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In an interview on the Fox Business Network, President Trump called Syrian President Bashar al-Assad an "animal" and blasted Russia for its support of Assad. Trump was also combative on the subject of North Korea. (Reuters)

InPresident Trump'sfirst major interview sinceorderinga military strike ona Syrian airfield late last week, heprovided additional insight into his reasoning and much of it had to do with his predecessor, whose Syria strategy he once endorsed.

What I did should have been done by the Obama administration a long time before I did it, and you would have had a much better I think Syria would be a lot better off right now than it has been, Trump saidduring an interview with Fox Business Network'sMaria Bartiromo that aired Wednesday morning. He didn't do it. I don't know what happened, but he didn't do it.... Even the Obama people admitted he was wrong for not doing it.

[How Trump is rolling back Obama's legacy]

Soon after the strike, Trump delivered a statement Thursday night from his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., saying that he was moved to act after reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad usedchemical weapons to kill helpless men, women and children,including beautiful babies. After delivering those scripted remarks, the president retreated from public discussion of the attack, while his aides tried to explain how this strike fits with Trump's America First doctrine and campaign pledge not to get involved with conflicts in other countries.

In June 2013, in the wake of a deadly chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs, Trump repeatedly praised President Barack Obama for not taking military action. In a tweet on June 15, 2013, Trump wrote: We should stay the hell out of Syria, the 'rebels' are just as bad as the current regime. WHAT WILL WE GET FOR OUR LIVES AND $ BILLIONS? ZERO. Later that summer, Trump repeatedly said Obama should seek congressional approval before taking action. In September 2013, Trump tweeted: The only reason President Obama wants to attack Syria is to save face over his very dumb RED LINE statement. Do NOT attack Syria, fix U.S.A. On the campaign trail, Trump continued to oppose any involvement in Syria and accused Democrat Hillary Clinton and some of his Republican opponents of wanting to start World War III.

In the Fox Business interview, Trump promised that we're not going into Syria, but he also made clear that he's willing to take action when fellow world leaders use horrible, horrible chemical weapons. Trump expressed alarm at the Syrian regime's use of barrel bombs, oil drumspacked with explosives and nails or other shrapnel that are rolled out of helicopters. These crude, imprecise munitions are dropped on Syria nearly daily and have killed thousands of people, according to activists tracking the deaths.

[Spicer adds barrel bombs to the list of reasons the U.S. could again attack Syria]

That's the worst thing I've never seen anything like it, Trump said. They have these massive barrels with dynamite, and they drop them right in the middle of a group of people.... You see the same kids no arms, no legs, no face.

Trump called Assad an animal and truly an evil person and said it is now up to Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his support of the Syrian regime.

I really think that there's going to be a lot of pressure on Russia to make sure that peace happens, because, frankly, if Russia didn't go in and back this animal, you wouldn't have a problem right now, Trump said. "[Assad]was going to be overthrown.... And then Russia came in and saved him. And then Obama made one of the worst deals in history with the Iran deal. So you really have Iran, and you have Russia, and you have Assad.

[Russia accuses U.S. of unlawful Syria raid as Tillerson visits Moscow]

Trump said that he closely followed coverage of the recent chemical attack in Syria and was horrified by images and footage of childrenand babies who were killed by the suspected nerve agent.

I immediately called General Mattis. I said, 'What can we do?' " Trump said, referring to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. And they came back with a number of different alternatives, and we hit them very hard. Now, are we going to get involved with Syria? No, but if I see them using gas and using things that I mean, even some of the worst tyrants in the world didn't use the kindof gases that they used.

[Chinese President Xi calls Trump and urges peaceful approach to North Korea]

Trump's criticism of Obama extended to other issues. Heaccused the former president of encouraging intelligence agencies to share damaging information about Trump and those close to him, along with reiterating his unfounded claim that Obama improperly surveilled me and so many other people. Trump mocked Obamafor publicly discussing his military strategy, saying that, in contrast, he would keep his plans a secret.

I don't want to talk about it, Trump said when asked about the threat of North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un. We are sending an armada, very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier, that I can tell you, Trump said. And we have the best military people on earth. And I will say this: He is doing the wrong thing. He is doing the wrong thing.

Trump also told the story with a bit of delight of how he informed Chinese PresidentXi Jinping of the Syrian strike. Xi visited the United States last week and was at Mar-a-Lago with the president when the strike occurred.

[Trump promised an unpredictable foreign policy. To allies, it looks incoherent.]

Trump said that he and Xi had just finished dinner and were eating dessert the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that you've ever seen, Trump said and he received a message that the ships carrying the missiles were locked and loaded. Trump ordered the strike, then turned to Xi to explain what was happening.

I said, 'Mr. President, let me explain something to you' this was during dessert 'we've just fired 59 missiles' all of which hit, by the way, unbelievable, from, you know, hundreds of miles away, all of which hit, amazing, Trump said, breaking into the dialogue of his own story with an aside that ended with accusing Obama of depleting the military.

Trump returned to telling his story.

So what happens is, I said, 'We've just launched 59 missiles heading to Iraq, and I wanted you to know this,' " Trump said, accidentally saying Iraq instead of Syria. And he was eating his cake. And he was silent.

Trump said Xi paused for 10 seconds, then asked an interpreter to repeat what Trump had said.

He said to me, 'Anybody that uses gases' you could almost say 'or anything else' 'but anybody that was so brutal and uses gases to do that to young children and babies, it's okay,' " said Trump, who has been known to misquote people in recounting conversations. He was okay with it. He was okay.

More here:
In explaining his reasons for the Syria strike, Trump focuses on Obama - Washington Post

A directive just issued by Betsy DeVos is raising alarm among student loan borrower advocates.

In a memo sent Tuesday to James Runcie, the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid (FSA), DeVos rescinded Obama-era directives aimed at holding student loan servicers the companies hired by the government to manage the repayment process accountable for working in borrowers best interests.

In the memo, DeVos withdrew guidance sent by former Secretary of Education John King to Runcie, instructing him to consider a servicers past performance when deciding whether to award the company a new contract. DeVoss memo also withdraws a directive sent by former undersecretary of education Ted Mitchell instructing Runcie to hold servicers accountable for meeting basic customer service standards, like responding quickly to borrowers, and reward those companies that do the best at ensuring borrowers are on track toward repaying their loans.

Undoing these memos is a very concerning indication of how much (Department of Education officials) value protecting borrowers versus how much they want to insulate servicers, said Alexis Goldstein, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. Is this meant to be a message that says we are less concerned with borrowers and more concerned with protecting servicers even if they made mistakes in the past?

The memo comes as higher education leaders and borrower advocates are watching closely to see how the Trump administration treats student loan borrowers. Last month they expressed concern after the Department of Education reversed an Obama-era directive preventing student loan debt collectors from charging high fees to defaulted borrowers who make an effort quickly to become current on their debts.

The exact implications of DeVoss new guidelines remain unclear. The Department didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency is currently in the midst of awarding a new lucrative servicing contract to a single entity. Two public companies, Navient and Nelnet, are finalists for the new award. But its hard to say whether that contract process will continue, given DeVoss new memo, or whether the Department will begin again with an entirely new contract process. No matter how the process evolves from here, borrower advocates and investors will be watching closely to see which companies are rewarded with contracts.

The market will be looking carefully at whether they will start the process from scratch, said Rohit Chopra, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America and the former student loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Right now there are big companies with a lot of revenue on the line and theyll be pushing hard to keep taxpayers funds flowing into them.

The Obama-era directives rescinded by DeVos came after years of borrower advocates expressing concern that student loan servicers werent working in borrowers best interest, making it more difficult for them to repay their loans. The government offers a slew of repayment programs federal student loan borrowers can use to pay off their debt according to their income and avoid default.

But reports from the Government Accountability Office, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as probes and lawsuits from the CFPB and state law-enforcement officials indicate that some servicers dont do a good enough job of helping borrowers enroll in these programs and instead steer them toward repayment plans that may make it harder for them to pay off their debts.

More than 1 million borrowers defaulted on the federal student loans last year and in many cases those defaults a credit ruining event could have been avoided if borrowers were enrolled in one of these repayment programs.

Borrower advocates worry that DeVoss memo will make it easier for servicers who dont work in borrowers best interests to continue to do so and still win lucrative government contracts.

Theres a lot of problems out there and these basic common sense protections are incredibly necessary, said Persis Yu, the director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project at the National Consumer Law Center. Its somewhat baffling to see them being rolled back at this point.

Excerpt from:
Betsy DeVos reverses Obama-era directives aimed at protecting student loan borrowers - MarketWatch

US President Barack Obama waved next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel after his speech in front of Berlin's landmark the Brandenburg Gate, in Berlin.

BERLIN (AP) Former U.S. President Barack Obama will take part in a discussion event with Chancellor Angela Merkel at a Protestant conference in Berlin next month as Germany marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, organizers said Tuesday.

The May 25 event will take place in front of Berlins landmark Brandenburg Gate, where Obama delivered a speech as president in 2013, Germanys Lutheran church and organizers of the German Protestant Kirchentag conference said.

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The discussion is being organized jointly by the conference, which is held every two years, and the Obama Foundation.

Obama spokesman Eric Schultz confirmed the former presidents plans to join Merkel for a moderated conversation on the importance of democracy and taking on responsibility locally and globally.

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Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, Germanys top Lutheran bishop, said Obamas participation underlines how internationally we are celebrating 500 years of the Reformation. Bedford-Strohm invited Obama last May to visit Germany for the anniversary.

Martin Luthers revolt against Catholic Church practices started in Germany in 1517.

Obama was in Berlin in mid-November on his last European trip as president.

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Schultz said that additional details about Obamas visit to Europe will be relayed in the coming weeks.

His successor, Donald Trump, is expected to visit Germany for the first time as president when Merkel hosts the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg in July.

Read more from the original source:
Obama expected at Protestant event in Berlin next month - The Boston Globe

The circumstantial evidence is mounting that the Kremlin succeeded in infiltrating the U.S. government at the highest levels.

How else to explain a newly elected president looking the other way after an act of Russian aggression? Agreeing to a farcically one-sided nuclear deal? Mercilessly mocking the idea that Russia represents our foremost geopolitical foe? Accommodating the illicit nuclear ambitions of a Russian ally? Welcoming a Russian foothold in the Middle East? Refusing to provide arms to a sovereign country invaded by Russia? Diminishing our defenses and pursuing a Moscow-friendly policy of hostility to fossil fuels?

All of these items, of course, refer to things said or done by President Barack Obama. To take them in order: He reset with Russia shortly after its clash with Georgia in 2008. He concluded the New START agreement with Moscow that reduced our nuclear forces but not theirs. When candidate Mitt Romney warned about Russia in the 2012 campaign, Obama rejected him as a Cold War relic. The president then went on to forge an agreement with Russias ally Iran to allow it to preserve its nuclear program. During the red-line fiasco, he eagerly grasped a lifeline from Russia at the price of accepting its intervention in Syria. He never budged on giving Ukraine lethal weapons to defend itself from Russian attack. Finally, Obama cut U.S. defense spending and cracked down on fossil fuels, a policy that Russia welcomed since its economy is dependent on high oil prices.

Put all of this together, and its impossible to conclude anything other than that Obama was a Russian stooge, and not out of any nefarious dealings, but out of his own naivete and weakness. Obama didnt expect any rewards when he asked then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a hot-mic moment at an international meeting to relay to Vladimir Putin his ability to be more flexible after the 2012 election; he was, to put it in terms of the current Russian election controversy, colluding with the Russians in the belief it was a good strategy. His kompromat was his own foolishness.

The cost of Obamas orientation toward Russia became clearer during the past two weeks. When he pulled up short from enforcing his red line, an agreement with the Russians to remove Bashar Assads chemical weapons became the fig leaf to cover his retreat. This deal was obviously deficient, but Obama officials used clever language to give the impression that it had removed all chemical weapons from Syria. Never mind that Assad still used chlorine gas to attack his population exploiting a grievous loophole and that evidence piled up that Assad was cheating more broadly.

The Russians eagerly covered for Assad because hes their client. What was the Obama administrations excuse? It effectively made itself a liar for the Russians at the same time Moscow bolstered the Assad regime we said had to go, smashed the moderate opposition we were trying to create and sent a destabilizing refugee flow into Europe. This was a moral and strategic disaster.

To be sure, Donald Trumps statements about Russia during the past year and a half have often been stupid and shameful. But there was always a good chance that Russias blatant hostility to our values and interests would make any attempted Trump detente unsustainable. With his secretary of state and U.N. ambassador hitting Russia hard over the Assad gas attack and Trumps strike challenging Russias position, the administration looks to be adopting a hardheaded attitude without bothering with a doomed reset first.

Even if Obama eventually got tougher on Russia imposing sanctions after the Ukraine invasion and sending contingents of U.S. troops to countries near Russia he never entirely shed his reflex toward accommodation. No matter what conspiracy theorists might say, theres nothing to suggest anything untoward about Obamas relationship with Russia. But based on the record alone, you might have suspicions.

See the article here:
Rich Lowry: Obama was the real stooge for Russia - La Crosse Tribune

New York Times

Congressman Who Shouted 'You Lie' at Obama Hears the Same From Constituents New York Times Representative Joe Wilson, the South Carolina Republican who gained a measure of infamy after shouting you lie at President Barack Obama during a joint session of Congress in 2009, had that memorable catchphrase hurled back at him by a group of his ... The Congressman Who Shouted 'You Lie' at President Obama in 2009 Got the Same TreatmentTIME You lie! congressman who yelled at Obama has his insult hurled back at him at town hallShareblue Media Joe Wilson, Who Shouted at Obama, Gets Shouted at Himself: You LieU.S. News & World Report Minnesota Public Radio News -Huffington Post -Daily Kos all 53 news articles »

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Congressman Who Shouted 'You Lie' at Obama Hears the Same From Constituents - New York Times