Donald and Melania Trump wish Americans ‘Merry Christmas’ as they mark holiday
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are wishing Americans a Merry Christmas as they celebrate the holiday with their family in Florida. “The president and I want to wish each and every American a very merry Christmas,” the first lady said in a video message recorded at the White House and released Wednesday. “We say a special prayer for those military service members stationed far from home and we renew our hope for peace among nations and joy to the world,” Trump said in the message. The first family is spending the holiday at the president’s private club in Palm Beach, attending a music-filled Christmas Eve service at a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated church before celebrating with dinner in the ballroom of his private club. They were expected to remain out of sight on Wednesday. The pastor of Family Church in West Palm Beach, Florida, Jimmy Scroggins, and his family greeted the Trumps as they arrived moments into a “Candlelight Christmas Celebration.” The Trumps received applause and cheers while taking reserved seats in the church’s third pew. Brief sermons and readings by clergy were interlaced between traditional Christmas songs, as theatrical smoke billowed and fake snow descended from the rafters. Attending Family Church was a change of pace for the Trumps, who had attended holiday services in the past at Bethesda-by-the-Sea, the Episcopal Church in Palm Beach at which they were married in 2005. The Trumps then returned to his private club, where they were greeted by applause as they entered for Christmas Eve dinner. Trump, less than a week after being impeached by the House, did not respond when asked by a reporter if he prayed for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at church, but he said, “We’re going to have a great year.” Trump was seen briefly speaking attorney Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Trump defender on cable news who was dining in the ballroom. The Harvard Law School professor emeritus has been the subject of discussions about joining the president’s impeachment legal team. Trump earlier called military service members stationed across the world to share greetings ahead of the Christmas holiday. Speaking Tuesday by video conference from his private club in Florida, where is he is on a more than two-week vacation, Trump said, “I want to wish you an amazing Christmas.” The group included Marines in Afghanistan, an Army unit in Kuwait, a Navy ship in the Gulf of Aden, an Air Force base in Missouri and a Coast Guard station in Alaska. Trump praised the armed forces for their efforts this year to eliminate the last of the Islamic State group’s territorial caliphate and for killing IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He also touted economic successes at home and a pay raise for troops kicking in in the new year. “You make it possible for us to do what we have to do,” Trump said, thanking them for their service. Trump briefly fielded questions from troops, including an invitation to attend the homecoming of the USS Forrest Sherman when the destroyer returns next year to its home port of Norfolk, Virginia. Trump was asked what he’d bought Mrs. Trump for Christmas. A “beautiful card,” he said, and admitted that he was “still working on a Christmas present.” “You made me think. I’m going to have to start working on that real fast,” he said. On Tuesday evening, the first lady answered calls from children across the country as part of North American Aerospace Defense Command’s Operation NORAD Tracks Santa program. Press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Mrs. Trump spoke with several children and heard items on their Christmas lists. Grisham said Mrs. Trump ”reminded the kids to put milk and cookies out for Santa, and wished each child and their families a very merry Christmas.” The president has been largely out of the spotlight since delivering a speech to conservative students in nearby West Palm Beach on Saturday, spending his days golfing on his private course and greeting the well-heeled members of his clubs. By Zeke Miller Associated Press Republished with the Permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump, 2020 Democrat contenders tout efforts to boost veterans
On Veterans Day, President Donald Trump paid tribute to America’s troops at a New York City parade as top 2020 Democratic candidates outlined their plans for the Department of Veterans Affairs, such as naming a woman to run the agency for the first time. The Democratic proposals, coming two days before historic impeachment hearings, sought to highlight policy differences with the embattled president before a key bloc of voters.