US Politics - Trump cancels summit having to do with North Korea

NickSCFC wrote:

Photek wrote:Why does Trump think he can win this?

Because he's a god damn moron

The president also suggested he will "probably" skip the White House Correspondents Dinner later this month, like he did last year. Mr. Trump alleged the press often makes up sources to write stories.

"I sort of feel that the press is so bad," Mr. Trump said. "It's so fake, it's so made up. I mean, 'sources say' and they have no sources. They're like novelists. I call them novelists."

Mr. Trump conceded that sometimes there are sources, but "in many cases they literally make up sources." Mr. Trump's own White House communications staff and senior staff on conference calls often decline to give reporters comments on the record, instead asking to be named as simply unnamed White House officials.

The president said he wants to get things straightened out with the press before attending the dinner, so it's "probably pretty unlikely" he will go.

"So I probably won't do it," he said.

White House Correspondents Association President Margaret Talev in a statement said the White House has told the association Mr. Trump does not plan to attend.

"The White House has informed us that the president does not plan to participate in this year's dinner but that he will actively encourage members of the executive branch to attend and join us as we celebrate the First Amendment," she said in a statement. "In keeping with tradition, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also will represent the administration at the head table. The April 28 dinner celebrates award-winning reporting, scholarship winners and the vital role of the First Amendment and the free press in American democracy."

China Ready to Strike Back ‘Forcefully’ at New U.S. Tariffs
President Trump is threatening tariffs on $150 billion in Chinese goods—exceeding the roughly $130 billion in goods China imports from the U.S.

BREAKING NEWS:

*China Ready to Strike back ‘Forcefully’ at New U.S. Tariffs — Commerce Ministry Spokesman

*China Has in Place ‘Detailed’ Countermeasures against New U.S. Tariffs — Commerce Spokesman

*China’s Countermeasures ‘Don’t Exclude Any Options’ — Commerce Spokesman

*China, U.S. Have Had No Negotiations For a Period of Time — Commerce Spokesman

The US state of Texas is deploying National Guard members to the border with Mexico following a call from President Donald Trump.

A Guard spokesman said 250 personnel would be sent to patrol the area within the next 72 hours.

Arizona is also planning to deploy 150 troops there next week.

President Trump says he wants to send up to 4,000 National Guard members to secure the border with Mexico, until his proposed border wall is built.

The states of New Mexico and California have been asked to take similar action to Texas and Arizona.

Also on Friday, the US president outlined plans to end a practice dubbed "catch and release" as part of his stricter anti-immigration policies.

Mr Trump wants illegal immigrants to be held in detention while they wait to hear if they will be deported, instead of being freed.

He has asked the US Department of Defense for a detailed list of military and other facilities that could perform that function.

Is sending troops a first?

The president has called sending troops to the Mexico border a "big step", but both his predecessors also dispatched the National Guard there.

President Barack Obama sent some 1,200 soldiers to guard the boundary, while President George W Bush deployed about 6,000 troops to help Border Patrol in what was called Operation Jump Start.

Both deployments lasted for around a year.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis has approved funding for up to 4,000 National Guard troops from the Pentagon budget until the end of September, the Associated Press reports.

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WASHINGTON — The federal government’s annual budget deficit is set to widen significantly in the next few years, topping $1 trillion in 2020 despite healthy economic growth, according to new projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The national debt, which has topped $21 trillion, is expected to soar to more than $33 trillion in 2028. By then, debt held by the public will almost match the size of the nation’s economy, reaching 96 percent of gross domestic product, a higher level than any point since just after World War II and well past the level that economists say could court a crisis.

The new C.B.O. projection is the first since President Trump signed a tax cut that is expected to cost the government nearly $1.9 trillion over 11 years, then signed legislation to significantly boost military and domestic spending over the next two years. The figures are sobering, even in a political climate where deficit concerns appear to be receding.

This fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, the budget deficit is expected to total $804 billion, up from $665 billion last fiscal year, according to the C.B.O. projections. In a decade, the red ink is expected to reach $1.5 trillion.

The government’s mounting debt has seemed of little consequence on Capitol Hill in recent months as Republicans in Congress successfully worked to pass a sweeping package of tax cuts. But in a sign that Republicans are growing concerned about the political liability of soaring deficits, the House will vote Thursday on a constitutional amendment to require balanced budgets. Since such constitutional amendments require two-thirds of the House and Senate to agree, it is unlikely to pass Congress, let alone be ratified by the states.

But the flurry of recent legislation is making it difficult for Republicans to continue blaming President Barack Obama and Democrats for the government’s fiscal condition.

This year, lawmakers approved a two-year budget deal that raised strict caps on military and domestic spending by about $300 billion. That deal paved the way for Congress to pass a $1.3 trillion spending bill last month. That became law just weeks after the tax cut went into effect.

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

“Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”

Mr. Cohen plays a role in aspects of the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also recently said he paid $130,000 to a pornographic-film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Ms. Clifford is known as Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Ryan said Mr. Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators looking into Russian election meddling.

The payments to Ms. Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said.

The seized records include communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, which would likely require a special team of agents to review because conversations between lawyers and clients are protected from scrutiny in most instances.

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Garth wrote:Oh god he's going to kill us all

Fox News just had a moment of accidental honesty about the network's lack of honesty.

In an unusual twist, Fox News actually reported on something accurately Sunday — just not on purpose.

The inadvertently honest moment took place during a segment on Fox News’ “Media Buzz,” when host Howard Kurtz accidentally showed a graph revealing that Fox is the least trusted of any major cable news network.

Kurtz was speaking to conservative pollster Frank Luntz, who warned that Republicans are in danger of losing both chambers of Congress in this year’s midterm elections.

Among other things, Luntz pointed to Trump’s tweets as one cause of the problems facing the Republican party.

“He should be focused on the economy and taxes and not ‘fake news,'” Luntz said.

“Speaking of fake news, there is a new poll out from Monmouth University. ‘Do the media report fake news regularly or occasionally?’ 77 percent say yes —” Kurtz said, as a graphic appeared onscreen.

But instead of showing the results of the ‘fake news’ poll, the graphic showed the brutally honest results of a question about Americans’ trust in news sources — or lack of trust, in the case of Fox News.

“That is not the graphic we are looking for. Hold off,” Kurtz said as he realized the mistake. “Take that down, please.”

Calling around the president's circle. His allies are taken aback. Rattled. Worry the president has a small legal team that lacks a heavy hitter. Worry that Mueller is making big moves and, in essence, prodding the president to finally sit down for an interview...

Briefly reached a WH official. Official said the WH doesn't have a strategy for the Comey book. Paused. Then said that should answer my question of what's the strategy for dealing with Cohen news.

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FBI agents on Monday raided the Manhattan office of President Trump’s private lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records about Cohen’s clients, including those related to a 2016 payment he made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who claims to have had a sexual encounter with Trump.

Among the documents seized were privileged communications between Cohen and his clients — including those with Trump, according to a person familiar with the investigators’ work. Investigators took Cohen’s computer, phone and personal financial records as part of the search of his office at Rockefeller Center, the person said.

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