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Tag: Trumps

  • Joint Chiefs shuffle: Biden’s top contenders to replace Trump’s military leaders

    Joint Chiefs shuffle: Biden’s top contenders to replace Trump’s military leaders

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    The vacancies give President Biden a chance to put his stamp on the Joint Chiefs as the administration looks to take big steps to counter Chinese aggression in the Pacific, chart a new course in Europe after the Ukraine invasion and dump old weapons systems to make room for new ones.

    “These are legacy moments for the Biden administration, but they are also the guard rails for the republic,” Peter Feaver, a former staffer on the National Security Council and author of “Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations.”

    It’s also an opportunity for Biden, who named the first Black defense secretary in 2021, to make more historic appointments, including the first female member of the Joint Chiefs. Last year, Biden chose Adm. Linda Fagan to be the first female commandant of the Coast Guard, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security.

    POLITICO spoke to 11 current and former Defense Department officials, as well as leaders in academia with knowledge of the discussions to forecast who’s in the running for the jobs. Some were granted anonymity to discuss the subject ahead of the announcements.

    Here are the names at the top of the list:

    Chair

    Current leader: Army Gen. Mark Milley, sworn in Oct. 1, 2019

    The frontrunner: Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown

    If you ask most people at DoD, the shoo-in for the top job is Gen. C.Q. Brown, the Air Force chief of staff. Brown, a fighter pilot by training, has stellar credentials, serving as commander of the service’s forces both in the Middle East and in the Pacific. He is also the first Black man to serve as Air Force chief of staff, and was nominated for the job the same summer as the Black Lives Matter protests swept the nation.

    Brown is not known for making news, and typically sticks closely to the talking points during public appearances and press engagements. But in a rare candid moment, he weighed in on the racial unrest roiling the country in an emotional video describing his experience navigating the issue in the military.

    Tapping Brown for the top job would mean plucking him from his current post before his term is up. He was sworn in Aug. 6, 2020, and has another year left as the Air Force’s top officer.

    Marine Corps Gen. David Berger

    The White House is also considering Gen. David Berger, the Marine Corps Commandant, who has served in the post since July 2019.

    Berger “connected” more with the president during his interview for the job, one former DoD official said. Berger’s interview lasted 90 minutes, while Brown’s interview lasted only 40, another former DoD official said.

    A career infantry officer, Berger has commanded troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific. Yet he is seen as controversial in some corners of the military. His vision for reshaping the Marines by shedding heavy weaponry in favor of a lighter, faster force has drawn criticism, particularly from retired generals.

    The longer interview for Berger doesn’t mean he has the job of course, but one person familiar with both Berger and Brown pointed out that the Marine leader is considered more talkative than the analytical Brown. Plus, Berger’s almost total rethinking of how the Marine Corps will be positioned to fight — particularly in the Pacific — is by far the most ambitious retooling of any of the services in decades, which could have sparked more conversation.

    One factor that might weigh against Berger is that the current vice chair, Adm. Christopher Grady, is a Navy officer. Lawmakers frown on having a chair and vice chair from within a department, such as the Department of the Navy, which includes both the Navy and Marine Corps.

    Army Gen. Laura Richardson

    DoD insiders aren’t ruling out Gen. Laura Richardson, an Army officer serving as the commander of U.S. Southern Command. She is one of only 10 women ever to hold the rank of a four-star general or admiral. A helicopter pilot, Richardson previously served as commanding general of U.S. Army North, and has commanded an assault helicopter battalion in Iraq. She also served as military aide to former Vice President Al Gore, and the Army’s legislative liaison to Congress.

    But one unofficial rule of the process is that no two consecutive chairs should be from the same service. Since Milley is also an Army officer, Richardson may be at a disadvantage. However, she is also seen as a candidate to replace Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville.

    Army

    Current leader: Army Gen. James McConville, sworn in Aug. 9, 2019.

    The frontrunner: Army Gen. Randy George

    While Richardson is a contender, the top candidate for Army chief of staff is Gen. Randy George, who is serving in the vice chief of staff role. George is an infantry officer who served in the 101st Airborne Division and deployed in support of the Gulf War. He also served as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s senior military assistant from June 2021 to July 2022.

