Trump: Plan to fix Department of Veterans Affairs 'ahead of schedule'
11:54 AM, Mar 17, 2017
President Trump said Friday that his administration's plan to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs is "ahead of schedule" and announced to a group of veterans' service organizations that he would conduct a meeting with his veterans advisory board later in the evening at Mar-a-Lago. "During my campaign, I outlined a detailed plan for reforming veterans care throughout the country," Trump said before a listening session with veterans advocates at the White House. "It's moving, I think I can Read more
Trump, Merkel may have 'different' bilateral relationship
7:24 AM, Mar 17, 2017
When President Trump welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington on Friday, he will begin a new and potentially chillier relationship between the long-serving German leader and the third U.S. president to occupy the White House during her tenure. Barack Obama and George W. Bush both enjoyed notably close relationships with Merkel during their presidencies. Obama's final phone call to a world leader went to Merkel in January, during which he thanked her and her husband for their perso Read more
Where in the world is Sonny Perdue?
12:01 AM, Mar 17, 2017
Two months after President Trump selected Sonny Perdue to serve as his secretary of agriculture, the former Georgia governor has become the final Cabinet member to get a confirmation hearing on the books, raising questions about why a seemingly routine appointment has languished behind the scenes longer than any of Trump's other picks. Sources familiar with the situation have pointed to a variety of factors, from the timing of Perdue's nomination to his complicated financial affairs, to a White Read more
Sebastian Gorka: Nazi group allegations 'false and outrageous'
4:52 PM, Mar 16, 2017
Sebastian Gorka, President Trump's top counter-terrorism adviser, on Thursday denied ever associating with a Nazi-linked group that claimed him as a member on Thursday, and told the Washington Examiner that the allegation was "false and outrageous." "I've been a committed opponent of anti-Semitism, racism and totalitarianism all my life," Gorka said. "Any suggestion otherwise is false and outrageous. I am grateful to President Trump and his team for giving me the opportunity to serve and keep Read more
Sean Spicer: 'Crickets' from the media when lawmakers deny Russia ties
4:11 PM, Mar 16, 2017
White House press secretary Sean Spicer fought with reporters Thursday over what he said was their refusal to cover lawmakers' comments that no evidence has surfaced to support allegations of inappropriate contact between President Trump's associates and Russian officials. "It's interesting to me that ... when one entity says one thing that claims one thing, you guys cover it ad nauseam," Spicer said in the White House. "When [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Devin Nunes came out and said Read more
Trump, Microsoft founder Bill Gates to meet on Monday
3:44 PM, Mar 16, 2017
President Trump will meet with Bill Gates next week, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday. Gates' last meeting with Trump came in December at Trump Tower, after which the founder of Microsoft expressed optimism about the prospect of working with the incoming Trump administration on areas like education. However, Gates told Axios in an interview published earlier this week that he has concerns about the administration's move to slash foreign aid spending. Gates has become on Read more
Healthcare threatens to complicate Trump, Ryan relationship
12:01 AM, Mar 16, 2017
The uncertain future of the Republican proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare is threatening to complicate President Trump's working relationship with House Speaker Paul Ryan. The White House and House Republican leaders are projecting a united front on the American Health Care Act. They are cooperating to line up votes for legislation under intense fire from all quarters of the GOP and saying only nice things about one another for public consumption. But privately, there has been sniping. Read more
Trump hints at 'very interesting items' related to wiretapping claims
10:21 PM, Mar 15, 2017
President Trump on Wednesday previewed the emergence of some "very interesting items" related to his claim that Barack Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower, arguing in an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson that his mention of "wiretapping" was meant to reference a variety of alleged surveillance tactics. "Don't forget, when I say wiretapping, those words were in quotes," Trump said. "That really covers, because wiretapping is pretty old fashioned stuff. But that really covers surveillanc Read more
Trump: 'I'm an arbitrator' on Obamacare repeal
9:34 PM, Mar 15, 2017
President Trump said Wednesday that he views himself as an "arbitrator" in the GOP's internal debate over how lawmakers should repeal and replace Obamacare, telling Fox News' Tucker Carlson that he doesn't expect to see a single Democrat support the Republican reform plan. "I'm, in a little way, I'm an arbitrator. We have the conservatives, we have the more liberal side of the Republican Party, we have the left, we have the right within the Republicans themselves, we got a lot of fighting going Read more
Trump embraces conservatives as their interests align on healthcare
12:01 AM, Mar 15, 2017
President Trump's desire to see the American Health Care Act survive in the House has, for now, aligned his interests with the conservatives who say they won't support the bill until it does more to roll back Obamacare. But the White House's alliance with congressional conservatives may not extend to upcoming legislative battles, when Trump's preference for ends over means may redirect his focus on any given issue. An increasingly bitter debate among Republicans in the House and Senate over hea Read more
Trump's 2005 tax return leaked to media
9:38 PM, Mar 14, 2017
