Tag: Trump administration

Knives Out For Kelly: Leaky White House Staffers Target Chief Of Staff

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by Peter Hasson   White House chief of staff John Kelly is on the receiving end of more damaging leaks from unnamed West Wing staffers. NBC News quoted eight current and former White House staffers in a story that described Kelly complaining about President Donald Trump. Kelly frequently portrays himself as saving the country from destruction and has repeatedly called Trump an “idiot,” the anonymous officials claimed. The officials blamed Kelly for low morale in the White House and questioned his judgement. “He says stuff you can’t believe,” one senior White House official told NBC News. “He’ll say it and you think, ‘That is not what you should be saying.’” Kelly dismissed the NBC News report as “total BS” in a statement issued Monday evening. “I spend more time with the President than anyone else and we have an incredibly candid and strong relationship. He always knows where I stand and he and I both know this story is total BS,” Kelly said. “I am committed to the President, his agenda, and our country. This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administrations many successes.” The leaks are the latest indication that Kelly may…

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Exclusive Interview: Ben Carson on Draining the Swamp, Fighting Poverty, and Kanye West

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Ben Carson

by Genevieve Wood   Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson spoke to The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood about his policy goals at HUD, what it’s like to serve under President Trump, and Kanye West’s recent tweets. An edited transcript of their interview is below. Genevieve Wood: Secretary Carson, thank you for talking with the Daily Signal. Ben Carson: Absolutely. My pleasure. Wood: So you’ve been in office now a year and a half almost, right? Carson: Almost. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Wood: Coming up on it. What have been the biggest challenges for you at HUD? Carson: There have been several challenges, but the biggest challenge is when I first came in there were no assistant secretaries or deputy secretaries, so it was like drinking from a fire hydrant every day. But it worked out OK, and we had some tremendous people—career staff and political appointees—who were able to really step up to the plate and help. But that has worked out extremely well. Probably one of the things that surprised me the most was how disorganized the financial structure was. Wood: Of…

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Commentary: Cleaning House Is Not Enough

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by George Rasley, CHQ Editor   The appointment of Ambassador John Bolton as President Trump’s National Security Advisor and the confirmation of CIA Director and former Representative Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State brought two solid conservatives with great credentials and a commitment to President Trump’s national security policies into his administration. Gone are the ineffective Rex Tillerson, who never seemed to click with Trump and his policy goals, and the near-treasonous H.R. McMaster who, as National Security Advisor, was a Fifth Columnist for maintaining Obama’s disastrous policies on the Iran nuclear deal, the war Islam has declared on the West and Chinese expansionism, to name just three of his more obvious betrayals of Trump’s campaign promises. But what about the staffers and underlings that Tillerson and especially McMaster brought into the Administration? Ever since General Mike Flynn was ousted as President Trump’s National Security Advisor the NSC has slid steadily back toward Obama-like postures toward the war Islam has declared on the West and especially on dealing with Iran. The reason for this slide back to Obama’s policies is the hiring of LTG H.R. McMaster as National Security Advisor, who in turn retained many of Obama’s staff that Flynn…

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Sixteen Months After Inauguration, President Trump Still Waits on the Senate to Confirm Nominees

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by Natalia Castro   The Department of Labor needs an upgrade. As President Donald Trump makes important changes across the executive branch, the Department of Labor has remained a step behind, but it is not necessarily the department’s fault or even Secretary Alexander Acosta. It’s the Senate’s fault. The Senate has stalled the confirmation of Trump’s nominees to executive positions, such as the nominee Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor, Patrick Pizzella. This has prevented necessary reforms from taking place and slowed the progress of the entire agency. Patrick Pizzella has been the right choice for the Deputy Secretary for a long time. Most recently, Pizzella has served as Acting Chairman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA). Pizzella’s board hears cases regarding unfair labor practices, union representation, and arbitration appeals. Pizzella has avoided controversy in all of his positions, so it was no surprise in 2013 when a Democratic-majority Senate led by Harry Reid unanimously confirmed Pizzella to serve on the board by voice vote. But under the Trump Administration, attempts by Senators to disrupt the confirmation process have left Pizzella stalled over and over again, making him a case study on Senate inefficiency. President Trump nominated Pizzella on June 20,…

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David Shulkin Says His Stance Against Privatizing the VA Led to His Firing

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Outgoing Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said Thursday that he was fired because of his stance against privatizing the department. “I think that it’s essential for national security and for the country that we honor our commitment by having a strong VA. I was not against reforming VA, but I was against privatization,” Mr. Shulkin said on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.”

