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Trump Administration Tag

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, and he appears to be playing a dangerous game with the Democrat rebuttal to Republican memo written by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA).  Released last week, the Nunes memo alleges that the FBI under Comey and Obama used questionable means to obtain FISA warrants on at least one member of then-candidate Trump's campaign team. The House Intelligence Committee voted to release the Nunes memo, and the White House insisted on redactions after consulting with the FBI and others in the intelligence community.

During his presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump repeatedly spoke of his intent to support life should he be elected. This week he took another huge step in fulfilling this promise with his HHS's announcement of a new conscience and religious freedom division. Additionally, the HHS has announced that it will roll back another Obama era policy: HHS will no longer freeze out states that seek to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.  Last year, the president signed a bill allowing states to defund Planned Parenthood.

It appears that the elite media is figuring out what has been transparently clear to me: After a full year of California's politicians waging a #WarOnTrump, the White House is now countering with its own policy blasts.
It's Washington versus California on marijuana, climate change, offshore oil drilling and immigration this week as bubbling disagreements between President Donald Trump's administration and California all seemed to spill over at once.

This flame war between Trump and former aide Steve Bannon is something else. An article published in The Guardian Wednesday lifted passages from a new book 'Fire and Fury' by Michael Wolff. Bannon was quoted heavily in the book, calling the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians "treasonous."

At the end of every year, we see a flurry of predictions for the coming year.  None were as amusing as last year's apocalyptic hysteria as the left contemplated the calamities they envisioned for 2017. President Trump, they assured us, would destroy our and the global economy, "punish" journalists, quit Twitter, take over Voice of America, and of course, be impeached by year's end.

India's refusal to criticize President Donald Trump's decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has angered Arab regimes, the Reuters news agency reported. Several Arab embassies have asked India to "clarify its position on the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem." Dismissing Arab request, Indian Foreign Ministry said that it had "no plans for a further articulation on Jerusalem," news reports confirm.

Fired? Resigned? Conflicting reports have come out over Omarosa Manigault Newman's departure as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liasion. The White House said her last day is January 20. From Politico:
"Omarosa Manigault Newman resigned yesterday to pursue other opportunities," the White House said in a statement. "We wish her the best in future endeavors and are grateful for her service."

Last weekend, I wrote about the 2018 fate of the GOP House majority ultimately being in the hands of Republicans.  They've been granted an immense honor in being bestowed with majorities in both Houses of Congress and the White House, yet they are losing support amongst their voters, including most alarmingly amongst independents.  The remedy, I proposed, was going all-in on President Trump's agenda; after all, his agenda is more popular than the GOP, Congress, and even the president himself.  What, I asked, do they have to lose? Instead of fulfilling their campaign promises and the president's agenda, the GOP is tying itself in knots trying to be more progressive than the progressives and more anti-Trump than antifa.  This leaves them in a bad situation going into 2018 because they will never win Democrat or progressive votes and are losing the Independents votes they did have on the merits of their campaign promises.

In one short year, the Republican majority in the U. S. House of Representatives has shifted from seemingly safe to somewhat in jeopardy.  The Democrats have an uphill battle in the Senate, defending 25 seats to the GOP's nine, but a number of circumstances and Tuesday's election results have improved Democrats' chances of retaking the House in 2018. It doesn't appear that Democrats are gaining because of anything they've accomplished; instead, Republicans appear to be losing ground because they have failed to accomplish key goals on which they campaigned throughout the Obama presidency.  From repealing ObamaCare to building the wall to tax and legal immigration reform, Congressional Republicans are disappointing the base who elected them to office on the strength of their promises, promises it has become increasingly clear too many had no intention of fulfilling.

One of the mainstays of then-candidate Trump's campaign rallies was the attendees' "lock her up" chant, a reaction to his campaign promise to "jail crooked Hillary" Clinton. In late November of last year, President Trump shocked many of his supporters by announcing that he would not pursue charges against Hillary Clinton.  Instead, he said he was focused on bringing the country together and helping Hillary "heal." The Guardian reported at the time:
The president-elect told the New York Times on Tuesday that it would be “divisive” to pursue criminal investigations into the former secretary of state over her use of a private email server or conflicts of interest involving her foundation. His conciliatory tone provoked a backlash from some conservatives. “I don’t want to hurt the Clintons, I really don’t,” Trump said, according to a tweet by Times journalist Mike Grynbaum. “She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways.”

President Trump's eraser and Twitter feed seem to be more effective that Obama's pen and phone. In the last days of his insipid administration, the former president created the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah with a stroke of his pen, claiming thousands of square acres of land for the federal government. Now, President Trump indicates that he is going to trim back the size of the land grab.
President Trump on Friday told Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah that he will shrink the size of Bears Ears National Monument, a 1.35 million-acre piece of land former President Obama designated as a national monument just before leaving office.

The remaining files related to the JFK assassination are required to be released on October 26th.  As the date approaches, the media began musing about how likely President Trump is to block their release, at least in part. On Friday, Politico published an article entitled, "Trump Likely to Block Release of Some JFK Files."  It is standard procedure to hold back and/or redact information that is potentially damaging to national security, but Politico makes it sound like some dastardly Trumpian plot to hide information from the public. The article was sourced by "anonymous White House officials" and was quickly picked up by other outlets and made the social media rounds.  Why a source needs to be anonymous to state the obvious is anyone's guess.

In the midst of a completely unnecessary controversy over President Trump's phone calls to the widows of fallen soldiers, Natasha De Alencar, released video of a phone call she received from President Trump.

President Donald Trump's administration has finally waived the Jones Act, which will allow foreign ships to bring aid to hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico. The Jones Act has been enforced since its inception in 1920. It states that any goods transported by water into U.S. ports must come in on ships made in the U.S., owned by U.S. citizens, have American crews.

If you work in the government, DO NOT USE YOUR PRIVATE EMAIL ACCOUNT TO CONDUCT ANY BUSINESS. Why is this so hard to grasp?! After spending years of griping at failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for using a private email server and account for business as secretary of state, we have now learned that President Donald Trump's senior advisor (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have used a private email account to conduct official White House business.