“The president has let veterans down,” said Democrat Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana. A former Navy intelligence officer, Buttigieg said female veterans and service members in particular have been neglected, including on concerns about sexual harassment and women’s health. Women are the military’s fastest-growing subgroup. “I think leadership plays a huge role so absolutely I’d seek to name a woman to lead VA,” he said. Trump was the first sitting president to attend New York’s veterans parade, viewing veterans as standing among his biggest supporters. Past presidents have typically spent Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery for a ceremonial wreath laying. Trump praised the strength of the U.S. military and the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying the nation’s veterans “risked everything for us. Now it is our duty to serve and protect them every single day of our lives.” More than 100 protesters booed, some holding black balloons that read “support our troops, impeach.” In a liberal city where Trump is deeply unpopular in spite of his roots there, a nearby building’s soaring windows were adorned with signs reading “IMPEACH” and “CONVICT.” Veterans overall have strongly backed Trump throughout his presidency, though views vary widely by party, gender and age, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of 2018 midterm voters. In particular, younger veterans and women generally were more skeptical of Trump, who received multiple draft deferments to avoid going to Vietnam. Former Vice President Joe Biden, whose late son Beau spent a year in Iraq with the Army, stressed that he would “restore trust” in VA. Taking aim at Trump’s stalled progress in reducing suicide among veterans, Biden pledged to hire more VA staff to cut down office wait times for vets at risk of suicide to zero as well as continuing the efforts of the Obama-Biden administration to stem homelessness. About 20 veterans die by suicide each day, a rate basically unchanged during the Trump administration. Trump earlier this year directed a Cabinet-level task force to develop a broader roadmap for veterans’ suicide prevention, due out next spring. “Our veterans deserve leaders who will fight for them as ardently and as forcefully as they have fought for us,” Biden wrote in a Veterans Day statement with his wife, Jill. In a jab at Trump, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders released a video highlighting his role in working with the late Republican Sen. John McCain, a decorated war hero, to pass legislation that included the Veterans Choice program in 2014. Trump routinely takes credit for being the first to enact the Choice program. What he actually got done was an expansion of the program achieved by McCain and Sanders, a former chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. Speaking at an event focused on seniors and veterans in Des Moines, Iowa, Sanders pledged to combat efforts to privatize the VA and assured a questioner that he would end the “very ugly practice” of deporting military veterans who are not U.S. citizens. “How cruel is it that when people put their lives on the line to protect us,” they are deported, he said. As president, Sanders promised he would build upon his past legislative efforts by making it easier for veterans to get into the VA system. He joins Buttigieg and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in urging increases in doctor pay to attract top VA candidates and fill 49,000 VA positions that have sat vacant as the Trump administration promoted private health care options. During a Veterans Day speech in Rochester, New Hampshire, Buttigieg reflected on his own military path, while taking some digs at Trump. “Having seen the outrage of Americans willing to put their lives on the line for this country having their careers threatened by a president who avoided his own chance to serve, yes, we are going to end the transgender military ban right away,” Buttigieg said. He added later in the speech that the VA needs to be depoliticized. “We’re going to have five-year terms for key positions so that decisions are made based on what is best for veterans and not based on whoever last spoke to the president during a golf game or made the right campaign contribution,” Buttigieg said. During a campaign stop in southeast Iowa, Biden noted that he carries with him every day the totals of those who have died as a consequence of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As of Monday, he told about 200 people at a private college in Oskaloosa, the total had reached 6,900. “Every single one of those fallen angels leave a broken community behind,” he said. Tens of thousands more, however, have returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder, Biden said. “They are in trouble and they deserve every single thing we can give them,” he said. Yen reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Alexandra Jaffe in Des Moines, Iowa, Tom Beaumont in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Zeke Miller in New York contributed to this report. By Hope Yen and Hunter Woodall Associated Press. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Not over yet: New U.S. Syria mission after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death
Pivoting from the dramatic killing of the Islamic State group’s leader, the Pentagon is increasing U.S. efforts to protect Syria’s oil fields from the extremist group as well as from Syria itself and the country’s Russian allies. It’s a new high-stakes mission even as American troops are withdrawn from other parts of the country. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the military’s oil field mission also will ensure income for Syrian Kurds who are counted on by Washington to continue guarding Islamic State prisoners and helping American forces combat remnants of the group — even as President Donald Trump continues to insist all U.S. troops will come home. “We don’t want to be a policeman in this case,” Trump said Monday, referring to America’s role after Turkey’s incursion in Syria. In the face of Turkey’s early October warning that it would invade and create a “safe zone” on the Syrian side of its border, Trump ordered U.S. forces to step aside, effectively abandoning a Kurdish militia that had partnered with U.S. troops. Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at a Pentagon news conference to cheer the successful mission by U.S. special operations forces Saturday that ended with IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi blowing himself up. Esper called al-Baghdadi’s death a “devastating blow” to an organization that already had lost its hold on a wide swath of territory in Syria and Iraq. Milley said the U.S. had disposed of al-Baghdadi’s remains “appropriately” and in line with the laws of armed conflict. He also said U.S. forces retrieved unspecified intelligence information from the site, which he described as a place in northwestern Syria where the IS leader had been “staying on a consistent basis.” A U.S. military dog that was slightly injured in the raid has recovered and is back at work, Milley said. Esper hinted at uncertainty ahead in Syria , even though the Islamic State has lost its inspirational leader, with the Syrian government exploiting support from Russia and Iran. “The security situation in Syria remains complex,” Esper said. A big part of that complexity is the rejiggering of the battlefield since Trump earlier this month ordered a full U.S. troop withdrawal from positions along the Turkish border in northeastern Syria. Even as those troops leave, other U.S. forces are heading to the oil-producing region of eastern Syria, east of the Euphrates River. Trump recently has proposed hiring an American oil company to begin repairing Syria’s oil infrastructure, which has been devastated by years of war. Repeated U.S. airstrikes against facilities for oil storage, transport, processing and refining starting in 2015 inflicted heavy damage. Esper said last week that a “mechanized” force would reinforce U.S. positions in the oil region, meaning a force equipped with tanks or Bradley infancy carriers. On Monday he provided no details about the makeup of the force. He referred to “multiple state and nonstate” forces vying for control of Syrian territory and resources, including the oil. He said that while the main U.S. military mission is to ensure the “enduring defeat” of the Islamic State, that now will include denying oil income for the group. “The United States will retain control of oil fields in northeast Syria,” Esper said, adding that at the height of al-Baghdadi’s rule, those oil fields provided the bulk of his group’s income. Esper’s remarks echoed Trump’s focus on the oil. But whose oil is it? “We’re keeping the oil,” Trump said during a speech to police officers in Chicago. “Remember that, I’ve always said that. Keep the oil. We want to keep the oil — $45 million a month — keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.” Esper emphasized that the purpose of securing Syria’s oil region is to deny income to the Islamic State. But a reporter asked whether the mission includes preventing Russian and Syrian government forces from entering that area. “The short answer is yes, it presently does,” Esper said, “because in that case we want to make sure” the Syrian Kurdish-led militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, “does have access to the resources in order to guard the prisons and arm their own troops, in order to assist us with the defeat-ISIS mission.” This area has been the scene of unusual confrontations with U.S. forces, such as a one-sided battle in February 2018 in which a pro-Syrian government force reported to be mainly private Russian mercenaries unleashed an artillery barrage near a small U.S. military outpost. As then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recounted the episode in congressional testimony two months later, he ordered the attacking force to be “annihilated – and it was” after Russian authorities insisted the attackers were not their troops. Esper said Monday that he has seen no sign of Syrian or Russian forces challenging U.S. control of the oil fields. In recent days, however, U.S. officials detected what they considered to be a significant massing of Syrian and Russian forces on the western side of the Euphrates River near Deir el-Zour, a U.S. official said Monday. Russian officials were contacted by phone, and the U.S. was given assurances that the staged forces would not move east, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue. Jim Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Syria, seemed to refer to this episode when he said last Friday, “We are currently very concerned about certain developments in the south, in the Deir el-Zour area. I’ve talked to my Russian colleague about that and we’re having other contacts with the Russians concerning that situation. We think it is under control now.” After expelling Islamic State militants from southeastern Syria in 2018, the Kurds seized control of the more profitable oil fields to the south in Deir el-Zour province. A quiet arrangement has existed between the Kurds and the Syrian government, whereby Damascus buys the surplus through middlemen in a profitable smuggling operation that has continued despite political differences. The Kurdish-led administration sells crude oil to
Joe Henderson: Predicting Donald Trump in final debate is risky business
Game-changer? Or victory lap? That’s two potential outcomes for tonight’s third and final presidential debate. The first one applies to Donald Trump fails. If he fails to change the election narrative in his last head-to-head face off with Hillary Clinton, his White House aspirations likely are finished (if they aren’t already). Clinton, ahead in the polls, likely just needs to avoid committing a major gaffe in the face of what is expected to be a flurry of attacks and allegations from an opponent with nothing to lose. Trying to guess what Trump might do is risky business. In the first debate, he interrupted Clinton repeatedly and accused her, among other things, of “fighting ISIS your whole adult life.” Fact-check alert: That terrorist organization didn’t exist until Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave it a name in 2013. If you want to stretch and say its brand of terrorism has been around since the 1990s, even that doesn’t fit Trump’s charge. Trump did better in the second debate but a big story that emerged was that he essentially stalked Clinton around the stage while she was speaking. It may have been an attempt at intimidation. It didn’t work. So what’s it going to be tonight? Here are a few possibilities. DRAIN THE SWAMP Team Trump has been telegraphing this one. Trump could focus on his five-point proposal aimed at curbing lobbying by lawmakers and members of the executive branch after they leave government service. It’s a populist approach that Trump has called “Drain The Swamp” and it definitely has appeal. It also helps focus attention on Clinton’s reputation as the ultimate Washington insider as well as the controversies surrounding the Clinton Foundation. YOU MISOGYNIST PIG Trump has tried to say the multiple women who accused him of unwanted sexual advances are lying. His case is not helped by the now-infamous audio of him and former NBC host Billy Bush engaging in “locker room talk” (Trump’s words) about how big shots like The Donald can do anything they want with any woman they want. Trump’s base has wholeheartedly bought his “they’re all liars” gambit. Tonight, we’ll see if the rest of America does. PAGING OLIVER STONE, PLEASE REPORT TO TRUMP TOWER Trump’s latest line of attack is that the “crooked media” has conspired with Clinton to rig the election in her favor. Well, the media certainly have been reporting the things Trump says and does, along with what people say about him. But a conspiracy? You can bet he will advance that theory in the debate. It could be a pre-emptive move by Trump to have a fallback if election night goes as many predict. He will just say he was robbed, and will set his followers’ hair on fire with allegations that precincts here or there had suspicious activity. Arguing the election is “rigged” has been denounced by most high-level Republicans, including Mike Pence — Trump’s running mate. Clinton can make Trump look extra foolish on that point in front of millions of TV viewers. STAY ABOVE IT Clinton’s strategy likely will involve staying above the fray, refusing to engage on Trump’s expected batch of dark theories and oft-repeated accusations about her alleged misconduct. Her best gambit should be to show voters she isn’t the monster Trump is trying to depict. Clinton can be a wooden campaigner. She doesn’t have her husband’s natural gift for connecting with an audience. She has further been battered by three decades of attacks by Republicans. They have, at times, depicted her to be complicit in a murder (former aide Vince Foster’s suicide). The beneficiary of a shady land deal (Whitewater). A traitorous secretary of state (we didn’t forget Benghazi or her use of a private email server for sensitive government business). Trump even suggested recently she wasn’t faithful to her husband. Despite all that, she has a solid lead in the polls. Early voting is underway and CBS News reported that 94 percent of Clinton voters say they have made up their minds (compared to 93 percent for Trump). If she can stay away from political quicksand tonight, she might be home free. ___ Joe Henderson has had a 45-year career in newspapers, including the last nearly 42 years at The Tampa Tribune. He covered a large variety of things, primarily in sports but also including hard news. The two intertwined in the decade-long search to bring Major League Baseball to the area. Henderson was also City Hall reporter for two years and covered all sides of the sales tax issue that ultimately led to the construction of Raymond James Stadium. He served as a full-time sports columnist for about 10 years before moving to the metro news columnist for the last 4 ½ years. Henderson has numerous local, state and national writing awards. He has been married to his wife, Elaine, for nearly 35 years and has two grown sons – Ben and Patrick.
Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump adjust politicking following Florida shooting
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton adjusted their presidential politicking Sunday, first offering prayers and support to the victims of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. But they both infused their sympathy with statements that favor their presidential aspirations, and the presidential race rolled on. The presumptive candidates made statements hours after a gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside a crowded gay nightclub early Sunday, killing at least 50 people before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. Another 53 were hospitalized, most in critical condition. Officials identified the shooter as Omar Mateen of Port St. Lucie, Florida, a U.S. citizen born in New York. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, pushed for gun control and reached out to a key constituency — gays and lesbians. “The gunman attacked an LGBT nightclub during Pride Month. To the LGBT community: please know that you have millions of allies across our country. I am one of them,” she said in a statement, adding a call to keep assault weapons out of the hands of “terrorists or other violent criminals.” Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, also offered words of support. But then spent the day congratulating himself apparently for predicting more attacks inside the U.S. On Twitter, he renewed talk of his plan to ban Muslims from the U.S. for an indeterminate time. And he went after President Barack Obama. As Obama stepped to the podium in Washington to address the nation early Sunday afternoon, Trump tweeted: “Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn’t he should immediately resign in disgrace!” In his address Obama called the tragedy an act of terror and hate. He didn’t talk about religious extremists, nor did others, reluctant to inflame a stunned nation already on edge about attacks inspired by the Islamic State group. Obama said the FBI would investigate the shootings in the gay nightclub as terrorism but that the alleged shooter’s motivations were unclear. He said the U.S. “must spare no effort” to determine whether Mateen had any ties to extremist groups. Hours later, a law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press that Mateen had made a 911 call from the club, professing allegiance to the leader of Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The official was familiar with the investigation but not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The shootings inspired the candidates to shift their schedules and focus. Clinton’s presidential campaign announced it was postponing its first joint event with Obama on Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, because of the Orlando shooting. Trump said he was changing the focus of his speech Monday at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire from his case against Clinton to “this terrorist attack, immigration and national security.” He also noted that he “said this was going to happen” and repeated his call for Obama to resign for refusing to use the words “radical Islam.” Clinton, Trump added, should drop out of the presidential race for the same reason. Trump has proposed temporarily barring all foreign Muslims from entering the country and has advocated using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods. Trump’s first tweet of the day was factual: “Really bad shooting in Orlando. Police investigating possible terrorism. Many people dead and wounded.” Tweeted Clinton: “Woke up to hear the devastating news from FL. As we wait for more information, my thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act.” And then they resumed their plans Sunday. On schedule, Clinton’s campaign unveiled its first general election ad Sunday morning. It will run in battleground states beginning Thursday. And Sen. Bernie Sanders, still in the contest for the Democratic nomination despite Clinton’s claim on it, went on with a round of appearances on the Sunday talk shows. He acknowledged the tragedy — then said he would not drop out of the race and endorse Clinton until he’s convinced she’s committed to fighting wealth disparity. He later issued a statement of sympathy to the Florida victims, with no political overtones. Two hours later, Trump responded to the Clinton ad. “Clinton made a false ad about me where I was imitating a reporter GROVELING after he changed his story. I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!” The Clinton ad uses footage of Trump onstage, flailing his arms in an apparent attempt to mimic New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital condition that restricts joint movement. At the time, Trump was taking issue with a story Kovaleski had written for The Washington Post. Roughly two hours after that tweet, Trump returned to the shootings. “Horrific incident in FL. Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?” he tweeted. An hour later, he followed up with some self-praise: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
