PHOTO: Donald Trump meets US senators on Thursday Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty
Developments on Day 21 of the Trump Administration:
Appeals Court Blocks “Muslim Ban”
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejects the Trump Administration’s visa ban on citizens from seven mainly-Muslim countries.
The three-judge panel in San Francisco unanimously ruled that the Justice Department did not establish a case for national security to suspend the visas of more than 60,000 people from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Libya:
The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States. Rather than present evidence to explain the need for the Executive Order, the government has taken the position that we must not review its decision at all.
The court said that, with the absence of the justification for security, the “due process” rights of those with visas — obtained after vetting up to and sometimes beyond 24 months — had been violated. While the judges said this violation meant they did not have to consider the claim of religious discrimination, brought by the states of Washington and Minnesota, they indicated that there were grounds for the argument. To support this, they cited President Trump’s own references to a ban on Muslims, including his contributions to Twitter.
Within 30 minutes of the decision, Trump tweeted:
SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
He later told reporters in the White House, “It’s a political decision, we’re going to see them in court, and I look forward to doing that. It’s a decision that we’ll win, in my opinion, very easily.”
Conway: Buy Ivanka’s Merchandise
Kellyanne Conway, the White House counsellor, is accused of an ethics violation by promoting the merchandise of Trump’s daughter Ivanka.
On Thursday morning, Conway said on a high-profile Fox News program, “Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would say. I hate shopping – I’m going to buy stuff today.”
Last week the Seattle-based department store Nordstrom announced it was dropping Ivanka Trump’s line of shoes, handbags, apparel, and other accessories because of poor sales. Donald Trump responded with a tweet denouncing Nordstrom for the “Terrible!” decision — the message was soon promoted by the official POTUS Twitter account, supported by the US taxpayer.
Far from backing away from the possible conflict of interest, Conway pressed ahead:
It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it. I’m going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.
After the chair of the House of Representatives’ oversight committee said the Administration must refer Conway’s remarks to the Office of Government Ethics — “wrong, wrong, wrong, clearly over the line, unacceptable” — White House press spokesman Sean Spicer said, “She has been counselled on that subject, and that’s it.”
Price Confirmed as Health Secretary
Tom Price, a US Representative from Georgia since 2005, is confirmed as Health Secretary.
Price was approved 52-47 on a party-line vote.
His confirmation points to an aggressive attempt to repeal ObamaCare: in Congress, Price supported privatizing Medicare and proposed turning Medicaid, a program for the poor, into a block grant which would likely mean substantial cuts in provision.
Democrats also accused Price of trading shares in medical and pharmaceutical companies as he tried to shape health policy in Congress.
Trump Denounces US-Russia Treaty — But Doesn’t Know What It Is — in Call with Putin
Officials reveal that, in his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump denounced a treaty that caps US and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads.
The sources — two current officials and one former official with knowledge of the January 28 call —- said Trump also showed little knowledge of the topic: when Putin raised the possibility of extending the 2010 treaty, known as New START, Trump paused to ask his aides what the agreement was.
Trump then told Putin that the treaty was one of several bad deals negotiated by the Obama Administration and that it favored Russia.
The President also talked about his own popularity, as he did in calls with other foreign leaders.
The White House declined to comment, although spokesman Sean Spicer insisted that Trump knew what the New START treaty is but turned to his aides for their views: “It wasn’t like he didn’t know what was being said. He wanted an opinion on something.”
New START gives both countries until February 2018 to reduce their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550, the lowest level in decades. It also limits deployed land- and submarine-based missiles and nuclear-capable bombers.
Trump Attacks “Losing” McCain
Trump again insults Senator John McCain, following McCain’s criticism of the President’s positive comments about Vladimir Putin and references to US “killers”.
Trump tweeted:
Sen. McCain should not be talking about the success or failure of a mission to the media. Only emboldens the enemy! He's been losing so….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
…long he doesn't know how to win anymore, just look at the mess our country is in – bogged down in conflict all over the place. Our hero..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
The President responded to another McCain criticism, insisting that the a failed special forces in Yemen which killed an American commando and civilians including women and children — widely blamed on Trump’s lack of knowledge and ineptitude — was “a winning mission….Time for the U.S. to get smart and start winning again!”
McCain’s remarks on Tuesday objected to an interview, broadcast before American football’s Super Bowl, in which Trump replied to the assertion that Russia’s Putin is “a killer”: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”
Trump has regularly challenged the Arizona Senator over Twitter, calling him “very foul-mouthed” and said of McCain’s 5 1/2 years as a POW in Vietnam: “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
But McCain may have the final word: as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he could cause problems for the Administration’s proposals for foreign and military policy.
Flynn Discussed Removal of Sanctions With Russian Ambassador Before Trump in Office
The New York Times confirms that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn discussed the removal of sanctions on Moscow with the Russian Ambassador to the US, Sergei Kislyak, weeks before Donald Trump became President.
Current and former US officials said Flynn put out the “unambiguous and highly inappropriate” message that the Obama Administration was Russia’s adversary and relations would change under Trump.
With the conversatons, Flynn may have violated the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from engaging in diplomacy. The officials’ accounts also contradict the official line put out by the Trump Administration.
Reuters reported last month, citing three sources familiar with the matter, that Flynn had five phone calls with Kislyak on December 29, the day then-President Barack Obama retaliated with further sanctions for Moscow’s alleged interference in the US Presidential election. The Trump transition team said at the time that Flynn and Kislyak spoke only once on December 28 and sanctions were not considered, with the discussion about a post-inauguration phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Wednesday, Flynn denied that he had discussed sanctions, but on Thursday a spokesman said, “While he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be certain that the topic never came up.”
Trump Talks to Xi and Returns to “One China” Line
Trump, finally speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping, pulls back from any prospect of revising the “One China” policy pursued by Washington since the 1970s.
The White House said that, in the “extremely cordial” call, the two leaders invited each other to visit and “President Trump, at the request of President Xi, to honor our One China policy”.
Trump unsettled Beijing in early December by talking by phone to Taiwanese President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen and saying the US did not have to stick to the policy, adopted in 1979 with American recognition of the People’s Republic of China.
Speculation had grown of problems with the failure to confirm a post-inaugural phone conversation — only hours before the call, The New York Times highlighted the silence. Administration officials conceded that the call could not be made until Trump committed himself to the One China policy.
Concerns Over Immigration Raids in California
A series of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids round up as many as 100 people, mostly from their homes in the greater Los Angeles area, according to immigrant-rights activists.
Protesters responded by blocking an on-ramp to the Hollywood (101) Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.
The ICE targeted immigrants with deportation orders, but family members or other undocumented immigrants present in the home during the sweep were also taken, according to a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
The Obama administration had considered such residents low priority for deportation.
The raids raise concerns that a wider swath of people beyond those with criminal records will be targeted for deportation. President Trump has promised adding 10,000 officers to ICE for deportation sweeps.
ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley downplayed the concerns, saying the raids are daily occurrences.
However, Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights said, “This is business as usual on steroids. For someone to tell us this is normal is an understatement.”
Typically the coalition sees three to five people detained in deportation order sweeps each week, said Cabrera.