Category Archives: Donald Trump

Biden says ‘America is back’ at the head of the table – but is that a good thing?

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After four years of Trump, many diplomats are hopeful – but US critics say the idea of a return to a ‘golden age’ is a delusion

For most of the world’s diplomats, Joe Biden’s foreign policy slogan “America is Back” is no metaphor.

On global issues from climate change, to non-proliferation and human rights, the US under the Trump administration had literally gathered up its papers and pens and left the meeting room. Biden’s election victory and choice of committed internationalists to lead the foreign policy team, means that there will actually be someone sitting in what has been an empty chair.

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Obama: Republican portrayal of white men as ‘victims’ helped Trump win votes – video

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Barack Obama has said part of the reason more than 73 million Americans voted to re-elect Donald Trump in the election was because of messaging from Republicans that the country was under attack – particularly white men.

In an interview with the radio show the Breakfast Club on Wednesday to promote his new memoir A Promised Land, Obama said Trump’s administration, which he did not name directly, 'objectively has failed, miserably, in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe', and yet he still secured millions of votes

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President pranked as comedians snap up Trump 2024 domain

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  • Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler buy DonaldJTrump2024.com
  • Trump yet to formally concede despite losing to Joe Biden

Donald Trump’s bid to retake the presidency in 2024 has been launched – by two comedians.

“We got the domain DonaldJTrump2024.com,” comics Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler, AKA The Good Liars, wrote on Twitter.

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Putting Trump behind us is like exiting an abusive relationship: it takes time

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Under Trump many had a ‘collective hypervigilance and anxiety of what he might do next’, experts say – so how do we unpack these past four years?

For millions of Americans and nervous election viewers around the world, the month of November has been a seesaw of emotions. Tentatively able to envision a life outside the Trump shadow, many could finally name the mental, emotional and physical toll the past four years have had on them, reflecting on the feelings of depression, insomnia, restlessness and anxiety that, for them, have defined the president’s term in office for so many.

Emboldened by the promise that in a few short months they would no longer have to live in fear of a national security-threatening tweet or Fox News-induced meltdown, millions of people are beginning to process their feelings.

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Iranian president upbeat about relations with Biden-led US

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Hassan Rouhani tells Tehran cabinet he hopes US will ‘condemn Trump policies against Iran’ and lift sanctions

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said on Wednesday it would be easy to solve the country’s problems with the US so long as Joe Biden stuck to the commitments he made on the campaign trail.

Rouhani’s optimistic remarks to a weekly cabinet contrasted with a speech the day before by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which sketched out a more difficult path to normalisation and the lifting of sanctions.

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Biden to address nation as Covid deaths rise sharply before Thanksgiving – live

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Brian Slodysko and Richard Larner at the Associated Press have this morning written up the nuts and bolts of an issue that looks like it will dog Sen. David Perdue in the build-up to January’s critical Georgia Senate run-off races.

They remind us that back in March as the coronavirus pandemic impacted the economy the crisis signalled something else for him: a stock buying opportunity.

Here’s a (very) little more detail on what we might expect from the Trump legal team and local lawmakers in Gettysburg today.

It’s still not officially confirmed that Trump is going – asked for comment about his plans, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN, “I’d refer you to the public schedule. I have no additional updates at this time.”

State and local election officials have said there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and both a federal court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have dismissed lawsuits seeking to prevent the state from certifying the results of the election. Pennsylvania officially certified the results on Tuesday, sealing Biden’s win in the key battleground state.

The meeting is being organized by the Pennsylvania state Senate GOP, which is holding it at a hotel – not at the state Capitol.

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Donald Trump pardons former national security adviser Michael Flynn – as it happened

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That’s all for today!

Here’s a recap:

Barack Obama said part of the reason 73 million Americans voted to re-elect Donald Trump in the election was because of messaging from Republicans that the country, particularly white men, are under attack.

In an interview with the radio show the Breakfast Club on Wednesday to promote his new memoir A Promised Land, Obama said Trump’s administration, which he did not name directly, “objectively has failed, miserably, in handling just basic looking after the American people and keeping them safe”, and yet he still secured millions of votes.

Related: Obama: Republicans portraying white men as 'victims' helped Trump win votes

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Trump’s coup failed – but US democracy has been given a scare

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The president pulled every lever to stay in power. It didn’t work, but how would the US handle a closer election?

