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Trump pardoned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for criminal contempt chargesrelated to his years of aggressive “immigration sweeps” that targeted and unlawfully detained Latinos. Among other things, Arpaio also oversaw an outdoor jail in Phoenix called Tent City, which he himself described as a “concentration camp.” Arpaio, an outspoken Trump surrogate on the campaign trail, won’t serve a single day in jail. Trump issued a major disaster declaration as Hurricane Harvey descended on Texas. The declaration directs federal aid, including low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, to disaster-struck areas, according to the White House.
Gary Cohn, Trump’s economic adviser, admitted almost he quit after hearing Trump’s remarks after Charlottesville where he blamed “both sides” for the violence. Cohn didn’t quit, though. “Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” Cohn said in an interview with the Financial Times. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”
After weeks of confusion and inaction, Trump finally followed through on his July declaration to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. He signed a presidential memoranda that reverses the Obama-era decision that allowed trans individuals to serve. The memo also bans the Department of Defense from providing gender-confirmation procedures to transgender service members.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis, however, later announced he won’t enforce the memo right away — he’s forming a panel of experts to study Trump’s plan and come up with recommendations by February. Until then, transgender people will continue to serve. Lawyers working for special counsel Robert Mueller have issued subpoenas to numerous Washington lobbying firms for information on their relationships with consulting firms led by Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, the Washington Post reported. Both Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, and Manafort, briefly Trump’s campaign manager, resigned over scandals related to Russia. |
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Day 219 — August 26
Tweeting about Harvey
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Day 220 — August 27
Still tweeting
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Trump announced in a tweet that he would go to Texas “as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption.” He repeatedly expressed awe at the size of the storm but assured his 37 million Twitter followers that relief efforts were going well. He also took the time to address some other topics, such as NAFTA (“worst trade deal ever made”) and his oft-promised border wall (“Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other”).
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Day 221 — August 28
Making police armed again
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the White House’s plans to renew a program that allowed police departments to receive surplus military equipment like grenade launchers, armored vehicles, and bayonets. Obama had significantly curbed the program in 2015 when he signed an order that banned some of the more extreme gear.
Trump’s company was working toward a deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the time he was campaigning to become president of the United States, the Washington Post reported. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson became the latest top Trump official to distance himself from the president. Tillerson said that Trump “speaks for himself” when he was asked about Trump’s defense of white supremacists who marched on Charlottesville, Virginia.
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Day 222 — August 29
No talking!
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Trump once again threatened North Korea after the Hermit Kingdom launched a ballistic missile over Japan — a blatant and unprecedented threat. The White House issued a statement that “all options” (meaning military ones) are on the table to punish North Korea. The president later tweeted: “Talking is not the answer!”
Secretary of Defense James Mattis, however, quickly reined the president in. Asked about the tweet in a press conference at the Pentagon the next day, Mattis said, “We’re never out of diplomatic options.”
The president and first lady visited Texas to survey the effects of Hurricane Harvey and show support for people hit by the disaster. At one point, Trump addressed a crowd outside a fire station in Corpus Christi and couldn’t help but comment on the size. “What a crowd, what a turnout,” the president said.
Donald Trump Jr. agreed to a transcribed interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee about his June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. Although the date hasn’t been publicly specified, one has been set. Through weeks of negotiations, Don Jr. was able to avoid a public session.
Don Jr.’s testimony comes at a volatile time in his father’s presidency. Mueller and his investigators are reportedly very interested in Trump’s role in drafting his son’s response to holding the meeting with a Russian lawyer who’d offered dirt on Hillary Clinton. Back in July, the Washington Post reported that Trump “dictated” the statement, which claimed the meeting was just about Russian adoptions under U.S. sanctions.
Now, investigators are looking into whether Trump helped his son lie, and if the president knew the meeting was happening. Team Trump has maintained that Trump didn’t know and did “what any father would do.” Trump is widely expected to soon put at an end to DACA, an Obama-era program that protects some 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children from deportation. A libertarian think tank reported that losing them would cost the U.S. $460 billion in GDP. |
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Day 223 — August 30
Getting called out
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The U.N issued a grave warning: Trump’s repeated attacks and smears on the press amount to an attack on press freedom, a cornerstone of the Constitution, and could provoke violence against reporters, according to the U.N.’s human rights chief.
Trump’s ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort continued to feel the heat. Special Counsel Mueller’s team is reportedly teaming up with New York’s attorney general to look into Manafort and his finances.
Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, denied to Congress that Trump campaign officials colluded with the Russian government to undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. In an eight-page letter, Cohen refuted, point-by-point, the salacious dossier from earlier this year that alleges Trump’s campaign did collude with Russia and portrays Cohen as a central figure. One allegation puts Cohen in Prague for secret meetings with a Russian official, but Cohen wrote that he’d never been to Prague, and his passport shows no record of visits there.
A Russian lobbyist who attended the meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner has testified to a grand jury as part of Mueller’s Russia probe, the Financial Times reported. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos hired a guy who worked for a for-profit college to protect people from for-profit colleges. Julian Schmoke, a former associate dean at DeVry University, will head a unit that monitors for-profit college fraud. DeVry settled a lawsuit last year over misleading job-placement stats for a record-breaking $100 million.
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Day 224 — August 31
Mueller vs. the world
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Mueller has reportedly teamed up with the IRS (which, of course, has access to Trump’s undisclosed tax returns) for his investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to the Kremlin. Specifically, Mueller is enlisting the help of the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, which investigates financial crime, like money laundering and tax evasion. Manafort and Flynn’s financial activities, in particular, have come under scrutiny in Mueller’s Russia investigation.
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