Category Archives: Donald Trump

Then there was an initial, strange silence from Trump and his aides about a rash of anti-Semitic vandalism and bomb threats around the country in January and February.

In May, in Israel, Trump insisted on a much shorter stop at Yad Vashem, an important Holocaust memorial and museum, than either Barack Obama or George W. Bush had made, and he stuck to that plan even as many Israelis and American Jews cried foul. The tone-deaf breeziness of his approach was accentuated by the message he left in the visitors book: It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends so amazing & will never forget! As Yair Rosenberg of the Jewish magazine Tablet tweeted, it was basically just what teenagers write in each others high school yearbooks.

Ivanka Trump went to the Warsaw memorial in her fathers stead, though Trump softened that blow somewhat by mentioning, in his big Warsaw speech, that the Nazis systematically murdered millions of Polands Jewish citizens.

Ivanka converted to Judaism to marry Jared Kushner, and the couples key roles in the White House mean that Trump has observant Jews at the very core of his presidency and of his life.

But that didnt stop him from making remarks to Jewish Republican donors in December 2015 that seemed to play into an anti-Semitic stereotype. Im a negotiator like you folks, he said, later adding: Is there anybody that doesnt renegotiate deals in this room? Perhaps more than any room Ive ever spoken to.

During his presidential campaign, he embraced the favor of groups and people who trafficked in white supremacy. He re-tweeted material from proudly anti-Semitic Twitter feeds, and prompted a furor by promoting an image that placed Hillary Clintons face atop a pile of cash and beside a six-pointed star on which most corrupt candidate ever was written.

The website PolitiFact concluded that it was unlikely that the Trump campaign intended to put out a Star of David image. In fact, the campaign moved to replace the star with a circle when the image gained attention. Even so, PolitiFact noted, Trump had an unusual habit of using social media to broadcast material that comes from sources with a history of spreading racism, anti-Semitism or white supremacy.

Im not convinced that Trump is much of an anti-Semite, any more than Im convinced that hes much of a homophobe. (Racism and sexism are another matter.) But I think hes so thirsty for, and intoxicated by, whatever love comes his way that hes loath to rebuff the sources of it.

A prominent Jewish Republican put it well. I think Trump is such a pathological narcissist that the act of telling people who love you that you reject them he cant get around that, he told me, interpreting Trumps reasoning this way: What can be wrong with them? Theyre for me!

Trump is disinclined to denounce any constituency or tactics that elevate him to the throne, where hes sure that he belongs. The outcome validates even the ugliest and most divisive ascent.

I dont think hes goading these people or associating with them because he shares their views, the Republican added. I do think that hes so insensitive about the presidency about the responsibilities of the leader of the free world that he doesnt realize its not enough to say, once or twice, I dont agree with them. He doesnt realize that you have to be very clear. And he doesnt realize or care that hes validating and encouraging them.

He doesnt understand the message of zipping through Yad Vashem when predecessors lingered, because hes less concerned with the weight of his office than with the whims and convenience of Donald Trump. Its all about him, always and if hes sure in his own heart that hes good with Jews, then he shouldnt have to prove it.

Go back to his mini-tantrum during a White House news conference in February, when a reporter for a Jewish magazine tried to ask him whether he was paying proper heed to the anti-Semitic bomb threats. Trump interpreted the question as an indictment not of his behavior but of his being I am the least anti-Semitic person that youve ever seen in your entire life! he trumpeted and turned the discussion toward the big, bad media. Forget about any persecution of Jews. Lets talk about the persecution of Trump.

You can be only so considerate to others when you never stop considering yourself. And the flamboyantly nonconformist culture of Trumps presidency has downsides. This administration shrugs off and throws away some rituals and niceties that do matter to people, estranging them in the process.

Gay Pride Month came and went without even a banal word of recognition from the White House. So while Trump likes to crow, in a hallucinatory fashion, that gays love him, we made do in June with a tweet from his outsourced conscience, by which of course I mean Ivanka.

Some of this is Steve Bannon and his ilk. Their idea of nationalism is chilly to the recognition of subgroups, including Jewish Americans.

Some of it boils down to an absent professionalism. Trump isnt matching the respectful choreography of other presidents because theres no one in his inner circle familiar with the dance. Kushner, Bannon, Stephen Miller and Reince Priebus are all new to this kind and level of work. They lack institutional memory, along with any awareness of how easily those blind spots become insensitivity.

I cant know definitively how Trump feels about Jews or gays or a whole lot else. But I can see clearly his sloppiness and self-absorption, and theyre cause enough for alarm.

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Why Does Donald Trump Keep Dissing Jews? - New York Times

HAMBURG, Germany President Donald Trump's G-20 trip was dominated by news of his "very robust" first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin but other critical issues hinged on his ability to maneuver through diplomatic channels.

