Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 156
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rattled by accusations he was caving on his promised border wall, President Donald Trump instead bowed to a conservative backlash. After signaling earlier in the week that he was backing off a government shutdown threat, Trump rapidly changed course on Thursday, informing House Republican leaders that he would not sign a short-term funding measure because it did not include money for a southern border wall. His second reversal in a matter of days — with time left to pivot yet again — came after conservative allies and pundi...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders were digging in Wednesday for a fight over government funding, a day after a combative White House meeting with President Donald Trump that seemed to raise the likelihood of a partial government shutdown. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was holding parts of the government "hostage to a petty campaign pledge" to build a border wall with Mexico in order to "fire up" his political base. Republican leaders, meanwhile, said they have the votes in the House to approve Trump's request for $5 b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a wild Oval Office confrontation, President Donald Trump heatedly threatened to shut down the U.S. government Tuesday as he and Democratic leaders bickered over funding for his promised border wall and offered a grim preview of life in Washington the next two years under divided government. Trump and House and Senate Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer squabbled for more than 15 minutes in the stunning, televised encounter. Each of them, especially Trump, interrupted the others to question facts, quibble over...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is weighing at least four people to serve as his next chief of staff, after plans for an orderly succession for departing John Kelly fell through. The high-profile hiring search comes at a pivotal time as the president looks to prepare his White House for the twin challenges of securing his re-election and fending off inquiries once Democrats gain control of the House next year. Trump's top pick for the job, Nick Ayers, is out of the running and Trump is now soliciting input on at least four i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to announce he will nominate State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, officials familiar with the plans said Thursday. Two administration officials confirmed Trump's plans. A Republican congressional aide said the president was expected to announce his decision by tweet on Friday morning. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly before Trump's announcement. Trump has previously said Nauert was under serious consideration to r...
WASHINGTON (AP) — There was no mistaking the odd man out. Wednesday's funeral service for former President George H.W. Bush served as a rare reunion of the remaining members of the presidents club, but the front-row banter among Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and their spouses came to an uneasy end when President Donald Trump and wife Melania arrived. The encounter was a real-time illustration of the uneasy ties between the current occupant of the White House and his predecessors, suggesting Trump as a member-in-name-only of the Ov...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Donald Trump, the disruptive, anti-establishment president who spent years deriding much of what George H.W. Bush stood for, set aside differences in politics and temperament Saturday to honor the late president. Trump declared a day of national mourning and ordered American flags to be flown at half-staff for 30 days to honor a man of "sound judgment, common sense and unflappable leadership." The president and first lady Melania Trump added that Bush had "inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public s...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he headed to the Group of 20 Nations summit Thursday, citing Russia's seizure of Ukrainian vessels as a source of tension in a relationship he has fostered in the face of criticism. Trump tweeted his decision from Air Force One shortly after his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, revealed he had lied to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating a real estate deal in Moscow on Trump's behalf during the Republican presi...
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a revised North American trade pact with the leaders of Canada and Mexico on Friday, declaring the deal a major victory for workers. But tensions over tariffs, looming GM layoffs and questions about the pact's prospects in Congress clouded the celebratory moment. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is meant to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has long denigrated as a "disaster." The leaders signed the new deal on the sidelines of the Group of 20 su...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Did someone say caravan? One week after Election Day, President Donald Trump's daily drumbeat of warnings about a caravan of "bad thugs" and potential terrorists intent on invading the U.S. from Mexico has largely fallen silent. The migrant caravans are still trudging along, the largest still about 1,000 miles from the southern border, but Trump — and many in the conservative media — have dramatically reduced the frequency and intensity of their dire warnings now that they no longer feel the same urgency to stir up GOP voter...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Suddenly facing life under divided government, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders talked bipartisanship Wednesday but then bluntly previewed the fault lines to come. Trump threatened to go after House Democrats who try to investigate him, while Rep. Nancy Pelosi said her party would be "a check and balance" against the White House. The day after midterm elections reset Washington, Trump took a victory lap at a raucous news conference, celebrating Republican Senate wins but distancing himself from the GOP's loss o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump knows he's on the line. The president spent Election Day calling allies, tweeting endorsements and following news coverage, after concluding a six-day rally blitz in Missouri late Monday. Trump packed his closing argument with hardline immigration rhetoric and harsh attacks on Democrats as he stared down the prospect of Republican losses that could shadow his presidency. "Everything we have achieved is at stake," he said. "Because they can take it apart just as fast as we built it." Faced with the p...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has been acting like a candidate on the ballot this week, staging daily double-header rallies and blasting out ads for Republicans up for election on Tuesday. Given the stakes for his presidency, he might as well be. A knot of investigations. Partisan gridlock. A warning shot for his re-election bid. Trump faces potentially debilitating fallout should Republicans lose control of one or both chambers in Congress, ending two years of GOP hegemony in Washington. A White House that has struggled to stay o...
