Donald Trump

Newsweek reports: President Trump said late Sunday that he has experienced “presidential harassment” since the start of his presidency. Trump has previously blamed “presidential harassment” for drops in the stock market and has used the term to describe special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election interference. Earlier this month, Trump claimed in another tweet that his approval rating would …

The New York Times reports: President Trump, angry over days of news coverage characterizing the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis as a rebuke of the president, has told administration officials that he is considering removing Mr. Mattis from his job by Jan. 1, two months before he had planned to depart. The president, a notoriously mercurial leader, has been …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump claimed Saturday he gave outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis “a second chance” after the retired Marine general was ousted from military leadership under the Obama administration. Former President Barack Obama fired Mattis as head of U.S. Central Command in 2013 in large part because of Mattis’ increasingly hawkish posture toward Iran. Mattis resigned from the …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump tweeted this morning to decry “mostly FAKE” news about the shutdown and his decision to withdraw from Syria. He also defended his Syria decision, though he said this time that ISIS is “largely defeated.” Trump’s tweets were posted around the time news broke that the top U.S. envoy to the global coalition fighting ISIS submitted …

NBC News reports: Brett McGurk, the special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, submitted his resignation on Friday, effective Dec. 31, a U.S.State Department official said on Saturday. A person familiar with the matter said McGurk has quit because he objected to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out U.S. troops from Syria, a decision followed by …

Yahoo Finance reports: U.S. stocks plunged Friday, extending a crushing week of declines for the major equity indices. The S&P 500 fell 2.06%, or 50.76 points, as of market close and is down 7% this week. This was the worst week for the S&P 500 since August 2011. The Dow slid 1.82%, or 417.11 points. The index fell 6.75% for …

The Daily Beast reports: The Mattis departure is being cheered in Russia. Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Russian Parliament, has said that “the departure of James Mattis is a positive signal for Russia, since Mattis was far more hawkish on Russia and China than Donald Trump.” State TV host Olga Skabeeva surmised that Americans are …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to revive a Trump administration initiative barring migrants who enter the country illegally from seeking asylum. The court was closely divided, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the four-member liberal wing in turning down the administration’s request for a stay of a trial judge’s order blocking the …

Mediaite reports: “It’s really up to the Democrats. Totally up to the Democrats as to whether or not we have the shutdown,” Trump said in comments to reporters today. “It’s possible that we’ll have a shutdown. I would say the chances are probably very good because I don’t think Democrats care so much about maybe this issue, but this is …

Talking Points Memo reports: Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) slammed the “tyranny” of talk radio show hosts for the impending government shutdown. “Do we succumb to tyranny of talk radio hosts?” Corker wondered aloud to reporters, according to CNN’s Manu Raju and other reporters who heard the remark. “We have two talk radio hosts who influenced the President,” he added. “That’s …

The Miami Herald reports: Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was obsessed with guns — and to the chagrin of his mother, also appeared to be a fan of President Donald Trump. So when his mother, “a liberal anti-gun type,” died in 2017, Cruz used his own “Trump hat” to get a twisted final word on their political differences, a friend …

Mediaite reports: Ten days after Donald Trump promised to accept responsibility for a government shutdown, he’s now saying Democrats will be the ones to blame for it. This is quite a departure from last week when Trump had his explosive meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). It was during that meeting …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by …

Axios reports: Another reason this is a historic week — and what President Trump should really worry about — is that lots of different Republicans have been turning on him over different topics. A former Trump aide who asked to be described as “a Trump ally” told Axios that the sudden wave of criticism from the Hill over Syria and …

The Washington Post reports: The numbers are astonishing. In the first eight months of his presidency, President Trump made 1,137 false or misleading claims, an average of five a day. In October, as he barnstormed the country holding rallies in advance of the midterm elections, the president made 1,205 claims — an average of 39 a day. Combined with the …

The Independent reports: Donald Trump has defended construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border in a bizarre series of tweets in which he compared it to “the wheel” and boasted of understanding technology “better than anyone”. Mr Trump wrote: “The fact is there is nothing else’s that will work, and that has been true for thousands of years. It’s …

CNN reports: “One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect …

The Street reports: Stocks tumbled on Thursday, Dec. 20, with the Dow diving almost 500 points as concerns grew that the U.S. government would partially shut down over the Christmas holiday season because President Donald Trump won’t sign a stopgap spending bill. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said Thursday that Trump wouldn’t be signing the spending bill after …

CBS News reports: With barely one day to go until a midnight Friday deadline, President Trump is signing a bill — but it’s not the one to fund the government. Mr. Trump is signing a farm bill at the White House Thursday, but he says he won’t sign the current short-term spending bill, House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after …

Mediaite reports: Rush Limbaugh said he got a personal message from President Donald Trump reassuring him that he would veto any funding bill and shut down the government if lawmakers didn’t agree to border security funding. “I just got a phone call — well, I got an instant message, it’s the equivalent of you getting a phone call, because that’s …