Monthly Archives: June 2017

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says President Donald Trump believes the climate is changing and believes pollutants are part of the equation. (CBS/Reuters)

Since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement last week, reporters have pressed the administration about whether Trump believes in man-made climate change.

Again and again, top officials have sidestepped those questions or offered responses inconsistent with Trumps record.

"Yes or no, does the president believe that climate change is real and a threat to the United States?" ABC reporter Mary Bruce asked Environmental Protection Agency Director Scott Pruitt June 2.

"All the discussions that we had through the last several weeks have been focused on one singular issue. Is Paris good or not for this country? That's the discussions I've had with the president. So, that's been my focus," Pruitt responded, sidestepping Bruces question.

Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley faced the question on CBS'sFace the Nation on June 4.

"The president believes the climate is changing, and he does know that pollutants are a part of that equation," she said.

But Trumps comments from the past seven years show that he has long dismissed the scientific evidence that man-made climate change is real going so far as to call it a "con," a "hoax" and "bull----."

2009-10: Praising Obama, dissing Gore

In December 2009, Trumps name appeared alongside other American business leaders in a full-page ad in the New York Times uncovered by environmental media site The Grist that actually praised then-President Barack Obama for his efforts to curb carbon emissions and fight climate change.

Something must have changed his opinion, though. Just a couple months later, in February 2010, Trump said, perhaps jokingly, that former Vice President Al Gore should lose the Nobel Peace Prize he won for his climate change activism.

He then told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that he was skeptical of climate change science because it might be a "con," and "a lot of people like me have been saying this for a long time."

Since then, Trumps position has been pretty consistent.

2011-14: its a hoax, its a hoax, its a hoax

Trump tweeted dozens of times between 2011 and 2014 about his skepticism and sometimes outright denial of climate change, especially when his hometown of New York experienced unseasonably cold weather.

"It snowed over 4 inches this past weekend in New York City. It is still October. So much for Global Warming," he tweeted in 2011.

For the record, unusually cold weather does not negate climate change. Theres a difference between day-to-day weather in a particular location and the overall, long-term climate (and warmth) of the entire planet. That said, climate change could result in more extreme weather events, both hot and cold.

In 2012, Trump blamed China for "mythical" global warming.

"Let's continue to destroy the competitiveness of our factories & manufacturing so we can fight mythical global warming. China is so happy!"

"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

In 2013, Trump tweeted that global warming is an "expensive hoax," and in 2014 he called it "bull----."

"We should be focused on magnificently clean and healthy air and not distracted by the expensive hoax that is global warming!"

"Give me clean, beautiful and healthy air - not the same old climate change (global warming) bull----! I am tired of hearing this nonsense."

2015-16: The election

After Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, reporters regularly asked him about his position on climate change. Trump consistently said he thinks humans may have some impact on the environment, but he generally doesnt believe in man-made climate change.

On June 17, 2015, the day after launching his campaign, Trump told political analyst Mark Halperin, "There could be a little bit of something having to do with factories and smoke and things. But for the most part I'm not a believer in (man-made climate change)."

"I'm a huge believer in clean air," Trump told CNNs Jake Tapper in July 2015, complaining about pollution in China. "I'm not a huge believer in the global warming phenomena."

Trump also said several times that he was much more concerned with nuclear war than climate change.

"The only global warming I'm worried about is nuclear global warming, because that's the single biggest threat," he said at a Republican debate in March 2016.

Since the election, Trump met with Gore at Trump Tower. And he told the New York Times editorial board that he would have an "open mind" on climate change, though he remained skeptical.

"You know, you can make lots of cases for different views," he said. "I have a totally open mind."

Many of Trumps public policy positions are notoriously hard to pin down. But it appears that on the topic of man-made climate change, hes expressed doubt more often than not.

