Category Archives: Donald Trump

How will Trump pass ‘nuclear football’ to Biden if he’s not at swearing-in?

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Physical transfer of brief case containing nuclear attack plans has become part of inauguration ritual

It is a responsibility that has passed to every president since John F Kennedy – the custody of the so called “nuclear football” – the hardened brief case that is handed over on the day of the inauguration of new presidents by their predecessor.

The question being asked, given Trump’s almost unprecedented decision not to meet Joe Biden or attend his swearing in, is what will happen to the nuclear football?

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Melania Trump says ‘past four years have been unforgettable’ in recorded farewell speech – video

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The US first lady thanked Americans on Monday for the 'greatest honour of my life' in a recorded video she posted on Twitter.

Melania Trump said: 'The past four years have been unforgettable, as Donald and I conclude our time in the White House. I think of all of the people I have taken home in my heart and their incredible stories of love, patriotism and determination'

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Lights go out on Trump’s reality TV presidency but dark legacy remains

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For four years the outrages piled up so high they were hard to keep track of but the coronavirus pandemic proved to be one crisis he couldn’t bluster away

In a cold, sombre, damp Washington four years ago this Wednesday, Donald Trump took the oath of office as the 45th president of the United States and delivered an inaugural address now remembered for two words: American carnage.

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‘The Capitol riot was our Chernobyl’: James Comey on Trump, the ‘pee tape’ and Clinton’s emails

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The former FBI director was sickened and angered by the attack incited by the president. But has he come to terms with his part in getting him elected?

As an investigator turned author, James Comey has developed a forensic eye for detail. The colour of the curtains in the Oval Office. The length of Donald Trump’s tie. Something about the US president that the camera often misses.

“Donald Trump conveys a menace, a meanness in private that is not evident in most public views of him,” says Comey, a former director of the FBI, from his home in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC.

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Trump administration to deport man to Haiti who has never been there

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Financial consultant Paul Pierrilus came to the US with his parents, who are both US citizens, when he was five

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is to carry out a final deportation flight of the Trump era on Tuesday, with a plane bound for Haiti whose passengers include a man who is not a Haitian citizen, and who has never been there.

Paul Pierrilus, a 40-year-old financial consultant from Rockland County, New York, was born in the French Caribbean territory of Saint Martin, according to a birth certificate supplied by his family, who said he came to the US with his parents when he was five. His sister and parents are US citizens.

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Pink seesaws across US-Mexico border named Design of the Year 2020

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Creators say they hope the work encourages people to build bridges between communities

A collection of bright pink seesaws that allowed people to interact over the US-Mexico border has won the prestigious Design of the Year award, with its creators saying they hoped the work encourages people to build bridges between communities.

The Teeter Totter Wall, which bridged across El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico during a 40-minute session, was described as not only feeling “symbolically important” but also highlighting “the possibility of things” by the judging panel.

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US Capitol on security lockdown ahead of Biden inauguration – video

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The tightest security measures in recent memory are in place in Washington, two days ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the US.

25,000 National Guard soldiers from across the east coast are stationed in the city. The streets around the Capitol remain eerily empty as all but the most determined protesters have stayed away after the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol on 6 January. 

The FBI has vetted all troops who are guarding the event because of fears of an insider attack at the inauguration. 

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Trump to hold early morning sendoff ceremony on Biden inauguration day

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Outgoing president has issued invites for event taking place in Maryland at 8am on Wednesday

Donald Trump is planning an early morning sendoff event for himself at a military airfield in Maryland on Wednesday several hours before his successor, Joe Biden, is inaugurated as the 46th US president at the Capitol in Washington DC.

For his last presidential ceremony, Trump reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair.

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Biden inauguration: Trump expected to issue flurry of pardons before leaving office – live

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Nearly a month after the presidential election, former attorney general Bill Barr told Donald Trump that his repeated claims of a stolen election were “bullshit,” according to a new report in Axios.

Per Axios, the exchange unfolded in the Oval Office, where Trump summoned Barr for a meeting after seeing a story by the Associated Press in which his attorney general told the agency there was evidence of widespread voter fraud in the presidential election.

Steve Dillingham, the director of the US census, is resigning effective on Wednesday, according to Talking Points Memo’s Tierney Sneed. That’s ahead of the end of Dillingham’s term and comes as he faces calls to resign.

Per Sneed:

Census Director Steve Dillingham will be stepping down on Jan. 20, cutting short by nearly a year the five-year director term, which was scheduled to expire on Dec 31.

Dillingham announced his resignation plans in an internal Census Bureau email obtained by TPM.

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FBI vets thousands of troops amid fears of insider attack on Biden inauguration

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  • Extra checks to prevent repeat of 6 January attack on Capitol
  • National guard plays down fears of extremism within ranks
  • US politics – live coverage

Thousands of military personnel guarding Joe Biden’s inauguration as US president on Wednesday are being vetted by the FBI amid fears of an insider attack.

