Barack Obama

Stepping into the political spotlight for the first time since leaving the White House in January, Mr Obama did not mention President Donald Trump in two campaign speeches, but he did tell crowds that they could send a message to the rest of the country in forthcoming elections. He told a rally in Virginia in front of several thousand supporters: "Why are we deliberately trying to misunderstand each other, and be cruel to each other and put each other down? That's not who we are."

Congresswoman says Trump told widow of fallen soldier a he knew what he signed up fora

President Donald Trump denied Wednesday that he told the widow of a U.S. serviceman killed in an ambush in Niger that "he knew what he signed up for, but I guess it still hurt." Rep. Frederica Wilson, made the claim Tuesday night, saying she was present when the call took place.

Trump has repeatedly politicized military service and sacrifice

President Donald Trump, though often acting as a champion of the military, has at times politicized the sacrifice of those who paid a terrible price in the nation's wars in a way that few of his predecessors would have countenanced. He clearly reveres America's fighting men and women.

Families of fallen soldiers caught in political crossfire

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Trump allies worry new Cabinet-level vacancies will go unfilled for months

Some of President Trump's staunchest allies have lost confidence in the administration's ability to fill several high-level vacancies that remain within the government, already casting doubt on whether the White House will decide on replacements for Tom Price at Health and Human Services and John Kelly at the Department of Homeland Security by the end of the year. Price resigned last month after his penchant for taxpayer-funded private planes over commercial flights was revealed in a series of reports.

Both Parties’ Extremists Working to Lose Next Election

Almost no one disagrees that our two major political parties, the oldest and third-oldest in the world, have become increasingly extreme and estranged over the past decade. It's a startling contrast with the state of political conflict in the dozen or so years after the fall of the Soviet empire.