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After President Trumps latest headline-grabbing tweet storm on everything from wiretaps to an erroneous claim on Gitmo detainees released by President Obama, the White House said Tuesday the president has no intention of backing off or backing down.

I think the voters made it clear, one of the things that they appreciate about him is his ability to be authentic and speak very forcefully and very directly to the American people, said White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

Mr. Trump began his day on Twitter at 7:04 a.m. Tuesday with this comment: 122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!

The tweet came a few minutes after a story on Fox & Friends about Gitmo detainees who returned to the fight. But the Fox story didnt specify that 113 of the 122 prisoners who rejoined the fight had been released by the administration of George W. Bush, and nine had been released by Mr. Obama.

Mr. Spicer acknowledged the presidents tweet was in error. Obviously the president meant in totality, he said.

As a candidate last year, Mr. Trump pledged to keep open the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for terrorism suspects and to send more detainees there.

The president followed up that tweet with others about Obamacare (imploding fast!), a new chapter of American Greatness under his leadership, how Russia ran over Mr. Obama for eight years, and how FAKE NEWS was wrong about big infighting in his administration.

We are getting along great, and getting major things done! Mr. Trump tweeted at 10:16 a.m., the end of his three-hour tweet storm.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump had jolted Democrats, some Republicans and much of his staff by tweeting from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida about Mr. Obama allegedly having ordered wiretaps on the Trump campaign last year at its headquarters at Trump Tower. He offered no basis for his claim.

Those tweets generated two days worth of news coverage, and reporters still had questions for Mr. Spicer about it Tuesday.

Asked whether Mr. Trump should stop tweeting about wiretaps and Arnold Schwarzeneggers poor ratings on Celebrity Apprentice, Mr. Spicer rejected the assertion that the White House isnt focused on whats important.

I would say that we have been focused, Mr. Spicer said. Were here talking about Obamacare, the need to drive down the cost and [increase] access for every American. Thats a pretty significant thing to be focused on.

He noted that Monday was devoted mostly to Mr. Trumps new immigration order on temporarily banning travelers from six predominantly Muslim nations. He said Mr. Trumps first six weeks in office have been very productive.

The presidents talked to almost 50 world leaders, hes had 30-plus executive actions on all sorts of stuff from regulatory aspects to things that will create more jobs, he said. I think thats a fairly focused effort.

Another reporter asked Mr. Spicer whether the president would retract his claim of Mr. Obama wiretapping his campaign headquarters.

Why would he withdraw it until its adjudicated [by Congress]? Mr. Spicer replied. He said the president absolutely has no regrets about making the claim, which would be a felony by Mr. Obama if true.

Mr. Spicer also said the president isnt likely to change his social media habits.

Thats an aspect I think that was central to why he was elected, Mr. Spicer said. Hes not a canned politician thats going to give the same staid answers over and over again.

But even the president, who prides his status as an outsider who launched a movement, acknowledges from time to time that hes a politician. During a strategy meeting Tuesday afternoon with House Republican lawmakers on repealing and replacing Obamacare, Mr. Trump said he wanted no more excuses for delaying legislative action.

Were all now I can proudly say Im a politician, the president said to laughter. Im a politician. But were going to get it done and youre the leaders that really will get it done for all of us and for the American people.

Read more here:
Donald Trump has no intention to back off tweets - Washington Times

The new travel ban comes six weeks after Trump's original executive order caused chaos at airports nationwide before it was blocked by federal courts. It removes out language in the original order that indefinitely banned Syrian refugees and called for prioritizing the admission of refugees who are religious minorities in their home countries. That provision drew criticism of a religious test for entry and would have prioritized Christians over Muslims fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East.

The new ban, which takes effect March 16, also explicitly exempts citizens of the six banned countries who are legal US permanent residents or have valid visas to enter the US -- including those whose visas were revoked during the original implementation of the ban, senior administration officials said.

