Category Archives: Donald Trump

Aside from the odd punctuation -- why is "TAX CUTS" capitalized?? -- the message is simple: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should change the rules of the Senate to eliminate the filibuster on legislation. What that would mean in practical terms is that any debate on a bill could be ended by a simple majority vote and then the legislation could be passed -- or voted down -- with a simple majority.

Let's start here: Getting rid of the legislative filibuster would make the way the Senate works entirely indistinguishable from the way the House works.

The House is -- and was designed to be -- a majority-rule entity. From its founding in Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution, which establishes that members of the House must stand for new terms every two years, the whole idea was that the House was the direct voice of the people -- reflecting what they wanted at a given time.

That same Constitution -- you may have heard of it -- established six-year terms for senators, an attempt to differentiate it from the House and create the idea of the Senate as a more deliberate institution.

Now, put the history aside for a minute. Trump's tweet is also wrong on the specifics of the two pieces of legislation -- health care and tax reform -- he is insisting would pass the Senate if not for its 60-vote rule.

Which means that, for all intents and purposes, the change Trump is insisting the Senate make is already governing the two pieces of legislation he is tweeting about.

Donald Trump is either blithely unaware of these things or simply doesn't care. He is and always has been someone who believes that he makes the rules while other people follow them. And, if they don't suit him -- if it's a bad deal, say -- he either adjust the rules or walks away from them.

In Trump's mind, he's the President so everyone -- the Senate included -- should be doing what he says and passing the legislation he wants passed.

Which, of course, is a gross misunderstanding of the separation of powers, the history of the Senate and the current legislative processes governing tax reform and the American Health Care Act.

Many people know that. Donald Trump doesn't seem to be one of them.

Read more:

Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand how the Senate works - CNN

Peter Capaldi stars as the Doctor in the "Doctor Who" episode "The Pyramid at the End Of The World."

Simon Ridgway/BBC

The 2016 U.S. presidential election had the same results in the "Doctor Who" universe, apparently, with Donald Trump sitting in the oval office both on TV and in reality.

During the most recent episode of the hit BBC sci-fi adventure, the Doctor's current companion, Bill (played by Pearl Mackie) is tracked down by the U.N. and asked to help find "the president."

"How would I know the president? I mean I wouldn't have even voted for him," Bill responded. "He's ... orange."

Mr. Trump -- or an actor portraying him -- doesn't appear in the episode, but the writers have made it clear he exists in their world.

It turned out the U.N. was looking for another president: the Doctor himself, played by Peter Capaldi. Several seasons back, the character was given the title President of Earth.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The rest is here:

Doctor Who slams Donald Trump - CBS News

So this week, he warns us, the president is going to announce his decision on whether the United States will remain a party to the Paris climate accord. I guess the delay is meant to dupe us into believing that hes been studying the substance of the issue.

I think we all expect that hell pull the United States out of the agreement, signed by 195 nations (and unsigned by just Nicaragua and Syria, if you want an idea of the company Donald Trump would be putting us in). Indeed Axios reported Monday that Trump has already told several associates that hes giving it the heave-ho. The thin reed of hope here is that a slew of major U.S. corporationsincluding the CEO of Exxon!have told him to stay in Paris.

So maybe theres the slimmest of chances that he might pleasantly surprise us. But come on. He knows hed have a mutiny on his hands if he doesnt reject the accord. The three key elements of the Republican Party these days are the hardest-right members of Congress (look, for example, at how the House Republicans rewrote the health bill to placate the Freedom Caucus); Rush Limbaugh and the other media propagandists, and the rabid pro-Trump base. Each of these overlapping groups would be enraged if Trump stuck with Paris.

As a matter of politics, hes already lost more or less the entire country except for these people. If he starts losing themby doing things like coming around to Barack Obamas position on climate changetheyll start thinking the words President Pence sound just fine. And they, unlike the rest of us, have the power to make it happen.

So lets assume that by weeks end the United States is out of the Paris accords. There are two contexts in which we need to understand the gravity of the moment.

