President says caliphate ‘ready to fall’ and US doesn’t want to watch ‘fighters permeate Europe’
Donald Trump has asked his European allies to “take back over 800” Islamic State fighters captured in Syria and put them on trial.
“The Caliphate is ready to fall,” the US president said in a tweet. “The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them ...”
Continue reading...Former Fox News host says she is not going ahead with appointment for family reasons
The state department says Donald Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert, has withdrawn.
The department released a statement on Saturday evening Washington time saying Nauert had withdrawn and another nominee would be announced “soon”.
Continue reading...The US vice-president rebuked European powers over Iran and Venezuela on Saturday, in a renewed attack on traditional US allies, rejecting a call by Germany’s chancellor to include Russia in global cooperation efforts. Describing the results of Donald Trump’s presidency as 'remarkable' and 'extraordinary', Pence told senior European and Asian officials that the European Union should follow the US in quitting the Iran nuclear deal and recognising the head of Venezuela’s congress, Juan Guaidó, as president
Pence hails 'remarkable, extraordinary' Trump tenure in attack on US allies
Continue reading...President said potential delay was justified as deal ‘must be the biggest in history’
President Donald Trump has conceded that he will delay planned increases in import duties on $200bn (£155bn) of Chinese goods if there is progress in trade talks in Washington next week.
Appearing to soften his demand for talks to conclude before 1 March, Trump said there could be a 30- or 60-day extension, should negotiators get closer to a deal. He said a delay was justified, based on the scope and scale of the talks. Speaking on the White House lawn, he said: “Trade with China – how big does that get? It must be the biggest deal in history.”
Continue reading...Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said Donald Trump has indicated he’s prepared to sign a funding bill that will prevent another government shutdown but will also declare a national emergency on America’s border with Mexico. That move could allow him to circumvent Congress to tap funding for his long-promised border wall that has been at the centre of a fierce dispute with Democrats who say such a barrier is expensive and ineffective. Lawmakers of both parties have raised concerns.
Trump to declare national emergency on border wall, says Mitch McConnell
Ex-acting FBI director said there were meetings to discuss whether president could be removed under 25th amendment
Former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe has said top Trump administration officials talked seriously about removing Donald Trump from office just months after he become president.
Related: Rosenstein did not want to write memo justifying Comey firing – new book
Continue reading...The Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar had a heated exchange with the Trump administration’s special envoy to Venezuela over his record in Latin America.
The Minnesota representative pressed Elliott Abrams – a former Reagan administration official – on his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal
Continue reading...Donald Trump has suggested he is open to a compromise border security measure that would avert another US government shutdown as the House pushed toward a vote on the agreement before the funding deadline expires on Friday.
Republicans and Democrats have broadly embraced the proposed legislation, but have cautioned that they will wait to see the final text of the bill, which includes far less funding than Trump initially sought for his wall along the border with Mexico.
Continue reading...Annunciation House shelter still receives calls each week about new cases of separations in El Paso, legal coordinator said
The Trump administration is still tearing young children away from their parents when they cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully, despite formally ending the policy of family separations last summer, according to immigration advocates in Texas.
Related: 'Inexplicable cruelty': US government sued over family separations at border
Continue reading...Eight immigrant families seek $6m each for children’s lasting trauma of Trump administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy
Lawyers for eight immigrant families separated under Trump administration policy have filed claims against the US government, demanding $6m each in damages for what they describe as “inexplicable cruelty” and lasting trauma.
Related: US family separation crisis – in pictures
Continue reading...Bipartisan negotiators are running out of time to reach a deal over Trump’s demand for a border wall
Bipartisan negotiators in Washington are running out of time to reach a deal over Donald Trump’s demand for a border wall after talks stalled, raising the prospect of another government shutdown starting on Friday.
Leaders from both main parties sitting on a 17-strong negotiating panel must reach a deal over the disputed border security issue by Monday if there is to be time for Congress to pass legislation and Trump to sign it before the latest deadline of 15 February. Should they fail to reach agreement within hours, federal agencies, already exhausted after the 35-day shutdown that ended last month having impacted 800,000 federal employees, will yet again start to close from Friday at midnight.
Continue reading...Acting attorney general will be first Trump cabinet official to be brought before panel led by Democrats
A look at the front page of the Detroit Free Press memorializing John Dingell, the legendary US congressman who passed away on Thursday.
Ivanka Trump has said she knew “almost nothing” about the prospective Trump Tower project in Moscow that her father was pursuing during 2016 presidential election.
