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Not in an alternate universe but in the actual United States of America, Barack Obama is apparently still the presidentat least thats what some new American citizens were led to believe when they received welcoming letters that had Obamas presidential signature on them.

Aisha Sultan, a columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, shared an image on Twitter of the letter her husband, a British native, received Friday, which included the 44th presidents signature instead of one by the current commander in chief, President Donald Trump.

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Sultans husband isnt the only recently naturalized American to receive a welcoming letter with Obamas signature. About 200 such letters featuring Obamas signature have been issued to new citizens following an administrative oversight within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services field offices, which distributes the letters in welcoming packages after an immigrants naturalization, USCIS Press Secretary Gillian Christensen told The Hill Saturday.

Following Sultans tweet, which received more than 177,000 likes and 54,000 retweets as of Monday, a few other new Americans revealed they also received letters with Obamas signature and even saw a video of the former Illinois senator welcoming them to the U.S. after they took their oath of citizenship.

Usually, when a new president takes office, the administration will produce new welcoming letters that are distributed to USCIS field offices around the country, along with a video message from the president. The Trump administration has yet to hand over congratulatory letters and video messages to be issued to new U.S. citizens.

Another spokeswoman for the agency, Maria Elena Upson, told The Arizona Republic in June that new administrations typically take a few months to produce letters and videos to be delivered to new Americans. She noted that the letters and videos generally arent distributed until the new administration creates them.

"Following a change in administrations, it typically takes several months for a new letter and video message to be produced and distributed to USCIS field offices," she said. During this interim period, USCIS does not provide a congratulatory letter or show a video message."

While its unclear when Trumps welcoming letter and video will be distributed, some soon-to-be Americans expressed their desire on social media over the weekend to receive letters that still include Obamas signature instead of Trumps.

Despite Trump's hard-line stance on immigration reform,some 300,000 people have been naturalized since he took office in January, Christensen said.

Back in October, a Pew Research Center report found citizenship applications were the highest they had been in four years, based on fears overTrumps immigration rhetoric. By the end of 2016, citizenship applications were up 8 percent compared with the number of applications that had been submitted around the same time in 2012.

Excerpt from:
President Obama Still in White House, According to Letters Issued by Citizenship and Immigration - Newsweek

Christina Gregg, AOL.com

Jul 18th 2017 8:42AM

President Trump's decision to part ways with Chris Christie came after the New Jersey governor offered his own cell phone as means for speaking with former President Barack Obama, according to a new book.

In Joshua Green's new book, Devil's Bargain, insider details of Trump's presidential campaign are revealed -- including a tense moment aides later described as Christie's "ultimate mistake."

According to the book, whose accounts are summarized in a new Daily Mail report, Christie approached Trump after news of his 2016 presidential election win had solidified with the proposal of arranging a call between then-President Barack Obama and the new president-elect.

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The book summarizes the exchange as follows:

"Hey Donald," Christie said. "The President talked to me earlier. If you win he's going to call my phone, and I'll pass it over to you."

Trump, a known germaphobe, was reportedly disgusted at the thought of using Christie's own cell phone for the conversation with Obama -- and responded with such anger. The book also describes Trump as having sat down to "absorb the gravity of what was happening," and saw Christie's statement as an intrusion.

"Hey Chris, you know my f***ing phone number," Trump said, as described by Green in the book. "Just give it to the President. I don't want your f***ing phone."

Senior adviser Jared Kushner later removed Christie from his role as head of Trump's transition team.

More from AOL.com: CNNs Navarro wondered if Trump Jr. had been dropped on his head as a child Donald Trump Jr.'s emails raise a big question about Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort Putting the Trump-Russia timeline into perspective

Originally posted here:
Report: Trump dumped Chris Christie over germy Obama phone call proposal - AOL

The greatest trick any politician can pull off is to get his self-interest and his principles in perfect alignment. As Thomas More observed in Robert Bolts A Man for All Seasons, If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly.

Which brings me to Sen. Rand Paul, the GOPs would-be Man for All Seasons. Paul has managed to make his opposition to the GOPs healthcare bill a matter of high libertarian principle. The fact that the bill is terribly unpopular in his home state of Kentucky where more than 1 out of 5 Kentuckians are on Medicaid is apparently just a coincidence.

