Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News
11/19
- The White House released a note from President Trump’s physician dismissing speculation about his physical state after he made an unannounced trip to Walter Reed for exams: “Despite some of the speculation, the President has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues.”
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to get legislation enacted that would change a provision of President Trump’s 2017 tax law that raised taxes on spouses and children of service members killed in action or veterans who died as a result of their military service. The House-passed bill has faced obstacles in the Senate because a handful of GOP senators want votes on amendments unrelated to the issue impacting military families.
- The defense ministers of South Korea and China have agreed to develop their security ties to ensure stability in north-east Asia, the latest indication that Washington’s long-standing alliances in the region are fraying. The defense agreement comes on the heels of Trump’s angering of Seoul with a demand for $5 billion troop payment.
- Turkey’s military offensive in northern Syria following Donald Trump’s order for US forces to pull back aided Islamic State and damaged ties with Kurdish-led militias, according to a new assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA’s assessment, part of a quarterly report, concluded that Islamic State “exploited the Turkish incursion and subsequent drawdown of U.S. troops to reconstitute capabilities and resources within Syria and strengthen its ability to plan attacks abroad.”
- During a Cabinet meeting at the White House, President Trump threatens higher tariffs on China if the two sides can’t come to a trade agreement. The President said, “If we don’t make a deal with China, I’ll just raise the tariffs even higher.”
- US officials confirmed this week that they are prepared to move Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, and his family to a secure location if they are found to be in danger following his public testimony Tuesday in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
- EPA is proposing to increase the allowable amount of atrazine in the waterways. The European Union banned the widely used pesticide back in 2004, and public health organizations like The Natural Resources Defense Council have called for its ban in the United States for decades. But, as per usual, Trump’s EPA has proposed upping the allowable amount of atrazine in waterways.
Four witnesses testified over the course of the day in the Impeachment hearings. For full coverage, visit The Hill at the following link.
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