“We were an active business,” Trump said during an interview that aired Friday on ABC’s Good Morning America, while adding her knowledge of the project amounted to “literally almost nothing”.
EXCLUSIVE: Ivanka Trump has "zero concern" about special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. https://t.co/4raDLDD6Xh pic.twitter.com/R18v6BW7gW
Continue reading...Trump adviser said a woman approached her in a Mexican restaurant ‘screaming her head off’ in October 2018
Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, has given an account of an alleged assault she suffered and her teenage daughter witnessed when she was grabbed by an angry woman in a restaurant last year.
Related: Rosenstein did not want to write memo justifying Comey firing – new book
Continue reading...Hopes raised for potential deal, reports suggest, to avert another government shutdown when bill expires on 15 February
The NAACP is urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject judicial nominees who refused to say that Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that ended segregation in schools, was rightly decided.
A number of Trump judicial nominees considered by Senate Judiciary Committee today refused to say Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. For us, that is disqualifying. We urge the Senate to vote NO.
Georgia Rep. Rob Woodall will not seek re-election, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. It’s a seat likely to be targeted by Democrats.
Breaking: #GA07 Rep. Rob Woodall (R), who won by just 419 votes last fall, to retire. Doesn't change @CookPolitical's Toss Up rating, but does vault #GA07 to the very top of Dems' list of pickup opportunities. https://t.co/XS4PeDhFrA
Continue reading...Plea deal, involving attorney who became Trump’s labor secretary, saw financier avoid severe penalty for abusing girls
The justice department has opened an investigation into federal prosecutors’ handling of a plea deal in which a wealthy, politically connected Florida financier avoided potentially severe penalties for sexually abusing teenage girls in favor of a relatively light state conviction.
The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility wrote in a letter Wednesday to the Republican senator Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, that it would examine whether professional misconduct occurred in the highly publicized case of Jeffrey Epstein. The letter cited a series of recent articles by the Miami Herald that focused new attention on how the deal came about.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has delivered his second State of the Union address, calling for bipartisan unity before taking aim at ‘ridiculous partisan investigations’, while continuing his demand for a US-Mexico border wall. Female Democrat members attended the speech dressed in white, in a tribute to the women's suffrage movement
Continue reading...Exhibit shows a Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to throw crumbs for her to clean up
A new art exhibit at a Washington DC museum shows an Ivanka Trump lookalike pushing a vacuum cleaner and invites spectators to toss crumbs for her to clean up.
The art piece by Jennifer Rubell, Ivanka Vacuuming, opened on 1 February and continues through 17 February at the Flashpoint Gallery. The public is encouraged to “throw crumbs on to the carpet, watching as Ivanka elegantly vacuums up the mess, her smile never wavering”.
Continue reading...Trump will tout economic strength and border security as he faces an audience with an unprecedented number of women and high degree of skepticism
Donald Trump will attempt to reboot his presidency on Tuesday with a State of the Union address that will tout economic strength and border security – but he will face an audience with an unprecedented number of women and a high degree of scepticism.
Halfway into his term, having just endured a drubbing in November’s congressional elections and after prompting the longest government shutdown in US history, Trump will seek to regain momentum by calling on Congress to come together on infrastructure projects and his trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
Continue reading...We are 11 days away from another potential government shutdown and three days into the political crisis in Virginia
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is hitting the fundraising circuit for the Ohio Republican Party.
New: @CLewandowski_ will be raising money for the Ohio Republican Party in Youngstown, Cleveland, and Sandusky, Ohio, later this month.
Axios obtained President Donald Trump’s private schedules on Sunday which show that a majority of his day is left in unstructured “executive time.”
The unprecedented leak shows Trump’s unique governing style. In contrast to past presidents who had tightly regimented schedules, Trump has much of the day open for freewheeling phone conversations, private meetings and, of course, time watching cable news.
What a disgraceful breach of trust to leak schedules. What these don’t show are the hundreds of calls and meetings @realDonaldTrump takes everyday. This POTUS is working harder for the American people than anyone in recent history. https://t.co/n1HrxmCsiB
Continue reading...In interview with reporter, embattled president gives two messages. In the first, he tells Donald Trump he will leave the White House ‘stained with blood’ if he pursues a military intervention in Venezuela. In the second, after the reporter calls Juan Guaidó’s phone and it goes to voicemail, Maduro tells his challenger he ‘should stop this coup-mongering strategy’
Continue reading...