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Trump Foreign Policy Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 29, 2017 1 Comment
Tuesday, I blogged that funding for a border wall may complicate the budget showdown set for next month. President Trump asked Congress for around $1 billion to start building a wall along 62 miles on the border. Time White House correspondent Zeke Miller asked Press Secretary Sean Spicer if the administration considers funding for a border wall with Mexico a deal breaker when it comes to next month's spending bill:
“That is our request,” press secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday when asked if the wall funding is a deal-breaker for a must-pass spending bill.
Unfortunately, a more specific answer is needed since the government faces a partial shutdown if Congress cannot pass a bill by April 29.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 18, 2017 10 Comments
A video footage, in which President Donald Trump apparently ignores a handshake request from the visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a photo op in the Oval Office, has irked the German press. In the video, press photographers can be heard urging both leaders to shake hands for the photo. Prompted by reporters, Merkel is heard asking Trump: “Do you want to do the handshake?” Trump appears to ignore the request. German broadcaster NTV complained lack of public affection during the bilateral meeting with the headline “No Kiss On the Cheek, No Patting”. The German TV channel contrasted Trump’s apparent snub of Merkel with chivalry shown by him towards the British Prime Minister Theresa May during her Whitehouse visit in January.

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 17, 2017 17 Comments
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has warned North Korea that the U.S. will not rule out military action or tougher sanctions against the communist kingdom. From Fox News:
“We’re exchanging views,” Tillerson said, while standing a few feet within what is technically North Korean territory inside what is known as the Joint Security Area. “Nothing has been taken off the table,” he said, when asked whether he would rule out nuclearization of the peninsula, during the interview with Fox News.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 17, 2017 7 Comments
Having postponed her Tuesday's visit due to a blizzard, German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Washington today. This would be the first in-person meeting between the two world leaders since the change of the guard in Washington. While German police go after citizens for criticizing Chancellor Merkel or her ‘Refugee’ Policy, demeaning President Trump is the new favourite pastime for Germany's political establishment and mainstream media. German mainstream media, hostile to President Donal Trump on any given day, made no effort to hide its belligerence toward the U.S. President ahead of Merkel's visit.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 13, 2017 8 Comments
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.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on February 14, 2017 22 Comments
Discussing the overnight resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, CNN's David Gregory managed this morning to work in a broad swipe at the president. Gregory claimed that "the fledgling foreign policy in the Trump administration [has] been a disaster." Really? Gregory ignored: the widely-praised, weekend-long meetings that Trump just concluded with Japanese PM Abe; Trump's positive conversation with Chinese Premier Xi and the confirmation of the One China policy; the re-establishment of the special relationship with the UK and its PM May, and of course the healing of ties with Israel after years of Obama animosity culminating in his perpetration of an anti-Israel Security Council resolution.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 13, 2017 43 Comments
President Donald Trump's national security advisor Michael Flynn has resigned after he came under fire over his contacts with Russian officials. The resignation comes after the Justice Department announced that officials had "warned the Trump administration last month that Flynn misled administration officials regarding his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States and was potentially vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians."

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 10, 2017 11 Comments
President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping that he will honor the "One China" policy, which should ease tensions between the two presidents. From The Financial Times:
The White House released a statement after the FT reported the call between the two men, saying that Mr Trump had agreed “at the request of President Xi” to honour the "one China" policy. “The phone call between President Trump and President Xi was extremely cordial, and both leaders extended best wishes to the people of each other's countries. They also extended invitations to meet in their respective countries," the White House said.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 31, 2017 36 Comments
Day Deux of Joe Scarborough's tirade against the Trump admin's handling of the executive order on immigration. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough condemned the admin's accusation that acting AG Sally Yates had "betrayed" the Justice Department by refusing to enforce the executive order. Scarborough repeatedly called the use of the word "frightening," suggesting it was worthy of an "autocrat" in a country like Venezuela. Scarborough then turned the tables, saying that Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, and Trump himself had "betrayed" Defense Secretary Mattis, DHS head John Kelly, and others by failing to provide them details of the order before it was made public. Scarborough expressed outrage that Stephen Miller and others in the administration apparently believed they could not trust those heroes with a secret.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 26, 2017 79 Comments
Earlier today, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a visit to America after President Donald Trump told him to do so if Mexico refuses to pay for the border wall. Despite the cancellation, Trump and his administration has not backed down on making Mexico pay for the wall. Today, Press Secretary Sean Spicer released details how Trump plans to make it happen:
In remarks to reporters, press secretary Sean Spicer said a plan was “taking shape now” to institute a 20% tax on imports from countries with which the U.S. runs a trade deficit, “like Mexico.” Mr. Spicer later told reporters that this was one of several ideas being considered by the White House to “demonstrate that paying for the wall can be done.” Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, said the administration was considering “a buffet of options.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 26, 2017 25 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that during its last few hours, the Obama administration sent $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking. Team Trump has now frozen those monies.
The Trump administration has informed the Palestinian Authority that it is freezing the transfer of $221 million which was quietly authorized by the Obama administration in its final hours on January 20, a senior Palestinian source has told The Times of Israel.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 25, 2017 7 Comments
President Donald Trump will address a few executive orders from the Department of Homeland Security, including a wall on the border with Mexico, immigration, CIA black sites, and declaring the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. It's his first visit with DHS Secretary John Kelly. We have a live feed after the jump. I will provide tweets and updates as it goes.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 25, 2017 20 Comments
President Donald Trump will sign a bunch of executive orders today over national security issues, including a wall along the border of America and Mexico and policy against sanctuary cities. Trump will visit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where he will sign all the orders. Trump made immigration the cornerstone of his campaign, often talking about a wall along the border and stopping Syrian refugees from entering the country. According to the Associated Press, one person in the administration said the proposals "included a ban on entry to the U.S. for at least 30 days from countries including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, though the person cautioned the details could still change."

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 23, 2017 21 Comments
President Donald Trump began his first full day with a bang by signing three executive orders that withdraws America from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), defunds International Planned Parenthood, and freeze hiring of federal workers. TPP became a hot topic on the campaign trail with Trump vocally against it. Former President Barack Obama worked on the agreement for almost two years with the aim of "eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers among the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Vietnam and half a dozen other countries around the Pacific."

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 23, 2017 8 Comments
At the White House, President Donald Trump announced meetings with Canadian Ptime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to discuss the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He said:
"We're going to start some negotiations having to do with NAFTA," Trump said. "Anybody ever hear of NAFTA?" he said. "I ran a campaign somewhat based on NAFTA. But we're going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration, on security at the border."

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 15, 2017 7 Comments
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, President-elect Donald Trump said he may lift the Russian sanctions and has no commitment to the One China policy:
“If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?” he said.
Trump also said the One China policy remains up in the air "until he saw what he considered progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices." Yeah, needless to say, those comments did not please Beijing.
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