Category Archives: Trump administration

Top Democrats and Republicans pay tribute to Elijah Cummings at ceremony – live

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Tim Ryan failed to gain much traction since entering the presidential race in April, but during his campaign, he helped to cast a spotlight on gun violence.

Ryan represents Youngstown and suburbs of Akron in the House. When a gunman opened fire on the nearby Ohio city of Dayton, Ryan lambasted Trump and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell for inaction on gun legislation.

Tim Ryan’s exit from the presidential race means that there are now 18 contenders seeking the Democratic nomination.

AND THEN THERE WERE 18: @RepTimRyan announces he's dropping out of the Democratic presidential race and will seek re-election to Congress. pic.twitter.com/oZIOIG6coX

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Donald Trump falsely claims he’s building a wall in Colorado – video

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Donald Trump on Wednesday talked about the construction of a wall in states that border Mexico, but included Colorado, which is 400 miles away from the frontier. The US president later said on Twitter he had been kidding and added that he had been referring to people in states that weren't on the border, saying they would still benefit from the wall

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‘I don’t regret enforcing the law’: Nielsen defends family separation at summit

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In a heated 15-minute public interview, the former US homeland security secretary defended her decision as protests raged outside

The former US homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, repeatedly defended her decision to separate thousands of children from their parents at the southern border, in her first public interview since she resigned in April.

At Fortune magazine’s Most Powerful Woman summit in Washington DC on Tuesday, the PBS NewsHour correspondent Amna Nawaz asked Nielsen four times if she regretted signing off on the family separation policy, before Nielsen responded: “I don’t regret enforcing the law.

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Republicans’ steadfast support for Trump begins to show cracks

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They’ve backed him through scandal after scandal. But concerns over Ukraine, Syria and the G7 summit are proving too much for some

No call summary has yet emerged of a phone chat Donald Trump held with Republican members of Congress on a retreat at Camp David last Saturday.

But hours after the call, the president announced that he had done a most un-Trumpian thing: reversed a decision to host next year’s G7 summit at one of his own properties, “based on both Media & Democrat Crazed and Irrational Hostility”.

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Mick Mulvaney seeks Trump damage control over impeachment and more

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Senior Trump administration officials were on Sunday scrambling to defend the president from escalating domestic and foreign policy scandals, ranging from impeachment proceedings in Washington to the US troop withdrawal in northern Syria.

Related: 'Meltdown': Donald Trump's week of intense political peril

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Kurdish fighters leave Syrian border town, giving Turkey control

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Evacuation part of US-brokered ceasefire, as Nancy Pelosi leads congressional visit to region

Kurdish officials say their fighters have evacuated Ras al-Ayn, giving Turkey and its allies control of one of the border cities that has borne the brunt of fighting since Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from north-eastern Syria.

The Turkish defence ministry said a convoy of 86 vehicles left the city on Sunday afternoon carrying fighters from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Front (SDF) and wounded civilians south to cities beyond the 20-mile buffer zone that Turkey is seeking to clear along its border with Syria.

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Obrador and Trump speak in aftermath of shootout over El Chapo’s son

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Mexico’s foreign minister said on Saturday that the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Donald Trump had agreed to take swift action to stem the flow of illegal weapons from the US into Mexico.

Related: 'We do not want war': Mexico president defends release of El Chapo’s son

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Erdoğan says Trump’s letter showed lack of respect – live

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Turkish president said he would respond to Trump’s letter telling him not to be a ‘tough guy’ or fool ‘when the time comes’

Jane Fonda is holding another protest in Washington as part of her “Fire Drill Fridays” campaign, which is meant to bring more attention to the climate crisis. Watch the Guardian’s live feed below.

Today is a quieter day in the impeachment inquiry, with no closed-door interviews scheduled on Capitol Hill.

The schedule will pick up again starting Tuesday, with acting US ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor speaking to the House committees leading the investigation.

Next week’s impeachment depositions, per official working on inquiry:

Tuesday: Amb William Taylor

Wednesday: Amb Philip Reeker + OMB Associate Director for Nat’l Security Michael Duffey

Thursday: Deputy Assistant Sec of Defense Laura Cooper + Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman

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‘He earned his spurs from a doctor’: Gen James Mattis mocks Donald Trump – video

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The ex-defence secretary is laughing off an insult hurled at him by the US president. Speaking at a New York charity event a day after Trump demeaned him as ‘the world’s most overrated general’, Mattis joked that he took it as a compliment. ‘I’m honoured to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress,’ he said. ‘So I guess I’m the Meryl Streep of generals’

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Trump’s Turkey deal hands power to Ankara and leaves Syrian Kurds for dead

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Trump hails ceasefire and ‘safe zone’ on Turkey-Syria border as ‘great day for civilisation’ but few believe it

The deal agreed between the US and Turkey immediately achieved the priority objective of vice-president Mike Pence’s peace mission to Ankara: Donald Trump was able to claim victory on Twitter.

The president had unwittingly alienated most of his own party over his acceptance of the Turkish invasion of north-eastern Syria, and was already in the midst of an impeachment battle.

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Pence and Erdoğan agree on ceasefire plan but Kurds reject ‘occupation’

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  • Mike Pence strikes deal with Turkish president in Ankara
  • Agreement appears to cement key Turkish objectives

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to suspend Ankara’s operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw, potentially halting the latest bloodshed in Syria’s long war.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters would pull back from Turkey’s proposed 20-mile (32km) deep “safe zone” on its border, Pence told reporters in Ankara on Thursday evening after hours of meetings with Turkish officials.

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Trump ordered diplomats to work with Giuliani on Ukraine, Sondland testifies

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Meanwhile, White House chief of staff undercuts Trump’s denials of quid pro quo: ‘We do that all the time. Get over it’

Donald Trump instructed US diplomats to go through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make the Ukrainian president’s access to the White House dependent on launching investigations into Trump’s political opponents, the US ambassador to the EU has testified.

In his opening statement to Congress on Thursday, Gordon Sondland, a wealthy hotelier and Trump donor, sought to distance himself from the president, saying he had been “disappointed” Trump had chosen to conduct an important strategic relationship through his lawyer.

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Trump’s bizarre, threatening letter to Erdoğan: ‘Don’t be a fool’

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President vows to destroy Turkish economy if Syria invasion is not resolved humanely, but brash language and diplomatic missteps draw confusion

Donald Trump warned his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “don’t be a fool” and said history risked branding him a “devil” in an extraordinary letter sent the day Turkey launched its incursion into north-eastern Syria.

The letter, first obtained by a Fox Business reporter, was shorn of diplomatic niceties and began with an outright threat.

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‘A very serious meltdown’: top Democrats react to Trump meeting – video

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Nancy Pelosi said senior lawmakers witnessed Trump having a 'meltdown' after nearly two-thirds of the House GOP caucus voted to condemn his decision to withdraw US troops from northern Syria. Leaving a White House meeting on the situation in Syria, Senator Chuck Schumer said that Trump was disrespectful to Pelosi, calling her a 'third-rate politician', and alleged Trump had no plan on how to contain Isis now

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Trump-Ukraine: John Bolton ‘sounded alarm about Giuliani’s actions’

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The former US national security adviser, John Bolton, was reportedly so alarmed at a back-channel effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Donald Trump’s political rivals that he told a senior aide to report it to White House lawyers.

The revelation of Bolton’s involvement in the effort to block a shadow foreign policy aimed at Trump’s political benefit emerged from congressional testimony given by his former aide, Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert in the White House.

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Trump asks Turkey for ceasefire and orders sanctions as violence escalates

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  • President freezes negotiations on $100bn trade deal
  • Trump vows to ‘swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy’

Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face.

The US president’s conversation with Erdoğan was revealed by the vice-president, Mike Pence, who said he would soon be travelling to the Middle East. “The United States of America did not give a green light for Turkey to invade Syria,” Pence insisted to reporters at the White House.

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Trump impeachment: Esper indicates Pentagon will cooperate with inquiry

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Donald Trump’s secretary of defense said on Sunday the Pentagon would cooperate with the House’s impeachment inquiry, while cautioning that Trump may try to restrict his disclosure of information.

Related: Trump calls Rudy Giuliani a 'great guy' as impeachment pressure mounts

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James Mattis says Trump’s troop pullout has led to ‘disarray’ in Syria

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  • Ex-defense secretary calls resurgence of Isis ‘a given’
  • Withdrawal will ‘have an impact’ on Kurds’ ability to fight Isis

The former defense secretary James Mattis has said Donald Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of US troops from the Syria-Turkey border has led to “disarray” in the war-torn territory, increasing the chances of a resurgence of Islamic State militants.

Related: Betrayal on the border: Kurds fear future as Turkish assault intensifies

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