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Obama Takes Direct Shot at Trump, Calls Him out by Name Publicly for First Time Since Leaving Office

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After taking a few indirect swipes at his successor since leaving office last year, Barack Obama mentioned President Donald Trump by name for the first time in public at an event in Illinois on Friday.

According to The Hill, his address took place at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and focused on the deep division within American politics and society.

He said some of the tension is being caused by frustrated Americans who are “genuinely, if wrongly, fearful of change,” but attributed a more sinister motive to much of the rest of the nation’s socioeconomic tension and resentment.

“More often it’s manufactured by the powerful and the privileged who want to keep us divided and keep us angry and keep us cynical,” he said. “Because it helps them maintain the status quo and keep their power and keep their privilege.”

He told the students gathered for the address that they “happen to be coming of an age during one of those moments.”

In a remark that drew applause from the audience, Obama said that the current administration is “a symptom, not the cause” of that division.

“It did not start with Donald Trump,” he said.

With the radical changes in technology, culture and elsewhere in recent years, Obama said Trump has been able to use the tactics he described in more effective ways.

“He’s just capitalizing on resentments politicians have been fanning for years,” Obama said. “A fear, an anger that’s rooted in our past, but it’s also born out of the enormous upheavals that have taken place in your brief lifetimes.”

He went on to describe some of the changes he believes many Americans have found loath to accept.

“Think about it,” he said. “You’ve come of age in a smaller, more connected world where demographic shifts and the winds of change have scrambled not only traditional economic arrangements, but our social arrangements and our religious commitments and our civic institutions. Most of you don’t remember a time before 9/11 when you didn’t have to take off your shoes at an airport.”

As The Hill reported, Obama’s address Friday was expected to launch a series of campaign stops during which he will rally for Democrat candidates and policies.

“He will make a pointed case in his speech on Friday, and on the trail this fall, that this moment in our country is too perilous for Democratic voters to sit out,” said Obama spokesperson Katie Hill.

She added that the former president will build on previous concerns he has raised since Trump’s inauguration.

“He will echo his call to reject the rising strain of authoritarian politics and policies,” Hill said. (For more from the author of “Obama Takes Direct Shot at Trump, Calls Him out by Name Publicly for First Time Since Leaving Office” please click HERE)

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Reward Posted for Identity of Anonymous Op-Ed Writer – the Amount Is CRAZY

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Someone identified as a “prominent Republican donor” is reportedly offering a $50,000 reward for the identity of the person who claims to be a high-ranking member of President Donald Trump’s administration who penned an anonymous Op-Ed piece for the New York Times and claimed they were working to actively protect the country from some of the president’s actions.

Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative campus activist group Turning Point USA, went on Twitter early Thursday morning to announce the reward offer.

The reward offer comes in reaction to the Op-Ed published Wednesday and titled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The Times would only identify the writer as “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us.”

The paper said it was taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed “because we believe it is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.”

The writer claimed that the “resistance” described in the piece is not the case of a liberal masquerading as a conservative.

“To be clear, ours is not the popular ‘resistance’ of the left,” the writer explains. “We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.”

Instead, the writer says the actions being taken by multiple people within the White House are being taken to protect the country from the president’s decision-making, which the writer described as amoral, impetuous, petty and ineffective.

“The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House,” according to the anonymous writer. “Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.”

A Twitter user responding to Kirk’s report of a reward being offered suggested that the higher the reward, the more likely the source of the article would be revealed.

The president blasted the Times for running the piece, questioning if the writer actually works within the administration. He also said that if the piece is legitimate, the writer must be identified.

“Does the so-called ‘Senior Administration Official’ really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?” the president said on Twitter. “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”

Thursday, the Times said three high-ranking members of the administration — Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national intelligence director Dan Coats — have each denied they were the source of the Op-Ed.

“Our office is above such amateur acts,” Pence spokesman Jarrod Agen said on Twitter.

“It is not mine,” Pompeo said.

“Patently false,” said Coats when asked if he or someone on his staff wrote the piece. “We did not.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday the Op-Ed was “another example of the liberal media’s concerted effort to discredit the president.” She also said that if the person who authored the piece is indeed a member of the administration, he or she should resign immediately.

“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States,” Sanders said. “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.” (For more from the author of “Reward Posted for Identity of Anonymous Op-Ed Writer – the Amount Is CRAZY” HERE)

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Trump Admin Introduces Plan to Close Illegal Alien Family Detention Loophole

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The Trump administration introduced Thursday a new set of rules that would allow the long-term detention of illegal immigrant families and terminate the Flores settlement, a court order the White House says is a major “pull factor” for illegal immigration.

If enacted, the rules would give the Department of Homeland Security broad authority to set standards for the detention and care of illegal immigrant families in its custody.

The most significant change in the 200-page proposal, which will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, would permit the government to keep illegal immigrant families in detention until they are deported or win a favorable decision in immigration court.

“Today, legal loopholes significantly hinder the department’s ability to appropriately detain and promptly remove family units that have no legal basis to remain in the country,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement. “This rule addresses one of the primary pull factors for illegal immigration and allows the federal government to enforce immigration laws as passed by Congress.”

Current detention policy is governed by the Flores consent decree, a 1997 Supreme Court order that requires the government to release unaccompanied alien children from detention to relatives or licensed shelters without unnecessary delay. (Read more from “Trump Admin Introduces Plan to Close Illegal Alien Family Detention Loophole” HERE)

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Former Trump Aide Says He Knows Who Wrote Op-Ed, Drops Hints About Identity

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By Townhall. Former Donald Trump campaign aide and political strategist Michael Caputo says he knows who wrote the mysterious “resistance” op-ed in The New York Times. It’s a she.

“I know it’s a woman,” he said during an interview on Buffalo’s WBEN 930 am. “I’m being cautious. My attorney is keeping me from saying her name but yes I believe it’s a woman. I believe I know who it is.”

What he can reveal, is that she is a “coward” who “should have stood up and resigned.”

The Trump administration “is filled with people like her,” he continued. “There are active programs” to stop Trump loyalists from joining the White House and to purge Trump loyalists from agencies, he alleged.

Not only did “she” hide behind an anonymous op-ed instead of quitting, she tried to pin the blame on her colleagues, leaving several hints in the piece that led analysts to different officials in the administration. She published the piece now in order to affect the midterms and impeach President Trump, Caputo also suggested. (Read more from “Former Trump Aide Says He Knows Who Wrote Op-Ed, Drops Hints About Identity” HERE)

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Trump Cries ‘Treason’ as Senior Official Attacks President in Anonymous Op-Ed

By The Guardian. Donald Trump has reacted with fury to an anonymous account written by a current Trump administration official claiming an internal White House resistance is working to “frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations” until he leaves – or can be removed from – office.

The op-ed, published in the New York Times on Wednesday, represents a shocking critique of Trump and is without precedent in modern American history. The anonymous author describes Trump as amoral, “anti-trade and anti-democratic” and prone to making “half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions” . . .

Trump responded to the article at the White House late on Wednesday, deriding it as “anonymous, meaning gutless” and describing the author as “some anonymous source within the administration probably who is failing and probably here for all the wrong reasons”. . .

In a tweet on Wednesday evening, Trump went further and simply asked “TREASON?” In a follow up tweet, he insisted: “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” (Read more from “Trump Cries ‘Treason’ as Senior Official Attacks President in Anonymous Op-Ed” HERE)

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Anonymous Senior Trump Official: I’m Part of the Resistance and I’m Working to Nuke His Agenda

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By Townhall. . .It’s not necessarily shocking news that there are leakers within the Trump administration, with allegations of deep state operatives working against the White House for quite some time. Well, one anonymous senior Trump administration official declared he’s a member of the resistance within the government, and that this person, along with some like-minded individuals, are working to torpedo the president’s agenda. This person placed a lengthy op-ed in The New York Times, which ran it anonymously. Oh, it’s full of good anti-Trump fodder, especially the part about the alleged mental instability of the president and the supposed whispers about invoking the 25th Amendment from Trump’s cabinet:

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

(Read more from “Anonymous Senior Trump Official: I’m Part of the Resistance and I’m Working to Nuke His Agenda” HERE)

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White House Calls for Anonymous Op-Ed Writer to Resign

By The Daily Caller. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for the resignation of an anonymous official who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times disparaging President Donald Trump.

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t,” the anonymous official said.

“Nearly 62 million people voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2016, earning him 306 Electoral College votes – versus 232 for his opponent. None of them voted for a gutless, anonymous source to the failing New York Times,” Sanders said,adding “We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed.” (Read more from “White House Calls for Anonymous Op-Ed Writer to Resign” HERE)

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Listen: Audio of Trump Call With Bob Woodward About His ‘Bad Book’ Released

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President Donald Trump knew a storm was coming as publication neared of Bob Woodward’s book about his administration, and in a phone call with the journalist derided the work as “another bad book.”

