Corker’s careful balancing act on Trump knocked off kilter

Sen. Bob Corker refuses to say whether he'll seek a third term, but he has carefully said and done all the right things to avoid provoking a spirited primary challenge next year. The Tennessee Republican has limited public appearances back home largely to friendly civic clubs and chambers of commerce meetings, where he can regale members with tales of his pro-business agenda and blunt assessments of congressional dysfunction - all the while steering clear of direct criticism of President Donald Trump.

Lindsey Graham says that Trump’s recent behavior isn’t…

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said that there's "nothing crazy" about President Donald Trump's recent string of bombastic tweets and comments. Appearing on MSNBC's Hugh Hewitt Show , Graham said that Trump was "not the first president to use the bully pulpit to try to push the country in a particular direction."

The Obama Era Deficit Scolds All Want Big Tax Cuts NowFix the Debt is now fixina to get paid.

One of the unnoticed ways in which American politics has changed under Donald Trump is the quiet disappearance of the budget deficit as a fixation of the news media and the business and political elite. During Barack Obama's two terms in office, terror about deficits positively consumed the discourse.

Navajo leader relieved no monuments eliminated

He says his tribe that has the largest American Indian reservation is willing to be patient with the monument review because it worked for years to help get Bears Ears National Monument in Utah designated as a national monument. Begaye adds: ``We are very hopeful the secretary listened to our people, to our leaders, to our medicine people, to our elders and he will take all those comments to heart and leave the monument as is.'

Trump rage-tweets at ‘lying’ ex-DNI Clapper for questioning his mental stability

President Donald Trump was very busy tweeting on Thursday, as he lashed out at former President Barack Obama, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and even the leaders of his own party . In Clapper's case, the president took issue with his recent decision to publicly question Trump's mental fitness to be in the Oval Office.

General Kelly Commands the White House, But He Can’t Control Trump

Since retired Marine Corps General John Kelly started as White House chief of staff last month, President Donald Trump has added a routine caveat before approving proposals advisers place before him: Check with "The General" before moving ahead. It's a marked departure from Trump's instinct to manage around Kelly's predecessor, Reince Priebus.

Trump’s science envoy quits with scathing letter and a hidden message

'Particularly troubling to me is how your response to Charlottesville is consistent with a broader pattern of behavior that enables sexism and racism, and disregards the welfare of all Americans,' Daniel Kammen wrote as he quit the post President Donald Trump walks from Marine One across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, as he returns from Reno, Nev. Daniel Kammen, a renewable energy expert appointed last year as a science envoy to the State Department, resigned Wednesday, citing President Donald Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, as the final straw that led to his departure.

VA reform laws are rare legislative bright spot in 2017 for Trump, Congress

As President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed another bill into law that was designed to make internal reforms at the Department of Veterans Affairs, it was a fresh reminder that one of the few areas of legislative success for Congress and the Trump Administration in 2017 has come on a subject that has drawn strong bipartisan cooperation, with the simple goal of ensuring better treatment for the nation's veterans. "To fulfill our great patriotic duties, we must take care of our great veterans," the President said in a speech to the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, where he later signed into law a bill that modernizes the benefits claims appeals process at the VA, to help speed decisions for veterans.

White House Preparing Rules for Military’s Transgender Ban

A rainbow flag flies as people protest U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military, in Times Square, in New York City, New York, July 26, 2017. The White House is expected to soon give the Pentagon guidance on implementing President Donald Trump's order to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak and US President Donald Trump. Photos: AP and Reuters

The US Justice Department has been conducting a criminal probe of 1Malaysia Development Berhad , a fund founded by Najib Razak US President Donald Trump plans to meet Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is embroiled in a corruption scandal at home, on September 12 at the White House, officials from both countries confirmed on Thursday. The US Justice Department has been conducting a criminal probe of 1Malaysia Development Berhad , a fund founded by Najib, which is facing money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore.

Nuclear Apocalypse: Trump and Kim Should Not Hold the World Hostage

Not too far away from Seattle, Washington there are eight ballistic-missile submarines carrying the world's large shipments of nuclear weapons. The 560-foot-long black submarines are docked at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, hauling what is described by Rick Anderson in a recent Los Angeles Times article as "the largest concentration of deployed nuclear weapons in the US."

D.C. news briefs

Egypt's president and foreign minister met with White House adviser Jared Kushner hours after the Trump administration cut or delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Cairo over human rights concerns. Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump's son-in-law, was in Cairo as part of a Middle East tour aimed at exploring ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

WSJ: Transgender military ban coming soon

The White House will send guidance to the Pentagon on President Donald Trump's transgender military ban -- including instructions to reject transgender applicants -- "in coming days," The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night, citing unnamed US officials familiar with the matter. Among the memo's directions: The military is to stop admitting transgender people; and for current transgender troops, the Pentagon should consider a service member's ability to deploy when determining whether to expel them, the newspaper reported, citing the officials.

Trump’s still campaigning when he needs to govern

At the end of last year's presidential campaign, a sufficient number of voters in just the right places elected Donald Trump to go shoot up Washington and fundamentally change the way it operates. In fact, 30 weeks after he took office Trump is still shooting wild words and tweets at most anyone who criticizes him, hints at criticizing him or just moves.