The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Donald Trump

  • BREAKING: Obama warns Trump about hiring Flynn

    BREAKING: Obama warns Trump about hiring Flynn

    The former President of the United State, Barack Obama warned President Donald Trump in November before leaving office against hiring retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.

    This was confirmed to CNN by the former Obama administration officials disclosing that Obama warned Trump about Flynn during their Oval Office meeting on November 10, days after Trump was elected president.

    According to the CNN, Obama’s concerns, which he relayed to Trump, were not related to the firing of Flynn from the Defense Intelligence Agency but rather in the course of the investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election.

    “Flynn’s name kept popping up,” according to a senior Obama administration source.

    Trump did not heed Obama’s counsel on Flynn, bringing aboard the former military intelligence officer who supported Trump during his campaign as his national security adviser. However, Trump fired Flynn 24 days later when news broke of Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

    News of the warning comes as former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is set to testify before Congress on Monday about the concerns she expressed to Trump administration officials about Flynn’s contacts with Russian officials, namely with Kislyak.

    Yates, in her role as acting attorney general, warned White House counsel Don McGahn on January 26 that Flynn was lying when he denied — both publicly and privately — that he discussed US sanctions on Russia with Kislyak.

    It wasn’t until weeks later that Trump asked for Flynn’s resignation, only after news surfaced that Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak. Yates’ testimony on Monday will be the first time she speaks publicly about her warnings to the White House about Flynn.

    The Senate and House intelligence committees are continuing to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, including potential coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign or people close to the campaign.

    Congressional investigators have so far homed in on Flynn, Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, and Roger Stone, who informally advised Trump during his presidential run.
    While Trump asked for Flynn’s resignation, he has not abandoned his former national security adviser altogether.

    Trump on Monday morning sought to get ahead of Yates’ testimony, taking to Twitter to deflect criticism that he or his administration should have kept Flynn out of the top national security post from the outset.

    Find Trump’s tweet below:

    “General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama administration — but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that,” Trump said in his first missive.

    “Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how the classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel,” he tweeted.

  • Macron favorite in opinion polls as France elects new president

    Macron favorite in opinion polls as France elects new president

    After a tumultuous election campaign filled with scandal and surprises, the French public began to vote on Sunday on whether a pro-European Union centrist or an anti-EU, anti-immigration far-rightist will lead them for the next five years.

    Opinion polls indicate they will pick Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who wants to bridge the left-right divide, resisting an anti-establishment tide that has seen Britons vote to leave the EU and Americans choose Donald Trump as U.S. president.

    But should an upset occur and National Front candidate Marine Le Pen win, the very future of the EU could be on the line.
    Macron, who wants to deregulate the economy and deepen EU integration, has a 23- to 26-percentage-point lead over Le Pen in the opinion polls.
    Forecasts proved accurate for the presidential election’s first round last month, and markets have risen in response to Macron’s widening lead over his rival after a bitter television debate on Wednesday.

    “We increased our equity exposure and added some French stocks after the first round.

    “The major political risk of a Le Pen victory appears to be disappearing,’’ Francois Savary, Chief Investment Officer at Geneva-based fund management firm Prime Partners, said.

    In a campaign that has seen favorites drop out of the race one after the other, Le Pen, who wants to close borders, ditch the euro currency and clamp down on migration, is nevertheless closer to elected power than the far right has ever been in Western Europe since World War Two.

    Even if opinion polls prove accurate and France elects its youngest president ever rather than its first female leader, Macron himself has said he expects no honeymoon period.

    Abstention could be high, and close to 60 per cent of those who plan to vote for Macron say they will do so to stop Le Pen from being elected to lead the euro zone’s second-largest economy rather than because they fully agree with the former banker-turned-politician.

    Sunday’s election will in any case not end the battle between mainstream and more radical policies in France, with parliamentary elections next month equally crucial.