"We cannot compromise our nation's security by allowing visitors entry when their own governments are unable or unwilling to provide the information we need to vet them responsibly, or when those governments actively support terrorism," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday.

The new measures will block citizens of Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from obtaining visas for at least 90 days. The order also suspends admission of refugees into the US for 120 days, directing US officials to improve vetting measures for a program that is already widely regarded as extremely stringent.

Trump signed the executive order earlier Monday in the Oval Office outside the view of reporters and news cameras, after more than three weeks of repeated delays, the latest of which came after White House officials decided last week to delay the signing to avoid cutting into positive coverage of Trump's joint address to Congress.

The delays also came amid an intense lobbying effort from Iraqi government officials, including from the country's prime minister, to remove Iraq from the original seven-state list of banned countries.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Iraq's removal from the list came after an intense review from the State Department to improve vetting of Iraqi citizens in collaboration with the Iraqi government, though he did not specify how vetting had been improved.

"The United States welcomes this kind of close cooperation," he said. "This revised order will bolster the security of the United States and our allies."

The rollout of the revised travel ban marks an important moment for the administration, which has little room for error after the chaotic debut of the original plan. That failure raised questions about the new White House's capacity to govern and to master the political intricacies needed to manage complicated political endeavors in Washington. It also brought Trump into conflict with the judiciary in the first sign of how constitutional checks and balances could challenge his vision of a powerful presidency built on expansive executive authority.

The original order came under intense criticism as an attempt to bar Muslims from entering the country, and Trump's call during the campaign for a "Muslim Ban" was cited in court cases attacking the ban.

The new order does not prioritize religious minorities when considering refugee admissions cases.

Administration officials Monday stressed they do not see the ban as targeting a specific religion.

"(The order is) not any way targeted as a Muslim ban ... we want to make sure everyone understands that," an official told reporters.

"The Department of Justice believes that this executive order just as the first executive order is a lawful and proper exercise of presidential authority," Sessions said.

Democrats responded by calling Trump's order a repeat version of the first attempt.

"Here we go again...Muslim Ban 2.0 #NoBanNoWall" tweeted Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, one of two Muslims serving in the House of Representatives.

The newly crafted order also revealed that the administration wasn't just paying attention to the legal criticism in the courts, but also recalibrating in light of the heavy political fire they faced after the first order's messy rollout.

While administration lawyers argued the original travel ban went into effect immediately to prevent terrorists from rushing into the country, the revised ban will phase in after 10 days. The previous order will be rescinded on that date.

Trump had previously said he opposed giving any advance notice of the ban.

The White House also abandoned the sense of urgency with which it implemented the first travel ban, delaying the signing of a new executive order multiple times over the last three weeks. Politics also came into play as White House officials delayed the signing from last Wednesday in part to allow positive coverage of the President's joint address to Congress to continue uninterrupted.

White House officials collaborated for several weeks with officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and kept congressional leaders apprised of their progress this time around after the White House drew a backlash for keeping Congress and relevant federal agencies almost entirely in the dark during the first rollout.

To bolster its national security claims, the new executive order also states FBI has reported that approximately 300 people who entered the United States as refugees are "currently the subjects of counter-terrorism investigations."

"The fact remains that we are not immune to terrorist threats and that our enemies often use our own freedoms and generosity against us," Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said. "We cannot risk the prospect of malevolent actors using our immigration system to take American lives."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, said the ban "has the same fundamental flaws" as the first order.

"We know that country of origin is a poor predictor of a propensity to commit acts of terror. If it were, Pakistan has been a far more problematic source of attack planning and would be at the top of the President's list, but that country merits not even a mention in the order," Schiff said in a statement.

But the new order was also delayed in part because of a debate within the administration over how to handle Iraq.

Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster had all advocated for Iraq to be removed from the Trump administration's list of banned countries in the new executive order for diplomatic reasons, including Iraq's role in fighting ISIS, sources told CNN's Elise Labott and Evan Perez. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly also supported the move.

