Oh Great, Now What

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 95 (4/25/17)

As time runs out on the stop gap spending measure that would prevent a full government shutdown, President Trump has appeared to blinked first, indicating that he is willing give up on funding his pet border wall with Mexico in order for Republicans to pass the temporary budget. Passage of the spending bill, also known as a continuing resolution looks far more likely, though negotiations could still catch on healthcare insurance subsidies, which White House budget director Mick Mulvane has indicated President Trump will not agree to. Such cost-sharing subsidies are part of the Affordable Care Act and allow low and moderate income Americans to cover the costs of health insurance. http://reut.rs/2oIymsu , http://kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/cost-sharing-subsidies-in-federal-marketplace-plans/

A House of Representatives Oversight Committee announced onTuesday that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who spent a record 24-days in the role before stepping down amid investigations into Russian and Turkish connections, likely broke the law in failing to disclose payments from foreign nationals during confirmation hearings. Failure to disclose such transactions would likely constitute a felony.  http://reut.rs/2q3w2QG

In an totally unrelated note, Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates are now scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism on May 8th regarding alleged Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.  http://reut.rs/2p0CuGJ

U.S. District Judge William Orrick III ruled President Trumps executive order to withhold funds from sanctuary cities was unconstitutional, effectively blocking the order. In recent weeks so-called sanctuary cities and municipalities around the country have declared, that while they will not act specifically against Trump administration immigration policies, they will not set aside funds to enforce increasingly stringent immigration laws. In response Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department said they would withhold federal funding to any city or municipality they perceived as failing to support the stricter immigration policies. The Justice Department, however, sought to frame this withholding was not a punishment to local governments but instead argued that funds withheld would only affect sanctuary city police departments. In his ruling Judge Orrick stated that language in Trumps executive order made clear that it was aimed to impact beyond police departments and was instead being used as "a weapon."   http://reut.rs/2p1SEjg

The Trump administration took aim at Canadian lumber exports to US markets, instituting a preliminary 20% tariff in an effort to stave off what it declared as price fixing and gouging of the softwood lumber market by Canadian officials. The duty, imposed by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, is expected to bring in $1billion a year. This move, and the increasingly deteriorating US-Canadian relationship, comes before the two countries are set to renegotiate NAFTA trade deals. http://reut.rs/2oH7Izh

And speaking of deteriorating relationships with NAFTA partners, Mexico declared Tuesday it would fight any moves by the United States it perceived as a threat to international trade rules and regulations, saying any moves against Mexican markets would be perceived as a "breaking point" in US-Mexico economic relations. This comes not only as both nations prep for NAFTA negotiations but also follows the World Trade Organization giving the all clear for Mexico to enact retaliatory trade measures against US tuna market disputes. http://reut.rs/2oHa2Xe

Following the failure of commemorative missile launches North Korea exhibited its artillery in large scale live-fire exercises. Amid increasingly tense relations between the North Korean nation and the Trump administration, the exercises marked the 85th anniversary of the North Korean military as well as served to signal North Korean anger over the approach of aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Korean waters. Leading Republicans are sending mixed signals regarding the preferred US response to North Korea, with some calling for sanctions rather than strikes, while others (such as Sen. Lindsey Graham R-SC) praise President Trumps willingness to act against Kim Jong-un. http://reut.rs/2prswj4

Speaking before the W20 Women's Summit alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF Chief Christine Lagarde, adviser to, and daughter of, the President Ivanka Trump was booed during her comments that her father was "a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive.”  http://reut.rs/2pZQQpt

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced on Tuesday a new Trump Executive Order, expected to go into effect Wednesday, would require a review of dozens of National Monuments with an eye for lifting or limiting monument status, thus opening the land to various development, including drilling and mining. One such site at risk: the Bears Ears National Monument, set aside by then President Obama in late 2016. Bears Ears is culturally significant to five Native American tribes, including the Navajo. It also sits on deposits that a Texas company wants to drill out. http://reut.rs/2pxwdDV

The biggest benefactors of Trumps new budget looks to be corporations http://reut.rs/2oHnASn

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 94 (4/24/17)

In a wild interview with AP, Trump responded to a question about WikiLeaks’ role in Russia’s plan to influence the 2016 election by placing blame on the DNC for allowing themselves to get hacked in the first place. He then said that just because he praised WikiLeaks on the campaign trail, even declaring “I love WikiLeaks” at a rally, doesn’t mean he supports WikiLeaks. “No, I don't support or unsupport. It was just information.” https://goo.gl/RiHO6T

In the same interview, Trump bragged that he got the highest ratings for CBS’ Face the Nation "since the World Trade Center came down." "On any, on air, Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It's the highest for 'Face the Nation' or as I call it, 'Deface the Nation, it's the highest for 'Deface the Nation' since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It's a tremendous advantage." https://goo.gl/hrJAVX

But Trump’s most startling quote in the interview may have been the following, in which he admits that he may not have known much about NATO when he called it obsolete on the campaign trail. “They had a quote from me that NATO's obsolete. But they didn't say why it was obsolete. I was on Wolf Blitzer, very fair interview, the first time I was ever asked about NATO, because I wasn't in government. People don't go around asking about NATO if I'm building a building in Manhattan, right? So they asked me, Wolf ... asked me about NATO, and I said two things. ‘NATO's obsolete’ — not knowing much about NATO, now I know a lot about NATO — NATO is obsolete, and I said, ‘And the reason it's obsolete is because of the fact they don't focus on terrorism.’ You know, back when they did NATO, there was no such thing as terrorism.” NATO actually does have a focus on counter-terrorism, and issued its first declaration on the issue in 1980. NATO invoked Article 5, which commits NATO countries to help any member state under attack, one day after the 9/11 attacks on the U.S in 2001 — while Trump was bragging that his building is now the tallest in lower Manhattan. https://goo.gl/RiHO6T

An official State Department website published a page promoting Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Naturally, it also included some selective, misleading Mar-a-Lago facts. https://goo.gl/odhAHw The page was later removed when the many ethical issues of it’s existence were raised. https://goo.gl/XJjZbt

Defense Secretary James Mattis and Gen. John Nicholson told reporters that we need to confront Russia for providing arms to the Taliban in the wake of the devastating attack on an Afghan army base Friday that killed over 100 people. They chose not to refute reports that Russia has been supplying the Taliban with weapons while insisting we’d need to confront any violations of international law, such as arming insurgents. https://goo.gl/Xk92Ig

In their ongoing trade dispute with Canada, the Trump administration has slapped new tariffs on softwood lumber entering the U.S. from our neighbors in the North. “The Government of Canada disagrees strongly with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to impose an unfair and punitive duty,” Canadian officials said in a statement. https://goo.gl/eVNaDi

The USS Michigan, a guided-missile submarine, arrived in South Korea for what a US defense official described as a show of force amid tensions between the US and North Korea. https://goo.gl/4qzEHC

The Senate easily approved Sonny Perdue to lead the USDA. Perdue said during his committee hearing that he would push back against Trump’s proposed $4.7 billion cut to the Department of Agriculture’s budget. https://goo.gl/YDGUiS