The book is highly critical of Trump and his administration, and uses the phrase “nervous breakdown” to describe the White House operations under Trump, The Washington Post reported.

The Washington Post published an audio file and a transcript of Woodward speaking with Trump several weeks ago. Trump had made the call in Early August.

“So I have another bad book coming out. Big deal,” Trump said at one point in the interview.

Woodward told Trump, “it’s a tough look at the world and your administration and you.”

“Right. Well, I assume that means it’s going to be a negative book. But you know, I’m some — I’m sort of 50 percent used to that,” Trump said. “That’s all right. Some are good and some are bad. Sounds like this is going to be a bad one.”

Trump then explained to Woodward how the country is doing, as opposed to what Washington gossip might be talking about.

“But all I can say is the country is doing very well. We’re doing better economically just about than at any time. We’re doing better on unemployment maybe than ever. You know, I mean, if you look at the unemployment numbers, you’ve heard me say it. And we’re doing better on unemployment than just about ever. We’re having a lot of — a lot of companies are moving back into our country, which would’ve been unheard of two years ago,” he said.

During the conversation, Woodward told Trump that he has been very careful to document what happened.

“But are you naming names? Or do you just say ‘sources’?” Trump asked.

When Woodward said it mentioned “real incidents,” Trump followed up his question.

“No, but do you name sources? I mean, are you naming the people, or just say, ‘people have said’?” Trump said.

Woodward then said he used the device of describing events and listing who was there.

That approach led to Trump tweeting responses to claims made in Woodward’s book.

Trump also posted statements from White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis disputing parts of Woodward’s book.

Much of what Woodward recorded deals with his attempts to interview Trump for the book, including contacts made to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who said she sent the request up the chain of command but did not know what happened to it, and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Trump said he did get a message in passing from the South Carolina Republican.

Although Woodward repeatedly said it was important to have spoken with Trump, the president was not convinced.

“It doesn’t matter. Let me tell you what matters: The economy is the best it’s been in many, many decades. And it’s going to get a lot better. And the country is doing very well. That’s what’s important,” he said.

Trump then closed by telling Woodward what he expected of a book that never got his side.

“So we’re going to have a very inaccurate book, and that’s too bad. But I don’t blame you entirely,” Trump said. When Woodward tried to say he was accurate, Trump had a reply ready.

“Well, ‘accurate’ is that nobody’s ever done a better job than I’m doing as president. That I can tell you. So that’s . . . And that’s the way a lot of people feel that know what’s going on, and you’ll see that over the years. But a lot of people feel that, Bob,” Trump said. (For more from the author of “Listen: Audio of Trump Call With Bob Woodward About His ‘Bad Book’ Released” please click HERE)

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From Trump to Kobach: How the Populists and American Union Workers Are Taking Back the GOP

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American union worker support for populist-nationalist Republicans may have started with President Trump, but it’s not ending with him as many in the pundit class had predicted. . .

Not only through taking down free trade, but also anti-worker mass immigration policies, Trump garnered historic support from the country’s union workers. When Trump said the mass importation of foreign workers to take blue-collar U.S. jobs was driving down wages and crowding out working-class Americans, union workers nodded in agreement. . .

From the start of his run in 2015, there was a single Kansas elected official backing Trump’s brand of economic patriotism: Kris Kobach, who is now running to be the governor of Kansas.

Kobach had already made a name for himself among the populist-nationalist movement, taking on the business lobby and the open borders Left with his push for mandatory E-Verify, his crafting of sanctuary city bans in numerous states, and his plea to Americans that mass immigration was hurting the most vulnerable in American society during the President Obama years, the working and middle class. . .

If Trump’s election is indicative of the way to which the GOP is heading, Kobach can expect a win in his home state of Kansas. But, Kobach says, the U.S. worker-centric Republican agenda is not something that should be isolated to the White House and Topeka. (Read more from “From Trump to Kobach: How the Populists and American Union Workers Are Taking Back the GOP” HERE)

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Trump Responds to Possible 2020 John Kerry Run

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By The Hill. President Trump on Monday tweeted that he would be “so lucky” if former Secretary of State John Kerry launched a White House bid to challenge Trump in 2020.

“I see that John Kerry, the father of the now terminated Iran deal, is thinking of running for President. I should only be so lucky – although the field that is currently assembling looks really good – FOR ME!” Trump tweeted.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, did not rule out a potential 2020 White House bid during an interview on Sunday. He said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that talking about the 2020 race is a “distraction.”

“Talking about 2020 right now is a total distraction and waste of time,” Kerry said. “What we need to do is focus on 2018. We need to win back the confidence of the country to move in a better direction and to do it in sensible ways. We are in a moment of crisis for our country. The world is in a moment of crisis.” (Read more from “Trump Responds to Possible 2020 John Kerry Run” HERE)

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Trump Slams John Kerry as ‘Father’ of Iran Deal Amid 2020 Speculation

By Fox News. President Trump slammed John Kerry on Monday, labeling the former Massachusetts senator and secretary of state the “father” of the Iran nuclear deal amid speculation that Kerry could challenge Trump in the 2020 election. . .

In January, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that Kerry, during a visit to the Middle East, told Palestinian officials he was considering running for president in 2020.

Trump has been critical not only of the Iran deal but also of Kerry’s role in negotiating the now-defunct agreement. The president repeatedly has called Kerry the “worst negotiator I’ve ever seen.”

Kerry also criticized former President Barack Obama in his CBS interview, arguing that Obama should have followed through on his infamous “red line” warning to Syria, and that the United States “paid a price” as a result of Obama’s inaction. (Read more from “Trump Slams John Kerry as ‘Father’ of Iran Deal Amid 2020 Speculation” HERE)

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Trump ‘Is Mentally Ill,’ Doctor and Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean Says

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By Newsweek. Dr. Howard Dean, a physician who previously served as the governor of Vermont, told MSNBC on Sunday that Donald Trump suffers from mental illness and he is unfit to be president.

“I’ve long believed the president is mentally ill,” Dean said as part of a panel discussion hosted by Alex Witt, Raw Story reported. “And I believe narcissism overcomes his ability to know, A, what’s good for the country, and B, what’s good for him.”

Dean’s remarks came in the context of Trump’s response to the death of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. The president repeatedly attacked McCain for opposing his policies and was reportedly not invited to the senator’s funeral.

“Trump has been an outlier since he’s been president and he’s not a particularly well respected person,” Dean explained. “He wasn’t very well respected when he was in business in New York and he’s not very well respected now.” . . .

Numerous others have previously raised concerns about the president’s mental fitness. In 2017, a group of psychiatrists and psychologists released a book analyzing the president’s mental health, which became an instant bestseller.

(Read more from “Trump ‘Is Mentally Ill,’ Doctor and Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean Says” HERE)

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[Editor’s note – here’s what the left is saying about the President]:

President Trump’s Description of What’s ‘Fake’ Is Expanding

By NPR. President Trump was bombarded with negative news cycles last month, so he turned to Twitter, venting frustrations and dismissing an increasingly wide variety of things he doesn’t like as “fake” or “phony.” Presidential tweets about “fake news” aren’t new, but August was unique in the sheer frequency of such presidential declarations on Twitter. There were more tweets in August about things Trump labels fake and phony than in any other month of his presidency.

This is part of a trend: as Trump’s presidency has gone on, these kinds of tweets have increased over time, with peaks coming in months with particularly bad headlines for the president.

The range of things Trump is declaring fake is growing too. Last month he tweeted about “fake books,” “the fake dossier,” “fake CNN,” and he added a new claim – that Google search results are “RIGGED” to mostly show only negative stories about him. He also accused NBC News’ Lester Holt of “fudging” the tape of his May 2017 interview conducted shortly after Trump fired FBI director James Comey. (Read more from “President Trump’s Description of What’s ‘Fake’ Is Expanding” HERE)

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Democrats Blast Trump’s Federal Worker Pay Freeze as ‘Cutting Pay’ Because This Is the Swamp

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President Donald Trump is frustrated with Congress’ absolute refusal to entertain any notion of fiscal responsibility, so he’s taking action himself. On Thursday, the president announced he would cancel a scheduled 2.1 percent across-the-board pay raise for federal workers.

“In light of our Nation’s fiscal situation, Federal employee pay must be performance-based, and aligned strategically toward recruiting, retaining, and rewarding high-performing Federal employees and those with critical skill sets,” Trump wrote in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc.

Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are attacking Trump for “cutting pay,” because only in Washington D.C. is not giving the government a raise a pay cut.

Trump says he has the authority to cancel raises for federal workers when there is “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.” Congress, however, can override the decision in spending legislation, if it so chooses. And it’s likely Congress will override Trump. Lawmakers have already demonstrated a commitment to wildly increasing federal spending, ignoring the $21 trillion national debt.

Why stop now? (For more from the author of “Democrats Blast Trump’s Federal Worker Pay Freeze as ‘Cutting Pay’ Because This Is the Swamp” please click HERE)

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