After a rough reception last month during the NATO summit, foreign policy experts predicted an icy reception for Trump especially after his recent policy pronouncements on climate and trade put him out of step with the other allies gathered in Germany.

But this international trip played better than that previous stop in Brussels, according to Jamie Fly, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund. Trump seemed to have "navigated some of the differences that everyone knew would exist with the Europeans," Fly said.

Optics was but one of Trump's challenges, however. These five issues are the top takeaways of the G-20 summit:

Tensions over North Korea were already high before the G-20, with urgency for a resolution over how to rein in the isolated nation renewed after an intercontinental ballistic missile test earlier in the week.

"Something has to be done about it," Trump reiterated at the start of a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday, adding that he appreciates what's been done by China regarding North Korea.

That's a new tone from the one Trump took days earlier, chastising China for growing its trade relations with the regime of Kim Jong Un.

"So much for China working with us but we had to give it a try!" Trump tweeted Wednesday.

The Xi-Trump meeting lasted over an hour and a half, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters in a plane gaggle en route to Washington. It would have lasted longer, he said, "if we didn't have to get pulled out to leave."

The White House strategy in North Korea has counted heavily on a helping hand from the Chinese, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described their actions Friday as "uneven."

The United States has kept the pressure on Beijing sanctioning a Chinese bank last week and excluding China from a trilateral meeting with leaders from South Korea and Japan prior to the start of the G-20. That meeting yielded a joint statement from the three countries, pressing for the early adoption of a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would put additional sanctions on North Korea to show "that there are serious consequences for its destabilizing, provocative, and escalatory actions."

U.S. bombers practiced their attack capabilities at a training range in South Korea on Friday, NBC News learned a clear show of force to the North Korean regime just days after they tested the intercontinental ballistic missile.

Local media reported that the bombers flew close to the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea, but they did not cross demarcation lines.

Perhaps the most-watched policy piece of this summit of world leaders was on climate change as it related to the Paris Climate Agreement. After a climate change session, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters Trump participated and "even made a contribution" to discussions.

But by the end of the two-day summit, America was officially standing alone.

The United States was singled out in a G-20 statement for its stance on climate issues, and the other countries took the uncharacteristic step of noting America's lone position in rebuffing the accord.

"We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris Agreement," the end-of-summit document read. "The United States of America announced it will immediately cease the implementation of its current nationally-determined contribution and affirms its strong commitment to an approach that lowers emissions while supporting economic growth and improving energy security needs."

The other G-20 leaders called the Paris Agreement "irreversible" and French President Emmanuel Macron announced an end-of-year summit in France to fete the accord's two-year signing anniversary.

But the White House balked at the idea that the statement was done to brush aside the United States.

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn told reporters on Air Force One that "it was never a situation where there was isolated forces" as "everyone accepted" the U.S. decision to get out of the Paris Agreement early on.

Another instance that set the U.S. apart from its G-20 partners came on trade, with leaders giving an early rebuttal to possible U.S.-imposed tariffs on steel imports a decision the White House is expected to move on soon.

On Friday, European leaders were direct in their opposition. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker promised, metaphorically, that "we are prepared to take up arms if need be," but hoped it wouldn't be "actually necessary."

President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend a panel discussion on the second day of the G20 summit on July 8, 2017, in Hamburg, Germany. Pool / Getty Images

Experts told NBC News before the G-20 that

In closing out the summit in her home country, Merkel told reporters that G-20 leaders were clear that markets must be open, while fighting against protectionism and unfair practices.

Fly, who served on the National Security Council and in the Pentagon when President George W. Bush was in office, said the Trump administration should be cautious on the pending tariffs decision.

He told NBC News that it needs to "make sure that they're not, at the end of the day, going after countries that are really not the root of the problem on that issue."

Trade tensions, he noted, are "added to all the other emotions about Trump and about Paris Climate Agreement withdrawal that the imposition of tariffs that affect our European allies would have a very negative impact on Trans-Atlantic relations."

Tillerson announced Friday that the United States, in tandem with Russia and Jordan, agreed to a de-escalation in southwest Syria, a "first indication of the U.S. and Russia being able to work together in Syria."

National security adviser H.R. McMaster said Saturday that a "de-escalation zone" will go into effect noon local time (5 a.m. ET) Sunday.

But there have been ceasefire attempts before amid the country's civil war and questions remain over who will be monitoring the ISIS-ravaged region.

Related:

"At the end of the day, this is Syria," one senior State Department official said Friday, briefing reporters anonymously to better discuss details of the ceasefire deal and acknowledging the complications there.