The first is the domestic political context. Republicans will be hailing this as a great victory for the American people, who dont want to be bound by these onerous and heavy-handed international treaties. However, the truth as far as we can discern is that the American people do in fact want to be bound by these treaties.

First of all, most Americans believe that climate change is a real problem that the human race has caused or contributed to and must do something about. Gallup found a little more than a year ago that public concern about climate change was at an eight-year high. Fully 64 percent said they worried about climate change, and nine in 10 said the effects are either now being felt or will certainly be felt in the future, leaving the hoax dead-enders at 10 percent of the population (but about 52 percent of the Congress; oh well).

Which brings us to the Paris agreement. It hasnt been polled much, but last November the Chicago Council on Global Affairs commissioned a survey that found that 71 percent of Americansand even 57 percent of Republicansback the accord.

In other words, the GOP position is deeply unpopular. So if Trump moves in the expected direction, it will lower his own popularity, and the congressional GOPs. Pretty much every major item on the GOP agenda, from getting out of Paris to repealing Obamacare to giving the rich more tax cuts, is wildly unpopular. Yet they keep doing it, and keep wondering why theyre so unpopular. Its not complicated. They are carrying out the will of their huge donors and about a third at best of the population. So the political fallout for them will be negative, and that of course is all to the good.

In the second context, however, the political fallout is likely to be extremely harmful to the United States. I refer of course to the international context. We saw Trump complete a disastrous overseas trip, which started with him outing the Mossad, built toward his alarming non-defense of NATO, and ended with this puffy and low-energy old man unable to join his fellow heads-of-state and walk a few hundred feet.

That was funny, in a pathetic sort of way. But Angela Merkels speech in southern Germany Sunday wasnt funny. As Henry Farrell observed in The Washington Post, Merkels rhetoric about the EU needing to go its own way was a stark departure from the past, indicating that Germany and Europe are likely to take on a much more substantial and independent role than they have in the past 70 years.

To hear American conservativesand Trumptell it, the EU is a hidebound and sclerotic institution that cant approve golf courses fast enough. But guess which economy is bigger, the EU or the United States? In 2016, China was first, the EU second, and America third.

Get The Beast In Your Inbox!

Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.

A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).

Subscribe

Thank You!

You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason.

To those of you who say that getting out of Paris will unleash the American tiger, I say stop reading InfoWars. Theres a reason the Exxon CEO wants us to stay in. Its called a global marketplace in which the rules are standardized. For the United States of America, which has led every major international concert since World War II, to stand down from that role and go its own way is humiliating and, more to the point, self-marginalizing. The Paris agreement expands markets, creates new energy technologies, and spurs growth. Were really going to say we want no part of that, are we?

And just imagine how it will feel three years from now, say, when theres another major international accord of some kind, and the two people standing up front are Angela Merkel and Xi Jinping, with the president of the United States absent. Donnie Two Scoops will be down in Palm Beach, tweeting away, eating his favorite dessert. And the world will be eating our lunch.

See original here:

Donald Trump Deals Away America's Prestige, and His Own Position - Daily Beast

Ricky Best, Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Micah Fletcher are heroes. These three men acted selflessly and without concern for their own safety as they came to the aid of two women one Muslim and the other African-American who were being verbally assaulted and threatened by a white supremacist in Portland, Oregon, last Friday.

Jeremy Joseph Christian was a known white supremacist and a public menace. He attended public events while armed with weapons. He would walk the streets and attend political rallies and marches wherehe yelled racial slurs and pledged his loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. What he did last Saturday was wholly predictable.

Christian allegedlyslit the throats of Best and Namkai-Mecheand thenstabbed Fletcher. Best and Namkai-Meche are dead; Fletcher remains hospitalized with serious injuries. The two young women were able to escape unharmed.

These two heroic men are not the only people to have been killed by white supremacists during the first few months of Donald Trumps regime.

