Trump allies got coronavirus tests despite lack of symptoms and shortage

Washington Post logoTwo close congressional allies of President Trump underwent coronavirus testing in recent days in apparent defiance of federal recommendations reserving those tests for patients exhibiting symptoms of infection — and amid growing concerns about the availability of testing for Americans who are sick.

Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the latter of whom Trump named last week as the next White House chief of staff, both said in statements that the tests showed no infection after exposure to a coronavirus carrier at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference last month in suburban Washington.

The two lawmakers also said they were exhibiting no symptoms of respiratory illness, raising questions of why they were tested at all. Continue reading.

International programs favored by Ivanka Trump and Mike Pence will be spared by federal budget cuts: report

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump has been calling for extensive cuts to foreign aid programs. But on Monday, a senior Trump Administration official told Roll Call that that programs favored by Vice President Mike Pence and White House adviser Ivanka Trump will not be affected by a package of foreign aid cuts.

President Trump is “not going to touch those,” the anonymously quoted official told Roll Call.

The foreign spending package would include cuts to U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development programs. But the programs that will survive the cuts, according to Roll Call, will include programs that promote women’s economic development in other countries (an Ivanka Trump favorite) and programs to protect Christians from persecution in other countries (a Mike Pence favorite).

View the complete August 13 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.