Showing posts with label Donald Trump 2025. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donald Trump 2025. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2025
Trump lets Putin select America's negotiating team, removes Keith Kellogg from Ukraine-Russia negotiations after objections from Putin, objections which may have been transmitted by Steve Witkoff
Kremlin told U.S. it didn't want Trump's Ukraine-Russia envoy at peace talks
President Donald Trump’s
special envoy for Ukraine and Russia was excluded from high-level talks
on ending the war after the Kremlin said it didn't want him there, a
U.S. administration official and a Russian official told NBC News.
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg was
conspicuously absent from two recent summits in Saudi Arabia — one with
Russian officials and the other with Ukrainians — even though the talks
come under his remit.
“Together,” Trump said in announcing Kellogg’s nomination in November, “we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
But Kellogg did not attend U.S.-Russia talks in
Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Feb. 18. Russian President Vladimir Putin
thought he was too pro-Ukraine, a senior Russian official with direct
knowledge of the Kremlin’s thinking told NBC News. ...
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Friday, March 7, 2025
A few GOP senators are not happy with Trump on Ukraine
Republicans press Trump to resume military, intelligence aid to Ukraine
... Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) ...
... Susan Collins (R-Maine) ...
... One Republican senator who requested anonymity called the threat to deport thousands of Ukrainian refugees excessively “punitive.” ...
... Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said he doesn’t support the decision to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine. “I disagree with it,” he said. ...
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Internal polling must be really bad: Trump tries to reign in Elon Musk, or at least appear to be doing so
... The president’s message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk’s mandate. According to Trump’s new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role — but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy and the pacing of implementation. ...
Trump plunges to -8 from +6 in Rasmussen Trump Approval Index
42% now strongly disapprove vs. 34% on January 23rd.
Judge John McConnell blocks Trump's freeze on federal grants and loans, citing the executive's usurpation of Congress' power of the purse
A second federal judge indefinitely blocked President Trump’s blanket freeze on federal grants and loans, saying the administration “put itself above Congress.”
U.S. District Judge John McConnell’s preliminary injunction in favor of Democratic state attorneys general adds to a near-identical block imposed by a federal judge in the nation’s capital late last month.
Both lawsuits commenced after Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a now-rescinded memo that instructed federal agencies to pause grants and loans, a sweeping freeze that covered trillions of dollars of federal spending.
Under McConnell’s order, the Trump administration is indefinitely prohibited from implementing an across-the-board funding freeze under a different name. Agencies can still limit funding access on an individualized basis under applicable laws and regulations.
“The Executive’s categorical freeze of appropriated and obligated funds fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government,” wrote McConnell, an appointee of former President Obama.
More.
Twilight Zone: Republican Senate fascists tell dictator Trump to drop dead, CHIPS Act won't be repealed
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said President Trump’s call for Congress to “get rid of” the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which provided $52 billion for the domestic semiconductor manufacturing industry, is dead on arrival on Capitol Hill. ...
“I think reconstituting domestic manufacturing of advanced semiconductors is a national security and economic imperative,” said Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who was one of 17 Senate Republicans who voted for the law.
Cornyn noted that “the whole purpose of this was national security.”
“Because if there’s a disruption between Asia or Taiwan, to be more specific, and the United States, we would plunge into a depression and we wouldn’t be able to build advanced weapons or aircraft like the F-35,” he said.
The Texas senator said “the idea” for the law came from the first Trump administration, particularly then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“I understand the president suggesting maybe there’s a better way to do this than use tax dollars as incentives … but I think the original bill was responsible [for] this trend [to bring] much greater investment here in the United States,” he added.
He said he’s open to “tweaks around the edges” but explained “the program that Congress passed — that money is essentially spent.”
More.
Putin launches ballistic missile at hotel in Zelenskyy's hometown, kills four after Trump turns off warning technology
... Ukraine's air force reported 112 drones and two missiles launched into the country overnight, with 68 drones shot down and 43 lost in flight.
The air force reported damage in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
In Dnipropetrovsk, a ballistic missile hit a hotel in the city of Kryvyi Rih -- Zelenskyy's hometown.
"A ballistic missile struck an ordinary hotel," the president wrote on social media. Four people were killed with more than 30 others injured, he added. The attack came shortly after a group of foreign humanitarian volunteers checked into the hotel, Zelenskyy said. None were hurt.
Sources told ABC News that two U.S. citizens were among the volunteers who survived the strike, working for the Charity fund Freedom Trust and Ukraine Relief organization. ...
U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired. ...
Paper tiger misses deadline, tells Hamas he really means it this time as he gives billions to Israel but hangs Ukraine out to dry
... Last month Trump called on Hamas
to release the hostages by Feb. 15 or "all hell is going to breakout."
That deadline came and went. This time, Trump is describing his
ultimatum as the "last warning!" ...
“I have just met with your former hostages whose
lives you have destroyed," Trump added. "This is your last warning! For
the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a
chance.” ...
The Trump Administration has already approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, according to the State Department’s website. ...
Hamas still is holding 59 hostages in Gaza, many of whom are believed to be dead. ...
More.
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Polling from Rasmussen Reports shows Trump taking a nosedive after Friday's disastrous crucifixion of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office
Rasmussen Reports Trump Approval Index tanked to -5 on Fri Feb 28th & as low as -7 on Tue in the wake of the disastrous Oval Office meeting with Zelenskyy. People don't like seeing ugly from POTUS & VPOTUS. Massive damage control by surrogates all weekend has failed so far.
Defying every norm, Trump is negotiating directly with terrorists again (no, not the ones in Moscow)
US holding secret talks with Hamas on release of Gaza hostages, 'Post' confirms
... US special envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler ... met with senior Hamas officials in Doha, Qatar, several times. These meetings, first reported by Barak Ravid on Axios, mark the first known direct dialogue between Hamas and the US administration since the US designated Hamas as a terrorist organization in 1997.
Such talks run counter to long-standing US policy against direct contact with groups that Washington lists as foreign terrorist organizations. ...
The White House said Boehler has the authority to negotiate directly with Hamas.
“When it comes to the negotiations that you’re referring to, first of all, the special envoy who’s engaged in those negotiations does have the authority,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. ...
Such talks run counter to long-standing US policy against direct contact with groups that Washington lists as foreign terrorist organizations.Such talks run counter to long-standing US policy against direct contact with groups that Washington lists as foreign terrorist organizations.
The Paper Tiger is back, but he makes you call him and grovel
Trump grants automakers one-month exemption from tariffs
... Spokespeople with the three companies as well as other automakers did not immediately respond for comment on the delay, which comes only a day after the tariffs went into effect.
Leavitt said the president is “open” to hearing requests from other industries seeking exemptions as well.
Leavitt also confirmed the “Big 3” Detroit automakers requested the Tuesday call with Trump, who mentioned it during his address to Congress later in the day. ...
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