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Does Donald Trump believe in man-made climate change? - PolitiFact

Nicholas Burns, Opinion contributor Published 3:18 a.m. ET June 6, 2017 | Updated 32 minutes ago

President Donald Trump is expected to make a key endorsement at a NATO summit Thursday. Video provided by Newsy Newslook

President Trump attends the NATO submit in Brussels in May 2017.(Photo: Matt Dunham, AFP/Getty Images)

The 70th anniversary of the Marshall Plan this week should be a celebration of the trans-Atlantic alliance the most powerful and successful in modern history. Secretary of State George Marshalls speech at the Harvard commencement on June 5, 1947, set in motion the historic U.S. aid program to revive Europes shattered economies. It also set the stage for the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Common Market and eventually the European Union.

Instead of celebrating, however, Americaand Europe are experiencing their most significant crisis in decades.President Trumps recent visit to NATO and the EU was the least successful of any U.S.president in seven decades, exposing deep ideological divisions and a widening gulf of trust across the Atlantic. Last weekends terrorist attacks in London had the same effect. Trump repeatedly criticized London Mayor Sadiq Khan for telling citizens not to be alarmed by the attacks, when Khan actually saidthey should not be alarmed by a heavy police presence. Trumps tweets did not go down well in stoic Britain, where the World War II maxim, keep calm and carry on, still holds.

The policy differences alone are profound.European leaders want a historic free trade agreement with America, but Trumps nationalist economic strategy led him to reject it.German Chancellor Angela Merkel is determined to maintain tough EU and U.S. sanctions on Russia over its occupation of Ukraine.Trump appears more interested in a rapprochement with Russian President Vladimir Putin.The chasm is deepest and most emotional on climate change.Trumps announcement that Americawill pull out of the historic 2015 Paris Agreement is deepening distrust among European citizens and their governments, which consider it an urgent priority.

When I served as U.S. ambassador to NATO, Americahad a bruising argument with France and Germany over the Iraq War in 2003.We buried the hatchet eventually by joining forces in Afghanistan and negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.We knew the NATO alliance was worth preserving.Trump has downplayed the importance of those longstanding ties according to Politico, even to the point of removing from his prepared speech an affirmation of NATO's Article 5, thecommitment by member nations to defend one another.

Pulling out of Paris climate agreement kills U.S. leadership

A real national security budget will keep the peace

That is why the current crisis is far more threatening to the long-term future of the alliance than past disagreements.Trumps ambivalence about NATO and skepticism about the EU are seen by European leaders as an open break with 70 years of U.S.commitment to the continent.

The heart of the problem is Trumps view of Europe, and Germany in particular, as an economic competitor rather than a strategic partner.This is a sea change in American attitudes towards Europe.All of Trumps predecessors datingto PresidentTruman have prized Europes political and military alliance with America.Trumps boorish behavior in Brussels and his intemperate tweets criticizing Merkel (and now Khan) have only reinforced the doubts about him in Europe.

If Trump sticks to this course, there will be real costs for the United States.Europe remains our leading trade partner and the most important investor in the U.S.economy.The 27 European members of NATO remain the largest group of U.S. allies in the world.On nearly every important U.S. global priority, Europe is a key partner.We need the United Kingdom, France and Germany to persuadeIran to adhere to the 2015 nuclear deal.Trump may soon ask Europe to contribute additional troops to NATOs Afghan mission.The U.S. fight against the Islamic State ofIraq and Syria will be seriously undermined without British and French support. AmericaneedsNATO allies to hold the line against Putins territorial ambitions in Eastern Europe.

All this argues for a White House reassessment of its dramatic distancing from Europe. Trump was right to strengthen ties with Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf States on his first foreign trip.But our alliance with Europe is far more important to us. In contrast to Arab authoritarian leaders, we share with Europe a commitment to democracy, the rule of law and human rights.Despite their persistent, public spin to the contrary, the more experienced White House hands have to realize the magnitude of theproblem Trump has created.

