Trump Administration

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is preparing to circumvent Congress to allow the export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of billions of dollars worth of munitions that are now on hold, according to current and former American officials and legislators familiar with the plan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior aides are …

Salon reports: Recently, a congressional staffer going about his business on the Hill encountered a couple of people who handed him a pamphlet with the scintillating title “Sexual Sin and the Aphrodisiac of Power.” Sadly, this was not a post-#MeToo effort to discourage sexual harassment in the halls of Congress. Instead, the document implored “legislators, staff and lobbyists” to adopt …

A top Chicago banker was arrested this morning on charges in made loans to Paul Manafort in return for a high-ranking position in the Trump administration. The Associated Press reports: Stephen M. Calk, 54, was scheduled to appear in Manhattan federal court in the afternoon. Authorities said Calk committed the crime while serving as CEO of The Federal Savings Bank …

Mediaite reports: CNN host Alisyn Camerota grilled White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on President Donald Trump‘s tweet about former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson being “totally ill equipped” — even though Trump was the one who thought he was qualified enough to appoint. Sanders replied with a non-answer — choosing to avoid the question and focus on how …

CNBC reports: The redesign of the $20 bill featuring Harriet Tubman will no longer be unveiled in 2020, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday. The unveiling had been timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Mnuchin said the design process has been delayed and no new imagery will …

NBC News reports: The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $232 million from the Transportation Security Administration to fund border operations in the event that Congress does not agree to fund $1.1 billion of its funding request, according to documents of a contingency plan obtained by NBC News. Other components of DHS, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Administration, have …

Mediaite reports: Political observers are not impressed that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson needed a tutorial on Tuesday to learn the difference between an Oreo and REO. Appearing before Congress for an oversight hearing, Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-IA) asked Carson about disparities in REOs — a term which stands for Real-Estate Owned. As Porter explained, REO refers to …

The New York Times reports: Access to a government jet 24 hours a day. An office in the West Wing, plus guaranteed weekends off for family time. And an assurance of being made secretary of homeland security by November. Those were among a list of 10 conditions that Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has given to the …

The Indianapolis Star reports: Dozens of graduates and faculty at Taylor University walked out of graduation exercises Saturday morning minutes before the introduction of Vice President Mike Pence, who delivered the Christian liberal arts school’s commencement address. In caps and gowns, the students and faculty rose and quietly walked down the aisle and out of the auditorium in the Kesler …

The Daily Beast reports: Reacting to a Fox News interview with Attorney General William Barr that included Barr essentially threatening Democrats who criticize him and justifying the president calling the Mueller probe a “witch hunt,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that Trump now has a new fixer. The Fox News anchor went on to note that we had …

Politico reports: Mark Morgan, the White House choice to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said during a Fox News interview earlier this year that he can judge the likelihood that an unaccompanied minor will become a gang member by looking into that child’s eyes. “I’ve been to detention facilities where I’ve walked up to these individuals that are so-called minors, …

The New York Daily News reports: The Trump administration has forked over more than $62 million — taxpayer cash that was supposed to be earmarked for struggling American farmers — to a massive meatpacking company owned by a couple of corrupt Brazilian brothers. The Department of Agriculture cut a contract in January to purchase $22.3 million worth of pork from …

Courthouse News reports: Warning the bison that once roamed the continental U.S. in the millions are at risk of extinction, three conservation organizations brought a federal complaint Wednesday requesting the animal be listed as a threatened or endangered species. Buffalo Field Campaign, Friends of Animals and Western Watershed Project filed the claim against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) …

Fox News reports: Bill Barr did not mince words about his brawl with House Democrats when he ran into Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday on the sidelines of a Capitol Hill event. According to a source close to the attorney general, Barr approached her in a holding tent after the National Peace Officers Memorial Service and asked whether she had …

The New York Daily News reports: Larry Kudlow is finding out the hard way that pleasing the Donald and telling the truth is a tough balancing act. The White House economics czar reportedly got chewed out by President Trump for admitting that American consumers will pay the price for the White House’s tariff-happy trade war. “Trump called Larry, and they …

CNBC reports: Washington ordered the departure of non-emergency government employees from Iraq on Wednesday, after repeated U.S. expressions of concern about threats from Iranian-backed forces. The U.S. State Department has ordered the pullout of the employees from both the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil, the embassy said in a statement. On Tuesday, the U.S. military reaffirmed …

The Hill reports: The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday requested that a judge allow a higher court review previous rulings in favor of a lawsuit alleging President Trump has violated the Emoluments Clause. The DOJ attorneys argue in the filing that there is enough “difference of opinion” on the legal questions in the lawsuit, including the definition of the …

The New York Times reports: At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said. The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led …

Axios reports: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow admitted to Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday that the Chinese do not directly pay tariffs on goods coming into the U.S., but argued that China will suffer GDP losses as a result of a diminishing export markets. President Trump has repeatedly claimed, incorrectly, that tariffs are forcing China is paying billions …

USA Today reports: Pence, who has been facing criticisms of his own religious views recently, warned graduates that they have to stay strong against the challenges they’ll get from Hollywood, the media and the secular left. “Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” Pence said. “Be ready.” “Throughout most of American history, …