The State Department’s director of policy planning, Brian Hook, who disparaged Trump’s stances during the campaign, is bringing on a fellow Trump critic to work at State, The Daily Caller has learned.
David Feith, a former Wall Street Journal editorial page writer, is joining the State Department’s office of policy planning to advise Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Asia policy, a department official told TheDC Wednesday. Like Hook, who founded a foreign policy group that organized an anti-Trump letter in the campaign, Feith was not a fan of Trump during the election.
“This person wants to be president,” Feith tweeted with a link to an interview transcript of Trump and the Washington Post editorial board where Trump rambled during a conversation about using nuclear weapons. The former Wall Street Journal writer and son of Iraq War-backer Doug Feith also commented on a viral photo of Trump peeking at his wife Melania voting, and wrote, “Well she’s an immigrant.” (Read more from “Third Trump Critic Gets Rewarded With State Dept Job” HERE)
By Scott Greer. President Donald Trump delivered his first address to the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday.
The reviews of his speech were sharply divided.
Conservatives loved it, praising the president for taking a tough line against dictatorships and asserting American interests on the world stage. Several liberals saw the speech as dangerous saber-rattling that hurt America’s standing in the world and made our allies very nervous.
But how did the speech line up with the “America First” foreign policy Trump has articulated in the past?
On the positive side, there were many affirmations of the principle of national sovereignty and a commitment to the America’s interests rather than that of spreading democracy. (Read more from “The Good and the Bad of Trump’s UN Speech” HERE)
Trump: US May Have to “Totally Destroy North Korea”
By Ali Vitali. President Donald Trump, in his first address to the United Nations, derided Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, as a “rocket man” on Tuesday as the president warned that he may be forced to “totally destroy” the rogue nation.
“If the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph,” Trump said, as he detailed the horrors of what he called the “depraved” North Korean regime.
“Rocket man is on a suicide mission,” he said, using a nickname for Kim that refers to the North Korean leader’s recent missile tests.
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” (Read more from “Trump’s UN Speech: “Totally Destroy North Korea,” HERE)
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Iran in “Full Meltdown Mode” Over Trump’s Speech
By Jordan Schachtel. The leaders of the terrorist regime in Iran are in full meltdown mode after President Trump’s Tuesday address to the delegates of the United Nations General Assembly.
The speech was lauded by conservatives and foreign policy hawks as a Reagan-esque, America-first speech in which Trump specifically called out the countries and groups that threaten global stability.
With the world watching, President Trump named and shamed the tyrannical leaders of the Iranian regime. Promising to hold them accountable, he called on Iran to “stop supporting terrorists” and “begin serving its own people.”
His public shaming of the regime – and recognition of the dignity of the people who live under it – has infuriated the mullahs in Tehran.
Comparable to the rantings of a campus social justice warrior, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, decried the Trump address as “hate speech.”
Zarif later added in a statement on the state-run Fars News: “Trump’s shameless and ignorant remarks, in which he ignored Iran’s fight against terrorism, displays his lack of knowledge and unawareness.”
Recognition of Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism crosses partisan lines and administrations. The regime in Tehran arms and aids terrorist groups across the globe, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis in Yemen.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy body, also lashed out at Trump after the U.N. address. “No negotiations will be held for a change in the nuclear deal and the US is required to implement it,” Boroujerdi demanded, seemingly unaware of how the American republic functions. He called Trump’s demand for a renegotiation “illegal, unacceptable and illogical.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not renegotiate the nuclear deal at all,” added Ali Akbar Velayati, the top aide to Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei.
Trump has threatened to back away from the Iran nuclear deal, which he has repeatedly called an “embarrassment” and the “worst deal ever” negotiated.
In an interview with CNN Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the U.S. would pay a “high cost” for leaving the nuclear accord.
Though there is plentiful evidence that Iran is cheating the nuclear deal, European leaders are attempting to salvage the accord.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, a fierce proponent of the deal, along with the leaders of the rest of the P5+1 world powers (Russia, France, China, Germany, UK, France), continue to back the agreement.
President Trump has until Oct. 15 to decide whether to certify Iran’s compliance in the agreement for another 90 days or, instead, to end Obama’s mistake for good. (See more from the author of Iran in Full Meltdown Over Trump’s UN Speech HERE)
Trump Channels Reagan, Venezuela Calls it “Racist”
By Chris Pandolfo. One of the more awesome moments of President Trump’s excellent speech before the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday came when he forthrightly confronted the evils of socialism.
“The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented,” President Trump said. “From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.”
Venezuela foreign minister Jorge Arreaza accused President Trump of racism and attempted to paint him as unnecessarily antagonistic, comparing him to … Ronald Reagan.
“This racist and supremacist theory which he’s espousing, this return to the Cold [War] world — for a moment we didn’t know if we were listening to President Reagan in 1982 or to President Trump in 2017,” Arreaza said.
“He returns to the ideological conflicts that are surpassed already in the world,” he said.
This is hilarious, because Arreaza (and the socialist regime he speaks for) believes the Reagan comparison is an insult. In reality, this demonstrates why Trump’s speech was a major success.
As president, Ronald Reagan expressed his distaste for the Soviet Union’s system in bold, uncertain terms, referring to it as an “evil empire.” The Soviets hated Reagan for attacking their doomed ideology.
Likewise, the Venezuelan government hates President Trump’s brutally honest words about the oppressive, failed ideology of socialism.
Jose Arreaza is absolutely right; President Trump did sound like Reagan at the United Nations. Every American should hope that Trump continues to not only sound like Reagan, but act like him, too. (Read more from the author of this article HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/8567828196_810cd563d5_b-5-1.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-09-20 00:51:342017-09-24 00:48:04The Good and the Bad of Trump’s UN Speech: “Totally Destroy” North Korea; Iran in Full Meltdown; Venezuela Calls Trump “Racist”
By Evan Perez, Shimon Prokupecz and Pamela Brown. US investigators wiretapped former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort under secret court orders before and after the election, sources tell CNN, an extraordinary step involving a high-ranking campaign official now at the center of the Russia meddling probe.
The government snooping continued into early this year, including a period when Manafort was known to talk to President Donald Trump.
Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications. (Read more from “U.S. Wiretapped Former Trump Campaign Chairman” HERE)
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Trump’s Former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Was Wiretapped by U.S. Government
By Harriet Sinclair. Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was wiretapped by U.S. investigators prior to and following the 2016 presidential election, sources claim. The wiretapping of Manafort as part of the investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. election came under court orders, sources with knowledge of the issue told CNN . . .
The investigation and surveillance of Manafort was subsequently dropped in 2016, the sources told CNN, but began once again under a new order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as part of the FBI’s investigation into possible links between Trump’s team and Russia in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, the sources added.
Manafort, who denied any wrongdoing in August 2016 after The New York Times revealed that he was due to receive a cash payment from Ukraine’s ruling party, was also present at the controversial meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, ahead of which Trump’s eldest son was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
Although surveillance of Manafort is believed to have taken place both during the campaign and after Trump assumed office, no recordings of the meeting with Veselnitskaya — which has now become a part of the greater Russia probe – have been found. However, the surveillance period could have included times when Manafort spoke with Trump after the latter took office. (Read more from “Trump’s Former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Was Wiretapped by U.S. Government” HERE)
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has signed on to a new bill to be introduced Friday by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, to block President Trump’s order to ban transgender military service.
The stand-alone bill, which is also co-sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Armed Services Democrat, has the same language as an amendment proposed by Gillibrand and Collins this week for the National Defense Authorization Act that would prohibit the military from barring service based on gender. That amendment never received a floor vote due to a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over debate of the NDAA.
“Any member of the military who meets the medical and readiness standards should be allowed to serve — including those who are transgender,” McCain said in a statement.
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who is the ranking member of the Armed Services military personnel subcomittee, said she and Collins have not given up the effort to block Trump from instituting his new policy.
“Thousands of brave transgender Americans love our country enough to risk their lives for it, fight for it, and even die for it, and Congress should honor them and let them serve,” she said. “Doing otherwise would only harm our readiness at a time when our military is deployed around the world in defense of our country.” (Read more from “Disgusting, Fake Republican McCain Sponsors Bill to Block Trump’s Transgender Ban” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/John_McCain_-_Guard_Association_of_the_United_States_General_Conference-1-1.jpg6811024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-09-20 00:36:062017-09-24 00:49:32Disgusting, Fake Republican McCain Sponsors Bill to Block Trump’s Transgender Ban
President Donald Trump said Monday at the U.N. that he will be making a decision regarding whether to scrap the Iran nuclear deal “very soon.”
Trump’s comments to reporters came as he sat down for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposes the Obama administration-championed international agreement.
According to the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the United States must certify in October whether Iran is in compliance with the deal.
Asked by a reporter whether he plans to keep the U.S. in the agreement, Trump responded, “You’ll see very soon.”
In an address before a joint session of Congress in 2015, Netanyahu contended that the deal “doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.”
While aboard Air Force One on Thursday, Trump restated his disapproval of the agreement’s terms, a view he expressed multiple times as a presidential candidate.
“But I will say this, the Iran deal is one of the worst deals I’ve ever seen, certainly at a minimum the spirit of the deal is just atrociously kept. But the Iran deal is not a fair deal to this country. It’s a deal that should have never ever been made. And you’ll see what we’re doing in a couple of weeks,” he said of his decision regarding American participation in the agreement.
Trump added that Iran has “violated so many different elements” of the deal and the United States is “not going to stand for what they (Iran) are doing.”
“Every 90 days, the U.S. President must certify to Congress that Iran is keeping up its end of the deal,” CNN reported. “If Iran doesn’t comply, US, European Union, and UN nuclear-related sanctions on the Iranian economy would be reinstated.”
Last fall, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency found that the Islamic Republic produced too much heavy water, a material which is used to cool reactors that produce plutonium.
In February, Iran conducted ballistic missiles tests, which, while they were not in violation of the nuclear deal, did violate a U.N. resolution passed just days after the agreement was signed.
Iran is “called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology,” according to the text of the resolution.
Iran argued that the missiles could not carry nuclear weapons.
After Trump’s Monday comments at the U.N., Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told CNN the U.S. would pay a price if it pulls out of the agreement.
“Exiting such an agreement would carry a high cost for the United States of America, and I do not believe Americans would be willing to pay such a high cost for something that will be useless for them,” he said.
“Given that Mr. Trump’s actions and reactions and policies are somewhat unpredictable, we have thought long and hard about our reactions,” Rouhani added.
He said any response from Iran would come “quite swiftly” and “probably within a week,” adding that “if the US wants to increase the tensions it will see the reaction from Iran.” (For more from the author of “Trump Suggests He Could Pull Out of Iran Deal” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/iran-1151139_960_720-2.jpg548960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-09-19 00:27:002017-09-19 00:27:00Trump Suggests He Could Pull Out of Iran Deal
Dan Bongino is best known to American conservatives today as a former congressional candidate, talk-show host and fiery commentator.
But the position he says he will always be proudest of is that of “Special Agent, United States Secret Service.”
And the man who once guarded the commander in chief has a terrifying warning in his new book “Protecting The President” – Donald Trump is in jeopardy unless there is reform.
“The president of the United States is in genuine danger if the Secret Service doesn’t change course soon and evolve with the rapidly changing threat environment,” Bongino writes. “The threats to the White House and the president are swiftly evolving in this new era of weaponized drones, micro-sized video surveillance technology, vehicle attacks on civilians, small arms tactical assaults, and technologically advanced and difficult-to-detect explosives. And if the decision makers in the Secret Introduction Service refuse to evolve with this series of threats, then, tragically, we may suffer the first loss of a president since John F. Kennedy.”
Bongino describes the agency as suffering an “existential” crisis and reeling from recent scandals. And the former agent has provided a sober, detailed look at how one of America’s elite law enforcement agencies has sabotaged itself. (Read more from “Ex-Secret Service Warns: Trump ‘in Genuine Danger'” HERE)
Serious work beckons, but so does Twitter, and on Sunday morning the temptation to share a fan’s GIF that showed Mr. Trump golfing and the ball striking Hillary Clinton proved too much to resist.
The tweet stoked outrage online, generating more than 11,000 replies, many of which condemned the president’s promotion of violent imagery toward Mrs. Clinton, who, as a former first lady, has lifetime Secret Service protection.
Trump chipping away at the dignity of the office, one tweet at a time. He knows this stuff is going into history books for all time, right?
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Donald_Trump_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg8531280Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-09-17 16:02:352017-09-17 16:02:35VIDEO: Trump Pegs Hillary Clinton With a Golf Ball in Retweet
President Donald Trump has a pivotal week ahead of him as he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly for the first time in office.
Trump’s appearance at the U.N. will come amidst concerns over North Korea’s missile program, continued unrest in Venezuela, increasing tensions between the U.S. and Russia, the ongoing civil war in Syria, and a whole host of global issues.
The president has a packed schedule. He will meet with world leaders Monday to discuss U.N. reforms, sit down with the heads of France and Israel to discuss concerns about Iran’s behavior, among other issues. He’ll then host a working dinner with Latin American leaders.
The U.S. has sanctioned Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said at a press briefing Friday that it is “unlikely” that Trump will “speak with President Maduro.” (Read more from “Trump Faces Major Week as He Addresses UN for the First Time” HERE)
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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s rules requiring so-called sanctuary cities to help enforce federal immigration laws in order to receive funding.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced new rules governing DOJ law enforcement grants, The Chicago Tribune reports.
The city of Chicago sued the Trump administration last month over the DOJ’s threat to withhold those grants from “sanctuary cities,” which are cities that refuse to help federal authorities enforce immigration laws.
Leinenweber said in his 41-page ruling that Chicago had shown a “likelihood of success” in its arguments that Sessions exceeded his authority in July when he announced that the DOJ would withhold public safety grants to sanctuary cities. (Read more from “Federal Judge Blocks Trump From Denying Funds to Sanctuary Cities” HERE)
President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday his claim that “both sides” were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, prompting The New York Times to relitigate the statement.
Were both sides violent?
Verdict: True
Regardless of blame regarding who started the violence or who perpetrated the most violence, it is true that both sides committed violence during the Charlottesville fiasco.
Fact Check:
Casting Trump’s assertion that both the white supremacists and the antifa protesters share blame in the violence as a false claim, The New York Times reports that antifa protesters “clashed with” and “resisted” the white supremacists. The report does not, however, address whether one or both sides were in fact violent during the protests.
(Read more from “FACT CHECK: Was There Violence on Both Sides of Charlottesville?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Charlottesville-1520268_36387485372.jpg10001500Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2017-09-15 19:58:052017-09-15 19:58:05FACT CHECK: Was There Violence on Both Sides of Charlottesville?
