Trump administration
March 24, 2019 — Steven Hayward
I’m on an airplane right now with the usual crappy airborne internet service, but watching the breaking news of AG Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report. It is a complete rout for Democrats and the media, notwithstanding the confused section about possible obstruction of the investigation by Trump. Expect Democrats to cling to this slim reed to keep The Resistance ginned up. But that slim reed is very likely to
»
March 22, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Just this morning I offered this reflection on Twitter: But just now the news broke that special counsel Robert Mueller has delivered his report on the Trump—Russia collusion investigation to Attorney General Barr. Godot showed up after all. Cue the media frenzy. Not sure how long it will be before we find out what’s in the report, but it’s going to be a long weekend in the newsrooms, where the
»
March 22, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Trump announced the following big news this morning: As it happens, I was with Steve Moore most of the day yesterday at an undisclosed East Coast location, talking of many things, but high among them how much fun it was going to be to watch the left freak out over his nomination. I said I hoped the announcement would be delayed long enough for the NSA to set up a
»
March 10, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump will request from Congress at least $8.6 billion to build additional sections of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. This money is in addition to the $1.3 billion Congress appropriated earlier this year and the approximately $7 billion Trump “appropriated” via his declaration of a national emergency at the border. Trump will seek the $8.6 billion as part of his proposed 2020 budget. The budget also calls for
»
February 24, 2019 — Steven Hayward
It has been interesting to watch liberals and Democrats respond to President Trump invoking the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to build his wall, now that he found out where President Obama hid his famous pen and phone. Instead of reflecting on—and then correcting—an overbroad and improvident congressional grant of power to the president, they are saying, “Just wait till we get back in power! Our gal [bet on a
»
February 7, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Our top intelligence officials presented their unclassified threat assessment at a January 29 hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats testified with CIA Director Gina Haspel, Defense Intelligence Agency director Robert Ashley, National Security Agency director Paul Nakasone, and National Geospatial Agency director Robert Cardillo. According to Coats et al. (as Jeff Jacboy put it in his emailed Boston Globe Arguable column), “the
»
February 6, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Circumstances added an extra dollop of drama to the State of the Union address delivered by President Trump last night. The White House has posted the video on YouTube; I have posted it below. RealClearPolitics has posted the transcript here. In the modern tradition of SOTU speeches, this was an overlong address of many parts. The parts mostly fit together. Looking back at the first two years of his administration,
»
February 3, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal’s Real Times Economics email newsletter featured the monthly jobs report released on Friday. Lest we take the good times for granted, let us take a break from the continuing Russia hoax to take in signs of the boom. The Journal newsletter headlines 304,000 jobs added in January along with the slight increase in the unemployment rate to 4 percent from 3.9 percent. Chief Journal economics commentator
»
January 25, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Did Trump cave on the Wall and the government shutdown confrontation? Certainly looks like it. I’m on the move today so I’m not fully up to date on the details, but I am wondering whether word was passed along that air travel was on the brink of collapsing from a coordinated sick-out by air traffic controllers (and let’s face it—government unions have wanted to get even for Reagan’s mass firing
»
January 17, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Nancy Pelosi has purported to cancel President Trump’s State of the Union speech, scheduled for January 29, by withdrawing the invitation that the House and Senate jointly extended some time ago. It is easy to see why she wanted to do this: the State of the Union is a great stage for the president, and Trump no doubt would take the opportunity to blast the Democrats for their intransigence with
»
January 16, 2019 — Steven Hayward
The fun news out of Washington this morning is that some merry prankster was passing out phony copies of the Bezos Bulletin (better known as the Washington Post): Fake editions of The Washington Post claiming that President Trump was leaving office were handed out Wednesday morning at multiple locations in Washington. . . Copies of the bogus papers were handed out at locations around Washington, including outside the White House and
»
January 11, 2019 — Steven Hayward
Democrats and the media—but I repeat—are moving into full panic-mongering mode about the continuing government shutdown. NBC News reports this morning that we could be facing “economic doomsday” if the shutdown continues for several more weeks. I immediately went into the body of the story to see who or what evidence was cited in support of this apocalypse, and found to no surprise the solitary testimony of Mark Zandi, a
»
January 9, 2019 — Steven Hayward
According to Democrats and the news media (but I repeat myself), President Trump threw a tantrum and stormed out of a meeting with congressional leaders today. Here’s how The Hill reports it: Republicans said tense negotiations over resolving the government shutdown at the White House ended when President Trump stormed out of the meeting with a stern warning to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.): “Don’t call my bluff.” “It ended with
»
January 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
A local D.C. news outlet has tweeted that “Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave his role in the coming weeks.” There’s nothing surprising about this report, which is consistent with what I’ve been hearing for some time. With any luck, a new Attorney General will soon be in place. He will want and deserve a new Deputy. What’s surprises me is that Rosenstein lasted as long as
»
January 9, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway took questions from the press in advance of President Trump’s Oval Office speech last night. C-SPAN has posted Conway’s 13-minute exchange with reporters here. Insanely smug and offensive, CNN’s Jim Acosta taunted Conway in his patented style. “Can you promise that the president will tell the truth tonight? Will he tell the truth?” Acosta asked as Conway spoke with reporters about the speech outside the White
»
December 21, 2018 — John Hinderaker
As recently as Tuesday, it looked as though President Trump and Congressional Republicans had given up on holding out for $5 billion to finance construction of a border wall as part of the current spending package. Mitch McConnell derided the idea of a shutdown, and said the administration is “extremely flexible on this issue.” That caused extensive blowback from the right. Ann Coulter, for one, referred to President Trump as
»
December 21, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday DHS Secretary Nielsen announced an administrative reform of the enraging asylum scam that is aided and abetted by the Democrats (video below). RCP has posted video along with the transcript of an excerpt of her announcement in testimony to Congress yesterday. “Aliens trying to game the system to get into our country illegally will no longer be able to disappear into the United States, where many skip their court
»
