Daily Archives: June 5, 2017

As Londons police and counterterrorism forces responded to news of a deadly attack at London Bridge and Borough Market, President Donald Trump turned to Twitter.CreditPHOTOGRAPH BY CARL COURT / GETTY

In the hours after the London terrorist attack, President Trump took to his favored platform, Twitter, to deliver a stream-of-consciousness response. He repeated his call for a travel ban on visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. And he warned against political correctness. If we dont get smart it will only get worse, he said. Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? he added, in a puzzling non sequitur. Thats because they used knives and a truck.

For critics of Trump, his tweets betray a buffoonish approach to national security that will only make terrorism worse. His proposed travel restrictions will only aid recruitment for the Islamic State, they say. His demand, during a speech in Saudi Arabia, two weeks ago, for Muslim heads of state to do more ignores the reality that, since the September 11th attacks, vastly more Iraqi and Afghan soldiers and policethan American service members have died battling extremists. And Trumps loosening of Pentagon rules surrounding the use of air strikes and commando raids against the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, and other terrorist groups will only lead to more civilian deaths, fuelling resentment and reprisals.

Yet several counterterrorism experts, including some who worked under President Obama, admitted to me, in private conversations recently, that new approaches to combat extremism are badly needed, and that Trump has a chance to take steps that could prove effective. The problem is that, just as in other policy areas, Trump threatens to undermine his own counterterrorism strategy with his bellicose mode of communication. His rhetoric belies a fundamental lack of understanding of the greater nuances of the issue, and in particular the root causes that have allowed ISIS to prey on the vulnerable and disaffected in our communities, a former senior counterterrorism official told me on Sunday. His immediate call for a ban on Muslims in the wake of the most recent attack and throughout his short time as President is arguably more likely to alienate Muslim Americans, and thus potentially inspire further acts of homegrown terrorism, than it is to prevent terrorists from entering the country and perpetrating terrorist acts.

Several former officials said that they generally supported Trumps cruise-missile strike on a Syrian airbase, in April, after U.S. intelligence officials said Syrian government forces carried out a chemical-weapons attack that killed scores of people, including children. The counterterrorism experts told me that the strikes showed American allies and adversaries alike that Trump would be more willing to use force than Obama, who critics said lost credibility, in 2013, when he failed to respond militarily to a chemical-weapons attack by the Syrian government that killed hundreds.

Trump also appears to be continuing to emphasize a core element of Obamas strategy, which is that countries in the region should lead the fight. The Trump Administrations recent hundred-and-ten-billion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia is similar to one carried out under the Obama Administration, which worked to build up the military, intelligence, and police capabilities of allies in the region in a much less public way than Trump has thus far. Obama also embraced the use of covert drone strikes, intense vetting of visa applicants, and the stepped-up use of surveillance technologies, angering many on the left.

Trump has opportunities to make progress in areas where Obama struggled, such as developing consensus regarding new communications technologies, the officials said. Terrorists are increasingly using sophisticated encryption techniques to mask their communications, but Obama Administration officials were unable to reach an agreement with technology companies on ways to curb such uses that balanced privacy and public-safety concerns. Now Trump or his aides could try to quietly fashion some type of compromise.

Trump has yet to unveil a comprehensive strategy from his Administration to fight terrorism. As Dexter Filkins recently wrote, ina Profile of Defense Secretary James Mattis, some officials fear that Trump will bluster about terrorism in public but privately delegate strategy to the military. Some U.S. military commanders welcomed an end to what they viewed as micromanagement and risk aversion by the Obama White House, but they fear that the inexperienced Trump will become overly reliant on military force.

But where Trump has been most dangerous, former counterterrorism officials told me, is in his public statements, and the way he has publicly harangued alliesfrom Muslim leaders to NATO membersoften while citing incorrect facts. Now, in the wake of three successful attacks in Britain in three months, the worry is that attacks will occur in the United States as well, and Trump will revert to a pattern of fearmongering. The President could convince Congress to enact new surveillance standards that erode civil liberties but fail to end attacks. Or Trump could publicly vilify Islam, a step that will alienate American Muslims and aid extremist recruiting efforts domestically and internationally. You end up with the legislation that is bad for everybody, the former senior counterterrorism official told me. Bad for counterterrorism and bad for civil liberties.

