Image 01 Image 03

Donald Trump Tag

President Donald Trump's latest executive orders on foreign trade have irked Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, prompting tough talk from Berlin. On Friday, President Trump signed two orders seeking to identify trade abuse and other malpractices carried out by foreign governments in order to lower the U.S. trade deficit. Merkel's second-in-command, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, described Trump's moves as unlawful, claiming that he wants to "favour American companies, even if it contradicts international law." Germany's Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries said that President Trump was taking the U.S. in  "completely the wrong direction" and "moving away from free trade" by signing those executive orders. Minister Zypries had previously threatened to take the U.S. to court if the Trump administration were to impose import duties on German products.

People on the left frequently mock conservatives for being people of faith and believing in God. Yet if you listen to leading voices from the Progressive community, you would think we're living in the end times. Trump recently rolled back some of Obama's policies on climate change and has also taken action to roll back regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency. In response, Van Jones wrote this for CNN:
Van Jones: Trump may have signed Earth's death warrant As usual, Donald Trump is completely upside down on the facts. In 2015, President Barack Obama created the Clean Power Plan to slow climate disruption. It was the first action ever taken by the US government to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants.

Mainstream media is reeling following the victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-Right BJP party in nationwide state elections, with leading liberal newspapers and news outlets raising the cry of ‘Islamophobia’ in India. The UK's left-wing newspaper The Guardian called the Hindu-Right electoral gains in the biggest Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), which has a population of 220 million, “a victory for anti-Muslim bigotry”. Aiming its criticism of the man elected to run the state -- a 44 year-old Hindu Monk -- Yogi Adityanath, The Guardian complained  that "[Adityanath] backs a Donald Trump-style travel ban to stop "terrorists" coming to India." According to Indian media reports, President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Modi today to congratulate him on his electoral success.

House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes is standing by his claim that the Trump transition team was under surveillance during Obama's tenure. Nunes appeared on the Sean Hannity show last night to discuss the issue. Here are a few key takeaways:
  • The surveillance occurred in November, December and January. Nunes thinks this is serious and warrants examination by the Trump administration.
  • The intelligence was disseminated "far and wide" among various agencies. Nunes says that it appears to have been done legally but questions why it was done in the first place.
  • Nunes suggests that the identities of other Americans besides General Flynn were unmasked. Also, it is still unknown who did the unmasking and how many people were involved in that action.

This story continues to develop, so we'll be updating the post accordingly. Amid President Trump's claims the Obama administration "wiretapped" him prior to taking office, comes this little tidbit from the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA). In a press conference Wednesday, Nunes confirmed, "on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition."

Conservative author and broadcaster Mark Steyn was on the Tucker Carlson show this week and was asked for his thoughts on the Democratic Party's current obsession with Russia. Steyn explained it quite simply suggesting that Democrats can't accept the fact that they lost the election. It's easier for them to believe it was stolen from them. From the FOX News Insider:
Steyn: Dems Turned Putin Into 'Bond Villain' With 'Drumbeat' Against Russia Author and commentator Mark Steyn said Democrats in Congress effectively made Russian President Vladimir Putin a "Bond villain" by continuing to accuse them of interference and spying.

The 2020 election is still way off but Trump has already made it clear that he'd love for the Democratic Party to nominate Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Hill reports:
Trump: Elizabeth Warren running against me would be 'a dream' President Trump said in an interview broadcast Saturday night that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) launching a presidential bid against him would be "a dream come true."

What undoubtedly could be the most significant political encounter of the year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Washington on Tuesday to meet President Donald Trump, the first meeting between these two world leaders. Ahead of German Chancellor's visit to the U.S., mainstream media is once again busy inflating the stature of their favourite European leader.  "The great disrupter confronts the last defender of the liberal world order," wrote The New York Times. London-based Financial Times declared in its headline, "The time for German leadership has arrived." However, a lot of Merkel’s political clout has been chipped away since President Obama endorsed her re-election bid while visiting Berlin last November.

The 2016 presidential election was, by almost any measure, unconventional and unique.  The Democrats' unfathomable decision to run Hillary Clinton, a woman whose deep and abiding unpopularity among many Americans goes back to the 1990's and HillaryCare—an antipathy that resurfaced when ObamaCare became the focus of the Obama administration, will go down in history as a world-class blunder. A new study of the usefulness and effectiveness of advertising in presidential campaigns addresses the unique nature of the 2016 presidential election and offers insight into the catastrophic failure of the Democrats generally and of Hillary in particular.

Tax reform has been at the forefront of GOP policy issues in Washington. Under the Trump administration, tax reform includes a proposed border adjustment tax or tariff. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the White House want tax reform legislation in the works by August, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said an August timeframe is unlikely:
"I think finishing on tax reform will take longer. But we do have to finish the health-care debate, up or down, win or lose, before we go to taxes," McConnell told Politico.