About two weeks ago, a 23-year-old African-American college student was stabbed to death on the University of Maryland campus by a white supremacist. Richard Collins III refused Sean Urbanskis order to Step left, step left if you know whats good for you. Urbanski then channeled the white supremacist logic of Jim and Jane Crow and the black codes, allegedly killing Collins for refusing an order from a white man.

In March a white supremacist traveled from Baltimore to New York. His intent? To kill black men. To baptize his hatred with blood. He was successful. James Jackson walked up to Timothy Caughman, a black man he did not know and then plunged a sword through his chest.

These murders are part of a larger trend. There has been a record increase in hate crimes and other violence against Muslims, nonwhites, Jews and immigrants that began with Donald Trumps presidential campaign in 2016 and continues through to the present. The Anti Defamation League has documented how right-wing domestic terrorists almost all of them white and Christian have killed hundreds of Americans since 2007. The number of white supremacist and similar hate groups continues to grow in the United States, largely inspired by Donald Trumps political message.

After much pressure, President Trump finally offered a comment about the killings of Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche. Of course, he did not mention that Christian apparently is a white supremacist. Likewise, Trump has been mute on the killing of Richard Collins III in Maryland. As I observed in a previous essay, Trumps relative silence about violence by white supremacists and their ilk against people of color, Jews and Muslimsis expected and should not be surprising. Trumps political brand is one of white racism, nativism, bigotry, misogyny and a naked embrace of white identity politics and itsHerrenvolk Make America great again dream of treating black and brown people (and women) like second-class citizens in their own country. Why would Trump risk alienating his most reliable and enthusiastic supporters?

As Mother Jones detailed in a recent profile of Matt Heimbach a white supremacist who assaulted a black woman at a Trump campaign rally in Louisville, Kentucky people like Christian and Urbanski are simply following the signals sent to them by the president:

Heimbach exemplifies and has ridden the wave of white-extremist radicalization since Barack Obamas election in 2008. . . . Heimbach rallied behind Trumps candidacy, and started wearing a red Make America Great Again ball cap everywhere. The footage of him shoving Nwanguma in Louisville was emblematic of how Trumps nativist dog whistle was pulling extremist sentiment into the mainstream. . . .

Even if the odds that Heimbachs lawsuit will succeed are infinitesimal, the case is a revealing indication of the far rightssymbiotic relationship with Trump. White nationalists, apparently, really do believe the president has been nudging them to commit violence, or at least promising to tolerate it if they do. When in February sources inside the White Housetold reportersthat Trump planned to no longer target white supremacists as part of the governments anti-terrorism efforts, the editor of the neo-Nazi siteDaily Stormercheered, Yes, this is real life . . . .Donald Trump is setting us free. Others wereheartened by Trumps silencein the wake of the murder of six people at a mosque in Quebec Cityby a white nationalist that same month. The rioters in Berkeley, California,last weekend some wearing MAGA hats seem to have heard the same music that Heimbach did last March.

Donald Trumps relative silence is even more deafening and obvious given the fact thattwo of the recent murder victims were affiliated with theU.S. military. Richard Collins III, killed in Maryland, was a newly commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Ricky Best, killed in Portland, had served in the Army for 23 years, much of that time as a platoon sergeant. It would seem that loyalty to white supremacy has a greater pull for Donald Trump than the faux patriotism and flag-waving that Republicans and conservatives are usually so quick toadopt.

It takes no great leap of imagination to envision the paranoia, panic, bloodlust and mouth-frothing rage that President Trump, the right-wing media and Republicans en masse would now be channeling if a Muslim attacker had slit the throats of white Christian Americans anywhere in the homeland. It would be a depicted as a national emergency of the first order and a justification for God only knows what kind of draconian crackdown.

Many Americans are shocked by the recent acts of racist violence in Portland and Maryland. That shock is perhaps understandable, but we should not be surprised. The country that twice elected a black man to the presidency is also the same nationthat was founded on the centuries-long enslavement, rape and murder of African-Americans as well as genocidal violence against First Nations people. These sins are part of Americas national character; they are burned into our civic and cultural DNA. America also elected a plutocratic authoritarian racist as president, in the form of Donald Trump. He reflects the values held by many tens of millions of white Americans.

