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Tuesday, January 8, 2019

7 Points Trump Should Make in Oval Office Address About Border

President Donald Trump will deliver his first address from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. ET. He will explain why the country needs a physical barrier at the U.S-Mexico border, and why he is refusing to consider bills to end the partial federal government shutdown unless they provide the funding he is seeking.

Breitbart News readers and listeners have been looking forward to such an address for weeks.

Here are seven things Trump must say.

1. The border issue is about national security, the first priority of government. Americans are used to fights over immigration policy. This is different. The nation faces a crisis at its southern border. The drug cartels are taking advantage of our open border to smuggle drugs, weapons, and people. They are also waging a bloody civil war that bleeds over into our country. Everything else the government does is secondary to protecting the country. There is literally no point to opening the government until politicians are prepared to take care of its first priority.

2. The first victims of the Mexican cartels are the migrants and the countries from which they come. Cartels are brutal. They slaughter innocent civilians. They rape the women and girls they are trafficking to criminals in the U.S. The drugs they sneak into the U.S. kill thousands of Americans each year. And the developing countries that migrants leave behind become poorer. Democrats who, like Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), say“[t]here is no national emergency on our southern border,” are encouraging the cartels. There is nothing humane about an open border.

3. The border crisis has nothing to do with legal immigration, which we embrace. Corporal Ronil Singh, a Newman, California police officer — and legal immigrant — was murdered the day after Christmas by an alleged illegal alien. Many Americans want less immigration — a debate for another day. Regardless, Americans respect legal immigrants. We should reform our immigration laws, including those that allow foreigners to claim amnesty as soon as they touch American soil. Corporal Singh gave his life to defend the rule of law. That is what is at stake.

4. Illegal immigration hurts all Americans, but especially legal immigrants, minorities, and the poor. With better border enforcement, black and Hispanic unemployment is the lowest ever, and wages are rising for all Americans. Those gains are threatened by illegal aliens who compete with U.S. citizens and legal immigrants for jobs. Illegal immigration also hurts public health care and education, as illegal aliens place additional burdens on services that are already struggling. We can have a generous welfare state, or open borders, but not both.

5. Democrats are hypocrites. Many Democrats — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — have voted for a barrier at the border in the past. Border walls, and fences, are not “immoral,” as Speaker Nancy Pelosi keeps saying. Nor are they racist. They work — which is why the European Union builds them, why our ally Israel builds them, and why even...

Louis Farrakhan Chants ‘Death to America’ in Iran

Barack Obama And Calypso Louie

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan led a chant of “Death to America!” on a solidarity visit to Iran this weekend, according to Iranian news sources. He also led a chant of “Death to Israel!”

Farrakhan visited Iran ahead of the renewal of U.S. sanctions against the regime at midnight on November 5. The renewed sanctions are the result of the American withdrawal from the agreement negotiated by the Obama administration, which purported to prevent Iran’s development of nuclear weapons but merely delated it.

The Algemeiner, a Jewish community newspaper based in the U.S., reported on Farrakhan’s visit, citing reports in the Iranian media.

The “semi-official state news agency” Mehr reported:

Louis Farrakhan made the remarks in a meeting with the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei in Tehran on Sunday, during which he also called the United States a big liar.

Farrakhan expressed happiness with his visit to Iran, saying the goal of his visit is to demonstrate real friendship with Iran.

Meanwhile, he said that the Americans have always been plotting against Iran and are seeking to create an internal enemy in Iran.

“I understand how the enemies have plotted against the Iranian people and I would like to stay alongside you to stop their plots,” he asserted.

Mehr also reported that Farrakhan criticized the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia and the U.S.-led war on the Ghadafi regime in Libya in 2011.

The Algemeiner also cited the IRIB news outlet, whose report is available through Google Translate. According to IRIB, Farrakhan delivered remarks to students at the University of Tehran:

Pointing to women’s freedoms in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Muslim Muslim leader said: “In the Islamic Revolution of Iran, men are alongside women and women are free to reach the ultimate level of their talent.”
…
He said that the United States and Israel are one of the most feared countries in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and if we do not resist them, we will leave nothing but death and destruction for our children.

The Muslim leader of the United States, in the end, stressed: Make a promise of self-striving to strengthen the interest of Muslims.

He then spoke the phrase “Death to America” in Farsi, and a number of students also accompanied him.

Video of Farrakhan’s appearance circulated on social media:

The Jerusalem Post also cited Farrakhan as comparing President Donald Trump to Satan during his Iran visit.

In 2005, the Congressional Black Caucus met with Farrakhan — whose racist and antisemitic views have been well known for decades. At that meeting, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) interacted with Farrakhan and posed for a photograph with...

3 Takeaways From Day 3 of Kavanaugh’s Confirmation Hearings

After a marathon 13 hours of questioning on Wednesday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings continued Thursday with more questions from the senators.

Protesters continued to punctuate the senators’ questions throughout the day, and a dozen or so of the girls Kavanaugh has coached on basketball teams showed up in the afternoon to support “Coach K.”

Here are the key takeaways from Kavanaugh’s final day before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

1. Booker’s ‘disclosed’ documents were a nothing burger—and a publicity stunt.

The morning began with the dramatic announcement by Sen. Cory Booker, D.-N.J., that “I am going to release [an e-mail from Kavanaugh’s record] about racial profiling, and I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate.” That decision earned Booker a stern rebuke from some Republican senators.

It turns out, however, that the documents Booker had discussed in the hearing and “released” had already been cleared for public release the night before. He wasn’t defying anyone.

So far, more than 350,000 pages of material from or about Kavanaugh’s professional work have been made available to the public. That’s more than for the past five Supreme Court nominees combined.

This week’s discussion about documents, however, has failed to clarify that different federal statutes set rules for handling different categories of material.

The Federal Records Act, for example, governs documents from Kavanaugh’s work as an associate independent counsel, while the Presidential Records Act governs the documents from his work as an associate White House counsel.

Most documents can be made publicly available right away, while others require more review but are still made available to the committee members and staff. That’s what the label “committee confidential” means.

Booker, apparently objecting to any documents being designated “committee confidential,” took matters into his own hands and released emails from Kavanaugh’s time serving in the White House counsel’s office. Booker gave the impression that this was a dramatic, defiant, and perhaps even dangerous step, saying: “This is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment … [and] I’m knowingly violating the rules.”

Later in the day, Booker released more confidential documents. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has repeatedly invited senators simply to request public release of particular documents and proven that he’s willing to do so. Given that, Booker simply could have made a request rather than make this look more like a publicity stunt.

In the emails, Kavanaugh discussed racial profiling in airport security screening following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He wrote that he “generally favor[ed] effective security measures that are race-neutral.”

Booker made it sound like the emails might somehow expose Kavanaugh as a proponent of racial profiling. It turns out the opposite was true.

In another email chain, leaked to The New York Times, Kavanaugh had reviewed a draft op-ed supporting one of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees that stated “legal scholars across the board” agree that Roe v. Wade is “the settled law of the land.” Kavanaugh also wrote: “I am not sure that all legal scholars refer to Roe as the settled law of the land at the Supreme Court level.”

At the hearing Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked what he meant by that, and Kavanaugh explained that he suggested deleting a line from the draft op-ed since there are plenty of scholars who do not believe that Roe v. Wade is settled.

Far from being revelatory bombshells, these emails show Kavanaugh providing straightforward advice as an attorney working for the president. Addressing those issues in that role is not at all the same as a judge addressing those issues in the context of actual cases with real parties and specific facts.

2. Feinstein earned four Pinocchios.

Two of Feinstein’s exchanges with Kavanaugh from Day Two of the hearing included some obvious factual errors. First, she claimed that between 200,000 and 1.2 million women died from illegal abortions in the 1950s-60s, pointing to a report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.

But those numbers actually refer to the estimated number of illegal abortions during those years, not the number of women who died from them. The death statistic was around 200-300 per year. That’s a pretty big discrepancy.

Second, in questioning Kavanaugh about the Second Amendment, Feinstein stated that there have been “hundreds of school shootings using assault weapons.” Once again, Feinstein got her numbers wrong. As Jacob Sullum at Reason explained (citing a Mother Jones database of mass shootings), only six attacks at schools involved “assault weapons.” That’s far short of the “hundreds” Feinstein claimed.

3. Senate approved other nominees over lunch.

When the committee broke for lunch Thursday, senators made a quick detour to the Senate floor to confirm eight nominees to the U.S. District Court. Only two required a formal recorded vote (the tallies were 60-35 and 79-12).

This brings President Donald Trump’s total number of confirmations to 68 judges (including Justice Neil Gorsuch). Yet during the same time, the...

French immigrant Muslim males in vicious cross-border attack on Swiss women

A case of attempted murder has been opened in France after half a dozen North Africans assaulted Swiss women outside a discotheque in Geneva.

