How Trump Has Impacted LGBTQ Rights, 100 Days In
Trump Dissolves Business Advisory Councils as CEOs Quit
WINNING
President Donald Trump dissolved two of his business advisory councils Wednesday after a rash of CEOs resigned in the wake of his response to a white nationalist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, that occurred Saturday.
"Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both," Trump tweeted. "Thank you all!
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Trump Unwinds Regulations, but Overshadows Efforts With Controversy
Second-Quarter Economic Growth Now Seen Doubling Pace of First Quarter
WINNING
Economic growth is expected to be double the first quarter's pace when second-quarter GDP data is released Friday morning.
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House GOP Approves $1.6 Billion for Trump’s Wall
IMMIGRATION
The House passed a $788 billion spending bill Thursday that combines a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump's controversial border wall with Mexico with a whopping budget increase for the Pentagon.
The 235-192 vote both eases a large backlog of unfinished spending bills and gives Trump and his House GOP allies political wins heading into the August recess. Challenging hurdles remain in front of the measure, however, which will meet with more powerful Democratic opposition in the Senate.
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DHS Chief: U.S. Tested Prototype Bombs Before Implementing New Airplane Electronics Rules
TERRORISM
ASPEN, Colo. — The U.S. government tested two prototype bombs, based on new terrorist technology, to determine that they could take down a passenger jet before implementing new cabin rules on electronic devices, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told NBC News’ Pete Williams Wednesday night
“We tested it on a real airplane on the ground, pressurized, and to say the least, it destroyed the airplane,” Kelly said during the opening session of the Aspen Security Forum.
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Supreme Court Allows Broader Family Exceptions to Trump Travel Ban
Insurers Fear Latest Chaos Over Health Care
HEALTH CARE
Health insurers expressed concern Tuesday over the uncertainty surrounding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and President Donald Trump's most recent call to let Obamacare "fail."
"With open enrollment for 2018 only three months away, our members and all Americans need the certainty and security of knowing coverage will be available and affordable for them," said Justine Handelman, senior vice president for policy at Blue Cross Blue Shield, one of the nation’s largest insurers.
Insurers’ most immediate worry is the federal cost-sharing subsidies they’ve relied on to help make plans in the ACA’s exchanges more affordable. Trump has dubbed those funds "ransom money" and threatened to withhold them to hasten the collapse of Obamacare.
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Outgoing Ethics Director: Appearances Count on Trump Financial Conflicts
HONESTY
The outgoing head of the federal government’s ethics watchdog agency said he is leaving his post still unsure whether President Donald Trump is using the White House to enrich his businesses and himself.
"I can't know what their intention is," Walter Shaub Jr., the director of the independent Office of Government Ethics, said in an interview with CBS News. "I know that the effect is that there's an appearance that the businesses are profiting from his occupying the presidency. And appearance matters as much as reality.”
Shaub wrote Trump on Thursday to inform him he would be resigning later this month. The government ethics director clashed with the White House even before Trump was sworn in, especially when it came to how the real estate mogul handled his business interests after his election victory.
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Senate Ignores Trump's FAA Privatization Push
Poll: Global Opinion of U.S., Trump Down Since Election
GLOBAL DEALS
“The world is going to respect us again,” the president said on the campaign trail repeatedly. “Believe me.”
Five months into his administration, a new Pew poll reveals the opposite. Global opinions of the president, and the nation he leads, has fallen since Trump’s election: just 22 percent of the rest of the world has confidence in Trump, while 39 percent have an unfavorable view of the United States (up from 26 percent at the end of the Obama’s presidency.)
Just two countries have more confidence in Trump than they did in Obama at the end of his presidency: Israel, with a 7 point more favorable view, and Russia, which has a 42 point more favorable view.
White House Champions Immigration Crackdown as Public Safety Win
IMMIGRATION
The White House spent an entire day last week telling reporters that the president is “keeping his promises,” and indeed the president is cracking down on undocumented immigrants. Arrests of undocumented immigrants are up, and border crossings are down — a phenomenon his administration credits to the “uncertainty” about how immigration will be handled under the new president.
The president has championed this crackdown as key to making America safer, something that would surely be part of making the country “great again.” He’s launched an office to support victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, met with victims of such crimes at the White House last week, and celebrated the passage of two House bills that boost his efforts.
He championed two House bills which passed last week that would crack down on undocumented immigrants who commit crime , as well. There’s just one hitch: there’s no evidence undocumented immigrants are a public safety risk. On the contrary, there’s evidence that immigrants — both legal and undocumented — commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born Americans.