In ‘warm’ phone call, Trump invites Philippines’ Duterte to White House
President Trump placed a “warm” phone call to Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been widely criticized for a bloody anti-drug crackdown, and invited him to visit the White House, both countries said.
A White House statement late Saturday said the conversation between the two leaders was “very friendly,” and added that the U.S.-Philippine alliance was “heading in a very positive direction.”
In the Philippines, a presidential spokesman said Trump had expressed understanding of challenges facing Duterte, “especially on the matter of dangerous drugs.”
Human rights groups have expressed deep concern over Duterte’s harsh methods against suspected drug users and drug dealers during his tenure in office. Human Rights Watch estimated earlier this year that at least 7,000 people, an average of 30 a day, had been killed by death squads since Duterte became president in what appeared a deliberate campaign of extrajudicial executions.
Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, defended the invitation to Duterte, saying Sunday that the outreach was made largely in the context of calming regional tensions with North Korea and did not signal approval for Duterte’s methods in the drug war or a larger disdain for human rights.
“The purpose of this call is all about North Korea,” Priebus said on ABC’s “This Week.” He said that Trump has been “speaking a lot to all our partners in southeast Asia” amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Manila is about 1,800 miles from Pyongyang, and the Philippine navy is barely a coastal defense force, so it’s unclear how it would fit into a regional strategy for northeast Asia. Pyongyang regularly issues threats to South Korea and Japan, not the Philippines.
Duterte had been notably bellicose in his stance toward Trump’s predecessor, Barak Obama, and at one point threatened to essentially scrap the longstanding U.S.-Philippines military alliance and end cooperation on counter-terrorism. Duterte called Obama a Philippine epithet loosely translated as “son of a whore” after Obama criticized the brutal anti-drug crackdown.
It was not the first time Trump’s dealings with a foreign strongman have raised eyebrows.
Trump earlier in April hosted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi at the White House and praised him for doing a “fantastic job” despite Sisi’s jailing of thousands of political opponents after he took power in a military coup.
Also in April, Trump was alone among Western leaders in making a congratulatory phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after Erdogan claimed victory in a referendum that vastly enhanced presidential powers.
Critics called the Turkish referendum, whose results have been disputed by the leading opposition party, a blow to democracy.
Trump: ‘We’ll see’ if a North Korean nuclear test would trigger U.S. response
President Trump is warning North Korea not to conduct another nuclear test, saying “we’ll see” if such a step would trigger a U.S. military response.
Trump, in an interview aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” also said he believes China’s President Xi Jinping, with whom he met weeks ago in Florida, has been using Beijing’s leverage to restrain North Korea’s mercurial leader, Kim Jong Un.
In the interview, Trump said neither he nor Xi would be happy if Kim were to conduct a nuclear test, which would be North Korea’s sixth. There were some expectations earlier this month that the hermit kingdom might conduct such a test in connection with patriotic holiday observances.
The test did not take place, but North Korea has continued with other actions the U.S. and its regional allies regard as provocations, including a failed test on Saturday of a mid-range ballistic missile. Kim’s government is known to be working to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States.
Asked in the CBS interview if a North Korea nuclear test would prompt U.S. military action, Trump replied: “I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.”
Trump appeared to offer grudging praise for Kim, noting that he took over North Korea when he was 26 or 27 after his father died and has consolidated power despite challenges from the military and members of his family.
“A lot of people, I’m sure, tried to take that power away, whether it was his uncle or anybody else,” he said. “And he was able to do it. So obviously, he’s a pretty smart cookie.”
In 2013, North Korea’s official news service reported that Jang Song Taek, Kim’s uncle by marriage, was executed for attempting to seize power. The report called Jang “worse than a dog.”
In a separate interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was asked if Trump was considering a pre-emptive strike against North Korea, especially if there were indications that it had developed a delivery system capable of carrying a nuclear weapon. “I don’t think so,” he said.
“I think we have to consider that option as the very last option,” said McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee. He cited an array of dangers associated with any outbreak of hostilities on the Korean peninsula, including North Korea’s ability to strike Seoul with conventional artillery.
“The major lever on North Korea, maybe the only lever, is China,” he said.
Amid rising tensions with North Korea, the Trump administration has been sending mixed signals about its dealings with South Korea, long a bedrock regional ally.
Trump rattled many in South Korea last week when he said in at least two interviews that Seoul should pay $1 billion for a sophisticated missile defense system that the U.S. and South Korea have begun installing. The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is intended to become operational within a matter of days.
South Korea’s presidential office said Sunday that Trump’s national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, had offered reassurances that Washington would not try to make Seoul bear the cost. In an interview aired Sunday, McMaster confirmed that was the case — for now.