Trump further blurred the line between what he considers “Fake News” and what is simply negative reporting on his presidency when he tweeted “The two fake news polls released yesterday, ABC & NBC, while containing some very positive info, were totally wrong in General E. Watch!” The polls in question showed that 42% of Americans approve of Trump, but 96% of those who voted for him felt it was the right decision. In February, Trump said, "any negative polls are fake news."  https://goo.gl/z6RZCY Trump also claimed that he “would still beat Hillary in popular vote”, which is strange since he was roundly defeated in the popular vote this past November. https://goo.gl/vlDTUk

Teeing up the eventual reveal of his tax plan, inside sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump planned to cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15% no matter the fact that it would raise the deficit. https://goo.gl/uGL2wp

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Syria, freezing assets and preventing U.S. entities from doing business with more than 200 employees of a Syrian government agency tasked with producing non-conventional weapons.  https://goo.gl/sgDTth

Sean Spicer said he couldn’t guarantee that there wouldn’t be a government shutdown at the end of the month, despite Republicans controlling both sides of Congress. https://goo.gl/hrqS0A

Trump plans to merge the State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), effectively cutting our financial assistance to developing countries by a third. Field missions, regional bureaus, global health funding and food programs are all on the chopping block. https://goo.gl/S2MsSC

The Senate’s Trump-Russia probe has just seven part-time staffers. Not one is a trained investigator, and they have no key witnesses, nor have they interviewed anybody in Trump’s orbit. https://goo.gl/Bc8PMr

Trump’s Holocaust remembrance proclamation appears to have had sections directly copy-pasted from the Holocaust Museum’s “Introduction to the Holocaust” page. https://goo.gl/y4ZgFt

The Anti-Defamation League has observed a massive 86% spike in antisemitic activity so far in 2017. https://goo.gl/JwL0MV

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 93 (04/23/17)

Trump took to Twitter this Sunday in an effort to pressure Democrats into supporting his administrations last-minute government spending bill the failure of which would result in a government shutdown. Laying the blame on Democrats Trump suggested that failure to pass the budget would be tied to the failure of Obamacare and an influx of Mexican gang members. The budget bill, a temporary stop-gap that would allow the government to continue functioning till the passage of a more permanent budget, could stall out over whether or not funds will be earmarked for President Trump's controversial Mexican border wall. http://reut.rs/2ppXAQu

This comes as President Trump backpedaled on assurances that Mexico would pay for the border wall. Tweeting that "Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall" Trump appeared to indicate that American tax payers would bear the brunt of the construction of a Mexico-US wall. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/856172056932700164

Proving himself to be excessively magnanimous President Trump, during a video address on Sunday, said the Holocaust was the "darkest chapter of human history." This follows Trump administration previous failure to mention Jewish deaths during International Holocaust Remembrance Day and suggesting, via Press Secretary Sean Spicer, that Hitler had not used chemical weapons against his own people. http://reut.rs/2pzEZRX

Despite the somewhat prolific gaff, the Washington Post reported Trump stated he will not fire Sean Spicer as "that guy gets great ratings. Everyone tunes in."  http://wapo.st/2pTJLGN

During appearances on various Sunday morning Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said that his department would not be targeting immigrants protected under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for deportation. This stands in contrast to statements by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that protected individuals were "subject to being deported" along with the deportation of 23-year-old Juan Manuel Montes who was protected under DACA. Despite his reassurances Kelly did suggest that, were a DACA protected individual to be brought in by immigration services, they would ultimately be deported, saying that "People fall into our hands incidentally that we have no choice in most cases but to go ahead and put in the system." http://reut.rs/2oBC2LD

Delays continue and details are limited on President Trumps proposed $1 trillion infrastructure budget. After initially proposing the trillion dollar cheque in late March little has been done to move the funds and projects forward, despite subsequently reassuring manufactures that the money would be forthcoming. http://reut.rs/2pT6Yfa

Meanwhile, North Korea has threatened to strike and sink aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson which, while unclear where the carrier physically is, is apparently "within days" of the Korean peninsula according to Vice President Mike Pence. This comes after the USS Vinson was discovered to be in Australian waters despite President Trumps suggestions via Twitter that the carrier was headed to North Korean waters. http://reut.rs/2ppk1oH

In a discussion with reporters following a phone call between the two leaders, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he and President Trump intend to stay in close communication regarding North Korea. http://reut.rs/2prvdkK

But not all of Japan looks on President Trump favorably. Japan Iron and Steel Federation chairman Kosei Shindo reacted negatively to Trump's suggestions that China was both fixing the price of coal and flooding the US market with cheap steel. Shindo declared the moves a sign of US "protectionism." http://reut.rs/2p8cjww

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 92 (04/22/2017)

Jeff Sessions said that New York City “continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s ‘soft on crime’ stance” despite data that points to the opposite. Sessions also claimed the City is “crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime,” but since 1993, murder has decreased by 82%, shootings by 81%, and overall crime by 76%. https://goo.gl/GIAB7x 

Without revealing any details, and taking both Capital Hill and Treasury officials by surprise, Trump vowed to unveil a “massive” tax cut next week, stating that his cuts would be bigger “than any tax cut ever.” Earlier in the day, Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin had said that revising the tax code was “way too complicated” to put a delivery date on any overhaul proposal. https://goo.gl/pne1Mq

People around the world, including at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., participated in a March for Science to raise concerns about the lack of respect for scientific fact, especially global warming. https://goo.gl/CECU8N

Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas lawmakers representing territories on the US-Mexico border balked at Trump’s $1.4 billion wall proposal. https://goo.gl/tLSFKT

FBI investigators found signs of possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian official. While they haven’t yet found enough evidence to prove crimes were committed, the FBI found that Russian operatives tried to use Trump advisors to infiltrate the Trump campaign. https://goo.gl/lTz0lo

American and Canadian fighter jets intercepted Russian bombers around the north coast of Alaska and Canada. The Russians didn’t enter American or Canadian airspace, but it was the fourth intercept in as many days. https://goo.gl/l8S5LY

While in Australia, VP Mike Pence confirmed that the US would uphold a deal with Australia to take in up to 1,200 refugees, mostly from Iran. On February 2, Trump lambasted the deal on Twitter, falsely stating that the Obama Administration had agreed to take in “thousands” of “illegal immigrants.” https://goo.gl/zNtl7j

Trump asked Vivek H. Murthy, the Surgeon General, to resign for unclear reasons. Murthy, who was appointed by Obama, has been replaced by one of the first nurses to serve as Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Sylvia Trent-Adams. https://goo.gl/7p703y

[ohgreatnowwhat]

Day 91 (04/21/2017)

If Congress doesn’t approve Trump’s proposed 2018 budget, the United States faces a government shutdown. Mick Mulvaney, White House budget director, insists that the budget must include Trump’s wall, the massive defense budget hike, a provision that allows the government greater latitude to deny federal grants to ‘sanctuary cities,’ and funds to hire more immigration agents. Meanwhile, Democrats have stated they won’t support a budget that funds the wall or cuts federal healthcare subsidies for low-income Americans. Keeping the federal government running shouldn’t be such a challenge for Republicans, who control the White House and both chambers of Congress. https://goo.gl/gE6PDD

The House Intelligence Committee has asked former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, among several other senior Obama administration officials, to testify publicly in the prove into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were also invited to testify with Yates. The open panel was originally scheduled to take place in March but was cancelled by committee chairman Devin Nunes, a move which Democrats claimed was meant to prevent Yates, who revealed former national security advisor Michael Flynn had misled VP Pence about his calls to the Russian ambassador, from giving testimony expected to damage President Trump and conflict with comments from White House staff. For his part, Nunes is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for potentially revealing classified information and has stepped aside from the Intelligence hearings. The House Intelligence Committee also asked FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers to return to testify in a closed session. https://goo.gl/X92Xiy

