Today in Trump: January 30, 2017
Today in the Trump administration
Executive action - 2 for 1
President Trump signed another executive order at the White House this morning, this one reportedly to address regulations.
Mr. Trump said as he signed the order that it requires two regulations to be removed for every new regulation added, making good on a promise he made during the campaign. The White House argues that this will reduce the burden the private sector has in complying with federal standards.
Quebec shooting
Mr. Trump called Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to express his condolences over the shooting, according to the Associated Press.
Supreme Court pick coming Tuesday
President Trump said Monday that he would reveal his Supreme Court nominee in a prime time announcement on Tuesday from the White House.
CBS News’ Jan Crawford has reported that the likely candidates Mr. Trump has considered are federal appeals court Judge Neil Gorsuch, the front-runner, Pennsylvania-based Judge Thomas Hardiman and Alabama-based appeals court Judge William Pryor.
At a breakfast with small business leaders at the White House Monday, President Trump said his pick for the Supreme Court is someone “unbelievably highly respected.”
Tillerson advances in full Senate; final vote expected this week
The Senate voted Monday evening to advance ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s nomination as secretary of state to a final vote by the full Senate, putting him one step closer to being confirmed.
Fifty-six senators voted to invoke cloture on Tillerson’s confirmation, which limits debate on the nomination ahead of a final vote, while 43 senators voted against the motion.
A committee vote for another Cabinet nominee, treasury secretary pick Steven Mnuchin, was postponed until Tuesday morning.
Tweets
The president tweeted early this morning “There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists,” and in a tweet about airport detentions related to his executive order Friday banning travel from seven countries, he said, “Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage.”
What to watch this week
It’s been an eventful 10 days in office for President Donald Trump -- and the pace isn’t expected to slow this week.
In his first week in office, Mr. Trump began implementing several of his key campaign promises, largely through executive actions: he’s directed federal agencies to ease the financial burden of Obamacare, authorized the construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall and temporarily suspended all travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.
A long-awaited Supreme Court nominee, multi-city protests over the new travel ban and Cabinet votes and hearings are just a few of the things going on in the week ahead. Mr. Trump may also roll out additional executive orders and actions.
What you missed over the weekend
Protests over travel ban
President Donald Trump’s second weekend in office saw huge nationwide protests over his order that all travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen be denied entry to the U.S. for 90 days. What started out Saturday as a spontaneous demonstration at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York quickly spread to airports from coast to coast.
On Sunday, the White House exempted green card holders from the seven countries after initially including them in the ban. On Sunday evening the White House claimed that it had always been the intention of the executive order that legal permanent residents be exempt from the ban under a waiver.
White House explains “extreme vetting” executive order
The White House held a hastily-arranged conference call with reporters Sunday evening to explain the president’s “extreme vetting” executive order issued Friday, after visa holders from countries included in the order were detained at U.S. airports this weekend.
The new restrictions do not apply to green card holders -- or legal permanent residents -- from the seven countries covered by the order, a senior administration official said.
Steve Bannon added to national security team
Donald Trumpadded his chief political strategist, Steve Bannon, to the National Security Council (NSC) and to the Principals Committee, a small group of the president’s top national security officials that considers policy issues affecting national security.
The move, made by executive memo Saturday, also removes the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff as members who would attend all meetings, and instead will invite them only when it is deemed that “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed,” according to the memo.