Indeed, it seems like whenever I turn on the news, hes explaining why the GOPs healthcare efforts are disappointing. Look, this is what we ran on for four elections. Republicans ran four times and won every time on repeal Obamacare, he told Fox News Neil Cavuto, and now they're going to vote to keep it. Disappointing.

Principles, meet self-interest.

But is Pauls idealism really whats driving him, or is that just a convenient excuse for doing whats politically expedient? Its tough to say.

Paul learned politics on the knee of his father, Ron Paul, a longtime Texas congressman and irrepressible presidential candidate. In the House, the elder Paul earned the nickname Dr. No because he voted against nearly everything on the grounds that it wasnt constitutional or libertarian enough. The fusion of cynicism and idealism was so complete, it was impossible to tell where one began and the other ended.

Im absolutely for free trade, more so than any other member of the House, he told National Reviews John Miller in 2007. But Im against managed trade. So he opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and all other trade deals, not on Trumpian protectionist grounds but in service to his higher libertarian conscience which, in a brilliant pas de deux landed him in the protectionist position anyway.

Ron Paul loved earmarks. Hed cram pork for his district in must-pass spending bills like an overstuffed burrito and then vote against them in the name of purity, often boasting that he never approved an earmark or a spending bill.

In 2006, Republicans proposed legislation to slow the growth of entitlements by $40 billion over five years. Democrats screamed bloody murder about Republican heartlessness and voted against it. So did Ron Paul on the grounds the reform didnt go far enough.

Now I cant say for sure that Rand Paul is carrying on the family tradition.

And yet: Every time healthcare proceedings move one step in Pauls direction, he seems to move one step back. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas offered an amendment that would open up the market for more flexible and affordable plans, like Paul wants. No good, he told Foxs Chris Wallace. Those plans are still in the context of the Obamacare mandates.

My idea always was to replace it with freedom, legalize choice, legalize inexpensive insurance, allow people to join associations to buy their insurance.

Sounds good. Except a provision for exempting associations from Obamacare mandates is already in the bill.

Paul insists hes sympathetic to the GOPs plight and its need to avoid a midterm catastrophe. (It would look awful if the party did nothing on healthcare at all.) His solution? Just repeal Obamacare now, and work on a replacement later. I still think the entire 52 of us can get together on a more narrow, clean repeal, he told Wallace.

That sounds like a constructive idea, grounded in principle.

Oddly, thats what the GOP leadership wanted to do back in January.

And one senator more than any other fought to stop them and even lobbied the White House successfully to change course. Guess who?

If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, Paul wrote, the repealers risk assuming the blame for the continued unraveling of Obamacare. For mark my words, Obamacare will continue to unravel and wreak havoc for years to come.

Thats true, particularly, if Paul stays true to his principles.

jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com

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Continued here:
Is Rand Paul's opposition to the GOP health bill principled, or cynical? - Los Angeles Times

Kelsey Brunner, Deseret News

FILE - Chris Herrod, one of three Republicans facing off in August's Congressional District 3 primary, answers questions about current political issues during a meeting of the Deseret News and KSL editorial boards at the Deseret News offices in Salt Lake City on Monday, July 17, 2017.

SALT LAKE CITY Conservative Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has endorsed Republican Chris Herrod in Utah's 3rd Congressional District race.

"As a state representative and leader in his community, Chris has proven that he understands the principles of liberty and has shown that he is willing to fight for them, Paul said in news release Tuesday. "There is no doubt that he has the convictions that will help to move this country in the right direction."

Herrod, a former Utah House member, is in a three-way contest with Provo Mayor John Curtis and Alpine attorney Tanner Ainge for the GOP nomination in the special election to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who resigned last month. Democrat Kathie Allen is already on the general election ballot.

"Now more than ever, Obamacare is hurting citizens in Utah and across the country. We need more members of Congress like Chris in order to repeal this broken system, and I look forward to working with him in Washington to reduce the size of government and return liberty to all Americans," said Paul, one of the Republican senators opposed to the latest Senate health care bill.

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Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul endorses Chris Herrod in 3rd District race - Deseret News

Local Libertarians join petition opposing Orleans Parish traffic cameras Mid-City Messenger Nearly a year after the Orleans Parish Libertarian Party first launched opposition to the city's plan to double traffic cameras, the group is still finding avenues to remove them. One of those avenues, by way of petition, is gaining steam. The Orleans ...

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Local Libertarians join petition opposing Orleans Parish traffic cameras - Mid-City Messenger