Earlier this week, Exxon requested a waiver to bypass US sanctions against Russia to drill for oil in Russian territory. The request was initially made in 2015, when current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was still CEO of Exxon. Today, the US Treasury denied Exxon’s waiver request. https://goo.gl/7uizi6

The Department of Justice sent letters to nine ‘sanctuary cities’ threatening to withhold funding if they refuse to comply with federal law. https://goo.gl/r1E4uU The Supreme Court has ruled at least twice that the Tenth Amendment forbids the federal government from “commandeering” state governments. The Tenth Amendment holds that the federal government’s powers are limited to those delegated by the US Constitution; all remaining powers belong to the states or the people. https://goo.gl/wpc4Bf

Last month, a Federal District Court in Hawaii blocked the Trump administration’s travel ban. Today, Jeff Sessions dismissed Hawaii as just “an island in the Pacific” while criticizing the order for keeping Trump from “his statutory and constitutional power.” https://goo.gl/zDI8kG

Sessions also announced that arresting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a priority, in addition to increasing efforts “on all leaks.” CIA Director Mike Pompeo believes Wikileaks’ activity is beyond the jurisdiction of First Amendment rights; however, Ben Wizner, a director at the ACLU, warns that prosecuting Assange would set a dangerous precedent as the US has never before prosecuted a published for “presenting truthful information to the public,” and that prosecuting WikiLeaks for publishing classified documents could enable the Trump administration to “target other news organizations.” https://goo.gl/E0c3M0

Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyers filed a motion to derail a lawsuit brought by anti-Trump protesters who allege they were manhandled and removed from a March 2016 Trump rally in Louisville, KY. Trump’s lawyers state that the protestors “have no right” to “express dissenting views” at campaign rallies; they also argue that Trump’s calls to remove protesters at his rallies are protected by the First Amendment. https://goo.gl/uh4C2o

The Georgia NAACP chief is suing the state of Georgia for blocking newly registered voters from taking part in a runoff election. https://goo.gl/8dS9db

As the 85th anniversary of North Korea’s Korean People’s Army approaches, South Korea is on heightened alert out of fear that North Korea might stage another nuclear test. https://goo.gl/c0SkmX Meanwhile, Trump put pressure on China to get North Korea to back down, saying, “if they want to solve the North Korea problem, they will.” https://goo.gl/mfNBkk

Syria still has chemical weapons – up to three tons, according to Israeli defense officials. Syria has also “dispersed” its aircraft, probably to make them less vulnerable to additional airstrikes from the US or the US-led coalition. https://goo.gl/b5YhlF

Days after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson certified that Iran has been complying with the terms of the nuclear agreement, Trump said that the country has not “lived up to the spirit” of the agreement. He also criticized the agreement, calling it “terrible” and “as bad as I’ve ever seen negotiated.” https://goo.gl/ptKiXw

Aside from Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court, the Trump administration has no big wins to mark Trump’s first 100 days in office. Trump called the benchmark a “ridiculous standard.” https://goo.gl/18u6bZ On the campaign trail, Trump promised to repeal Obamacare within his first 100 days, prompting Republicans to scramble to resurrect the Trumpcare bill before the 100 day mark. https://goo.gl/zcQGbr

At least 25 temporary political appointees are getting permanent federal jobs with little or no public notice. https://goo.gl/6zSv7O

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 90 (4/20/17)

In a bid to secure a legislative victory before his first 100 days are up, Trump is leading the government toward a shutdown as he demands multi-billion dollar federal funding for his border wall. His strategy so far has involved threatening to intentionally destroy Obamacare by defunding cost-sharing subsidies that would lead to low-income Americans losing coverage and health care providers fleeing the market if Democrats don’t agree to fund the wall. https://goo.gl/j0TdvL https://goo.gl/fNU9oY https://goo.gl/FuDcwG https://goo.gl/Evffbr

Word is the latest iteration of Trumpcare would allow insurers to effectively deny coverage by pricing sick people out of the market, leaving them to rely only on high-risk pools which have traditionally been underfunded by states and the federal government. https://goo.gl/bcVtl5

Trump blasted Canada over a trade dispute affecting dairy farmers, calling “what they’ve done” a “disgrace” and blaming it on NAFTA.  https://goo.gl/RLdA6w

Trump and Jeff Sessions have been using the MS13 gang as their newfound justification for their immigration crackdown and Mexican border wall. But most of their statements on the origin and evolution of the gang have been false or misleading. Here’s a breakdown:  https://goo.gl/zD9R4L

Jeff Sessions said he was”really amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific” could halt Trump’s Muslim ban, while discussing the nationwide hold placed on the ban by a federal judge in Hawaii last month. https://goo.gl/6DEr0d

The Trump administration successfully negotiated the release of U.S. citizen Aya Hijazi from Egypt, where she had been imprisoned on false charges of child abuse and trafficking for three years. This was achieved thanks to Trump’s effusive praise of Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who had been previously banned from visiting the White House due to his many human rights abuses. https://goo.gl/Z8Clg3 Shortly after, Trump tweeted a 2 1/2 minute montage celebrating Hijazi’s visit to the White House. https://goo.gl/fg8v4Q

Despite admitting that Iran was complying with the nuclear deal the Obama administration made, Trump spoke out against the nation, claiming it is “not living up to the spirit of the agreement.” https://goo.gl/cm5tqb

Trump caused more international confusion, as he claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping told him that “Korea actually used to be a part of China.” The comment caused outrage in Seoul, and forced the Korean foreign ministry to hold a briefing making it clear that Korea has never been a part of China.  https://goo.gl/9bDHX2

Trump lied again about where steel for the Keystone XL pipeline would be coming from while speaking in Milwaukee, claiming "All pipelines that are coming into this country from now on has to be American steel.” In reality, the White House made it explicitly clear that Trump’s American steel memorandum does not apply to Keystone, nor does it actually contain any requirements that American steel be used — it simply puts pressure on pipeline companies to use it whenever possible. https://goo.gl/NRIC5H

Donald Trump had some friends over at the White House, including Sarah Palin, Kid Rock, and Ted Nugent, who has, over the past few years, been famous almost exclusively for his extreme racism. To quote the following piece, “In 2013, he blasted Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for speaking in “Ebonic mumbo-jumbo.” That same year, writing for right-wing conspiracy website World Net Daily, Nugent blamed Trayvon Martin’s death on “the same mindless tendency to violence we see in black communities across America.” He later called Martin a “dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe.” On Twitter, he’s called Obama supporters “subhuman varmints,” adding that “Pimps, whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters have a president to destroy America. Most infamously, he denounced Obama himself as a “subhuman mongrel.” And this is not to detract from a litany of misogynist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic comments.” https://goo.gl/MnFW0z

Lawyers representing Dow Chemical have sent letters to the heads of the E.P.A, Department of Commerce, and Fish and Wildlife Service, asking them to “set aside” the results of a study that found that the pesticide chlorpyrifos, a product Dow sells five million pounds of per year, is harmful to almost 1,800 “critically threatened or endangered species.” Dow donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and its CEO Andrew Liveris is a good friend of Trump’s. Last month, Trump’s EPA head Scott Pruitt said he would reverse “an Obama-era effort to bar the use of Dow's chlorpyrifos pesticide on food after recent peer-reviewed studies found that even tiny levels of exposure could hinder the development of children's brains.” So odds are looking good for Dow.  https://goo.gl/ax7vnW https://goo.gl/fA1shg