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Senate Democrats Holding Up Trump Nominees for Top Jobs

Tennessee Star Staff

Despite a change in how the Senate votes on presidential nominees, a large number of President Donald Trump’s key nominees are stuck in legislative limbo, blocked by tactics that mostly Democratic senators are employing. The White House says there are currently 262 pending nominations held in the Senate. At the Department of Labor, Secretary Alex Acosta has a solicitor and several other Senate-confirmed aides, according to Bloomberg News. But Trump’s and Acosta’s pick for deputy secretary at the Labor Department, Pat Pizzella, could be held up until spring, Bloomberg reports. His nomination is opposed by liberal activist groups that say he has lobbied for lower wages in the past.

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Mark Norris Continues His Duties in the State Senate as He Awaits Confirmation by the US Senate to the Federal Bench

Christina Botteri

While State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris (R-Collierville) is awaiting US Senate confirmation to become the next United States District Judge for the Western District of Tennessee, he will continue to serve his constituents in state Senate district 32. “I’m not going to resign the seat which my constituents have elected me or this leadership for which you elected me.” Norris told the Tennessean. “It’s very constructive to be crucified for the sins of others, to see what other people who demonize us say about us and how they see us.” Mark Norris was tapped by the Trump Administration in July 2017 to fill the federal judgeship that was vacated a few months prior in March. “I am honored by the nomination and appreciate the President’s confidence in me,” he said at the time. “This is just the first step under the Constitution, and I look forward to the Senate confirmation process. In the meantime, I will continue to serve the citizens of the 32nd District who elected me to the Senate and my Senate colleagues who elected me as their Leader.” Five months later, Norris’ judicial nomination was supported by a 11-9 party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee at the…

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Trump’s Labor Secretary Targets Occupational Licensing for Elimination

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Tennessee Star

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta took on occupational licensing reform Friday, calling for the elimination of unnecessary licenses and the streamlining of those that make sense. Acosta urged while speaking at the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Denver, Colorado, state legislators roll back burdensome occupational licensing requirements that effectively serve as…

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Trump Administration May Be Inching Toward ‘Regime Change’ in Syria, Iran and Venezuela

Tennessee Star Staff

The Trump administration and Congress appear to be inching toward policies of regime change in at least three countries — Iran, Syria and Venezuela — in what would be a dramatic reversal of the non-interventionism that Donald Trump advocated during the campaign. In a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 14, Secretary of…

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President Trump Urges Passage of Kate’s Law

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  The White House released a statement Tuesday afternoon strongly urging passage of HR 3004, more commonly known as ‘Kate’s Law’: The Administration strongly supports H.R. 3004, Kate’s Law. This bill commemorates Kate Steinle, the 32-year-old woman who was shot and killed two years ago in San Francisco as she walked along a pier with her father. The alleged shooter, Francisco Sanchez, was an illegal immigrant who had already been deported five times and had seven felony convictions. H.R. 3004 would increase the penalties that may be imposed on criminal aliens convicted of illegal reentry, deterring reentry and keeping criminal aliens off our streets. The bill is consistent with the Administration’s broader efforts to strengthen enforcement of our immigration laws and improve the security of our Nation’s borders. If H.R. 3004 were presented to the President in its current form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.  The effort to sharpen punishments for repeatedly violating U.S. immigration laws in reaction to crimes like the murder of Kate Steinle was undertaken by former FOXNews analyst and host of The Factor, Bill O’Reilly. Early efforts to pass Kate’s Law failed in 2015 and 2016 due to blocks by then-Senator Harry…

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EPA Delays One of the Agency’s Most Expensive Regulations Ever

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

The Trump administration announced Tuesday evening it would delay the implementation of a smog rule that’s been called one of the costliest clean air regulations ever. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt sent a letter to governors saying there’s “insufficient information” to fully implement the 2015 rule on its current timeline. The rule lowers the national…

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Commentary: Obama Holdovers Successfully Sabotaging Trump’s War Against ISIS

Tennessee Star Staff

  by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor This week the Obama holdovers that have been foolishly allowed to remain in the White House and our national security and foreign policy departments scored a double victory in their ongoing coup against President Trump. And in the process of undermining the President they gravely undermined his strategy to defeat the Islamic State and its campaign of terrorism against the West. The first victory was to advance their effort to poison the relationship between the United States and Russia by revealing that the President, using his clear constitutional authority, had shared intelligence with the Russians about Islamic State plans to use laptop computer bombs against airliners. During the recent presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump said on a number of occasions that one of the goals of his strategy against the Islamic State would be to engage the Russians more actively in the fight. And, in their faux outrage at the President’s decision to share intelligence with the Russians the Leftwing media and their enablers on Capitol Hill seem to have forgotten that it is the Russians who have suffered one of the most devastating Islamic State airliner bombings. Metrojet flight 9268 was just 23 minutes…

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