Donald J Trump

President Donald Trump has always talked about how the country needs "extreme vetting" of people coming to the US, but he is not applying same vetting process to his cabinet appointees. 

In recent reports by White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, Donald Trump was unaware that is former national security adviser Michael Flynn was working as "foreign agent."

               

                    President Trump and Michael Flynn during a campaign

Michael Flynn was former national security adviser to Donald Trump, and he resigned after 4 weeks into Trump's administration, after it was revealed that he had contact with the Russian ambassador, and discuss the Obama led sanctions on Russia. and lied to Vice-president Michael Pence about it.

The latest report on Flynn now is that between September to November last year, while he was working with the Trump presidential campaign, Flynn was also lobbying for a firm linked to the Turkish government, earning $530,000.

When Flynn joined the Trump's administration, he like other members in the cabinet agreed not to lobby for any foreign government or represent  foreign government for the next five years.

When Spicer was asked if President Trump would have hired Flynn if he knew about his foreign government connection, Sean Spicer replied;

I don’t know ... That’s a hypothetical. I don’t know what was discussed prior to the appointment in terms of his background, his résumé, his client base. From what I’ve read, he has filed appropriate forms with the Department of Justice ; ask them and subsequently him if you have any questions about the filing.

Sean Spicer is now being known as the "I don't know" press secretary as he gives keeping opaque answer, and quick to use the phrase, "I don't know"

 

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President Donald Trump has finally signed a new executive order that will ban immigration from six countries, while dropping Iraq as part of the affected country. The new executive order bans travellers from Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Donald Trump previous travel ban signed in January was held up in court, challenging the power in Washington, something that gave the new administration some time to go back to the drawing board to map out a new order that will be smoother, and won't embarrass the new government.

                    

The ban exempts people with green cards from the ban, and also those with valid visa are also exempted.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway while speaking to Trump's favourite TV program, "Fox and Friends" said;

If you have travel docs, if you actually have a visa, if you are a legal permanent resident, you are not covered under this particular executive action. Also, Iraq is no longer on the list based on their enhanced screening and reporting measures.

The Trump's previous ban included Iraq, but the new ban removed Iraq. According to an administration fact sheet, Iraq will "increase cooperation with the US government on the vetting of its citizens applying for a visa to travel to the United States."

Iraq was removed from the ban after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster advised Trump that Iraq should not be included because of its role in helping the US military fight ISIS, and also for diplomatic reasons.

 

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Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of the United States is in a scandal in the Trump's administration, after he was found to have met with a top Russian diplomat twice, and had failed to mention that during his confirmation hearing in the senate before his confirmation. Sessions had met the same person Michael Flynn met with that caused him his position in Donald Trump's cabinet.

Top democrats, including Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have asked that he resigned from his position.

While speaking to reporters, Chuck said;

Last night when I read the revelations ... and his decision to mislead Congress without those contacts, I felt a knot in the pit of my stomach.

The information reported last night makes it clear, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Attorney General Sessions cannot possibly lead an investigation ... with these revelations, he may very well become the subject of it.

While he would have needed all the help he could get from Republicans, several Republicans have asked him instead to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia inquiries.

The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz said, Sessions should further clarify his testimony. Also, another Republican and a friend of Session, Rob Portman of Ohio said; Jeff Sessions is a former colleague and a friend, but I think it would be best for him & for the country to recuse himself from the DOJ Russia probe.

Jeff Sessions had met with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, known in the US intelligence circle as a top Russian spy and spy-recruiters in Washington.

Sessions met with Kislyak in July while at the Republican convention, and also met him in September in his office when Sessions was a member of the Senate Armed Services committee.

Attorney General Sessions Recused Himself From Trump-Russia Inquiry

Jeff Sessions have now removed himself from the investigations of Trump-Russia inquiry after backlash about his senate hearing where he denied meeting with any Russia officials.

In a news conference on Thursday, Sessions said that Justice Department staff recommended that he recuses himself from further investigation related to the Trump campaign. He said;

I feel like I should not be involved in investigating a campaign I had a role in

Sessions also defended his answer to Democratic Sen. Al Franken's question to him, he said that he had "focused (his) answer on" whether he met the official in his role as a campaign surrogate, not his position as a then-senator. In retrospect, I should have slowed down and said I did meet with one official a couple of times and that was the Russian ambassador.

Sessions Get Suport From Donald Trump

The US President went on Twitter to defend his friend, Jeff Session and accused the Democrats of "overplaying their hand"

            

           

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The US president, Donald Trump is expected to sign a new executive order on the travel immigration ban on Wednesday, after meeting with the joint session of Congress.

          

The executive order was expected to be signed last week, but it was delayed as Press Secretary, Sean Spicer said that the president was holding off on the new plan to make sure it flawless, and not thrown away or blocked by the court as the previous ban.

The Trump previous immigration ban was banned by a Federal judge after it targeted people from 7 different countries, and holders of US Green card.

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President Donald Trump is reversing one of former president Obama policies on Transgender bathrooms. The Obama administration has allowed that transgender students be allowed to use the bathrooms of their gender identity in schools, or they risk federal funding.

The new sheriff in town, and a conservative president Trump, is looking to reverse the policy. Though the Obama policy was put on hold by a federal judge, arguing that states and schools should be able to make the decision without federal interference, Trump administration has decided to revoke the policy.

              

In protest of the new decision, more than 200 people gathered in front of the White house and waved the rainbow flag, chanting;

               "No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here."

Rachel Tiven, chief executive of Lambda Legal, which advocates for LGBT people in a statement said;

We all know that Donald Trump is a bully, but his attack on transgender children today is a new low

A conservative judge and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who spearheaded the challenging the Obama policies on the bathroom guideline hailed the new Trump decision on the bill, and said;

Our fight over the bathroom directive has always been about former President Obama's attempt to bypass Congress and rewrite the laws to fit his political agenda for radical social change.

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Craig Deare, a Donald Trump white house senior official appointee have been fired just a month after he was appointed to head the National Security Council’s Western Hemisphere division. Craig was fired because of his criticism of the Trump's administration about the rocky start with Mexico.

Craig was escorted out of the Executive building where he worked in Washington.

               

According to a White House official, Mr Craig is no longer with the NSC, and will return to his previously held position at the National Defence University. 

The White House official pleaded anonymity, as the matter is not to be public, but according to current and former administration officials, his termination was linked to a speech on Wednesday the the Wilson centre, a Washington think tank.

Craig in the supposedly private speech criticised the Trump administration about his policies on Mexico, and their Latin America counterpart. Craig was frustrated as the current administration handles policies, and said that he was never consulted before the executive orders were signed. 

Craig said that Donald Trump inner circle consisting of Steve Bannon, and his son-in-law did not consult with the NSC directorates to formulates its policies.

Craig Deare is not the only one outside of the loop, staffers at the state department have also expressed their frustration about how Trump inner circles take on diplomacy, with the current state visit of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Nobody from the state department was involved in the talks, except Jared Kushner, who had little or no diplomatic experience, and also had more responsibilities than the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson.

Craig allegedly also praised the daughter of the President, Ivanka Trump's look.

Craig Deare is the second senior official of the NSC to leave office under a week. Trump National security adviser also left his position after he was exposed to be discussing sanction with Russia, and lied about it to the Vice-president, Mike Pence.

 

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The French far-right presidential hopeful, Marie Le Pen has quietly pledged to end same-sex marriage when elected. The policy by the presidential hopeful was quietly buried in a 144-page policy document released last week.

                    

In number 87 of the document, Le Pen document says that she will create an "improved"form of civil union in the country to "replace" the equal marriage law that is put in place by the current socialist government since 2013.

The policy specifies that the new changes "would not be retroactive", but the replacement plan would not allow new same-sex couples, which means couple would only be allowed to enter into civil partnerships. This would allow gays to enter a contractual form of civil union (PACS) from 1999 until 2013.

          

The new Marie Le Pen policy would not only affect marriage equality, the plan also outlines the restriction on fertility services, which would end assistance for gay couples wanting to have children.

Marie Le Pen is confident she would win the election after the recent shift in voters' decisions in electing leader like Donald Trump, and also the UK Brexit vote. 

