Idiocracy

This is probably about Alex Jones, wouldn’t you say? President Trump on Saturday charged that social media is “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices” and argued that the platforms should allow both “good and bad” content online amid an ongoing debate over social media’s role in policing content online. Republicans in recent months have more frequently made the claim that social …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump is increasingly venting frustration to his national security team about the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and showing renewed interest in a proposal by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to privatize the war, current and former senior administration officials said. Prince’s idea, which first surfaced last year during the president’s Afghanistan strategy review, envisions replacing troops …

Politico reports: The White House budget office believes it has found a way to cancel about $3 billion in foreign aid even if it is never approved by Congress, according to a Republican aide familiar with the plan. Using an obscure budget rule, administration officials are planning to freeze billions of dollars in the State Department’s international assistance budget — …

The Huffington Post reports: Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump and executive vice president of the family’s company, fired off a complaint on Twitter about “disloyal people.” Trump was likely referring to Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former “Apprentice” villain and fired White House aide who’s been promoting her new tell-all book with secretly recorded audio. But critics on Twitter …

The New York Times reports: The tapes of Ms. Manigault Newman’s private conversations with Mr. Trump and other officials connected to him have rattled the White House in a way that few things other than the special counsel investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia have. Mr. Trump’s aides have been concerned that they will make appearances on other tapes, …

You knew this was coming: President Trump called Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) a “loser” and “a total Fake” after Blumenthal criticized news that cost estimates for Trump’s proposed military parade exceeded initial estimates by millions. Blumenthal had criticized news that cost estimates for the parade had reached $92 million, around $80 million more than initially estimated. The president’s attacks …

The Washington Post reports: The Defense Department and the White House, which had targeted a November date for the Washington military parade sought by President Trump, will instead “explore opportunities in 2019,” a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement. Officials have been planning the event since earlier this year, when the president, apparently inspired by a similar display he observed …

“While your letter generally claims that excerpts from the book contain ‘disparaging statements,’ it is quite telling that at no point do you claim that any specific statement in the book is false. Your client does not have a viable legal claim merely because unspecified truthful statements in the Book may embarrass the president or his associates. At base, your …

The Hill reports: First lady Melania Trump is planning to attend a summit in Maryland early next week focused on combatting cyberbullying. The White House announced that the first lady will be “addressing the positive and negative effects of social media on youth” during brief remarks at the summit in Rockville, Md., on Monday. The first lady is set to …

Politico reports: There’s a new way of demonstrating loyalty to Donald Trump and his Republican Party: Claiming that the president could not only survive an impeachment effort, but that it would guarantee his victory in 2020. The idea gaining currency on the right is that Trump can be Bill Clinton, not Richard Nixon. It depends on a delicate political calculation …

NBC News reports: Omarosa Manigault Newman, the former reality TV star who became a top White House aide to President Donald Trump, on Thursday released exclusively to MSNBC a secret tape of campaign official Lara Trump offering her a $15,000-a-month job after her she was fired from the administration. The tape — which, according to Manigault Newman was made on …

Vanity Fair reports: In recent days, Trump has called Manigault Newman “crazed,” a “lowlife,” and a “dog” on Twitter. His campaign filed an arbitration suit against her seeking “millions.” And Trump told advisers that he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to have Manigault Newman arrested, according to one Republican briefed on the conversations. (It’s unclear what law Trump believes she …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump’s military parade this fall is shaping up to cost $80 million more than initially estimated. The Department of Defense and its interagency partners have updated their perspective cost estimates for the parade, according to a U.S. defense official with firsthand knowledge of the assessment. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity. The parade, slated …

“Journalists ought to be skeptical of the powerful. They ought to demand accountability and clear explanations from secretive bureaucrats like John Brennan and the agency he once worked for. But they are not. Instead, they have become Brennan’s faithful handmaidens. Don’t complain, insolence is disloyalty, dissent is treason. That is the message on every other channel. That is state media, …

From a profile of Kellyanne Conway and her husband: It’s a picture George Conway took on election night 2016: Donald Trump is reaching for the first draft of his acceptance speech, just as victory seemed imminent. Back then, George was such an ardent supporter of the president, and so proud of his wife for her historic role as campaign manager, …

The Hill reports: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday praised President Trump’s decision to revoke former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance, an action Paul had lobbied Trump to take. “I filibustered Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA in 2013, and his behavior in government and out of it demonstrate why he should not be allowed near classified information,” Paul …

People Magazine reports: President Donald Trump‘s relationship with his daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka, frequently crosses the line of “appropriate father/daughter behavior,” in the opinion of ousted White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, as recounted in her new book, Unhinged, out this week. “As long as I’d known Trump, I’d observed the way he hugs, touches, and kisses Ivanka; the …

ABC News reports: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Wednesday that President Trump is revoking the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. Former directors of intelligence agencies are generally granted security clearance as a courtesy. Sanders also said that Trump is considering revokes the clearances of former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former FBI Director James …

Politico reports: A daily trickle of revealing internal conversations between staffers. Growing anxiety about what one might have once said. No sense of how long it will go on. Omarosa Manigault Newman’s slow release of secretly taped conversations from inside the Trump campaign and White House is having the same effect on staffers as the daily dumps from WikiLeaks had …

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports: A day after saying she planned to continue running for a state House seat despite revelations that she lied about having a degree from Miami University and went to great lengths to deceive people, Melissa Howard reversed course Tuesday and dropped out of a contest that has received national attention. Howard said in a text message …