AP Exclusive: Manafort had plan to benefit Putin government Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Putin (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service, File)   By JEFF HORWITZ and CHAD DAY, The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to advance the interests of Russian President […]

A $10 million ad campaign urging confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, paid for by a secret source. Gorsuch refused to say whether the public has a right to know the source. He and the court, he said, must remain above politics. Gorsuch was not involved in the court’s political decisions in Citizens United and […]

So far, Trump has been mercifully incompetent   President Trump. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post, Opinion writer March 17 “The world is laughing at us. They’re laughing at the stupidity of our president.” — Donald Trump, October 2016 Stupid is as stupid does. During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump remarked often on the stupidity of our […]

White House installs political aides at Cabinet agencies to be Trump’s eyes and ears The network of political appointees reports to Rick Dearborn, left, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, according to administration officials. At center is Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) By Lisa Rein and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, March 19 […]

St. Patrick’s Day was the day on which the United States became an international joke. Politico’s story was headlined “The Leader of the Free World Meets Donald Trump,” a stunningly accurate summary. Of course the president’s absurd provocation of unnecessary disputes with two of our best allies—Germany and Britain—was not funny, but so foolishly bumptious […]

There’s a lot of inside baseball here, but if you have the patience and time to read it the piece will add some clarity to the internal tensions over Trump’s domestic policy. (A companion piece on foreign policy lends no clarity at all, except a hint that his foreign policy advisors are heavier on opinion than knowledge and experience.) Inside Trump’s White […]

A cheerful read to get your Sunday started off right. The conservative guide to impeaching Trump: Christian Schneider Temptation grows for right-wingers to consciously uncouple from his supporters. A carnival float featuring President Trump in a parade in Mainz, Germany, in February 2017.(Photo: Thomas Lohnes, Getty Images) By Christian Schneider, 5:02 a.m. ET March 17, 2017 From […]

  Tillerson says diplomacy with North Korea has ‘failed’; Pyongyang warns of war https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-6/html/container.html Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, answers questions during a joint news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida after their talks in Tokyo on March 16. (Pool photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images) By Anna Fifield and Anne Gearan March 16 at 11:08 AM TOKYO — The […]

Trump Wants To Neuter The State Department. Putin Would Love That. Weakening the agency reduces U.S. influence on the direction of global affairs and Washington’s ability to promote human rights. By Akbar Shahid Ahmed, The Huffington Post WASHINGTON ― In his first months in office, President Donald Trump has cut the State Department out of major decisions, sharply […]

A president’s budget has never been so much a blueprint for spending as a statement of his priorities. At a glance this one reflects the priorities of a president who expects, or wants, to go to war. What other conclusion can we draw from a budget that gouges 10.9 billion dollars—29 percent—out of the budget […]