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Donald Trump threatened to get rid of the daily White House press briefing, but then boasted to Fox News Channels Jeanine Pirro in an interview that the briefings are the highest-rated thing in daytime TV. He also took credit for the numbers, making his cancellation threat sound more like gas-baggery. And, since the interview that aired tonight on FNC was taped earlier in the week, NYT has reported Trump is mulling whether to beef up his communications department and bring in Fox News producers.

In the Q&Athat aired tonight, Trump clearly was miffed his reps took heat at the weeks briefings for initially saying Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. When that did not pass the smell test, a new explanation was offered: Trump decided in January to fire Comey and there was no good time.

Are you moving so quickly that your communications department cannot keep up with you? Pirro suggested in the taped interview.

Yes, thats true, Trump said.

So what do we do about that? Pirro asked.

We dont have press conferences just dont have them. Unless I have them every two weeks and I do them myself, we dont have them. I think its a good idea, he said. Trump said he would make up his mind whether to scrap the briefings over the next couple weeks. He happily forecast the networks would be very unhappy, because ratings are so high. I dont know what these networks would do, theyre going to start to cry. They get great ratings from me, and yet they dont treat us fairly.

Trump defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, and deputy Sarah Huckabee Sanders who took over the briefings in the thick of the Comey canning controversy while Spicer was on reserve duty. But, Trump said, they cant keep up with him.

Heres the thing, the difference between me and another president, Trump explained. Another president, I wont use names, but another president doesnt do what Im doing they really dont. Im not saying that in a bragging way. Another president, Jeanine, will sit in the Oval Office and do practically nothing all day. Im doing every minute of the day Im doing something.

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Donald Trump Boasts Of Press Briefing Ratings While Threatening To Pull The Plug - Deadline

Something amazing happened on Twitter on Saturday. The President of the United States, arguably one of the most controversial people on the platform, tweeted one word with two letters and so much power.

Donald Trump, or a White House staffer representing Trump,typed We, then hit the tweet button, sending the word to the presidents 29 million followers.

The series of events that happened next unraveled quickly. According to BuzzFeed, the operator of POTUS Twitter account deleted the tweet within minutes, but not before it was memorialized by the quick-thinking people of Twitter.

First, people tweeted out snarky remarks about the two-letter tweet, as people have been known to do when someone notable fumbles on Twitter.

Then people started completing the one-word prompt with music lyrics.

Later, people began to rally behind Trumps We tweet, which by then had long been deleted and replaced with a rather boring promotional tweetabout the presidents interview with Fox News Judge Jeanine.

In a rare moment of unity,people began using the #We hashtag to speak about what they want for their country. Most tweets targeted the president for a variety of reasons missing tax returns, potential ties to Russia, healthcare but some contained simple requests for the president to take care of and protect the country the best he can.

View post:
Donald Trump Tweeted 'We' And Started A Movement - HuffPost

Update with video Well, spoke too soon. With Aidy Bryant doing a spot-onSarah Huckabee Sanders, Melissa McCarthys Sean Spicerquickly and brashly took his rightful place at the podium, sputtering, berating and using Russian nesting dolls for a visual aid. Riled by reporters questions, Spicey embarked on a (pre-taped) podium road trip to confront his boss about being fired all to the tune of Simon & Garfunkels Only Living Boy In New York and finally sharing the stage (and a big kiss) with Alec Baldwins Trump. That should really get the Fire Colbert folks going. (Watch the Spicer sketch above, and the Trump cold open below).

Previous Maybe Melissa McCarthys Sean Spicer was hiding in the bushes somewhere. TonightsSaturday Night Lives cold open went to Alec Baldwins Donald Trump, interviewed by Michael Ches Lester Holt or as Trump called him, Jazzman, O.J, Kenan and Tupac.

The first blast ofthe shows satire went to Trumps axingof FBI Director James Comey. I fired him because of Russia, Trump/Baldwin said. I thought, hes investigating Russia, I dont like that, I should fire him.

Responded a stunned Holt, Did I get him? Its all over? Then, No, I didnt. Nothing matters.

Enter Mikey Days Paul Ryan, delivering ice cream, and a defiant Trump making a Nixon-esque two-handed Victory salute for two scoops.

So who will replace Comey? I can promise you, whoever I choose is going to be so bonkers youre going to wishlike hell it was Judge Judy. Trump said. Asked about how that would look, Trump said, Think I care about optics? I sit in ever chair like its a toilet.

Melissa McCarthy, hosting for the fifth time, no doubt will appear as Spicey later in the show. Yesterday, she was spotted riding her podium through midtown Manhattan.

During her opening monologue tonight, she gave a lucky mother a backstage tour, running into Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.

Heres the cold open:

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'SNL': Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump & Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer Return With A Kiss Update - Deadline

By Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON/LYNCHBURG, Va.

WASHINGTON/LYNCHBURG, Va. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will move quickly to nominate a new FBI director, after he sparked a political firestorm by firing the man investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign.