    Army Gen. Andrew Poppas

    Another possibility is Gen. Andrew Poppas, a former commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division. He’s the head of Army Forces Command, a position Milley also held before becoming the Army’s top officer. Poppas also served as director of operations of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, a post Austin held in 2009.

    Navy

    Current leader: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, sworn in on Aug. 22, 2019.

    The frontrunner: Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti

    Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, currently the vice chief of naval operations, is widely seen as a lock for the top job. The second woman to hold the vice CNO job, Franchetti also holds a degree in journalism. A career surface warfare officer, Franchetti served on the Joint Staff, and commanded the destroyer USS Ross.

    Navy Adm. Samuel Paparo

    There has also been some talk of Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the Pacific Fleet, as a possible candidate. He is a longshot, however, and is considered the top pick to take over as head of Indo-Pacific Command in two years when Adm. John Aquilino moves on.

    Air Force

    Current leader: Gen. C.Q. Brown, sworn in on Aug. 6, 2020.

    The frontrunner: Gen. Jacqueline Von Ovost

    If Brown is tapped to be the next chair, that creates an opening to be the top leader of the Air Force.

    There’s a lot of buzz around Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, who as the commander of U.S. Transportation Command has been at the center of all DoD’s most high-profile efforts during the Biden administration. Her forces moved vaccines during the Covid-19 response, flew evacuees from Kabul airport in 2021 and are shipping weapons to Ukraine. She is the first female head of Transportation Command, and would be the first woman to head the Air Force.

    Gen. David Allvin

    The Air Force’s No. 2 military officer since 2020, Allvin previously served as the director for strategy, plans, and policy on the Joint Staff. He comes from the air mobility community and commanded forces in Afghanistan and Europe.

    Marine Corps

    Current leader: Gen. David Berger, sworn in on July 11, 2019

    The frontrunner: Gen. Eric Smith

    Gen. Eric Smith is the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, making him the service’s No. 2 general. He has commanded at every level, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a general officer, he commanded the Marine Corps’ forces in U.S. Southern Command, as well as Marine Corps Combat Development Command. He also served in the Pentagon as senior military assistant to the defense secretary in 2016 to 2017.

    Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl

    While Smith has for months topped the list as a successor to Berger, another candidate in high standing is Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, who leads the Marine Corps’ Combat Development Command. In that job, Heckl has pushed to test and implement Berger’s reforms, and he has in many ways been the service’s public face for modernization in the Berger vein.

    Joe Gould, Paul McLeary and Lee Hudson contributed to this report.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Trump’s fundraising was lagging. Then he said an indictment was imminent.

    Trump’s fundraising was lagging. Then he said an indictment was imminent.

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    But Trump’s early presidential campaign initially struggled to keep up the momentum. The fourth quarter of 2022 was Save America’s worst in terms of overall fundraising and it spent more on digital fundraising expenses than it raised in December of last year, according to FEC filings.

    Even with the surge in revenue linked to the indictment, Trump’s first-quarter numbers still trail where he was at the same time in 2019, when he was running for reelection. That could be due to the fact that donor cash is being spread out among his GOP challengers or that donors are waiting to see how the primary plays out. The campaign of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the most prominent other Republican to announce so far, reported raising $5.1 million for her campaign over the three months. Vivek Ramaswany, who has never held office, reported raising around $850,000 from donors.

    While Trump has several other political groups, only his campaign was required to file a report with the FEC on Saturday, so the full magnitude of his expenses during the first quarter is not clear. His joint fundraising committee appeared to shift strategy this quarter, including cutting back on text messaging after long sending many users as many as three texts per day.

    Trump’s campaign committee still reported spending $3.5 million over the first three months of the year, with payroll occupying the single greatest expense, with roughly two dozen campaign employees on staff. The campaign also paid nearly $500,000 to Tag Air Inc., a Trump-owned company that operates his airplanes.

    Other expenses included $122,000 to Advancing Strategies, LLC, which is helmed by Chris LaCivita; more than $80,000 to Georgetown Advisory, the firm founded by former Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn, for legal consulting and communications services; as well as more than $75,000 to Compass Legal Group, headed by former Trump administration lawyer Scott Gast; and $30,000 to Belmont Strategies, a consulting firm headed by Andrew Surabian, an aide to Donald Trump Jr.