Le Pen also won the first-round poll, but she will face competition centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron or Republicans right-winger Francois Fillon in the May run-off election.

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Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to attack the media, intelligence community and Hillary Clinton after multiple questions that is being asked about his associate and Russia. Trump went on Twitter to rant about the recent reports, and said the media are only trying to spin the "conspiracy theories", and are supported by the intelligence communities.

According to New York Times, members of the President Trump inner circle had contacts with Russia Intelligence officials during his campaign, this is also proven by looking at Trump's phone records, and an intercepted call.

                 

The call by members of Trump organization was intercepted during the time that the Democratic National Committee emails were hacked and released to Wikileaks.

This was 24 hours after Trump's National security adviser, Michael Flynn resigned from his position, after the intelligence community found out he spoke to the ambassador of Russia during the Obama sanction, which is illegal in the US.

Also, Trump was aware of Flynn communication with Russia, since January 26th.

Democrats are now pushing Republicans lawmakers for an aggressive investigation of Trump and Russia association.

Trump went on Twitter attacking the media for the coverage of the news, while promoting Fox News, a conservative News station;

          

And he later went ahead and attack NYT, as Trump believes the Intelligence committee is feeding what he called"Failing @nytimes" information.

           

 

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According to a new poll by Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, 42% approve of Donald Trump job since his inauguration, while 49% Iowans disapprove of the newly elected president.

Since the Des Moines Register started his presidential poll approval in 1964, no president has been disapproved than approved in Iowa until Trump came along. 

                 

In 2009, the Democrat Barack Obama poll shows his approval rating at 68%, for Republican George Bush, it was 54% in 2001, while Democrat Bill Clinton in 1993 was 73%, and Ronald Reagan in 1981 scored 54%.

The new Trump approval rating matches Obama outgoing rating in October, however 52% Iowans in October approved his performance, while 49% did not.

Donald Trump won Iowa by 9%,the widest margin among states known as the swing states. 82% of Republicans approved of his actions in the first week, while 86% of democrats did not approve.

Independents are also not supporting Trump, with 50% dissaproving his work as president, while 36% approved him.

While signing his executive orders, Trump make it known to the people that he is only fulfilling his promises on the campaign trail.

                         

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The National Security adviser, Micheal Flynn has resigned from the Trump's administration. The resignation comes after reports that Flynn has been talking to the Russian ambassador after they were sanctioned, and assuring them that the sanction would be lifted during the Trump's administration.

                   

The revelation was made known by former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who had reported to the White House that Flynn was misleading about the interactions with the ambassador. 

Flynn then told the Vice-president, he had not discussed the sanction by Obama administration with the Russians, making Mike Pence go on air to defends Flynn, and also Kellyanne Conway defending him that the president had total respect for Flynn.

The resignation letter of Flynn did not say he lied to Mike Pence, instead he said he had briefed the VP of "incomplete information"

Flynn Resignation Letter

February 13, 2017

In the course of my duties as the incoming National Security Advisor, I held numerous phone calls with foreign counterparts, ministers, and ambassadors. These calls were to facilitate a smooth transition and begin to build the necessary relationships between the President, his advisors and foreign leaders. Such calls are standard practice in any transition of this magnitude.

Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology.

Throughout my over thirty three years of honorable military service, and my tenure as the National Security Advisor, I have always performed my duties with the utmost of integrity and honesty to those I have served, to include the President of the United States.

I am tendering my resignation, honored to have served our nation and the American people in such a distinguished way.

I am also extremely honored to have served President Trump, who in just three weeks, has reoriented American foreign policy in fundamental ways to restore America’s leadership position in the world.

As I step away once again from serving my nation in this current capacity, I wish to thank President Trump for his personal loyalty, the friendship of those who I worked with throughout the hard fought campaign, the challenging period of transition, and during the early days of his presidency.

I know with the strong leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and the superb team they are assembling, this team will go down in history as one of the greatest presidencies in U.S. history, and I firmly believe the American people will be well served as they all work together to help Make America Great Again.

Michael T. Flynn, LTG (Ret)

Assistant to the President / National Security Advisor

Donald Trump has named retired Lt. General Joseph Kellogg as the acting national security adviser.

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