An unverified copy of President Trump's 2005 personal income tax return states that he paid $5.3 million in federal income tax and $31 million in alternative minimum tax on the $150 million income that year, paying an effective rate of 25 percent that year, MSNBC reported late Tuesday. David Cay Johnston, a Daily Beast columnist and author of the anti-Trump book The Making of Donald Trump , published what he said were the first two pages of Trump's tax return from 11 years ago shortly before a Read more
White House: CBO ignored 'comprehensive nature' of three-pronged healthcare plan
3:02 PM, Mar 14, 2017
White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday attributed the Congressional Budget Office's predictions about the Republican healthcare law, including that millions of additional people would be uninsured under the bill, to the CBO's failure to examine the second two phases of the White House's three-phase plan. "It's not explaining to people how the whole thing comes together," Spicer told reporters at the White House. "We've gone out here and tried to make sure that people understand th Read more
White House working with House leaders to amend healthcare bill
2:46 PM, Mar 14, 2017
White House officials are working with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other congressional leaders to put together a manager's amendment to the Republican bill aimed at whittling down Obamacare through the budget reconciliation process. "We are obviously in talks with House leadership" about the ideas that would be included in a manager's amendment to the American Health Care Act, White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Tuesday. "All of that is part of a comprehensive strategy to Read more
Spicer: Trust Trump's words 'if he's not joking'
3:34 PM, Mar 13, 2017
Americans should trust that President Trump's statements are accurate — unless he makes them in jest, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday. "If he's not joking, of course" his claims are reliably true, Spicer said in response to questions about the veracity of the president's recent statements on wiretapping and economic data. Trump's recent claim that job numbers during the Obama administration were "phony," but that the encouraging jobs report made public last week was real, h Read more
For Flynn, 24 days in the White House means five years of no lobbying
2:16 PM, Mar 13, 2017
Retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, former national security adviser to President Trump, is likely bound by an administration ethics rule that prevents him lobbying for five years and never again lobbying for a foreign government, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday. "That would be correct," Spicer said when asked if the president's lobbying ban would apply to Flynn, who stepped down last month. "I'd have to check and actually figure out when he signed or if he signed the form," Spice Read more
Trump's first 50 days: 28 executive actions, but other goals elusive
5:00 PM, Mar 11, 2017
President Trump arrives at the midpoint of his first 100 days in office with a handful of accomplishments under his belt, yet many more unanswered questions on his horizon. As of March 10, 50 days into his presidency, Trump had signed 28 executive actions , rolled back dozens of Obama-era rules and presided over the introduction of a healthcare reform plan in the House. But he has not yet charted a clear path forward on many of his key promises, from slashing corporate taxes to tearing up the Read more
Trump administration signals openness to amendments on Obamacare reform bill
6:54 PM, Mar 10, 2017
Conservative activists are hopeful that the Trump administration could pressure House Republican leaders to allow changes to the contentious Obamacare reform legislation presently making its way through committees. At a closed-door meeting Friday between Vice President Mike Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and more than two dozen conservative grassroots leaders, Pence and Price were told that allowing amendments on the American Health Care Act was the best way to help it ove Read more
Trump invites Palestinian president to White House
2:57 PM, Mar 10, 2017
President Trump has invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to visit him in Washington, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday. Trump had spoken with Abbas earlier in the day. The president has already distanced his administration's stance toward the Palestinian state from that of his predecessor by announcing in February that he would not support a two-state solution with Israel. Instead, Trump encouraged Israeli and Palestinian officials to pursue a peace agreement on their Read more
Pew: 72% of illegals have jobs, biggest in construction
03/16/17 09:48 AM
Nader: Hit Google-Facebook-Apple 'monopoly' with antitrust laws
03/16/17 04:29 PM
Trump's budget puts Washington in its place
03/17/17 12:01 AM
Judge who froze first travel ban hands Trump a victory
03/16/17 09:51 PM
Spicer: Trump didn't know of recommendation that Flynn should register as foreign agent
2:29 PM, Mar 10, 2017
President Trump was not informed of a recommendation given during the transition that former national security adviser Mike Flynn should register as a foreign agent due to his past advocacy for Turkish interests, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Friday. "It was up to him, the burden is on the individual to seek the legal advice ... to decide what they have to file or not," Spicer said of Flynn. "They consulted a lawyer ... that lawyer consulted the transition lawyer." Spicer argued Read more
Republican lawmakers project party unity after meeting with Trump
1:08 PM, Mar 10, 2017
Republican committee chairmen projected a sense of GOP unity on Friday after meeting with President Trump about the Obamacare replacement plan currently working its way through their committees. "If you hear nothing else I say today, this is the most important one: there is so much more that unites Republicans than divides Republicans on this issue," Rep. Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said at the White House after the meeting. "We'll continue to listen, we'll con Read more