    The campaign also spent just over $4,000 at Trump’s trademark Mar-a-Lago Club.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • How Trump’s Indictment Will Change Politics

    How Trump’s Indictment Will Change Politics

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    screen shot 2023 04 06 at 6 05 04 pm

    Those who support Trump must acknowledge this new illiberal reality. The elite’s destruction of civic customs is complete. In the coming months, we shall see pro-Trump forces using the same corrosive tactics — or lose utterly.

    “The start of a new era in which no one is above the law.”

    Julia Azari is a professor of political science at Marquette University.

    Trump’s indictment might have a somewhat counterintuitive effect on the 2024 nomination race: His legal troubles might encourage other Republicans to get into the race, as we saw with long-shot candidate Asa Hutchinson last week. So far, we haven’t seen a stampede of new candidates. But if that does happen in response to any perceived vulnerability on Trump’s part, having a larger field of candidates could help him win the nomination by splitting up the non-Trump vote.

    The connection between politics and presidential accountability is an even more interesting one, in my opinion. We don’t have a monarchy in this country, and presidents are supposed to have the same status as everyone else. But the presidency has long had an air of ceremony and statesmanship, signifying the power it holds. This makes the politics of holding the president accountable especially painful, for their political supporters and the country as a whole. Part of the logic of President Gerald Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon after Watergate was to end our “national nightmare.” But in 2023, things have changed. Politics often feels like a nightmare anyway, so there’s no sense in trying to dodge the conflict inevitable in a post-presidential investigation. Polarization has helped to erode some of the mystique of the office, and that might be a good thing in the end.

    It’s impossible to separate law from politics entirely when charging a former president. It’s going to be messy, but possibly the start of a new era in which no one is above the law — not even those once charged with executing it.

    This prosecution may be the only way to avert a slide into authoritarianism.

    Kimberly Wehle is a visiting professor at the American University Washington College of Law.

    As I wrote for POLITICO Magazine precisely a year ago, the cost of not indicting Trump would be a presidency without guardrails. Today, the stakes of this prosecution are arguably even higher, as he’s now a candidate for the 2024 presidential race and favored for the Republican nomination. Numerous polls have him at a double-digit lead over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

    A criminally convicted Trump would look unappealing to many swing voters, potentially knocking him out of serious contention for the White House. It thus may be the only way to avert either another contested presidential election with widespread violence or, worse, a slide into authoritarianism.

    Trump deserves credit for one thing, at the very least: He says what he is going to do, and he does it. If he is the GOP nominee, there are two possible outcomes. Both are deeply disturbing.

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    #Trumps #Indictment #Change #Politics
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Bragg’s case against Trump hits a wall of skepticism — even from Trump’s critics

    Bragg’s case against Trump hits a wall of skepticism — even from Trump’s critics

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    “I believe President Trump’s character and conduct make him unfit for office. Even so, I believe the New York prosecutor has stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who twice voted to convict Trump in impeachment trials that would have rendered him ineligible to run for president. “The prosecutor’s overreach sets a dangerous precedent for criminalizing political opponents and damages the public’s faith in our justice system.”

    “You’ve got to work hard to make President Trump a martyr,” added Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), another GOP lawmaker who has been critical of Trump. “Congratulations to Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, who has managed to do just that.”

    Some wondered why Bragg revived a case he had appeared to leave for dead just months ago. Others questioned the specifics — like how Bragg was able to elevate the “falsification of business records” charges against Trump into felonies, a move that requires evidence that Trump attempted to conceal a second crime. Still others focused on the delay in bringing charges — six years after the core underlying conduct — and anticipated that Trump will seek to toss the case for exceeding the statute of limitations, despite the assessment of some legal experts that the case is not time-barred.

    Bragg left those questions largely unanswered in Tuesday’s filings and public comments. When asked why he changed course and charged Trump after having reportedly expressed reservations about aspects of the investigation, Bragg declined in a press conference to offer specifics, saying only that his prosecutors had “more evidence made available to the office and the opportunity to meet with additional witnesses.”

    Legal experts who had awaited Bragg’s charging documents to resolve some of the lingering mysteries about the case remained confounded by some aspects of the prosecution.