The question also remains of what to do with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Tillerson has said of the country's future: "There will be a transition away from the Assad family."

The White House pledged $50 million to a new World Bank initiative geared toward breaking down barriers to female economic empowerment.

The introduction of the Ivanka Trump-backed group drew Merkel, Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the podium to praise efforts to help women entrepreneurs around the world achieve greater success with the help of loans, mentorships and policy reform.

Trump

Ivanka Trump's White House role is nebulous, but she has consistently focused on projects that support female economic advancement. Her role in this particular initiative would not be one of a fundraiser, a senior administration official insisted, but instead, one of a global champion and advocate.

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G-20 Summit: Top Five Takeaways From Trump's Trip - NBCNews.com

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Ivanka Trump takes Donald Trump seat at G20 leaders' table BBC News In an unusual move Ivanka Trump briefly took her father Donald's seat at a summit of world leaders on Saturday. The US president had stepped away for a meeting with the Indonesian leader during the G20 meeting. Ms Trump is an adviser to her father, but ... Donald Trump: Ivanka's life would be easier if she wasn't my daughterAOL Donald Trump says he's made Ivanka's life harderNew York Post Opinion: Ivanka covers for Donald Trump at G20 meetingDeutsche Welle HuffPost -CNBC -CNN -Bloomberg all 198 news articles »

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Ivanka Trump takes Donald Trump seat at G20 leaders' table - BBC News

Poland's first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda, second right, reaches her hand to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump as U.S. President Donald Trump reaches his hand for a handshake after his speech in Krasinski Square, with Polish President Andrzej Duda standing right, in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday, July 6, 2017. A video clip of the encounter prompted claims that Kornhauser-Duda snubbed Trump, but a longer video showed she shook Melania Trump's hand and then President Trump's.(Photo: Alik Keplicz, AP)

President Trump believes he has found an internationalally in his crusade against the media.

Via Twitter, he pledged Saturday to fight the #FakeNews with Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose right-wing party has been accused of a crackdown on a free press.

Last year, Duda signed a law putting state-owned media under government control because according to an aide he didnt believe they were objective.

Trump was responding to a Thursday tweet from Duda after a widely circulated video appeared to show Polish first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda ignoring Trumps handshake, and shaking first lady Melania Trumps hand insteadduring the first couples trip to Poland.

Tweeting in English, Duda wrote:Contrary to some surprising reports my wife did shake hands with Mrs. and Mr. Trump @POTUS after a great visit. Let's FIGHT FAKE NEWS.

A longer video showed Kornhauser-Duda shaking Melania Trumps hand and then President Trumps.

At Trumps Warsaw speech, Duda loyalists shouted Fake News! in English at passing American reporters.

Trumps dissatisfaction with the media has been a conversation topic with other world leaders.

During a visit to Washington last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in joked to Trump that he also suffers a bit from fake news.

And Russian President Vladimir Putin shared a laugh with Trump before their one-on-one meeting Friday when Putin pointed to journalists and asked, These are the ones who insulted you?

Trump responded, These are the ones, youre right about that.

Contributing: Gregory Korte

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Trump, Polish president bond over disdain for 'fake news' - USA TODAY

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks with his son Donald Trump Jr. during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 11, 2017.

REUTERS

President Trump's oldest son, 39-year-old Donald Trump Jr., posted a doctored clip from the 1986 movie "Top Gun" to his social media accounts Saturday, in which his father is portrayed as a fighter pilot shooting down a jet emblazoned with the CNN logo.

"One of the best I've seen," the Trump son said, reposting the video to Twitter and Instagram from a user called @OldRowOfficial.

In the fake video, Mr. Trump is seen positioning his aircraft to aim at a fighter jet labeled "CNN." Mr. Trump pulls the trigger, and the target explodes mid-air.

This latest post from the Trump son comes as his father continues waging a war against "fake news," particularly CNN. Last week, the president shared an altered video of himself beating down a WWE wrestler with the "CNN" icon on his face.

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President Trump continued his escalating feud with the media over the weekend and White House advisers are defending him. On Sunday morning Mr. T...

Donald Trump Jr. has taken the role of defending his father and sister Ivanka Trump amid intense White House scrutiny.

The Trump son chimed in Saturday after Ivanka Trump sat in for her father at a G-20 meetingin Hamburg, Germany, sparking criticism that such a move could be inappropriate.

The eldest Trump son and his brother, Eric Trump, are running their father's vast business empire while Mr. Trump is in office.

Concerns over the Trump family's involvement in his presidency continue to lurk. Initially, Ivanka Trump said she would keep a private role apart from the White House, but she has since taken an official -- albeit unpaid -- position on staff, and continues to have an active role in White House policy discussions, such as at the G-20 meeting Saturday.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump said Ivanka's life would be easier if she wasn't his daughter.