Iraq was removed from the revised travel ban executive order after intensive lobbying from the Iraqi government at the highest levels, according to a senior US official.

That included a phone call between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on February 10 and an in-person conversation between Abadi and Vice President Mike Pence in Munich on February 18.

Those conversations were followed by discussions between Tillerson and members of the Iraqi government about vetting measures in place that would prevent suspected terrorists from leaving Iraq and coming to the United States. Iraq did not implement new measures; rather, the country provided more detail to US officials about how it screens travelers.

In Trump's call with Abadi, the President vowed to seek a resolution to his counterpart's concerns about his citizens' being unable to enter the United States, according to a readout of the phone call from Baghdad. The US official said Trump asked Tillerson to get greater clarity on vetting measures in Iraq.

Trump also faced pressure to remove Iraq from the order from some American national security officials, who argued the restriction burdened a key anti-ISIS partner. Some of those voices were holdovers from the Obama administration.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry welcomed reports of its removal from the list of countries affected by the travel ban.

"(The) Iraqi Foreign Ministry expresses deep relief regarding the executive order that was issued by the American president Donald Trump, which excludes the Iraqis from the travel ban to the United States," said Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ahmad Jamal. "This is considered an important step in the right direction that strengthen and reinforces the strategic alliance between Baghdad and Washington in many fields, in particular the fight against terrorism."

This story is breaking and will be updated.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct Kelly's name.

CNN's Kareem Khadder contributed from Erbil. Stephen Collinson contributed from Washington.

Originally posted here:
US President Donald Trump signs new travel ban, exempts Iraq - CNN

But we are not going to be played like this.

Jamiel Shaw Sr. at Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on February 28, 2017. (Ap Photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Last week, Donald Trump stood in front of a joint session of Congress and announced his guest, Jamiel Shaw Jr. As the camera zoomed in on him, Shaw smiled with humility, and those around him stood up and clapped in his honor. Jamiels 17-year-old son was viciously murdered by an illegal immigrant gang member, who had just been released from prison, Trump said. Jamiel Shaw Jr. was an incredible young man, with unlimited potential, who was getting ready to go to college where he would have excelled as a great quarterback. But he never got the chance.

The joint session wasnt Shaws first appearance with Trump. He tagged along with him on the campaign trail and even appeared in a Willie Hortonstyle campaign ad that touted Trumps tough-on-immigration approach. Trump is the only one saying: Youre gonna be dealt with, Shaw says in the ad. But, as Bustle pointed out, between 2010 and 2014 the Department of Homeland Security counted only 121 people charged with murder after having been previously held by immigration officials, about 0.001 percent of the total number of undocumented immigrants in this country.

Trump chose to highlight Shaws case not because he wanted to emphasize the tragedy that is murder, or even just to stir up unfounded fears about the criminality of undocumented immigrants generally. He was doing something else too, something nefariously brilliant. By using Shaw, Trump was specifically pitting black Americans against undocumented immigrants, telling us that brown, undocumented immigrants will kill our families too. In doing so, Trump told us that our families matter, that we are Americans. For once, black Americans werent the subtext of dog-whistle politics but the intended audience.

The cynicism of this move comes into focus when we look at Trumps actual agenda for black communities. Outside of the tragic stories like Shaws, black Americans dont place quite as high on the chain anywhere else in Trumps America. Take, for example, his recent executive order doubling down on and expanding protections for police officers. The order, Preventing Violence Against Federal, State, Tribal, and Local Law Enforcement Officers, will enforce all Federal laws in order to enhance the protection and safety of Federal, State, tribal, and local law enforcement officers, and define new federal crimes, and increase penalties for existing federal crimes, in order to prevent violence against officers. The order also aims to create definitions of new crimes of violence against officers and establish mandatory minimums for existing ones. Billed as a way to bolster safety and protection, the order is really a reaction against the Black Lives Matter movement and the Department of Justices agenda under President Obama, which investigated and scrutinized police departments across the country for infringing upon the civil rights of black and brown Americans.