“What I told our South Korean counterpart is that until any re-negotiation, that the deal’s in place, we’ll adhere to our word,” McMaster said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Senior Trump administration officials are often put in the position of walking back Trump’s comments, including many on foreign affairs, without seeming to directly contradict the president.
In this instance, McMaster sought to put Trump’s comments in the context of looking at “appropriate burden-sharing” across all U.S. alliances.
“The question of what is the relationship on THAAD, on our defense relationship going forward, will be renegotiated, as it’s going to be with all our allies,” McMaster said. “Because what the president has said is, he will prioritize American citizens’ security and interests.”
Protest over climate change, and Trump’s rejection of issue, stoke rallies
Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged around the White House and in other cities Saturday to protest what they said was the Trump administration’s rejection of scientific claims on climate change and other environmental issues.
Trump has ordered the removal of numerous regulations imposed by previous administrations to protect the environment. That has motivated demonstrators to choose the president’s 100th day in office for mass protests .
“I am standing up for climate change,” said Lucy La Flamme, a Washington resident who held a large banner saying, “Resist,” at the demonstration.
“This is a critical tipping point,” said Kaitlin Jensco, 29, a teacher.
She and others expressed alarm at the Trump administration’s decision to remove from government websites any mention of climate warming and other keen environmental concerns.
Participants in the People’s Climate March said they objected to Trump’s rollback of restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants, among other things.
In Washington, demonstrators braved one of the hottest April days on record to participate in the marches.
Trump will stage a 100-day rally for the voters who helped put him in the White House
President Trump will skip the White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday night and instead celebrate his 100th day in office doing what got him there: taking his populist message directly to supporters in rural Pennsylvania, the state he turned from blue to red in his surprise electoral college win in November.
The nighttime rally will start in Harrisburg at the same time as the annual press dinner in Washington and give Trump a chance to publicly prod one of his favorite foils, the White House press corps, many of whom will be attending the black-tie event.
Trump’s speech wasn’t deliberately scheduled to upstage the dinner, a spokesman said.
“I respectfully suggest that it’s not just about the correspondents’ dinner; it’s rather an opportunity for him to talk to voters that elected him and [say] what he’s been able to accomplish in the first 100 days,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Friday.
Since the rally will take place 50 miles from where Trump made his 100-day compact with voters in October, the president likely will tick off what he considers his tally of accomplishments.
Chief among them: He placed a conservative justice on the Supreme Court, revamped orders to allow immigration agents to deport more people in the country illegally and has initiated a program to roll back regulations on businesses and environmental protection.
But more than half of his 30-plus executive orders simply told Cabinet agencies to study a problem and come up with recommendations.
Trump hasn’t repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act or torn up the North American Free Trade Agreement or the Iran nuclear deal, as he pledged last year.
After talking tough on Chinese trade practices, he’s agreed not to name China a currency manipulator as he promised. And his efforts to ban travel from select Muslim-majority nations have been blocked in court.
The White House announcement last week of an ambitious plan to cut taxes was rolled out as a one-page document with bullet points, not as a policy proposal to Congress.
Trump, who had no government or military experience before he ran for president, acknowledged this week that running the government is tougher than he expected.
“This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier,” Trump told Reuters in an interview Thursday.
During that interview, he handed out maps showing which parts of the country he carried in November. His advisors say he is still fixated on the daily news cycle and he often asks how a decision will play in the media before he chooses a path forward.
Trump will be the first sitting president to skip the correspondents’ dinner since Ronald Reagan didn’t attend after he was shot in 1981.
Trump was roasted by then-President Obama during the dinner in 2011 following several weeks of the billionaire businessman’s appearing on news shows spreading the false conspiracy theory that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. People close to Trump, who was in the audience that night, have said his humiliation that night spurred him to consider a White House bid.
“I think that is the night he resolved to run for president,” Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone said in an interview last year on PBS’ Frontline. “I think he is kind of motivated by it: ‘Maybe I’ll just run. Maybe I’ll show them all.’ ”
Pentagon says two Army Rangers may have been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan
The Pentagon has launched an investigation into whether friendly fire killed two U.S. Army Rangers during a night raid against an Islamic State compound in eastern Afghanistan this week.
Due to the fierce fighting, it’s not clear if the two Rangers were shot by other Americans, by Afghan troops or by Islamic State fighters. U.S. commanders launched an official inquiry into the incident.
Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, 22, of Bloomington, Ill., and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, of Kettering, Ohio, were killed during a three-hour battle Wednesday night in Nangarhar province.
