall in New Hampshire, delivering an Electoral College majority to Hillary Clinton and a U.S. senate seat to a Democrat. Kobach, an attorney whose anti-immigrant activism launched his career, is the Kansas secretary of state, a current gubernatorial candidate, and co-chair of President Trump’s Orwellian-titled “election integrity” commission. Kobach was caught mangling some Republican-produced data about New Hampshire college students who were perfectly legal voters to make his false claim about presumed Democrats voting illegally. Continue reading “The GOP Is Plowing Ahead with an Audacious Effort to Hijack the Vote and Rig Elections”

Dem rep on Trump: ‘You really gotta try to be that bad’

The following article by Max Greenwod was posted on The Hill website July 29, 2017:

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said on Saturday that the fact President Trump drew criticism from the Boy Scouts and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), appeared to be the result of a concerted effort by the president.

“Let me say, in one week Donald Trump got rebuked by the Boy Scouts, by the Pentagon, by the [IACP],” Lieu said on MSNBC. “You really gotta try to be that bad.”

Michael Surbaugh, the chief Scout executive for the Boy Scouts of America, apologized to the group’s members on Thursday, after Trump delivered a politically heated speech to its National Jamboree in West Virginia earlier in the week.

“I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,” Surbaugh said in a statement. “That was never our intent.”

Continue reading “Dem rep on Trump: ‘You really gotta try to be that bad’”

Trump marginalizes experts, debases expertise

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website July 24, 2017:

Newly named White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci listens Friday to press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speak in the briefing room. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump, the first president in American history to take office with no prior governing or military experience, has appointed someone with no professional communications experience to be White House communications director.

Making his debut on the Sunday shows, former hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci said his new boss still does not accept the consensus of professional analysts and case officers across the intelligence community that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election.

“He basically said to me, ‘Hey, you know … Maybe they did it, maybe they didn’t do it,’” Scaramucci said on CNN. Continue reading “Trump marginalizes experts, debases expertise”