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

There was also Trumps New Deal for Black America, a last-ditch effort to appeal to black voters days before the election. One of its proposals, Protection from Illegal Immigration stated that No group has been more economically harmed by decades of illegal immigration than low-income African-American workers. But other than rhetorically setting these two communities against each other in a race to the bottom, Trumps plan offers very little to actually create better jobs for black Americans, and many of his proposalsfrom school choice to beefing up policing to financial deregulation to ignoring climate changewould disproportionately hurt black Americans. In other words, Trump doesnt want a new deal for black Americahe just wants to fasten us in tighter to the old deal of low-wage, insecure, go-nowhere jobs.

The champion of black America Donald Trump is not. Instead, he is continuing to seize on the vulnerability of communities that are disenfranchised, that suffer from higher rates of joblessness, poverty, inadequate housing, and subpar education.

Donald Trump isnt the first to pit Americans against one another for political gain. For a moment after reconstruction in the 1890s, a populist movement emerged, one that lead to some alliances between poor whites and blacks in the South, particularly among farmers. Tom Watson, a white Georgia politician, delivered a speech to a crowd of black and white farmers, highlighting their common interests. You are made to hate each other because on that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both, he said. You are deceived and blinded because you do not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system that beggars you both. Watsons was an economic message: The colored tenant is in the same boat as the white tenant, the colored laborer with the white laborer and that the accident of color can make no difference in the interests of farmers, croppers and laborers. The alliance didnt grow large enough to change the course of American history. Powerful white landowners were able to convince poor whites of their racial superiority, and Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan would cement an America that privileges racial unity over class. Later, Watson himself turned on the black Americans he once supported.

Trump knows something, like Watson did, about black Americans: We will never stop seeking out first-class citizenship. But history has also taught us to be wary of the smoke and mirrors deployed by politicians like Trump. Baiting black people and trying to pit us against Mexicans wont work when all of Trumps other policies are ruinous to black communities. Trump touts a new deal for black America, but he forgets that while blacks benefited from the original New Deala set of economic recovery programs that lifted America out of the Great Depressionit was not intended for us. Trump is right about one thing: Black people do want a new deal. But not one that reinforces our place as second-class citizens with a pernicious mandate to trample on the backs of those without any citizenship at all.

Read this article:
Donald Trump Is Trying to Play Black Americans - The Nation.

The new travel ban comes six weeks after Trump's original executive order caused chaos at airports nationwide before it was blocked by federal courts. It removes out language in the original order that indefinitely banned Syrian refugees and called for prioritizing the admission of refugees who are religious minorities in their home countries. That provision drew criticism of a religious test for entry and would have prioritized Christians over Muslims fleeing war-torn countries in the Middle East.

The new ban, which takes effect March 16, also explicitly exempts citizens of the six banned countries who are legal US permanent residents or have valid visas to enter the US -- including those whose visas were revoked during the original implementation of the ban, senior administration officials said.

"We cannot compromise our nation's security by allowing visitors entry when their own governments are unable or unwilling to provide the information we need to vet them responsibly, or when those governments actively support terrorism," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday.

The new measures will block citizens of Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from obtaining visas for at least 90 days. The order also suspends admission of refugees into the US for 120 days, directing US officials to improve vetting measures for a program that is already widely regarded as extremely stringent.

Trump signed the executive order earlier Monday in the Oval Office outside the view of reporters and news cameras, after more than three weeks of repeated delays, the latest of which came after White House officials decided last week to delay the signing to avoid cutting into positive coverage of Trump's joint address to Congress.

The delays also came amid an intense lobbying effort from Iraqi government officials, including from the country's prime minister, to remove Iraq from the original seven-state list of banned countries.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Iraq's removal from the list came after an intense review from the State Department to improve vetting of Iraqi citizens in collaboration with the Iraqi government, though he did not specify how vetting had been improved.