The pair, assigned to the 75th Ranger Regiment in Ft. Benning, Ga., both died of their injuries after they were evacuated from the battle. A third Ranger was wounded and expected to recover.
The raid, near the border with Pakistan, sought to capture or kill Abdul Hasib, Islamic State’s leader in Afghanistan.
About 50 Army Rangers and 40 Afghan special forces were dropped by helicopter at about 10:30 p.m. into the Mohmand Valley, according to the Pentagon.
Within minutes, the commandos came under intense fire from all directions and dug-in positions, the statement said.
“Based on reports from forces on the ground, the engagement was close-quarters from multiple compounds,” the statement said.
American AC-130 gunships, Apache helicopters, F-16 fighter jets and armed drones all launched air strikes during the battle, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said.
Up to 35 militants were killed although it is not clear if Hasib was among the dead.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis praised the two Rangers who died.
“Fighting alongside their Afghan partners, Josh and Cameron proved themselves willing to go into danger and impose a brutal cost on enemies in their path,” Mattis said in a statement. “Our nation owes them an irredeemable debt, and we give our deepest condolences to their families.”
Three U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan this year, all in Nangarhar.
On April 13, the Air Force dropped an 11-ton munition for the first time in combat on a cave-and-tunnel complex in Nangarhar that it said was a militant stronghold.
It wasn’t clear Friday if the latest U.S. casualties were in the same area as the so-called Mother of All Bombs.
A total of 1,835 American troops have been killed in action in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
Donald Trump, 99 days into the presidency, returns to his favorite place: The campaign
President Trump has treated the 100-day mark of his presidency with anxiety -- downplaying its significance, criticizing the media for under-appreciating his achievements and rolling out a flurry of public announcements aimed at conveying a sense of action.
On Friday, Day 99, Trump chose to celebrate the occasion with a stroll down memory lane with a subject he enjoys far more, his historic campaign victory.
Trump addressed about 10,000 members of the National Rifle Assn. at a meeting in Atlanta, becoming the first sitting president to stand before the group since Ronald Reagan in 1983.
He recalled the breaking news announcements on election night, naming states he won one by one: Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania.
“We ran up the East Coast,” he said.
His face lighted up. His tone became buoyant.
“That was some evening.”
He said sports fans called it more exciting than a World Series, a Super Bowl or a boxing match. He went into details of the electoral map and praised the NRA, which may have been his most important ally in the conservative movement, for standing with him.
“You came through for me and I am going to come through for you,” Trump said, to thunderous applause.
Trump conceded in an interview with Reuters on Thursday night that the job has been more difficult than he expected. And when times have gotten tough for Trump, the election has served as his comfort zone.
In the speech, he touted reversals of 11th-hour rules imposed by the Obama administration that restricted ammunition on certain public lands. He highlighted the confirmation of conservative judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, saying the media had not given him adequate credit for the achievement.
He said his Cabinet secretaries, including Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, would get tough on criminals and immigrants who crossed the border illegally and would promote the rights of gun owners.
Then he returned to one of his favorite campaign themes of all, building a wall on the southern border.
But his rhetoric showed the differences between campaigning and governing. Trump recently relented on a demand to insert congressional funding for the wall into a must-pass spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown. And his administration has quietly conceded that the wall will not be the entire length of the border.
Trump said opponents were now trying to stop the wall by pointing to a 73% reduction in illegal border crossings since he took office, a number he has highlighted repeatedly.
“They’re trying to use this number against us,” Trump said to great applause. “But you need that wall to stop the human trafficking, to stop the drugs, to stop the wrong people.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Trump said, reassuring the crowd. “That’s an easy one.”
Trump omitted his other applause line, that Mexico would pay for the wall. The government has called that a nonstarter and Trump has yet to put forth a plan to compel the ally to pay for the wall.
But Trump was thrilled to invoke some of his other campaign lines.
“I see all of those beautiful red and white hats,” he said. “We will never forget our favorite slogan of all: Make America Great Again.”
Trump’s supporters and detractors have more in common than you might think
A lot can happen during 100 days. Here’s some of the biggest stories of Donald Trump’s first 14 weeks as president.
Over the last 100 days, thousands have graded President Trump’s performance in office. We reached out to some of those who submitted their appraisals, both supporters and opponents, to elaborate on their views. Here’s what they had to say:
“I have four friends who have asked me not to contact them again.” – Michael Taylor
Taylor, of San Diego, didn’t vote for Trump. He actually penciled in Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s name. But from what he’s seen so far, Trump doesn’t deserve the flak he’s gotten.
“It must be so difficult to sort of weather the storm and keep pushing forward with what one thinks is right,” said Taylor, who was born in North Carolina and grew up in Venezuela, then moved back to the U.S. for college.
The 70-year-old found it shocking when friends he’s known more than half his life wanted to sever their relationship over his support for Trump.
“I have a different view on politics. I’m not a serial killer. But I guess some people just feel so strongly,” he said.
He graded the president 11 out of the 14 weeks, each time giving him at least an A. His final grade? Still an A.
“This was the first time in my life that I didn’t cast a vote for president.” – Bill Mann
Mann, of South Pasadena, is a lifelong Republican. The first vote he ever cast was for Barry Goldwater in 1964. He doesn’t the party, but until November, he had always voted.
“I always felt that the Republican Party wanted people to stand on their own two feet. The Democratic Party was the party that felt people couldn’t do anything for themselves. But the Republican Party has flown so far to the right,” he said.
Mann, a 75-year-old Vietnam veteran and business owner who has fostered dozens of children over the years, said he is disappointed in Trump’s performance.
“He’s doing everything possible to destroy the things I hold dear the most.”
Overall, he gives Trump a D for his 100 days in office.
“We need jobs for the middle class. Trump is the only guy who understood that.” – Lee Roe
The Great Recession hit the 55-year-old Roe and her family hard. Her husband lost his job as an engineer, and when he finally got a new one he had to take a 60% pay cut, she said.
Now he works in Maryland and travels back to Pennsylvania every weekend to see Roe, who stayed at home with the kids.
Around the same time, her health insurance premiums went up. Roe, who suffers from a chronic illness, went from paying $700 a month for a family of four to $2,700 a month, she said.
The combination of factors pushed her to switch from longtime Democrat to Republican.
“Just because I’m a Trump supporter, doesn’t mean I’m a racist, bigot, misogynist, nasty person,” Roe said. “I really think that if we work together that our lives can be better.”
She gave Trump an A, but wants people who don’t support Trump to remember that they have more in common than the media portrays.
“We love our families. We want to take care of our families,” Roe said.
“It’s not about left or right. ... That seems to be the lesson that’s born out of this. The polarization is hurting everybody.” – Jeff Klarin
This is a tumultuous time, but it’s a time that needed to happen, said Klarin, a 57-year-old graphic designer in California.
The issues that matter to him? Obamacare (he’s on it) and immigration (he’s hired immigrant workers).
Although he disagrees with Trump on those fronts, he hopes this moment in history marks a positive turning point.
“Perhaps born out of this is more political activity that continues, and hopefully people realize that we need to work together to make our country better,” he said.
He gave Trump an F. But says it could change if Trump started to move toward the center, became more transparent and practiced less cronyism.
Analysis: At senators’ town halls, voters take an uneven measure of Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein
Any single event can mislead when it comes to deciphering the political environment. Many of the more than 18,000 people clamoring for Hillary Clinton on the Ohio State University campus in mid-October — her biggest audience to that point in the presidential campaign — probably did not foresee her blowout defeat in the state less than a month later. Nor did many see Donald Trump surviving the cataclysmic events that enveloped his presidential campaign.
But, with appropriate caution, it’s safe to say that last week’s Los Angeles town halls featuring Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris spoke to the crosscurrents among Democrats today and the different approaches by — and difficulties facing — California’s two senators.
Both town halls were held in politically active African American churches south of downtown: Feinstein’s at First African Methodist Episcopal and Harris’ at Holman United Methodist Church. The locations appeared calculated to set a floor of civility. At First AME, Feinstein spoke of the warmth she’d felt from that congregation going back decades; at Holman, the Rev. Kelvin Sauls reminded those gathered to see Harris that “we are in a sacred place.”
Warmth wasn’t all that greeted Feinstein, who heard catcalls throughout from a crowd far more demanding than the one that greeted Harris the following day.
The differences were obvious between the two Democrats, one starting her Washington career with more than five years to go before reelection, the other pondering whether to run for a fifth full term in 2018.
Trump thinks 100-day report cards are lame. Is he right?
On Saturday, President Trump will observe a milestone: his 100th day in office.
It’s also a millstone.
For nearly half a century, the marker has been used by pollsters, pundits and others who presume great wisdom to size up a fledgling White House and its still-green occupant.
Presidents of both parties have objected to the somewhat arbitrary nature of the evaluations, which, in truth, don’t always coincide with the longer view of history.
“You can use the first 100 days to try to understand some of the style of a presidency,” said Julian E. Zelizer, a Princeton scholar who has written extensively on presidents and politics. “But we really need to limit our analysis to that.”