A vicious attack by young North-African males on Swiss women took place on 8 August in Geneva. About half a dozen of them from over the French border attacked a lone Swiss girl outside “Le Petit Palace” discotheque, hitting her with crutches. It seems the crutches were brought simply to serve as weapons. One of the women, a young mother, was left in a coma for a week. However, the incident has been carefully sanitised by the mainstream media, referring only to the attackers as “youths”.

Four other Swiss women tried to help the girl but were also assaulted by the North Africans. Another woman who wished to remain anonymous, spoke to a French newspaper under the pseudonym “Kenza”, and confirmed that the attackers were North African. During the course of the evening, she had spoken to the one armed with crutches, saying: “He was between 20 and 22 years of age. He was North African, of mixed race, quite well-built with muscles and blonde, discoloured hair. He wore a false Philipp Plein printed T-shirt. He looked like the cliché of a guy from the Arab housing estates. At any rate, he wasn’t from Geneva.”

According to her, the young North African was accompanied by at least three friends “with a similar profile”. He was pestering a lot of girls with advances in the discotheque. Although she did not witness the attack itself, she saw the results. “People came running to the bouncers to tell them that girls were being hit,” she recalled. “When we got there, there were two women on the ground, with one lying in a pool of blood.” She recognised her as the elder of the two women, born in 1986.

After bystanders tried to stop the violence, the North Africans fled in a car with French number plates. No arrests have been made yet.

Because the attackers came from across the border, it would be difficult for the Swiss judicial system to have them extradited. According to a Geneva advocate, Bernard Nuzzo, “If they do not have the French nationality, Switzerland could ask for their extradition. The process could take several months, provided there is no opposition to it.”

However, if the suspects have the French nationality, it could be more complicated as France does not extradite its own citizens. In that case Switzerland could ask for the suspects to be tried in France.

The Swiss Confedaration has already informed France of the incident on its soil. According to the newspaper La tribune de Genève, “about twenty people were present on the scene. An eyewitness saw the attackers fleeing on board a vehicle registered in France, shortly before the arrival of the police. Hence the...

Democrats Disgrace Themselves Interrogating Trump's CIA Nominee

Is he kidding, or does he believe that Americans will ever feel sorry for these jihadist extremists who brutally killed 3,000 Americans? This just shows how out of touch the Democrats are with reality. Maybe Heinrich should think about the screams of those 3,000 people on 9-11 as they plunged to their deaths, were burned alive, or were dismembered. After all, KSM said how his brothers would relentlessly continue their attacks: "[e]ventually America will expose her neck to us for slaughter."

Democratic senators on the Intelligence Committee – Heinrich, Feinstein, Warner, Harris, and King – ignored the legality of the Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation programs by calling them immoral. They had the attitude of Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who asked over five times if Haspel "believed the previous interrogation techniques were immoral" and Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), who stated, "It is not enough that you have committed to the rule of law?" and called it "a get out of jail free card."

They refuse to remember the fear of a ticking time bomb. As Jose Rodriguez, Jr., the former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, previously told American Thinker, "to prevent a second wave of attacks, the detention and interrogation program was formulated. We made sure that we vetted information. Everything was based on legality, a training manual, strict procedures, and guidelines. There were reports that bin Laden had met with Pakistani nuclear scientists, there were attempts to smuggle nuclear weapons into New York City, and al-Qaeda was trying to manufacture anthrax. This program led to the disruption of terrorist plots that saved American lives. It contributed to helping us learn more about al-Qaeda, including the best way to attack, thwart, and degrade it."

The Democrats seem to be playing right into KSM's hands, since they frame what the CIA did as morally wrong. Maybe someone should point out to them that KSM considers responses like theirs "one of Allah's gifts." "The long war for Islamic domination wasn't going to be won in the streets with bombs and bullets and bloodshed, but would be won in the minds of the American people."

Haspel was pressed by the Democrats to throw her fellow CIA peers under the bus. Speaking of moral courage, it is so obvious she has it all over the Democrats. She stuck to her beliefs, refused to play their political game, and should be admired for doing this. Her response: "It was the CIA who identified and captured the mastermind of 9-11 [KSM] in a brilliant operation. I am proud of our work during that time, which allowed us to defend this country and prevent another attack."

She went on to say, "Under my leadership and watch, the CIA will not start the RDI program. I support the higher moral standard that this country has decided to hold itself to. I would never take the CIA back to an interrogation program. We followed the law then; we follow the law today. I support the law. I would not put CIA officers at risk by asking them to undertake controversial field activities again. The CIA has learned some tough lessons from that experience."