"The United States welcomes this kind of close cooperation," he said. "This revised order will bolster the security of the United States and our allies."

The rollout of the revised travel ban marks an important moment for the administration, which has little room for error after the chaotic debut of the original plan. That failure raised questions about the new White House's capacity to govern and to master the political intricacies needed to manage complicated political endeavors in Washington. It also brought Trump into conflict with the judiciary in the first sign of how constitutional checks and balances could challenge his vision of a powerful presidency built on expansive executive authority.

The original order came under intense criticism as an attempt to bar Muslims from entering the country, and Trump's call during the campaign for a "Muslim Ban" was cited in court cases attacking the ban.

The new order does not prioritize religious minorities when considering refugee admissions cases.

Administration officials Monday stressed they do not see the ban as targeting a specific religion.

"(The order is) not any way targeted as a Muslim ban ... we want to make sure everyone understands that," an official told reporters.

"The Department of Justice believes that this executive order just as the first executive order is a lawful and proper exercise of presidential authority," Sessions said.

Democrats responded by calling Trump's order a repeat version of the first attempt.

"Here we go again...Muslim Ban 2.0 #NoBanNoWall" tweeted Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, one of two Muslims serving in the House of Representatives.

The newly crafted order also revealed that the administration wasn't just paying attention to the legal criticism in the courts, but also recalibrating in light of the heavy political fire they faced after the first order's messy rollout.

While administration lawyers argued the original travel ban went into effect immediately to prevent terrorists from rushing into the country, the revised ban will phase in after 10 days. The previous order will be rescinded on that date.

Trump had previously said he opposed giving any advance notice of the ban.

The White House also abandoned the sense of urgency with which it implemented the first travel ban, delaying the signing of a new executive order multiple times over the last three weeks. Politics also came into play as White House officials delayed the signing from last Wednesday in part to allow positive coverage of the President's joint address to Congress to continue uninterrupted.

White House officials collaborated for several weeks with officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and kept congressional leaders apprised of their progress this time around after the White House drew a backlash for keeping Congress and relevant federal agencies almost entirely in the dark during the first rollout.

To bolster its national security claims, the new executive order also states FBI has reported that approximately 300 people who entered the United States as refugees are "currently the subjects of counter-terrorism investigations."

"The fact remains that we are not immune to terrorist threats and that our enemies often use our own freedoms and generosity against us," Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said. "We cannot risk the prospect of malevolent actors using our immigration system to take American lives."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee, said the ban "has the same fundamental flaws" as the first order.

"We know that country of origin is a poor predictor of a propensity to commit acts of terror. If it were, Pakistan has been a far more problematic source of attack planning and would be at the top of the President's list, but that country merits not even a mention in the order," Schiff said in a statement.

But the new order was also delayed in part because of a debate within the administration over how to handle Iraq.

Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and national security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster had all advocated for Iraq to be removed from the Trump administration's list of banned countries in the new executive order for diplomatic reasons, including Iraq's role in fighting ISIS, sources told CNN's Elise Labott and Evan Perez. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly also supported the move.

Iraq was removed from the revised travel ban executive order after intensive lobbying from the Iraqi government at the highest levels, according to a senior US official.

That included a phone call between Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on February 10 and an in-person conversation between Abadi and Vice President Mike Pence in Munich on February 18.

Those conversations were followed by discussions between Tillerson and members of the Iraqi government about vetting measures in place that would prevent suspected terrorists from leaving Iraq and coming to the United States. Iraq did not implement new measures; rather, the country provided more detail to US officials about how it screens travelers.

In Trump's call with Abadi, the President vowed to seek a resolution to his counterpart's concerns about his citizens' being unable to enter the United States, according to a readout of the phone call from Baghdad. The US official said Trump asked Tillerson to get greater clarity on vetting measures in Iraq.

