Trump administration
December 26, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Britain’s Sun newspaper comments on a new report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The Sun’s focus is Britain, but the report is highly relevant to the U.S. as well: BRITAIN’s economy has defied forecasts predicting it would be overtaken by France as a new report reveals we have cemented sixth place in the world. And by 2034 the UK’s economy is now predicted to be a quarter
»
December 12, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order that will enable the government to consider discrimination against Jews to be a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. This means that colleges and universities can lose federal funding if they fail to combat discrimination against Jewish students. Trump’s move is a response to the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents on our campuses. To receive Title VI protection, Jews must
»
November 19, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Washington is preoccupied mostly with trivia these days, but if you scour the news you will see that important events are also taking place. Like the Trump administration’s announcement on Friday of two new rules relating to price transparency. Pretty much all non-socialists agree that price competition in medical services needs to be sharpened, and for that to happen, patients need to have skin in the game, and the wherewithal
»
October 3, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Eric Felten is a meticulous and literate reporter as well as one of my favorite analysts of the mysteries of Russiagate. We have previously posted Eric’s RealClearInvestigations column “Insinuendo: Why the Mueller Report doth repeat so much.” Eric waded further into the Mueller miasma in the RCI column “The shaky foundations of Mueller’s footnotes.” Eric also took up “The Mifsud mystery” and asked “Why Was the FBI Incurious About a
»
September 28, 2019 — John Hinderaker
It is not news to anyone who reads this site that the Democrats have gone around the bend. But their latest attack on the Trump administration, based on the fact that transcripts of Trump’s conversations with foreign leaders have been kept on a secure server, is perhaps the most insane yet. Conversations between our president and foreign heads of state on a secure server? I should hope so! Where else
»
September 10, 2019 — Scott Johnson
This morning came word that President Trump has fired National Security Advisor John Bolton. Did he jump or was he pushed? Bolton states that he offered his resignation last night. Bloomberg has a good account here. I celebrated Bolton’s arrival on the job and am sorry to see him go. He is an exemplary public official and a great patriot. I wish President Trump had gelled with him, but I
»
August 27, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about Jared Kushner’s boast to big GOP donors that felons released from jail are registering to vote as Republicans. Kushner quipped, “I guess climate change is not their No. 1 issue.” The donors, all of whom are wealthy enough to protect themselves and their families from the crimes the released felons will likely commit, had a good laugh. No doubt, some ex-cons are registering as Republicans. The
»
July 22, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Candidate Donald Trump famously promised to get rid of two federal regulations for every new one. With 2 1/2 years in office under his belt, he has vastly exceeded that standard. Paul Bedard reports: It was an odd, geeky campaign promise for a populist presidential candidate to make. But when Donald Trump in 2016 pledged to kill two Obama-era regulations for every new one, crowds went wild. Those cheers stuck
»
June 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Stephanie Grisham is the new White House press secretary, having just replaced Sarah Sanders. Grisham has been Melania Trump’s spokesperson (and still is, I think). From what I have heard, she is decent, hard working, and tough. Today in North Korea, Grisham took on North Korean security personnel in order to enable members of the U.S. media to gain access to an area where President Trump was meeting with Kim
»
June 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway stands accused of violating the Hatch Act. The alleged violations consist mostly of comments Conway made on various news shows disparaging certain Democratic candidates such as Joe Biden, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren. I very much doubt that the Hatch Act was intended to bar the president’s political advisers from criticizing potential opponents. The Office of Special Counsel (not to be confused with Robert Mueller’s former
»
June 13, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Sorry to hear that Sarah Sanders is stepping down as Trump’s press spokesperson. I think she has been the best press spokesperson in modern times, as she has the perfect combination of unflappability and contempt for the contemptible press corps. She always treated the press with the mien of a kindergarten teacher angry and disappointed with a bunch of unruly toddlers. But the daily press briefing has outlived its usefulness.
»
May 25, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The man from Wikileaks — i.e., Julian Assange — is the subject of a superseding indictment charging him with 17 counts under the Espionage Act along with the original count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. I have embedded a copy of the indictment below. Charlie Savage expresses the institutional interest of the New York Times in the case in his story on the indictment: Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks leader,
»
May 17, 2019 — John Hinderaker
I think President Trump is doing the right thing in pushing back against theft of intellectual property and other Chinese misdeeds, but there is evidence that he is paying a political price. President Trump’s approval ratings normally move within a very narrow range, consistent with the electorate’s polarization. But he has been doing well lately, with his approval rating sometimes over 50% in the Rasmussen survey. But now he has
»
May 9, 2019 — John Hinderaker
At PJ Media, Larry Elder asks a good question: “Trump’s ‘Infrastructure’ Plan Versus Obama’s ‘Stimulus’: What’s the Difference?” Larry, whom I admire greatly, thinks the answer is “not much.” I disagree: Obama’s faux stimulus consisted largely of support for state governments so they could keep union employees on the payroll. Very little of the “stimulus” involved construction projects. Trump, at least, is actually talking about building, repairing and maintaining infrastructure.
»
May 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
They said it couldn’t be done. Well, Barack Obama did, anyway: “What magic wand do you have?” And of course we remember Paul Krugman’s infamous prediction that the stock market would never recover from Donald Trump’s election. But Trump’s formula of lower taxes, less regulation and–a key element, I think–sensible repatriation policy continue to drive our economy to unprecedented heights. The latest: the economy added 263,000 new jobs in April,
»
April 26, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Kim Strassel devotes her weekly Wall Street Journal Potomac Watch column — “The Russians and the Dossier” — to a question that has intrigued me since I actually went to the trouble of reading the Steele Dossier back in early 2017: who was colluding with whom? Working on behalf of the Clinton campaign, ex-British spy Christopher Steele purported to draw on his relationships with the friends of Vladimir Putin to
»
March 27, 2019 — Scott Johnson
If you’re an American supporter of Israel, these are the good old days. We have to deal with the resurgence of anti-Semitism on the left among Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and the regressive left, but the Trump administration represents a new level of American support of Israel’s cause. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is not only on board with the critical elements of the administration’s support, he obviously feels it
»