Counterterrorism is one area where Trump could take advantage of the bipartisan consensus that exists regarding some anti-terror policies, the officials whom I talked to said. But if the Presidents inability to communicate with discipline, accuracy, and nuance continues, he will only alienate allies and inflame enemies.

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What Donald Trump Can Do to Help Stop Terrorism: Talk Less - The New Yorker

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Al Drago, a photographer for the New York Times, shared a photo of former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning at the White House on Sunday.

According to Drago, Manning was with Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). President Donald Trump was returning from Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia:

CNN's Allie Malloy posted photos of Manning and Corker at the White House, as well as Trump National:

The Daily Beast'sKelly Weillreported in January that Manning had been active with regard to political donations. In addition to giving money to George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, he supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential elections. Manning also donated to Corker's campaigns in 2006 and 2009.

While Manning supported the presidential bid of Jeb Bush, he has since shifted his support to Trump. Politico'sJake Sherman, Anna Palmer and Daniel Lippmanreported the 14-time Pro Bowler was slated to speak at a January GOP retreat, with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence among the other speakers.

During media day for Super Bowl 50 in February 2016, Manning told reporters he had golfed with Trump before.

"I played a round of golf with him in Tahoe," Manning said, per theHouston Chronicle'sAl Saracevic. "I didn't play real well, so I was kind of focused on trying to find my ball. ... The times I've been around him, he's been extremely nice to me."

Amid rumors he had aspirations of his own political career, Manning said in March hedoesn't plan on runningfor elected office.

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Peyton Manning Reportedly Joins Donald Trump at Golf Course - Bleacher Report

President Trump knocked his own Justice Department in a series of tweets Monday for failing to uphold the original travel ban.

The Justice Depart. should have stayed wth the original Travel ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to the S.C., Mr. Trumptweeted.

The Justice Department should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version! he added.

Mr. Trump did say that vetting would take place due to the slow process of the court approval for the travel ban.

He tweeted, In any event we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe. The courts are slow and political.

Mr. Trump said people could call the new travel restriction whatever they wanted, but he was calling it a ban.

People, the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN! Mr. Trumptweeted.

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Donald Trump slams own Justice Department over travel ban - Washington Times

Donald Trump has been taken to task for claiming, in his speech announcing the United States would exit from the Paris climate "treaty," that "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." Numerous people have pointed out that Trump did not carry the city of Pittsburgh; it voted for Hillary Clinton by a margin of 75 to 21 percent. They might have added that surrounding Allegheny County, taken as a whole, voted 56 to 39 percent for Clinton over Trump.

But it's also true that Trump did carry the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, which by government definition includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Washington and Westmoreland Counties. After all, when people mention a city's name, they are often referring not just to the area within the municipal limits of the central city, but to the larger metropolitan area.

Boston is often understood to include Cambridge, Los Angeles to include Beverly Hills, etc., etc.

Trump carried metro Pittsburgh over Hillary Clinton by 50 to 46 percent, rounding off each result to integers. This was only the fourth time in the last 75 years that a Republican presidential candidate has carried metro Pittsburgh: Mitt Romney won it 50 to 49 percent in 2012, Richard Nixon by 56 to 42 percent in 1972 and Dwight Eisenhower by 53 to 46 percent in 1956. The latter two were in years of national Republican landslides, and the only two times in 65 years when a Republican nominee won a significantly higher percentage there than did Trump (49.6 percent) or Romney (49.7 percent). And Trump received more popular votes in metro Pittsburgh (573,467) than any other Republican except Nixon in 1972 (580,268) and Eisenhower in 1956 (575,540).

In contrast, Clinton's 46 percent was the second-lowest percentage in metro Pittsburgh of any nominee in the last 65 years, ahead of George McGovern's 42 percent in 1972 and fractionally lower than Adlai Stevenson's 46 percent in 1956. The number of popular votes she won in the metro area (531,901) was 497 votes ahead of Barack Obama in 2012 (531,404), but behind Obama in 2008 (575,893), John Kerry in 2004 (597,172), Michael Dukakis in 1988 (559,611), Walter Mondale in 1984 (597,418), Jimmy Carter in 1976 (535,784), Hubert Humphrey in 1968 (573,276), Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (754,677), John F. Kennedy in 1960 (647,611) and Adlai Stevenson in 1952 (573,390).

These numbers reflect significant changes in political alignment and attitudes in metro Pittsburgh that are typical of some other parts, but not most parts, of the nation. This is an area with very low population growth: Turnout in 1960 (1,162,995) was higher than in 2016 (1,157,318), though that latter number was higher than in any election year in between. Historically, Pittsburgh was dominated economically by the steel industry and politically, from the 1930s to the 1980s, by management/union differences. The shutdown of many steel mills in the 1979-82 period produced a swing toward the Democratic party, contrary to the national trend: Walter Mondale carried metro Pittsburgh 56 percent to 44 percent and Michael Dukakis carried it 59 percent to 40 percent.

Since then, metro Pittsburgh has developed a post-industrial economy, heavily weighted toward meds and eds: healthcare (it's the only million-plus metro area with more deaths than births) and tech, driven by institutions like Carnegie-Mellon University. The central city of Pittsburgh has only about half the population it did in 1950 and casts only 13 percent of the metro area's votes; it is also increasingly gentrified, with many old buildings rehabilitated and neat entertainment and restaurant districts.

Pittsburgh is something of an outlier among our 50 or so million-plus metro areas. Once more Democratic than most, especially in the 1980s, it is now more Republican than most proof that the Trump constituency is not simply a revival of the Reagan constituency. Its voting over the years shows the waning of affection for the Democratic party among blue collar and Catholic voters. Its voting in 2016 were not widely out of line with a movement this century away from the Democratic party, but was a significant extension of it enough to give the Republican nominee, for the first time since 1988, Pennsylvania's electoral votes.

This trend provides justification for Donald Trump's statement that he was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, but only if you understand him to be referring to the metropolitan area, not the central city that cast 13 percent of its votes.

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Donald Trump actually did carry (metro) Pittsburgh - Washington Examiner

President Donald Trumps response to the terroristattack in London Bridge has prompted an MSNBC commentator to question whether the Republican is intending to provoke a similar attack in the U.S.

Trump took to Twitter in the wake of Saturday nights attack on London in which seven people were killed and a further 48 injured, making comments about gun crime that prompted a backlash on social media.

The president wrote: Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That's because they used knives and a truck!

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Speaking on MSNBCSunday, anchor Thomas Roberts questioned whether the president was attempting to provoke a terror attack with his Twitter rant.

"Let's not be [politically correct] about this," Roberts said, turning to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and then asking: "Is the president trying to provoke a domestic terrorist attack with this Twitter rant becauseonly to prove himself right?"

Reed opted not to answer the question, although he did later speak about the use of Twitter as inappropriate in the aftermath of such an attack, The Hill reported.

Roberts repeated his suggestion Trump was politicizing the incident, asking former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean: "I asked this of Mayor Reed, but it seems like the president is trying to provoke something that he can politicize more for his own gain in America. Do you feel that way?

Former President Barack Obamas speechwriter, Jon Favreau, also questioned Trumps stream of tweets in the wake of the attack.

"It's hard to read Trump's tweets this morning and not think that we're one domestic attack away from the most dangerous version of this guy," Favreau tweeted.

Rather than issuing a simple response to the attack, Trump followed up his initial pledge to stand with the U.K. with a number of tweets some viewed as provocative, including lashing out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan over his instructions for Londoners to remain calm in the presence of increased security and armed police on the streets.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn defended the London mayor, stating in comments carried by The Guardian: "At this time it is more important than ever that we stay united in our communities. It is the strength of our communities that gets us through these awful times as London mayor Sadiq Khan recognised but which the current occupant in the White House has neither the grace nor the sense to grasp."

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Is Donald Trump 'Trying to Provoke a Domestic Terror Attack' With London Tweets? - Newsweek