The Justice Department is considering pressing charges against Wikileaks, taking a second look at a 2010 leak of diplomatic cables and military documents and investigating whether the group bears criminal responsibility for the more recent revelation of sensitive CIA cyber-tools. https://goo.gl/oLBSHD

The federal judge who presided over the Trump University fraud case, whom Trump claimed was biased because of his Mexican heritage, will be presiding over the the case of Juan Manuel Montes Bojorquez, the first DREAMer deported under Trump. https://goo.gl/eF2zfa

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 89 (4/19/17)

Exxon Mobil Corp. asked for a waiver from the Trump administration to work with Russia’s state oil company on a joint venture. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was Exxon Mobil’s CEO in 2012 when he struck the joint venture deal, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, with Vladimir Putin. https://goo.gl/JFyHou

Reuters reported that a Russian government think tank controlled by Vladimir Putin developed a plan to swing the 2016 election to Donald Trump and undermine voters’ faith in the American electoral system. https://goo.gl/ZTJKxK

It was confirmed that Trump’s campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page’s trip to Russia last July was a catalyst for the F.B.I. investigation into connections between Russia and Trump’s campaign. https://goo.gl/Kk9inp

Mary B. McCord, who has been helping oversee the Justice Department’s probe into Russian interference in the presidential election, is stepping down from her post as the acting head of the department’s national security division and leaving the federal government. https://goo.gl/gJswpB https://goo.gl/clJFxl

This will leave the Justice Department even more shorthanded as Jeff Sessions and the Trump Administration have failed to bring on any U.S. attorneys after dismissing all 47 Obama-appointed attorneys a month ago. https://goo.gl/cdDfIz

Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House's oversight committee, will not seek re-election to Congress. He will, in fact, be retiring and likely resigning before his term is even up. https://goo.gl/pyXFxN https://goo.gl/xCdbf5

Conservative media stalwart Bill O’Reilly was finally forced out of Fox News after the New York Times revealed earlier this month that the network had paid $13 million in settlements to five different women who had been sexually harassed by O’Reilly over the years. O’Reilly himself received a $25 million severance. https://goo.gl/ysNXxw

While speaking in Paul Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, Trump referred to Ryan as “Ron” twice. https://goo.gl/o6EWRa

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 88 (4/18/17)

The White House announced that a U.S. aircraft carrier was heading toward the Sea of Japan last week to deter North Korea’s threats of nuclear action. In reality, it was moving away from the Sea of Japan. The photo the Navy posted was thousands of miles from North Korea, in the Sunda Strait off the coast of Indonesia. https://goo.gl/XmjZIH

Regardless, Mike Pence issued a warning to North Korea from the deck of a U.S. aircraft carrier in Japan, proclaiming that they should not doubt Donald Trump’s resolve following his “decisive action” against Syria and Afghanistan. https://goo.gl/YXZ78Q

Republicans just barely escaped an outright loss in Georgia’s special election as Democrat Jon Ossoff fell just short of the 50 percent he needed to defeat the eleven Republican candidates he was competing against. A runoff will be held in June against former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. This was an encouraging step for those hoping to flip historically Republican districts across the U.S. over the next two years. https://goo.gl/hkMGf5 Trump naturally chimed in on Twitter, claiming the runoff as a “BIG “R” win” https://goo.gl/dKDY4U

When asked about whether he was still considering a military strike on North Korea, Trump repeatedly referred to North Korea’s leader as “this gentleman”—and implied he was dealing with the same “gentleman” that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama grappled with. Of course, Kim Jong-un, the current leader of North Korea, only took power after his father’s death in 2011. “You know, they’ve been talking with this gentleman for a long time. You read Clinton’s book, he said, ‘Oh, we made such a great peace deal,’ and it was a joke. You look at different things over the years with President Obama. Everybody has been outplayed, they’ve all been outplayed by this gentleman.”  https://goo.gl/xnZ7X4

The State Department informed Congress that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal made by the Obama administration, and that the U.S. will continue its ease of sanctions under the agreement. Trump spent his entire campaign railing against the deal and criticizing it as a failure of President Obama’s. https://goo.gl/mWLZtc

Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to review the H-1B visa program, which many tech companies use to fill crucial positions. It also tightens enforcement of federal contracting rules mandating that American-made products are used on certain projects. https://goo.gl/Et0Pjn

While Ivanka Trump dined in an official capacity with China’s president, her company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags, and spa services. https://goo.gl/Fsejg4

Trump is attempting to coerce Democrats into repealing Obamacare by threatening to cut cost sharing reductions, a rule which requires insurance companies to offer discounted copayments and deductibles to low-income people who buy health plans on the individual market, in exchange for compensation from the federal government. If the government stopped making these payments to insurers, it could lead to massive price spikes for millions of people and cause insurers to flee from the marketplace, potentially causing the Obamacare implosion Trump is hoping for. His plan could backfire, however, as several Democrats have preemptively argued that they won’t negotiate with someone holding health care hostage. This could lead to a government shutdown. https://goo.gl/AwVABZ

The first protected DREAMer has been deported under Trump. Federal agents ignored Trump’s pledge to protect from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children by sending a young man back to his native Mexico. https://goo.gl/y64ojw

Jeff Sessions stated that the MS-13 crime cartel could qualify as a terrorist organization, and promised to “devastate” them. Citing no evidence, Trump later blamed the Obama administration for MS-13 forming, despite the fact that they were founded in 1980. https://goo.gl/sNY5uT The Justice Department has been unable to provide evidence that the gang formed or grew under Obama. https://goo.gl/Z8T7Cf

It was reported that the Trump administration sought the help of the Intelligence community to find or create evidence to back up Trump’s claim on Twitter that President Obama’s administration spied on him. The White House may also have intentionally mislead the public about Susan Rice’s alleged requests to unmask the identities of Trump team members incidentally surveilled by U.S. intelligence while monitoring foreign officials. https://goo.gl/hdRNxN

Miami Republican Sen. Frank Artiles tossed racial slurs at a pair of black colleagues in private conversation just steps away from the state Capitol, after calling one of them a “fucking asshole,” a “bitch” and a “girl”. https://goo.gl/vL2pUz

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 87 (4/17/17)

Trump called President Erdogan of Turkey to congratulate him on winning a much-disputed referendum that will cement his autocratic rule over the country and, in the view of many experts, erode Turkey’s democratic institutions. The change to Turkey’s Constitution will allow the winner of the 2019 presidential election to assume full control of the government, ending the current parliamentary political system. https://goo.gl/bjXFwN

How a conflict of interest works: Trump opened a Trump Tower in Istanbul in 2012, and Ivanka personally thanked Erdogan on Twitter for joining the Trump family for the opening. https://goo.gl/vPbwGt

Sean Spicer made it clear that Trump will not be making his 2016 taxes public, allegedly because he is still under audit. The IRS will not confirm or deny the audit but has stated over and over again that the audit doesn't prevent Trump from making his records public. https://goo.gl/1PrqSJ