Trump also faced pressure to remove Iraq from the order from some American national security officials, who argued the restriction burdened a key anti-ISIS partner. Some of those voices were holdovers from the Obama administration.

Iraq's Foreign Ministry welcomed reports of its removal from the list of countries affected by the travel ban.

"(The) Iraqi Foreign Ministry expresses deep relief regarding the executive order that was issued by the American president Donald Trump, which excludes the Iraqis from the travel ban to the United States," said Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Ahmad Jamal. "This is considered an important step in the right direction that strengthen and reinforces the strategic alliance between Baghdad and Washington in many fields, in particular the fight against terrorism."

This story is breaking and will be updated.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct Kelly's name.

CNN's Kareem Khadder contributed from Erbil. Stephen Collinson contributed from Washington.

Read the original post:
President Donald Trump signs new travel ban, exempts Iraq - CNN

Here's how The Washington Post described President Trump's mood heading into this past weekend: Trump was mad steaming, raging mad.

Here's Politico's take: Trump, who complained loudly to top aides during a tense Oval Office meeting on Friday over how things in his White House were going.

And here's ABC News: President Donald Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went 'ballistic.'

The president, it seems fair to say, wasn't happy then on Saturday morning when he sent a flurry of tweets alleging with zero evidence that Trump Tower had been wiretapped in the course of the 2016 campaign under orders from then-President Barack Obama. Anger and a persistent sense that people were out to get him or weren't treating him fairly motivated Trump to make a massive charge: That the man he was running to replace purposely sought to sway the election via misuse of the intelligence community.

Here's what happened after President Trump fired off a tweet accusing former president Barack Obama of wiretapping the Trump Tower before the 2016 election. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

This isn't the first time we've seen what President Trump acts like when he's angry. Think back to Trump's newsconference on Feb. 16. In it, Trump offered raw and personal attacks against the media who, he insisted, were creating a fake news story out of the ties between his campaign and the Russians. He insisted he wasn't angry at all a statement totally belied by his actions and words.

We can safely conclude then that when Trump gets angry, he looks for a way to strike back. And he is willing to stretch or break with the truth to give himself a measure of satisfaction in that regard.

As a candidate for president, we saw this side of Trump regularly particularly in a debate setting. When, say, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, an also-ran, attacked Trump, the front-runner was unable to resist hitting back. His attacks on low energy Jeb Bush, little Marco Rubio and lyin' Ted Cruz were all, to Trump's mind, ways of leveling the playing field after he had been attacked. Whether it made sense as a political strategy was beside the point; Trump felt better after he swung back so he always swung back.

The trouble for Trump and all of the rest of us is that Trump is now president. And there are real-world consequences to both how angry he gets and how he chooses to blow off that steam. An angry call with the Australian prime minister, for example, has real-world implications. So does an open and aggressive attempt to disqualify the free and independent press. Or the accusation that your predecessor used the powers of the federal government to specifically target you.

The question now is if Trump is willing to do the sorts of things listed above primarily because he is angry, what else is he willing to do to vent his frustrations? The president of the United States is a bounded job checks and balances and all that but even so, Trump can have massive influence, for positive or negative, based on a single tweet. He either doesn't understand that power or doesn't seem care about it when he's mad.

What's even more harrowing is the fact that in the wake of Trump's Twitter tirade on tapping, two things happened.

1. He felt better. This from The Post story: Trump was brighter Sunday morning as he read several newspapers, pleased that his allegations against Obama were the dominant story.

2. He got angry again. Again, The Post: But he found reason to be mad again: Few Republicans were defending him on the Sunday political talk shows.

This feels like a cycle that is going to keep repeating itself. Anger, release, anger. The issue is that Trump's release mechanism is getting more and more dangerous. If he's offering (so far) unfounded allegations about being wiretapped by the former president less than two months into his tenure, what will he be saying in a year's time when something provokes him to anger?

Read more:
The dangerous rage of Donald Trump - Washington Post