    Once the presidential ballot is over, attention will switch to whether the winner will be able to get a majority in parliament, with one poll this week showing that such a majority was within reach for Macron.

    Much will also depend on both the candidates’ score on Sunday.

    Le Pen’s niece, Marion Marechal-Le Pen, on Thursday told L’Opinion daily that a 40 percent score would already be “a huge victory” for the National Front.

    Whoever wins will spell a new chapter in French politics.

    The major left-wing and right-wing parties — the Socialist Party and The Republicans — that have ruled France for decades both suffered humiliating defeats in the election’s first round.

    The campaign was hit by yet another surprise on Friday night just before the quiet period which forbids politicians from commenting started.

    Macron’s team said a massive hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign-financing information online.

    Pollsters will publish initial estimates at 8 pm (1800 GMT), once all polling stations are closed.

    More than 50,000 police officers will be on duty. Security will be a prime concern in the wake of a series of militant attacks in Paris, Nice and elsewhere in the past few years that have killed more than 230 people.

  • Trump signs executive order on religious freedom

    Trump signs executive order on religious freedom

    President of the United State, Donald Trump on Thursday marked the National Day of Prayer by signing an executive order aimed at boosting religious freedom by easing IRS restrictions against political activities by tax-exempt religious organisations, including churches.

    Declaring “no one should be censoring sermons,” Trump announced the order, which fulfilled a campaign pledge, during a Rose Garden ceremony attended by religious leaders, activists and Vice President Pence.

    We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced again and we will never stand for religious discrimination – Trump said before signing the order, which states it is now administration policy is “to protect and vigorously promote religious liberty”.

    The ban on political speech from the pulpit is rooted in an amendment introduced in 1954 by then-Democratic Sen. Lyndon Johnson that gave the IRS authority to punish tax-exempt charitable organisations, including churches, for making political endorsements or getting involved in political campaigns.

    The order directs the IRS to exercise maximum enforcement discretion to alleviate the burden of the so-called Johnson Amendment.

    However, the Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Louise Melling, issued a statement in response to reports that President Trump will sign an executive order before this week ended, that creates religious exemptions that open the door to discrimination.

    The ACLU sees the order as a matter of discrimination against gays and lesbians in America and not just an issue of religious freedom.

    The statement reads: “The ACLU fights every day to defend religious freedom, but religious freedom does not mean the right to discriminate against or harm others. If President Trump signs an executive order that attempts to provide a license to discriminate against women or LGBT people, we will see him in court.”

    In furtherance, the executive order signed by President trump instructs the Treasury Department not to target the tax-exempt status of churches and other institutions if they express support for political candidates.

    The order also directs the Department of Justice to ensure religious protections are afforded to individuals and groups, such as Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who take a vow of poverty in serving the elderly.

    In his introductory remarks, Vice President Mike Pence said the National Day of Prayer is a time to reaffirm “the vital role people of faith play in American society” and praised the president for marking the day in such a public manner.

    The signing represents a major triumph for Vice President Pence—whose push for religious-freedom legislation backfired mightily when he served as governor of Indiana—and his allies in the conservative movement.

    Trump campaigned against the ban and pledged in his address to the Republican National Convention that he would “work very hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all Americans.”

    Trump called up several of the Little Sisters of the Poor members and congratulated them on their landmark victory in the Supreme Court over the issue of the contraceptive mandate included in ObamaCare.

    According to Trump, more than 50 religious groups filed lawsuits against the Obama administration for violating their religious liberty.

    Before the final order was released, several religious liberty groups expressed support for the administration’s actions.

    The first freedom in the Bill of Rights is religious freedom. America was born on the foundation of religious freedom and it is one of our most cherished liberties. There could be no better day to sign an executive order on religious freedom than the National Day of Prayer – Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel.

    Mark Rienzi, counsel for The Becket Fund, said on Twitter he was encouraged by the “promise of the protection” coming from the White House and looked forward to seeing the final language.