Sean Spicer defended the Trump administration’s choice to keep White House visitor logs secret by calling the Obama administration’s public records a “faux attempt” at transparency. Trump’s White House visitor log will be kept secret until five years after he has left office. https://goo.gl/XXMbcs

Melania Trump appeared to have to remind her husband to put his hand over his heart during the National Anthem at the White House Easter egg Roll. https://goo.gl/MIzhco

The EPA may close their Chicago office, Region 5, which has responsibility for local and state matters in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Were the office closed, its responsibilities would be combined with Kansas City, Mo.-based Region 7. The Chicago EPA office’s responsibilities include the Great Lake Restoration Initiative, which Trump wants to cut entirely.  https://goo.gl/OwsJ4V

Donald Trump promoted a book on Twitter called “REASONS TO VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS”, a joke-book whose pages are blank. https://goo.gl/HAoxsf Back in January, Trump tweeted “For many years our country has been divided, angry and untrusting. Many say it will never change, the hatred is too deep. IT WILL CHANGE!!!!” https://goo.gl/73LJe0

Trump blasted Georgia congressional candidate Jon Ossoff on Twitter in the lead-up to the special election. He said, “The super Liberal Democrat in the Georgia Congressioal race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!” None of these are points that any Republican rivals have been contesting, rather the Republican arguments against Ossoff have involved his national security credentials and likelihood to fall in line with party leadership. https://goo.gl/oQFSKf

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 86

Trump went after citizens who participated in Sunday’s Tax March, tweeting “Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!” It was unclear whom he thought “paid” for the march. He further lamented, “I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?” Every Republican president in history has won the Electoral College. https://goo.gl/Miuz88

Mike Pence made an unannounced trip to Korea’s DMZ where he said “the message of the people of the United States of America is that we seek peace, but America has always sought peace through strength” and "the era of strategic patience is over." https://goo.gl/Au3N8w

Trump asked American manufacturers to recommend ways the government could cut regulations and make it easier for companies to get their projects approved, and the suggestions are mostly targeting the Environmental Protection Agency, which the Trump administration has been rapidly defunding and dismantling. Rules that protect workers’ rights have also been targeted. https://goo.gl/3OfddL

Trump has raised $13 million for his reelection campaign already. The three committees working toward 2020 so far have also spent nearly $5 million, and much of the money has gone to members of Trump’s administration, as well as their friends and family. https://goo.gl/mYtnaH

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said that marijuana is not “a factor in the drug war”, despite Jeff Sessions’ intent to fight to criminalize marijuana as quickly and extremely as possible. https://goo.gl/98AB4c

ICE immigration arrests of noncriminals have doubled since Trump took office. Advocates for immigrants say the unbridled enforcement has led to a sharp drop in reports from Latinos of sexual assaults and other crimes, and terrified immigrant communities across the United States. A prosecutor said the presence of immigration agents in state and local courthouses makes it harder to prosecute crime. https://goo.gl/Cplvns

Nearly $500,000 from Trump's 2020 re-election campaign has gone directly to Trump-owned restaurants, hotels and golf clubs. https://goo.gl/uhla94

Another EPA employee submitted a fiery resignation letter, stating “I have worked under six administrations with political appointees leading EPA from both parties. This is the first time I remember staff openly dismissing and mocking the environmental policies of an administration and by extension you, the individual selected to implement the policies.” https://goo.gl/5o0I4r He was in part motivated by Scott Pruitt’s ongoing climate denial, and the administration’s choice to delete years of critical climate-related research. https://goo.gl/HqLuvI

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 85 (4/15/17)

Thousands of Americans turned out across the country for a march that called on Donald Trump to reveal his federal tax returns, something every president going back to Gerald Ford has done. Since the campaign, Trump claimed the he wasn’t able to reveal his returns because he was under audit, although the IRS itself disputed that claim. Trump then changed his tune, claiming that nobody cares about his tax returns. The march was intended to prove that wasn’t the case. https://goo.gl/fLWE1f

Trump has been filling jobs throughout the executive branch with former lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants who are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck. This is creating a littany of potential conflicts of interest that are likely violating many of the administration’s own ethics rules — unfortunately it’s almost impossible to tell because the administration has been secretly issuing waivers to the rules. In one case, an official working on energy regulation recently lobbied for oil and coal companies — but the White House won’t say whether he received an ethics waiver. https://goo.gl/QppShV https://goo.gl/FFqkkQ

North Korea’s vice foreign minister told The Associated Press that the nation is ready for war if Trump wants it — based on his “aggressive” tweets. https://goo.gl/3Yg5rF

North Korea attempted a missile test in a show of defiance against Trump, which exploded on launch. https://goo.gl/YejuuA

Trump enjoyed his 18th trip to the golf course since being elected, and his 7th weekend at Mar-a-Lago. https://goo.gl/MLBs1W Each trip costs taxpayers approximately $3.6 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report. https://goo.gl/mSZNDT

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed that Trump was aware of North Korea’s missile launch, but he had no statements to make from Mar-a-Lago. https://goo.gl/Uyn7c5

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) at a recent town hall told a woman worried about internet privacy that using the internet is optional. ‘Nobody has got to use the internet’ https://goo.gl/v60iXW

It sounds like part of Trump’s increasing coldness toward Steve Bannon is his ongoing frustration over a Time Magazine cover that featured Bannon’s face and asked whether he was “the Second Most Powerful Man in the World”. https://goo.gl/RCtRu4 His most recent statement was a claim that he didn’t know Bannon before the presidential campaign, despite having appeared on Bannon’s radio show nine times. https://goo.gl/OO5Zz5

The White House is holding a public opinion poll to ask citizens to help decide which departments of the government to “reform” or “eliminate”. One of the optional departments is the White House. https://goo.gl/W7IjvX

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 83 & 84

The US dropped the largest and most powerful non-nuclear bomb, known as a Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, or MOAB, in Afghanistan. The MOAB bomb weighs 21,600 lbs and has a one-mile blast radius. Its target was an ISIS tunnel and cave complex in Nangarhar province near the eastern border with Pakistan. https://goo.gl/3jdTiX

The MOAB bomb reportedly killed 36 ISIS fighters, three underground tunnels, and ISIS weapons and ammunition. https://goo.gl/c6A1u2

As early as 2015, British spies at the CGHQ noticed a pattern of connections between Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, calling the interactions “suspicious” in intelligence reports shared with the US in routine exchanges of information. Germany, estonia, Poland, and Australia also relayed reports about contact between Russian agents and Trump’s inner circle. https://goo.gl/1RU4Kn

For the third time in a month, an American-led airstrike killed civilians or allies in Syria. 18 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are backed by the US, were killed when their position was misidentified as an ISIS fighting position, according to US Central Command. The Pentagon is currently investing two previous US-led airstrikes that killed or wounded civilians, one in Syria and one in Iraq. https://goo.gl/IxRAVb

In contrast to Obama’s policy, the Trump administration announced it would no longer disclose the names of people who visit the White House, raising concerns from transparency advocates. https://goo.gl/JHNC8x

While Trump expressed “great confidence” in China’s assistance with North Korea (https://goo.gl/FucI8h), South Korea recovered a North Korean booster rocket with many key components acquired from China-based businesses. https://goo.gl/Kw2eqk

Although the proposed EPA budget would shrink the agency’s funding by 31% and slash 15,000 jobs, or a full quarter of the agency’s operations staff, EPA head Scott Pruitt will receive around-the-clock security detail. https://goo.gl/KdxYhx

