Trump issues guidance on transgender military ban

President Trump has ordered the military to stop admitting transgender individuals into the military, sending guidance to the Pentagon on Friday that the White House wants implemented by March of 2018, Fox News has learned.

The president signed and transmitted his directive to the Department of Defense, which includes the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard.

It directs the secretary of defense and secretary of homeland security to make changes by March 23.

“In President Trump's judgment, the previous administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating long-standing policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness, disrupt unit cohesion, tax military resources."

The directive reinstates the ban on military service for transgender individuals. It also halts military expenses on sexual reassignment surgery, except for those who have already begun medical procedures, and implements criteria for whether transgender individuals already in the military should be allowed to continue to serve.
Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year when then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, during the Obama administration, lifted the prior ban.
“In President Trump's judgment, the previous administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating long-standing policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness, disrupt unit cohesion, tax military resources,” a senior administration official said Friday.
Trump first announced the transgender policy on Twitter on July 26, posting a series of tweets reinstating a ban on transgender individuals in the military that was lifted by then-President Barack Obama at the end of his second term.
The president praised the armed forces in his weekly presidential address, released Friday.
“Every person who puts on the uniform makes our nation proud,” Trump said. “They all come from across our land. They represent every race, ethnicity, and creed. But they all pledge the same oath, fight for the same cause, and operate as one team – with one shared sense of purpose.”

White House imposes fresh sanctions on Venezuela 'dictatorship'

President Trump Friday signed an executive order imposing sweeping financial sanctions on Venezuela in a move meant to ratchet up pressure on the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, as he tries to prevent a debt default. 

The new sanctions prohibit financial institutions from providing new money to the Caracas government or state oil company PDVSA. It would also restrict PDVSA's U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, from sending dividends back to Venezuela as well as ban trading in two bonds the government recently issued to circumvent its increasing isolation from western financial markets.

"These measures are carefully calibrated to deny the Maduro dictatorship a critical source of financing to maintain its illegitimate rule, protect the United States financial system from complicity in Venezuela's corruption and in the impoverishment of the Venezuelan people, and allow for humanitarian assistance," the White House said in a statement.
A senior Trump administration official said additional sanctions would be imposed if Maduro doesn't reverse course and meet opposition demands that he roll back plans to rewrite the constitution, free dozens of political prisoners and hold fair and transparent elections.
In a call to brief reporters on the measures, the official said the United States has significant influence over Venezuela's economy but does not want to wield it in an irresponsible manner that could further burden the already-struggling Venezuelan people.
Reflecting those concerns and a strong lobby effort by the U.S. oil industry, Friday's action stopped short of cutting off U.S. imports of Venezuelan oil that are crucial both to Venezuela's economy and to Gulf refiners.
The sanctions follow through on Trump's threat last month that he would take strong economic actions if Maduro's increasingly authoritarian government went ahead with plans to create a constitutional assembly that is made up wholly of government loyalists. The opposition boycotted the vote to elect the body's 545 delegates.
Since the assembly was seated, it has voted by acclamation to oust the nation's outspoken chief prosecutor, take lawmaking powers from the opposition-controlled congress and create a "truth commission" that many fear will be used to target the government's political opponents. Several prominent opposition mayors have also been removed or ordered arrested by the government-stacked supreme court.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence signaled the move earlier Friday, tweeting that the U.S. "will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles."
"The birthright of the Venezuelan people has always been and will always be libertad," he wrote, using the Spanish word for "freedom."
The sanctions are likely to worsen a crisis that has already seen Venezuela's oil-dependent economy shrink by about 35 percent since 2014 — more than the U.S. economy did during the Great Depression.
Maduro, who is among some 30 senior officials already barred from the United States, seemed almost resigned to the possibility. He warned this week that the Trump administration was readying a "commercial, oil and financial blockade" in the mold of the one that has punished Cuba for decades. He said it would be meant to pave the way for a U.S. military intervention.
"The economic measures the U.S. government is preparing will worsen Venezuela's economic situation," he told foreign journalists Tuesday, vowing to protect the population from the worst effects of any sanctions.
There was no immediate government reaction Friday even as some leaders of the opposition expressed satisfaction.
"Venezuela's increasing economic and political isolation has a sole culprit: Nicolas Maduro," recently ousted Caracas-area Mayor Ramon Muchacho said in a tweet from exile in Miami.
David Smilde, a Tulane University sociologist who has spent decades researching Venezuela, said blanket sanctions that cut off the government's cash flow and hurt the population are likely to strengthen Maduro in the short-term.
"It will bolster his discourse that Venezuela is the target of an economic war," said Smilde, who supports Friday's more limited sanctions targeting future indebtedness.
But with Venezuela's streets calmer than they have been for months, and the opposition reeling from its failure to prevent the constitutional assembly from going forward, action from an increasingly concerned international community represents the best chance of reining in Maduro, he added.
Maduro is already struggling to combat widespread shortages and triple-digit inflation as oil production has tumbled to its lowest level in more than two decades. Any economic sanctions, however mild, increase the risk of a default on Venezuela's ballooning debt.
The government and PDVSA have about $4 billion in debt payments coming due before the end of the year but only $9.7 billion in international reserves on hand, the vast majority consisting of gold ingots that are hard to trade immediately for cash.
Venezuela has taken desperate steps to remain current on its debt throughout the economic crisis, and the president has blamed his enemies for spreading rumors about any impending default.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio wins pardon from Trump

President Trump granted a pardon to Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., on Friday. 

Arpaio, 85, was recently found guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge's order to stop traffic patrols that allegedly targeted immigrants.

He had been charged with misdemeanor contempt of court for allegedly willfully defying a judge’s order in 2011 and prolonging his patrols for another 17 months.
Arpaio acknowledged extending the patrols, but insisted it wasn't intentional, blaming one of his former attorneys for not properly explaining the importance of the court order and brushing off the conviction as a "petty crime."
He was expected to be sentenced on Oct. 5 and faced up to six months in jail if convicted.
"Sheriff Joe Arpaio is now 85 years old, and after more than 50 years of admirable service to our Nation, he is worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon," the White House said in a statement.
"I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio," the president tweeted on Friday night. "He kept Arizona safe!"
Arpaio thanked Trump in an earlier tweet, saying that his conviction was the result of a "political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department."
Known for his controversial takes on many issues, including his "birther" campaign against former President Barack Obama and for housing inmates in desert tent camps, Arpaio is best known for his approach to battling illegal immigration. In 2009 he claimed to have arrested 30,000 illegal immigrants since starting his efforts in 2005.
At a rally in Phoenix, on Tuesday, the president asked supporters in the crowd if Arpaio was “convicted for doing his job?”
The crowd cheered.
“He should have had a jury, but I’ll make a prediction: He’ll be just fine,” Trump said. “But I won’t do it tonight, because I don’t want to cause any controversy.”
"We’ll see what happens," Arpaio said amid discussion of the pardon.
“[I]t doesn’t matter because I’m still going to support him as long as he is the president of the United States because that’s the way I am," Arpaio said. "I don’t desert for political reasons. I’ll stick with him.”
But Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who has had a public feud with Trump in recent weeks, was unsupportive of the move.
"Regarding the Arpaio pardon," Flake wrote on Twitter. "I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course."
During the presidential campaign, Arpaio showered Trump with support. Trump, meanwhile, has invoked Arpaio's name in his calls for tougher immigration enforcement and used some of the same immigration rhetoric and advocated for tactics that made the former Arizona lawman a national name a decade earlier.
Arpaio appeared for Trump at rallies in Iowa, Nevada and Arizona, including a huge gathering in the affluent Phoenix suburb where the sheriff lives. Arpaio also gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in which he said Trump would prevent immigrants from sneaking into the country.

Rage Mob Democrat Cartoons

Nancy Pelosi's father helped dedicate Confederate monument

Democrats now having to eat their own words :-)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has ramped up calls to remove "reprehensible" Confederate statues from the halls of Congress -- but left unsaid in her public denunciations is that her father helped dedicate such a statue decades ago while mayor of Baltimore. 

It was May 2, 1948, when, according to a Baltimore Sun article from that day, “3,000” looked on as then-Governor William Preston Lane Jr. and Pelosi’s father, the late Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., spoke at the dedication of a monument to honor Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. 