Even so, birds fly, fish swim and political observers are going to issue their report cards whether the president likes it or not, which this one most certainly does not.
Here’s our take:
Trump signs order that could open California coastal waters to new drilling
President Trump has signed an executive order that could open large parts of the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans to new oil and gas drilling, creating yet another clash with California, where leaders are vowing they will do everything in their power to block new drilling off the state’s shores.
Trump’s move, which is certain to face legal and political challenges, could undo a plan finalized late in President Obama’s second term that sought to limit fossil fuel development and fight climate change by not including new drilling leases off the coast of California or Alaska during the current five-year federal offshore plan, which extends through 2022.
Many leaders in California have long sought a permanent ban on new leasing offshore, and they reacted swiftly to the possibility that drilling could expand.
Trump promised the directive “will make America energy secure” and “create greater prosperity and security for all Americans.”
“It’s going to lead to a lot of great wealth for our country, a lot of great jobs for our country,” he said.
Trump heads to friendly NRA audience ahead of 100-day mark
President Trump is scheduled to head to Atlanta on Friday afternoon to bask in the adulation of one of his friendliest audiences -- the National Rifle Assn. -- part of an effort to excite supporters and convey a sense of accomplishment ahead of the 100-day mark of his presidency.
The group, which is holding its annual leadership forum, backed Trump nearly a year ago, sooner and more forcefully than other major conservative organizations.
The organization called the Supreme Court vacancy the election’s most important issue, and Trump has not disappointed on that front. He and his advisors tout the selection and approval of Neil M. Gorsuch as Trump’s top legislative accomplishment ahead of Saturday’s 100-day mark.
Trump has made dismissive comments about the 100-day measurement, in large part because he has not passed any major laws and suffers from record-low approval ratings. But Trump has been eager to prove his administration’s efficacy nonetheless, putting out talking points, granting interviews and planning speeches. He plans to hold a rally Saturday night in Pennsylvania, a crucial electoral state and home to some of his most enthusiastic crowds during the election.
Trump has said in interviews that the presidency is not as easy as he once thought.
He raised alarms in one of his latest major interviews, Thursday night with Reuters, floating the possibility of conflict with North Korea over its nuclear program.
“There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely,” Trump told the news agency.
“We’d love to solve things diplomatically but it’s very difficult,” he said.
During his trip to Georgia, Trump is also scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for Karen Handel, the Republican candidate in a House race that has been tougher for the party than expected. The race, featuring 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff, has galvanized Trump’s opponents at the national level.
Short of support, House won’t vote on revised GOP healthcare bill this week
The House won’t vote on Republican legislation that would scuttle much of President Obama’s healthcare law until at least next week, a GOP leader said late Thursday. The decision deals a setback to the White House, which has pressured congressional Republicans to pass the bill by Saturday, President Trump’s 100th day in office.
“As soon as we have the votes, we’ll vote on it,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) told reporters after leaving a meeting of the House GOP leadership that lasted nearly two hours. He said the vote would not occur Friday or Saturday.
White House and Republican leaders had labored all day to wring votes out of resistant moderate GOP lawmakers for the healthcare measure. But they remained shy of the number they’d need to revive a Republican bill that was withdrawn last month for lack of support, and it was uncertain when a vote on the revamped legislation might occur.
How some of the Supreme Court’s conservative opinions may lead to a liberal victory on sanctuary cities
Liberal sanctuary cities in California and elsewhere may well win their legal battle against President Trump thanks to Supreme Court rulings once heralded by conservatives, including a 2012 opinion that shielded red states from President Obama’s plans to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income Americans.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked enforcement of Trump’s sanctuary city executive order, resting his ruling on high court decisions that protected states and localities from federal meddling.
Senate confirms Alex Acosta as secretary of Labor, completing Trump’s Cabinet
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Alex Acosta as secretary of Labor, filling out President Trump’s Cabinet as he approaches his 100th day in office.
The 60-38 vote confirms Acosta to the post. Once sworn in as the nation’s 27th secretary of Labor, the son of Cuban immigrants will lead a sprawling agency that enforces more than 180 federal laws covering about 10 million employers and 125 million workers.
Acosta has been a federal prosecutor, a civil rights chief at the Justice Department and a member of the National Labor Relations Board. He will arrive at the top post with relatively little clear record on some of the top issues facing the administration over key pocketbook issues, such as whether to expand the pool of American workers eligible for overtime pay.
Acosta wasn’t Trump’s first choice for the job. Former fast food CEO Andrew Puzder withdrew his name from consideration last month, on the eve of his confirmation vote, after becoming a political headache for the new administration.
Puzder acknowledged having hired a housekeeper not authorized to work in the United States and paying the related taxes years later — after Trump nominated him — and came under fire from Democrats for other issues related to his company and his private life.
Labor secretary is the last Cabinet post for Trump to fill. Trump’s choice for U.S. trade representative, a job considered Cabinet-level, is awaiting a Senate vote.
Trump gives ‘dirty war’ records to Argentina’s leader
President Trump on Thursday handed over to Argentine President Mauricio Macri a trove of declassified documents from the South American nation’s military-led “dirty war.”
The documents contain hundreds of pages of presidential notes, CIA memos, FBI reports and other records that in many cases chronicle human rights atrocities committed by Argentine military officials when they ruled the country from 1976 to 1983.
The dirty war was backed at least tacitly by U.S. officials during that era, historians say. An estimated 30,000 dissidents were killed, and untold thousands of children were kidnapped.
President Obama, during a visit last year to Buenos Aires, said he would give Macri the now-declassified material. Trump, receiving Macri Thursday at the White House, made good on Obama’s promise.
It was the third batch to be released as the U.S. government gradually declassifies the material and came at Macri’s request, the White House said.
The National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization that examines once-secret papers, welcomed the decision to release more information, saying it both helps to set the historical record straight and shows what U.S. officials knew at the time but often ignored.
It published several of the documents released Thursday, including one in which State Department officials described the notorious Operation Condor campaign by the secret police services of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in the 1970s to hunt down and “liquidate” opponents across international borders.
In another document, from 1977, State Department officials questioned whether they should continue to work with those same countries’ security services, given the egregious human rights abuses committed by them.
Thursday’s release “is another positive act of declassified diplomacy that began with Obama and is continuing under the Trump administration,” the National Security Archive’s Carlos Osorio said in a statement.
“Historical accountability continues to play an important role in current U.S. foreign relations,” he said.
Congress races to approve stopgap spending bill to avoid shutdown, but GOP’s Obamacare repeal remains work in progress
Congress hopes to avoid a government shutdown by swiftly approving a stopgap spending bill Friday to allow negotiations to continue for another week on a longer-term funding deal.
Progress continued in the talks to finalize the must-pass legislation and avert a crisis as President Trump prepares to mark his first 100 days in office.
The deal is likely to include a sizable boost of about $15 billion in defense spending supported by both parties, about half the amount Trump was seeking for the rest of the 2017 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
But negotiators Thursday were still trying to narrow a few unresolved issues -- a coal miners pension fund that’s going broke, policy restrictions on abortion and aid to Puerto Rico.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) predicted Thursday the temporary measure to keep government running would be approved.
“I’m confident we’ll be able to pass a short-term extension,” Ryan said.
The Republicans, though holding a majority, usually need Democrats’ votes to pass bills funding the government because the most conservative GOP members often oppose any federal spending increases.
In one twist Thursday, Democrats threatened to withhold their votes if Republicans tried to link passage to the latest GOP effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But that strategy never seemed to materialize. The GOP’s Obamacare overhaul remained a work in progress.
Trump amplified tensions in a series of morning tweets trying to shift blame for any disruption in government operations onto Democrats.
“The Democrats want to shut government if we don’t bail out Puerto Rico and give billions to their insurance companies for OCare failure,” he tweeted, using shorthand for Obamacare. “NO!”
Democrats said they might withhold their votes on the stopgap measure -- forcing Republicans to rely on their majorities in the House and Senate to pass it without them -- if Republicans also voted on the GOP’s latest emerging plan to dismantle the healthcare law.
But they, too, were already assigning blame, should the stopgap measure fail to pass.
“We are never going to shut the government down,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), putting the onus on Republicans. “Any shutting down of the government, the ball is in their court. They have a record of doing that on more than one occassion.”
Pelosi said it would be the “height of stupidity” for Republicans to merge the issues, and suggested Trump is “making a fool” of Republicans by forcing the healthcare vote.
Republicans led government shutdowns when they had the House majority in the1990s and again in 2013.
As Trump’s 100-day milestone neared, some lawmakers said Republicans would stay in town later Friday or Saturday to vote on the latest version of the GOP healthcare overhaul, the American Health Care Act.
But the speaker was less certain about the schedule for those votes.
“We’re going to go when we have the votes,” Ryan said.
The Republican healthcare bill remains highly unpopular, with estimates of 24 million more Americans going without health insurance if it becomes law.
In the latest version of the healthcare bill, Republicans are considering tacking on an amendment that was designed to win over the most conservative members of their majority by giving states the option of doing away with the so-called essential health benefits that Obamacare requires insurers to provide.
That means states could seek a waiver to end popular provisions in Obamacare, including coverage for mental health and maternity care and the ban on charging higher premiums to patients with pre-exisiting conditions.
Republicans argue this will allow states to offer cheaper insurance plans, bringing costs down for consumers. But Democrats say it will result in bare-bones policies with very limited coverage or policies that are too costly for those with medical problems.
While the amendment has been embraced by the conservative House Freedom Caucus, it is till being debated by more centrist lawmakers who worry about Americans losing health insurance. Both factions tanked the GOP’s earlier version of the healthcare bill.
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a Trump ally, said new approach may be pushing centrist lawmakers away from the bill. “It’s probably moved some members from lean yes to lean no,” he said. “There’s no doubt there’s a frustration there.”
Prospects for the healthcare bill in the Senate remain highly uncertain.
“Even if it passes the House, the chances for survival in the Senate are small,” said the chamber’s minority leader, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Meanwhile, talks continue on a spending bill to keep government running through September.
At issue is whether to permanently fund a pension fund for retired coal miners that risks being gutted, eroding pension and health insurance payments, without government assistance.
Democrats and key Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) want to salvage the pension fund, but other Republicans are concerned about the costs and prefer propping it up for a shorter amount of time.
Another concern is over Puerto Rico’s struggling Medicaid program, which is running short on funds and could lead to 900,000 residents losing healthcare coverage by the end of the year. Democrats want to provide Puerto Rico aid, but Trump called it a “bailout.”
Republicans, meanwhile, are pressing for policy provisions, including one that will prevent the federal government from blocking funds or otherwise discriminating against healthcare providers that refuse to offer abortion services.
Republicans are also interested in including a provision that would loosen regulations governing some financial services professionals.
The temporary spending bill, expected for a vote Friday, would fund the government for another week, through May 5.
1:33 p.m.: This post has been updated with the latest developments.
This Democratic bastion flipped for Trump. Almost 100 days in, voters have no regrets
To read the polls and hear the pundits, President Trump’s first 100 days have been an utter disaster, ranking among the worst in history. But that’s not how Karen Malady sees it.
The 59-year-old accountant was drawn to Trump’s unconventional candidacy from the start, unlike other Republicans who came around reluctantly. She saw him as an outsider and disrupter, and his first months in office proved her right, she said, about that and other things too.
Like no matter how much he tries, some won’t ever give Trump a fair shake.
“He’s trying to build a foundation to protect this country, and they just pick apart the little things,” Malady said, as fading daylight slanted into the headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a nonprofit charity. “ ‘This person was picked on, and, oh, by the way, this person is of that nationality, so that makes him a racist.’ ”
The anger and aggrievement that fueled Trump’s unlikely election, the sense of abandonment by a self-interested political establishment and sneering condescension from the know-it-alls hasn’t faded in the months since Trump took office.
If anything, it has deepened here in Pueblo County, a longtime Democratic stronghold that Trump narrowly won in November.
Two U.S. troops killed and one wounded in Afghanistan, near where massive bomb was dropped
The Pentagon said two American troops were killed and a third wounded Wednesday night during a raid against Islamic State’s affiliate in eastern Afghanistan, near the site where an 11-ton U.S. bomb was dropped earlier this month.
The service members were conducting an operation alongside Afghan forces in Nangarhar province, where a U.S.-backed offensive is underway against Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K. Khorasan is the historic name for a region that encompassed parts of modern-day Afghanistan.
“The fight against ISIS-K is important for the world, but sadly, it is not without sacrifice,” said Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. “On behalf of all U.S. forces and our coalition partners, I offer our deepest sympathies to the families, friends, and fellow service members of our fallen comrades.”
The deaths occurred as U.S. and Afghan forces were conducting a raid against a prison where Islamic State kept civilians as prisoners, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesperson for the Nangahar governor’s office.
There now have been three U.S. service members killed fighting Islamic State in Afghanistan in 2017 -- all in Nangarhar.
That is the province where, on April 12, the U.S. military dropped the most powerful conventional bomb in its arsenal on a cave-and-tunnel complex that it said was used by Islamic State fighters.
The Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb — dubbed the “mother of all bombs” and the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat — targeted the subterranean passages the militants used for weeks to evade an ongoing operation by U.S. and Afghan forces.
Afghan officials have said that 94 militants were killed in the bombing and another 40 killed in Wednesday night’s operation.The U.S. military has refused to comment on battle casualties suffered by Islamic State, which is estimated to have about 700 fighters in Afghanistan.