And one cannot overlook the long history of murderous violence by white supremacists in the United States. Some examples:

Donald Trump has been president for approximately four months. For American democracy to survive his reign there will need to bemore heroes, more people like Ricky Best, Taliesin Namkai-Meche and Micah Fletcher who will do the right thing even at great personal cost because their morality and personal honor demand nothing less. Those men are two martyrs and one wounded warrior in a history of resistance to Donald Trumps America that has yet to be written. Their names will not be forgotten.

Originally posted here:

Martyrs against racism in Donald Trump's America: What happened in Portland was shocking, but not surprising - Salon

President Trump famously took advantage of Twitter in the 2016 campaign in ways that other candidates wouldnt or couldnt. And, as The New York Times noted way back in October 2015, he used a Samsung Galaxy to do it, having no computer in his office.

Internet sleuths later deduced the phone was probably a Galaxy S3, released in May 2012, which could only run older, insecure versions of the Android operating system. As the Reply All podcast demonstrated in a smart/terrifying episode, readily available hacking software could completely eliminate the privacy of a person still using one of these phones.

But hey, good news it looks like Trumps Android days may be in the past. At least, hes no longer tweeting from Android, which you can see for yourself by searching Twitter for tweets from source:"Twitter for Android". Trumps tweets are all now coming from an iPhone (or possibly multiple iPhones, assuming he is still sharing the account with his team), which you can verify by searching for tweets from source:"Twitter for iPhone".

He hasnt tweeted from an Android device since March 25 of this year, when he encouraged his tens of millions of followers to watch Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News:

Throughout the presidential campaign, tweets were posted to @realDonaldTrump from both Android and iOS devices, and occasionally via Instagram. As savvy Twitter-searchers noticed then, the more aggressive, shoot-from-the-hip tweets tended to come from an Android device, while the more polished, genial ones were most likely posted by someone on his campaign from an iPhone.

Read the rest here:

Donald Trump hasn't tweeted from his Android phone in two months - Recode

It was an upbeat message for a leader fresh from meeting with his new club of foreign counterparts for the first time. But underneath the point-by-point recap of his trip lay uncertainty over his agenda and disputes with his foreign counterparts.

Trump's first voyage abroad was a story told in chapters, each successively less pleasant for a President still taking stock of his standing on the world stage.

Beyond a scattering of formal remarks, none of the story was told by Trump himself, who refused to hold a news conference and, by his advisers' own admission, revealed little of his thinking to top aides as he hopped from nation to nation.

In some ways, uncertainty amounted to a win, at least in the minds of Trump's aides. As Trump prepared to depart Washington last Friday, there was little surety among his staff that the nine-day odyssey could proceed without failure. Trump himself, who hadn't slept in a bed that wasn't his own since taking office, remained skeptical a five-country itinerary could end well.

A homebody with little appetite for discomfort, Trump was imagining the worst. Unpleasant foreign food, withering jet lag, and an unfamiliar bed had been his experiences as a businessman abroad. Even in the days leading up to his departure, Trump asked whether the trip could be truncated. He vented about the ambitious schedule to his senior advisers in the days leading up to his departure.

But by then it was too late. With meetings locked in and the world anticipating his global debut, Trump settled into his quarters on Air Force One for a flight four times longer than any he'd taken as President.

President Trump receives Saudi gold medal 01:43

Fourteen hours later, Trump was tucked into the back of his armored limousine, speeding into central Riyadh alongside King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and watching billboards plastered with both their faces whiz past.

Yet an air of navet hung in the air after the President's speech to leaders of more than 50 Muslim majority nations. The White House described it as something of a fait accompli, with a top official twice declaring that the President had "united the Muslim world."

As Trump delivered his opening argument to a room packed with leaders of Muslim nations, however, the newly sedate language didn't entirely come through.

"There is still much work to be done," Trump said. "That means honestly confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds."

