As President Trump was leaving a Sept. 12 Congressional Medal of Honor Society event in the White House, Epoch Times photojournalist Samira Bouaou broke protocol by entering a restricted area and handing Trump a purple folder. "Trump accepted the folder and appeared to open it briefly as he departed before quickly shutting it," The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing several news photographers who witnessed the event. "It was not clear what was inside the folder. Photographers who asked Bouaou afterward why she did it and what the folder contained said she declined to provide details."
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has discussed Bouaou's folder situation with the White House Correspondents' Association executive board, and the White House has reviewed the incident, but nobody will say anything about it on the record. One White House official told the Post that the matter has been "dealt with." Bouaou, who had recently received a Secret Service pass to attend White House briefings and other events, has not been seen at the White House since the encounter, other photographers say.
The Epoch Times, launched in New York in 2000 by a group of Chinese Americans, is believed to have close ties to the Falun Gong spiritual group, an affiliation the newspaper denies. Falun Gong and the Epoch Times are both banned in China. Ming Xia, a political science professor at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, tells the Post that the newspaper's part-time journalists "support the Falun Gong because they are Falun Gong practitioners. ... They are not professional journalists and they do not follow the protocols professional journalists abide by. That's how they can be very pushy and aggressive." Xia said the Falun Gong is eager to exploit Trump's hardline stance on Beijing. Peter Weber
President Trump on Saturday announced multiple executive actions intended to extend economic aid, as Congress remains in a stalemate over the next coronavirus relief package. The measures will likely face legal challenges, however, as Trump attempts to bypass the legislative policy-making process.
The president said during a press conference at his golf club in Bedminister, New Jersey, that, via executive order, he would unilaterally renew expanded unemployment benefits, hold off student loan payments, and extend a moratorium on evictions. Additionally, Trump said the action authorizes the Treasury Department to defer payroll taxes for Americans making less than $100,000 per year. He suggested he may extend the deferral if he's re-elected in November and ultimately terminate the tax, although his stance on the matter is at odds with both parties in Congress.
The extended unemployment boost under Trump's order would have an additional $400/week go to individuals who lost their job because of the pandemic, landing between the previous $600/week figure and the $200/week plan discussed by Republicans lawmakers.
Trump did not participate directly in negotiations with congressional leaders in recent days, according to The Associated Press, and, in addition to the legal ambiguity, "Trump's embrace of executive actions to sidestep Congress runs in sharp contrast to his criticism of former President Barack Obama's use of executive orders on a more limited basis."
Read more at Bloomberg and The Associated Press. Tim O'Donnell
Intelligence officials have had a difficult time briefing President Trump on matters throughout his presidency, The New York Times reports. He reportedly often loses interest, unless the subject is heavy on economics or could intrigue other wealthy people, which tended to concern the intelligence community.
In the latter scenario, one former senior administration official told The New York Times, Trump would "show off about some of the stuff he thought was cool," like the capabilities of different weapons system to billionaires. "These were super rich guys who wouldn't give him the time of day before he became president," the former official said. "He'd use that stuff as currency he had that they didn't, not understanding the implications."
What's more, Trump also filled his President's Intelligence Advisory Board with wealthy businesspeople, who would occasionally make briefers uncomfortable, one intelligence official said, because their questions sometimes "were related to their business dealings." Read more about the culture clash between Trump and the intelligence community at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell
President Trump's fondness for Mt. Rushmore is well known, so it's likely South Dakota Kristi Noem (R) scored some bonus points with the gift she gave the president when he came to her state to give an Independence Day speech in front of the monument in July.
Noem spoke highly of Trump when introducing him before the speech, comparing him to former President Theodore Roosevelt and describing him as a leader who "brave the dangers of the arena." In private, The New York Times reports, the flattery went a little further when Noem apparently greeted Trump with a four-foot replica of Mt. Rushmore, with a twist. In addition to the four U.S. presidents whose faces are actually carved into the mountainside — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Roosevelt — the replica reportedly included Trump's likeness. Trump, after all, had previously told Noem it was his dream to have his face up there.
Eventually, per the Times, word circulated around the Trump administration that Noem was ingratiating herself with Trump, leading to suspicions that she was seeking to supplant Vice President Mike Pence as his running mate in November. Noem reportedly flew to Washington, D.C., a couple of weeks later to meet with Pence and reportedly made it clear she was not after his job. Read more at The New York Times. Tim O'Donnell
The emergence of Susan Rice, a former national security adviser in the Obama administration, as a leading candidate to become former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate has led to a renewed focus on the 2012 attacks against U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, which resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stephens. Rice, though, called the criticism of her role in the aftermath of the event a "political distraction" amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with The Atlantic, Rice did express regret about agreeing to represent the Obama administration on news shows where she announced that the attacks were part of a spontaneous protest in response to an anti-Muslim video. The information relayed turned out to be inaccurate, and the attacks were premeditated. Rice told The Atlantic her mother warned about going on the shows, especially since then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined, but said she ultimately accepted the task because she consider herself a "team player." Now, she says, she wishes she had listened to her mother's advice and has since learned that tragedies like Benghazi almost always get politicized.
But she isn't too bothered by the efforts of people like Fox News host Tucker Carlson to amplify her role in the event. Rice noted there has been "no investigation, no outrage, not a boo out of Congressional Republicans" over the Pensacola air base shooting that left three Americans dead or the four American service members who were killed in a terrorist attack in Niger, both under President Trump's watch. She also doesn't think focusing on Benghazi in 2020, when more than 150,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus, makes much sense. "They're going to talk about Benghazi?" she said. "I say fine, let them." Read Rice's full interview at The Atlantic. Tim O'Donnell
President Trump's allies are growing worried about his re-election chances, Politico reports, with one Republican close to the White House comparing the situation to the 1993 film Groundhog Day. "You think it's better, then it's not," the official told Politico.
One incident that probably won't allay their concerns is a recent phone conversation between Trump and GOP megadonor and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, per Politico. Adelson reportedly called Trump last week to discuss the coronavirus relief bill and the economy, but Trump eventually turned the conversation to the campaign and asked Adelson why he wasn't doing more to help, three people with direct knowledge of the call told Politico.
One of the sources said it became clear Trump wasn't aware of the extent to which Adelson — whom Politico describes as a financial linchpin who has donated tens of millions of dollars to pro-Trump efforts — has poured in resources for the president. Adelson reportedly didn't fire back at Trump, and his allies say it's unclear if the phone call will dissuade him from working to bolster Trump's campaign during the home stretch. But Republican Party officials were reportedly alarmed by the incident and rushed to smooth things over. Read more at Politico. Tim O'Donnell