    “It is said that if you go after the king, you should not miss,” wrote Richard Hasen, a campaign finance law expert at UCLA. “In this vein, it is very easy to see this case tossed for legal insufficiency or tied up in the courts well past the 2024 election before it might ever go to trial. It will be a circus that will embolden Trump, especially if he walks.”

    Even Ian Millhiser, the liberal legal commentator for Vox, called the legal theory on which Bragg’s case is built “dubious.”

    The dynamic underscored the extraordinary risk Bragg took in deciding to mount the first-ever criminal prosecution of a former president — particularly one who is not shy about stoking outrage at the justice system. Trump did just that in a speech at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night, attacking not only Bragg but also the judge who will preside over the case, Juan Merchan, and the judge’s wife.

    Two former White House officials defended the case Bragg laid out, calling it legally sound and “an important case for democracy” even as they acknowledged the mixed reviews from legal experts.

    “There are a number of important critiques of the case in the furor and they are worthy of consideration,” former Obama White House ethics adviser Norm Eisen and former Nixon-era White House legal counsel John Dean wrote in a CNN op-ed Wednesday morning. “But ultimately, they are all wrong.”

    Bragg, a Democrat who colleagues say isn’t particularly politically savvy, found himself without a large number of prominent Democratic allies Tuesday. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Rep. Jamaal Bowman have been vocal supporters, with both elected officials attending a rally in support of the indictment Tuesday. Bowman has also taken to cable TV to advocate for Bragg, saying he has done “an exceptional job.”

    And at times Bragg has marshaled the support of surrogates, though mainly regarding non-legal aspects of the case. After Trump called the district attorney an “animal” last month, Bragg allies such as Rev. Al Sharpton and Rep. Adriano Espaillat came to his defense to ask people to “stand with us now to stare down this unprecedented attack on the foundation of our democracy,” with Espaillat later holding a rally for him.

    But Bragg hasn’t had a backer with a megaphone the size of Trump’s, and the district attorney is relatively limited in the public remarks he can make about an ongoing case — an uneven playing field that Trump has used to his advantage.

    Others in Bragg’s position have said leaving the politics to election season is the best course of action for an elected district attorney. John Flynn, the district attorney of Erie County, New York, and the president of the National District Attorneys Association, said in a radio interview last month that “you have to separate it.”

    “Once the election is over and you take over and start the job you have to remove yourself from politics. Once you do that, you can ward off the criticism,” he told Buffalo station WBEN.

    Trump sought to highlight the fissures between his political adversaries and Bragg during his remarks at Mar-a-Lago late Tuesday, but he also appeared to damage his own cause with a fusillade aimed at Merchan — just hours after the judge warned Trump’s lawyers that their client should not made any statements that “incite violate or create civil unrest.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Trump’s next in-person hearing in hush money case set for Dec 4

    Trump’s next in-person hearing in hush money case set for Dec 4

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    New York: The next in-person hearing in a criminal case against former president Donald Trump in New York City has been set for December 4, roughly two months before the official start of the 2024 Republican presidential primary calendar.

    Trump, the first former US President to be criminally charged, has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records at his arraignment in a Manhattan court on charges relating to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

    At the December in-person court appearance, State Supreme Court Justice Juan M Merchan will decide on the expected motions to dismiss the case.

    MS Education Academy

    Following Trump’s arraignment, prosecutors said they expect to produce the bulk of the discovery in the next 65 days, CNN reported.

    Trump’s team has until August 8 to file any motions and the prosecution will respond by September 19. Judge Merchan said he will rule on the motions at the next in-person hearing on December 4.

    Trump’s attorney Jim Trusty said Tuesday he expects “robust” motions to challenge the case and hopes they can succeed in stopping the case.

    If not, Trusty said he expects Trump’s attorneys will “figure out if there’s a way to try to push this earlier” than the December 4 hearing.

    Trump, 76, has already announced that he will seek the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2024 presidential election.

    The Iowa Republican caucuses will be held on February 5, 2024, marking the start of the party’s primary season.

    That underscores how Trump’s legal troubles could shadow him into the period when voters are picking a candidate to nominate for president, The Hill newspaper reported.

    The New Hampshire primary, the first one on the Republican calendar, is scheduled for February 13.

    Trump is expected to use the charges against him to try and rally support among Republican voters, arguing he is a victim of a politically motivated prosecution. A Saint Anselm College poll released Tuesday showed Trump with 42 per cent support among likely Republican primary voters, well ahead of Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, who garnered 29 per cent support, the newspaper said.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • While Trump’s base rallies, the GOP fractures

    While Trump’s base rallies, the GOP fractures

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    While polling, fundraising and public displays of enthusiasm indicate the indictment is emboldening Trump’s MAGA supporters, there is no evidence yet it has helped him expand his political base. In fact, many Republicans have expressed fears it may ultimately damage his prospects with swing voters the GOP will need to win the White House in 2024.

    In New York on Tuesday, those absent from the rally said as much as those who attended.

    “It is sad that we have a pretty large New York congressional delegation that has failed to show up. We’ve seen the party leadership fail to show up. We’ve seen local elected officials from the state Assembly to the state Senate fail to show up,” Gavin Wax, president of the New York Young Republican Club, said after the rally. “So I think it shows a complete disconnect between party leadership, party electeds and the establishment and the base of their actual party — their actual voters.”

    Wax noted two New York congressional Trump loyalists — Reps. Elise Stefanik and Claudia Tenney — hosted a public demonstration of support elsewhere in New York. And newly-elected Rep. George Santos — infamous for lying about some aspects of his identity during his campaign last year — defended the ex-president and lamented that the indictment “cheapens the judicial system” as he walked by the courthouse.

    But for others — specifically New York State Republican Chairman Ed Cox — Wax called it “a complete miscalculation on their part to not come out, to not be more strong on this issue.”

    Cox declined to respond, or discuss the reasons for his absence. The state party has supported Trump in the past, but has yet to make an endorsement this early in the 2024 primary cycle.

    One of the only elected officials to show up to the rally, local legislator Ben Geller, questioned why New York’s Republican congressional delegation didn’t show up.

    “A lot of them put out statements saying that they are disgusted at the politicization of this justice system, but where are they?” he asked. “None of them put the word Trump in any of their press statements.”

    Rep. Lee Zeldin, who came within striking distance of winning the New York governor’s race last year, praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during an event on Long Island Saturday night, but was a no-show Tuesday. DeSantis is expected to challenge Trump for the Republican nomination, and was in town as part of a politically-focused book tour.

    His communications director Daniel Gall said Zeldin is out of the country, and noted his tweets condemning the prosecution.

    And Republican Joe Borelli, a City Council member who was once among Trump’s most visible defenders, disputed a connection between rally attendance and support for the former president.

    “For the past 24 hours, the media told New York all to be afraid of a rally and then today is wondering why few elected officials were at the same rally. I don’t get it,” Borelli said.

    Trump would appear to benefit in the short term from his legal troubles. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted shortly after the indictment was announced showed Trump running far ahead of DeSantis, his main GOP rival, among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.

    That finding reflected pre-indictment surveys that suggested the scandal would likely rally Republicans around Trump.

    But the rush of the far-right to Trump’s side may come at a cost should he win the nomination. In the midterms in 2018 – and again in the presidential election two years later – many moderate Republicans and independents broke away from Trump, exhausted by the non-stop theater. The GOP failed to deliver the “red wave” Democrats feared last year as well.

    “This is a prosecution that is being brought by a partisan,” said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist, and “Republicans may, at least in the short term, rally to [Trump’s] side.”

    However, he said, “It’s still an indictment, and it’s a crime that’s being alleged that appears likely to be supported by evidence and testimony. … So, in a general election sense, this is a guy who lost the general election in 2020, and it’s difficult to imagine how this adds to his general election vote count.”

    The question surrounding Trump in the primary – after this indictment and with other legal problems looming – is “ultimately, do Republican voters start to see him as having too much baggage.”



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to block aides from testifying in Jan. 6 probe

    Appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to block aides from testifying in Jan. 6 probe

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    CNN has reported that the aides covered by Trump’s emergency order may include Meadows, Scavino, Miller and other former top Trump administration advisers like Robert O’Brien, John Ratcliffe and Ken Cuccinelli.

    Smith’s investigation of Trump’s effort to seize a second term has intensified in recent months. He has won a series of rulings to compel testimony from top figures in Trump’s orbit, including former Vice President Mike Pence.