Trump after UK attack: Terrorists evil losers 02:39

Huddling with aides in his suite at the storied King David hotel overlooking the old city, the message on extremism he'd delivered in Saudi Arabia -- which came with few details -- suddenly appeared more difficult. In Israel, a country intimately familiar with the scourge of terror and the entrenched politics of peace, the problem appeared even more insurmountable.

Trump was unsatisfied with the language his advisers had prepared for a speech later that morning. The condemnation of the attack lacked verve, Trump believed. Describing the attackers in ordinary terms wouldn't suffice. Instead he wrote up his own description, using the insult he's long considered the most cutting.

"I will call them from now on losers because that's what's they are. They're losers," Trump said a few hours later standing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We'll have more of them. But they're losers -- just remember that."

The message was well received. But hours later, it was clear Trump faced a steep climb before bridging the gaps that have long stymied American presidents' attempts at fostering stability in the Middle East.

"I hope this heralds a real change," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said ahead of Trump's remarks at the Israel Museum. "Because if the attacker had been Palestinian and the victims had been Israeli children, the suicide bomber's family would have received a stipend from the Palestinian Authority. That's Palestinian law. That law must be changed."

It was an intrusion of real-world obstacles into Trump's vision for peace, which he once deemed easy, but which this week he declared the hardest deal of all.

President Trump, Pope Francis exchange gifts 01:20

The Pope presented Trump with a bound copy of his encyclical on protecting the environment, "Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home."

For all the underlying tensions setting the stage for their first visit, given their unusually harsh exchange last year over immigration and whether the building of walls is a Christian thing to do, the Pope took another tack.

A skilled politician in his own right, Francis honed in on the President's pending decision whether to pull the US from the Paris climate accord. It was the first of several conversations Trump conducted this week on the landmark carbon reduction agreement, which he vowed as a candidate to scrap.

At the Vatican, though, Trump insisted his mind was open.

"I'll be reading them," Trump said of the essays from the Pope on the environment and creating peace.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, weighed in with the direct message urging Trump and his team to stay true to the Paris agreement.

The President's first meeting with Francis was steeped in symbolism, the final stop in visiting the three homes of the Abrahamic religions: Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

He's the second American president to visit the Vatican under Francis' papacy. While President Barack Obama's meeting was 20 minutes longer than Trump's, the Holy See wasted little time comparing the two.

As he left the Apostolic Palace, Trump told the Pope: "I won't forget what you said."

If he meant climate change, the Pope will have won round one.

Trump calls out NATO allies to pay up 02:04

Flying north from Rome, Trump found the temperature quickly cooling. He arrived at NATO's headquarters on the outskirts of Rome under a cloud of suspicion on multiple fronts.

In one of the only off-script moments of his trip, Trump declared in Jerusalem that he hadn't mentioned Israel by name with his Russian visitors. But at NATO, the concerns still boiled.

It was just one of the rifts between Trump and his European counterparts. After open-arm welcomes in Riyadh and Jerusalem, Trump's foreign swing took a distinct tonal shift. Instead of banquets and horses, Trump was suddenly flung into tension-filled meetings with leaders deeply skeptical of his foreign agenda.

Subsequent sessions proceeded similarly. Trump reportedly griped about the hurdles in opening golf courses in Europe with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. European Council President Donald Tusk said after his meeting with Trump that they weren't able to bridge differences over Russia.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One on Saturday, May, 27, 2017, at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy. They were headed back to the United States after a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

President Trump greets people on May 27, after speaking to US troops at Naval Air Station Sigonella.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

President Trump addresses US troops and their families on May 27, at the Sigonella Naval Air Station.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive on May 27, to address US military personnel and families at Naval Air Station Sigonella.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Leaders of the G-7 and some African nations pose for a photo on May 27, on the second day of the G-7 summit in Taormina, Italy.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

President Trump gestures on May 27, during a G-7 session.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, arrive for a concert of the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra while in Taormina, Italy, on Friday, May 26. The Trumps are in Italy for a two-day G-7 summit.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump and other leaders pose for a group photo at the G-7 summit on May 26. From left are European Council President Donald Tusk, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump and Trudeau walk together after the group photo.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

