Sunday, Dec 16th
Last update05:20:13 AM GMT
Political Glance
The attorneys general of D.C. and Maryland are working together in a lawsuit alleging that Trump has received illegal gifts through the Trump International Hotel amid claims that foreign dignitaries stay there to curry favor with the president.
Anti-Trump sentiment helped Democrats topple every Republican House member in Orange County last month in the storied California conservative stronghold.
Now, a Trump administration push to deport Vietnamese nationals is compounding the party’s problems, possibly cementing the loss of a coastal county that had long been the epicenter of Republican power in California.
As state Republicans try to chart a path out of electoral oblivion, several of them expressed incredulity that Donald Trump would follow the election thrashing by antagonizing one of the few minority groups that has consistently voted for GOP candidates.
The FBI released for the first time Friday night a two-page summary former FBI Director James Comey used to brief President-elect Donald Trump nearly two years ago on a so-called dossier about Trump’s ties to Russia.
The version made public Friday could reignite previous criticism from Republicans and Trump allies that the FBI was too vague in its description of the fact that the dossier was funded by the campaign of Trump’s nemesis in the 2016 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as the Democratic National Committee.
. When tenants in Trump family-built properties noticed their rents went up in the 1990s, some were skeptical the increase was due to rumored building improvements that cost millions.
According to The Times, a questionable purchasing scheme that let now-President Trump and his siblings “pad the cost of nearly everything their father, the legendary builder Fred C. Trump, purchased for his buildings” enabled these rent increases.
Ryan Zinke, the embattled secretary of the Interior, is leaving the administration at the end of the year, President Donald Trump announced via tweet Saturday.
"Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation," Trump said on Twitter. Zinke's replacement will be announced next week, he said.
Zinke is the latest top-level Trump adviser who will be leaving the administration within the coming weeks, joining Chief of Staff John Kelly and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
On Friday the entire fifth floor of a Washington D.C. court room was shut down, so that investigators in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe could obtain a subpoena in secrecy.
Journalists were shooed away, Politico reported, and hungrily waited for scoops—apparently none came.
As Mueller’s team waged battle behind closed doors, there was speculation that Trump himself was the target of the subpoena.
“At every level, this matter has commanded the immediate and close attention of the judges involved — suggesting that no ordinary witness and no ordinary issue is involved,” former federal prosecutor Nelson Cunningham wrote in Politico previously.
Another legal analyst told Politico that the secretive probe was odd.
US President Donald Trump has named Mick Mulvaney, the director of the office of management and budget, as acting White House chief of staff.
Mr Mulvaney, 51, replaces General John Kelly, who is leaving by the end of the year.
In a tweet, Mr Trump described Mr Kelly as a "great patriot", who had served the country with distinction.
But earlier this year, General Kelly was forced to deny he had called Mr Trump an "idiot".
This came after the quote was included in a book about Mr Trump by the veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward.
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