Trump urges Democrats to support Obamacare reform
11:40 AM, Mar 10, 2017
President Trump urged congressional Democrats to support the Obamacare reform plan currently working its way through the House, arguing the entire healthcare system could collapse if lawmakers did nothing to fix the law. "I encourage Democrats to work with us to improve the healthcare system for the American people," Trump said Friday in his weekly address. "I want every American to know that action on Obamacare is an urgent necessity. The law is collapsing around us, and if we do not act to s Read more
White House still wants tax reform this summer
1:51 PM, Mar 09, 2017
Republicans on Capitol Hill should still get to tax reform before August of this year, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday, despite the slow start to Obamacare repeal and replace legislation. "Tax reform remains high on the president's priority list," Spicer said, noting that he expects Congress to remain "on schedule" when it comes to President Trump's major legislative goals. Spicer's comments came hours after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate was unlik Read more
Trump says privately second healthcare bill ready as early as next week
12:25 PM, Mar 09, 2017
President Trump told a closed-door meeting of grassroots conservative leaders on Wednesday to expect another, companion healthcare bill to hit the House as early as next week, according to sources present for the meeting. The new legislation would differ from the plan presently working its way through the House in that it would not proceed through budget reconciliation and would therefore require cloture in the Senate. Because Republicans intend to pass the healthcare bill introduced this wee Read more
White House: 'No reason' to believe Trump is 'target' of Russia investigation
3:35 PM, Mar 08, 2017
White House officials have seen no evidence that President Trump is the target of any law enforcement or intelligence investigations, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday. "There is no reason that we have to think that the president is the target of any investigation whatsoever," Spicer said. "There's no reason to believe that he is the target of any investigation. I think that's a very important point to make." Minutes earlier, Spicer had said the administration wanted to Read more
Melania Trump hosts International Women's Day lunch at White House
2:37 PM, Mar 08, 2017
First lady Melania Trump hosted a lunch on Wednesday in honor of International Women's Day, inviting high-ranking Republican lawmakers and White House staffers to the State Dining Room event. Second lady Karen Pence, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon and Ivanka Trump attended the luncheon, along with dozens of other invited guests. Melania Trump received a standing ovation when she en Read more
White House criticizes 'double standard' in coverage of classified leaks
2:17 PM, Mar 08, 2017
White House press secretary Sean Spicer slammed what he views as a "double standard" in the level of interest over a batch of CIA documents purportedly posted by WikiLeaks this week and a batch of emails taken from the inbox of a prominent Democrat and posted by WikiLeaks last fall. "There is a big difference between disclosing John Podesta's Gmail account ... and the leaking of classified information," Spicer said Wednesday, referring to the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Read more
Trump, Cruz to dine privately amid Obamacare disagreement
1:42 PM, Mar 08, 2017
Former rivals President Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will dine privately in the White House residence on Wednesday amid an emerging battle between congressional conservatives, including Cruz, and other Republicans over the passage of a Trump-backed healthcare reform package. Their dinner meeting will come just hours after Cruz told reporters he does not anticipate the current version of the Obamacare replacement bill to survive in the Senate. House Speaker Paul Ryan has projected confidence th Read more
Democrats press White House on Kushner's business ties
12:42 PM, Mar 08, 2017
A trio of Democratic lawmakers pressed the White House on Wednesday over reports that President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has maintained some business ties since entering the administration in January. Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tom Carper, D-Del., joined Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, in writing a letter to the Office of White House Counsel that questioned whether Kushner had plans to recuse himse Read more
Trump names Richard Grenell ambassador to NATO: Reports
10:02 AM, Mar 08, 2017
President Trump is set to nominate Richard Grenell, a veteran Republican foreign affairs spokesman, to serve as ambassador to NATO, several news outlets reported Wednesday. Grenell is an outspoken Trump supporter who served as a spokesman for John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and several other GOP-appointed U.N. ambassadors. An openly-gay Republican, Grenell would be one of the highest-ranking gay members of the Trump administration. An official said Wednesday morning Read more
Trump: 'I am proud to support' Obamacare replacement bill
4:53 PM, Mar 07, 2017
President Trump issued strong support of the House Republican Obamacare replacement bill on Tuesday after the healthcare plan was met with skepticism from conservatives. "We're going to do something that's great. And I am proud to support the replacement plan released by the House of Representatives," Trump said before a meeting with the House deputy whip team, which holds responsibility for shepherding the bill through a divided House. "It follows the guidelines I laid out in my congressional Read more