    The three-judge panel that rejected Trump’s emergency motion consisted of Judges Patricia Millett, Robert Wilkins and Gregory Katsas. Millett and Wilkins are both appointees of former President Barack Obama, while Katsas was appointed by Trump. The appeals court’s action denying the motion was recorded in its public docket, although the actual order issued by the court and all other pleadings related to the dispute remain sealed.

    Trump could try to take the issue to the Supreme Court, though he has opted against doing so in several other defeats connected to Smith’s Jan. 6 probe.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • ‘It’s history in the making’: Crowds gather for Trump’s arraignment in New York

    ‘It’s history in the making’: Crowds gather for Trump’s arraignment in New York

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    The first current or former president ever to be indicted, Trump was accompanied by U.S. Secret Service and traveled by motorcade from Trump Tower, where he stayed overnight Monday, down to lower Manhattan.

    He will remain in the custody of the district attorney’s office until he is escorted by foot to a courtroom Tuesday afternoon to be arraigned. For Trump, the accommodations of the district attorney’s office, a drab government facility, are likely to be much less comfortable than his typical surroundings.

    Across the street from the courthouse, thousands of reporters had set up camp. A line of about 100 reporters had remained there overnight in hopes of obtaining one of the limited number of seats in the courtroom where Trump will be arraigned.

    They weren’t the only ones fighting to get a glimpse of the historic day. The judge overseeing the proceedings set aside a small number of seats for the general public, and one father and son pair from Long Island spent the night outside the courthouse trying to nab those spots.

    “We drove in from Long Island at like one in the morning,” said the son, Ethan Reed, 19, of Great Neck. “It’s never happened before, I think it’s a pretty important moment in history so I’m just looking to be a part of it.”

    His father, David Reed, 59, an elementary teacher, said he had been watching the news Monday night when it occurred to him that they could drive in for the event. He suggested it to his son, and a short while later they were standing in a line behind about 60 reporters. “It’s history in the making,” David Reed said.

    Without blankets or chairs, they stood in line for about seven hours before court officers began handing out tickets to the general public. The Reeds gained access to the overflow room.

    Despite calls from the former president to protest the indictment, turnout so far has been small. During a protest last week, supporters clamoring for the indictment of the former president far outnumbered Trump supporters.

    Outside the courthouse Tuesday, a smattering of pro-Trump protesters had arrived by 9 a.m. Teenage girls draped in American flags, men waiving Trump flags, and moms in MAGA hats filled a small park across from the courthouse.

    Paulina Farrell, who was also at the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, came from Long Island to protest the indictment. “I’m here for his support because we feel he is being unjustly attacked,” said Farrell, holding a Trump Flag. “I feel that he is standing up for American people and our freedoms and the people are persecuting him because they do not stand up for the American people.”

    Farrell said she was thrilled that Marjorie Taylor Greene would be leading a rally by the courthouse later Tuesday morning, and did not anticipate violence on the scale of Jan. 6. “I hope it stays peaceful,” she said. “On our side, it will. There might be (unrest) if the other side antagonizes but not from us.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Trump’s tariff time bomb threatens to blow up transatlantic trade

    Trump’s tariff time bomb threatens to blow up transatlantic trade

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    BRUSSELS — The next big transatlantic trade fight is primed to explode.

    Negotiators from Brussels and Washington are scrambling to solve a five-year dispute over steel and aluminum dating back to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on European imports. They have until October to get a deal but are still so far apart that European officials now fear the chances of an agreement are slim. 

    Without a deal, both sides could reimpose billions of dollars worth of trade tariffs on each other’s goods — potentially spreading well beyond steel to hit products including French wines, U.S. rum, vodka and denim jeans.

    While U.S. negotiators are still hopeful that an agreement can be reached in time, the political fallout of failure for President Joe Biden would be serious, with U.S. exports facing a hit just ahead of his potential re-election battle in 2024. More broadly, another breakdown in trade relations between Europe and the United States would heap further pressure on a relationship that is already under strain from Biden’s green subsidies package for American industries.  

    With a more assertive China threatening to disrupt supply lines, and Russia’s war in Ukraine straining global commerce, the last thing world trade needs is a new crisis between major Western allies. Six EU officials briefed on the talks worry that’s exactly what will happen. 

    “The start positions are just too far away,” said one of the officials, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive matters. “The huge concessions that would have to be made are politically not realistic in that timeframe.”

