Trump news: US delays tariffs as president threatens long jail sentences for FBI 'spying' against his campaign
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has claimed on Twitter he was “conclusively spied on” by the Obama-era Justice Department in 2016, citing a Fox News opinion poll as proof and threatening long jail sentences for those found responsible in attorney general William Barr‘s upcoming investigation into the matter, widely regarded as revenge for the Mueller report.
The president meanwhile unveiled plans to revamp US immigration at the White House on Thursday, proposing a more selective, merit-based system and English tests for asylum seekers. It has also emerged he wants his US-Mexico border wall to be painted black and lined with spikes to intimidate and deter would-be illegal entrants.
As Washington reacted to those plans — they are likely dead on arrival with Democrats in control of the House — the Trump administration has continued to wrestle with potential crises when it come to trade, and Iran.
As tensions with Iran rumble on, Mr Trump is also reported to be seething in private about the perception his hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, is dictating policy on Tehran and leading the US to the brink of a war the president says he “hopes” can be avoided.
As for trade, Mr Trump has given a pass to the European Union and Japan for tariffs for the next six months on autos, after threatening a stiff tax on the goods if they're brought into the US.
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Remember Ben Carson? The secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)? Yeah, that guy!
As it turns out, Mr Carson's purchasing of a massively expensive dining set using HUD may have been illegal, at least according to a government watchdog.
"HUD did violate section 710 when it obligated $31,561.00 for the purchase of a dining set for the HUD Secretary’s dining room and $8,812.84 for the purchase and installation of a new dishwasher and associated water treatment system in the kitchen connected to the dining room without providing advance notice to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate," the general counsel for the Government Accountability Office, Thomas Armstrong, wrote in a recent letter.
Some good news for undocumented immigrants in the United States — a federal court has ruled in a split decision that the Trump administration's decision to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status (known as DACA) was unlawful, because "it was not adequately explained".
The US Treasury Department and IRS are set to miss a deadline today to hand over Donald Trump's tax returns, and Democrats are furious.
“I think Friday is the turning point,” said Representative Bill Pascrell, alluding to further measures that could be taken in court if they are ignored. “There’s no more letters to be written.”
In case you missed it, Donald Trump yesterday unveiled an immigration plan that would drastically reshape American immigration policy.
Here's a quick quote from his speech yesterday in the Rose Garden, where he outlined the policy that is almost surely dead on arrival in Congress:
"We want immigrants coming in. We cherish the open door that we want to create for our country. But a big proportion of those immigrants must come in through merit and skill."
Here's a nice comment piece for you to ponder, from the Indy's Patrick Cockburn:
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