Category Archives: Trump administration

Iran-US tensions are reaching new heights – and neither is likely to blink

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Long-term standoff threatens to turn into crisis after alleged sabotage of two Saudi tankers

A festering four-year war, crippling sanctions, threats to maritime oil trade and a US naval battlegroup steaming for the Persian Gulf. Such developments were troubling enough, before two Saudi tankers were reportedly sabotaged off the UAE coast on Sunday – a development set to ratchet tensions between Tehran and Washington to new and combustible highs.

With Riyadh claiming significant hull damage to its ships and the UAE claiming the damage was done inside its territorial waters, what last week was a looming standoff is now a real-time crisis with potent implications for both global energy security and regional stability.

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Better the devil they know: how Christians came to terms with Trump

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Evangelical backing for a thrice-married celebrity is not as odd as it seems: on abortion, the supreme court and more, the president keeps delivering

After bowing his head in prayer, Donald Trump addressed faith leaders in the sunshine of the White House rose garden.

Related: Trump wants Barr to consider investigating Biden – Giuliani

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China expected to retaliate over Trump tariff hike, economic adviser says

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Larry Kudlow says ‘We may know more today or this evening or tomorrow’ after Trump raises spectre of a full-blown trade war

The US expects China to retaliate over the Trump administration’s latest tariff hike, chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.

Related: Tariffs: Donald Trump's trust in trade war tactic is big electoral gamble

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House Democrat subpoenas six years of Trump tax returns

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Committee chair Richard Neal says treasury secretary and IRS commissioner must provide documents by 17 May

A top House Democrat on Friday issued subpoenas for six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, giving the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig, a deadline of next Friday to deliver them.

Richard Neal, the chairman of the House ways and means committee, , issued the subpoenas days after Mnuchin refused to comply with demands to turn over Trump’s returns. Mnuchin told the panel he wouldn’t provide Trump’s tax records because the panel’s request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose”, as supreme court precedent requires.

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Comey says Mueller’s evidence enough to charge Trump if he weren’t president

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The former FBI director says there were at least two incidents that prove criminal intent on the president’s part to obstruct justice

James Comey, the former director of the FBI, has said that the Mueller report contains sufficient evidence that Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice that he would have been charged, were he not president.

Comey is the latest in a growing list of former federal prosecutors and senior judicial figures who have said that the factual details contained in Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race would be grounds for indicting Trump with multiple felony charges for obstruction. A joint letter to that effect has now been signed by 803 individuals.

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Donald Trump tells Iran ‘call me’ over lifting sanctions

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President suggests US could help revive Iran’s economy in return for no-nuclear weapons pledge

Donald Trump has offered Iran direct talks, saying its leaders should “call me” and suggested the US would help revive the country’s economy as long as Iran did not acquire nuclear weapons.

The impromptu offer by the US president, if serious, represents a dramatic lowering of the bar set by his administration for lifting extensive sanctions, including an oil embargo. Iran is already party to a 2015 agreement that strictly limits its nuclear programme and places it under close scrutiny. Trump withdrew the US from the Obama-era treaty a year ago.

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#ConstitutionalCrisis? Trump’s battle with Congress comes to a head

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The president’s claims of executive privilege over the Mueller report have set new alarm bells ringing for the fate of democracy

Police this week arrested an alleged arsonist who started a fire outside the National Archives building in Washington, claiming that voices told him to “burn buildings down”. The archives display a four-page handwritten document to countless tourists and schoolchildren: the US constitution.

While the physical object remains fragile but secure, the political framework it represents is facing one of the severest threats in its 232-year history. The arsonist is Donald Trump and he is getting ever closer with his tiki torch.

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‘They’ll be paying’: Trump blasts China as US prepares to raise trade tariffs

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US president tells rally China ‘broke the deal’ and publishes list of imported products that will face higher tariffs from Friday

Donald Trump has warned that China has “broke the deal … so they’ll be paying” as the US and China moved to within 36 hours of a full-scale trade war and the US trade representative’s office filed the formal paperwork needed to increase duties on $200bn (£153bn) of Chinese goods.

Speaking at a rally in Panama City, Florida, on Wednesday night, the US president accused China of going back on their deal. “By the way, you see the tariffs we’re doing?” he asked supporters. “Because they broke the deal. They broke the deal. So they’re flying in, the vice premier tomorrow’s flying in – good man – but they broke the deal. They can’t do that, so they’ll be paying.”

The president added: “If we don’t make the deal, nothing wrong with taking it over $100bn a year – $100bn, we never did that before.”

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Mike Pompeo urges UK to help rein in ‘lawless’ Iran over nuclear deal

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UK told ‘not to soothe the ayatollahs angry’ at US decision to abandon nuclear deal

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has urged the UK to stand with Washington in reining in Iran’s “bloodletting and lawlessness”, as Tehran took the first conditional steps to extricate itself from the landmark nuclear deal it had signed with the west, Russia and China in 2015.

Iran said it was acting in response to Donald Trump’s decision a year ago to withdraw the US from the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, imposing a wave of sanctions not just on Iran but on any company that seeks to trade with it.

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Pompeo scraps Merkel talks due to ‘global security issues’

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Secretary of state abruptly pulls out of Berlin meeting and is silent on his next destination

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has abruptly cancelled a long-established plan to hold talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin, citing unspecified “international security issues”.