    The transatlantic disagreement is a hangover from the days of Trump, who imposed tariffs on €6.4 billion worth of European steel and exports in 2018. The tariffs were extra sensitive because Trump had imposed them on grounds of national security. 

    After he came to power, Biden agreed to a temporary cessation of hostilities rather than a complete end to the dispute. His aim was for negotiators to work jointly on making steel production greener and fighting global overcapacity. The unofficial U.S. goal is also to squeeze Beijing’s dumping of Chinese steel, which is made with far more coal-fired power. 

    But unless a new deal is struck by October, the risk is that tariffs return. A summit between Biden and EU leaders has now been penciled in for October, potentially to coincide with the final leg of talks on the dispute.

    China hawks

    Officials in Brussels see the ongoing negotiations as just another push from the U.S. to force them into taking a harder line against China. “The language just seems written to tackle one country specifically,” said one of the European officials.

    Discussions only recently picked up pace through the exchange of a U.S. concept paper and then an EU response. Those texts showed how far apart the two sides are on key issues, the officials said.

    Washington wants to impose tariffs on imported steel or aluminum products, which would increase progressively based on how carbon-intensive the manufacturing process is, according to the proposal seen by POLITICO. Countries that join the agreement, which would be open to nations outside the EU, would face lower tariffs, or none at all, compared to those that do not. 

    GettyImages 1476427726
    Former U.S. President Donald Trump at a rally at Waco airport | Brandon Bell/Getty Images

    The EU’s response — also seen by POLITICO — does not include any form of tariffs, according to the officials. Brussels fears the American plan for tariffs goes against the rules of the World Trade Organization, which is a no-go for the EU.

    But a senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations, told POLITICO that tariffs should not be off the table. 

    “That’s a pretty powerful tool for driving the market both to reduce carbon intensity as well as to reset the playing field to counteract non-market practices and excess capacity,” the U.S. official said. “What we’ve been trying to understand and respond to, in part, is what are those reasons that the EU has to have concerns about a tariff-type structure.”

    Karl Tachelet, deputy director general of European steel association Eurofer, said: “We haven’t seen any real ambition or vision to use this as an opportunity to tackle excess capacity or decarbonization. So it can only lead to a clash of views.”

    Americans don’t see it that way.

    “The U.S. and the EU share a commitment to tackling the dual threat of non-market excess capacity and the climate crisis, and the Biden administration is committed to developing a high-ambition framework that accomplishes those objectives for our workers and these critical industries,” said Adam Hodge, spokesperson for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

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    A student does steel work in Dayton, Ohio | Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

    But the senior Biden administration official argued that the EU proposal lacks ambition. It makes “tweaks around the margin” without actually attacking “the fundamental problem” that the two sides agreed to address when they called their truce. 

    “Our concern with the EU’s paper is that it doesn’t really change the dynamic of trade,” the U.S. official said.

    “If we’re going to change the course of the impact of non-market excess capacity on market economies like the U.S. and EU, as well as really thinking about how can we use trade as a tool to drive decarbonization, we need to produce something that’s different and more ambitious,” the official added.

    Several officials said Washington is also seeking an exemption from the EU’s carbon border tax, which imposes a tax on some imported goods to make sure European businesses are not undercut by cheaper products made in countries with weaker environmental rules.

    Such an exemption for the U.S. is another no-go for Brussels. A European Commission spokesperson said giving the U.S. a pass on the carbon border tax would constitute a breach of WTO rules and “cannot be compared with” the U.S. steel and aluminum measures. 

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    Workers at LB Steel LLC in Illinois manufacture wheel assemblies for high-speed trains | Scott Olson/Getty Images

    Another European concern is that the U.S. wouldn’t scrap the possibility of re-imposing tariffs on the EU, even though the WTO branded them as illegal. Under Trump, Brussels argued only a complete withdrawal of the tariffs would satisfy the EU, contending the duties were an illegal slap in the face of an ally. 

    The senior U.S. official said that using national security to justify the tariffs — a rationale that would surely draw opposition in Brussels — “hasn’t been a part of our conversation with the EU to date.” But the Biden administration’s concept paper wasn’t written with WTO compliance top of mind, the official added. 

    Landing zone

    Brussels and Washington are now negotiating to find a landing zone. 