Pruitt also called for the US to exit the Paris climate agreement. However, under the terms of the accord it would take three years for any country to withdraw, followed by a one-year waiting period. https://goo.gl/h9Yzl4

Trump signed a bill allowing states to withhold federal money from Planned Parenthood and other organizations that provide abortion services, irregardless of any other family planning or medical services that facility performs. Planned Parenthood says that only abortions make up 3% of the services it provides. https://goo.gl/oUAy7d. The 1976 Hyde Amendment bars the use of federal funds to supply abortions except for cases of pregnancy arising from rape or incest or to save the pregnant woman’s life. Some states fund Planned Parenthood because they’re the only source for women’s health care. Read more about the Hyde Amendment here: https://goo.gl/cyHz7M

Paul Manafort borrowed $13 million from Trump-related businesses on the same day he left the Trump campaign. Manafort’s connections to Russia and Ukraine are currently under scrutiny as federal officials investigate Russian ties to and activity in the 2016 election. https://goo.gl/8Tjikl

The Portland, OR City Council voted unanimously to join Seattle in suing the Trump administration over an executive order that would allow the administration to withhold federal grants from so-called sanctuary cities. https://goo.gl/aXn0pM

While tension rose globally over North Korea, Trump headed to Mar-a-Lago for the seventh weekend since taking office. https://goo.gl/aFyjtm

While North Korea has warned that a “big event” is near, senior US intelligence officials announced that the US is prepared to launch a preemptive strike against the regime. https://goo.gl/J4iqxE In response, North Korea said they would hit the US with a “merciless retaliatory strike” if it believed the US intended to attack. https://goo.gl/Qxgsdy  

North Korea also issued a statement threatening to attack US military bases in South Korea, while China urged both the US and North Korea to step down. https://goo.gl/GQAfFC

Following statements from Assad claiming the Syrian chemical attack was an American fabrication, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there is growing evidence that Assad’s forces instead struck a building where rebels were stocking sarin gas. The US claims it has images that prove Assad’s bomb hit the road and left a crater rather than hitting a building. https://goo.gl/CH9dOH

Candice Jackson, the white woman chosen by Betsy DeVos to serve as acting head of the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, once complained in the mid-1990s of experiencing ‘reverse racism’ for being denied access to a program at Stanford to give minority students help with their calculus coursework. In an op-ed in the conservative Stanford Review, Jackson called the program ‘discriminatory.’ Jackson also helped edit a book by an economist who denounced the Civil Rights Act and has publicly denounced feminism and race-based preferential policies and has a limited background in civil rights law. The DoE’s Office for Civil Rights is responsible for protecting students from racial, gender, disability and age discrimination. https://goo.gl/yRwtaC

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 81 & 82

While condemning the Assad regime’s use of sarin gas on civilians, Sean Spicer claimed that even Hitler “didn’t sink to using chemical weapons on his own people” and instead sent Jews to “Holocaust centers.” When reminded that Hitler, in fact, used gas chambers to kill millions of Jews, Spicer made multiple attempts to ratify or walk back his statements, including that the difference between Assad and Hitler was that Assad used chemical weapons against “innocent people,” which he later re-amended to “population centers.” Buzzed has a full rundown of Spicer’s multiple attempts to clarify his statements here: https://goo.gl/QBp1Vg

Spicer also added “barrel bombs,” a weapon forbidden by international law, to a growing list of reasons why the US could attack Syria. a potentially dramatic shift in US policy on Syria; Assad’s regime currently uses barrel bombs almost daily. Spicer later clarified that his comments were not a sign of a change in policy; however, Spicer cited barrel bombs three distinct times in the press briefing. https://goo.gl/8uiiXC

Eric Trump claims his father’s decision to bomb Syria was influenced by Ivanka being “heartbroken and outraged” by the sarin gas attack. https://goo.gl/PO4jcV

Trump’s presidential transition is being reviewed by the Government Accountability Office. The focus of the review is on funding, including how taxpayer and private funds were spent during the election, ethics, and communications with foreign governments. Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Elijah Cummings requested the review in November and the GAO confirmed it would conduct a review on April 5. https://goo.gl/8hCNEC

Trump has now spent 18 of his first 81 days in office playing golf and 23 days at Mar-a-Lago. https://goo.gl/HbE67X Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago cost Palm Beach County over $60,000 per day when he visits the resort. The county is considering a special tax to be levied against the resort if the government doesn’t reimburse its costs. https://goo.gl/XwnXxf

At this rate, Trump is on pace to surpass 8 years of Obama’s travel costs in one year. The current cost of his weekend getaways is estimated to be at least $20 million. https://goo.gl/coIyFy

Ambassadors from US allies are calling Trump’s foreign policy “incoherent” and getting fed up with the administration’s shifting temperament: https://goo.gl/2C7mGz

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Putin in Moscow in what’s being described as a “tense” meeting where the two sides disagreed on the facts of Assad’s chemical weapons attack against civilians. https://goo.gl/pVMQr5

Meanwhile, Russia vetoed a motion brought to the UN Security Council on Wednesday which would have required Assad’s government to cooperate with UN investigators. It was the 8th time Russia has used a veto to protect Syria. https://goo.gl/QMwMjA

While Tillerson was meeting with Putin, Trump called Putin ally Assad a “butcher,” “evil,” and “an animal” – in the span of one interview. https://goo.gl/XzR8sG

Trump also said in a press briefing with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that US-Russian relations may be at an “all-time low” and implied that there’s unlikely to be any improvement to the relationship in the near future. https://goo.gl/77UCU6  

After his meeting with Stoltenberg, Trump reversed previous statements declaring NATO “obsolete,” now declaring that NATO is, after all, probably useful: https://goo.gl/utQNo1

In Ukraine last August, a handwritten ledger was revealed with dollar amounts and dates listed next to the name of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman. Previously, Manafort claimed the transactions were fabricated, but now claims they were made legally. A Ukranian lawmaker said $750,000 received by Manafort was part of a money-laundering effort. Over $1 million in payments from a pro-Russian political party have been linked to Manafort’s firm in the US. https://goo.gl/5QJvEu

Trump continues to distance himself from Steve Bannon, claiming he’s his “own strategist” and won’t definitely say if he has confidence in Bannon. https://goo.gl/X6Deu7

In 2016, Obama issued a pair of memos that required the Federal Student Aid office to do more to help borrowers manage their debt. DeVos rolled back those memos, citing inconsistencies and shortcomings, but didn’t specify where the memos fell short. The FSA office services $1.1 TRILLION in government-owned student loans. DeVos’s rollback comes a week after one of the student loan industry’s biggest lobbies, the National Council of Higher Education Resources, asked for Congress to help delay or change the Education Department’s loan servicing plans. More than 1 million Americans annually default on their student loans. https://goo.gl/mxgEzN

In a revelatory interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump reversed his campaign trail statements that China was a “currency manipulator,” and that, after listening to Chinese President Xi Jinping for “ten minutes,” he realized that the situation in North Korea is “not so easy.” He also reversed his stance on current head of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen, who he repeatedly attacked on the campaign trail. https://goo.gl/XLe6Ii

Kentucky Republican Ron Estes narrowly won an unusually close special election in Kansas; Trump took the state by nearly 30 points in November, but Estes beat his Democratic challenger by just 7 points despite the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee barely investing any money into the race. https://goo.gl/k1q6ll