G-7 leaders congregate during a walking tour on May 26.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump embraces new French President Emmanuel Macron on May 26.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

The leaders watch a French air squadron.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump stands with other world leaders during a NATO photo shoot on May 25.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump speaks with British Prime Minister Theresa May during a working dinner at NATO headquarters.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump stands next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the NATO summit.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Melania Trump visits the Magritte Museum in Brussels with Amelie Derbaudrenghien, partner of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

A girl takes a selfie with Melania Trump at a children's hospital in Brussels on May 25.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump meets with Macron in Brussels.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump walks with European Council President Donald Tusk, center, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, right, after they met at the European Council in Brussels on May 25.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump, third from right, attends a meeting with leaders at the European Council.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump speaks with King Philippe of Belgium as Queen Mathilde and Melania Trump chat during a reception at the Royal Palace in Brussels on Wednesday, May 24.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Tusk talks to Trump as he welcomes him in Brussels.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump stands with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel while the national anthem is played during Trump's arrival in Belgium on May 24.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Protesters in Brussels demonstrate with effigies of Trump and Michel on May 24.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump shakes hands with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Rome on May 24.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump and the Pope exchange gifts. Trump presented the Pope with a first-edition set of Martin Luther King's writings. The Pope gave Trump an olive-tree medal that the Pope said symbolizes peace.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump and his wife look at the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Trump speaks to reporters in Rome during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, right, on May 24.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

The first lady visits a pediatric hospital in Vatican City on May 24.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

People take pictures of the message Trump wrote at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, on May 23.

Photos: President Trump's first foreign trip

See the original post:

Trump, feted and chided abroad, returns to uncertainty at home - CNN

President Donald Trump said Saturday he would make a decision on the Paris Agreement on climate change "next week" following months of intense speculation and lobbying on both sides of the issue.

The announcement came as Trump departed this year's G-7 summit in Italy without endorsing the landmark global warming deal which has support from nearly 200 countries, a move that put him in conflict with his counterparts from the world's other leading democracies.

A joint statement from all seven countries acknowledged that the U.S. "is in process of reviewing its policies on climate change" while reaffirming the other nations commitment to addressing global warming. "Expressing understanding for this process, the heads of state and of government of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, and the presidents of the European Council and of the European Commission reaffirm their strong commitment to swiftly implement the Paris Agreement," the statement says.

Read More: What to Know About the Historic 'Paris Agreement' on Climate Change

Trump's first trip abroad provided him with a sense of the strong European support for the deal and, by proxy, the opinion of nearly every other head of state across the globe. Gary Gohn, Trump's chief economic advisor, said this week that the president was "leaning to understand the European position," when asked about Trump's current position on the deal. "Paris has important meaning to many of the European leaders," said Cohn. "And he wants to clearly hear what the European leaders have to say."

The White House has repeatedly promised a decision on the Paris Agreement only to delay as the issue continued to divide Trump's advisers.

Trump promised on the campaign trail to "cancel" the Paris Agreement arguing that it hurts U.S. energy interests, but actually exiting the deal has proven more complicated than Trump portrayed it on the campaign trail. The issue has divided his closest advisers with a group of hard-liners including Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt and senior adviser Steve Bannon arguing for withdrawal.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, along with Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, have pushed for him to remain in the deal. The agreement also has support from many corporations, including in the coal, oil and gas industries.

Leaders across the globe have insisted repeatedly that they will continue to implement the Paris Agreement if the U.S. withdraws. Indeed, the G-7 statement included a commitment not just to keeping the deal alive but to supporting developing countries in their efforts to address global warming, a key component that had been threatened by U.S. intransigence in the past.

"We are ready to continue to provide the leadership on climate change," Maro efovi, vice president of the European Commission and the chief energy policymaker for the European Union, told TIME earlier this year. "We are are going to clearly pursue our goals in Europe, but we also want to continue our strong role in helping, especially in the developing world."

Read More: World Leaders On Edge as President Trump Weighs Pulling U.S. Out of Paris Climate Deal

But leaders also warned that a U.S. exit would damage the country's global stature. French President Emmanuel Macron told Trump that it is "indispensable for the reputation of the United States and the interest of the Americans themselves that the United States remain committed," according to an Associated Press report .

While the agreement might survive a U.S. departure, the absence of the world's largest economy and second-largest polluter would complicate efforts to fight climate change effectively. Research has repeatedly shown even if current commitments are upheld, the world will fall short of its goal to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2C (3.6F) by 2100.

Even if the U.S. remains in the deal, Trump will likely weaken the commitments set under President Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26% from 2005 levels by 2025.

Read more from the original source:

Donald Trump Says Decision on Paris Agreement Coming 'Next Week' - TIME

(NAVAL AIR STATION SIGONELLA, Sicily) President Donald Trump on Saturday said his maiden first trip abroad was a "home run" and he vowed to overcome the threat of terrorism, concluding a grueling five-stop sprint that ended with the promise of an imminent decision on the much-discussed Paris climate accord.

Trump ended his nine-day trip with a speech to U.S. troops in Sicily, where he recounted his visits to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Belgium and Italy and his work to counter terrorism. The president said recent terrorist attacks in Manchester, England and Egypt underscored the need for the U.S. to "defeat terrorism and protect civilization."

"Terrorism is a threat, bad threat to all of humanity," Trump said, standing in front of a massive American flag at Naval Air Station Sigonella. "And together we will overcome this threat. We will win."

Trump tweeted earlier in the day that he would make a final decision next week on whether to withdraw from the climate pact. European leaders he met with at the Group of 7 summit in Sicily have been pressuring Trump to stay in the accord, arguing that America's leadership on climate is crucial.

Besides reaching a decision on the climate agreement once back in Washington, Trump will also face a new crush of Russia-related controversies. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner spoke with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. about setting up secret communications with Moscow.

Trump held no news conferences during the nine-day trip, which allowed him to avoid questions about the Russia investigations. His top economic and national security advisers refused to answer questions about Kushner during a press briefing Saturday.

The White House had hoped to use Trump's five-stop trip as a moment to reset. The president was warmly received on his opening stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel, though he has come under more pressure in Europe, particularly over the Paris accord.

Trump was cajoled for three days first in Brussels at meetings of NATO and the European Union, then in Sicily for G-7 but will leave Italy without making clear where he stands.

As the G-7 summit came to a close Saturday, the six other members Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan renewed their commitment to the accord. The summit's communique noted that the Trump administration would take more time to consider whether it will remain committed to the 2015 Paris deal to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.

Backing out of the climate accord had been a central plank of Trump's campaign and aides have been exploring whether they can adjust the framework of the deal even if they don't opt out entirely. Other G-7 nations leaned heavily on Trump to stay in the climate deal, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying "we put forward very many arguments."

The president's trip has largely gone off without a major misstep, with the administration touting the president's efforts to birth a new coalition to fight terrorism, while admonishing partners in an old alliance to pay their fair share.

"I think we hit a home run no matter where we are," Trump told the soldiers. He also touted his meetings with NATO members, adding, "We're behind NATO all the way." He reiterated a renewed commitment by NATO members to spend more on defense.

Trump was referring to a vow by NATO countries to move toward spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024. Only five of NATO's 28 members meet the target: Britain, Estonia, debt-laden Greece, Poland and the United States, which spends more on defense than all the other allies combined.

"The U.S. is currently paying much more than any other nation and that is not fair to the United States or the United States taxpayer. So we're working on it and I will tell you, a big difference over the last year, money is actually starting to pour into NATO from countries that would not have been doing what they're doing now had I not been elected, I can tell you that. Money is starting to pour in," Trump said, echoing a tweet earlier Saturday on the subject.