    “Both sides are coming from two different positions on this,” said one of the European officials, while stressing that “there is a mutual interest to find a solution.”

    Others were more pessimistic. Either way, a Plan B is taking shape in the background. Several of the European officials stressed the EU and the U.S. can also buy more time by prolonging the current ceasefire. “The deadline is always flexible,” said Uri Dadush, a Washington-based fellow at the Bruegel think tank. “Both sides can easily agree to extend.”

    Steven Overly reported from Washington. Sarah Anne Aarup and Camille Gijs contributed reporting from Brussels.



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

  • GOP dances around Trump’s indictment

    GOP dances around Trump’s indictment

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    senate security threats 10572

    Turner, the House Intelligence chair, also gently broke from Trump’s assertions that Russia will eventually take all of Ukraine: “It’s certainly not inevitable … there’s a number of people I think that should just stop the speculation.” He did not call Trump out by name, though. He also lamented that “it’s one thing when you have a cancel culture, it’s another one when you have a cancel criminal justice system.”

    The coming indictment marks only the beginning of what will be a huge debate within the GOP on whether Trump should be nominated for a third consecutive presidential election. He’s facing other legal woes beyond the hush money case, and each controversy stands to test his support among elected Republicans desperate to retake the White House. At the moment, many conservatives are not officially supporting his bid.

    And now nearly eight years since Trump entered the political ring, it remains truer than ever that many Republicans loathe discussing Trump’s endless penchant for controversy. Even Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who took a massive political risk in voting to convict Trump in his impeachment trial in 2021, is uninterested in rehashing his opinion on Trump.

    As Trump will likely face charges over his handling of hush money payments to an adult film star, Cassidy repeated the same phrase as Manchin nearly word-for-word: “No one should be above the law, but no one should be a target of the law.”

    “The particular problem is that it’s going to lead to all kinds of political theater, theater that is going to distract from the issues,” Cassidy said on “Fox News Sunday.” After raising fears that Social Security benefits will be cut without action, he lamented of both President Joe Biden and Trump: “Neither of the two leading candidates will take the issue on. That’s frustrating.”

    Trumpian conservatives don’t generally flock to TV news networks each weekend, and often take their pugnacious defensive style to right-leaning networks. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that some Republicans would consider retribution through the spending process over what he sees as the targeting of Trump by the federal government.

    “We control the power of the purse, and we’re going to look at the appropriations process and limit funds going to some of these agencies, particularly the ones engaged in the most egregious behavior,” Jordan said. He called the Bragg case “ridiculous.”

    That some of the most animated support of Trump on Sunday came from his own defense team highlights the fractional support the president still has in both chambers of Congress. And even his lawyers couldn’t fully defend Trump, who has attacked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan as someone who “hates me.”

    Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina said on CNN that while Trump certainly had a right to take issue with any aspect of the case, he personally has “no issue with this judge whatsoever.”

    If there was a memorable moment over the weekend within the GOP, it may be former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s announcement of a 2024 president campaign. He immediately called on Trump to drop out of the race amid the indictment, a call even Trump’s latest campaign rival admitted would be summarily ignored.

    “The office is more important than any individual person. For the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that is too much of a side show,” Hutchinson said on ABC’s “This Week.” He added: “At the same time, we know he’s not” going to drop out.

    Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has flirted with another presidential bid, questioned on ABC whether Trump’s prosecution is “really about increasing the public safety of the people of Manhattan” but also said an indictment can’t be good news for Trump: “All this bravado from the Trump camp is baloney.”

    The comment illustrated Republicans’ quandary: Criticizing Trump too directly over the matter could lose conservative support, even if on its face an indictment clearly hurts the former president’s general election prospects.

    Marc Short, a former chief of staff for former Vice President Mike Pence, did not take Hutchinson’s tack either and said on Fox “it’s right for Republicans to denounce” the indictment.

    So even as they very much don’t defend Trump on the particulars of the case over a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign, some Republicans are doing their best to channel their inner Manchin — with a twist.

    “People need to ask themselves a fundamental question. If this were anyone but Trump, would this DA even take up this case?” asked Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) on CNN’s “State of the Union. He added that former presidents “should definitely not be immune from criminal charges. It’s just that this one is as weak as it can get.”

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )