Historian David McCullough’s perspective on Donald Trump

The renowned historian's latest book, "The American Spirit," a collection of speeches he has delivered over the past three decades, begins with his 1989 address to a joint session of Congress and ends with 2016 remarks in the Capitol's Statuary Hall, both of which included calls for lawmakers to live up to the history of the building. This week, his publisher, Simon & Schuster, is delivering the book to every member of the House and Senate with an inscription letting them know they "can enact change and help close the gap to common ground."

Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the Asia-Pacific Economic…

US president sends hardline message on South China Sea and trade protectionism while Chinese leader offers his country as a defender of globalisation No sooner had the leaders of China and the United States patted each other on the back for a swag of business deals in Beijing than they were taking diverging stands on global trade at a regional summit in Vietnam. The two presidents arrived on Friday in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang, a former American military base facing the South China Sea, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO summit, just hours after both lauded the success of US President Donald Trump's first state trip to China.

Sexual misconduct accusations transform Alabama Senate race

Yet in the span of a tumultuous afternoon, a low-profile special election became a Republican nightmare that threatens a once-safe Senate seat - and offers a new window into ugly divisions that continue to plague the GOP in the age of President Donald Trump. Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, a 70-year-old former state Supreme Court justice, defiantly denied allegations of decades-old sexual misconduct with minors published Thursday in a Washington Post story.

Senate tax plan stalls corporate cut a year

Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code that would delay an immediate corporate tax cut President Donald Trump has demanded and scrap House Republicans' carefully crafted compromise on a contentious tax deduction. GOP Senate leaders unveiled a tax package that would delay cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent until 2019.

How Russian Twitter trolls worked to deflect bad news around Trump’s campaign

Russian agents on Twitter attempted to deflect bad news around President Trump's election campaign in October 2016 and refocused criticism on the mainstream media and the Clinton campaign, according to an exclusive AP analysis of an archive of deleted accounts. Russian agents on Twitter attempted to deflect bad news around President Trump's election campaign in October 2016 and refocused criticism on the mainstream media and the Clinton campaign, according to an exclusive AP analysis of an archive of deleted accounts.

Fox’s Smith avoids story covered heavily by colleagues

While Fox News Channel has spent hours talking about Hillary Clinton and an Obama-era uranium deal in recent weeks, its news anchor Shepard Smith avoided the story entirely. Fresh evidence that Smith is an island unto himself at the news network came in research released Thursday by the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.

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Mayor Jim Kenney and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro discussed Philly and America in the age of Trump - among other things - at Philly Mag's annual ThinkFest on Thursday. In conversation with 6ABC Action News anchor Matt O'Donnell , the duo addressed a range of topics, including President Donald Trump , guns, opioid issues, safe injection sites, medical marijuana, Amazon, Philly sports teams and more.

Republicans to delay corporate tax cut to 2019 despite Trump demanding they immediately lower it

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch talks with journalists before heading into a tax meeting : Getty Images Defying the orders of Donald Trump , Senate Republicans are expected to propose delaying the implementation of a lower corporate tax rate until 2019 as the party rushes to pass a sweeping tax rewrite by the end of the year. The proposal is likely to anger the President, who has insisted that Congress immediately reduce the rate to 20 per cent from 35 per cent to spur the economy.

Russia Twitter trolls deflected Trump bad news

Disguised Russian agents on Twitter rushed to deflect scandalous news about Donald Trump just before last year's presidential election while straining to refocus criticism on the mainstream media and Hillary Clinton's campaign, according to an Associated Press analysis of since-deleted accounts. Tweets by Russia-backed accounts such as "America_1st_" and "BatonRougeVoice" on Oct. 7, 2016, actively pivoted away from news of an audio recording in which Trump made crude comments about groping women, and instead touted damaging emails hacked from Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta.

Trump changes tune on Chinaa s trade imbalance

President Donald Trump lavished praise on Chinese leader Xi Jinping here Thursday, touting "great chemistry" between them while refusing to criticize his counterpart for the trade imbalance that Trump railed against during his campaign. Speaking at a joint appearance with Xi in front of business leaders, Trump said the U.S. trade relationship with China is "a very one-sided and unfair one."

Democratic Wins: Start Of Anti-Trump Surge Or ‘Not So Fast?’

Jubilant Democrats across America are declaring their big election victories in Virginia and New Jersey - their first of the young Trump era - mark the beginning of an anti-Trump surge that could re-shape the balance of power in Congress in 2018. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says he can "smell a wave coming."

Tomgram: Subhankar Banerjee, The Destruction of a Vast Transnational Nursery?

Back in May 2013, a word came to mind that I wanted to see in all our vocabularies. It wasn't the ever-present "terrorist" but "terrarist" and I meant it to describe people intent on destroying the planetary environment that had welcomed and nurtured so many species, including our own, for so long; in other words, human beings willing to commit "terracide."

Senate bill to unwrap with tax cuts, end to local deduction

The Senate version of the Republicans' high-stakes tax overhaul is set to be unveiled with billions in tax cuts for people and corporations, repeal of the federal deduction for state and local taxes, and a likely compression of the personal income tax brackets from seven to four. The legislation pulling the attention of lawmakers in both chambers would bring the first major reshaping of the U.S. tax code in three decades.

Conservative columnists discuss conservatism, Republican Party at Sanford talk

During a panel discussion Wednesday, two prominent conservative columnists said President Donald Trump has flipped the traditional conservative script and left Republicans with questions about the party's new identity. Ross Douthat took the stage alongside Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle, the Pamela and Jack Egan Visiting Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy.