Archive for the ‘Donald Trump’ Category

Melissa McCarthy returns to ‘Saturday Night Live’ as Sean Spicer, Alec Baldwin reprises Donald Trump – ABC News

Both Alec Baldwin and Melissa McCarthy returned to "Saturday Night Live" this weekend to reprise their roles as President Donald Trump and White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

In one sketch, McCarthy's easily agitated Spicer holds one of his infamous press briefings dressed as the Easter Bunny. The sketch pokes fun at Spicer's controversial comments this past week comparing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad with Adolf Hitler, which left many observers calling for his resignation.

"Everybody shut up so I can apologize," McCarthy's Spicer says. "You all got your wish this week, didn't you? Spicey finally made a mistake."

VIDEO: "EASTER MESSAGE FROM SEAN SPICER"

The show's cold open featured Baldwin's Trump speaking with Vice President Mike Pence, played by "SNL" cast member Beck Bennett, in the Oval Office.

The sketch poked fun at the president's frequent visits to Mar-a-Lago, his achievements so far, in-fighting in the White House, and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

VIDEO: COLD OPEN

"So many memories in this room," Baldwin's Trump says during the cold open. "This is where I met with the Chinese president."

Bennett's Pence corrects the president, saying, "That was at Mar-a-Lago, sir."

Baldwin's Trump continues, "This was where I ordered the Syrian strike."

Yet again, Bennett's Pence corrects the president: "That was also at Mar-a-Lago, sir."

The cold open also mocks the president's knowledge of foreign affairs.

Says Baldwin's Trump: "Remember when I refused to shake the hand of that little German boy?"

"You mean, Angela Merkel?" says Bennett's Pence.

"Whatever his name is," responds the commander in chief.

As the show has in the past, the cold open portrayed White House chief strategist Steve Bannon as the Grim Reaper.

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Melissa McCarthy returns to 'Saturday Night Live' as Sean Spicer, Alec Baldwin reprises Donald Trump - ABC News

Donald Trump’s election flips both parties’ views of the economy – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (blog)

Do political views color perceptions of the economy? Washington Bureau Chief Craig Gilbert fills us in.

Having Donald Trump in the White House has had a revolutionary effect on the economic outlook of Wisconsins most partisan voters, recent polling suggests.

In a flash, it has turned Republicans into rosy optimists and Democrats into dour pessimists, reversing the mood of voters in both parties.

You probably didnt need a poll to tell you that.

But the polling also tells us something more stark and fundamental about the partisan prism through which many voters see the world.

Trumps election did more than change the expectations of Republicans and Democrats about the economys future performance.

It altered their assessments of the economys actual performance.

When GOP voters in Wisconsin were asked last October whether the economy had gotten better or worse over the past year, they said worse by a margin of 28 points.

But when they were asked the very same question last month, they said better by a margin of 54 points.

Thats a net swing of 82 percentage points between late October 2016 and mid-March 2017.

What changed so radically in those four and a half months?

The economy didnt. But the political landscape did.

RELATED:You thought health care divided GOP? Check out a proposed import tax

Republican Trump replaced Democrat Barack Obama as president. With their own party now in power, Republicans overwhelmingly upgraded their evaluations of Americas economic performance.

Thats a testament to the power of partisanship to rewrite our perceptions, even when the objective reality has hardly changed, says the Marquette University Law Schools Charles Franklin, who conducted the polls cited above.

Something similar has happened in the nation as a whole. As the New York Times reported recently, Republicans and Democrats have done an about-face since the election in their economic outlook, with the partisan gap in national consumer sentiment bigger than ever before.

The Wisconsin polling is a striking illustration. Asked last month if, looking ahead, they expect the economy to get better, worse or stay the same over the next year, GOP voters chose better over worse by a margin of 80 points. Democratic voters chose worse over better by a margin of 43 points.

That is the biggest partisan gap Marquette has ever recorded on this question in 42 polls dating back to the beginning of 2012. And it represents a huge shift since last fall for voters in both parties.

But the Wisconsin polling adds some other wrinkles to thisstory.

In its polls, Marquette poses a second question on the economy, asking voters to rate its performance over the past year.

Across more than five years of Wisconsin surveys, the results show some very distinctive patterns.

One is that the Republicans have shifted more dramatically in their views of the economy than Democrats, from overwhelmingly negative during much of the Obama presidency to overwhelmingly positive with Trump now in the White House. Democrats assessments of the economy darkened after Trumps election, but the shifts in their views have been much more modest.

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Two, the economic perceptions of both Republicans and Democrats have routinely seesawed with the states election cycles.

In presidential campaign seasons, Democratic voters have given the economy their best grades, Republicans their worst grades. Why?

One explanation is that the run-up to an election is when partisan voters are most likely to see the economy through a partisan lens. With Democrat Obama in the White House and his economic record a key campaign issue, his supporters see the economy in the best possible light, his opponents in the worst possible light.

In late October of 2012 on the cusp of the presidential election 59% of Wisconsin Democrats said the economy had gotten better over the previous 12 months. That is the highest figure recorded in 42 Marquette polls over five-plus years.

In the same survey, only 5% of GOP voters said the economy had gotten better. That is the lowest figure ever recorded by Marquette.

But just the opposite was true during the state's campaigns for governor, with Wisconsin Democrats givingthe economy their worst grades, Republicans their best.

For example, Democratic views of the economy worsened during the recall election over Gov. Scott Walker in the summer of 2012, improved during the fall 2012 presidential campaign, worsened during the 2014 race for governor, and improved again during the 2016 presidential campaign.

SPECIAL REPORT:Democratic, Republican voters worlds apart in divided Wisconsin

GOP perceptions moved in the reverse direction.

Why would elections for governor produce a different pattern in Wisconsin than elections for president?

One fundamental difference is that in the 2012 and 2014 races for governor, the politician whose record in office was under scrutiny was a Republican Walker. As a result, both parties adopted an entirely different economic message than the one they had during the most recent two presidential campaigns.

Walker aggressively touted the states economic performance under his leadership, while Democrats attacked it.The result? Republican voters grew more positive about the economy and Democrats grew more negative.

In fact, the best grades Republicans have ever given the economy in Marquettes more than five years of polling were on the eve of the 2014 election, when Walker was seeking a second term.That was also when Wisconsin Democrats gave the economy their very worst grades in 42 Marquette polls.

In short, Democrats and especially Republicans in Wisconsin have changed their views of the economy far more than actual economic conditions have changed. And those views have shifted in concert with the election cycles.

The polling suggests that many partisan voters look to their preferred candidates for cues about how to view the economy, says Franklin, which shows how much even economicreality is filtered through our subjective perceptions by voters own partisan leanings.

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Donald Trump's election flips both parties' views of the economy - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (blog)

Donald Trump to Be First President Since Reagan to Speak at NRA Annual Meetings – Breitbart News

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He will speak to the NRAs 2017 Leadership Forum in Atlanta on April 28.

Breitbart News reported that the NRA endorsed Trump on May 20, 2016, during the 2016 Annual Meetings in Louisville, Kentucky. Thereafter, the NRA campaigned for Trump, and Trump reminded voters again and again that he would work with the NRA to save the Second Amendment if elected.

Trump will now return to speak to the gun rights group that cheered him to victory last year.Bloomberg reports that this will make him the first U.S. president to address the gun-rights group since Ronald Reagan in 1983.

Trumps speech to the NRA will occur two months to the day after he signed a repeal of Barack Obamas Social Security gun banwhich would have allowed the Social Security Administration to strip beneficiaries of the Second Amendment rights without due process. The speech also comes nearly two months after his Interior Secretary, Ryan Zinke, ended an Obama-era ban against using lead ammunition on federal lands.

On April 13, 2017, Breitbart News reported that the Trump administration has been quietly rolling back other Obama-era gun controls behind the scenes. McClatchy reported that federal agencies have narrowed the definition of fugitive, thereby limiting the number of people prohibited from gun possession because they are included in a fugitive database. Trump officials have also signaled that they may no longer defend the Army Corps of Engineers ban on carrying loaded firearms and ammunition on federal lands.

Trumps greatest pro-Second Amendment accomplishment was nominating Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and securing his confirmation. Trump had promised to use SCOTUS to save the Second Amendment from people like Hillary Clinton, and Gorsuch is widely viewed as a fulfillment of that promise.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

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Donald Trump to Be First President Since Reagan to Speak at NRA Annual Meetings - Breitbart News

White House Responds to Claim that Trump Wants a Gold-plated Carriage Ride During London Trip – PEOPLE.com


PEOPLE.com
White House Responds to Claim that Trump Wants a Gold-plated Carriage Ride During London Trip
PEOPLE.com
The Times of London reported Saturday that President Donald Trump wishes to proceed with a gold-plated carriage procession during his visit to London, currently planned for the second week in October, despite security concerns. When former president ...

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White House Responds to Claim that Trump Wants a Gold-plated Carriage Ride During London Trip - PEOPLE.com

Donald Trump can’t be sued because he’s president, his attorney claims in court – Washington Times

President Trump cant be sued for allegedly provoking his supporters to assault protesters at a pre-election rally last March because his standing as president precludes him from civil litigation, one of his attorneys said Friday.

Mr. Trump is immune from suit because he is President of the United States, R. Kent Westberry, an attorney for Mr. Trump, wrote in a filing entered Friday in in federal court in Kentucky.

The presidents lawyer offered that defense in response to a lawsuit brought last month on behalf of three individuals who say they were assaulted at a March 2016 campaign rally in Louisville upon Mr. Trumps instruction.

Get em out of here, Mr. Trump repeatedly said into the microphone when demonstrators disrupted the rally and that constitutes explicit directives, according to the lawsuit, that could have no other reasonable meaning but to remove protesters, including the Plaintiffs, using unwanted, harmful physical force.

The legal action brought last month on the protesters behalf seeks damages from two Trump supporters accused of assault as well as the president and his White House campaign.

While Mr. Westberry doesnt dispute Mr. Trump wanted the protesters removed from last years event, he offered several explanations in Fridays filing as to why he believes the lawsuit should be rejected, among them his clients position as president.

In a separate filing, meanwhile, one of the alleged assailants brought legal action of his own against Mr. Trump on Friday. Alvin Bamberger, a member of the Korean War Veterans Association, was captured on video pushing a plaintiff in the lawsuit, Kashiya Nwanguma, during last years rally. According to his own claim, however, Bamberger would not have acted as he did without Trump and/or the Trump Campaigns specific urging and inspiration, his filing reads in part.

To the extent that Bamberger acted, he did so in response to and inspired by Trump and/or the Trump Campaigns urging to remove the protesters.

Fridays legal filings were first reported by Politico.

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Donald Trump can't be sued because he's president, his attorney claims in court - Washington Times