Army Staff Sgt. Mark R. De Alencar, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Maryland, became the first American service member killed in combat this year in Afghanistan on April 8 after coming under fire in Nangarhar’s Achin district.
There have been 1,835 American troops killed in action since U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
Economic reality and contradictions beset Trump’s tax plan
In proposing to slash business taxes and enact a tax reform of historic proportions, Trump administration officials say they will rely largely on economic growth to make up for the trillions of dollars of lost tax revenue.
But hardly any economist or tax policy analyst outside the administration thinks that the core business piece of President Trump’s plan — a reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 15% from the current 35% — will generate anywhere near the growth, job creation and investment needed to pay for itself.
That economic reality makes it highly unlikely that Trump will be able to get his tax proposal in its current form through Congress, even with support from his fellow Republicans. And it exposes some inherently contradictory elements in the president’s approach.
White House announces sweeping proposal to cut taxes, a plan likely to raise deficit
Bracing to convey a sense of momentum to President Trump’s sluggish legislative agenda, the White House unveiled a plan for what it called “one of the biggest tax cuts in American history” Wednesday, just ahead of the administration’s first 100 days in office.
The one-page outline, touted as an overhaul of the tax code, bears the hallmark of other early Trump proposals: a broad-brush overview of bold goals that is intended to serve as an opening bid with Congress rather than a fully baked policy proposal.
The plan was immediately met with skepticism from budget groups and faces a daunting future on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers from both parties are wary that the White House hasn’t said how it would pay for the cuts, which likely would provide the greatest benefits to higher-income earners and corporations.
Pentagon is investigating whether Trump’s former national security advisor accepted improper foreign payments
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s legal troubles worsened Thursday when a House committee disclosed that the Pentagon inspector general is investigating whether the retired Army three-star general violated military rules by accepting foreign payments.
Flynn was warned in 2014, when he was retiring from the military, not to accept payments from foreign governments without advance approval from the Pentagon, according to documents released Thursday by a House committee.
Flynn subsequently accepted more than $500,000 from a Russian government-owned broadcasting company and from a lobbying company representing Turkey, according to the committee.
The Pentagon inspector general is investigating whether Flynn “failed to obtain required approval” to accept those funds, Acting Inspector General Glenn A. Fine wrote in an April 11 letter to the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Flynn’s foreign business ties.
Retired officers found to have violated the prohibition on accepting foreign payments can be ordered to return pension payments during the time of the violations, according to the Pentagon.
The committee probe is one of several in Congress looking at whether any of President Trump’s current or former aides improperly coordinated with Russian operatives during last year’s presidential campaign. The FBI is conducted a separate counter-intelligence investigation.
Earlier this week, the House committee said that Flynn also failed to disclose the foreign payments when he signed a government disclosure form required to renew his security clearance in early 2016, shortly after he had returned from Moscow.
After leaving the military, Flynn opened a government relations company and became a top adviser to the Trump campaign last year. President Trump subsequently named him as national security advisor.
But Flynn was forced to resign after less than a month at the White House after news reports revealed he had misled Vice President Pence and other White House officials about his conversations in December with Russia’s ambassador about easing U.S. sanctions on Russia.
Military officers, including retirees, are barred under the Constitution from accepting payments, gifts or items of value from foreign government without congressional permission.
The Defense Intelligence Committee, the Pentagon spy agency that Flynn headed before he retired, said in a letter to the House committee that it had found no evidence Flynn sought permission to accept foreign government payments.
The DIA did not locate any records of Flynn “seeking permission or approval for the receipt of money from a foreign source,” Christine Kapnisi, the agency’s acting head of congressional relations, said in an April 11 letter to the committee.
Flynn accepted a $33,750 fee to attend a December 2015 gala in Moscow sponsored by RT, a Russian state-run TV network, and to attend a lunch where he sat beside Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Flynn’s company, Flynn Intel Group, also received $530,000 last fall — at the height of the presidential campaign — for work that benefited the government in Turkey, the committee has found. Flynn retroactively disclosed that work last month on a federal disclosure form.
Flynn was reminded when he retired that accepting unauthorized payments from foreign governments was prohibited, according to the DIA letter.
He “was advised of the legal restrictions concerning foreign compensations and instructed to report any potential receipt of compensations in advance,” DIA said.
Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, said this week that his client told the DIA about his 2015 trip to Moscow. Kelner’s statement did not say if Flynn disclosed the fee he was offered by the Russian government TV network.
“As has previously been reported, General Flynn briefed the Defense Intelligence Agency… extensively regarding the RT speaking event trip both before and after the trip, and he answered any questions that were posed by DIA concerning the trip during those briefings,” Kelner said.