Trump told reporters he might even be able to make his decision on who should succeed James Comey to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation before he leaves on his first foreign trip on Friday.

"Even that is possible," Trump said, speaking on Air Force One before departing for Lynchburg, Virginia, where he delivered a commencement address.

"I think the process is going to go quickly," he said, adding that the candidates under consideration were mostly well known. "They've been vetted over their lifetime essentially. But very well known, highly respected, really talented people. And that's what we want for the FBI."

Critics have assailed Trump for abruptly dismissing Comey, who was leading the agency's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, and possible ties between Moscow and the Trump campaign..

Russia denies the claims and the White House says there was no collusion.

Trump made the remarks to reporters prior to speaking to about 50,000 people at Liberty University in Lynchburg, where he did not mention Comey or the controversy his dismissal on Tuesday caused. It was Trump's first public event outside the White House since Comey's ouster.

A White House official had said 11 people were under consideration - including acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Republican Senator John Cornyn, New York Appeals Court Judge Michael Garcia and former Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher - to replace Comey as FBI chief.

Two new names, however, emerged on Saturday: FBI special agent Adam Lee and U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson. A source familiar with the process said Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, had interviewed Hudson, Lee and five others on Saturday.

The FBI Agents Association, which claims more than 13,000 active and retired agents as its members, on Saturday endorsed another candidate: former Representative Mike Rogers, who had also worked as an FBI agent.

At Liberty, the nation's largest Christian college, Trump peppered his remarks with the kind of anti-establishment rhetoric that fueled his maverick presidential campaign, telling graduates to challenge "entrenched interests." He thanked the crowd for their support and repeatedly invoked his own unlikely election victory.

"Relish the opportunity to be an outsider," Trump said. "The more that a broken system tells you that you're wrong, the more certain you should be that you must keep pushing ahead."

He also had strong words that seemed aimed at his critics.

"No one has ever achieved anything significant without a chorus of critics standing on the sidelines explaining why it can't be done," Trump said. "Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic, because they're people that can't get the job done."

Liberty's president, Jerry Falwell, Jr., was a key early supporter of Trump during his campaign and helped rally support among religious conservatives.

Trump, who has been preparing for his first foreign trip - one that will take him to the Middle East and Europe - also will deliver the commencement address to the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Idrees Ali and Lucia Mutikani; Writing by James Oliphant and Tim Ahmann; Editing by Alistair Bell and Mary Milliken)

WASHINGTON A unit of the U.S. Treasury Department that fights money laundering will provide financial records to an investigation by the Senate into possible ties between Russia and President Donald Trump and his associates, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

WASHINGTON A review of President Donald Trump's tax returns from the past 10 years showed no income from Russian sources outside of a few exceptions, and indicated he did not owe money to Russian lenders, his lawyers said in a letter released by the White House on Friday.

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS U.S. and European officials will discuss airline security issues at a meeting in Brussels next week, including possibly expanding the number of airports that ban passengers from carrying electronic devices bigger than cellphones aboard flights, a European Commission spokeswoman said on Friday.

Originally posted here:
Trump pledges to move quickly to name new FBI director - Reuters

Donald Trump delivered his first commencement speech as president Saturday morning at Liberty University.

Speaking at the Jerry Falwell-founded Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, Trump promised the Class of 2017 that, "As long as I am your president, no one is ever going to stop you from practicing your faith."

"America has always been the land of dreams because America is a nation of true believers," Trump said. "When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, they prayed. When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our creator four times. Because in America, we don't worship government, we worship God."

Trump also lashed out at his critics and criticized how "broken" the system is in Washington, D.C.

"The fact is, no one has achieved anything significant without a chorus of critics standing on the sidelines explaining why it can't be done," Trump said. "Nothing is easier or more pathetic than being a critic... The future belongs to the people who follow their heart no matter what the critics say because they truly believe in their vision."

Trump added, "A small group of failed voices who think they know everything and understand everyone want to tell everybody else how to live and what to do and how to think, but you aren't going to let other people tell you what you believe, especially when you know that you're right."

Trump's address at Liberty broke a long tradition of newly elected presidents delivering their first in-office commencement speeches at the University of Notre Dame; Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter all spoke at that Indiana school during their first year as president. This year, Vice President Mike Pence, and not Trump, will instead speak at Notre Dame's graduation.

Trump previously spoke at Liberty University while on the campaign trail in January 2016, a speech where the then-Republican frontrunner referred to the New Testament book "Two Corinthians," even though it's commonly referred to as "Second Corinthians."

Despite the gaffe, Liberty's chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. has been among Trump's most ardent allies throughout the mogul's path to the White House.

"I do believe Trump is a good father, is generous to those in need, and is an ethical and honest businessman," Falwell Jr. wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in January 2016. "I have gotten to know him well over the last few years and have come to admire him for those traits."

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Link:
Watch Donald Trump's First Commencement Speech as President - RollingStone.com