Trump Administration

US To Deny Citizenship For Immigrants That Have Ties To Marijuana Industry, Even In States Where It’s Legal

CBS News reports: As people around the country mark 4/20 — the unofficial holiday celebrating marijuana — U.S. officials have released new guidance around marijuana for immigrants hoping to earn U.S. citizenship. Officials said Friday that immigrants involved with cannabis in any way — even in states where it has been legalized — could disqualify them from naturalization. New guidance …

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Shady Former EPA Chief Now A Shady Coal Lobbyist

The Indianapolis Star reports: Scott Pruitt, the embattled former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, registered Thursday as a lobbyist with state regulators. Pruitt’s filings with the Indiana Lobby Registration Commission identify him as a self-employed consultant and list RailPoint Solutions LLC as his sole client. His lobbying topics include “energy” and “natural resources.” It’s unclear what, exactly, Pruitt …

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Fox Anchor Blasts Bill Barr: He Seemed To Be Acting As Trump’s Defense Lawyer Instead Of Attorney General

Law & Crime reports: Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said Attorney General William Barr sounded like a counselor to the president during his press conference Thursday ahead of the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. “The Attorney General seemed almost to be acting as the counselor for the defense, the counselor for the president, rather than the attorney general, …

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Reversal: Herman Cain Won’t Withdraw For Fed Board

CNBC reports: Herman Cain will not drop out of consideration for the Federal Reserve Board even though he does not appear to have enough votes to get confirmed in the Senate, he told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. The former Godfather’s Pizza CEO and Kansas City Fed Board president said he is “very committed” to the process, according to …

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Tomorrow: AG Bill Barr To Hold Mueller Report Presser

Talking Points Memo reports: Attorney General Bill Barr is scheduled to hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. ET Thursday to discuss special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted final report, the Justice Department confirmed Wednesday. “Attorney General William P. Barr will hold a press conference on Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 9:30 a.m. EDT, on the release of the Mueller Report,” …

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Steve Mnuchin To Hire Fox Plagiarist As Treasury Spox

Splinter News reports: The Trump administration-Fox News ouroboros rolls on unimpeded this week, with a report that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin plans to hire former Fox personality Monica Crowley as his new spokeswoman. Citing “people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Mnuchin is preparing to hire Crowley as a replacement for outgoing spokesman Tony Sayegh, who had …

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Charges Dropped In “Assault” On Kellyanne Conway

CNN reports: A Maryland state’s attorney’s office confirmed Monday it had dropped charges against a woman accused of assaulting White House aide Kellyanne Conway.  CNN first reported on the incident earlier this year, when Conway told CNN’s Dana Bash that a woman grabbed and shook her while she was out with her teenage daughter at a Maryland restaurant last fall. …

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Ryan Zinke Already Lobbying His Former Agency

The Associated Press reports: Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has a new job: a more than $100,000-a-year post with a gold-mining firm that’s pursuing project approvals involving the federal agency that Zinke left fewer than four months ago. Zinke told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his work for Nevada-based U.S. Gold Corp., which focuses on mining exploration and development, …

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WH: Dems Aren’t Smart Enough To See Trump’s Taxes

The Washington Post reports: White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn’t believe members of Congress are “smart enough” to examine President Trump’s tax returns, pushing back against Democrats’ demands for information on the president’s finances. In an interview with “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, Sanders said that Democrats were treading a “dangerous road” and that …

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Conway: Moderate Democrats Tell Me They’re Sick Of “Radical Freshmen” Causing Trouble For Pelosi [VIDEO]

NBC News reports: “There’s a great deal of frustration among rank and file members who represent more moderate districts and frankly who represent districts that Donald Trump won in 2016. They’re very frustrated,” Kellyanne Conway said Sunday during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They’ve been to the White House. They talk to people like me, quietly, saying they …

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Conway: We Have A Clown Show, Not A Government

Mediaite reports: The husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway issued a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration Friday night. Earlier, Washington Post‘s Josh Dawsey noted the White House’s about-face on immigrants and sanctuary cities. “White House spokesman Hogan Gidley, who said Thursday that plan of moving immigrants to sanctuary cities had been rejected and shouldn’t be taken seriously, now …

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Trump: I Did Consider Ivanka To Head The World Bank, She’d Be Great As She’s “Very Good With Numbers”

From a lengthy new profile in The Atlantic: When jobs open up in the Trump administration—a frequent occurrence—Ivanka is at the top of her father’s mind. “She’s a natural diplomat,” Trump said. “She would’ve been great at the United Nations, as an example.” I asked why he didn’t nominate her. “If I did, they’d say nepotism, when it would’ve had …

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White House Considered Plan To Punish Democrats By “Dumping” Captured Migrants Into Sanctuary Cities

The New York Times reports: President Trump’s top aides considered an idea to pressure immigration agencies to release apprehended migrants into so-called sanctuary cities represented by Democratic lawmakers, according to several people familiar with the proposal. The idea was floated in an email by a top White House policy adviser in November, when Mr. Trump was furiously condemning migrant caravans …

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Acting ICE Director Resigns After Yanked Nomination

Stephen Miller’s reign of terror marches on: The acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ron Vitiello, has resigned amid an agency-wide restructuring of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Vitiello had originally been nominated to take over the post permanently, but his nomination was abruptly pulled last week by President Trump, who said he wanted to go …

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Treasury Dept Reports 2019 Deficit To Top $1 Trillion

Reuters reports: The federal government reported a $146.9 billion deficit in March, causing annual debt to rise 15% for the first half of the budget year compared to the same period in 2018. The Treasury Department said Wednesday in its monthly report that the fiscal year deficit has so far totaled $691 billion, up from nearly $600 billion in 2018. …

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AG Bill Barr Claims Feds “Spied” On Trump Campaign

The Washington Post reports: Attorney General William P. Barr said Wednesday he thought “spying” on a political campaign occurred in the course of intelligence agencies’ investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election — a startling assertion by the nation’s top law enforcement official. At a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Barr was asked about his statement a day …

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LIVE VIDEO: Betsy DeVos Testifies On Education Cuts

Josh Israel reports at Think Progress: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will testify before Congress on Wednesday about her priorities for the department, weeks after she proposed billions of dollars in cuts for education spending in fiscal year 2020. DeVos has labeled the cuts “tough choices,” but new analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) shows DeVos’ personal …

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Gun Maker Sues Trump Admin Over Bump Stock Losses

ABC News reports: A Texas gun company that destroyed more than 73,000 bump stocks when a federal ban on the rapid-fire devices took effect has sued the U.S. government claiming millions of dollars in losses. RW Arms of Fort Worth on Monday announced the lawsuit and said the government took its property “without just compensation.” Co-founder Mark Maxwell said Tuesday …

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GOP Sen. Pat Roberts On Kris Kobach As Trump’s DHS Secretary: “Don’t Go There, We Can’t Confirm Him”

The Kansas City Star reports: One of the GOP senators from Kris Kobach’s home state said Tuesday that the Senate would not be able to confirm the Kansas Republican if President Donald Trump tapped him for a cabinet post. Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for an array of immigration-related positions after …

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Stephen Miller Sabotaged DHS Sec With Leaked Data

Mediaite reports: Stephen Miller, the senior advisor to President Donald Trump, would have a sneaky way to ruin the day of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and get her to stop resisting new immigration policy proposals. Quartz reports “former agency officials,” said Miller would leak the monthly number of immigrants apprehended at the border and those seeking asylum to …

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