Author: Philip Rucker
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Trump says Puerto Rico can’t get aid ‘forever’ as House set to pass $36.5B for hurricane, wildfire relief
President Trump served notice Thursday that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid a staggering humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Declaring the U.S. territory’s electrical grid and infrastructure to have been a “disaster before hurricanes,” Trump wrote Thursday that it will…
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Trump proposes ‘IQ tests’ faceoff with Tillerson after secretary of state calls him a ‘moron’
President Trump proposed an “IQ tests” faceoff with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after the nation’s top diplomat reportedly called the president a “moron” and disparaged his grasp of foreign policy. In an interview with Forbes magazine published Tuesday, Trump fired a shot at Tillerson over the “moron” revelation, first reported by NBC News and confirmed by several other news…
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Trump’s record as an ally: unpredictable
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump prepared for the pivotal meeting with congressional leaders by huddling with his senior team – his chief of staff, his legislative director and the heads of Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget – to game out various scenarios on how to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling…
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Trump deals with Democrats on Harvey, debt ceiling
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump, a man of few allegiances who seized control of the Republican Party in a hostile takeover, suddenly aligned himself with Democrats on Wednesday on a series of key fiscal issues, and even gave a lift to North Dakota’s embattled Democratic U.S. senator. Trump confounded his party’s leaders when he cut…
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Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer
On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last month, President Trump’s advisers discussed how to respond to a new revelation that Trump’s oldest son had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — a disclosure the advisers knew carried political and potentially legal peril. The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be…
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Trump dictated son’s misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer
On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last month, President Trump’s advisers discussed how to respond to a new revelation that Trump’s oldest son had met with a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign — a disclosure the advisers knew carried political and potentially legal peril. The strategy, the advisers agreed, should be…
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Kushner spends two hours being questioned by Senate investigators on Russia
Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, spent about two hours Monday answering questions from Senate investigators on his contacts with Russian officials, insisting he had not colluded with foreign agents before or after the 2016 presidential campaign. Kushner emerged smiling from Senate offices shortly after noon and got into a waiting vehicle, on…
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Trump had undisclosed hour-long meeting with Putin at G-20 Summit
After his much-publicized, two-and a quarter-hour meeting early this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Group of 20 summit in Germany, President Trump met informally with the Russian leader for an additional hour later the same day. The second meeting, unreported at the time, took place at a dinner for G20 leaders, a…
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Spicer may leave the press room podium behind for a more backstage White House role
White House press secretary Sean Spicer is expected to transition to a more behind-the-scenes role overseeing communications strategy, part of a broader overhaul of the administration’s most public-facing operation that has long been the subject of President Trump’s ire and criticism. Spicer’s anticipated move away from the briefing-room podium, confirmed by a senior White House…
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Hillary Clinton blames Russian hackers and FBI’s Comey for 2016 election loss
Hillary Clinton on Tuesday attributed her defeat in the 2016 presidential election to interference by Russian hackers and FBI Director James B. Comey, and declared herself to be “part of the resistance” to Donald Trump’s presidency. “If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,” Clinton told moderator Christiane Amanpour, the…