The article said Lane delivered a speech, and Mayor D’Alesandro “accepted” the memorial.
“Today, with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions,” D’Alesandro said in his dedication. “We must remain steadfast in our determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves, but for the other liberty-loving nations who are striving to preserve their national unity as free nations.”
He added: “In these days of uncertainty and turmoil, Americans must emulate Jackson’s example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world.”
With President Trump cautioning that the drive to purge Confederate statues could represent a slippery slope, the White House has flagged Pelosi's family history as she fuels the statue opposition.
Counselor Kellyanne Conway tweeted an earlier article from RedAlertPolitics noting Pelosi's father's role.
"That's rich," she wrote.
CONFEDERATE STATUE FUROR HITS CAPITOL HILL AS PELOSI AND OTHERS SEEK REMOVAL
Last week, more than a half century after Pelosi’s father honored the Lee-Jackson monument, it was removed from its post along with three other Confederate statues in Baltimore, according to the Baltimore Sun. The removal came as numerous monuments were removed, vandalized or otherwise being debated in the wake of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a counter-protester was killed.
Pelosi’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on her father’s involvement with one of the Baltimore monuments.
But Pelosi, D-Calif., has been outspoken in fueling the backlash toward symbols of the Confederacy. Last week, she urged House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to remove the 10 Confederate statues memorialized on Capitol Hill “immediately” if “Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy.”
When asked why Pelosi, after serving as House speaker for years, never pushed to remove the 10 figures, her office noted that she directed the relocation of the Robert E. Lee statue from Statuary Hall to the basement of the Capitol, known as the crypt.
“As Speaker, we relocated Robert E. Lee out of a place of honor in National Statuary Hall – a place now occupied by the statue of Rosa Parks,” Pelosi said last week.
Brooke Singman is a Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.

Moderate Republicans begin speculating about 2020 primary challenger to Trump

Moderate Republicans is slang for Bringing America Down :-)

Several high-profile moderate Republicans have begun publicly speculating about the possibility that President Trump could face a primary challenger when he seeks re-election in 2020.

The latest Republican to do so is U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona. Trump and Flake have recently exchanged words, with the president saying he is “not a fan of” Flake.

During an interview Wednesday on Georgia Public Broadcasting, Flake said Trump seems to be “inviting” a primary challenge.
"I think he could govern in a way that he wouldn't,” Flake said. “But, I think that the way that -- the direction he's headed right now, just kind of drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base -- I think he's inviting [a challenge]."

"(T)he direction he's headed right now, just kind of drilling down on the base rather than trying to expand the base -- I think he's inviting [a challenge]."

Flake, who has been promoting a book that’s critical of the president, knows something about getting primaried: Trump has expressed support for Kelli Ward, a former Arizona GOP state lawmaker who is challenging Flake in next year’s U.S. Senate race.
But Flake isn’t the only Republican talking about a competitive Republican primary in 2020.
Earlier this week, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who irked the president by not voting for ObamaCare repeal legislation, criticized Trump’s response to the white supremacists involved in the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Appearing on MSNBC, Collins was asked if she believes Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2020.
“It’s too difficult to say,” Collins said.
NBC’s Willie Geist reported last week that “sources close” to Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 2016, say there is an growing sense of “moral imperative” to primary the president in the wake of the Charlottesville violence.
Asked about the report during an appearance on CNN on Sunday, Kasich denied planning a campaign against Trump at this point.
“I don’t have any plans to do anything like that,” Kasich said. “I’m rooting for him to get it together. We all are. We’re like seven months into this presidency.”

“I’m rooting for him to get it together. We all are. We’re like seven months into this presidency.”
- Ohio Gov. John Kasich, referring to President Trump

Even with the next presidential election more than three years away, the president has ramped up political activity in recent months, including holding several campaign-style rallies and a fundraiser in June at his Washington hotel.
"Of course he's running for re-election,"  White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time of the fundraiser.
 

Pres. Trump, McConnell Set to Discuss Tax Reform, Health Care, Border Wall

OAN Newsroom

President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are working together on advancing the GOP agenda despite reports of an ongoing feud.
McConnell issued a statement Wednesday saying reports of the two not speaking to each other are not true.
He said both him and the president have been in regular contact about their shared goals, and the GOP remains committed to health care reform.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders echoed a similar statement, saying they remain united and will meet after the August recess to discuss tax reform, strengthening the military, and the construction of a border wall.

Pres. Trump Cracks Down On Foreign Students, Workers Overstaying Visas

President Trump fulfills his campaign pledge to crack down on immigrants who overstay their visas.
Based on the president’s executive order on illegal immigration, the State Department has issued new guidelines for “overstayers.”
It targets foreign students and workers who do not return home when their visas expire, and also urges U.S. diplomats to look skeptically at new visa applicants.
The Department of Homeland Security reported 739,000 immigrants have overstayed their student and work visas during the last fiscal year.
On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to crack down on those who stay past their visa expiration dates as part of his plan to tackle illegal immigration.