Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News
- Iran claimed responsibility for the launch of missiles at an Iraqi military base housing U.S. troops, a marked escalation in the conflict between the two countries following the U.S.’s killing of a top Iranian general. The Pentagon in a statement said Iran had “launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq,” adding, “It is clear that these missiles were launched from Iran and targeted at least two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S. military and coalition personnel at Al-Assad and Irbil.”
- Senior Defense Department official says no U.S. Casualties have been reported in Iran’s attacks in Iraq.
- President Trump has signed bills into law that will add $4.7 trillion to the debt through the end of 2029, according to a study by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an anti-debt advocacy group. Four pieces of legislation contributed the lion’s share of the new debt, the group said. The 2017 GOP tax cut, the largest of the bills, will add $1.8 trillion to the debt by the end of 2029, researchers noted, adding that the bipartisan 2019 budget deal to increase spending caps was a close second, at $1.7 trillion. The final set of appropriations bills that Congress approved in December added another $500 billion, mostly through the repeal of three taxes that were meant to pay for the Affordable Care Act, the group said.
- The White House issued sweeping changes to one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, allowing greater industry involvement in environmental reviews of projects and diminishing the role climate change plays in those assessments. The changes target the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires agencies to evaluate how pipelines, highways and some oil and gas development affects the environment and nearby communities.
- Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says the U.S. is imposing additional sanctions on Iran as a result of the attack on U.S. allied troops.
- President Donald Trump tried to take credit for cancer deaths going down during his administration.
- President Trump said his order to launch the drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani came amid pressure from Senate Republicans he views as key allies in his upcoming impeachment trial.
- Trump told Laura Ingraham that four embassies were involved in the plots, per a clip that aired on Fox News. Yesterday, he said singular embassy, last night mentioned multiple and now is more specific than his national security aides have been, though doesn’t say which embassies. No embassies were alerted of a pending attack.
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she plans to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. Before opening arguments, the Senate still needs to pass a resolution on the trial rules and send a summons to President Trump.
- The White House is considering dramatically expanding its much-litigated travel ban to additional countries amid a renewed election-year focus on immigration by President Trump.
- The weekly ISIS newspaper, al-Naba, claimed the death of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was an act of ‘divine intervention’ and that it will benefit their jihadist cause. The killing of Soleimani, who is not mentioned by name, “has created changes in the path of the Crusader campaign against the Islamic State and its soldiers, which we believe is part of God’s support for His patient mujahidin.”
The Past 24 Hours Or So 