    The Becket Fund is the public interest law firm which has represented the Little Sisters of the Poor in their fight to be exempted from ObamaCare’s contraceptive mandate.

    The executive order drew critics from the left and the right.

    “If the … EO on religious liberty ends up being what media outlets are currently reporting, then it’ll be woefully inadequate,” tweeted Ryan Anderson, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

  • Trump, Turnbull to meet after tense phone call

    Trump, Turnbull to meet after tense phone call

    Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and U.S. President Donald Trump will meet in New York later on Thursday for their first face-to-face encounter following a testy long distance start to their relationship.

    Trump and Turnbull are set to attend an event to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the victory over Japan by U.S. and Australian forces in World War II’s Battle of the Coral Sea.

    The two leaders would also hold a bilateral meeting, with issues surrounding North Korea and China expected to dominate the talks.

    Their first official conversation over the phone in February went sour after Trump blasted Turnbull over the terms of a refugee swap deal.

    Before leaving office, President Barack Obama’s administration agreed to take more than a thousand refugees languishing in Australian immigration detention centres in the Pacific islands.

    Trump reportedly hung up on Turnbull and later tweeted that it was “a dumb deal.”

    However, the Trump administration said later that it would honour the agreement.

    In April, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was in Australia on a two-day visit for the final leg of his four-nation Asia-Pacific tour, and assured that all was well between the two long-time allies.

    “They don’t have to be best friends, but of course they will be gracious toward each other.

    “I have no doubt that the prime minister and President Trump will find a lot in common, I’m sure they’ll get along well,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

    Turnbull is said to be bringing a jarrah timber box handmade outside Canberra to hold a dozen golf balls for the president, according to local media.

    This will also be the first time Trump is returning to his home city New York since assuming office in January.

    Turnbull would be returning to Australia on Saturday.

     

  • Business magnate, Buffett, to face crowd as conglomerate grows bigger

    As the U.S adapts to Donald Trump’s presidency, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders will gather in Omaha, Nebraska, this weekend to seek reassurance from Warren Buffett.

    The weekend known as “Woodstock for Capitalists” is unique in corporate America.

    It is a celebration of the billionaire’s image and success at a conglomerate which businesses range from Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, See’s candies to Ginsu knives.

    Buffett, 86, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 93, will answer five hours of questions at Saturday’s annual meeting.

    Many say it reinforces their views about investing.

    “Watching someone like (Buffett) with strong command on details of the economy and Berkshire’s operations is very impressive.

    “But you are not going to learn a lot about Berkshire Hathaway, the company, ” said Meyer Shields, a Keefe, Bruyette and Woods analyst.

    Last year’s attendance fell to about 37,000 from more than 40,000 a year earlier.

    However, there were also 1.1 million real-time sign-ons to Yahoo Finance, which webcast the meeting for the first time.

    It will do so again in English and Mandarin.

  • Trump confesses: I thought being President would be easier

    Trump confesses: I thought being President would be easier

    President Donald Trump of the United States of America (USA) has confessed that he never expected being a president to be as tough as it has turned out.

    Trump said this as part of the celebration to mark his first 100 days in office.


    Reflecting on his first 100 days in the White House, President Donald Trump told Reuters Thursday he’s been surprised by aspects of his new job, including how much work it is when compared with running his business empire.

    “I loved my previous life,” Trump said. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”

    According to Reuters, Trump also said he was surprised at how little privacy he has now, despite being used to not having much of it in his “old life.”

    The president, who never held public office before he was elected to the nation’s highest office, told the news agency he’s still getting used to his 24-hour Secret Service protection.

  • “If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown”- Trump

    “If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown”- Trump

    President Donald Trump downplayed the severity of a potential government shutdown, just two days shy of a deadline for Congress to reach a spending deal to avert temporary layoffs of federal workers.

    “We’ll see what happens. If there’s a shutdown, there’s a shutdown,” Trump told Reuters in an interview, adding that Democrats would be to blame if the federal government was left unfunded.

