Donald Trump’s highly abnormal presidency: a running guide for May – VICE News

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DonaldTrump made it clear atthe beginning of his campaign that he wasnt going to follow the normal rules or tone of politics. Were keeping track of all the ways hispresidency veers from the norm in terms of policy and rhetoric.

See earlier updates from November,December,January,February, March, and April.

When President Donald Trump invited leaders of historically black colleges and universities to the Oval Office in February to show his commitment to the schools with an executive order, he said that funding would be an absolute priority for this White House.

So much for that. In a statement issued Friday when Trump signed Congress $1.1 trillion spending bill, which includes $20 million in funding for historically black colleges and universities, the president suggested the money might be unconstitutional.

My Administration shall treat provisions that allocate benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender, including the funding for historically black colleges and universities, in a manner consistent with the requirement to afford equal protection of the laws under the Due Process Clause of the Constitutions Fifth Amendment, the statement read.

Responding to criticism around the statement, a White House spokesperson said:

Like his predecessors, President Trump has identified certain provisions in the appropriations bill that could, in some circumstances, conflict with his constitutional authority and duties. The brief, routine signing statement simply indicates that the President will interpret those provisions consistent with the Constitution.

While Trumps statement doesnt indicate any concrete policy changes, presidents often give themselves backdoors when signing bills they think might run into legal trouble down the line. Bush used signing statements to challenge some 1,200 provisions in laws he signed; Obama did the same. But questioning the legality of federal funding for historically black colleges is a concerning move, especially for an administration thats already faced criticism for its interpretation of these institutions.

In February, Betsy Devos came under fire for saying that black colleges were pioneers when it comes to school choice. Black colleges were founded because black students were denied entry at other universities.

In a joint statement, Rep. John Conyers, Jr (D-Mich.) and Rep. Cedric Richmont (D-La.), called Trumps statement stunningly careless and divisive, according to Politico. We urge him to reconsider immediately.

Just hours after the House approved the Republican plan to kill Obamacare, Trump had a little freudian slip. During a press conference in Manhattan with Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the president praised the island nations universal healthcare.

Its going to be fantastic healthcare, Trump said, referring to the Republican American Health Care Act. I shouldnt say this to our great gentleman and my friend from Australia because you have better healthcare than we do.

Since 1984, Australias government has mostly funded its healthcare system, known as Medicare, so that everyone has coverage. Normal taxpayers pay 2 percent of their income to fund the system, while the affluent chipin more if they dont have private insurance. Considering that Trump despises Obamacare (and taxes, for that matter), its ironic hed have a kind word to say about a more socialist system.

At least Vermont Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders got a kick out of Trumps fumble. He campaigned for president last year on a universal healthcare platform and has since introduced single-payer bills into Congress.

After watching a clip of the presidents comments on MSNBCs All In with Chris Hayes, Sanders couldnt contain his laughter.

Wait a minute! Sanders yelled, throwing his hands into the air after giggling. Oh okay. Wait a minute, wait a minute, Chris. Alright, the president has just said it. Thats great.

Sanders amusement continued with CNNs Anderson Cooper later in the evening.

Well Mr. President, youre right, in Australia and every other major country on Earth, they guarantee health care to all people. They dont throw 24 million people off health insurance, Sanders told Cooper. So maybe when we get to the Senate we should start off with looking at the Australian health care system.

President Donald Trumps first two trips to Mar-a-Lago cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million. And that was just the airfare.

Operating Air Force One costs just over $142,000 per hour, and the trips to the Florida resort took a total of about nine hours, Judicial Watch said Thursday. But those estimates dont factor in the cost of Secret Service protection or Department of Defense vehicles that travel with the president. (Back in March, the Secret Service requested an extra $60 million in funding, in part to deal with the unique challenges in protecting the Trump family. The agency didnt get it.)

Last year, Judicial Watch found that Barack Obama spent about $96 million on travel over eight years of his presidency. As of early April, Trump had spent six weekends at his Winter White House in Palm Beach which is not just a resort but a private club that charges its members $200,000 annually at a cost of about $21.6 million, CNN reported. In other words, Trump is on his way to outspending the vacation costs of Obamas entire presidency in just one year.

President Trumps latest hire has been accused of sexual assault not once, not twice, but five times, according to ProPublica. And the allegations has been reported back in 2012,raising serious questions about the Trump administrations vetting process.

Steven Munoz, a staffer on Trumps campaign and his Inaugural Committee, will now serve as assistant chief of visits for the State Department, a role that includes arranging for foreign heads of states visits to the U.S to meet with the president.

While Munoz was studying at The Citadel military college in 2010, an underclassman accused him of sexual assault. A year after he graduated, in 2011, four other students came forward. All five accusers said they were willing to press charges, and The Citadel turned the case over to police. After reviewing the case, however, the local prosecutor declined to seek an indictment.

Munoz accusers said he used his status as an upperclassman, class president, and head of the campus Republican Society to forcibly fondle them.

Munoz coerced, threatened, and convinced me to allow inappropriate touching, grabbing, and kissing by leading me to believe it was what I needed to do to gain acceptance in the corps of cadets, one accuser said in their statement. He threatened to call my upperclassmen who would be upset if I did not comply with him.

Though an investigation by The Citadel later found that certain assaults likely occurred, the school only issued Munoz a warning and gave him an award for leadership, sound character, and service to others upon graduating in 2011.

The Trump administration is no stranger to allegations of assault. Aside from his grab em by the pussy comment, the president himself has been formerly accused of sexual assault in court. In the 1980s, Trumps former pick for secretary of labor, Andrew Puzder ,was accused of domestic abuse, and Steve Bannon was charged with misdemeanor assault and battery in 2001, although the case was later dropped.

Until this week, President Donald Trump and his daughter and senior adviser Ivanka were the faces of another Trump Tower in the Philippines. And the CEO of the development firm handling construction is the countrys special envoy to the U.S.

The website for the new $150 million real estate venture which is set to open near the capital, Manila, later this year featured a video of Trump saying the building would be something very, very special, like nobodys seen before, The Washington Post reported. Ivanka also made an appearance in the promotional video, calling the building a milestone in Philippine real estate history.

The material is no longer available online as of Monday, according to the Post.

Though filmed before Trump was elected, the video shines a fresh light on the conflicts of interest between the business investments of the Trump Organization, the use of the Trump name as a moneymaker, and the international diplomatic strategy of the White House especially with his children, with business ties of their own, as members of the administration

Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte appointed the chief executive of the new buildings development firm, Jose E.B Antonio, to serve as a special envoy to the United States last October. Additionally, Antonio told Bloomberg News back in November that he visited Trump Tower in New York just days after the U.S. presidential elections.

Jared Kushner and wife Ivanka Trump are no strangers to business arrangements that present ethics complications for their jobs as top advisers to Donald Trump. The latest snag: Kushner failed to disclose his stake in the real estate startup Cadre, which ispartly owned by George Soros, Peter Thiel, Goldman Sachs, and other investors.

The trouble with this, of course, is that big banks like Goldman Sachs and investors like Soros are exactly who the federal government is supposed to regulate without conflicts of interest.

Kushners lawyer told the Wall Street Journal that Kushner previously disclosed his stake in Cadres parent company and that he has resigned from Cadres board, assigned his voting rights, and reduced his ownership share.

Kushnerand Ivanka remain enmeshed in their estimated $740 million real estate and finance business empire, which includes a stake in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, loans from banks currently under investigation by the U.S. government, and a troubled Manhattan real estate venture that was the subject of recently concluded talks with a group of Chinese investors.

Donald Trump, perhaps feeling left out of the weekend deal struck in Congress to keep funding the federal government through September, tweeted on Tuesday morning that the country needs a good shutdown in September.

Without an agreement, the government will partially shut down, which has historically dealt the most damage to federal workers, veterans, and others who rely on checks and aid from the federal government.

Congress has been the burial ground for some of Trumps biggest initiatives, including his failed repeal of Obamacare. While changing Senate rules to require just a simply majority to pass a budget might satisfy Trumps short-term goals, Republicans and Democrats both quickly pooh-poohed any shutdown talk.

The Trump administrations idea of dinner and a show apparently includes a missile launch: On Monday, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross called last months strike on Syria after-dinner entertainment.

