In The Past 24 Hours Or So

Your Daily Dose of Trump and His Administration News

• According to an unpublished manuscript by former National Security Advisor John Bolton, Trump told Bolton in August that he wanted to continue freezing security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens.

• Trump denied Bolton’s allegations. In an early Monday morning Tweet, Trump wrote: “I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens”

• Bolton says that after Trump’s July call with Zelensky, he told AG Barr that Trump mentioned his name on the call. Department Of Justice has said that Barr learned about the call in mid-August in the context of the whistle-blower’s complaint.

• Some GOP senators are privately pushing the White House for information on who at administration had seen the manuscript and how long the White House had known what it alleged. GOP Senators feel blindsided.

• The national debt exceeds $23 trillion now, having increased by $3 trillion (more than 16%) during Trump’s first three years in office.

• According to Iraqi security sources, three of five fired Katyusha rockets hit the US embassy in Baghdad. No deaths have been reported and officials declined to comment on injuries, according to the BBC.

• A U.S. Military Plane Crashed in Taliban-controlled Area of Afghanistan. The Taliban says it shot down the plane carrying military personnel. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there were no indications so far that the plane had been brought down by enemy activity. Afghani media has reported that a Senior CIA operative Michael “Ayatollah Mike” D’Andrea,Head of US intelligence operations against Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, and Mastermind of Soleimani’s killing was among those killed

• On 5-4 vote, Supreme Court  lets Trump administration start enforcing new immigrant wealth test, designed to screen out green card applicants seen as being at risk of becoming “public charges”.