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In her first interview since becoming assistant to the president, Ivanka Trump tells Gayle King about how she's managing the potential conflict o...

CBS News' Stefan Becket contributed to this report.

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Donald Trump Jr. shares fake clip of president shooting "CNN" out of the sky - CBS News

More than five months into Donald Trump's presidency, American adversaries and allies alike are adjusting to a new era in which Washington seeks its own idiosyncratic and unpredictable "America First" path.

In Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, governments are assessing shifting US priorities and in some cases seeking alternative sources of leadership and partnership in the belief that America has stepped back.

Trump's unpopularity abroad is forcing leaders to consider their own political positions, before getting too close to the American President -- even if they seek to preserve Washington's still vital global role as the guarantor of liberal market economics and democracy.

That dynamic will be on display during Trump's second visit to Europe this week, just weeks after his first transcontinental trip opened new gaps between Washington and some longtime allies.

Trump starts in Poland, which is hoping for his strongest affirmation yet of NATO security guarantees. Then he will head to the G20 summit in Germany, where he may confront hostility deepened by his decision to exit the Paris climate accord.

The Trump administration refutes the notion that it has downgraded American leadership, arguing that Trump's foreign trips, flurry of meetings and frequent calls with foreign presidents and prime ministers shows intense engagement.

But increasingly, top foreign policymakers from Germany to Iraq and Canada to Asia are contemplating a period when US leadership that many took for granted may be less evident in global affairs, after Trump turned his back on multilateral trade deals and downplayed multinational institutions and agreements.

"Whoever believes the problems of this world can be solved by isolationism and protectionism is making a tremendous error," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament last week, in a clear shot across Trump's bow.

It was not the first time the German leader, running for a fourth term in September's election, had rebuked the President.

After Trump visited Europe in May, and declined to reaffirm NATO's Article 5 principle of mutual self defense during a visit to the Western alliance headquarters, Merkel said US allies needed to rethink their place in the world.

"We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands," she said.

Canada, America's closest geographical ally, is also watching.

Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland profoundly thanked the United States for being "truly the indispensable nation" that had ensured 70 years of peace and prosperity in a speech to parliament last month.

But she acknowledged that halcyon period was ending.

"The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership, puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course," Freeland said.

"For Canada that course must be the renewal, indeed the strengthening, of the postwar multilateral order."

It is not just America's most traditional allies that sense that America is pulling back from the world, amid a perception that diplomacy has been de-emphasized and the State Department downgraded in a Trump administration more respectful of military leadership.

Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi told CNN's Christiane Amanpour last week that the United States was "absent" in maintaining global security and that there was a "vacuum in the overall leadership in the world."

"The Americans need to ... get back to their role as an international power, an important international power." Allawi said.

Despite an impending victory over ISIS by Iraqi forces in western Mosul, with US support, Allawi argued that Washington lacked "clear cut policies" for tackling extremism and a future strategy for the Middle East.

Some American competitors see an opening.

At the Global Economic Forum in Davos, a few days before Trump was inaugurated, China's President Xi Jinping, offered a vision of a world turned on its head when he offered his own nation as a guardian of free trade, globalization and efforts to combat climate change -- areas where the United States had formerly taken the leadership role.

"Whether you like it or not, the global economy is the big ocean you cannot escape from," Xi told delegates at the Swiss mountain resort.

Over the last few days, Trump has spoken to leaders of US allies in the Gulf, amid a showdown over terrorist financing that has led to the isolation of Qatar, and has also had conversations with counterparts in Germany and Italy.

In contrast to the way Trump's first trip to Europe was seen across the Atlantic, national security adviser H.R. McMaster argued that the President had reinvigorated US alliances which Republicans believed eroded under the Obama administration.

"America First ... does not mean America alone. President Trump has demonstrated a commitment to American alliances because strong alliances further American security and American interests," McMaster told reporters last week.

While much of America's future foreign policy course remains uncertain to foreign states, Washington has made some clear moves.

It significantly stiffened resistance to Iran in the Middle East, a reorientation that was the underlying theme of Trump's first stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel.

But at the same time, there is no real clarity on the Trump administration's strategy on Syria following the apparently imminent eradication of ISIS strongholds. Iran envisages a future Shiite crescent of influence, that would stretch from Tehran through Iraq, Syria and into Lebanon, backed by Russia, and would change the balance of power in the region.

It is unclear how actively the Trump administration plans to resist such a scenario, in concert with allies like Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan.

In Afghanistan, the Pentagon dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb on ISIS targets and plans to use its new autonomy under Trump to send more troops to train and assist Afghan soldiers.