Speaking at the Milken Institutes Global Conference in California, Ross described how a Mar-a-Lago dinner between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended with an unexpected announcement. Just as dessert was being served, the president explained to Mr. Xi he had something he wanted to tell him, which was the launching of 59 missiles into Syria, Ross said, according to Variety. It was in lieu of after-dinner entertainment.

The thing was, it didnt cost the president anything to have that entertainment, he added, apparently forgetting that each Tomahawk missile used in the strike reportedly costs about $1 million each to replace, and that Syrian officials said that the strike claimed up to 15 lives.

In any credible administration, this kind of comment would be Rosss last official act, tweeted David Rothkopf, a leading foreign policy scholar and the editor-in-chief of the FP Group, which publishes Foreign Policy magazine.

But this isnt the first time a Trump official has spoken casually about military maneuvers. While discussing the strike last month in an interview with Fox Business,Trump himself first mistakenly said that the strike was headed toward Iraq, not Syria. But he did clearlyrecall what he ate while ordering the strike:

We had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you had ever seen, Trump said, and President Xi was enjoying it.

The spending bill headed to President Trumps desk includes an eye-popping number: $120 million in additional funding to protect the first family, including Trumps adult jet-setting kids and at least three residences, according to the New York Times.

The bill sets aside almost $60 million for the Secret Service to protect the president as he travels between the White House and Trump Tower in New York City, where the first lady and their son live full-time, at least for now. The other half of the money will go toward reimbursing local jurisdictions in New York City and Palm Beach for costs theyve incurred protecting Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, respectively.

These costs in addition to the travel expenses of Trumps sons Eric and Don Jr., who run the Trump Organization, to places like Dubai, Uruguay, and Aspen virtually guarantee the American taxpayer will spend more on travel for the Trumps in one year than in all eight years of the Obama administration. Trump spent $20 million in just his first 80 days as president, according to CNN.

Just days after President Donald Trump ruffled feathers by publicly saying South Korea would cough up $1 billion to fund the U.S. missile defense system, national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster calmly corrected his boss and confirmed the U.S. would, in fact, front the bill, according to a statement released by the South Korean government.

The system, also known as Terminal High-Altitude Defense or THAAD, is being deployed in South Korea in an effort to reduce nuclear threats from North Korea. The location incited controversy including fierce protests in South Korea and a statement from Chinas foreign ministry over health concerns as well as its potential to destabilize the region.

According to the statement, McMaster assured his South Korean counterpart in a telephone call that the two countries alliance was at the top of his priority list and that the U.S. planned to shoulder the cost of THAAD, at least for awhile.

Trumps comments about THAAD are the latest confusing directive to come from the president that a high-level official later needed to walk back. In mid-April, Trump said hedsent an armada to North Korea, but the Navy released a photograph showing the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and its strike group heading away from the Korean Peninsula and toward Australia, where it was scheduled for training.

Donald Trump is curious why the North and the South didnt just talk out the Civil War.

People dont realize, you know, the Civil War, you think about it: Why? People dont ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not be worked out? Trump inquired during an interview with The Washington Examiners Salena Zito on Sirius XM radio.

Despite irreconcilable differences over the morality of slavery and the role it played in the economy of the agricultural South, Trump believes one man a man who Trump has been compared to, in fact could have sorted out the whole situation: Andrew Jackson.

He [Jackson] was really angry when he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, Theres no reason for this, said Trump, who also described the seventh president of the United States as a tough person with a big heart.

Never mind that Jackson died more than a decade before the start of the Civil War, and largely made his wealth from a 1,000-acre plantation in Tennessee called The Hermitage, which relied on the labor ofslaves. Its unclear if the150people enslaved there at the time of Jacksons death would agree with Trumps characterization of him.

OK, its enough.

Thats how President Donald Trump reacted to a question about his still unsubstantiated wiretapping claims during an interview on CBS Face the Nation.

During a prerecorded interview that broadcast Monday, Face the Nation host John Dickerson asked the president about his bombshell tweet from early March that accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of wiretapping him in Trump Tower.

You dont have to ask me, Trump interjected before Dickerson could finish his sentence. Because I have my own opinions. You can have your own opinions.

And with that, Trump ended the interview.

Morgan Conley, Alex Lubben, Noah Kulwin, Louisa Oreskes, and Christina Sterbenz contributed to these reports.

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Donald Trump's highly abnormal presidency: a running guide for May - VICE News