Former CIA director Michael Hayden previously noted that he was afraid that congressional actions would create a risk-averse environment. He stated in an earlier interview, "This organization is in a lose-lose situation. The curse of American intelligence officers is that we are criticized for not doing enough when the nation feels endangered and are criticized for doing too much when everybody feels safe again."

Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) had the audacity to compare a CIA officer to a terrorist when asking, "If one of your operation officers was captured and subjected to waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques, would you consider that to be moral and good tradecraft?"

Really! These bona fide American heroes, among whom Gina Haspel is included, men and women who serve in the intelligence agency, never get the heroic welcome or thanks they so rightly deserve for the risks they take. Their names will never be known, and they will never receive the public gratitude so many others get. There are no parades for these quiet professionals. Maybe Senator Reed should be reminded that the first person to die in battle, defending this country, right after 9-11 was Mike Spann, a CIA paramilitary officer, who was beaten to death by the Islamic extremists in Afghanistan as they screamed "Allah akbar." Note to the senator: Waterboarding would be the least of the CIA's problems, considering that the terrorists enjoy beheading people.

Gina Haspel was put through the ringer, while in 2013 many of these same Democrats had a love-fest with John Brennan during his confirmation hearing. Surprisingly, even some Republicans voted for him, including Arizona senators John McCain and Jeff Flake. Even though he was the fourth person in charge at the agency during those turbulent times, never was Brennan asked about his role, or why more information was not de-classified. In fact, Senator Heinrich agreed with Brennan – "I would just say I agree with you that sources and methods, and many of the operational details, absolutely should never be declassified" – while denouncing Haspel for not declassifying. Senator Warner described Brennan's dedication, selflessness, intelligence, and patriotism but did not use those terms of endearment for Haspel.

Americans should feel anger and frustration toward the Democrats who are obviously hypocrites for disparaging a patriot such as Gina Haspel. She has made sacrifices, put herself in harm's way, and faithfully served her country. Why? To protect her fellow citizens.

Although Michael Hayden did not make this statement about the current Senate Democrats and the confirmation of Gina Haspel, it is applicable today. "It feels like September 11th never took place, that Americans are living in the bubble of September 10th, 2001. Americans need to wake up and not forgot the real dangers under which we are living."

The author writes for American Thinker. She has done book reviews and author interviews and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.

Anyone who watched the confirmation hearings of Gina Haspel should be astonished at the way most of the Democrats treated her. KSM, the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, and the Senate intelligence panel"s Democrats both agree that they are against the nomination of Gina Haspel to lead the CIA. He has written a letter to them giving information about Haspel, who in 2002 was a chief of base at a black-site prison in Thailand, where detainees were subjected to enhanced interrogation. Waterboarding was a big issue, but none thought to mention that it happened to only three terrorists. Maybe the Democrats should call KSM as a witness, since they appear to be singing the same tune of Kumbaya.

At best, these Democrats were playing Monday-morning quarterback, but more likely, the takeaway is that they are politically correct, while appearing to sympathize with the terrorists. New Mexico senator Martin Heinrich asked her, "Do you think that a transcript that says the detainees continued to scream has the same gravity, the same reality of an actual video?"

Is he kidding, or does he believe that Americans will ever feel sorry for these jihadist extremists who brutally killed 3,000 Americans? This just shows how out of touch the Democrats are with reality. Maybe Heinrich should think about the screams of those 3,000 people on 9-11 as they plunged to their deaths, were burned alive, or were dismembered. After all, KSM said how his brothers would relentlessly continue their attacks: "[e]ventually America will expose her neck to us for slaughter."

Democratic senators on the Intelligence Committee – Heinrich, Feinstein, Warner, Harris, and King – ignored the legality of the Rendition, Detention, and Interrogation programs by calling them immoral. They had the attitude of Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who asked over five times if Haspel "believed the previous interrogation techniques were immoral" and Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.), who stated, "It is not enough that you have committed to the rule of law?" and called it "a get out of jail free card."

They refuse to remember the fear of a ticking time bomb. As Jose Rodriguez, Jr., the former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service, previously told American Thinker, "to prevent a second wave of attacks, the detention and interrogation program was formulated. We made sure that we vetted information. Everything was based on legality, a training manual, strict procedures, and guidelines. There were reports that bin Laden had met with Pakistani nuclear scientists, there were attempts to smuggle nuclear weapons into New York City, and al-Qaeda was trying to manufacture anthrax. This program led to...