But the administration has yet to lay out a detailed vision of how it sees Afghanistan's future or long-term US war aims.

In Asia, Trump dropped his hostility toward China in an effort to convince Beijing to do more to rein in its volatile ally North Korea amid a nuclear and missile crisis. But he now seems to have concluded the effort failed, and imposed sanctions against a Chinese bank with links to the pariah state, and approved a $1.4 billion arms package to Taiwan, heightening tensions with Beijing.

But Trump, despite saber rattling, has yet to explain to Americans any new approaches on how he will thwart Pyongyang's bid to put a nuclear warhead onto a weapon that could reach the US mainland.

It's not just uncertainty about American global strategy that is convincing some allied leaders to look past the United States.

Trump's unpopularity makes it much more difficult for them politically to support him. The recent Pew Global Attitudes poll showed Trump with rock bottom approval ratings across the world. Only in Russia and Israel did more people trust him to do the right thing than former President Barack Obama.

The former President, meanwhile, has stayed mostly out of the limelight. But Monday, Obama couldn't resist during a Seoul conference organized by South Korea's Chosun Ilbo media group, saying the Paris climate accord won't vanish despite the "temporary absence" of American leadership.

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The world looks past Donald Trump - CNN

A former GOP congressman who voted to impeach then-President Bill Clinton in 1998 has hit out at what he labeled theDonald Trumpshow.

On Monday, former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) told CNN International host Christiane Amanpourthat the current presidents situation involving the investigations into his associates alleged ties to Russia ismuch more serious than the scandal that ended up engulfing Clintons administration.

Inglis made his comments after Amanpour played out an interview from 1998 in which he explained just why Clinton should be impeached.

There are issues around the world that require American leadership, Inglis said in the archive clip. The leader of the free world needs moral authority. And weve got a president who is sorely lacking in that regard.

Amanpour asked Inglis how he measured Clintons lack of moral authority in the run up to his impeachment with what Trump currently has or doesnt have.

Well, I guess that young guy you were just playing there apparently hadnt seen something called the Donald Trump show, said Inglis of his younger self, before adding that Trumps behavior is much more serious than anything we ever accused Bill Clinton of.

Inglis noted how Clintons impeachment involved perjury with the underlying matter being a sexual affair. Trumps situation, however, was something quite different.

Particularly when it gets into the Russia investigation and the firing of (former FBI Director) James Comey, he added. These are very serious matters.

Check out the full interview in the clip above.

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GOPer Who Voted To Impeach Bill Clinton: Donald Trump Situation Is 'Much More Serious' - HuffPost

Trump, beginning around 2011, seized on the issue -- which had been percolating in the fever swamps on the far right since Obama won -- and used it to cast himself as the lone voice among conservatives willing to stand up to Obama (and political correctness).

That the whole thing was, wait for it, a totally false conspiracy theory was beside the point for Trump. It proved useful to him, so he used it.

Given that origin story, we shouldn't be terribly surprised that Trump's willingness to engage in conspiracy theories as a candidate has continued since he entered the White House.

Take Trump's tweets on Saturday alone. They amounted to a conspiracy theorist's dream.

Let's take these one by one.

The first tweet deals with MSNBC parting ways with host Greta van Susteren. Van Susteren, in a series of tweets, offered no evidence that she left because of any pressure from the bosses that she be more anti-Trump.

In each of these examples, what Trump does is similar: He takes something that's happened and insists (or insinuates) that there's something more to the story. Something people aren't telling you. Something the "elites" are covering up.

He, of course, provides no evidence to back up those claims. That's because there isn't any evidence. What Trump is doing in each of these three tweets is throwing just enough red meat to the conspiracy-minded to keep them coming back for more (and more)(and more).

What Trump is relying on is the self-fulfilling prophecy that drives all good conspiracy theorists. He knows more than "they" will let him say! Anyone who doubts Trump is part of the conspiracy! And so on and so forth.

Now, Trump didn't create conspiracy theories. He is just taking advantage of their rise, a rise fueled by the NSA's massive program of personal data collection exposed by Edward Snowden, Trump backer Alex Jones and a thousand and one Reddit sub-Reddits that bring together like-minded conspiracy theorists to prove that they can't all be wrong.

What Trump has done is mainstream conspiracy theories for his own political purposes. Much more so than any other past presidential candidate or president, Trump is willing to indulge conspiracy theories that fit his political purposes.

There's LOTS more examples. (Millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election! Muslims were celebrating on the rooftops in New Jersey on 9/11! Etc. Etc. Etc.)

The point here is that Trump knows exactly what he's doing. It's not important whether he believes all the conspiracy theories he helps churn up and push into the mainstream. What's important is that by doing so he benefits politically.

The result? Conspiracy theories -- and the people who spout them -- have never been more prevalent.

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Donald Trump has made conspiracy theories great again - CNN

This story was updated on Monday, July 3 at 12:53pm.

Charlie Gard was born with a rare genetic condition and has suffered from brain damage and loss of muscle function. After British doctors advised his parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, that they should end life support for the terminally ill 10-month-old, they raised nearly 2 million dollars to transfer Charlie to the U.S. for experimental treatment. But three separate British courts intervened, siding with medical specialists who said that further prolonging treatment would cause the baby significant harm. In June, the European Court of Human Rights weighed in on the parents final appeal. They lost. Charlie would be taken off of life support.

Since then, the global reaction has been chaotic, with leaders from the pope to the president of the United States weighing in on the case.

First, the Vaticans Pontifical Academy for Life issued a statement, seeming to side with the European courts. We must also accept the limits of medicine and avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family, wrote Vincenzo Paglia, the bodys president. While people should never deliberately end a human life, he added, sometimes we ... have to recognize the limitations of what can be done.

Then the pope weighed inand said almost exactly the opposite. Francis is following with affection and sadness the case of little Charlie Gard and expresses his closeness to his parents, a Vatican press office statement said. For this he prays that their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end is not neglected.

On Monday, President Trump added his support with a tweet supporting Charlie and his family.

Charlies case touches on some of the most sensitive moral and political questions about the role of the state at the end of life. The decisions of the European courts represented the final word on whether Charlies parents could pursue treatment in the U.S., and after the ruling, Yates and Gard claimed the hospital had denied permission for them to take Charlie back to their home to die. Yates and Gard have framed the medical dispute as Charlies fight, developing a large social-media following as they chronicled their effort to pursue further treatment for their son. The case also has religious dimensions: On their instagram page, Yates and Gard documented their celebration of their sons baptism and showed him clutching a pendant of St. Jude, the Catholic figure most often associated with hospitals and medical care. Media in the U.K. have followed the Gard familys case closely and the court orders to end Charlies life have been fiercely criticized by conservatives in the U.S. and abroad.

With the Church weighing in, the case took on a whole new dimension. The competing statements seemed to reveal an internal dispute over end-of-life issues within the Vatican. But they also teed up Trumps intervention. Religious conservatives in the U.S. were outraged over the Pontifical Academy for Lifes original statement: Besides being patronizing, the Vaticans statement is a gross distortion of the situation, wrote Michael Brendan Dougherty at National Review. It portrays the Gards as acting alongside the doctors, but subject to outside manipulation. The Gards are resisting the doctors. The Gards are not facing their decisions. They are facing authorities that have overridden them.

Trump, who has consistently expressed his verbal support for religious freedom, has now stepped in, cementing the issue as an international cause for conservatives. Upon learning of baby Charlie Gard's situation, President Trump has offered to help the family in this heartbreaking situation, the White House said in a statement issued on Monday afternoon. Although the President himself has not spoken to the family, he does not want to pressure them in any way, members of the administration have spoken to the family in calls facilitated by the British government. The President is just trying to be helpful if at all possible.

Its not clear how the presidents statement would change the Gard familys situation: They already had the money for Charlies treatment and had sought to bring him to the U.S. The American president cant change the way European courts work, or annul their authority. But Trump has marked a difference in orientation between at least one part of Europe and the United States. While the high courts of Europe have asserted their authority and doctors right to decide when and how Charlie dies, the president of the United States has decided he will champion the familys choice to decideno matter whether or not he actually has the ability to intervene in one British babys life.

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Donald Trump Offers to Help Charlie Gard - The Atlantic

Late last month, President Trump touted his legislative prowess, boasting, "I will say that never has there been a president with few exceptions, in the case of FDR he had a major Depression to handle who's passed more legislation, who's done more things than what we've done."

And he tweeted about signing 38 bills (he's now up to 41).

The president isn't the only one who's talking about how much legislation has been enacted during his young presidency. On Mr. Trump's 150th day in office, House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes claimed on a radio show KMJ radio that Mr. Trump "got more bills signed into law...this Congress working with this president, than any president previously before at this stage in the game."

As the president conceded in his tweet, there are "a few exceptions." Politifact pointed out that "not only did Roosevelt and Truman sign more bills through 150 days, so did Presidents Jimmy Carter, 48, and Bill Clinton with 41. President George H. W. Bush signed the same number as Trump, 39."

And nearing six months into his presidency, none of those dozens of measures include any of Mr. Trump's major campaign promises. He has not repealed and replaced Obamacare, nor has he delivered the biggest tax cut since Ronald Reagan. He has not secured funding to build a "big, beautiful wall" on the Mexican border -- which would need to have funds appropriated for it (even if Mexico were to agree to pay for it).

The House has passed a version of the health care bill, but the Senate has not yet reached an agreement on a version of its own. It postponed a vote that had been scheduled just before the July 4 recess, and it's not yet evident that Senate Republicans will be able to settle on a plan that 50 of them can agree upon, which is the number they'll need for passage. Should they pass a bill, it would also have to be reconciled with the House version passed in May.

The tax legislation was supposed to follow the passage of the health care bill, and the White House has said it expects to have a bill before Congress by early September.

As for Mr. Trump's oft-mentioned southern border wall, Congress did not include money for the wall it its 2017 budget, and it remains to be seenwhether the wall will ever be funded.

The largest number of bills Mr. Trump has signed -- 15 -- roll back Obama administration regulations.

Here's a list of the bills signed by the president, courtesy of CBS News' in-house presidential tracker, White House correspondent Mark Knoller. The bill text is from Congress.gov.:

1) Jan. 20, 2017: In the Capitol after his swearing-in, the president signed a bill to waive a restriction that would have kept Gen. James Mattis, (USMC ret) from serve as Secretary of Defense. The law prohibits former military personnel from serving as defense secretary within seven years of retirement. Mattis retired in 2013.

2) Jan. 20, 2017: H.R.72. This bill authorizes the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to obtain federal agency records required to discharge the GAO's duties (including audit, evaluation, and investigative duties), including through bringing civil actions to require an agency to produce a record. No provision of the Social Security Act shall be construed to limit, amend, or supersede the GAO's authority to: (1) obtain information or inspect records about an agency's duties, powers, activities, organization, or financial transactions; or (2) obtain other agency records that the GAO requires to discharge its duties.

3) Feb. 14, 2017: H. J. Res. 41: This joint resolution nullifies the "Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers" rule finalized by the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 27, 2016. (The rule, mandated under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, requires resource extraction issuers to disclose payments made to governments for the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals.)

4) Feb. 16, 2017: H.J.Res 38: To repeal Obama Admin rule barring dumping of surface mining waste into streams.

5) Feb. 28, 2017: H.R.321 Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act. The bill directs NASA "to encourage women and girls to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), pursue careers in aerospace," by supporting NASA programs: NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS, Aspire to Inspire, and Summer Institute in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Research.

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6) Feb. 28, 2017: H.R.255 "Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act" authorizes the National Science Foundation" to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world."

7) Feb. 28, 2017: H.J.Res. 40, "nullifies the Social Security Administration's rule implementing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act of 2007." The measure blocks an Obama Administration rule providing Social Security information for gun buyer background checks.

8) Feb. 28, 2017: H.R.609 designates the Department of Veterans Affairs health care center in Center Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, as the "Abie Abraham VA Clinic".

9) Feb. 28, 2017: S.442 - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017, the first NASA budget authorization in six years. The measure calls for a $19.5 billion budget for the agency for fiscal year 2017.

10) Feb 28, 2017: H.J. Res. 37: This joint resolution nullifies the rule finalized by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on August 25, 2016, relating to revising the Federal Acquisition Regulation to implement Executive Order 13673 concerning contractor compliance with labor laws.

11) H.J. Res. 44: This joint resolution nullifies the rule finalized by the Department of the Interior on December 12, 2016, relating to revising regulations that establish the procedures used to prepare, revise, or amend land use plans pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.

12) H.J. Res. 57: This joint resolution nullifies the rule finalized by the Department of Education on November 29, 2016, relating to accountability and state plans under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.

13) H.J. Res. 58: This joint resolution nullifies the "Teacher Preparation Issues" rule finalized by the Department of Education on October 31, 2016. The rule implements requirements related to assessing the quality of teacher preparation programs under title II (Teacher Quality Enhancement) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

14) March 28, 2017 S. 305, the "Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017," which encourages the display of the U.S. flag on March 29, National Vietnam War Veterans Day.

15) March 31, 2017: H.J.Res. 42, which nullifies the Department of Labor's Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program; Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 Provision on Establishing Appropriate Occupations for Drug Testing of Unemployment Compensation Applicants;

16) March 31, 2017: H.R. 1362, which designates the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Pago Pago, American Samoa, the Faleomavaega Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin VA Clinic; and

17) March 31, 2017: S.J.Res. 1, which approves the location of a memorial to commemorate and honor the members of the Armed Forces who served on active duty in support of Operation Desert Storm or Operation Desert Shield.

18) April 3, 2017: H.J.Res. 69, which nullifies the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service's final rule relating to non-subsistence takings of wildlife on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska;

19) April 3, 2017: H.J.Res. 83: which nullifies the Department of Labor's rule titled Clarification of Employer's Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness; and

20) April 3, 2017: H.R. 1228, which provides for the appointment of members of the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance to replace members whose terms expire during March and May of 2017; and

21) April 3, 2017: S.J.Res. 34, which nullifies the Federal Communications Commission's rule on privacy of customers of broadband and other telecommunications services.

22) April 13, 2017: H.J.Res. 67, which nullifies the Department of Labor's rule on Savings Arrangements Established by Qualified State Political Subdivisions for Non-Governmental Employees. This means that the bill rolls back the HHS regulation that barred states from blocking federal funds to family planning providers that perform abortions. They can now block those funds.

23) April 13, 2017: H.J.Res. 43, which nullifies the Department of Health and Human Services rule prohibiting recipients of Title X grants for the provision of family planning services from excluding a subgrantee from participating for reasons other than its ability to provide Title X services. This bill, along with H.J. Res. 67, were the 12th and 13th bills signed by President Trump to nullify regulations issued in the last months of the Obama administration.

24) April 18, 2017: H.R. 353, the "Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017," which reauthorizes and modifies the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's: (1) weather research and forecasting programs; and (2) tsunami detection, forecast, warning, research and mitigation programs.

25) April 19, 2017: S. 544, A bill to amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to modify the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program, and for other purposes. Bill eliminates August 7 termination date of the Veterans Choice Program; to modify reimbursement and cost-recovery procedures for care provided under the Program; and to authorize the sharing of certain veterans' medical records with medical service providers outside the Department of Veterans Affairs.

26) April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 30 reappoints Steve Case as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution;

27) April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 35 appoints Michael Govan as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; and

28) April 19, 2017: S.J.Res. 36 appoints Roger W. Ferguson as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

29) April 28, 2017: H.J.Res. 99 is the continuing resolution to fund the government with appropriations for fiscal year 2017, and for other purposes.

30) May 05, 2017: H.R. 244: Spending bill to avert government shutdown. It provides fiscal year (FY) 2017 full-year appropriations through September 30, 2017, for all agencies except those covered by division A of the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (Public Law 114-223). Division A provided full-year funding through September 30, 2017, for projects and activities of the Federal Government included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017.

31) May 8, 2017: H.R. 534, the "U.S. Wants to Compete for a World Expo Act," which authorizes the Secretary of State to take such actions as necessary for the United States to rejoin the Bureau of International Expositions.

32) May 12, 2017: S. 496, which nullifies the rule issued by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration entitled "Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform".

33) May 16, 2017: The "Modernizing Government Travel Act" requires the General Services Administration to prescribe regulations to provide for the reimbursement for the use of a transportation network company or innovative mobility technology company by any Federal employee traveling on official business.

34) May 17, 2017: H.J.Res. 66 nullifies the Department of Labor's rule on Savings Arrangements Established by States for Non-Governmental Employees.

35) June 2, 2017: The "Public Safety Officers' Benefits Improvement Act of 2017" was a bipartisan bill that would help speed which modifies eligibility requirements for the Public Safety Officers' Benefits (PSOB) program administered by the Department of Justice; and requires the Department to exercise due diligence, and transparency, to expeditiously adjudicate PSOB claims; and

36) June 2, 2017: The "American Law Enforcement Heroes Act of 2017" authorizes the Department of Justice to award community oriented policing services grants for the purpose of prioritizing the hiring and training of veterans as career law enforcement officers.

37) June 6, 2017: An act naming a federal building and U.S. courthouse the "Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States Courthouse."

38) June 6, 2017: The "DHS Stop Asset and Vehicle Excess Act or the DHS SAVE Act," which requires the Under Secretary for Management of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to oversee and manage vehicle fleets throughout DHS; and imposes new requirements on DHS components regarding the management of those fleets.

39) June 14, 2017: The "Follow the Rules Act," which gives whistleblower protections to federal employees who refuse to violate federal rules and regulations. A federal court had issued a ruling protecting federal workers from employer retaliation if they refused to violate federal law, but it did not apply the same safeguards for those who refuse to obey an order that would violate a rule or regulation.

40) June 23, 2017: The VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which aims tomake it easier to fire bad employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and give more protection to employees who bring misconduct to light. It gives VA Secretary David Shulkin more authority to fire misbehaving or underperforming employees, shorten the appeals process for that firing, and prohibits employees from being paid while they pursue the appeals process. It also includes new protections againstretaliation for workerswho file complaints with the VA general counsel's office, and shortens the process for hiring new employees to fill a workforce shortage at the VA.

41) June 30, 2017: H.R. 1238, the "Securing our Agriculture and Food Act," requires the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to carry out a program to coordinate DHS efforts related to defending the food, agriculture, and veterinary systems of the United States against terrorism and other threats.

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What are the bills Donald Trump has signed? - CBS News