    Congress has until 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday to pass a bill to fund the government or face a shutdown, which would temporarily lay off hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

    Republicans introduced a bill on Wednesday to fund government operations at current levels for one more week, giving them time to finish negotiations with Democrats on the plan for the rest of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

    Trump said a shutdown would be a “very negative thing” but that his administration was prepared if it was necessary.

    In a wide-ranging interview, he defended the one-page tax plan he unveiled on Wednesday from criticism that it would increase the U.S. deficit, saying better trade deals and economic growth would offset the costs.

    “We will do trade deals that are going to make up for a tremendous amount of the deficit. We are going to be doing trade deals that are going to be much better trade deals,” Trump said.

    Trump also said it would be unfair to offer a debt bailout to Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, because it was unfair to people in U.S. states.

    As part of the budget negotiations, Democrats have called for financial support to prop up Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program covering health insurance for the poor, but many Republicans are opposed to the idea.

    “I don’t think that’s fair to the people of Iowa, and I don’t think it’s fair to the people of Wisconsin and Ohio and North Carolina and Pennsylvania that we should be bailing out Puerto Rico for billions and billions of dollars,” Trump said. ” No I don’t think that’s fair.”

     

  • Activists mark Trump’s 100 days with 100 Statues of Liberty

    More than 100 activists from human rights group — Amnesty International — posed as Statues of Liberty outside the U.S. embassy in London on Thursday to mark U.S. President, Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.

    The Statue of Liberty protesters held different messages, including “refugees welcome” and “no ban, no wall,” referring to Trump’s entry ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority states and his plan to erect a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

    Kate Allen, Amnesty’s UK Director, said ahead of the protest that “it is a crying shame that President Trump cares so little for human rights.

    “In the space of just 100 days, President Trump has done untold damage to the U.S. already less-than-perfect reputation for upholding human rights.

    “If the Statue of Liberty stands for anything, it stands for willingness to shelter people uprooted through war and intolerance.”

    Another protester dressed as the Statue of Liberty stood outside the U.S. consulate in Northern Ireland, while a similar protest was planned at the U.S. consulate in Scotland on Saturday.

    Following Trump’s entry ban, nearly two million Britons added their names to an online petition calling for his planned trip to the country to be downgraded from a state visit to avoid embarrassing the queen.

    After a debate in parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said it would stick to its plan to host Trump but reportedly delayed the visit until the autumn.

    Trump’s travel ban was blocked from going into effect by a federal judge in Hawaii after a lawsuit challenging the order was filed in the state.

    Activists mark Trump’s 100 days with 100 Statues of Liberty

    More than 100 activists from human rights group — Amnesty International — posed as Statues of Liberty outside the U.S. embassy in London on Thursday to mark U.S. President, Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.

    The Statue of Liberty protesters held different messages, including “refugees welcome” and “no ban, no wall,” referring to Trump’s entry ban on citizens of several Muslim-majority states and his plan to erect a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

    Kate Allen, Amnesty’s UK Director, said ahead of the protest that “it is a crying shame that President Trump cares so little for human rights.

    “In the space of just 100 days, President Trump has done untold damage to the U.S. already less-than-perfect reputation for upholding human rights.

    “If the Statue of Liberty stands for anything, it stands for willingness to shelter people uprooted through war and intolerance.”

    Another protester dressed as the Statue of Liberty stood outside the U.S. consulate in Northern Ireland, while a similar protest was planned at the U.S. consulate in Scotland on Saturday.

    Following Trump’s entry ban, nearly two million Britons added their names to an online petition calling for his planned trip to the country to be downgraded from a state visit to avoid embarrassing the queen.

    After a debate in parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said it would stick to its plan to host Trump but reportedly delayed the visit until the autumn.

    Trump’s travel ban was blocked from going into effect by a federal judge in Hawaii after a lawsuit challenging the order was filed in the state.