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #155

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #104

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

160 Things Trump Has Done to Make America Great Again Since Taking Office

“Trump is failing, and the White House is covering it up with lies” — The Washington Post, October 2017.

“Donald Trump’s first six months in office have been a spectacular failure” — The New Republic, July 2017.

“Trump is falling apart, and nobody knows what to do about it” — Salon, October 2017.

Wow. From the sounds of things, 2017 was the year Donald J. Trump replaced alcoholic, sniveling, slavery-enabling Democrat Franklin Pierce as America’s worst president. That’s pretty bad. No wonder every media outlet not named Fox News is screaming about presidential Armageddon (or something akin to it, like, I don’t know, a fourth hour of “Morning Joe“).

What this all obscures is the fact that, love him or hate him, Donald Trump’s first year has actually been incredibly productive.

Sure, he didn’t get health care reform and we have to wait to see on the tax bill, but there are plenty of things Trump-wary conservatives can be thankful for this holiday season. One-hundred and sixty of them, in fact, compiled by the wonderful people at WND. We’re reprinting it here because we think it serves as an important rebuke to a media who thinks the president’s only accomplishment is boosting Twitter stock.

Let’s go by month, shall we?

January:
Ending the Trans Pacific Partnership via executive order, prioritizing Christian refugee settlement, instituting the first version of the travel ban (which would have to be revised a few times), resuming criminal prosecution of individuals who had illegally crossed the border for the first time, expediting environmental reviews on infrastructure projects, reducing regulatory burdens on manufacturers, supporting the March for Life and sending Vice President Mike Pence to attend (first VP to ever go to the pro-life march, introducing task forces within government agencies to end “job killing regulations” and thusly increase “economic opportunity,” helping launch the United States-Canada Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, expanding deportation priorities for those who “have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense,” signing a memorandum promising to rebuild and expand the military, ordering a hiring freeze on federal employees, signing an executive order that said for every one new regulation, two must be cut, reinstating the “Mexico City Policy” on not funding organizations that promote abortions worldwide, donating his salary, meeting with tech giants like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

February:
Eliminated a Dodd-Frank rule that mandated oil companies publicly disclose taxes and fees paid to other governments, saving energy companies $385 million a year; ordered a review of both Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s purview; countered Russian propaganda outlets like RT by launching American-run Russian-language broadcasters; purchased new F-35 jets at a considerably reduced price, a savings of $725 million compared to what was was paid earlier in the program; refusing to fill government positions he felt were unnecessary; signing three executive orders strengthening law enforcement protections; reversing the Obama administration’s policy on transgender bathrooms in public schools; repealing an Obama administration rule that took away Second Amendment rights from certain senior citizens.

March:
Signed an executive order that would review our trade deficits, condemned an anti-Israel U.N. report by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which ended with the commissions executive director resigning; homebuilder confidence highest in almost 12 years; Trump administration negotiated a G-20 statement that did not mention climate change nor opposed economic protectionism; signed an executive order mandating an audit of executive branch agencies.

April:
Neil Gorsuch nominated and appointed to the Supreme Court, government announced illegal border crossings were down 40 percent in first month of the Trump administration and 73 percent by the president’s 100th day in office, signed an executive order expanding offshore drilling for gas and oil as well as a leasing program that developed energy resources off the coast, announced an investigation into Chinese trade policies regarding steel and aluminum exports, announced the “Buy American and Hire American” executive order, which reformed visa waivers and loopholes; ordered the Department of Agriculture to examine regulations and eliminate unnecessary ones; refused to sign the G-7 statement on energy because “the other nations could not agree to include support for nuclear and fossil fuels without support for the Paris climate agreement,” thus leaving the G-7 without a joint statement; refused waivers for companies who wanted to deal with sanctions-laden Russia; the Department of Justice announced efforts to speed up illegal immigrant deportations, including announcing the hiring of 125 immigration judges within two years; announcing an executive order slashing funding for sanctuary cities, announced that deportation of criminal aliens and gang members were up 38 percent over the final year of Obama’s term, with roughly 6,000 members of the ultra-violent MS-13 gang arrested in the first several months of the administration; Trump gave Defense Secretary Mattis the authority to set troop levels in the fight against the Islamic State group, a key factor in virtually wiping out the terrorist group; Trump used the “Mother of All Bombs” on the Islamic State group in Afghanistan; the president signed the VA Choice and Quality Employment Act of 2017, which authorized additional funds for private treatment for veterans more than 40 miles from a VA facility; Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of Obama-era “agreements” with local police departments which restricted their ability to fight crime; Trump ordered Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to conduct a review with an eye to returning power to states and local governments; Trump signed a “bill into law annulling a recent Obama administration regulation that would have prohibited states from discriminating in awarding Title X family planning funds based on whether a local clinic also performs abortions; the administration eliminated funding for the United Nations Population Fund, a pro-abortion agency with links to China’s one-child policy; the administration appointed Dr. Charmaine Yoest as the assistant secretary of public affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services. Yoest is a former president of Americans United for Life and replaced a Planned Parenthood advocate. Two other pro-life advocates with the Family Research Council also received appointments to key positions.

