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Tag: Donald Trump

  • Former Trump campaign manager Stone arrested

    Roger Stone, a Former Campaign Manager to U.S. President Donald Trump, was arrested on Friday, the Office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller reported, and faces charges of obstruction of justice.

    Stone, has been arrested and charged with seven counts.

    The charges, which were filed on Thursday and released on Mueller’s website a day later, alleged that Stone impeded the counsel’s probe into tampering with the 2016 U.S. elections by providing false testimony and tried to influence witnesses.

    According to the document, the charges relate to a computer hacking incident that targeted the Democratic National Committee for information related to the failed presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.

    The charge sheet alleges that Stone, when he appeared before the counsel, lied about his knowledge of the hacking incident and that he attempted to get others to change their testimony.

    Read Also: Trump and the role theory

    Mueller’s investigation was begun amid allegations that a foreign power, believed to be Russia, attempted to steer the elections to ensure Trump’s victory.

    Trump has railed against the probe, calling it a witch-hunt, but has so far refused to shut it down.

    Opposition Democrats and many Republicans have vowed Mueller must be allowed to continue his work.

    Stone, 66, was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

    He left Trump’s campaign in 2015, but continued to back Trump for the presidency.

  • World Economic Forum starts amid economic, political worries

    At least, 3,000 and managers kicked-off their annual meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos on Tuesday, to discuss solutions to global challenges, in spite of the absence of some of the world key leaders.

    Brazil’s new far-right President Jair Bolsonaro will hold the first keynote speech of the four-day World Economic Forum annual meeting in the snowy mountains in the afternoon.

    It is Bolsonaro’s first international appearance since he was sworn in as president at the start of January.

    Although the controversial populist leader has announced a plan to privatise infrastructure, it is still unclear whether he will really opt for ultra-liberal economic policies.

    The Brazilian president took the forum’s keynote slot from U.S. President Donald Trump, who cancelled his attendance to address a week-long partial government shutdown.

    Read Also: World Remit launches low-cost transfer service from South Africa

    British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron are also forgoing Davos this year, opting instead to address political crises at home.

    Their absence is likely to place the focus on attendees such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

    Surveys and forecast published ahead of the Davos meeting showed that slowing global economic growth, populism, political tensions and trade wars are among the major worries of the world leaders.

    The concern also include and Britain’s unclear path out of the EU.

    This year official theme for the meeting is “Globalization 4.0″, a vision of an interconnected world that tackles the economic inequality that goes along with globalised trade and production.

  • Donald Trump’s year of scandals

    The year might not exactly be an anno horribilis for the President of the United States of America Donald Trump, but it was a very uncomfortable one. It was a year in which the world’s most powerful leader seemed to reel from one scandal to another. Most of these scandals were fallouts from the Robert Mueller probe panel investigating if Russia interfered with outcome of the 2016 American presidential election that brought President Trump into office.

    The scandals started early with Michael Wolff’s tell-all book, Fire and Fury, which, among other things, alleged that former White House advisor, Steve Bannon, called Trump’s oldest daughter Ivanka “dumb as a brick” and his son, Donald Jr., “treasonous,” that Trump repeatedly tried to have sex with his friends’ wives, and that “everyone around him” questions his intelligence and fitness for office.

    Then came the bombshell from former White House aide OmarosaManigault-Newman who made several salacious claims against Trump’s administration staff in her book Unhinged.

    OmarosaManigault-Newman was not just a former White House advisor, she was once a contestant in Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice. She released tape records of former Chief of Staff John Kelly firing her in Trump’s situation room and made a number of claims against members of the administration.

    She also claimed Trump had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks releasing hacked emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016, and that she walked in on him eating paper in the Oval Office. This makes her an interesting person to Robert Mueller.

    Then came the guilty plea of Trump’s lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, on August 21. He pleaded guilty in a federal court in Manhattan to a series of felony crimes involving Trump.

    Cohen entered guilty pleas to five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, one count of making an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an illegal campaign finance contribution on October 27, 2016, the day a $130,000 payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels was finalised. On December 12, Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in prison.

    As if that was not enough, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight counts of tax and bank fraud by a jury in Virginia, and becomes a cooperating witness in the Mueller probe.