    Activists mark Trump’s 100 days with 100 Statues of Liberty

  • U.S. asks Pakistan to shun terrorist proxies in Afghanistan

    U.S. asks Pakistan to shun terrorist proxies in Afghanistan

    The U.S. has called on Pakistan to fight all terrorist groups equally and avoid using some of them as proxies in Afghanistan.

    Lt.-Gen. H. R. McMaster, U.S. National Security Advisor made the call during meetings with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and military chief Qamar Bajwa on the final leg of his visit to the region before flying out late Monday.

    McMaster arrived in Islamabad on Monday on an unannounced visit, a day after he hinted the U.S. could take a tougher stance on Pakistan.

    It was the first visit by a top member of President Donald Trump’s administration to the militancy-hit South Asian country.

    The visit also came after a stop in neighbouring Afghanistan where he suggested Washington may take a stronger line on Islamabad, for years seen as an unreliable U.S. ally.

    According to a statement from the U.S. Embassy, during the meetings, McMaster “stressed the need to confront terrorism in all its forms”.

    “The U.S. hopes Pakistani leaders will understand that it is in their interest to go after terrorist groups less selectively than they have in the past,” McMaster told Afghanistan’s Tolonews before the visit.

    “The best way to pursue their interest in the country and elsewhere is through diplomacy not through the use of proxies and engaging violence,” McMaster said.

    The visit was first high-level interaction between the U.S. and Pakistan since President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January.

    During the meeting, Sharif welcomed Trump’s willingness to help India and Pakistan resolve their differences particularly in relation to the disputed Kashmir region.

    The Trump administration is reportedly considering new policies regarding Afghanistan including a proposal to send additional troops to the country to end a stalemate with Taliban insurgents.

     

  • Trump plans to move ahead with Nigeria planes sale -Sources

    President Donald Trump’s administration is pushing forward with plans to sell up to a dozen aircraft to Nigeria’s air force for the fight against the extremist group Boko Haram.

    Sources said the deal could be worth up to 600 million dollars.

    Sources also said the Super Tocano A-29 aircraft, an agile, propeller-driven plane with reconnaissance and surveillance as well as attack capabilities, is made by Brazil’s Embraer.

    A second production line is in Florida, in a partnership between Embraer and privately held Sierra Nevada Corp of Sparks, Nevada.

    Former President Barack Obama’s administration originally agreed on the sale, but delayed it after incidents including the Nigerian Air Force’s bombing of a refugee camp in January that killed 90 to 170 civilians.

    The Trump administration wants to push ahead to boost Nigeria’s efforts to fight Boko Haram and bolster hiring in the United States by defense firms.

    “We’ve been told that the administration is going to go forward with that transaction,” a congressional aide said.

    Formal notification of the deal has not yet been sent to Congress but is expected shortly.

    Trump has said he plans to go ahead with foreign defense sales delayed under Obama by human rights concerns.

    A senior Nigerian military source in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, confirmed that the sale would go ahead and said it would also involve training, surveillance and military intelligence “to support … the ongoing insurgency war.”

    In March, the Trump administration informed Congress of its plans to pursue a five billion dollars sale to Bahrain of Lockheed Martin F-16s and related equipment, which had been held up under Obama when Bahrain failed to meet human rights targets.

    Reuters first reported the Obama administration’s plan to sell the Embraer aircraft to Nigeria in May 2016, as a vote of confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari’s drive to reform the military.

    The Super Tucano costs more than 10 million dollars each and the price can go much higher depending on the configuration.

    It is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT six engine.

    Trump’s plan to move ahead with the Nigerian sale was first reported on Monday by the Associated Press.

    The U.S. congressional source said rights concerns remain, despite support for the sale from some lawmakers.

    There are also questions about whether Nigeria will be able to pay the full 600 million dollars for the aircraft, equipment, training and support.

    U.S. officials said Buhari raised frustration with delays in the sale in a phone call with Trump in February.