May:
President Trump visited the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia (where he signed a $110 billion arms deal with a further $350 million in the coming 10 years; further deals with American businesses were also finalized); Trump helped strengthen alliances with Arab allies and Israel during the trip, as well, with a speech about security and regional relations to the Arab Islamic American Summit. Income rose 0.4 percent in the United States in May, which beat estimates of 0.3 percent; housing sales doubled over the same period the previous year; Mexico agreed to cut back its exports of sugar to the United States, a major trade win for the United States; Trump announced his intention to renegotiate NAFTA; the president ordered air strikes on Syria after President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people; the number of unaccompanied child illegal immigrants entering the United States fell under 1000 fir the first time in several years; the president established a commission to investigate voter fraud; The Trump administration announced its intent to create a school choice plan which states can opt into; on the National Day of Prayer, Trump signed an executive order which eliminated the Johnson Amendment, which had severe IRS restrictions on the political activities of tax-exempt religious groups; the administration expanded the Mexico City policy “to restrict funding to any international health organization that performs or gives information about abortions, expanding the amount of money affected from $600,000 to nearly $9 billion.”

June:
Trump approves Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone XL projects; inflation reduced to 1.6 percent, an eight-month low; American beef imports returned to china for the first time in 14 years; Trump announced a rollback in relations with communist Cuba, partially ending Obama’s rapprochement with the country; Trump signed executive order increasing apprenticeship programs; Trump expands property rights by ending Obama’s Waters of the United States rule; DHS announces new tracking system to see whether or not visitors have left the country; Trump pulls out of the Paris Climate Accord; at Trump’s urging, NATO members increase their share of defense in the organization by a total of $10 billion; the administration implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, sanctions aimed at Russian oligarchs; Trump administration implements more sanctions against the Russians, this time on 38 persons and entities responsible for violations in the conflict with Ukraine; ICE announces that it arrested an average of 13,085 between February and June, compared to 9,134 average arrests in the last three months of the Obama administration; the DHS ended Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which would have given 4 million parents of illegal immigrant children amnesty in the U.S.; Trump gave the Pentagon authorization to set troop levels in Afghanistan and Somalia, allowing them to better assess the threat there; the president established the Veterans Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which established protections for whistleblowers and allowed senior officials at Veterans Affairs to fire underperforming employees more easily. Since January of 2017, 500 employees had been fired from one of Obama’s most disastrous departments and 200 more had faced suspensions. The VA also adopted a new Defense Department records system which allowed them to share information more easily with the Pentagon; a new VA hotline also became operational in June; Betsy DeVos appointed Adam Kissel, one of the most vocal critics of Title IX abuses in the Obama administration.

July:

GDP grew by 2.6 percent, double the first quarter; unemployment fell from 4.8 in January to 4.4 percent; Trump signed an order that increased drilling for energy on federally-owned lands; the president repealed the Obama administration’s “Stream Protection Rule,” which cost the coal industry and America $81 million a year; Trump managed to get “companies such as Ford, Chrysler and Carrier Air Conditioners to manufacture and build plants in the United States,” as well as getting companies like Corning and Foxconn to make significant investments in the United States; the administration ended a program to arm “moderate” rebels in Syria, many of whom who turned out not to be so “moderate;” coalition forces pushed the Islamic State out of the Iraqi city of Mosul; the president created the Office of American Innovation, which aims to modernize the U.S. government; Trump implemented a five-year ban on lobbying for political appointees and prohibited them from lobbying for foreign countries; the DOJ busted 400 people who were prescribing opioid drugs to addicts in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the “largest health-care fraud takedown operation in American history; Sessions’ DOJ also cracked down on leaks, “pursuing three times more investigations in the first six months of the Trump administration than had been open at the end of the Obama administration.”

August: