Monthly Archives: June 2017

Two senior administration officials told New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush on Sunday that PresidentDonald Trumps visit to the United Kingdom is currently off the presidents schedule.

That report follows a story inThe Guardianthat said Trumps U.K. trip had been put on hold after he told British Prime Minister Theresa May he was worried about being met with mass street protests.

The conversation between the two leaders took place in recent weeks and was heard by a Downing Street adviser who was in the room, according to The Guardian.

The White House denied The Guardian report on Sunday.

The President has tremendous respect for Prime Minister May. That subject never came up on the call, a White House spokespersonsaid.

A spokesman for May said Sunday, The Queen extended an invitation to President Trump to visit the UK and there is no change to those plans.

The reported scheduling change comes just days after London Mayor Sadiq Khan reiterated last week that his country should not host a state visit in Trumps honor.

I dont think we should be rolling out the red carpet to the president of the USA in the circumstances where his policies go against everything we stand for, said Khan, who is Londons first Muslim mayor.

The presidentslammed Khan over his handling of the June 3 terror attack in London. Khan shot back, saying Trump had deliberately taken his assurances to Londoners out of context.

May sparked criticism earlier this year when she announced that Trump had been invited to visit the U.K. with full state honors. Thisweeks snap electionin Britain, however, threw the process into further doubt and Trump will be even more uncertain about a trip given the instability of Mays prospective minority government, according to HuffPost UK.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed reports of the visits cancellation on Sunday.

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Donald Trump's State Visit To The UK Now In Doubt - HuffPost

WASHINGTON Donald Trumps eldest son seemed to confirm fired FBI director James Comeys account that the president expressed hopeComey would end the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynns contacts with Russian officials, contradicting the presidents denial that he made such an appeal.

While defending his father in a Fox News interview with Judge Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally, the younger Trump said there would have beenno ambiguity if the president had made the request to Comey during a Feb. 14 Oval Office meeting, despite the president and his personal lawyer disputing the exchange.

When he tells you to do something, guess what? Theres no ambiguity in it, theres no, Hey, Im hoping, Donald Trump Jr. told Pirro on Saturday, trying to explain that it could not have been a direct request. You and I are friends: Hey, I hope this happens, but youve got to do your job. Thats what he told Comey.

Comey immediately detailed the meeting in a memo, writing that Trump told him: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.

The president has repeatedly denied Comeys account of the Feb. 14 conversation.

Comeys account is central to the question of whether Trump obstructed justice by asking Comey to end the investigation and then fired him when he did not.

The former FBI director on Thursday testified that he took it as a direction, given that the president had dismissed everyone else from the room to meet with Comey alone, before making the request. It also followed a previous one-on-one encounter in which Trump asked Comey to pledge his honest loyalty.

Trumps son attacked Comey for not taking action if he felt threatened by the president.

For this guy, as a politician, to then go back and write a memo: Oh, I felt threatened. He felt so threatened, but he didnt do anything, Trump Jr. said.

Comey testified that he asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to not allow Trump to meet with him alone. But he did not feel it was appropriate to tell Sessions about Trumps request, fearing it would impede the larger FBI investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russian officials.

Sessions, who met at least twice with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak last year, later recused himself from matters involving the Russia investigation. Comey revealed Thursday that at the time, he and FBI colleagues knew that Sessions would have to recuse himself because they may have discovered even more compromising information involving Sessions.

In response to his testimony, Trump and his allies have continued to dispute Comeys detailed recollections and attack the fired FBI directors character, while simultaneously claiming that his testimony vindicated the president. On Friday, Trump accused Comey of committing perjury, and said he would be 100 percent willing to testify under oath to dispute Comey.

This story has been clarified to note that Trump Jr. was explaining that his father could not have meant his possible comments to Comey as a direct request.

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Donald Trump's Son Inadvertently Backs Up Comey's Account Of Conversation With President - HuffPost

Remember how Salma Hayek claimed she turned down a date with Donald Trump? Now, the actress is offering up the story straight.

During a Thursday appearanceon The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,the 50-year-old Beatriz at Dinner star revealed the details behind how the now-president attempted to court her even though she wasnt single. According to Hayek, it started when she got cold at an event and Trump, who was sitting behind her, immediately put his coat over her shoulders.

I turn around and my boyfriend so charming, so nice he said hello [to Trump], she recalled of the initial interaction at an event years ago. [Trump] said, Im sorry, your girlfriend, I saw she was cold. And then he kept talking to my boyfriend.

According to the actress, Trump, 70, kept talking to her boyfriend. He then allegedly invited the couple to visit his hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, if they were ever in town, asking for their phone numbers and never calling her boyfriend, but eventually ringing up Hayek separately instead.

RELATED VIDEO: Salma Hayek Claims Donald Trump Planted a Story About Her After She Denied Him a Date

Hes inviting me out, and Im like, What about my boyfriend? Am I crazy? Are you asking me out? You know I have a boyfriend, she says, adding that Trump responded with, Hes not good enough for you. Hes not important, hes not big enough for you. You have to go out with me.

Trevor Noah jokes that Trump was right since Hayek didnt end up with that boyfriend. Instead, she married French billionaire Franois-Henri Pinault, with whom she shares 9-year-old daughter Valentina Paloma, in 2009.

RELATED VIDEO: Watch: Natasha Stoynoff Breaks Silence, Accuses Donald Trump of Sexual Attack

RELATED:Salma Hayek Calls Out Donald Trump After Mixing Up 7-Eleven with 9/11

Hayeks recollection of the courting attempt comes some months after she initially revealed she turned the reality-television alum down after which, she claimed, heplanted a tabloid story about her, supposedly giving the reason they didnt date as her being too short.

Later, he called and left me a message. Can you believe this? Who would say this? I dont want people to think this about you, the Mexican-born actress, who has been outspoken about her opinion on Trumps Mexican border wall proposition, said in October.

He thought that I would try to go out with him so people wouldnt think thats why he wouldnt go out with me, added the How to Be a Latin Lover star.

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Salma Hayek Reveals How Donald Trump Allegedly Asked Her Out, and It's Gross - PEOPLE.com

Here's a look at some of the comments made by Trump and his advisers that have been cited by judges that have blocked his travel ban. USA TODAY

A lone protester stood outside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco in early February, as legal wrangling over President Trump's travel ban was just getting started.(Photo: JOHN G. MABANGLO, EPA)

WASHINGTON It's been 18 months since Donald Trump,presidential candidate,called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United Statesuntil our countrys representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."

It's been nearly six months since Trump, as president-elect, was asked if terror attacks in Europe had affected his proposed Muslim ban. "You know my plans," he said. "All along, I've been proven to be right."

And it's been less than a week since President Trump trumpeted the travel ban he first proposed in January, which would have shut down virtually all travel from seven majority-Muslim countries while giving Christians preferential treatment. "The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.," he tweeted.

Now "S.C." the Supreme Court may have the last word on whether Trump's words matter. The justices could decide as soon as this week whether to overrule lower courts and let the travel ban go into effect temporarily, as well as whether to rule on its overall constitutionality. Oral arguments could be held within weeks, or later in the year. Ultimately, the ban could be implemented or permanently blocked.

Trump's statements lie at the heart of the legal battle federal courts from Virginia to Hawaii have wrestled with since February in deciding whether the president's temporary travel ban is constitutional.While the fighthas raised questions aboutnational security, presidential power and due process rights, what's garnered the most attention has been whether Trump's rants and tweets trump his actions.

"It's a genuinely difficult question," says Kate Shaw, an associate law professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, who says Trump's words reveal his intentions. "This is not a question that the Supreme Court has resolved."

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What President Trump has said about the travel ban

President Trump's travel ban rhetoric has divided judges across nation

Trump's immigration travel ban faces familiar foe in appeals courts: Trump

Trump was one of 14 Republican candidates still seeking his party's presidential nomination on Dec. 7, 2015, when he made his first statement about Muslim immigration. Now he's the president who twice hassought a temporary ban on immigrants from predominantly Muslim nations with ties to terrorism, as well as all refugees.

Did the campaign rhetoric presage the presidential policy?Most of the judges who have issued rulings on Trump's travel ban a name the president embraced in all CAPS as recently as this week have said his statements as a candidate, president-elect and president are relevant.

"These statements, taken together, provide direct, specific evidence of what motivated both (executive orders): President Trumps desire to exclude Muslims from the United States," Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in a 10-3 ruling last month.

Protesters march outside the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond last month during oral argument over President Trump's travel ban.(Photo: Steve Helber, AP)

But severaljudges have argued that campaign promises should be off-limits, or at least dwarfed by government actions that are not overtly discriminatory.