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — President Donald Trump implored voters on Thursday to reject Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill and to instead install a Republican in her seat who would fully back his agenda. Trump appeared at a rollicking campaign rally in Columbia, home of the state's largest university, in an airline hangar draped in American flags. It was his second rally in an 11-stop, eight-state tour designed to boost Republican turnout ahead of Tuesday's crucial midterm elections. The president, accompanied by McCaskill's Republican challenger, J...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mob rule. A socialist takeover. Terrorists marching on the U.S. border. As President Donald Trump embraces the role of electoral boogeyman, he's making closing arguments to midterm voters that increasingly resemble a Halloween horror story. The candidate who won the White House in part by harnessing many Americans' anxieties is offering dire warnings about what life would look like if Democrats gain control of Congress. Using racially charged language and sometimes questionable information, Trump argues that Democrats will p...
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Donald Trump fueled his 2016 campaign with fiery immigration rhetoric, visions of hordes flowing across the border to assault Americans and steal their jobs. Now, in the final weeks before midterm elections, he's back at it as he looks to stave off Democratic gains in Congress. It's an approach that offers both risks and rewards. He could energize Democratic foes as well as the Republicans he wants to rouse to the polls. But for the president, the potential gains clearly win out. In campaign stops and on Twitter in rece...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing the prospect of bruising electoral defeat in congressional elections, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he won't accept the blame if his party loses control of the House in November, arguing his campaigning and endorsements have helped Republican candidates. In a wide-ranging interview three weeks before Election Day, Trump told The Associated Press he senses voter enthusiasm rivaling 2016 and he expressed cautious optimism that his most loyal supporters will vote even when he is not on the ballot. He d...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Live from the Oval Office, it's Kanye West with a jaw-dropping performance. The rapper didn't rap. But, seated across from President Donald Trump at the Resolute Desk, the musician delivered a multipart rambling monologue Thursday that touched on social issues, hydrogen planes, mental health, endorsement deals, politics and oh so much more. Seizing the spotlight from the typically center-stage president, West dropped the F-word, floated policy proposals — and went in for a hug. "They tried to scare me to not wear this hat...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out Friday at female protesters who have confronted senators over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, labeling them "rude elevator screamers" and "paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad." Trump's tweet Friday came before a crucial Senate vote on Kavanaugh, who stands accused of a high school-era sexual assault. Amid a national reckoning around gender roles and sexual consent, protesters have flooded the capitol in recent days, with many women angrily addressing senators, s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Remember Anonymous? One month ago Friday, an unidentified Trump administration official set off a White House firestorm by claiming in a New York Times opinion piece to be part of a secret "resistance" force out to undermine parts of President Donald Trump's agenda. The article triggered cries of "treason" from Trump and a demand that the powers of the federal government be brought to bear to root out the disloyal officials. And then ... not much happened. The investigation, which existed more in name than practice, stalled. A...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Men of America, be afraid. This could happen to you. That's the alarm President Donald Trump and his GOP allies are increasingly sounding as they try to defend their Supreme Court nominee from sexual assault allegations. The three-decade-old accusation facing Brett Kavanaugh is not only false, they argue, but an example of the #MeToo movement gone too far in its call to believe the women — and not the men. It's a message that looks to channel the frustration and anxieties of the party's bedrock voters — white men — just we...
WASHINGTON (AP) — An agitated President Donald Trump acknowledged Wednesday that past accusations of sexual misconduct against him have influenced the way he views similar allegations against other men, including his Supreme Court nominee. Wading into the #MeToo moment, Trump said he views such accusations "differently" because he's "had a lot of false charges made against me." He made the comments at a news conference in New York a day before Judge Brett Kavanaugh was set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee amid multiple a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Combat won out over caution. White House aides and congressional allies worked all week to keep President Donald Trump from unloading on the woman who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. But as Kavanaugh's nomination hung in the balance, Trump couldn't contain his frustration any longer and unleashed a direct Twitter attack on the credibility of Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her decades ago during a high school party. Friday's tweet landed with a splat in t...
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Hurricane Florence bore down on the U.S. on Thursday, President Donald Trump angrily churned up the devastating storm of a year earlier, disputing the official death count from Hurricane Maria and falsely accusing Democrats of inflating the Puerto Rican toll to make him "look as bad as possible." Public health experts have estimated that nearly 3,000 perished because of the effects of Maria. But Trump, whose efforts to help the island territory recover have been persistently criticized, was having none of that. He said j...
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a striking anonymous broadside, a senior Trump administration official wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times on Wednesday claiming to be part of a group of people "working diligently from within" to impede President Donald Trump's "worst inclinations" and ill-conceived parts of his agenda. Trump said it was a "gutless editorial" and "really a disgrace," and his press secretary called on the official to resign. Trump later tweeted, "TREASON?" and in an extraordinary move demanded that if "the GUTLESS anonymous p...
