Tag: donald trump

Trump Says He Will Meet Ukraine’s Zelensky Next Week To Discuss an End to the War

Less than a month into his historical second term, US President Donald J. Trump has moved the needle in the peace negotiations towards an end of the war in Ukraine.

We’ve had confirmations that department-level negotiations have been ongoing, and are accelerating, as you can read in As the World Awaits the US-Russia Peace Talks, the Kremlin Asks for Patience and To Give the Trump Administration Time – Talks Between the Departments Are Reportedly Intensifying.

And yesterday (7), Trump himself confirmed that he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as early as next week, to discuss the peace effort.

It was not immediately clear whether it would be a face-to-face meeting or a video conference.

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Rep. Addison McDowell: Trump Using Trade to Address ‘Chemical Warfare Against the American People’

The fentanyl crisis is not a drug crisis but “a chemical warfare against the American people,” Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.

Discussing how President Donald Trump is using trade to force Mexico and Canada to help secure the borders — thereby stopping the flow of fentanyl into the country –McDowell said this issue hits close to home for him, as he lost his brother to fentanyl poisoning.

“My little brother died from a fentanyl poisoning in 2016. He was 20 years old, and it’s fentanyl that we’re almost certain came up through our southern border. And this is not a unique story to me, but I know personally what this is like,” he said, noting that Friday would have been his brother’s 29th birthday.

“It’s at the front of my mind, and it always is, because it’s something that I’ve had to learn to live with, and I shouldn’t have to,” he said, recalling when Trump endorsed him in his race. He said he told Trump his story and said, “Sir, you’re the only person that’s been taking the border seriously, and you need somebody that’s going to be behind you 100 percent, and that person is me.”

“I know the pain that this stuff causes,” he said, adding that Democrats are making excuses.

“We voted on the HALT Fentanyl Act in Congress this week, and there were 107 Democrats that voted against it. And we’re debating this on the floor. They’re saying things like … ‘We don’t need to send people to prison over this.’ I would so much rather my brother be in jail than dead. Democrats don’t seem to get that,” he said.

“And it’s — this is not a drug crisis. It’s a chemical warfare against the American people, and it’s being fueled by the cartels and the Chinese Communist Party, and President Trump is holding them accountable,” McDowell said.

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Why Trump’s Anti-DEI Order Is Both Radical and Rooted in Civil Rights Law

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, convened a panel of civil rights leaders last month to assail President Donald Trump’s executive order on “ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity.” The so-called anti-DEI order, Morial claimed, was an effort to “reverse the gains of the last seventy years.”

“Diversity, equity and inclusion are aligned with American values,” declared Morial. To any critics claiming that DEI represents “some sort of preference program” that “divides Americans,” Morial scoffed. “We say, absolutely not.” Morial then argued that the organizations gathered there would crusade to protect DEI and “the notion that everyone has an equal opportunity.”

This response of the civil rights establishment was more than simply a vow of resistance to the Trump order; it reflected opposition to a long-cresting sea change in racial politics in America.

In 1963, the Urban League was one of the groups that participated in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, where King envisioned a nation for his children not “judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” During this period, non-white Americans faced legal and cultural barriers to full participation in civic life, from school segregation to rampant discrimination in employment and housing opportunities.

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Trump Suspends $5 Billion Electric Vehicle Charging Station Program

President Donald Trump’s administration halted the $5 billion Biden electric vehicle charging program, which has been criticized for its poor production of charging stations.

Emily Biondi, the associate administrator for the Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty, in a letter to the state Department of Transportation directors on Thursday, said the administration has suspended the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.

“The new leadership of the Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) has decided to review the policies underlying the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program. Accordingly, the current NEVI Formula Program Guidance dated June 11, 2024, and all prior versions of this guidance are rescinded,” Biondi wrote.

“As result of the rescission of the NEVI Formula Program Guidance, FHWA is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years. Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved,” the official continued.

Lawmakers included the $5 billion program in the $1.2 trillion so-called infrastructure bill, more formally known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The program had aimed to create more than 6,000 charging stations and has served as an embarrassment for then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

In September 2023, Buttigieg admitted he had trouble finding an electric charging station while he was traveling on the road.

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 Trump Signs Order Sanctioning The Hague’s ICC Over Treatment Of Israel

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the Hague-based court targeted Israeli and American officials and their allies, according to a White House official.

The administration official cited that the order will “implement financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of U.S. citizens or allies.”

The court has had a long-running investigation against the US over alleged troop war crimes committed in Afghanistan. During the first Trump administration, initial retaliatory sanctions were imposed on the ICC in 2020.

And more recently the ICC has issued an arrest warrant last year for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who just visited the White House and met with Trump this week.

The new executive order is clearly timed on the immediate heels of the Trump meeting with Netanyahu, who is unable to travel to many European states and other countries for fear of arrest.

The Trump-signed order states that “The ICC was designed to be a court of last resort” and that “Both the United States and Israel maintain robust judiciary systems and should never be subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC.”

Biden had actually reversed Trump’s 2020 sanctions in order to back ICC investigations into Russian war crimes in Ukraine; however, Trump reversed Biden’s ending of the sanctions on his first day back in office.

Washington has had a shaky relationship with the ICC going back to the Bush years. Republicans railed against the idea that top US officials could be tried.

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“JOE, YOU’RE FIRED”: Trump Revokes Biden’s National Security Clearance and Stops His Intelligence Briefings

President Trump announced Friday evening he has revoked Joe Biden’s national security clearance and is stopping his courtesy presidential daily intelligence briefings. Trump cited Biden’s precedent of doing the same to him in 2021, as well as the report by Special Counsel Robert Hur on Biden’s “poor memory” in his investigation about Biden stealing and mishandling classified documents as reasons for his action.

Trump posted about his decision on Truth Social:

“There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information. Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings. He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents. The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from “poor memory” and, even in his “prime,” could not be trusted with sensitive information. I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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President Trump Fires Head of National Archives – A Biden Holdover Who Oversees Agency That Targeted Trump For Storing ‘Classified Documents’ at Mar-a-Lago

President Donald Trump fired Colleen Joy Shogan, the head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

This is the same agency that targeted Trump over so-called “classified documents” lawfully stored at Mar-a-Lago.

“At the direction of President Trump the Archivist of the United States has been dismissed tonight. We thank Colleen Shogan for her service,” Sergio Gor, director of the Presidential Personnel Office said on Friday evening.

Joe Biden weaponized every agency.

NARA actually raided Mar-a-Lago months before Biden sent dozens of FBI agents to Trump’s Florida estate to seize presidential records.

In Early 2022, the National Archives, led by Debra Steidel at the time, asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records after it raided Mar-a-Lago.

The National Archives raided Mar-a-Lago in January 2022 and retrieved 15 Trump White House record boxes, according to the Washington Post.

NARA claimed classified records were found in Trump’s boxes at Mar-a-Lago.

“NARA has identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes,” Ferriero wrote, responding to a question from the House, according to CNN. “Because NARA identified classified information in the boxes, NARA staff has been in communication with the Department of Justice.”

Trump routinely brought classified material to Mar-a-Lago, a place he dubbed his ‘Winter White House.’

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Trump Dismantles Biden’s Gun Control Actions, Signs Executive Order to Protect Gun Owners

President Trump on Friday signed an Executive Order dismantling Joe Biden’s gun control actions.

“The Second Amendment is an indispensable safeguard of security and liberty. It has preserved the right of the American people to protect ourselves, our families, and our freedoms since the founding of our great Nation. Because it is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans, the right to keep and bear arms must not be infringed,” President Trump’s Executive Order said.

Trump ordered US Attorney General Pam Bondi to review all of Joe Biden’s unconstitutional gun control Executive Orders to assess ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment.

“Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General shall examine all orders, regulations, guidance, plans, international agreements, and other actions of executive departments and agencies (agencies) to assess any ongoing infringements of the Second Amendment rights of our citizens, and present a proposed plan of action to the President, through the Domestic Policy Advisor, to protect the Second Amendment rights of all Americans,” Trump’s EO said.

Pam Bondi will review “All Presidential and agencies’ actions from January 2021 through January 2025 that purport to promote safety but may have impinged on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” the EO said.

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Trump Directs Elon Musk’s DOGE Team to Conduct Comprehensive Audit of Pentagon

President Donald Trump revealed that he has directed Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Pentagon’s funding.

During a press conference with Japan’s prime minister, when asked by a reporter about directives related to Pentagon budget reviews, Trump confirmed his decision.

“Yes, I have [directed Musk to review] Pentagon, Education, just about everything,” Trump said.

Trump continued, “We’re going to go through everything, just as it was so bad with what we just went through with this horrible situation [with USAID]. I guess 97% of the people have been dismissed. It was very, very unfortunate. You’re not going to find anything like that, but you’re going to find a lot.”

It can be recalled that acting USAID Director and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly downsizing the bureaucratic agency, retaining only 294 of the agency’s 14,000 employees worldwide. This move cuts 97% of USAID’s staff.

“I’ve instructed him to go check the Pentagon, which is the military. Sadly, you’ll find some things that are pretty bad. But I don’t think, proportionately, you’re going to see anything like we just saw,” Trump said.

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The Constitution Vindicates Trump’s Firing Of 17 Inspectors General

When President Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general at the end of his first week in office, he exercised executive power that the Constitution vests in him alone. His opponents squawked predictably, and legal challenges to the firings are inevitable, but the Trump administration no doubt welcomes those challenges. It should, because they are challenges the president is likely to win, and for the sake of our republic, it is essential that he does.

Inspectors general, like so many other well-intentioned but bad ideas, originated in the Carter administration. The idea sounded good enough: stop government mismanagement and waste by creating an inspector general in each of 12 major agencies, charged with ferreting out government fraud and abuse. The inspectors general would be appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and they would have the authority to operate independently from their agency heads while reporting legal violations directly to the attorney general. 

The first problem, however, is that the inspectors general did not turn out to be very good at accomplishing their intended purpose. The so-called “watchdogs” of the federal government missed everything from the National Security Agency’s unlawful bulk domestic phone records collection program to Operation Fast and Furious’ illegal arms sales to Mexican cartels. Yet despite having too little to show for their efforts, the sounds-good idea of an inspector general proved irresistible, and over time, inspectors general proliferated throughout the federal government. In 2008, Congress even created a new agency just to coordinate the IGs (who numbered more than 70 by that time). 

The second problem is that in 2022 Congress tried to enforce the “independence” of the inspectors general by making them independent from the president himself — and there, the Constitution draws the line. Congress purported to require the president to provide notice to Congress 30 days before firing an inspector general and to provide “the substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for the firing in the notice. President Trump did not do this, but that is because he did not have to.

Requiring notice and a rationale — which is essentially a requirement that the firing be for some cause — goes beyond Congress’s power under the Constitution, and so President Trump could not actually be required to do it.

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