The unusual last-minute schedule change follows brief talks between Pompeo and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in Finland on Monday.

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Treasury denies ‘unprecedented’ request for Trump’s tax returns

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Analysts viewed the flat denial as a direct challenge to Congress’ power to oversee the other two branches of government

The Treasury department has denied a request by Congress for copies of Donald Trump’s tax returns, saying that Congress had overstepped its bounds in requesting them.

The flat denial, which analysts viewed as a direct challenge to the supposed power of Congress to oversee the other two branches of government, was the latest in an escalating series of confrontations between Trump and the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives.

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Michael Cohen hints at more Trump revelations on way to prison – video

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Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, began his three-year prison sentence on Monday. He is the third former Trump campaign aide to go to prison in the past 12 months. Outside his New York City apartment, Cohen promised: 'There still remains much to be told and I look forward to the day that I can share the truth'

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Sudden US threat against Iran adds to Middle East volatility

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Frustration in Washington at its failing foreign policies could be a factor in growing pressure

John Bolton’s sudden, unexplained threat to use “unrelenting force” against Tehran has raised US-Iran tensions to a new high. But its impact is not confined to these two countries. Like a lethal poison, their mutual enmity is seeping through the veins of an already unstable region that has experienced dangerously high levels of volatility in recent days.

No clear reason was given by Donald Trump’s national security adviser for his decision to advertise the pre-arranged deployment of military reinforcements to the Middle East. But Bolton singled out Iran, and specifically Iran’s non-state allies and proxy forces, as causes for concern. These groups are deeply involved in several conflict zones including Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza, where fighting with Israeli forces re-erupted last week.

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Markets tumble after Trump threatens to dramatically increase China tariffs

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Wall Street set for a fall after president says trade talks are going ‘too slowly’ and threatens to more than double tariffs

Global financial markets have been sent into a tailspin after Donald Trump risked jeopardising delicate trade talks with China by unexpectedly saying he would raise tariffs further on Chinese goods this week.

Stocks in China fell almost 6% on Monday morning as investors in Asia Pacific were caught off guard by the US president’s tweets and the alarm intensified as reports indicated that the government in Beijing might pull out of this week’s scheduled talks.

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Trump administration denies special help to Venezuelans seeking asylum

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Despite clarion calls for Venezuelan ‘freedom’ the US has resisted offering Temporary Protected Status to those fearing persecution

As Venezuela slumps further into crisis, White House officials from Donald Trump down have made repeated expressions of support for the country’s people.

But such comments stand in stark contrast to the meager help the US government is giving Venezuelans seeking refuge in the US.

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Mueller report: Trump dismisses ‘Russian hoax’ in call with Putin

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The report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was ‘sweeping and systematic’

Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin discussed what Trump again dismissed as the “Russian hoax” in their first known phone call since the release of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s extensive meddling during the 2016 election campaign.

In an hourlong “very good talk” on Friday, Russia’s president “sort of smiled” about Mueller’s conclusions, Trump told reporters at the White House.

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Trump and Putin discussed Mueller report during phone conversation, says White House – as it happened

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Sarah Sanders says pair had ‘very good’ talk on Friday morning in which Venezuela was also discussed

Here’s an updated recap of today’s political news as we close out the Friday night live politics blog:

The president elaborated his complaints about conservative “censorship” on social media, highlighting his concerns about the treatment of Diamond and Silk, two online commenters who have been championed by Republicans for being black women who support Trump, James Woods, and Paul Watson, a British editor of Infowars, Alex Jones’ conspiracy site.

Trump appeared on Infowars, which has promoted multiple conspiracy theories, including the conspiracy that the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was a hoax, in 2015, and told host Alex Jones “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

The wonderful Diamond and Silk have been treated so horribly by Facebook. They work so hard and what has been done to them is very sad - and we’re looking into. It’s getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!

So surprised to see Conservative thinkers like James Woods banned from Twitter, and Paul Watson banned from Facebook! https://t.co/eHX3Z5CMXb

He is very very very very very very very very very very very obviously an extremist. https://t.co/4pK2klhbqi

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Pelosi says Barr lied to Congress: ‘That’s a crime’ – live

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House speaker criticized attorney general’s failure to show up for House hearing during her weekly press conference

President Trump is now touting a number of issues important to evangelical Christians, including ending the Johnson Amendment and saying “Merry Christmas.”

The Johnson Amendment prevented houses of worship with tax exempt status from endorsing political candidates. The Trump administration ended enforcement of that provision.

President Donald Trump is now speaking at the Rose Garden for the National Day of Prayer. Watch live here.

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Barr reportedly to skip House testimony after Senate grilling – live

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Trump’s attorney general testified before the Senate Wednesday after Mueller criticized his summary of the Trump-Russia investigation report

Here’s the full statement from House judiciary chair Jerry Nadler:

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler says if Attorney General William Barr doesn't provide the unredacted Mueller report to Congress in the next day or two, "the next step is seeking a contempt citation against the attorney general." https://t.co/muIkjgd0aT pic.twitter.com/s0q6kBctHw

Here’s attorney general William Barr’s full statement for why he won’t be testifying tomorrow before the House judiciary committee:

Barr’s statement makes clear that the sole basis for his refusal to testify before House Judiciary is that they intended to have a staff attorney ask questions.

Apparently Barr doesn’t want to face 30 minutes of well-crafted questions. pic.twitter.com/4pWMoFzKHp

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