Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News – Weekend Update
10/25-10/27
- Trump suggested Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a mistake by hiring senior diplomat, Bill Taylor, who provided damaging testimony to impeachment investigators in Congress. The president seemed to soften the criticism Friday by adding, “Everybody makes mistakes.” It was a rare public criticism by Trump of his secretary of state.
- Phil Reeker, an assistant secretary of State, is expected to corroborate key testimony before the impeachment inquiry Saturday.
- Trump says the impeachment investigation has given him a greater understanding of those incarcerated or unfairly prosecuted
- The Trump administration is banning U.S. flights to all Cuban cities except Havana in the latest move to roll back the Obama-era easing of relations.
- Trump administration partially restored Ukraine’s access to a program that grants poor countries duty-free treatment on some goods, two years after the benefits were revoked on grounds that the country wasn’t protecting U.S. intellectual property rights.
- Outgoing acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan says he won’t testify before House panel despite subpoena.
- Charles Kupperman, who served as Trump’s deputy national security adviser, has asked a federal judge to rule whether Trump’s efforts to block his testimony by invoking “constitutional immunity” is valid.
- Elite US troops, including Delta Force operators, raided the compound of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Baghdadi detonated his suicide vest after fleeing into a tunnel, chased by US military dogs.
- The White House released an image it says was taken in the Situation Room during the operation to capture or kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
- Trump claims his 2000 book demanded the killing of Osama bin Laden. He also claims still has people coming up to him “to this day” congratulating him on these statements.
NOTE: Trump’s January 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” mentioned bin Laden once, but it did not call for bin Laden to be killed or warn that he would perpetrate a major attack if he were not killed.
The Past 24 Hours Or So 