"Opening the door to the use of campaign statements to inform the text of later executive orders has no rational limit," Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote in dissent to the 4th Circuit decision. He mused that such past history could extend to "statements from a previous campaign, or from a previous business conference, or from college."

Judges in California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington have weighed in on the question this winter and spring, raising a number of issues that are likely to come before the Supreme Court as soon as later this month.

The majority of them have said courts can and should examine the purpose behind government actions; that Trump's words reveal hispurpose to be, at least in part, banning Muslims; that his initial focus on Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen is but a means to that end; and that Trump the president cannot claim to be different thanTrump the candidate.

Just as the Supreme Court has held that 'the world is not made brand new every morning, a person is not made brand new simply by taking the oath of office, said Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Her reference was to a Supreme Court ruling in 2005, in which Justice David Souter wrote that two Kentucky counties could not hide the unconstitutional religious purpose of their Ten Commandments courthouse displays by later adding additional documents.

"Reasonable observers have reasonable memories," Souter wrote. "Our precedents sensibly forbid an observer 'to turn a blind eye to the context in which thepolicy arose.'

But Mathew Staver, who represented the two counties before the Supreme Court, says the original display and later versions all represented government actions. "Here, you have comments by the president before he was president," Staver says. "That is fundamentally different."

Justice Anthony Kennedy, here with President Trump at the White House, could be the swing vote on the travel ban case.(Photo: JIM LO SCALZO, EPA)

In Trump's case, some travel ban opponents say, one doesn't need a long memory because he never stopped talking in stark terms about the travel ban.

There is a continuous run of statements from the campaign, through the election, through the inauguration and right up to this week," says Micah Schwartzman, a University of Virginia School of Law professor specializing in religion. "The president has never expressly disavowed those earlier statements."

Judges and legal analysts who defendthe travel ban argue that Trump's words and those of his aides cannot form the basis for a constitutional violation. It takes too much interpretation, they say, to read anti-Muslim bias into an executive order devoid of religious content.

The policy he spoke about is not in any way the policy that was passed, saysNorthwestern University law professor Eugene Kontorovich, who specializes ininternational law.Its not clear this is about Muslims. This is about countries that everyone agrees are among the worlds most messed up.

Even so, the Supreme Court has said judges can look beyond the challenged policy in cases involving religious libertyor civil rights to determine if there was another purpose, or if the stated purpose was a sham. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who could be the swing vote in the travel ban case, made that point in a 2015 rulinginvolving the government's denial of a visa to a U.S. citizen's husband.

Even though the court upheld the visa denial, Mark Haddad, who represented the womanin court, said Kennedy's cautionary view shows that courts should not take government policies at face value.

There has to be a way to show that the governments acting in bad faith," Haddad says. "Otherwise, the check on the governments power is non-existent.

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Will Donald Trump's anti-Muslim words on travel ban hurt his case? - USA TODAY

Donald Trumps presidency has been every bit asamateurishand chaotic and ridiculous as his campaign was. As time has elapsedmany of those who were terrified at first have come to view the president as aclown who is in way over his head. Utter uncertainty prevailed duringthe months between Trumps election in Novemberand his January inauguration,andmany were genuinely concerned thatTrump would quickly become a tyrant once in office, using the power of the presidency to go after his enemies and silence his critics.

It has now been nearly five months since Trump became president, and the full-blown panic that was in the air earlier this year haswaned. Trump has yet to impose martial law, imprison his critics or crack down on the free press. In fact, the Trump administration has been positively incompetent. The White House has been plagued by major policy setbacks and political scandals, and the presidents most notable executive orders have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional. Trump and his team seem to have entered Washington without a clue as to how things work, and the dealmaker-in-chief has made no deals whatsoever on Capitol Hill. President Trump has also made some embarrassing and costlyblunders himself usually in the form of tweeting late at night while his babysitters are in bed. (Case in point: The presidents recent tweets on the travel ban will likely damage his efforts to restore it.)

It is understandable, then, that many have come to view Trump and his presidency as more of an embarrassing joke than an existential threat to our democracy. The president seemstoo great a foolto pose a real threat to the republic.

This notion was recentlyaddressed by Russian journalist Masha Gessen inacolumn for the New York Times,in which she argues thatTrumps Incompetence Wont Save Our Democracy, and looks back at some of historys most successful tyrantsto make her point:

A careful reading of contemporary accounts will show that both Hitler and Stalin struck many of their countrymen as men of limited ability, education and imagination and, indeed, as being incompetent in government and military leadership. Contrary to popular wisdom, they are not political savants, possessed of one extraordinary talent that brings them to power. It is the blunt instrument of reassuring ignorance that propels their rise in a frighteningly complex world.

Gessen also notes that Vladimir Putin, whom she has interviewed and written extensively about and who is perceived by many as a cunning political genius is a poorly educated, under-informed, incurious man whose ambition is vastly out of proportion to his understanding of the world. (This seems to be a perfectly apt description of Trump as well even if the American presidents ignorance of the world seems to be in a class of its own.) Gessen concludes that it is Trumps insistence on simplicity that makes him want to rule like an autocrat, and that militant incompetence and autocracy are not in opposition: They are two sides of a coin.

This is an important point that should dissuade people from underestimating Trump after his rockystart. After all, most people underestimatedthe billionaire throughout his campaign for many of the same reasons, and he had the last laugh. Though the Trump administrations incompetencehas been something to behold, this shouldnt detract from the very real authoritarian leaningsthat the president has displayed.

Trumps firing of FBI Director James Comey because of his investigation into Russias interference in the electionwas the clearest sign yet that the president has no respect for the rule of law or the separation of powers. But the presidents authoritarian tendencies have been apparent from day one whether it be inlabelingthe press the enemy of the people, attacking federal judges who rule against his policies, or describingthe constitutional system of checks and balances is archaic and a bad thing for the country.

Of course, there has also been a great deal of unhelpful hysteria coming from certainliberals.Aparanoid style of politics has taken hold of many Democrats, andTrump critics have becomeincreasingly ready to believe conspiracy theories and fake newsparticularlywhen it comes to Russia or to embracefar-fetched theoriesabout how the Trump administrationsfailures are really part of a master plan.

In an article for the Guardian last month, leftist author Corey Robincriticized liberals for this hysteria and credulity, andpointedoutthat Trump hasnt even attemptedto fill the vast majority of positions in the executive branch since becoming president. Its a strange kind of authoritarian who fails, as the first order of business, to seize control of the state apparatus, observes Robin, who goes on to blast liberalsfor taking the presidents words (or, in many cases, tweets) far too seriously. Trump has always thought his words were more real than reality. Hes always believed his own bullshit. Its time his liberal critics stopped believing it too, he writes.

Robin makes a valid point, and it is certainly time forliberals tobrush up on their critical thinking skills. That doesnt mean we should stop taking Trumps authoritarian threatsseriously. And just because the Trump administration has been an incompetentmess until now doesnt mean that the danger isnt real. Trump has yet toimprison his political opponentsor crack down on the media or impose martial law in Chicago, buthe hasthreatened to do suchthings, which is dangerous in and of itself.

Trump is no mastermind, and he has little understandingof how the government works. In the long run, the big donors who have come to dominate American politics over the past 40 years probably pose a greater hazard to democracy than Donald Trump.But any leader who breaks as many democratic norms as our president has over the past few months mustbe regarded as a legitimatethreat to democracy, no matter how ludicroushe appears while doing it.

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Yes, Donald Trump is an incompetent buffoon but he's still a major threat to democracy - Salon

Virginias Democratic primary on Tuesday is shaping up to be the first real test of liberalism in the Trump era, with both candidates lurching for increasingly leftward policies to position themselves in contrast with President Donald Trump.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam has used TV ads to call Trump a narcissistic maniac. Former Rep. Tom Perriello has proclaimed that Trump is an authoritarian. Both candidates have taken decidedly liberal positions on abortion, guns, criminal justice and college tuition while using Trump bashing as a foundation of their campaigns. While Northam has the support of the Democratic establishment throughout Virginia and Perriello brings a potent Bernie Sanders endorsement to the primary, the simmering question for the winner is how this race to the left in the Democratic primary which may appeal to Northern Virginia Democrats will play across the rest of the state in the general election.

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Virginia's gubernatorial elections often develop into contrasts with a new president, but there's a stark difference between now and how Republican candidate Bob McDonnell handled then-President Barack Obama in 2009. While critical of Obama's economic record, the future governor also regularly praised Obama for supporting school choice, straddling the partisan divide.

The Democrats have felt no need to do the same with the less popular Trump, whose approval rating was at 36 percent in a recent Washington Post-George Mason University poll of Virginia.

Let's prove that Donald Trump's values are not Virginia values, Perriello says in one of his closing television ads. Northam has arguably gone further, using his TV campaign to call Trump a narcissistic maniac though Perriello answered Thursday with an ad of his own calling Trump "authoritarian," and invoking Virginia's motto: "Sic Semper Tyrannis," a shortened version of a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always I bring death to tyrants." Perriello has also lined up Khizr Khan who became famous for his Democratic National Convention speech invoking his son, who died in the Iraq War, and slamming Trump to campaign with him on Monday, the day before the primary.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, the only Democratic member of Virginias congressional delegation to remain neutral in the primary the others have all lined up behind Northam said its unclear whether voters will respond to Perriellos vision of the governorship.

Can Tom ride the anti-Trump wave, which is very strong here in Northern Virginia? Connolly pondered in a recent phone interview. Can he make the case that the governors office should be a platform for the resistance?

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Invoking the resistance comes more naturally to Perriello than it does to Northam. It was former staffers of Perriellos who wrote the Indivisible guides, which have inspired dozens of local liberal-leaning groups that have poked and prodded their members of Congress on Trumps Russia scandals and the GOP health care repeal plan.

Northam, by his own admittance, is less of a firebrand and more unassuming than Perriello. But he has dived headlong into the anti-Trump-themed primary, too, when he unveiled the narcissistic maniac attack on Trump in his stump speech and later in TV ads.

We experienced in 2016 this campaign of Mr. Trumps that was run of fear, bigotry, hatred and a lot of misinformation, Northam said in an April interview. In politics, you tend to react to whats going on around you. Theres been an awakening going on across Virginia, and I suspect across this country. I worry a lot about whats going on in Washington.

Northam, a pediatric neurologist, has defended the narcissistic maniac line as both politically effective and medically appropriate. When Meet the Press host Chuck Todd pressed him on its use recently, Northam didnt back down.

Theres a lot of overlap between psychiatry and neurology, and I would invite the viewers to look up the criteria for narcissism, he said, adding: I think theyll see some familiarity with what theyll see.

The results of the Republican primary have been in less doubt than the Democratic contest, but Trump has made waves in that race nonetheless.

Underdog candidate Corey Stewart, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors chairman, has argued that front-runner Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is less than sincere in his backing of the under-fire Republican.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, by his own admittance, is less of a firebrand and more unassuming than former Rep. Tom Perriello. But he has dived headlong into the anti-Trump-themed primary, too, when he unveiled the narcissistic maniac attack on President Donald Trump in his stump speech and later in TV ads. | AP Photo

Stewart (who was Trumps Virginia campaign chair for much of 2016 but was fired in October) stands next to a smiling Trump in his closing TV ad, while a narrator declares: Corey Stewart supports President Trump. Not Ed Gillespie. In a debate outside Richmond this spring, Stewart attacked Gillespie for criticizing Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tapes that showed Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women.

Ed was among the first Republicans in the country to kick him when he was down, Stewart said.

Gillespie responded by noting Trump himself apologized for the remarks. Coreys the only one who thinks theyre great comments, he said.

Invoking Trump has not given Stewart much traction; last months Washington Post poll found Gillespie with a lead of 20 percentage points in the primary. A plurality also thought Gillespie was the strongest Trump supporter in the race.

Yet Trumps brand of politics would seem an ill fit with what Gillespie has practiced as a political operative, 2014 Senate candidate and gubernatorial contender. Gillespie repeatedly pledges to be the governor of all Virginians, has released television ads in Spanish and Korean, and has mentioned his familys immigrant roots in web videos. In his 2014 Senate campaign, Gillespie made extensive outreach to Northern Virginia Muslim communities.

Still, Gillespie has largely avoided breaking with Trump. While GOP governors in blue states like Maryland, Vermont and Massachusetts have criticized his handling of the travel ban or his decision to pull out of the Paris agreement on reducing carbon emissions, Gillespie has resisted putting distance between himself and the president.

After an event in Northern Virginia on Wednesday, Gillespie was asked why his campaign ads didnt feature Trump the way his competitors did. His response was 45 seconds long, and he never said the presidents name, while every TV in the state features Northam and Perriello talking about Trump before Tuesday's primary.

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Democrats bet on Trump in Virginia governor's race - Politico