A Department of Homeland Security assessment shows the agency has secured 33,000 more detention beds to house undocumented immigrants and is working quickly to build a nationwide deportation force with dozens of local police forces. DHS also identified where construction of Trump’s border wall could begin, and is considering ways to speed up the hiring of hundreds of new Customs and Border Patrol officers, including ending polygraph and physical fitness tests in some cases. https://goo.gl/AaKt8P

While both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are highly critical of Trump’s spending plan, the administration is lifting the federal hiring freeze – although the impact of this is likely to be limited. Early in his presidency, Trump signed an Executive Order freezing the hiring of new non-military federal workers in fulfillment of a campaign promise to “reduce the federal workforce through attrition,” making this another case of a Trump flip-flop  https://goo.gl/E84g8C

Remember Trump’s claims that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the election? Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have found no evidence that Obama did anything unusual or illegal after reviewing classified intelligence reports originally surfaced by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. https://goo.gl/9K7zmD

The Internet Association, a D.C.-based lobbying group that represents Facebook, Google, and Twitter, among over Silicon Valley giants, told the FCC that it shouldn’t weaken net neutrality rules or hand enforcement over to the Federal Trade Commission, which is not seen as the expert agency on net neutrality. https://goo.gl/UEtPzT

After the defeat of his attempts to reform health care a few weeks ago, Trump announced he would pivot to tax reform instead; on Wednesday, Trump reversed his position again, saying that health care reform would be prioritized first. Congressional budget rules make it easier to pass broad changes to the tax code after the $1 trillion ACA taxes have been repealed. https://goo.gl/YvDArq

The Trump administration has suspended its controversial weekly reports aimed at putting political pressure on so-called sanctuary cities. Trump’s EO on immigration included the so-called “declined detainer” report; the Department of Homeland Security had issued a total of three reports, which cities and jurisdictions complained were riddled with errors. https://goo.gl/hcbUAy

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 80

After months of speculation it came to light Tuesday that the FBI and Justice Department obtained a FISA warrant for Carter Page while he served as campaign manager to the Trump election campaign as part of a larger investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials to influence the 2016 Presidential election. http://reut.rs/2p5jftL 

As a note, in order to obtain a FISA warrant the FBI and Justice Department must be able to show clear probably cause that the individual named in the warrant is acting as an agent of a foreign power. http://wapo.st/2p3b6ZR

The Trump administration accused Russia of trying to cover up it's involvement in the dispersal and continued existence of chemical weapons in Syria.  https://nyti.ms/2omWKkd

Despite this, Secretary of Defense General Mattis attempted to assure that tensions between the US and Russia would not "spiral out of control," and while Trump has vocalized and tweeted suggestions that Moscow was complicate in the Syrian sarin gas attack of last week, Mattis suggested that the US had no clear evidence of any collusion between Moscow and the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad.  http://reut.rs/2nBTmoa

Secretary of State and former oilman Rex Tillerson reportedly asked, during a G7 meeting in Europe, why American tax payers should care about the conflict in Ukraine. More than 10,000 people have died in the conflict, largely kicked off by Russia's annexation of the peninsula and continued supporting role in rebel activities.  http://reut.rs/2o3e8Jx

Attorney General Jeff Sessions continued his strict restructuring of Americas policy towards undocumented migrants by traveling to the border town of Nogalez, Arizona. Sessions has long pushed for imminently stricter border enforcement and deportation of individuals living within the US without documentation. This comes as many cities and counties looks to protect their undocumented population. Local police organizations have also spoken out on the strict enforcement, saying it is an ineffective and wasteful use of funds.  http://reut.rs/2ooXjf1

North Korea warned it would consider a nuclear strike on mainland US if it perceived any aggressions made towards it. This comes amid US forces gathering at the western edge of the Pacific ocean to take part in training exercises with the South Korean navy alongside the redirecting of aircraft carrier strike group Carl Vinson to the same area as a show of force. Incidentally, Trump has characterized the Navy Strike group as an "armada" and said, in a midday tweet, that should China not want to get involved in the US would "solve the problem without them," signing the message "U.S.A."  http://reut.rs/2olgcxx

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer falsely stated that Hitler "didn't even sink to using chemical weapons" in what can only be characterized as a gross misjudgment of facts and taste as he attempted to compare Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler during a White House press briefing. After Spicer, when fact-checked during briefing, initially shifted the blame to a misunderstanding of his intended statement he later apologized for the statement itself, saying ""It was a mistake. I shouldn't have done it and I won't do it again.... It was inappropriate and insensitive."   http://reut.rs/2p2WIk6 As a note of clarification: during the height of the "final solution" the Birkenau killing center alone at Auschwitz gassed up to 6,000 Jews a day. https://www.ushmm.org

Despite the failure of the Republican lead bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Congressional Republicans pivot towards tax reform as a means of furthering their party agenda, Trump spoke on Tuesday that he hoped that ACA-repeal legislature would take precedent over any tax reform legislature. http://reut.rs/2ontxpi  

Trump backed the small European nation Montenegro's membership into NATO. This move as seen as a show against Russia's increased influence in Europe. This comes after Trump blasted the organization of nations on twitter and during campaign rallies. http://reut.rs/2o3DAin

Trump shilled for Ron Estes in the Kansas special election for House of Representatives. The position, in a solid red state, has come into play in recent weeks in response to a growing dissatisfaction with the Trump presidency.   https://nyti.ms/2op8ILL

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 79

Neil Gorsuch, Trumps pick for Supreme Court, was sworn in. Filling in the 14-month long vacancy left by the death of Justice Anthony Scalia, the conservative Gorsuch - noted for his strict "originalist" interpretation of the Constitution - is likely to maintain the current conservative lean of the nations highest court. http://reut.rs/2nwRNIe

Speculations around what Tillerson will do and say during his trip to Russia continues. http://reut.rs/2nYSbeS We do know, however, that Tillerson will not meet with President Putin during his Wednesday trip to Moscow. While the two are known to have an established relationship - Tillerson was recognized with a top Russian state award in 2013 - it appears that Tillerson will only be sitting down with his direct counterpart during his trip to the Russian capital. The Kremlin failed to state as to any specifics as to why the Russian leader and the American Secretary of State would not be meeting. http://reut.rs/2nxj1hS

This all comes amid foreign ministers in the G7, citing the recent chemical attack in Syrian, are stepping up their pressure on Russia to breaking ties with Assad. http://reut.rs/2oTKzy4

Following Friday's missile bombardment, Trump started the week by continuing to speak in heated language on Syria, stating in no uncertain terms that he was open to continued military action.  http://reut.rs/2nVCEvu

During Monday meetings China and South Korean officials committed to increase sanctions on North Korea should the nation should it step up its testing of nuclear and/or long range missiles. As previously mentioned there are several anniversaries in April significant to the isolated and temperamental nation that could provide a platform for such tests. South Korean officials, for their part, were quick to clarify that military options against North Korea were not currently on the table  http://reut.rs/2nYQ5M6

Despite a push to undo the Affordable Care Act the Trump administration announced Monday that it would continue to pay insurance subsidies, allowing the ACA marketplaces to continue. This is likely to anger House Republicans, who contend that the payments are illegal and filed suit against them in 2014. https://nyti.ms/2okRhMh

