Jul 13, 2018

Number of ousted NSC officials piling up under Bolton

John Bolton watching Trump speak to the media. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Jennifer Arangio, a top National Security Council official, was let go this week after a conflict with White House aide Stephen Miller and others over the administration's immigration policy, reports Politico.

The big picture: NSC head John Bolton has cleaned house since his arrival as national security advisor in March. Arangio was ousted just two days after Joel Rayburn and Michael Bell, two senior officials working in the NSC's Middle East section, were removed.

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Orion Rummler

11 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Ted Cruz defends GOP's expected return to prioritizing national debt

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told "Axios on HBO" on Monday that he wishes reining in the national debt was a higher priority for President Trump.

Why it matters: Trump pledged during the 2016 campaign to reduce the national debt and eliminate it entirely within eight years, though he also deemed himself "the king of debt" and said there were some priorities that required spending. In the fiscal year that ended in September, the deficit reached a record $3.1 trillion.

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Orion Rummler

2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Federal judge blocks DOJ from defending Trump in Carroll rape defamation case

E. Jean Carroll in Warwick, New York. Photo: Eva Deitch for The Washington Post via Getty Images

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the Justice Department's attempted intervention on behalf of President Trump in writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit against him, after she accused him of raping her in a dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Catch up quick: The agency argued that Trump was "acting within the scope of his office" as president when he said in 2019 that Carroll was "lying" about her claim.

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