Trump Administration

Axios reports: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that the Trump administration never promised to release the names of businesses that received forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans as a part of the CARES Act. Why it matters: U.S. taxpayers have provided hundreds of millions of tax dollars to bail out small businesses impacted …

Washington DC’s CBS News affiliate reports: Secret Service now admits that an agency employee fired oleoresin capsicum spray (pepper spray) “in response to an assaultive individual,” when protesters were cleared from Lafayette Square on Monday, June 1. The correction issued by the agency is a follow up to its Friday, June 5, announcement. This is when Secret Service said that …

The Associated Press reports: The White House is floating a theory that travel from Mexico may be contributing to a new wave of coronavirus infections, rather than states’ efforts to reopen their economies. The notion was discussed at some length during a meeting of the administration’s coronavirus task force in the White House Situation Room Thursday that focused, in part, …

From DNC Chairman Tom Perez: “Shameful. On the four-year anniversary of Pulse, in the middle of Pride Month, and during a pandemic, Trump has taken a knife to protections against health care discrimination put in place by the Obama-Biden administration. This illegal attack on the health of LGBTQ+ Americans and other marginalized communities is appalling, but tragically unsurprising. “Trump and …

From the Human Rights Campaign: The Human Rights Campaign announced that it will file a lawsuit challenging the Trump-Pence administration’s decision to roll back critical civil rights protections in the rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The new rule will eliminate explicit protections from discrimination based on sex stereotyping and gender identity that have existed under …

Bloomberg Law reports: The Trump administration has finalized a policy that would remove women seeking abortions and LGBT people from the Affordable Care Act’s non-discrimination protections, the HHS announced Friday. The regulation would let health-care workers, hospitals, and insurance companies that receive federal funding refuse to provide or cover services such as abortions or transition-related care. This continues the Trump …

Politico reports: White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow on Friday declared that a “second wave” of the coronavirus was not descending upon the country, even as cases of Covid-19 are spiking in more than a dozen states. “There is no emergency. There is no second wave. I don’t know where that got started on Wall Street,” Kudlow told “Fox & …

A standard Trumpian non-specific denial: The East Wing on Friday dismissed a new book about first lady Melania Trump that reported she waited to move to the White House in 2017 while she renegotiated the terms of her prenuptial agreement with President Trump. “Yet another book about Mrs. Trump with false information and sources. This book belongs in the fiction …

Axios reports: John Bolton taunts President Trump, his former boss, on the back cover of his forthcoming book: “Game on.” In a memoir coming June 23 that the White House has tried to delay, former national security adviser Bolton will offer multiple revelations about Trump’s conduct in office, with direct quotes by the president and senior officials, according to a …

Courthouse News reports: After nearly four years of arguing for the Trump administration in high-stakes Supreme Court battles, Solicitor General Noel Francisco plans to leave the Justice Department, according to multiple reports Thursday morning. A former clerk for Justice Anthony Scalia, Francisco previously worked in the George W. Bush White House and at the Justice Department. He also spent time …

Talking Points Memo reports: White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday dismissed Joe Biden’s concerns that President Trump is going to “try to steal” November’s election. “I think that’s a ridiculous proposition,” McEnany said on “America’s Newsroom” on Fox News. “This president’s looking forward to November,” she continued. “This president’s hard at work for the American people, and leave …

“I look at him and I really do think that could have been me. That could be me, pulled over for speeding five miles over the speed limit. That could be me with a busted tail light. “That could be me who is just seen as a black man and not as the surgeon general of the United States — …

ABC News reports: The White House is preparing to announce a number of proposals later this week related to race and policing, but the rollout has yet to be determined. Many top advisers concede that these proposals are often overshadowed by controversial statements coming from the president’s Twitter account. Days in the West Wing are so often dictated by what …

Mediaite reports: Vice President Mike Pence posted and then deleted a tweet taken at a Trump 2020 campaign office in Arlington, Virginia, which showed dozens of staffers packed in shoulder to shoulder none of whom were wearing masks, which appeared to violate Covid-19 social distancing rules still in effect in that state. Pence, who still chairs the White House coronavirus …

John Bolton’s lawyer writes for the Wall Street Journal: When Mr. Bolton asked when he would receive the letter confirming the book was cleared, Ms. Knight  [the NSC’s senior director for prepublication review of materials written by NSC personnel] cryptically replied that her “interaction” with unnamed others in the White House about the book had “been very delicate” and that …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is preparing to open the door to oil and gas drilling off Florida’s coast — but will wait until after the November election to avoid blowback in a swing state whose waters both parties have long considered sacrosanct, according to four people familiar with the plan. Drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico would fulfill …

The Associated Press reports: A former federal judge appointed to review the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss criminal charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn has found that the government’s request should be denied because there is “clear evidence of a gross abuse of prosecutorial power.” Former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said in a filing Wednesday that the …

Mediaite reports: On Fox & Friends Wednesday, McEnany was asked about Trump picking up a conspiracy theory from far-right network OANN that the 75-year-old man was a provocateur who might have “set up” the extent of his injuries. “Could you expand on that?” Brian Kilmeade asked. “Does the president think that this guy is part of Antifa?” “The president was …

April Ryan writes for the Urban Radio Network: George Floyd was laid to rest today in his hometown of Houston, with the eulogy delivered by Rev. Al Sharpton. The White House is preparing a speech on race relations written by Stephen Miller, who crafted the Trump Administration’s immigration plan along the southern border with Mexico. Vice President Mike Pence recently …

Vanity Fair reports: According to a source close to the White House, Trump has mulled taking oversight of the campaign away from his son-in-law Jared Kushner. “Trump is malignantly crazy about the bad poll numbers,” a former West Wing official said. “He’s going to broom Kushner and [Brad] Parscale—the numbers are not getting better,” a Republican close to the campaign …