Trump has topped the last three American Presidents in numbers of days spent golfing, and done so by a significant margin. Trump has gone golfing 9 of his first 12 weeks in office, with a total of 17 days hitting the links. By comparison Obama had, in his first twelve weeks, gone golfing zero times, with George W Bush similarly absent from the green, and Bill Clinton racking up only three games of golf. https://nyti.ms/2okp8mU

After the data being published was challenged as false and/or misleading the White House temporarily halted a weekly report on sanctuary cities that tallied up ICE incidents and requests. The report, created by  an Executive Order signed by Trump, was designed to make the case against cities making efforts to protect their undocumented population. https://nyti.ms/2okRE7K

After previously signing a bill authorizing $11.9 billion to fund a manned mission to Mars, Trump is now set to cancel four of NASA's upcoming climate science projects as part of his proposed budget. Scrapping the projects would save $109 million out of a total $19 billion. Climate scientists have already warned that the nations' ability to study global climate changes is already far behind what it should be. https://nyti.ms/2okeuwi

Republican Alabama Governor Robert Bentley resigned amid a scandal involving Bentley's affair with his senior adviser and state funds that were illegally used to hide said affair. Having previously stated that he did nothing wrong Bentley pled guilty to two misdemeanors, stemming from campaign finance violations when he used local law enforcement to track down evidence of the affair and pressure those who knew of it to keep quiet. http://reut.rs/2pmXBR8

Several non-profits organizations, including the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the National Security Archive sued the Department of Homeland Security, charging that the failure to disclose guest logs from the White House, Mar-a-Lago, and Trump Tower represented a violation of the Freedom of Information Act. A similar lawsuit in 2009 led to the release of visitor logs by the Obama administration. http://reut.rs/2okBs6x

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 78

Trump aides voiced differing opinions over the weekend as to the future of US action in Syria, following a US missile attack on a Syrian airbase. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson continued to voice that American interests in the Syrian conflict would focus on direct action against ISIS, indicating that Syrian President Basah al-Assad would not be the focus of American efforts. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, however, said that she viewed the unseating of Assad as key to bringing stability to Syria. http://reut.rs/2oT5pgW National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster also indicated that additional military action against Syria was on the table. https://nyti.ms/2nZb4yd

Tillerson’s comments on Syria signaled an return to the public stage of the until-now secretive Secretary of State, evidenced not only by his comments on Syria but also in his increasing vocal hardline rhetoric on Russia. During a network television interview over the weekend Tillerson accused Russia of being complicit or grossly negligent in allowing Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons to remain following a 2013 agreement that the weapons would be destroyed. That language should make for interesting conversation starters during his trip to Russia this week. https://nyti.ms/2nZdoFg

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombings of two Egyptian Coptic Churches that left 44 people dead and more than 100 injured. Trump took to twitter to say that he was “So sad to hear of the terrorist attack.”  http://reut.rs/2oUOjfR

In yet another dismissal from the ever shifting Trump administration, K.T. McFarland is set to step down from her role as Deputy National Security Adviser. Though she is set to take a new role as ambassador to Singapore this shuffling of the National Security Council is seen as yet another successful power move by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who recently was reported to have forced the removal of Steve Bannon from the same council. http://reut.rs/2nXQqys

Chinese envoys are set to sit down with South Korean officials to discuss North Korea’s increased visibility on the nuclear stage. April looks to be a potential mess of a month, with scheduled South Korean/US military drills set to take place, along with several North Korean holidays that could serve as a platform for showcasing the increasingly irritable nation’s nuclear abilities. http://reut.rs/2nYQ5M6

Democrat Jon Ossof’s bid for Georgia’s sixth district, to be determined by special election Tuesday, April 18th, is catching eyes. The filmmaker and former congressional aide has raised over $8.3 million and energized his base, though polls are indicating the race is still extremely close. http://reut.rs/2oSoNdY

After challenging House Republicans to present a plan by this Friday, the Trump administration has binned its latest in-process tax plan proposal as the White House struggles to simultaneously get a working plan together quickly and take a more active role in the formation of any tax legislation. https://nyti.ms/2nYVwdD

[ohgreatnowwhat]

DAY 77

Late Thursday night, the US fired 59 missiles at a Syrian airbase thought to be the launching point for the Assad regime’s previous chemical weapons attack that killed many civilians, including at least 10 children. The airstrikes were done without first consulting Congress, which may be illegal; it’s possible there were Russian military personnel on the Syrian airbase at the time of the attack. https://goo.gl/BmCtYI

The airstrike also goes against statements Trump said on the campaign trail and in tweets aimed at then-President Obama in 2013, including this one from August 30, 2013: “The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria-big mistake if he does not!” In fact, he spent a lot of time in 2013 lambasting Obama’s approach to Syria: https://goo.gl/PGjBt8. The New York Times put together a round-up of Trump’s shifting views on and approach to Syria as well: https://goo.gl/VkCGJH

Trump ordered the airstrike while at Mar-a-Lago to meet with President Xi Jinping of China. As a result, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, commerce secretary Wilbur L Ross, chief economic advisor Gary D Cohn, senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and senior adviser Stephen Miller were present in Trump’s makeshift Situation Room. https://goo.gl/A7K4BQ 

After the US airstrike against Syria, Russia announced that it is suspending its cooperation in the deconfliction line over Syria. The ‘deconfliction line’ was a communications line between the US-led coalition attacking Islamic State-held territory in Syria and Russia set up to share coordinates and other data to keep pilots on both sides safe. The US used the deconfliction line ahead of Thursday night’s airstrike to warn Russia about the pending strike so they could clear the area of personnel. The Pentagon says the US will still share information with Russia, but without Russia reciprocating, the risk of danger sharply increases for US and coalition pilots. https://goo.gl/s85lgL

After Senate Republicans cleared the path for Judge Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court by deploying the “nuclear option,” which would allow a vote to proceed on a simple majority, Gorsuch was confirmed as the 113th Supreme Court Justice of the United States. The “nuclear option” eradicates rules that were put in place to ensure careful deliberation and bipartisan cooperation on behalf of the American people. https://goo.gl/nqXa0e

There’s talk that Trump might replace Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and even chief strategist Steve Bannon; earlier this week, Bannon was removed from the National Security Council’s principals committee. Whether or not either removal is actually imminent, this is more indication of the chaos inside the White House.  https://goo.gl/75lzzy

The House Freedom Caucus, a conservative group of House Republicans which opposed the previous Trump- and Paul Ryan-led health care bill, is now signaling it would support a health care bill that includes changes offered by the White House to include coverage waivers related to community rating protections with the exception of gender, essential health benefits, and guaranteed issue. https://goo.gl/cFW27K  

Meanwhile, Ryan and his team aren’t any closer to having an approved health care reform bill to present, which has members of Ryan’s camp concerned that White House involvement in crafting the legislation has “only set GOP leaders back further.” Congress is now out for a two-week recess. https://goo.gl/S7X8Cu

Although the unemployment rate fell to a nearly 10-year low of 4.5% in March, US employers added just 98,000 jobs – nearly half of February’s job growths gain and the fewest added jobs in a year. https://goo.gl/SPBbgz  

The government withdrew its request ordering Twitter to identify the person behind an account critical of President Trump, and Twitter subsequently dropped their lawsuit saying that the order was a violation of the user’s First Amendment rights against the Dept of Homeland Security. https://goo.gl/bG2466