Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced his chief of staff John Kelly will soon be leaving the administration, the latest key personnel move at a time of mounting pressure from the Russia election-meddling probe that comes amid increased focus on preparing for the 2020 elections. Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, was long rumored to be on the way out, amid reports that his relationship with the volatile Trump had deteriorated to such an […]
Tag: us politics
Trump’s revolving door: Kelly is latest senior White House departure
White House chief of staff John Kelly will be leaving by the end of the year, US President Donald Trump announced Saturday. That will make him the latest top official to exit the US leader’s inner circle. Dozens of White House aides — from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to press secretary Sean Spicer to chief of staff Reince Priebus — have either left or been sacked from their posts since Trump took office on January 20, 2017. […]
Trump heads to Texas to give boost to ‘Lyin’ Ted’
by Eleonore Sens / with Jerome Cartillier in Washington Agence France Presse HOUSTON, United States (AFP) — “Big Night in Texas!” Donald Trump promised in his Monday morning tweet. Ted Cruz hopes it is as well. The US leader arrived in the Lone Star State in the evening to give a shot in the arm to the Senate campaign of Cruz, his fiercest rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Wearing black cowboy boots, […]
Second US judge blocks Trump order to end ‘Dreamer’ program
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — A second US judge on Tuesday blocked an order by President Donald Trump to end a program protecting from deportation migrants who had been brought illegally to the country as children. The decision comes after a federal judge in San Francisco in January ruled against repealing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. In September, Trump said he was scrapping the DACA program but delayed enforcement to […]
US Congress gridlocked as budget, immigration deadlines loom
by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Bitterly divided US lawmakers return this week to face a shrinking window for reaching deals on immigration, federal spending and the debt, as Republican infighting swirls and President Donald Trump complains he is getting zero cooperation from Democrats. Trump vowed during his State of the Union address last week to “extend an open hand” to both parties in pursuing an immigration deal that shields […]
Congress votes to end shutdown, funding bill heads to Trump
by Andrew BEATTY Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Congress put the US government back in business Monday by voting to end a three-day shutdown, as President Donald Trump claimed victory in his standoff with Democrats in Washington. The House voted 266 to 150 to extend federal funding, hours after Senate Democrats dropped their opposition to the plan after winning Republican assurances of a vote on immigration in the coming weeks. “I know […]
Battle to avert US government shutdown moves to the Senate
by Jim MANNION Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States – A last-ditch battle to avert a looming US government shutdown moved to the Senate on Friday, where Democrats angered by the collapse of immigration talks have vowed to block a stop-gap funding bill. With the federal government set to run out of money Friday at midnight — the eve of the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration — the bill cleared the House with a 230-197 vote. But […]
Immigration tensions roil US Congress as shutdown looms
by Michael Mathes Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — With barely two days before the US government runs out of money, and President Donald Trump feuding with Democrats over immigration, Republican congressional leaders scrambled Wednesday to avoid an embarrassing federal shutdown. A bipartisan deal on immigration that would shield some 700,000 people from deportation lay in tatters after the president’s reported use of vulgar language during a tense White House meeting last week […]
Trump fumes as US health care reform bid collapses
by Michael Mathes Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States – An angry President Donald Trump railed Tuesday against dissenters in his party who dashed his months-long effort to dismantle his predecessor’s landmark health care law, insisting it was finally time to “let Obamacare fail.” With four Republicans now lined up against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health overhaul, the plan has flatlined in the 100-member chamber, where the party could afford only two defectors in order […]
Gorsuch sworn in as US Supreme Court justice
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – Neil Gorsuch was sworn in Monday as the US Supreme Court’s ninth justice, retilting the bench to the right as he filled the seat left vacant by last year’s death of conservative icon Antonin Scalia. Confirmed by the Senate Friday after a bitter months-long fight, Gorsuch was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court attended by the other justices and Gorsuch’s family. […]
Trump taps Giuliani as cyber security guru
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – President-elect Donald Trump tapped Thursday former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to advise his administration on cyber security amid an outcry over Russian hackers’ apparent attempt to meddle in the US election. Giuliani, 72 and a key Trump surrogate, was last year a candidate for secretary of state but subsequently came under scrutiny in the US media over business dealings that posed potential conflicts of interest. Trump on Thursday called […]
Clinton, Trump clash and interrupt each other in first presidential debate
* Each accuses other of distortions, falsehoods *Clinton called the New York businessman’s tax policies “Trumped-up trickle-down” economics *Trump accused the former secretary of state of being “all talk, no action.” * Clinton criticized Trump for failing to pay some of the business people with whom his company had contracted. *Trump said such incidents of non-payment had taken place when the work was unsatisfactory. *Trump attacked Clinton for her trade policies and said […]





