Tracking the 45th President of the United States
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued a posthumous pardon to boxer Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion, who was jailed a century ago due to his relationship with a white woman.
“I believe Jack Johnson is a worthy person to receive a pardon, to correct a wrong in our history,” Trump said. Continue reading “Thur, May 24, 2018: Trump posthumously pardons boxer Jack Johnson”
His Excellency
Kim Jong Un
Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Pyongyang
Dear Mr. Chairman:
We greatly appreciate your time, patience, and effort with respect to our recent negotiations and discussions relative to a summit long sought by both parties, which was scheduled to take place on June 12 in Singapore. We were informed that the meeting was requested by North Korea, but that to us is totally irrelevant.
I was very much looking forward to being there with you. Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting.
Therefore, please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place. You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God they will never have to be used.
I felt a wonderful dialogue was building up between you and me, and ultimately, it is only that dialogue that matters. Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you.
In the meantime, I want to thank you for the release of the hostages who are now home with their families. That was a beautiful gesture and was very much appreciated.
If you change your mind having to do with this most important summit, please do not hesitate to call me or write.
The world, and North Korea in particular, has lost a great opportunity for lasting peace and great prosperity and wealth. This missed opportunity is a truly sad moment in history.
Sincerely yours,
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States of America
The United States, France and Britain launched military strikes in Syria to punish President Bashar Assad for an apparent chemical attack against civilians and to deter him from doing it again, President Donald Trump said from the White House. After the missile strikes Friday night, Syrians crowded onto the streets in noisy demonstrations of defiance afterward and their allies in Russia and Iran denounced the attack.
Pentagon officials said the attacks targeted the heart of Assad’s programs to develop and produce chemical weapons.
Syrian television reported that Syria’s air defenses, which are substantial, responded to the attack. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said there were no reports of U.S. losses in what he described as a heavy but carefully limited assault.
Trump said the U.S. is prepared to sustain economic, diplomatic and military pressure on Assad until he ends what the president called a criminal pattern of killing his own people with internationally banned chemical weapons. The evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers, infants and children, thrashing in pain and gasping for air. These are not the actions of a man; they are crimes of a monster instead,” Trump said. Continue reading “Fri, Apr. 13, 2018: Trump announce airstrikes in Syria”
President Trump and Melania Trump on Sunday attended an Easter service in Palm Beach, Fla.
The couple visited a service at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal church, near the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
First daughter Tiffany Trump also attended, according to The Palm Beach Post. Trump and his wife were married at the historic church in 2005 and have celebrated major holidays there, including last Christmas.
Melania and I join millions of people around the world in mourning the passing of Billy Graham. Our prayers are with his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and all who worked closely with Reverend Graham in his lifelong ministry.
Billy’s acceptance of Jesus Christ around his seventeenth birthday not only changed his life—it changed our country and the world. He was one of the towering figures of the last 100 years—an American hero whose life and leadership truly earned him the title “God’s Ambassador.”
Billy’s unshakeable belief in the power of God’s word to transform hearts gave hope to all who listened to his simple message: “God loves you.” He carried this message around the world through his crusades, bringing entire generations to faith in Jesus Christ.
In the wake of the September 11th attacks in 2001, America turned to Billy Graham at the National Cathedral, who told us, “God can be trusted, even when life seems at its darkest.”
Reverend Graham would be the first to say that he did not do it alone. Before her passing, his wife Ruth was by his side through it all—a true partner, a wonderful mother, and a fellow missionary soul. He also built an international team and institution that will continue to carry on Christ’s message.
Melania and I were privileged to get to know Reverend Graham and his extraordinary family over the last several years, and we are deeply grateful for their love and support.
Billy Graham was truly one of a kind. Christians and people of all faiths and backgrounds will miss him dearly. We are thinking of him today, finally at home in Heaven.
–The White House
Bannon’s remarks were part of an excerpt, reported by the Guardian, from an upcoming book by author Michael Wolff about the Trump presidency. From the piece:
Bannon, who was chief executive of the Trump campaign in its final three months, then White House chief strategist for seven months before returning to the rightwing Breitbart News, is a central figure in the nasty, cutthroat drama, quoted extensively, often in salty language.
He is particularly scathing about a June 2016 meeting involving Trump’s son Donald Jr, son-in-law Jared Kushner, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower in New York. A trusted intermediary had promised documents that would “incriminate” rival Hillary Clinton but instead of alerting the FBI to a potential assault on American democracy by a foreign power, Trump Jr replied in an email: “I love it.”
The meeting was revealed by the New York Times in July last year, prompting Trump Jr to say no consequential material was produced. Soon after, Wolff writes, Bannon remarked mockingly: “The three senior guys in the campaign thought it was a good idea to meet with a foreign government inside Trump Tower in the conference room on the 25th floor – with no lawyers. They didn’t have any lawyers.
“Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad shit, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.”
Trump’s full statement is below:
Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.
Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.
Steve pretends to be at war with the media,which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.
We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.
President Donald Trump is attending Christmas Eve worship services at an Episcopal church in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump and his wife, Melania, arrived Sunday night at the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea. The Trumps were married at the church in 2005.
The first lady recently said that attending church on Christmas Eve is a family tradition.
Earlier Sunday, Trump offered season’s greetings to U.S. troops stationed overseas. He also joined the first lady for the tradition of fielding telephone calls from kids tracking Santa’s progress by way of a Defense Department program. He played golf and had dinner with his family.
Trump is spending the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
–The Associated Press
President Trump celebrated the first major legislative victory of his presidency Friday before heading to Florida for the holidays by signing into law the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul. He rushed the signing of the bill without a major ceremony because he wanted to keep his promise to sign it by Christmas. He also signed a short-term fix to keep the government running for another month, which sets up a major spending fight in January.
Signing a hard-fought bill into law in what may be the most sweeping tax overhaul in a generation and assuring Americans that they will begin to see their taxes go down starting in February.
Most Americans will see their taxes drop temporarily, but the biggest benefits will go to corporations, whose cuts are permanent. The new law also includes a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate.
President Trump later tweeted: “…the most hated part of ObamaCare is the individual mandate, which is being terminated under our just signed Tax Cut bill.”
That sentiment was echoed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“I’d love to see other changes and we’re going to be moving the bills that have enough votes to pass,” McConnell said.
–CBS News
President Trump spoke Wednesday afternoon after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a sweeping tax overhaul bill. The Senate passed the bill in the early hours of Wednesday and the House voted to pass the legislation Wednesday afternoon.
“We did the largest tax cut in our history,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump met with members of his Cabinet. In the meeting, the president praised the measure’s dramatic cuts to corporate tax rates and cuts for individual taxpayers.
“We have done a job like no administration has done,” Mr. Trump said.
–CBS News