Chinese and Russian spy vessels have been sent to shadow the group of U.S. aircraft carriers that are heading toward North Korean waters, Japanese media outlets reported Monday. The move comes amid escalating tensions surrounding Pyongyangâs nuclear efforts. President Trump has described the vessels as an âarmadaâ and said additional and more powerful submarines are…
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned that the âera of strategic patienceâ with North Korea is over as he kicked off his 10-day Asia tour. Speaking from a joint U.S.-South Korean base near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea on Monday, Pence said the White House is counting on China to help ease…
The U.S. Senate confirmed Neil M. Gorsuch to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, capping more than a year of bitter partisan bickering over the ideological balance of the nationâs highest court. Senators voted to confirm Gorsuch, 49, a Denver-based judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, who will become the…
Steve Bannon, former executive chair of Breitbart News and current chief strategist at the White House, threatened to quit over a clash with the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Politico reports. Bannon believes that Kushner, who has taken on an increasingly important position within the administration over the last few weeks, is trying to undermine his…
Following top White House strategist Steve Bannonâs Wednesday morning ouster from the National Security Council, the president has reportedly added Energy Secretary Rick Perry to fill the vacancy. Along with Perry, Trump added the director of national intelligence, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the director of the CIA, and the U.S. ambassador…
President Trump said in a Wednesday interview with The New York Times that he believes former national security adviser Susan Rice committed a crime in allegedly seeking to unmask the identities of Trump associates mentioned in intercepted communications. âI think itâs going to be the biggest story,â the president told the Times, though he declined…
Former national security adviser Susan Rice denied on Tuesday that she was responsible for âunmaskingâ the names of top Trump officials, as was claimed in reports on Monday. âI leaked nothing to nobody, and never have and never would,â Rice said on MSNBC. Rice denied that she or any Obama administration official âused intelligence for…
This morning Trump tweeted in support of former White House National Security Adviser Mike Flynn just one day after it was reported that he would be willing to be interviewed about the Trump campaignâs potential ties to Russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Early Friday morning, he wrote: âMike Flynn should ask for immunity…
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser for President Donald Trump, has informed the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence committees that he is willing to be interviewed in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Flynn was privvy to information about foreign policy deliberations and was…
The Senate Intelligence Committee is holding open hearings Thursday on Russian interference in the U.S. election through technology and disinformation, with a slate of academic and cybersecurity experts scheduled to testify, including former NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander. The hearing will explore the various ways Russia tried to influence the U.S. presidential election and is…
Democrats in Congress have long argued that the ongoing intelligence committee investigations into Russiaâs interference in the presidential election and the Trump campaignâs ties to the Kremlin are unlikely to get to the bottom of the issue. Now a group of âNever Trumpâ Republicans are planning to pressure GOP leaders to establish a bipartisan select…
President Donald Trump will allegedly donate his presidential salary to an undetermined charity at the end of the year, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters during a Monday press briefing. In November, Trump promised to forgo the $400,000 salary, telling 60 Minutes that âIâm not going to the take the salary.â However, federal…
After President Trump used Twitter over the weekend to accuse former President Barack Obama of wiretapping his phones, FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department to publicly reject his claims, senior U.S. officials told The New York Times on Sunday. Comey made the request on Saturday, saying the allegation is baseless and must be…
Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper denied President Trump’s allegation that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election. “If something like that happened, would this be something you would be aware of?” asked NBC News host Chuck Todd. “I would certainly hope so,” Clapper replied. “I can’t say â…
While serving as governor of Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence often used a private AOL email account while conducting official business, sometimes corresponding with top advisers about homeland security matters and other sensitive topics, the Indianapolis Star reports. The IndyStar made a public records request, and the office of Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) released more…
Following pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, President Trump’s next executive order on immigration will take Iraq off the list of countries whose citizens are temporarily barred from entering the United States, several U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The officials said that Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen will stay on the…
President Trumpâs nominee for U.S. commerce secretary won Senate confirmation on Monday, paving the way for work to begin on renegotiating trade deals with China and Mexico. Billionaire Wilbur Ross was confirmed with a Senate vote of 72-27, with support from 19 Democrats. Ross will now be at the helm of an agency with over…
President Trump on Tuesday morning blamed former President Obama for leaks of classified information from the White House and for protests in the wake of a controversial executive order halting immigration from seven predominantly-Muslim countries to the U.S. Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox and Friends, during which he gave no evidence…
President Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern time, looking to refocus his presidency and rally support for his policies from Republicans in Congress and the public at large, amid historically low approval ratings. Trump advisers say the president will tout what he has described as early…
Several major news outlets found themselves blocked from attending a Friday White House press briefing with Sean Spicer, the Press Secretary, the latest sign of worsening relations between the Trump administration and the media attempting to cover it. The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Politico were among the…
Trump administration officials asked intelligence officials and members of Congress to help them downplay and speak out against news reports about the Trump campaign’s connections to Russian intelligence, according to a Washington Post report. These individuals reportedly called journalists attempting to âchallengeâ stories in the New York Times, CNN and elsewhere about top Trump advisersâ…
President Trump on Monday announced that he had picked Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a respected military strategist, as his new national security adviser. McMaster replaces Michael Flynn, who was ousted last week for withholding information on his communication with Russia’s ambassador from Vice President Mike Pence. In an appearance at his Mar-a-Lago club in…
Even his friends at Fox News know President Donald Trump crossed the line with comments referring the media as âthe enemy of the American people.â Chris Wallace said on Sunday that many presidents had contentious relationships with the media, but they still recognized that an independent press was essential to Americaâs democracy. Wallace noted that…
Robert Harward confirmed Thursday night he did not accept President Trump’s offer to become the next national security adviser. Harward, a retired vice admiral who once served as deputy commander of U.S. Central Command and is now a senior executive at Lockheed Martin, told The Associated Press it was “purely a personal issue. I’m in…
U.S. national security officials are reportedly ready to âgo nuclearâ after President Donald Trumpâs latest attack on the intelligence community. In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the âreal scandalâ was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, the president blasted what…
President Donald Trump on Thursday said former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was âjust doing his jobâ when he reportedly spoke numerous times with Russiaâs ambassador about the sanctions levied on the country by the Obama administration, and then misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. The president gave contradictory messages about Flynn, saying…
U.S. intelligence officials have withheld some sensitive intelligence from President Trump because of concerns about the information being leaked or compromised, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. This purported move underscores distrust between the intelligence community and the new administration as a result of reports that Trumpâs campaign team had contacts with…
President Donald Trump called reports that his 2016 campaign team was in “constant” contact with senior Russian intelligence officials “non-sense,” alleging that the news “is merely an attempt to cover up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign.” U.S. officials told The New York Times and CNN that they had intercepted phone calls…
The Today showâs Matt Lauer on Tuesday morning confronted top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway over the White Houseâs remarkable inconsistencies in defending the handling of a scandal involving Michael Flynn. The national security adviser resigned late Monday over his pre-inauguration calls with a Russian ambassador that included discussion of lifting U.S. sanctions; and over his…
Michael Flynn resigned late Monday as President Trump’s national security adviser, after just over three weeks on the job. Flynn quit hours after The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had warned the White House that Flynn had discussed sanctions with Russia’s ambassador before Trump’s inauguration, and could be subject to blackmail. Flynn, a…