In the end, the coup did not take place. In the most grudging manner possible, Donald Trump signalled on Monday night that the transition of power could begin.

That, a White House official told reporters, was as close as Trump will probably ever come to concession, but the machinery of transition has gathered momentum. Joe Biden’s incoming administration now has a government internet domain, is being briefed by government agencies and is due to receive federal funding.

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‘Will you pardon yourself?’: Trump ignores questions after pardoning turkey – video

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Appearing with first lady Melania Trump in front of the White House, the president made brief remarks thanking healthcare workers and researchers working on a Covid-19 vaccine.

According to tradition, two turkeys named Corn and Cob stayed at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel before the official ceremony. After an online poll, Corn was chosen to be pardoned.

Trump did not take questions at the event, and ignored a shouted question about whether he was considering pardoning himself.

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris announce first cabinet picks of their administration – live

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Minnesota has certified Joe Biden’s win in the state in the presidential election, following Pennsylvania and Nevada earlier today.

Minnesota was part of the smashed up so-called Blue Wall that fell to Donald Trump in 2016, as he won Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Minnesota Canvassing Board certifies result of the 2020 election, will be digitally signed after meeting:

Joe Biden won presidential race in state
Tina Smith won re-election to Senate
U.S. House seats split 4 to 4 among parties
MN Senate in GOP control
MN House in DFL hands https://t.co/7ISbOMubtM

New: Republicans in Wisconsin (the Trump campaign is not a party) filed an emergency petition in the state Supreme Court to stop the final certification of election results (HT @DemocracyDocket for the filing, screenshot of docket below) https://t.co/ZFwxvd0VTC pic.twitter.com/XqRRZCJduK

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may soon shorten the length of self-quarantine period after potential exposure to the coronavirus, a top official said this afternoon.

Health authorities currently recommend a 14-day quarantine in order to curb transmission of the virus but an official said today that there is evidence that the period could be shortened if patients are tested for the virus during their quarantine, Reuters reports.

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Trump fails to answer questions or formally concede in bizarre 90-second briefing – video

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Donald Trump and Mike Pence appeared in the White House briefing room for less than two minutes for Trump to tout the stock market’s good day - despite Trump having not taken a question from reporters in about three weeks.

There was almost no notice of the briefing. CNN’s Jim Acosta said White House staff were suddenly shouting at journalists to get into their seats because the president wanted to walk into the briefing room. After Trump’s departure, a reporter was heard to say: ‘Well, that was weird as shit’.

The General Services Administration on Monday declared Joe Biden the apparent winner of the US election, clearing the way for the formal transition to begin, after weeks of Trump refusing to concede, violating the traditions of the transition of power at the White House

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Trump agrees to begin transition as key agency calls Biden apparent election winner

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President says he will continue to fight results as General Services Administration clears way for handover

The General Services Administration has declared president-elect Joe Biden the apparent winner of the US election, clearing the way for the formal transition from Donald Trump’s administration to begin after weeks of delay.

The GSA said on Monday that it had determined that Biden was the winner of the 3 November race after weeks of Trump refusing to concede and violating the traditions of the transition of power at the White House.

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Michigan certifies Biden’s victory despite Trump’s efforts to undermine it

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Board of state canvassers confirms 154,000-vote victory in 3-0 vote with one abstention

Michigan election officials on Monday certified Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in the state amid president Donald Trump’s brazen attempts to subvert the results of the election.

The board of state canvassers, which has two Republicans and two Democrats, confirmed the results on a 3-0 vote with one abstention. Allies of Trump and the losing Republican Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in heavily Democratic Wayne county, home to Detroit.

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Obama addresses ‘damage done’ by Trump on foreign policy – video

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Barack Obama said the Trump administration's foreign relations had inflicted 'damage' upon America, and that it would take time for the country's reputation to be restored. Obama expressed confidence in a new Biden administration, but cautioned change would not happen immediately

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Bernstein names 21 Republican senators who privately expressed contempt for Trump

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  • Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Chuck Grassley are listed
  • Senators’ ‘craven public silence helped enable Trump’

The veteran Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein has publicly named 21 Republican senators he says have “repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for [Donald] Trump and his fitness” for office.

As Trump continued to try to subvert the results of a presidential election he clearly lost to Joe Biden, Bernstein said on Twitter he was “not violating any pledge of journalistic confidentially [sic]”.

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Saudis may stall on Trump’s Middle East peace plan now he’s on the way out

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The Palestinians are hoping a Biden presidency will slow the growing rapport between Saudi Arabia and Israel

During the last year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the question of whether Saudi Arabia would make peace with Israel had come down to a question of when.

The terms of such a deal were more or less agreed during Trump’s tumultuous term, thrashed out between his envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and the kingdom’s effective ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, who held a very different view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from other Saudi leaders.

Their outlook centred on Iran rather than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict being the centre of the region’s dysfunction. And Israel, they agreed, could help, not hinder, progress on that score. Prince Mohammed eschewed his father and uncles’ views that a return to 1967 lines was a starting point for peace, in favour of the Kushner line that Palestinian leaders had caused talks to stagnate.

Ties warmed quickly, especially from May 2017, when Saudi Arabia received Trump as a conquering hero after he overturned the nuclear deal with Tehran and reorientated Washington’s focus to Riyadh.

The secret channels used to communicate between the kingdom and Israel were discarded. So was the need for mediators, as Saudi officials made regular visits to Tel Aviv and vice versa. Denials of such trips were replaced by hints that they had taken place. Then came peace deals with Saudi allies, the UAE and Bahrain, and now a visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to Prince Mohammed on Saudi soil that Israel didn’t bother to disguise.

Despite a flight path visible on flight tracking sites, which showed the arrival of Netanyahu’s preferred charter jet on the shores of the Red Sea city of Neom, Riyadh responded with a pro forma denial.

There to meet the Israeli prime minister on the shores of the Red Sea was outgoing US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on a mission to finalise as much as he can before he loses his job in eight weeks. Securing a peace pact is something Pompeo, Kushner and Trump have desperately pushed for and such a deal would indeed be seismic in the Middle East, where many are nervously awaiting its impact.

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Trump’s US investment ban aims to cement tough-on-China legacy

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Move is latest chapter in deteriorating relationship with Beijing and improvement under Joe Biden is unlikely

Donald Trump has banned US investment in a further 89 Chinese companies, and reportedly sent a navy admiral to Taiwan, as he seeks to secure a tough-on-China foreign policy legacy.

Multiple media outlets have reported plans by the Trump administration for a series of confrontations with China before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, and the moves were largely expected. Foreign policy and political analysts believe Trump wants to leave a legacy of being tough on China, while simultaneously conducting a “scorched earth” policy on his way out of the White House.

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Egypt cracking down harder on human rights groups, experts say

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Three members of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights detained over ‘fake news’

Emboldened Egyptian security forces have stepped up their crackdown on human rights groups with a series of unprecedented recent moves triggering widespread alarm, experts are warning.

Last week the head of a leading human rights organisation and two of its staff members were detained after the group met with foreign diplomats in Cairo.

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Gary Younge on minority voters and the future of the Republican party – podcast

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A look at the history of US voting rights and what the changing demographics of the country mean for Republicans

Black and Latino voters overwhelmingly favoured the Democrats in the 2020 US election. Without their huge margins in key states, Joe Biden could not have won, the journalist Gary Younge tells Anushka Asthana. By 2045, white voters will be in the minority. These changing demographics are a concern for the Republican party. In 2013, just a year after turnout rates for black voters surpassed those for white voters for the first time, the supreme court gutted the Voting Rights Act, which affected poor, young and minority voters.

It’s important to remember, Gary tells Anushka, that the US was a slave state for more than 200 years; and an apartheid state, after the abolition of slavery, for another century. It has only been a non-racial democracy for 55 years. And that now hangs in the balance. If Biden does not produce something transformative, the disillusionment among voters may grow and people may once again look for someone who can disrupt the status quo, which is how Donald Trump won in 2016.

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Trump faces pressure from Republicans to drop ‘corrosive’ fight to overturn election

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  • John Bolton: Trump is ‘throwing rocks through windows’
  • HR McMaster: Trump’s actions sowing doubt among electorate

Donald Trump faced growing pressure from Republicans on Sunday to drop his chaotic, last-ditch fight to overturn the US presidential election, as victor Joe Biden prepared to start naming his cabinet and a Pennsylvania judge compared Trump’s legal case there to “Frankenstein’s monster”.

Despite Republican leadership in Washington standing behind the president’s claims that the 3 November election was stolen from him by nationwide voter fraud, other prominent figures, including two of his former national security advisers, were blunt.

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