Category Archives: Donald Trump

Mitch McConnell says ‘no realistic path’ for $2,000 relief checks bill

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Attempts by Donald Trump and Democrats for bigger coronavirus relief checks fade in the Senate

Donald Trump’s demand for $2,000 relief checks to Americans struggling financially with the pandemic was all but dead after Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday that a proposal from Democrats had “no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate”.

Declaring that he would not be “bullied” by Democrats into quickly approving the measure, McConnell effectively denied a final request for legislative action by the president in the waning days of his administration.

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Biden and Harris to campaign in Georgia as Trump calls on its governor to quit

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Democrats and Republicans are deploying their big guns for the state’s runoff elections that will decide who controls the Senate

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will travel to Georgia to campaign for next week’s high-stakes Senate runoff elections, it was announced on Wednesday, as Donald Trump called on the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to resign.

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How Trump turned his 2020 TV appearances into one big reality show

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Television cameras tend to bring out the performer in the president, no matter how inappropriate the context

As we look back at the Trump presidency, it often feels like America has endured four years of reality TV – with its leader as a main contestant.

Related: Infinity culture war: what now for Trump's Hollywood supporters?

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House Republicans join Democrats to override Trump’s veto of defence bill – video

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Donald Trump suffered fresh humiliation on Monday when more than 100 Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to override his veto of a $741bn defence bill. If, as expected, the Senate follows suit this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency, which has only three weeks left to run. The National Defense Authorization Act, which funds service members’ pay, overseas military operations and other needs, has been passed by Congress every year since 1967. Trump exercised his veto last week, returning the bill with objections including its proposal to change the names of 10 military bases honouring Confederate leaders.

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Newt Gingrich: Democrats are trying to ‘brainwash the entire next generation’

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The 77-year-old Republican former House speaker says Trump will ‘remain a dominant figure for a fairly long period of time’

Some blame Donald Trump. Others blame social media. And those with longer memories blame Newt Gingrich for carving up America into blue states and red states racked by mutual fear, suspicion and alienation.

As speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, the Republican arguably did more anyone else to sow the seeds of division in Washington. “Newt Gingrich turned partisan battles into bloodsport, wrecked Congress, and paved the way for Trump’s rise,” reflected the Atlantic magazine in 2018.

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House Republicans join with Democrats to override Trump’s veto of defence bill

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If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency

Donald Trump suffered fresh humiliation on Monday when more than a hundred Republicans joined Democrats in the House of Representatives to override his veto of a $741bn defence bill.

If, as expected, the Senate follows suit later this week, it will be Congress’s first such rebuke of his presidency, which has only three weeks left to run.

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Covid vaccines and $600 payments: key provisions in the US stimulus bill

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The coronavirus relief bill has finally been signed into law by Donald Trump. Here’s a look at what’s in the 5,000-page package

Donald Trump signed the new Covid-19 stimulus package into law on Sunday night, suddenly giving into pressure from Congress after calling the legislation a “disgrace” days earlier.

Related: Dow hits record high after Trump belatedly signs Covid relief bill

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Alternative facts, witch-hunt, bigly: the Trump era in 32 words and phrases

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His rally speeches and manic Twitter feed conjured new slogans and insults or revived incendiary words

Donald Trump not only changed much about campaigning, governing and the ways of Washington, even the language of American politics has altered during the Republican’s tenure. Trump’s rollicking rally speeches and manic Twitter feed conjured new slogans and insults or revived incendiary words with long histories; his allies, opponents and chroniclers searched for new phrases to describe the indescribable. Here is a glossary of some of them from the past five years:

alternative facts

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Donald Trump signs Covid-19 relief and spending bill

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Move comes after Republicans voiced anger over the delay, which resulted in millions of Americans losing unemployment aid

Donald Trump has signed the Covid-19 relief and spending bill after days of delays, preventing a mid-pandemic government shutdown.

The announcement on Sunday night came after Republicans urged him to act following his refusal to sign the bill, a decision that meant millions of Americans lost unemployment aid.

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Millions lose benefits as Trump refuses to sign Covid relief package

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11 million people will lose aid from expiration of unemployment programs as Trump heads to the golf course instead of signing bill

Millions of Americans battling the financial hardships of the coronavirus pandemic lost their unemployment benefits on Sunday as Donald Trump continued to refuse to sign a relief package agreed in Congress and headed instead to the golf course.

The president’s belligerence over the bipartisan Covid relief and spending bill, that would have extended the benefits and given direct cash payments to most American families, drew the ire of senior Republicans, who accused Trump of inflicting more misery on citizens.