Donald Trump can strengthen America by dumping Paris agreement: Sen. Inhofe

POLICING THE USA:Alook atrace, justice, media

To be fair, Europe can do more to meet its own obligations to America.Trump is right to ask the allies to step more resolutely into the fight against ISIS.He has the American public behind him in asking Germany and the European nationsto increase defense spending.All modern U.S. presidents have insisted NATOs European members should meet the alliance defense spending standard of 2%of gross domestic product.

But Trumps bull-in-a-china-shop approach has backfired.He would do better to push the allies in private but acknowledge publicly that the majority of them actually increased defense spending afterPutins annexation of Crimea in 2014.All, including Germany, have pledged to reach the 2% target by 2024.Pushing on this open door would have been more effective than lecturing leaders such asMerkel in an election year.

The creation of NATO and support for European unity remain among Americas greatest foreign policy achievements.At a time of Russian assertiveness in Eastern Europe and dangerous instability in the Middle East, Americaneeds its European allies in NATO more than ever.

That is why cooler heads in the administration must steer the impulsive, inexperienced Trump back to an effective relationship with NATO and the EU.Without such a sharp recalibration over the coming months, Trumps bumbling Europe strategy couldturn out to be one of the most significant U.S.foreign policy failures of the post-World War II era.

Nicholas Burns is a Harvard professor and former under secretary of State who served presidents of both parties in his foreign service career. He was U.S. ambassador to NATO from 2001 to 2005. Follow him on Twitter:@RNicholasBurns

You can read diverse opinions from ourBoard of Contributorsand other writers on theOpinion front page, on Twitter@USATOpinionand in our dailyOpinion newsletter. To submit a letter, comment or column, check oursubmission guidelines.

Violence erupts near London Bridge

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Donald Trump is wrecking US alliance with Europe - USA TODAY

While President Donald Trump has dismissed the Russia investigations as a "witch hunt," even White House officials are admitting the probe is a serious distraction. | Getty

President Donald Trump's legislative director is acknowledging that the ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election are overwhelming his legislative agenda as former FBI Director James Comey is set to appear at a blockbuster Senate hearing later this week.

Theres no doubt that keeping members focused on investigations detracts from our legislative agenda, detracts from what were trying to deliver for the American people, said Marc Short, Trumps director of legislative affairs, in a briefing with reporters on Monday night.

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More than four months into Trumps presidency and despite total GOP control of Washington Trump has achieved very little on Capitol Hill, in part because the Russia scandal leaves little room for anything else. Republicans now face the prospect of going into the 2018 midterms with little to show voters, despite huge promises by Trump.

Obamacare is still the law of the land, funding for a border wall with Mexico is bogged down in partisan fighting, Trumps budget proposal was dead on arrival, and the White House is way behind schedule on sending executive-branch nominees to the Senate for consideration.

With the Comey hearing looming on Thursday, Trump unveiled a plan to privatize the nations air traffic control system on Monday. On Tuesday, hes set to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to discuss the state of play inside Congress. Senate Republicans will also hold a key meeting on whether they can move on an Obamacare repeal bill.

But even Trump's top legislative aide is admitting Russia is a serious distraction, though White House officials blame media bias for much of the problem. Trump has dismissed the investigations as a witch hunt.

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Short also warned that Trump will play hardball with Democrats and GOP moderates on his spending priorities come the fall, when government funding runs out, even if that provokes a shutdown.

Look, I dont think that anybody is in favor of a government shutdown. I think that what the president is expressing is the frustration that a lot of Americans felt, and there are certain priorities that he campaigned on, the American people want, Short said. And so you will see him very engaged this fall and continuing to push for funding for our border security as well as rebuilding the military.

He added: And I think that he views it as all options for leverage are available, but that doesnt mean thats something he wishes for or that its great. We all believe that a government shutdown is not ideal.

Its an interesting play Trump triangulating against his own majority in Congress. It shows, however, how frustrated White House officials are by the lack of progress on their own agenda.

Trump had signaled his openness to a shutdown in early May, writing on Twitter: Our country needs a good 'shutdown' in September to fix mess!

