Photo: Dominique A. Pineiro/Department of Defence via Getty Images
"Nonetheless, even if these leakers are exaggerating the degree of Kushner’s micromanagement, it’s clear that he’s one of the most powerful people in our government, and has an avid interest in shaping America’s foreign policy. And we know almost nothing about how he sees the world."
10:55 AM 4/13/2017
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- What Is the Kushner Doctrine?
There may be no better testament to the insanity of our epoch than this: Last week, a series of reports suggested that the president’s 36-year-old son-in-law, a real-estate heir with no experience in government or public policy, who had never detailed his political views to voters or stood for an election, was consolidating his power inside the White House — and most greeted this news as a welcome relief, because it meant that the former chairman of a (soft-core) white nationalist website was less likely to sabotage the European Union, the United Nations, and every other institution of the postwar, liberal order.
If America has to have an absurdly unqualified, unelected shadow president, it’s probably better to have Jared Kushner in that role than Steve Bannon. But it’s still a little scary — and a lot weird — that Kushner has as much power as he does.
As of last week, Ivanka Trump’s husband was tasked with overseeing the rewriting of America’s trade agreements; solving the Israel-Palestine conflict; developing a geopolitical strategy for the broader Middle East; ending the opioid epidemic; modernizing “the technology and data infrastructure” of every federal agency; remodeling the government’s workforce-training programs; and “developing ‘transformative projects’ under the banner of Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, such as providing broadband internet service to every American.”
And now, the Washington Free Beacon reports that Kushner has also become the unofficial head of the National Security Council:
Kushner has taken aggressive action to micro-manage the NSC, overshadowing even recently installed National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, according to sources both inside and outside the White House who described Kushner’s behavior as highly unusual and damaging to the country’s national security infrastructure.
…Sources who spoke to the Free Beacon described wide-ranging frustration at the NSC over Kushner’s influence over some of the most important foreign policy portfolios, such as Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and China, among others.
Senior NSC staff are finding their hands tied when it comes to performing even perfunctory duties, such as talking points and statements on high profile issues that must go through Kushner for approval.
…The installation of Dina Powell, a confidant of Kushner’s wife Ivanka, to the NSC is said to have been orchestrated by Kushner in order to solidify his power over the foreign policy organization, sources said.
…“Jared has been pegged as the ‘shadow secretary of state,’” said the White House official. “But in a way he’s kind of also the shadow national security adviser and secretary of defense.”
This report comes in the wake of Bannon’s eviction from the NSC principals committee, and amid growing murmurs that the Breitbart mastermind might soon be returning to the private sector. Given that context, it’s possible that the Free Beacon’s story reveals less about Kushner’s actual role than it does about the bitterness of the White House’s Bannonites. Especially since a couple paragraphs in the piece read like blatant attempts to drive a wedge between Kushner and McMaster:
Kushner, in many ways, has even overshadowed McMaster, who sources described as seeking to avoid infighting in the White House. This has only minimized his power on the NSC, officials said.
On the other hand, Bannon’s team is said to be more respectful and willing to defer to the organization as West Wing staffers have traditionally done under past administrations.
Nonetheless, even if these leakers are exaggerating the degree of Kushner’s micromanagement, it’s clear that he’s one of the most powerful people in our government, and has an avid interest in shaping America’s foreign policy. And we know almost nothing about how he sees the world.
Say what you want about the tenets of Bannonism — at least, it’s an ethos.
Read the whole story
· · ·
"Donald Trump must get those kids out of the White House," a blunt South African observer of our politics barked at me, weeks back. "You're looking more and more like us." She was alluding to the nepotism on display in the Trump White House.
Since the president started strafing Syria, it has become evident that Trump's favorite offspring needs to be booted from the People's House. The British press, more irreverent than ours, seconded the broad consensus that Ivanka had nagged daddy into doing it. For The Kids: The First Daughter was, purportedly, devastated by the (unauthenticated) images of a suspected gas attack in Syria.
Brother Eric Trump confirmed it: "Sure, Ivanka influenced the Syria strike decision." White House spokesman Sean Spicer didn't deny it.
Eric had headed back to the Trump Organization, as he promised during the campaign. Ivanka just wouldn't go.
Who could fail to notice that the first daughter, a cloistered, somewhat provincial American princess, has been elevated inappropriately in the White House, while first lady Melania, a cosmopolitan steel magnolia, has been marginalized?
That Ivanka, now her father's West Wing adviser, drove the offensive in Syria is but a logical Statute mean nothing. Law is hardly the ultimate adjudicator of right and wrong.deduction.
Ivanka promises that she and her poodle, Jared Kushner, are in compliance with the law. Clever lawyers told her so. Legalistic assurances pertaining to the 1967 Anti-Nepotism
Donald's daughter has no place in the White House, no matter how cutely she "argues" for her ambitions:
"I want to be a force for good." (Who defines "good," Ivanka? Limited and delimited government means that it's not you.)
"I want to pursue my passions." (Your passions, Ivanka, are not necessarily the people's passions – or even within the purview of their government.)
Whether she's tweeting about the accomplishment that is the war on Syria or about inflicting her kids on China's first couple, Ivanka's tweets have the insipid emptiness of a contestant in a beauty pageant.
"Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity."
"Proud of Arabella and Joseph for their performance in honor of President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan's official visit to the US."
Such provincialism and solipsism were certainly part of the Obamas' international persona. Barack and Michelle gave the queen of England an iPod, customized with images and audio from Mr. Obama's inaugural and DNC addresses.
Wily Arabs are hip to White House dynamics. They know who's running the White House and whom to flatter. For doing their bidding, Syrian rebels – "we don't know who they are," cautioned the Old Donald – have even given President Trump an honorific:
Abu Ivanka al-Amriki: father of Ivanka the American.
I don't think President Donald Trump's dispiriting deviation of policy on Syria signaled a lack of core beliefs. What the folly of bombing Syria signals, very plainly, is that what Ivanka wants, Ivanka gets. Republicans and Democrats likely know it but won't say it. The former because Ivanka is a woman. Republicans dare not wage war on a woman, much less if she wages war on Syria. The latter because Ivanka is a Democrat by any other name.
In Ivanka, you have a point person in an ostensibly populist, rightist administration who has no idea that men, not women, are lagging in the labor force and in institutions of higher and lower learning. Democrats appreciate that.
In Ivanka, you have a businesswoman, in an ostensibly business-friendly administration, who has vowed to "close the [mythical] gender pay gap" on our dime. A business magnate should have grasped the following logic: "If women with the same skills as men were getting only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, men as a group would have long since priced themselves out of the market. That entrepreneurs like Ivanka haven't ditched men en masse to employ women suggests that different abilities and experience are at work, rather than a conspiracy to suppress women" ("The Week of the Whining Womin").
Democrat-dominated news networks are mum about the Susan Rice spying and unmasking scandal. GOP TV is deaf and dumb about the clash between the America First faction of the administration (Steve Bannon) and the Kushner couple (Ivanka and Jared). The gentle reader should know by now that there's not a dime's worth of difference between the standard operating procedures of the two parties and their media.
On Twitter, former supporters of Donald Trump were quick to turn on Jared Kushner. The hashtag #FireKushner gained momentum.
But I ask you to study Mr. Kushner. The man's a mouse. Have you ever heard Jared Kushner utter a word in public? Do you even know what he sounds like? The poor man looks low T – like he might one day go the way of Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner.
Jared's not wearing the pants in the Kushner castle. Behind every "good man" is a woman. Pushing, pushing. And that woman is the beguilingly beautiful Ivanka.
President Trump's not listening to his uncharismatic son-in-law; he's listening to Ivanka. And Ivanka is promoting Kushner, who is channeling Ivanka.
For Ivanka did Donald Trump ditch the policy he promised the Deplorables on Syria, not for her husband.
On Daddy's coattails has Ivanka Trump inveigled her way into the People's House, where she'll ambitiously promote her anemic husband and their joint agenda.
More than anything, Ivanka and Jared crave respectability. Both have been scarred by the scandals of their fathers. Befitting young Democrats in high society, the Kushners would like to be able to press flesh with local and global elites. There will be none of that – no warm welcomes from the gilded and the glamorous at Davos – with Donald's unsexy America First agenda.
Ilana Mercer is the author of The Trump Revolution: The Donald's Creative Destruction Deconstructed (June 2016). Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to Ilana's YouTube channel.
"Donald Trump must get those kids out of the White House," a blunt South African observer of our politics barked at me, weeks back. "You're looking more and more like us." She was alluding to the nepotism on display in the Trump White House.
Since the president started strafing Syria, it has become evident that Trump's favorite offspring needs to be booted from the People's House. The British press, more irreverent than ours, seconded the broad consensus that Ivanka had nagged daddy into doing it. For The Kids: The First Daughter was, purportedly, devastated by the (unauthenticated) images of a suspected gas attack in Syria.
Brother Eric Trump confirmed it: "Sure, Ivanka influenced the Syria strike decision." White House spokesman Sean Spicer didn't deny it.
Eric had headed back to the Trump Organization, as he promised during the campaign. Ivanka just wouldn't go.
Who could fail to notice that the first daughter, a cloistered, somewhat provincial American princess, has been elevated inappropriately in the White House, while first lady Melania, a cosmopolitan steel magnolia, has been marginalized?
That Ivanka, now her father's West Wing adviser, drove the offensive in Syria is but a logical deduction.
Ivanka promises that she and her poodle, Jared Kushner, are in compliance with the law. Clever lawyers told her so. Legalistic assurances pertaining to the 1967 Anti-Nepotism Statute mean nothing. Law is hardly the ultimate adjudicator of right and wrong.
Donald's daughter has no place in the White House, no matter how cutely she "argues" for her ambitions:
"I want to be a force for good." (Who defines "good," Ivanka? Limited and delimited government means that it's not you.)
"I want to pursue my passions." (Your passions, Ivanka, are not necessarily the people's passions – or even within the purview of their government.)
Whether she's tweeting about the accomplishment that is the war on Syria or about inflicting her kids on China's first couple, Ivanka's tweets have the insipid emptiness of a contestant in a beauty pageant.
"Proud of my father for refusing to accept these horrendous crimes against humanity."
"Proud of Arabella and Joseph for their performance in honor of President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan's official visit to the US."
Such provincialism and solipsism were certainly part of the Obamas' international persona. Barack and Michelle gave the queen of England an iPod, customized with images and audio from Mr. Obama's inaugural and DNC addresses.
Wily Arabs are hip to White House dynamics. They know who's running the White House and whom to flatter. For doing their bidding, Syrian rebels – "we don't know who they are," cautioned the Old Donald – have even given President Trump an honorific:
Abu Ivanka al-Amriki: father of Ivanka the American.
I don't think President Donald Trump's dispiriting deviation of policy on Syria signaled a lack of core beliefs. What the folly of bombing Syria signals, very plainly, is that what Ivanka wants, Ivanka gets. Republicans and Democrats likely know it but won't say it. The former because Ivanka is a woman. Republicans dare not wage war on a woman, much less if she wages war on Syria. The latter because Ivanka is a Democrat by any other name.
In Ivanka, you have a point person in an ostensibly populist, rightist administration who has no idea that men, not women, are lagging in the labor force and in institutions of higher and lower learning. Democrats appreciate that.
In Ivanka, you have a businesswoman, in an ostensibly business-friendly administration, who has vowed to "close the [mythical] gender pay gap" on our dime. A business magnate should have grasped the following logic: "If women with the same skills as men were getting only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, men as a group would have long since priced themselves out of the market. That entrepreneurs like Ivanka haven't ditched men en masse to employ women suggests that different abilities and experience are at work, rather than a conspiracy to suppress women" ("The Week of the Whining Womin").
Democrat-dominated news networks are mum about the Susan Rice spying and unmasking scandal. GOP TV is deaf and dumb about the clash between the America First faction of the administration (Steve Bannon) and the Kushner couple (Ivanka and Jared). The gentle reader should know by now that there's not a dime's worth of difference between the standard operating procedures of the two parties and their media.
On Twitter, former supporters of Donald Trump were quick to turn on Jared Kushner. The hashtag #FireKushner gained momentum.
But I ask you to study Mr. Kushner. The man's a mouse. Have you ever heard Jared Kushner utter a word in public? Do you even know what he sounds like? The poor man looks low T – like he might one day go the way of Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner.
Jared's not wearing the pants in the Kushner castle. Behind every "good man" is a woman. Pushing, pushing. And that woman is the beguilingly beautiful Ivanka.
President Trump's not listening to his uncharismatic son-in-law; he's listening to Ivanka. And Ivanka is promoting Kushner, who is channeling Ivanka.
For Ivanka did Donald Trump ditch the policy he promised the Deplorables on Syria, not for her husband.
On Daddy's coattails has Ivanka Trump inveigled her way into the People's House, where she'll ambitiously promote her anemic husband and their joint agenda.
More than anything, Ivanka and Jared crave respectability. Both have been scarred by the scandals of their fathers. Befitting young Democrats in high society, the Kushners would like to be able to press flesh with local and global elites. There will be none of that – no warm welcomes from the gilded and the glamorous at Davos – with Donald's unsexy America First agenda.
Ilana Mercer is the author of The Trump Revolution: The Donald's Creative Destruction Deconstructed (June 2016). Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to Ilana's YouTube channel.
Read the whole story
· · · · · · · · ·
AP Photo
Can someone reacquaint Donald Trump with Steve Bannon, his ideologist whom the president now professes barely to know?
Trump's jaw-dropping public distancing from Bannon in the New York Post the other day is the latest twist in a struggle that is astonishing even by the standards of a White House that deserves its own Chris Buckley novel.
Story Continued Below
For Bannon, the internal fight with the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner is going about as well as could be expected, which is to say it couldn't be going much worse.
No one can know for sure how this ends. Perhaps it's all papered over, or maybe Bannon keeps his head down to fight another day. But it's hard to see how Kushner doesn't prevail in one form or other, together with the faction including his wife, Ivanka Trump, the influential economic adviser and former Goldman Sachs president, Gary Cohn, and deputy national security adviser, Dina Powell.
Who says bipartisanship is dead? With the exception of Powell—a non-ideological Republican—this group is all Democrats, and not lunch-bucket Democrats, but ladies-who-lunch Democrats who have marinated for decades in the financial and social elite of Manhattan.
Their ascendancy would potentially represent Trumpism's Thermidor. If Jared and Ivanka end up running the joint, it'd be hard to overstate the turnabout from last year's campaign.
A candidacy whose supporters reviled so-called RINOs may produce a White House run by people who aren't even RINOs. A populist revolt that disdained people who allegedly spend too much time at Georgetown cocktail parties may result in a White House run by people who have spent too much time at New York cocktail parties (and Fashion Week events, art shows, Metropolitan Museum of Art galas and celebrity birthday parties). The biggest middle finger the mainstream media has ever received in American politics may empower people who care deeply about what's written about them in The New Yorker and Vogue.
As for Cohn, he would have been the totem of everything Trump was running against in 2016, when he made Goldman Sachs into a kind of swear word. To put it in Jacksonian terms, it would be like Andrew Jackson inveighing against the Second Bank of the United States and then handing his domestic policy portfolio over to its president, Nicholas Biddle.
How did we get to this point? Bannon is saddled with the failed launch of the first travel ban, a gruff personal style that doesn't necessarily wear well in the corridors of power, and (fairly or not) the rocky first several months that have seen Trump's numbers sink while the Republican Congress spins its wheels.
Bannon may talk to reporters—what White House official doesn't?—but he hasn't sought out self-glorifying media when presumably gobs of it were on offer. He has nonetheless been hurt by the narrative, driven by the press and used against him by internal enemies, that he is Trump's Svengali. It surely wasn't his idea for a big profile in Time magazine with the cover line "The Great Manipulator," or for "Saturday Night Live" to spoof him as the true power in the Oval Office.
None of this is endearing to Trump. He doesn't like attention-hounds besides himself, and wants victories and popularity. As for Jared and Ivanka, they must worry that the family patriarch is being ill-served in ways that may hobble his presidency and damage their brand. So a shake-up looms.
There is much in Bannon's politics that I don't like—the hostility to traditional conservatism, the protectionism, the reflex toward needless confrontation. But he has a considered wordview and helps anchor Trump somewhere in the populist-conservative policy continuum.
If he goes, it could be a sign that everything is up for grabs. A President Trump could begin to react to political pressures from the world of Jared and Ivanka that so far haven't affected him.
Trump's views on immigration, climate change, abortion and policing are socially embarrassing, sometimes even in Republican elite circles, let alone in liberal ones. All of them would potentially be subject to softening or reversal in a White House that cares too much about polite opinion. With illegal border crossings down, perhaps a grand bargain on immigration becomes alluring next year? Maybe pulling out of the Paris climate accords isn't worth the bad optics? Who wants to expend political capital defunding Planned Parenthood? And so on.
The weakness of Trumpism in Washington is that it doesn't have a congressional wing and it represents only a faction within the White House, and apparently not even the dominant one. Perhaps a shake-up will only mean a more "normal" White House that is better run, although Trump himself is responsible for much of the chaos. Perhaps Trump's genuine, if inchoate, populism and Vice President Mike Pence's conservatism would be enough for the administration's basic orientation to survive any constellation of White House aides.
Certainly, there are all sorts of way to try moderate Trump's image while still staying true to a tempered version of his populism. But a sensible recalibration would seem out of character, and it's not the next chapter Buckley would write.
Rich Lowry is editor of National Review and a contributing editor with Politico Magazine.
Read the whole story
· · · ·
Inside Bannon's struggle: From 'shadow president' to Trump's marked man
Washington Post - 14 hours ago
When Stephen K. Bannon reported for work Wednesday, he did not act like a man who had just been publicly humiliated by his boss. The White House chief strategist cycled in and out of the Oval Office for meetings with President Trump and took a seat in ...
Is Bannon in peril? Trump comments worry his populist base
Townhall - 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has declared: "I am my own strategist." That would seem to bode poorly for his actual strategist, Steve Bannon. And Trump now appears to be publicly distancing himself. In an interview with The New York Post, ...
Trump Kids Appear to Be Pinning Their Hopes on Dad's Elusive 'Pivot'
New York Magazine - 7 hours ago
Not pictured: the person preventing Trump from being more presidential. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images. If there were any lingering doubts about the winner of the feud between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, President Trump removed them on ...
The Bannon irony
The Week Magazine - 4 hours ago
Until its quick interruption, White House Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon's rise was turning into a kind of legend. The ex-Goldman Sachs man had moved quickly from making low-budget populist documentaries, to dominating the right-wing internet via ...
The Risk Trump Takes in Potentially Abandoning Steve Banno
Fox News - 5 hours ago
President Trump's business empire has long been a family affair and now his White House appears to be headed in the same direction. But what worked in building his personal fortune may not help his political fortunes. Trump's old glitz and glamor brand ...
Read the whole story
· ·
Washington Examiner |
Byron York: Donald Trump's Long March problem
Washington Examiner Trump, who never held public office before winning the presidency, didn't have that. In addition, he campaigned with an abrasive style that alienated a significant portion of the Republican Party's political talent. Beyond that, Trump's way of running ... Is Trump backing away from Steve Bannon?USA TODAY Did he or didn't he? Trump contradicts himself on whether he knew Steve BannonPolitiFact President Trump Downplays Steve Bannon's Campaign Role: 'I'm My Own Strategist'TIME CNN -Washington Times -Telegraph.co.uk all 358 news articles » |
As Trump-Russia Controversy Continues, Kremlin Spies Watch And Learn
WUWM KELLY: The FSB and SVR being, respectively, Russia's federal security and foreign intelligence services. SULICK: This is the most scrutinized counterintelligence investigation I have ever heard of. KELLY: That's saying something, considering Sulick ... and more » |
Next Page of Stories
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Daily Mail |
Trump praises 'gentleman' China president but not Putin
Daily Mail Trump's at least momentary pullback from Putin came as his administration has held Moscow accountable for the 'vicious' chemical weapons attack in Syria, and came on a day Secretary of State Rex Tillerson got a chilly reception on a trip to Moscow ... Tillerson and Putin, Trump on China currency and Swiss chocolateFinancial Times all 123 news articles » |
Los Angeles Times |
US sought to monitor Trump advisor Carter Page last summer, report says
Los Angeles Times The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of Carter Page, an advisor to then-candidate Donald Trump, because the government had reason to believe Page was acting as a Russian agent, the Washington Post has reported ... and more » |
USA TODAY |
Page's role in Trump campaign, foreign policy advisory committee a mystery
USA TODAY WASHINGTON — When the House Intelligence Committee convened its first extensive public hearing last month into Russia's interference in the 2016 elections, the names of Trump campaign associates invoked during nearly five hours of testimony appeared ... Trump Adviser Page: 'I Wasn't a Foreign Agent'Voice of America FBI says Jeff Sessions' pick for Trump team was an alleged Russian agentShareblue Media FBI Monitored Donald Trump Adviser Carter Page, Paul Manfort's Firm Paid $1.2M by Pro-Russia GroupU.S. News & World Report NBCNews.com -The Sydney Morning Herald -Esquire.com all 175 news articles » |
Raw Story |
Former British chief spy suggests Trump is compromised by 'Russian money' keeping his business afloat
Raw Story “What lingers for Trump may be what deals — on what terms — he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the west apparently would not lend to him,” Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 through 2004, said. The former ... Ex-British spy chief Sir Richard Dearlove suggests Donald Trump may have borrowed moneyfrom RussiaTelegraph.co.uk Ex-MI6 chief says Donald Trump may have borrowed money from Russia to keep his empire afloatMirror.co.uk Ex-British Spy Claims Trump Secretly Took Money From Russia To ...PoliticusUSA The Scotsman -The Sun -Daily Mail all 10 news articles » |
The Independent |
Rex Tillerson says Russian meddling in US election is 'well-established'
The Independent Russia's meddling in last year's US presidential election has been “fairly well-established”, Rex Tillerson has said, following talks with his counterpart in Moscow. The Secretary of State described Russia's alleged involvement in the 2016 vote as a ... Russian official again denies US claims that Kremlin sponsored election meddlingCNBC Rex Tillerson says Russian interference in US election is 'fairly well established'iNews Trump declares US-Russia relations may be at 'all-time low'ABC News Chicago Tribune -NBCNews.com -New York Times all 6,732 news articles » |
Daily Beast |
Donald Trumps Six Flip-Flop Wednesday
Daily Beast Ranging from monetary to budget to defense policy, the reversals culminated at an afternoon press conference with North Atlantic Treaty Organization secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, where Trump said he no longer believes that the landmark defense ... Donald Trump changes NATO position: 'It's no longer obsolete'PolitiFact Donald Trump Declares NATO Un-Obsolete At White House News ConferenceDeadline President Trump: NATO Is 'No Longer Obsolete'TIME Washington Times -CBS News -The Sydney Morning Herald all 274 news articles » |
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New York Times |
After Campaign Exit, Manafort Borrowed From Businesses With Trump Ties
New York Times That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats' emails were hacked and the campaign's contacts with Russia came under ... and more » |
Newsday |
Trump reverses NATO criticism, says U.S.-Russia ties at 'all-time low'
Newsday “Right now, we're not getting along with Russia at all,” Trump said at a White House news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “We may be at an all-time low in terms of a relationship with Russia . . . But we're going to see what ... and more » |
CNN |
Trump's stunning u-turns on NATO, China, Russia and Syria
CNN Days after his administration had seemed to accept an ultra-realist approach that would allow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to remain in control of his shattered nation, Trump decried him as a "butcher" over chemical weapons attacks on civilians ... Donald Trump changes NATO position: 'It's no longer obsolete'PolitiFact President Trump: NATO Is 'No Longer Obsolete'TIME Donald Trump?s Six Flip-Flop WednesdayDaily Beast Deadline -Washington Times -CBS News all 373 news articles » |
The Hill |
Trump reinforces turnaround on Syria and Russia
The Hill President Trump at a Wednesday press conference reinforced the sense that his views on Syria and Russia are rapidly shifting. Speaking alongside NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg,Trump offered support for the Western military alliance, which he ... Trump wants to 'get along' with Russia but says NATO 'no longer obsolete'RT Trump Reverses on NATO: 'It Is No Longer Obsolete'NBCNews.com The Latest: Chamber asks Trump to keep health care subsidiesSacramento Bee Roll Call all 255 news articles » |
Telegraph.co.uk |
Donald Trump's spokesman says he has 'let the president down' amid reports of infighting among White House staff
Telegraph.co.uk Donald Trump's press secretary has said he "let the president down", in an passionate apology for comments in which he suggested Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons and referred to concentration camps as "Holocaust centres". Sean Spicer's efforts ... Is Trump backing away from Steve Bannon?USA TODAY Did he or didn't he? Trump contradicts himself on whether he knew Steve BannonPolitiFact 'Straighten it out or I will': Donald Trump distances himself from Steve BannonThe Sydney Morning Herald The Independent -TIME -Vox all 377 news articles » |
Austin American-Statesman |
Former Trump campaign chairman to register as foreign agent
Austin American-Statesman FILE - In this July 17, 2016 file photo, then- Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort talks to reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Manafort will register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for ... Manafort might register as a foreign agentThe Hill all 73 news articles » |
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WATCH LIVE: Comey speaks at Newseum film screening
KUTV 2News WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) - On Wednesday evening, the Newseum was scheduled to host a premiere screening of "Inside the FBI: New York," a new documentary series. Watch live in the video player above as FBI Director James Comey ... and more » |
As Trump-Russia Controversy Continues, Kremlin Spies Watch And Learn
WVTF KELLY: The FSB and SVR being, respectively, Russia's federal security and foreign intelligence services. SULICK: This is the most scrutinized counterintelligence investigation I have ever heard of. KELLY: That's saying something, considering Sulick ... and more » |
San Francisco Chronicle |
Trump's new respect for the intelligence community
San Francisco Chronicle When the director, as the head of the intelligence community, stated that the targeted airfield had been involved in the chemical weapons attack, he would have been providing the best assessment of all our intelligence agencies. That view undoubtedly ... Trump's intelligence doubts parroted by RussiaChicago Tribune Mr. Trump's Fickle DiplomacyNew York Times Trump Withholds Syria-Sarin EvidenceConsortium News Conservative Review all 6,514 news articles » |
PoliticusUSA |
Ex-British Spy Claims Trump Secretly Took Money From Russia To Save His Failing Business
PoliticusUSA Ex-British Spy Claims Trump Secretly Took Money From Russia To Save His Failing Business. By Sean Colarossi on Wed, Apr 12th, 2017 at 8:30 pm. This is just another reason why Donald Trump needs to release his tax returns so we know exactly the extent ... |
Global chemical weapons investigators have gone to Turkey to collect samples as part of an inquiry into an alleged chemical weapons attack in neighbouring Syria that killed 87 people.
The fact-finding mission was sent by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague to gather biometric samples and interview survivors, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
The toxic gas attack on April 4, which killed scores of people including children, prompted a US cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base and widened a rift between the US and Russia, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his conflict with rebels and militants.
Syrian authorities have repeatedly denied using any chemical weapons.
Russian officials said the gas had been released by an air strike on a poison gas storage depot controlled by rebels.
Washington said that account was not credible and rebels have denied it.
Samples taken from the poison gas site in Syria's Idlib governorate tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, the British delegation at the OPCW said on Thursday.
"UK scientists have analysed samples taken from Khan Sheikhoun. These have tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, or a sarin-like substance," the delegation said during a special session at the OPCW in The Hague.
The UK result confirmed earlier testing by Turkish authorities that concluded sarin had been used for the first time on a large scale in Syria's civil war since 2013.
The OPCW mission will determine whether chemical weapons were used, but is not mandated to assign blame.
Its findings, expected in three to four weeks, will be passed to a joint United Nations-OPCW chemical weapons investigation.
International investigators have concluded that sarin, chlorine and sulphur mustard gas have been used in Syria's six-year-old conflict, with government forces using chlorine and Islamic State militants using sulphur mustard.
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Page 5
As the United States and Russia trade barbs over the Syrian chemicals weapons and the U.S. missile attacks, it’s a good time as ever to ask the fundamental question: What is Russia doing in Syria in the first place?
The usual answers trotted out are that Moscow is determined to root out the threat of Islamic fundamentalism before it reaches Russia’s Muslim minority, which comprises 7 percent of the population. Or, that Putin hopes fighting ISIS will distract the West from its maneuverings in Ukraine. Or, that Moscow needed to prop up the regime of Bashar Assad to ensure Russia could continue to operate its naval base in Tartus.
But No. 1 on the list of Putin's agenda items was to restore his country’s status as a player in the Middle East. He just wanted to show the world that Russia is no less a superpower than it was during the good old days of the Cold War.
Eighteen months later, the results have been mixed, at best.
The Assad regime is back from the brink of defeat at the hands of the rebels. Not only does Russia have Tartus: it added an airbase at Latakia.
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On the other hand, the West hasn’t shown much inclination to ease the sanctions it imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the St. Petersburg subway bombing on April 4 shows that Russia still faces the threat of Islamic extremism. And, the sudden U.S. missile attack on Syria following the Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons abruptly halted the warming relations with the Trump White House.
Smoke, mirrors and fire
Yet regarding Russia’s great power status, Putin has certainly won the image war. The conventional wisdom is that Moscow is now the go-to address to get things done in Syria and that its status in the region has risen.
Unlike the feckless Americans, Russia has shown that it comes to the aid of its friends without raising pesky objections over human rights, democracy or even the use of chemical weapons.
The region’s dictators and monarchs should easily prefer Moscow over Washington as an ally and benefactor, although there is little sign that they are doing that. My guess is that they understand that Moscow’s great power status is all about the smoke and none about the fire.
Putin’s thinking seems to be that you assume the mantle of great power status by sending fighter jets to a distant war, launching cruise missiles that can hit their targets 900 miles away and dispatching an (admittedly decrepit) aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean. But it’s all empty posturing.
Russia has no interests in the Middle East except to be interested in it. Real interests begin with guys and girls in suits carrying briefcases filled with contracts to build and sell things. Only later do the generals, warships and airbases arrive to help protect them.
Trade and investment is what bring a distant power like the U.S., Europe or China to a region like the Middle East. Military involvement follows.
Putin hasn’t just put the cart before the horse, he doesn’t have much of a horse to begin with.
Nukes and wheat
Russia is for all intents and purposes an underdeveloped economy, with little to offer the world apart from arms, nuclear power technology, energy and wheat.
As far as those go, Russia hasn't done badly for itself. Last year it topped the U.S. for exports of the grain for the first time in decades and is now the supplier of choice to Egypt. Russian arms sales to the Middle East and North Africa amounted to $12.7 billion from 2006 to 2015, double the level of the previous decade.
Yes, Russia also has agreements to build nuclear power plants in Egypt and Jordan, and Iran is eyeing a Russian-developed expansion if its Bushehr facility. Russian energy companies are active in Egypt and Iraq.
Moscow has used Syria to showcase its portfolio of weapons, but as marketing campaigns go, that's an expensive one and might not yield much in the way of deals.
It is true that Russia has signed arms deals with Egypt and has even gotten a toehold in the Gulf, but that has little to do with the prowess of Russian weaponry in the Syrian civil war and a lot more to do with the West’s hesitance to sell weapons to oppressive regimes.
As for the nuke deals Moscow signed with Egypt, they aren't economically viable, and Egypt doesn't even need them, it turn sout, after finding large fields of natural gas offshore. It's hard to see Mideast powers opting for Russian energy companies over their more technologically sophisticated Western peers.
In any case, by great-economic-power standards, none of this adds up to much.
The EU and China, or for that matter South Korea and Japan, have much deeper and wider business interests than Russia in the region, but they don’t win contracts (of for that matter eat up their profits) by sending troops into the region. Wisely, they let the U.S. do that. And, even the U.S. has come to recognize the cost-benefit of intervening in the region’s problems. Washington spent a $2 trillion by some estimates in Iraq and got nary an order nor an ally in return.
If she hasn't learned it yet, Russia will sooner or later realize that power arises from the pocketbook, not from the barrel of a gun.
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Chemical weapons experts in Turkey to investigate; UK confirms sarin use
Reuters - 2 hours ago
A crater is seen at the site of an airstrike, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib, Syria April 4, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah. By Anthony Deutsch | AMSTERDAM. AMSTERDAM ...
Trump declares US-Russia relations may be at 'all-time low'
<a href="http://Philly.com" rel="nofollow">Philly.com</a> - 3 hours ago
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Tefft smile upon arrival in Moscow's Vnukovo airport, Russia, Tuesday, April 11, 2017. by VIVIAN SALAMA and JOSH LEDERMAN, The Associated Press ...
8 times Russia blocked a UN Security Council resolution on Syria
CNN - 4 hours ago
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Why the Syrian Chemical Weapons Problem Is So Hard to Solve
New York Times - 10 hours ago
A victim of the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian province of Idlib last week being taken to a hospital in Turkey. Credit Associated Press. The Trump administration is hoping that its cruise missile strikes will solve a problem that has defied ...
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San Francisco Chronicle - 2 hours ago
El secretario de Estado norteamericano, Rex Tillerson, a la izquierda, y el ministro ruso de Exteriores, Serguei Lavrov, antes de sus conversaciones en Moscú, Rusia, el miércoles 12 de abril de 2017. (AP ... more. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP.
Russia vetoes UN resolution to condemn Syria chemical attack
CNBC - 4 hours ago
Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution Wednesday that would have condemned the reported use of chemical weapons in a town in northern Syria and demanded a speedy investigation, triggering clashes between Moscow and the measure's Western backers.
The Latest: Russia pushes for UN probe into chemical attack
New York Daily News - 3 hours ago
Russia's foreign minister says Moscow expects the United Nations' chemical weapons watchdog to conduct an extensive probe into last week's chemical attack in Syria. Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition ...
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Foreign Policy Journal |
The US Attack on al-Shayrat Airfield
Foreign Policy Journal With the removal of Bannon from the National Security Council it may not be premature to suggest that the deep state has found ways to reestablish its influence on national security policy after all seemed lost due to Trump's electoral victory and ... Russian official again denies US claims that Kremlin sponsored election meddlingCNBC all 6,395 news articles » |
Virginian-Pilot |
Michael Morell & Evelyn Farkas: Russia testing Trump
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Los Angeles Times |
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New York Times |
Putin and Tillerson Find They Disagree on World Views and Facts
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New York Times |
Court Approved Wiretap on Trump Campaign Aide Over Russia Ties
New York Times Mr. Page is one of several Trump associates under scrutiny in a federal investigation. The Justice Department considered direct surveillance of anyone tied to a political campaign as a line it did not want to cross, the official added. But its decision ... The Trump Official the FBI Was InvestigatingThe Atlantic Federal judge found probable cause that Trump adviser was acting as a Russian agentThinkProgress FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter PageWashington Post TRUNEWS -Esquire.com -Shareblue Media all 220 news articles » |
NextShark |
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The Washington Post
The Associated Press
The New York Times
WND.com |
Just who was the Russian agent after all?
WND.com Ever since President Trump's missile strike on Syria on April 6, which angered Russia's VladimirPutin, the Washington Post has ever-so-subtly backed away from its robotic “Russian interference to help elect Trump” claims, asserted with absolute ... Putin ready to meet Trump in FinlandNEWS.com.au Vladimir PutinABC News 'Read my lips – no': Putin denies Russian meddling in US presidential electionThe Guardian all 119 news articles » |
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Internal Trump administration documents signal plans for robust US deportation force
AOL - 5 minutes ago
Donald Trump ran a presidential campaign focused on rule of law and national border security, and newly uncovered documents signal he is looking to fulfill that pledge as president. According to internal Department of Homeland Security documents ...
Trump administration moving quickly to build up nationwide deportation force
Washington Post - 19 hours ago
The Trump administration is quickly identifying ways to assemble the nationwide deportation force that President Trump promised on the campaign trail as he railed against the dangers posed by illegal immigration. An internal Department of Homeland ...
Border Sheriff: Trump Wall No Match for Drug Demand
Daily Beast - 8 hours ago
Veteran Arizona sheriff Tony Estrada says the president's plan to secure the border won't stop drug dealers—it'll just make them more creative. Betsy Woodruff. 04.12.17 10:03 PM ET. NOGALES, Arizona—They found the first drug tunnel in 1995 near an ...
Jeff Sessions ushers in 'Trump era' at the Justice Department
WPRO - 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON (CNN) – When Jeff Sessions was sworn in as the 84th attorney general in February, President Donald Trump foreshadowed that the Justice Department was at a turning point. “A new era of justice begins. And it begins right now,” Trump said.
To Detain More Immigrants, Trump Administration to Speed Border Hiring
New York Times - 13 hours ago
The Trump administration is moving to speed up the hiring of border agents, even as lawmakers are balking at paying for a wall. Credit Ivan Pierre Aguirre fo
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AlterNet |
How Jeff Sessions Is Laying the Groundwork for an Authoritarian State
AlterNet With Donald Trump appearing to be on the verge of blowing up the world, it stands to reason that people might not be paying attention to his attorney general's attempt to consolidate support for the administration among local law enforcement by selling ... Attorney General Jeff Sessions Delivers Remarks Announcing the Department of Justice's Renewed Commitment to ...US Department of Justice all 298 news articles » |
Reuters |
In abrupt shift, Trump warms to China and NATO, sours on Russia
Reuters WASHINGTON After less than three months in office, President Donald Trump has abruptly shifted his stance on an array of foreign policy issues from the U.S. relationship with Russia and China to the value of the NATO alliance. Trump, who ran for the ... Trump's stunning u-turns on NATO, China, Russia and SyriaCNN Trump: US-Russian relations 'may be at an all-time low'USA TODAY Trump: Relationship with Russia 'may be at an all-time low'Politico The Guardian -Washington Post -TPM all 376 news articles » |
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Comey: We must be transparent
Hanford Sentinel Comey: We must be transparent. Apr 12, 2017 Updated 7 min ago; 0. FBI Director James Comeydiscussed voter confidence in the election process during a panel at the Newseum in New York. Tags. Wire · Cnn · Politics. ×. Post a comment as. Emoticons. and more » |