There is no evidence that money has begun to "pour in" and countries do not pay the U.S. or NATO directly. But Germany, for instance, has been increasing its defense spending with the goal of reaching the 2 percent target by 2024.

After the pomp of presidential travel overseas, Trump will return to Washington and many of the problems he left behind.

As a newly appointed special counsel is beginning to investigate links between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, Kushner has become a focus of the probe. Kushner's lawyer said he will cooperate with investigators.

James Comey, the former FBI director who led the Russian probe until Trump abruptly fired him, is still expected to testify before Congress about memos he kept on conversations with the president that involved the investigation. Meanwhile, the search for a new FBI director continues.

And Trump's policy agenda has run into problems. The GOP health care bill that passed the House faces uncertain prospects in the Senate after a Congressional Budget Office analysis that it would leave 23 million more Americans uninsured by 2026. The president's budget was widely criticized for deep cuts to safety net programs. And some are starting to question the chances for Trump's pledge to overhaul the U.S. tax code.

The rest is here:

President Trump Calls His First Trip Abroad a 'Home Run' - TIME

Donald Trump attempts to make a deal with former FBI director James Comey and is visited by Richard Nixon's ghost in The Simpsons' latest biting look into the Trump White House.

The "125 Days" short opens with scandal surrounding the administration, as Trump's closest advisors Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Kellyanne Conway all hang from the White House ceiling as Vice President Mike Pence erases the "Vice" from his desk's name plate.

Inside the presidential bedroom, Trump asks the ousted Comey to turn over all evidence that the FBI has against him, and in return Trump promises to erase all of his non-existent tapes. As the walls begin to close in on Trump, Nixon's ghost arrives to offer some advice, from one beleaguered president to another.

"I came to thank you, Donald. I'm moving up. Thanks to you, I'm now the 44th best president," Nixon's ghost said. "I just have one piece of advice: If you have tapes, burn them!"

As always with The Simpsons' Trump-trashing shorts, the best jokes are in the details: The president's nighttime reading includes I'm Still Fired by Bill O'Reilly, How to Lose Friends and Piss Off Israel and Two Scoops for Me. Framed on Trump's wall is a personalized "Get Out of Jail Free" card from Monopoly and, behind Nixon's ghost, the photograph of Trump's secret Oval Office meeting with Sergei Kislyak and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Sign up for our newsletter to receive breaking news directly in your inbox.

Read the original post:

Watch Richard Nixon's Ghost Visit Donald Trump in 'Simpsons' Short - RollingStone.com

Donald Trump will no longer host a major rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Thursdayhis first of the campaign-style events scheduled since his international trip to the Middle East and the G7 summit in Sicily.

The Trump administration had only just announced on Wednesday the rally would take place after the president returns to Washington, following his first trip abroad as commander-in-chief.

President Donald Trump arrived to pose for a family photo with participants of the G7 summit during the Summit of the Heads of State and of Governments of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union, in Taormina, Sicily, Italy, May 27, 2017. Reuters

Subscribe to Newsweek from $1 per week

Related:Experts Upgrade Donald Trump's Impeachment Odds

"Due to an unfortunate change in President Trumps schedule, we will need to unfortunately postpone the previously scheduled rally in Cedar Rapids,"a White House statement released Saturday announced. "President Trump will see you in Iowa very soon."

Its unclear what got in the way of Trumps surprise rally in Iowa: The president does not currently have any upcoming speeches or events listed on the White House website other than planned remarks to military personnel at the Sigonella Naval Air station in Sicily on Saturday. Trump is scheduled to return to the capitol on Sunday afternoon.

Perhaps he's planning on taking some time to settle back into the White House and get to work on the commitments he made across the globe during his first trip abroad as president. Trump returned totweeting his morning thoughts on Saturday for the first time since embarking on his international voyage.

"Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in- NATO will be much stronger,"Trump wrote Saturday. "I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!"

The last rally Trump hosted was held April 29the same night of the annual White House Press Correspondents Dinner.

Original post:

Donald Trump Suddenly Cancels Surprise Rally in Iowa - Newsweek