Related: Texas woman who attacked Capitol says she was following Trump's orders

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How the Republican voter fraud lie paved the way for Trump to undermine Biden’s presidency

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Trump has accelerated a deliberate strategy by Republicans to weaken faith in elections by making it harder to vote

When an American president is inaugurated, it’s supposed to mark the height of American democracy and power. The elaborate ceremony is designed to convey the peaceful transfer of power and that no matter how bitter the election, the nation is moving on.

Related: Trump official admits family separation policy 'should never have been implemented'

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Tense calm in Washington as small pro-Trump groups gather at state capitols across US – live

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The FBI announced that authorities had arrested the guitarist of heavy metal band Iced Earth in connection to the Capitol riot.

Jon Schaffer was allegedly among those who sprayed Capitol police with bear spray.

Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection to Jan 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Schaffer faces 6 charges including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with "bear spray."

Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada, has responded to the report that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.

“The Keystone XL pipeline represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now,” he writes.

I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.

My full statement: pic.twitter.com/vZjun1IdMH

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Biden will appeal for unity as US braces for violence by Trump supporters

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Joe Biden will deliver a message of national unity when he assumes the presidency on Wednesday, seeking to begin healing a country fractured by the acrimony of Donald Trump’s administration and ongoing threats of violence by his supporters.

Related: America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?

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Trump heads for new life in Florida, marking end of an era in New York

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The born-and-raised New Yorker seems ready to leave the city in which he made his name – and few will mourn his departure

When Donald Trump leaves the White House on 20 January, reports indicate that he will not return to his home town of New York City but rather, reside at his Mar-a-Lago home in south Florida. Indeed, Trump formally changed his residency to the so-called Sunshine State in fall 2019.

Related: Washington and state capitols brace for violence from armed Trump supporters

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Unscrupulous and aggressive, Pompeo plans to be the next Trump – but smarter

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The secretary of state has laid political booby traps for Biden in a diplomatic onslaught – with the aim of winning the White House

While all eyes are on Donald Trump and his Capitol Hill mob, a would-be heir and successor is running riot all by himself, storming citadels, wagging the flag and breaking china. No, it’s not Donald Jr, or Ivanka, or Ted Cruz, and certainly not poor, conflicted Mike Pence.

Mike Pompeo may not strike many people as presidential material. But Trump lowered the bar. Make no mistake. America’s snarly, bully-boy secretary of state is focusing not on Joe Biden’s inauguration this week but on how to beat him or any other Democrat in 2024.

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America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?

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The US is riven with stark inequalities, rising white supremacist terror and large numbers who believe the election was stolen. The new administration faces a truly daunting challenge

In another age, Joe Biden’s promise to heal the nation might have been regarded as the kind of blandishment expected from any new leader taking power after the divisive cut and thrust of an American election.

Related: Biden must find words for a wounded nation in inauguration like no other

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We’re on the verge of breakdown: a data scientist’s take on Trump and Biden

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Peter Turchin, an entomologist-turned-historian, offers insight into the battle between elites

Peter Turchin is not the first entomologist to cross over to human behaviour: during a lecture in 1975, famed biologist E O Wilson had a pitcher of water tipped on him for extrapolating the study of ant social structures to our own.

It’s a reaction that Turchin, an expert-on-pine-beetles-turned-data-scientist and modeller, has yet to experience. But his studies at the University of Connecticut into how human societies evolve have lately gained wider currency; in particular, an analysis that interprets worsening social unrest in the 2020s as an intra-elite battle for wealth and status.

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Historians having to tape together records that Trump tore up

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Implications for public record and legal proceedings after administration seized or destroyed papers, notes and other information

The public will not see Donald Trump’s White House records for years, but there is growing concern the collection will never be complete – leaving a hole in the history of one of America’s most tumultuous presidencies.

Trump has been cavalier about the law requiring that records be preserved. He has a habit of ripping up documents before tossing them out, forcing White House workers to spend hours taping them back together.

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‘I feel wronged’: US Capitol rioter asks Donald Trump for pardon after arrest – video

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Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker who took a private jet to Washington to join the attack on the US Capitol, pleaded with Donald Trump to pardon her after she was arrested by federal authorities. Ryan said she thought she was following what her president ‘asked us to do’ and that she had been 'displaying my patriotism' in travelling to Washington DC, where she filmed herself entering the Capitol building. 'I'm facing a prison sentence,' she told CBS 11 News at her home in Dallas. 'I do not deserve that'

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Keir Starmer outlines ‘optimistic’ future for UK with Biden as president

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Labour leader uses first address on foreign policy since taking office to build bridges with US and EU

Sir Keir Starmer has set out his “optimistic” vision for a wide-ranging new relationship with the US under Joe Biden.

Speaking before Biden’s inauguration on 20 January, Starmer said he was “incredibly optimistic about the new relationship we can build” and that Britain must once again be “the bridge between the US and the rest of Europe”.

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