Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 27
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden proposed a massive expansion of federal services for Americans this year, he laid out lofty stakes — not only for his own presidential legacy but far beyond. The imperative, he said in an April address to Congress, is to show "that our government still works — and can deliver for the people." It was an apt pitch for the long-held Democratic vision of government as a force for good, and for the idea that Washington has an obligation to improve the lot of Americans held back. But five months later...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Their final debate behind them, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are packaging their divergent personal styles and policy prescriptions into closing messages for the final sprint to Election Day. The coronavirus was a central topic for both candidates on Friday as Trump headed to Florida and Biden prepared to address the topic in Delaware. The night before in Nashville, the pair squared off on the pandemic, the economy, climate change and race — and the nature of presidential leadership itself. Trump pitched him...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking to shove his campaign back on track, President Donald Trump and his team laid out an aggressive return to political activities, including a big White House event on Saturday and a rally in Florida on Monday, a week after his hospitalization for a virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans. As questions linger about his health — and Democratic opponent Joe Biden steps up his own campaigning — Trump planned to leave the Washington area for the first time since he was hospitalized. He is also increasing his radio...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump met Monday with Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House as the conservative jurist emerged as a favorite to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, the start of a monumental Senate confirmation fight over objections from Democrats it's too close to the November election. Trump said he expects to announce his pick by week's end, before the burial of Ginsburg, the court's liberal icon, at Arlington National Cemetery. The president told reporters he was still going to be i...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump erupted at his top political advisers last week when they presented him with worrisome polling data that showed his support eroding in a series of battleground states as his response to the coronavirus comes under criticism. As the virus takes its deadly toll and much of the nation's economy remains shuttered, new surveys by the Republican National Committee and Trump's campaign pointed to a harrowing picture for the president as he faces reelection. While Trump saw some of the best approval ratings o...
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Relishing in Democrats' jumbled primary in the wake of a fractious debate, President Donald Trump offered stinging criticism of his rivals as he sought to take advantage of the moment. Making a rare four-day swing through the West, Trump was exuding reelection confidence Thursday at a campaign rally in Colorado, after taking in the prior night's prize fight of a debate in Las Vegas. He reveled in the intra-party squabbling and the weak debut debate performance turned in by former New York City Mayor Mike B...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump once warned Barack Obama against "playing the Iran card" to boost his political prospects by starting a war. Eight years later, Trump is showing no reluctance to capitalize politically on his order to kill a top Iranian general, drawing accusations that he is weaponizing foreign policy for his campaign's own gain. Trump's campaign has used the killing of Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, as a cudgel against the president's Democratic political rivals and to divert a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaking out against weekend mass shootings that rocked a nation, President Donald Trump on Monday called for bipartisan solutions to the bloodshed but offered few details and faced pointed questions from Democrats about whether he had the moral authority to rally a nation against the spasm of violence and racism. Trump, back at the White House after remaining largely out of view for two days at his New Jersey golf club, declared the shootings in Texas and Ohio barbaric crimes "against all humanity" and called for unity to r...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a Twitter invitation Saturday to North Korea's Kim Jong Un to meet for a handshake at the Demilitarized Zone that separates the North and South, and expressed a willingness to cross the border for what would be a history-making photo opportunity. The invitation, while long rumored in diplomatic circles, still came across as an impulsive display of showmanship by a president bent on obtaining a legacy-defining nuclear deal. North Korea responded by calling the offer a "very interesting s...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — For President Donald Trump, a four-day visit to Asia is shaping up to be more about relationships than results. In Japan for the Group of 20 summit, Trump notched few identifiable accomplishments on a range of pressing challenges as he savored the show of diplomatic backslapping. He went into his meetings with friends and foes alike against the backdrop of global crises, from Iranian aggression to Russian election meddling. Eager to avoid a repeat of his past tumultuous international summit visits, Trump traded h...
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — "Ok, let's do it." With those words, a deliberate step and a pat on the arm of Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea on Sunday as the two made history at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. The made-for-television moment was unthinkable just two years ago, when the men were trading base insults and grim threats. Trump's three-hour stop at the DMZ — of which about 80 minutes were spent with Kim — was a display of handshake-diplomacy for the histo...
PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation's nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining deal, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea. What was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring n...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fun and flattery are largely over for President Donald Trump as he embarks on his third overseas trip in a month, this time facing a flurry of international crises, tense negotiations and a growing global to-do list. Trump heads first to Osaka, Japan, for the annual Group of 20 summit, then on to South Korea for consultations on North Korea's nuclear program. The agenda for his four-day trip is as laden with hazards for the president as it is light on the ceremonial pomp that marked his recent state visits to Japan and t...
PITTSBURGH (AP) — One stone and one white rosebud for each victim. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump paid homage Tuesday to each of the 11 people slain in the worst instance of anti-Semitic violence in American history. As the Trumps placed their tributes outside the Tree of Life synagogue, protesters nearby shouted that the president was not welcome. The emotional, dissonant scene reflected the increasingly divided nation that Trump leads, one gripped by a week of political violence and hate and hurtling toward contentious m...
WASHINGTON (AP) — If it's an "America First" presidency, where does that rank human rights? President Donald Trump's refusal to put public pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising a question that has dogged his foreign policy. In dealing with Russia, across Asia and, this week, in the Mideast, Trump has often appeared comfortable downplaying concerns about rights abuses and dismissing the importance of U.S. moral leadership. The onetime real estate mogul is as likely to let U.S. financial or s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump Tuesday criticized rapidly mounting global condemnation of Saudi Arabia over the mystery of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, warning of a rush to judgment and echoing the Saudis' request for patience. In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump compared the case of Khashoggi, who Turkish officials have said was murdered in the Saudis' Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. "I think we have t...
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Taking center stage at the United Nations, President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China of trying to interfere in the upcoming U.S. congressional elections because it opposes his tough trade policies. The White House provided scant evidence of anything akin to the level of Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. "They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade," Trump said as he chaired the U.N. Security Council for the first time. He made his a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. And, perhaps, your potential leakers closer yet. President Donald Trump's political operation has made a regular practice of providing soft landing-pads for discarded staffers, offering nebulous jobs at big salaries to aides who have been pushed out of his West Wing. The revelation this week that former White House assistant Omarosa Manigault Newman was offered a high-paying job on Trump's re-election campaign in return for signing a non-disclosure agreement was the clearest d...
WASHINGTON (AP) — New details emerged on the rift between White House chief of staff John Kelly and President Donald Trump, with one former administration official saying Kelly privately called Trump "an idiot" last year. Kelly's insult to the president's intelligence, confirmed to The Associated Press by the former official, came as his clashes with Trump over policy and personnel grew louder and more frequent. Kelly, who has cast himself as safeguarding the public from the president, has also threatened to quit the White House on several o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump laced into James Comey as an "untruthful slime ball" on Friday as the White House and the national Republican Party mounted a withering counterattack against the former FBI director and his stinging new memoir. Comey is embarking on a publicity rollout of his book, "A Higher Loyalty," which offers his version of the highly controversial events surrounding his firing by Trump and the Russia and Hillary Clinton email investigations. In the book, Comey compares Trump to a mob boss demanding loyalty, suggest...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The tempest over President Donald Trump's congratulatory phone call to Vladimir Putin quickly grew on Wednesday into an uproar over White House leaks, sparking an internal investigation and speculation over who might be the next person Trump forces out of the West Wing. The White House, which has suffered frequent leaks — at times of notable severity — said in a statement it would be a "fireable offense and likely illegal" to leak Trump's briefing papers to the press, after word emerged that the president had been warned in br...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump consumed Thursday morning's TV headlines with amusement. Reports of tumult in the administration were at a feverish pitch — even on his beloved Fox News — as the president reflected on the latest staff departures during an Oval Office conversation with Vice President Mike Pence and Chief of Staff John Kelly. With a laugh, Trump said: "Who's next?" It's the very question that has the whole White House on edge. In recent weeks, the president's top economic adviser has resigned over a policy dispute, the s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump once presided over a reality show in which a key cast member exited each week. The same thing seems to be happening in his White House. Trump's West Wing has descended into a period of unparalleled tumult amid a wave of staff departures, yet the president insists it's a place of "no Chaos, only great Energy!" The latest to announce his exit is Gary Cohn, Trump's chief economic adviser, who had clashed with the boss over trade policy. Cohn's departure has sparked internal fears of an even larger e...
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump denied Tuesday that his White House is chaotic, but predicted more staff will leave, as allies and observers worry about West Wing brain drain. Trump's White House has made instability a virtue, but weeks of dysfunction and disarray — and a series of high-profile departures — raised internal fears of an exodus. Trump maintained that his White House has "tremendous energy," but multiple White House officials said Trump has been pushing anxious aides to stay. "Everyone wants to work in the White House," Tr...
WASHINGTON (AP) — The security clearance of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, has been downgraded, according to two people informed of the decision. Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the "top secret/sensitive compartmented information" level for more than a year. Now he is only authorized to access information at the lower "secret" level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither source w...