    Washington Post came up with a report that Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, a White House adviser, conducted government business with a private, unsecured email account. The newspapers reported that Ivanka used a domain shared with her husband Jared Kushner for official government business, sending “hundreds” of mainly logistical and scheduling emails to other officials from the private email address. This is interesting in the light of the fact President Trump frequently attacked his opponent Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email address and server while she was secretary of state, he defended his daughter Ivanka’s conduct. “Ivanka did some emails, they weren’t classified like Hillary Clinton, they weren’t deleted like Hillary Clinton …” Trump said.

    President trump continue less than friendly relationship with media houses in the US when he entered into a live altercation with Cable News Network (CNN) White House Chief Correspondent, Jim Acosta during a White House media briefing. He described Acosta as ‘terrible’. He continued: “CNN should be ashamed of themselves having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.”

    Consequently, Jim Acosta’s White House pass was revoked and it took a court ruling to have it restored.

    As if it was not raining enough of President Trump, Michael Cohen, his lawyer since 2006, in November pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Trump’s business deals with Russia, and becomes a cooperating witness in the Mueller probe. For President Trump of the US, it was a year of scandals.

  • Trump defends alleged hush money payments as ‘simple private transaction’

    U.S. President, Donald Trump, on Monday defended hush money payments reported by his former lawyer a day after Democrats said the U.S. president could face impeachment and jail time.

    Trump, in early morning tweets, said Democrats were wrongly targeting “a simple private transaction”.

    The tweet came after court filings last week drew renewed attention to six-figure payments by his personal lawyer to two women during the 2016 campaign so they would not discuss affairs with Trump.

    On Sunday, U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler, who will lead the Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control of the House of Representatives next month, said if the payments were found to violate campaign finance laws it would be an impeachable offense.

    His Democratic counterpart on the Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, said Trump could be indicted and could “face the real prospect of jail time.”

    Under U.S. law, campaign contributions, defined as things of value given to a campaign to influence an election, must be disclosed. Such payments are also limited to $2,700 per person.

    Trump earlier this year acknowledged repaying his former lawyer Michael Cohen for the $130,000 paid to porn star Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels.

    He previously disputed knowing anything about the payments.

    On Monday, the president again denied wrongdoing and shifted any blame on Cohen.

    “There was NO COLLUSION. So now the Dems go to a simple private transaction, wrongly call it a campaign contribution, which it was not,” Trump tweeted.

    “But even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s – but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me.”

    U.S. prosecutors on Friday sought prison time for Cohen, Trump’s self-proclaimed “fixer,” for the payments directed by Trump as well as on charges of evading taxes and lying to Congress.

    The case stemmed from a federal investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign.

    Russia has denied interfering and Trump said his campaign did not cooperate with Moscow. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Dollar weakens as cautious Fed leads to rate-hike rethink

    The dollar weakened against other major currencies on Thursday as markets took Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comment that U.S. interest rates were just below neutral as a signal that a three-year rate-hiking cycle is nearing an end.

    The dollar index, which measures the value of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, fell 0.2 per cent to 96.64 — its lowest level in almost a week.

    Powell took markets by surprise on Wednesday when he noted that the policy rate, at 2 to 2.25 per cent, is now “just below” the broad range of estimates of neutral which in September was 2.5 to 3.5 per cent.

    That marks a departure from comments in October when Powell said rates were a “long way from neutral at this point”.

    “Clearly, Powell’s comments about where the neutral interest rate is has created a shift in market expectations with respect to Fed policy,” said Jane Foley, a senior currency strategist at Rabobank in London.

    “That is a dovish factor for the dollar and is positive for risk appetite.”

    That shift was reflected in money markets where expectations of Fed rate increases declined to around 47 basis points over the next year from 52 basis points earlier this week.

    The dollar was also weaker across the board and was last down 0.4 per cent at 113.25 yen and a quarter of a per cent weaker against the euro.

    The euro fetched $1.1394, having touched $1.13975 – its highest in almost a week.

    Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields fell to their lowest level since September at 3.013 per cent on Thursday, adding to the bearish sentiment towards the dollar.

    Read Also: Naira loses marginally against dollar at investors’ window

    Focus now turns to the release this session of the October U.S PCE price index, the Fed’s favoured inflation gauge, for more clues on the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Minutes from the Fed’s November meeting are also released later in the day.

    Analysts said the minutes were likely to reaffirm market expectations for a rate hike in December, but were unlikely to have a significant impact, since market focus has now turned to whether the Fed will pause the tightening cycle next year.

    Dollar weakness in the wake of Powell’s comments was expected to be limited, given a note of caution ahead of the G20 summit on Friday and Saturday where U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping are scheduled to discuss contentious trade matters.

    Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at NAB, said safe-haven buying could return if there were no signs of a truce between Washington and Beijing over the course of the G20 summit.

    Elsewhere, sterling rose to $1.2830, but weakened 0.2 per cent against the euro to 88.81 pence, reflecting uncertainty about whether British Prime Minister Theresa May be able to get her Brexit deal approved by a fractious parliament.

    The Bank of England warned on Wednesday that Britain risked a bigger hit to its economy than it suffered from the global financial crisis a decade ago if it leaves the European Union in a “disorderly” manner, which would include a 25 per cent crash in the value of the pound.

    NAN

  • Army posts Trump video to justify shooting of Shiites

    The army yesterday shared a video of President Donald Trump  of the USA to justify opening fire on members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) otherwise known as  Shiites during a protest in Abuja earlier in the  week.

    Trump ,in the video,  warns that soldiers deployed to the Mexican border could shoot Central American migrants who throw stones at them while attempting to cross illegally.

    ”Please watch and make your deductions,” the army  said in a comment accompanying the post  on its official Twitter account.

    Trump added: “We’re not going to put up with that. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back.

    “I told them (troops) consider it (a rock) a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexican military and police, I say consider it a rifle.”

    Army

    The army has come under fire for the death of Shiites  in the Abuja protest.

    Some of the criticism came from the US Embassy in Nigeria and Amnesty International.

    The embassy expressed ‘concern’ over the shooting and demanded an investigation

    While the IMN claimed 49 of its members were killed after troops and policemen opened fire on them, the army said only three   died and that the soldiers  responded because the protesters pelted them with stones and  some of them even carried  petrol bombs, matchetes and knives.

    “They (the Shiites) fired weapons at own troops, throwing bottle canisters with fuel, large stones, catapults with dangerous objects and other dangerous items at troops causing bodily harm and stopping motorist movement, breaking their windscreen and causing heavy traffic,” the army had said.

  • New York police respond to ‘suspicious package’ in Manhattan

    New York City’s Police Department (NYPD) was responding to reports of a “suspicious package” found in Manhattan on Thursday, following a series of suspected pipe bombs sent to high-profile Democrats and critics of U.S. President Donald Trump.

    “Please avoid the area and expect a police presence and heavy traffic,’’ the NYPD wrote on Twitter.

    It was unclear whether the incident was linked to suspected package bombs intercepted in the U.S. this week, which were sent to Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, former President Barack Obama, said broadcaster CNN and others.

    Read Also: Potential explosives sent to White House, Hillary Clinton, Obama

    Broadcaster NBC news said Thursday’s discovery was made at a site linked to Robert De Niro, citing a local law enforcement official.

    The actor owns a restaurant in Manhattan’s upmarket Tribeca neighbourhood, where the package was found, and has been critical of Trump in the past.

    Television footage showed a heavy police presence in the area.

    De Niro cursed the president on national television during the Tony Awards in June, saying “Fuck Trump” with his fist in the air.

    Trump retaliated by calling the 75-year-old veteran actor a “very low IQ individual.”

  • Saudi minister pledges full probe into Khashoggi killing

    Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on Tuesday the kingdom was committed to a thorough and complete investigation to obtain the truth behind the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.

    Saudi Arabia had sent a team to Turkey for a joint investigation and “uncovered evidence of a murder” in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, the minister told a news conference in Indonesia during a state visit.

    “We expressed commitment to see to it that the investigation is thorough and complete and the truth is revealed and those responsible will be held to account.

    “We will see to it that procedures and mechanisms are put in place to ensure that something like this can never happen again,” al-Jubeir said at the joint news conference with his Indonesian counterpart.

    Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of the Saudi government, disappeared after he entered the consulate in Istanbul on October 2, to obtain documents for his marriage.

    Saudi Arabia initially denied knowledge of his fate before saying he had been killed in a fight in the consulate, an explanation that has drawn international skepticism.

    Read Also: Iran arrests groups planning attacks on pilgrims – Minister

    Foreign Minister al-Jubeir said 18 people had been detained and six senior government officials had already been dismissed as a result of the investigation.

    On Monday, al-Jubeir met Indonesian President Joko Widodo who called for a “transparent and thorough” investigation of the killing.

    U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler on Sunday.

    Trump said on Monday that he was still not satisfied with what he has heard from Saudi Arabia about the killing of journalist Khashoggi in Turkey, but did not want to lose investment from Riyadh.

    He had told reporters on Monday that he has teams in Saudi Arabia and Turkey working on the case and would know more about it after they returned to Washington on Monday night or Tuesday.

    Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel was traveling to Turkey on Monday to work on the Khashoggi investigation, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

    “I am not satisfied with what I’ve heard,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I don’t want to lose all that investment that’s been made in our country. But we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

    He later told U.S.A. Today that he believed the death was a “plot gone awry.”

    Trump has expressed reluctance to punish the Saudis economically, citing the kingdom’s multi-billion-dollar purchases of U.S. military equipment and investments in U.S. companies.

    Saudi state media said that Prince Mohammed met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Riyadh and discussed “the importance of the Saudi-U.S. strategic partnership.

    Mnuchin’s spokesman said on Twitter the two discussed the Khashoggi investigation as well as Iran sanctions and Saudi economic issues.

    In another development, Turkey Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that Turkey had not yet shared any information with any country from its probe into the killing of Khashoggi.

    Cavusoglu made the comment in a televised interview with the state-run Anadolu news agency; hours before President Tayyip Erdogan was due to reveal what he has said were details in the case.

    He said that Turkey is ready to cooperate with any international investigation into Khashoggi’s killing.

    Authorities have been investigating Khashoggi’s disappearance after he entered the consulate on Oct. 2. After weeks of denial, Saudi Arabia at the weekend said the journalist had been killed at the consulate.

    Erdogan has said that he would share the information of the investigation in a speech on Tuesday.

    Saudi Arabia brushed off a Western boycott over Khashoggi case as it prepared to launch an investment conference on Tuesday that has been overshadowed by the withdrawal of dozens of top business and government leaders.

    Hundreds of bankers and company executives are still expected to join officials at a palatial Riyadh hotel for the Future Investment Initiative.

    The initiative is an annual event designed to help attract billions of dollars of foreign capital as part of reforms to end Saudi dependence on oil exports.

    The 2017 inaugural conference drew the global business elite, earning it the informal title “Davos in the Desert”.

    However, the 2018 event has been marred by the pullout of more than two dozen high-level speakers following an international outcry over Khashoggi’s killing.

  • Trump says he’ll talk to Saudis about missing journalist

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he plans to speak with Saudi Arabian officials at some point about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing a week ago.

    Trump, speaking at the White House, said he does not know anything about Khashoggi’s disappearance and that he had not yet spoken with Saudi officials about the situation.

    Khashoggi has not been heard from or seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday, his fiancée and friends have said.

    Turkish officials told Reuters over the weekend they believed he had been killed inside the consulate.

    Read Also: Trump rejects globalism in speech at UN

    Saudi officials earlier on Tuesday invited Turkish experts and related officials to visit the consulate, according to Turkey’s state-owned news agency Anadolu.

    On Sunday, Trump said he was concerned about reports regarding the journalist and did not “like hearing about it,” but that he hoped the situation “that will sort itself out.”

  • Globalism, sovereignty and Independence

    United  States’President  Donald Trump’s  speech  at  the UN this week and today’s  primaries of the ruling  party of Nigeria, the APC  in Lagos state  occupy  our thoughts  today. Indeed the topic of the day came out of  Trump’s speech  which  I believe is the most important diplomatic  doctrine of our time regardless of your perception  of  the  mannerisms of the contentious US president. With regard to Lagos APC primaries to select the governorship  candidate, the issues  at  stake are important in terms of choice, competition and independent  performance for not only the incumbent  governor who has accepted  the challenge of  his co contestants but  also  for the hold and grip of Jagaban  Bola  Ahmed Tinubu  on  the  direction and  control  of  Lagos  state  politics.

    Basically  Donald  Trump  after blowing the Trumpet of his Administration on the world stage  as he addressed  the UN General Assembly  changed  US foreign policy from one of rampant intervention in other  nations affairs  to a  new one that  rejects globalism  and believes in sovereignty, patriotism and independence. It is a new foreign policy akin to the Monroe Doctrine which  forbids historically  foreign intervention in South America. The new Trump Doctrine of America First in foreign  relations asked  the world leaders to put their house in order first  as sovereign nations in order to be truly  independent. America  he asserted  rejects globalism  and the  global  control  and governance of independent nations by international  institutions.  He  highlighted  nations like Saudi Arabia, a monarchy  as doing quite well  for their  nation in his estimation. The US rejects the International Criminal Court as lacking in international jurisdiction  and legitimacy  and he cautioned that those  nations that receive US aid  will  no longer be allowed to bite the finger that feeds them. He condemned Iran and its leaders  in no uncertain terms as sponsors of terrorism, applauded N Korea  hitherto  a  pariah of the international  community for its denuclearization pursuit  after  a  new détente with the US following  the historic meeting of the two leaders in Singapore  this year.  In all,  the US president turned world politics as we have known it so far  totally upside  down.

    My duty  here  is not about his polemics  and personality,  for which I am  sure  the  world leaders  who  formed his audience  gave a grudging if unintentional applause on his  introductory  self  praise,  which  even  he found encouraging and admitted he  did not  expect. My duty is to dissect his massive and important  speech in terms of content and direction of world  peace and  I  will  do that  in due course.

    Before  doing that however  let  me bring on board today’s  Lagos APC guber  primaries involving three candidates including the Lagos state sitting Governor Ambode.  The  direct primaries is a reflection of true democracy in  terms of  a  widening of political  participation in the choice of the governor of the state. It is an  opportunity for Lagosians  to judge  the performance of the governor  and reward him  with reelection or    first,  with a renewed  candidature, if they judge  he has lived up to the campaign promises  that  brought him  to power.  It is also an opportunity for his fellow aspirants to prove they have the where withal  to be better  or to do things differently  from what the incumbent  can claim  to have achieved since he was  elected  as governor. With  regard  to the party ruling caucus led by the Jagaban, the caucus  should  be applauded for making the competition open and  direct.

    It  has  returned power to the people with  the direct  primaries. It should  now sit back and be an  objective referee  to  make sure the contestants and the competition follow the rules and laws  of the party  governing the primaries. The  leadership  of the party in the state  must act like Shakespeare’s Caesar’s  wife  whose  conduct  must  be above  reproach.  In addition since the primaries are now direct the party must realize  that its  former  power of selection and endorsement  is now diluted  and on a permanent  basis since  once  the people  have tasted power  they are not likely  to  lose sight  of it ever  again.

    Which  again  is good for democracy and makes the choice of the people accountable  to those who  elected him or her rather  than  to any person, structure or institution.  That is the price  of transparency  and accountability  that the leadership  of the APC  has set  afoot, and I pray  they  have a peaceful and people  oriented primaries today  to see the  emergence  of  a proven  independent candidate for governor of the state.

    At  the UN,  Donald Trump  asked  the nations of the world to choose a future of patriotism, peace  and prosperity  and  asked  nations to make their nations great in terms of peace and prosperity  so that their people will  not migrate to other more prosperous  nations. It is here  that I  pick  issues with  the US president  as  an African  and a Nigerian. What he has said at the UN  could  have been said to African  and developing nations in the sixties  when another US President Dwight  Ike  Eisenhower (1953 – 1961) directed that colonial  nations  should  offload  their colonies and give them independence  at all  costs  because the US was  footing the bill on the reconstruction and rebuilding  Europe  after  the  massive destruction  of  World  War 11. With  hindsight  and  with  the help or disaster of globalization  Democratisation,  Marketisation,  and IMF conditionalities, one  can  say that Trump’s  new doctrine  that member states of the UN  should paddle their own canoes  economically so that their nationals and citizens are safe and protected  at home  and do not flee poverty and insecurity on the high  seas and the Mediterranean    to Europe especially  to look  for a better life,  is a step  in the right  direction  and  in the interest  of world  peace  and  development.

    In  addition in saying that the US  will  no  longer tell  other nations and  people of the world how to work, live or  worship Trump  is  showing the international  community  that the US  now knows  that its  freedom  ends where other nations’  noses begin.

    That  is good for mutually  beneficial, dignifiying  and respectful international  relations. Very  much  unlike his predecessors  who invaded Iraq on false premise  and gave the Cairo Speech  that launched the Arab Street  protests that brought  down dictatorships in the Middle East only  to create ISIS, Boko  Haram, global  migration and the destruction of Syria. Surely, Donald Trump’s  new foreign policy  makes sovereignty, independence  and Patriotism more palatable  and dignifying to developing and African nations like Nigeria than the policies of his predecessors. Once  again  long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.