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Trump continues to block pandemic relief package as shutdown looms

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The president indicated he may veto the 5,000-page bill that he calls a ‘disgrace’ which would extend benefits to Americans

As unemployment benefits were due to expire for millions of Americans on Saturday, Donald Trump, who spent Christmas playing golf in Florida, continued to block a $900bn pandemic relief bill that would extend them.

The package, which Congress passed with bipartisan support on Monday after months of negotiations, would keep unemployment benefits in place until March and expand state benefits by $300 a week – as well as extending an evictions moratorium, providing federal loans to small businesses and $600 direct payments to many Americans.

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Critics fear Trump could pressure William Barr’s successor for big favors

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Former DoJ officials say they are worried Trump will lean on acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen for potentially risky favors

William Barr’s abrupt move to leave his post as attorney general this week has spurred fears among Department of Justice veterans that Donald Trump will put new pressures on Barr’s successor to do him big and potentially risky political and legal favors.

Former justice department officials say they are worried Trump will lean on Barr’s less experienced successor, the acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, to push policies which Trump has suggested he backs, including naming special counsels to investigate President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and using the DoJ to investigate Trump’s baseless charges of widespread election fraud.

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The Republican heroes and villains of Trump’s attempt to steal the election

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As Donald Trump peddled baseless claims of vote fraud after 3 November, democracy found out who its friends were

In November, Donald Trump became the first president in American history to try to hold on to power that voters had given to someone else in the course of a national election.

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Trump claims to be ‘working tirelessly’ but leaves Covid relief in disarray

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Donald Trump went to his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday, after claiming to be “working tirelessly for the American people” with a schedule that included “many meetings and calls”. Back in Washington, a Democratic proposal to increase direct payments to Americans under the Covid relief bill, from $600 to $2,000, was blocked.

Related: Donald Trump's latest wave of pardons includes Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner

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Donald Trump’s latest wave of pardons includes Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner

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President also gives clemency to Roger Stone in second round of pardons since Tuesday

Donald Trump has pardoned another 26 people in his second big wave of clemency actions since Tuesday, marking yet another audacious application of presidential power to reward loyalists.

The US president pardoned his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime adviser Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

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‘Our blood is cheaper than water’: anger in Iraq over Trump pardons

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Joe Biden to be lobbied to reverse decision to pardon security guards jailed over massacre

Iraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who were jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.

The four men were part of a security convoy that fired on civilians at a central Baghdad roundabout, killing 14 people including a nine-year old child and wounding many more.

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Pardons sink Trump further into swamp of his own shamelessness

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Analysis: President sanctions first federal execution of a woman in 67 years – but war criminals, fraudsters and Russia-linked cronies go free

Lisa Montgomery is set to become the first woman put to death by the US federal government in 67 years. On Tuesday senators including Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wrote to the justice department demanding an investigation into an “unprecedented spree” of federal executions on Donald Trump’s watch.

A few hours later the president announced a slew of 15 pardons. Strikingly they included four military contractors imprisoned for the killing of unarmed men, women and children in Iraq. In short, war criminals.

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Trump pardons Blackwater contractors jailed for massacre of Iraq civilians

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Four guards fired on unarmed crowd in Baghdad in 2007, killing 14 and sparking outrage over use of private security in war zones

President Donald Trump has pardoned four Blackwater security guards who were given lengthy prison sentences for killing 14 civilians in Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that caused international uproar over the use of private contractors in war zones.

The four – Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and Nicholas Slatten – were part of an armoured convoy that opened fire indiscriminately with machine-guns and grenade launchers on a crowd of unarmed people in the Iraqi capital. Known as the Nisour Square massacre, the slaughter was seen as a low point in the conflict in Iraq.

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Joe Biden won’t inherit Trump’s millions of Twitter followers

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Move marks a departure from past practice as in 2017 Twitter transferred followers of Obama administration accounts to Trump

Joe Biden will not inherit Donald Trump’s millions of followers on the official president of the United States and White House Twitter accounts when he assumes the presidency, marking a departure from past social media practice, the Democratic president-elect’s team said on Tuesday.

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Trump loyalists aim to block Biden’s goal to rejoin Iran and Paris agreements

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Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham urge Trump to submit Iran nuclear deal and Paris climate agreement to Senate to undercut future attempts to revive them

Two prominent Trump loyalists in the US Senate, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, are reportedly pressing the president to submit the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement to the chamber for ratification, in a last-minute attempt to scupper Democratic plans to take America back into the accords.

Related: Senior Republican says party’s final election challenge will ‘go down like a shot dog’

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