It remains unclear, though, if shutdown saber-rattling will be enough to jolt Congress. Both chambers are increasingly distracted by investigations into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Funding for government agencies runs out on Sept. 30. Ryan and other top House GOP leaders have already warned that they are four months behind in drafting a 2018 budget because of the internal fight in that chamber over the Obamacare repeal and they will need short-term funding bills to avoid a shutdown come October.

The House Budget Committee is expected to unveil a budget plan in the next few weeks, although there are huge splits inside the GOP over those who want to boost Pentagon funding and spending hard-liners who want to cut government. And that doesnt even begin to address the partisan fight with Democrats.

Meanwhile, the White House wants health care passed by the end of the summer and a tax reform bill introduced after Labor Day, Short said. There is no timeline as yet for infrastructure, he added, but the White House would like to have a plan out this calendar year.

Another fight going on inside the White House and within the GOP on Capitol Hill is over the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is among those calling for a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling, which is expected to be hit early this fall. Yet Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and other administration officials and some hard-line conservative Republicans in Congress want to see fiscal reforms tied to the debt ceiling.

Short admitted there is a debate going on within the administration over that issue, and he said Trump had not taken a position.

What I think he will understand from both of them is the need to raise the debt ceiling before Congress adjourns this summer, and that is the deadline and the timeline we have given to Congress, Short said.

Failure to raise the debt ceiling, or a prolonged fight over the issue, like what occurred in 2011, could rattle Wall Street and the credit markets, and potentially hurt the U.S. economy.

But the neatly laid out agenda that the White House presented has a habit of running up against Trumps own habit of seizing the message: Just as he did Monday morning by kicking off a planned week focused on infrastructure with a series of inflammatory tweets about his controversial travel ban.

The American people are anxious to see progress in this town, Short said Monday night when pressed about Trumps sometimes divergent messaging strategies. He may not have a conventional style in doing that, but many of his efforts are extremely helpful to, I think, getting our legislation accomplished.

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Trump's legislative director acknowledges Russia is overwhelming his agenda - Politico

President Donald Trump is lashing out at Democrats for allegedly stalling his appointments and agenda, but its his own administration that is frequently sitting on the necessary paperwork for nominees.

Trump tapped Kevin McAleenan on March 30 to lead Customs and Border Protection, a critical position for his drive to revamp U.S. immigration policy. But the White House didnt formally submit his nomination to the Senate for confirmation until May 22, nearly eight weeks later.

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And McAleenans nomination is far from alone in taking weeks to be sent to the Senate, where Republicans are growing impatient and bewildered with the Trump White Houses historic lag in filling administration posts.

Trumps two nominees for the Export-Import Bank board ex-GOP Reps. Scott Garrett and Spencer Bachus havent been submitted to the Senate, despite being named April 14. Trump rolled out a batch of 10 judicial nominations to much fanfare on May 8, but two of them have yet to arrive on Capitol Hill.

And Dan Brouillette, nominated by Trump to be Rick Perrys chief deputy at the Energy Department, was announced on April 3, yet his nomination wasnt sent by the White House until May 16.

Do I know why its taken so long for any of them? responded Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), when asked about Brouillettes delay.

I dont know what happens, the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee added. They go into some dark hole. And eventually they come out. But still.

Its unclear exactly why the Trump White House has been so slow to officially submit some nominees paperwork, but it comes amid broader struggles by the new president to vet senior officials and staff his administration.

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South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Senate Republican, said some nominations may have been bottlenecked at the Office of Government Ethics, which helps hash out ethics agreements for government appointees.

But an OGE spokesman suggested the White House has been slow to send them nominees financial information. OGE can't review reports until we receive them, a spokesman said. Once we have received them, OGE has been moving these reports faster than we did in the 2009 transition.

Thune also speculated that the administration may be intentionally slow in naming nominees because it does not want to fill those positions in the first place. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Trump himself is looking squarely at Democrats for the delays, tweeting on Monday that Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors. They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer quickly responded in a statement that Trump only has himself to blame, adding, It was the Senates responsibility to give a thorough vetting for such important positions, with many of the nominees having conflicts of interest and incomplete ethics agreements when they were named.

At least 17 of Trumps nominees took more than a month to be officially sent to the Senate, at which point the vetting by senators and aides can begin in earnest, according to a POLITICO analysis. (One of the 17 nominations, Jim Donovan to be Trumps deputy Treasury secretary, has since been withdrawn).

And those figures dont account for slots that are far from being filled. As of Monday, the Trump White House has only named candidates for 117 of 559 key administration positions, per figures from the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post. More than 1,200 positions throughout the federal government must be confirmed by the Senate.

Our members are frustrated, said Thune, who is supposed to shepherd dozens of key nominations through the Senate as Commerce Committee chairman. Were kind of waiting. In many cases, theres nobody on deck.

Several prominent vacancies have become more conspicuous. Trump fired FBI director James Comey nearly a month ago and is still interviewing candidates to lead the bureau. Although Trump said in January that he would nominate New York Jets owner Robert Woody Johnson as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom the target of multiple recent terrorist attacks Johnsons nomination has still not been sent to the Senate, more than four months later.

Jon Huntsmans nomination to become U.S. ambassador to Russia has still not formally materialized, although administration sources said in early March that the former Utah governor and erstwhile Trump antagonist had been tapped for the diplomatic post.

And while Kevin Hassett was named April 7 as Trumps nominee to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers considered the West Wings lead economist his paperwork wasnt sent until May 16. Obamas first candidate for that role, Christina Romer, was confirmed Jan. 28, 2009.

Some Trump nominees have run into hiccups deeper in the confirmation process. The nomination of Makan Delrahim, whos been tapped to lead the Justice Departments antitrust division, was abruptly pulled off the agenda minutes before his confirmation hearing was supposed to begin, because of issues with his ethics paperwork. His hearing was eventually rescheduled for two weeks later, and he is expected to get a vote in the Judiciary Committee this week.

We wouldnt nominate people until they were cleared by OGE and maybe theyre not doing that, said Christopher Kang, who served as deputy counsel in the Obama White House. I dont see any strategic reason or any reason, really to take this long to send up the official paperwork.

Despite the lag on some nominations early in Obamas tenure, Kang said by 2011, paperwork for judicial candidates were usually sent to the Senate on the same day they were formally announced by the White House. Executive branch nominations who require OGE signoff, while judicial nominees do not sometimes faced short delays, but rarely as long as a month.

Once the nominations hit the Senate, many face political hurdles. Although Democrats can no longer defeat nominees through the filibuster, they are still pulling all the procedural levers they can to extract key concessions from the administration. One example is the nomination of Sigal Mandelker, a top Treasury Department official, which Democrats have held up to try to obtain documents involving Russias financial dealings with Trump associates.

Using 30 hours [of floor debate] for a secretary is one thing, but using 30 hours for an under [secretary] or assistant [secretary] is, its a real point of leverage, said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). And we dont intend to overuse it.

That means Senate Republicans are getting squeezed from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue when it comes to nominations: A White House that seems unwilling to name key administration personnel, and Democrats who are ready to run even obscure nominees through the procedural wringer.

We need to get more names up here so we can work on them, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said. We need to get Democrats to quit dragging their feet.

Despite their sporadic blockades of nominees, Senate Democrats are still urging the administration to fill key posts as soon as possible. Schatz, along with a half-dozen other Democratic senators, wrote to the White House last month noting that more than 100 critical State Department positions need to be filled, even as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson restructures the organization of personnel at Foggy Bottom.

Slow. Its very, very slow, said Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Theres a lot of jobs, important jobs, that have not been filled.

Her GOP counterpart, Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, had no clue why McAleenan, now serving as CBPs acting commissioner, took so long to be formally submitted: But were going to try to move nominations as quickly as possible.

Elana Schor contributed to this story.

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How Trump is stalling his own nominees - Politico