Today in Trump: February 9, 2017
Today in the Trump Administration
9th Circuit will not reinstate travel ban
The 9th Circuit Court will issue its ruling on whether to to reinstate the president’s travel ban -- the appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday, and its decision is coming before close of business.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced it will not reinstate President Trump’s 90-day ban on travelers from seven countries: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. The government had asked for a stay of a temporary restraining order that suspended the implementation of the travel ban.
“[T]he emergency motion for a stay pending appeal is denied,” the court’s ruling concluded.
Therefore travelers from the seven countries will continue to be allowed into the U.S., pending further legal action.
Mexican foreign minister helped Jared Kushner re-write Trump border wall speech
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray personally made changes to President Donald Trump’s speech announcing an executive order calling for the construction of a border wall, according to Mexican officials.
When Videgaray came to the White House in January, on the same day that Mr. Trump was to sign the executive order, Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser and the president’s son-in-law, showed him the speech Mr. Trump planned to deliver that day at the Homeland Security Department. Videgaray was horrified, according to the Mexican officials, and deemed the speech a non-starter.
Jeff Sessions’ claim about violent crime contradicted by FBI data
Jeff Sessions was sworn in as attorney general Thursday morning, one day after he was confirmed by the Senate in a contentious vote.
The 70-year-old is a former prosecutor and served the last 20 years as a senator from Alabama.
In the Oval Office, Sessions made a remark about crime that caught our attention.
Trump tweets on Blumenthal
President Trump attacked Sen. Richard Blumenthal in tweets early Thursday, following the Connecticut Democrat’s remarks about his meeting with Judge Neil Gorsuch, Mr. Trump’s pick to be a Supreme Court justice.
The president accused Blumenthal of “misrepresenting” Gorsuch’s comments, after the senator reported that the conservative judge had expressed disappointment over Mr. Trump’s latest comments about the court system.
Trump blasts McCain
President Trump hit longtime critic John McCain in a series of tweets early Thursday morning, following the Arizona senator’s comments about the recent “failure” of a raid in Yemen, which killed a U.S. military service member and at least 30 others.
The president lambasted the Republican veteran for talking about the Navy SEAL Team 6 mission, saying it “only emboldens the enemy.” Mr. Trump declared that McCain, a six-term senator and former presidential nominee, had been “losing so...long he doesn’t know how to win anymore.”
Trump signs executive orders on crime, law enforcement
President Trump signed three executive orders Thursday aimed at bolstering law enforcement and targeting violent crime and criminal drug cartels.
Attorney general
The president and vice president swear in Jeff Sessions as attorney general at the White House at 10:30 a.m.
Airline CEOS, Democratic senators at White House
The president had breakfast with airline CEOs at 9:30 a.m.
He’ll have lunch at the White House with Democratic Senators Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin, Jon Tester and Joe Donnelly.
Gorsuch meetings
Judge Gorsuch meets with Sens. Susan Collins, 10:15 a.m., Steve Daines, 11:15 a.m., Lisa Murkowski, 2:45 p.m., and Thom Tillis, 4 p.m.
What you missed yesterday
Defends travel ban
President Trump addressed the Major Cities Chiefs Association -- at one point during the speech, he talked about and read from his executive order banning immigrants from seven countries.
“[The executive order] couldn’t have been written any more precisely....It was written beautifully,” he told police chiefs and sheriffs this morning. He blasted the courts for seeming to be “political” and later discussed the “real wall” proposed along the U.S.-Mexico border, which Mr. Trump said was “getting designed right now.”
Gorsuch says Trump’s attacks on judges are disheartening
Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch was reportedly critical of President Trump’s recent attacks on the judiciary during a meeting with a Democratic senator Wednesday.
CBS News’ Margaret Brennan confirmed that Gorsuch, whom Mr. Trump nominated to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court, discussed the president’s sustained attacks on the federal court system in his meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut).
Trump tweets
The president lashed out at @Nordstrom today, claiming daughter Ivanka “has been treated so unfairly” by the retailer.
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
The retailer’s shares dipped a little after the tweet, but rebounded soon after.
Nordstrom dropped Ivanka Trump’s brand earlier this month because of lackluster sales. “Based on the brand’s performance, we’ve decided not to buy it for this season,” a spokesperson for Nordstrom said.
Yemen raid was “absolutely a success,” says Spicer
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Wednesday said the recent U.S. raid in Yemen, which killed a U.S. commando and at least 30 others, was “absolutely a success.”
“Anyone who would suggest it’s not a success does disservice to the life of Chief Ryan Owens,” Spicer said at the daily White House press briefing, referring to the U.S. commando who was killed during the raid. “He fought knowing what was at stake in that mission.”
Spicer’s comments came the same day that sources told CBS News the Yemeni government had withdrawn its permission for the U.S. to launch future Special Operations ground missions inside the country. Yemeni officials later denied that drastic change in the country’s cooperation with the U.S. military.
Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, described the raid to reporters on Capitol Hill this week as “a failure.” In a statement released after those comments, McCain didn’t use the word “failure” again, but said he would not describe it as “a success.”
Melania Trump won’t try to profit as first lady
That’s according to her lawyer in a libel law suit against British media company Mail Media, which owns The Daily Mail.
“The First Lady has no intention of using her position for profit and will not do so,” Charles Harder, of the Beverly Hills-based firm Harder, Mirell, and Abrams, said in a statement Wednesday. “It is not a possibility. Any statements to the contrary are being misinterpreted.”
The Cabinet
The Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions’ nomination to be attorney general, 52-47 in a nearly party-line vote.
Intel
President Trump held up Intel’s plan to invest more than $7 billion in an Arizona factory as a win for his economic agenda, but it’s also a reminder that not all corporate commitments come to fruition.
Mr. Trump was the second president to celebrate the computer chip maker’s attempts to expand its domestic production at the same facility in Chandler, Arizona.