President Trump is shutting down the Donald J. Trump Foundation, NBC News reports. The foundation came under great scrutiny during the presidential campaign for unusual practices, and afterward as a source of potential conflicts of interest.
After a Washington Post report, the foundation acknowledged last year in IRS paperwork that it had violated a prohibition against "self-dealing." Trump pledged in December to shut it down.
Trump's December statement: "The Foundation has done enormous good works over the years in contributing millions of dollars to countless worthy groups, including supporting veterans, law enforcement officers and children. However, to avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as President I have decided to continue to pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways."
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, "The president wants people in the House and the Senate that support his agenda," when asked if Trump would approve of Roy Moore's election to the U.S. Senate. She also said repeatedly that Trump is leaving the decision to the people of Alabama. That followed similar comments from Kellyanne Conway on Monday morning
Sanders instructed reporters to say what they're thankful for this Thanksgiving before asking questions. Starting it off herself, she said, "I'm sure you all know, I'm thankful for everyone in this room." Some reporters responded: 'I'm thankful for the First Amendment."
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the decision to put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism is part of the "peaceful pressure campaign" against the regime. The U.S. is not out of diplomatic options, Tillerson said.
Sanctions have had an impact in North Korea, the secretary said. "We know there are significant shortages of fuel. We know that their revenue flows are down."
The Federal Reserve announced Monday that Janet Yellen will leave after her successor, Trump-nominated Jerome Powell, takes over. Her four-year term as chairwoman comes to an end on February 3, 2018, but she could have remained on the board until 2024.
Why it matters: Trump will now get to fill four seats on the seven-member Federal Reserve Board of Governors
The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has analyzed the economic impacts of the GOP tax plan passed last week by the House.
By the numbers: It would boost economic output by 0.6% of GDP in 2018, 0.3% in 2027 and 0.2% in 2037. It would increase debt as a share of GDP by 5% in 2027 and 9% in 2037.
LaVar Ball and Donald Trump are squabbling about giving the President credit for bringing home three UCLA basketball players — including Ball's son LiAngelo — after the players were arrested for shoplifting in China.
The beef brings two of the biggest attention hounds, usually in separate spheres of the media universe, into the same news story. Ball, father of three talented basketball players, used some familiar tactics to become Trump's equivalent in sports media.
Why it matters: Donald Trump created the blueprint for building an avalanche of earned media momentum: be the loudest, most outrageous voice in the room. Generate buzz with confrontational statements, outsized self-promotion, and abundant charisma. With Ball, we saw that strategy executed to a tee in a different habitat of the media ecosystem, and we could see more copycats.
President Trump announced he was adding North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terror on Monday, reversing President Bush's 2008 decision to take the regime off the list. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has designated it as such, per a State Department official.
The backdrop: Trump discussed the escalating North Korean nuclear threat with President Xi of China and President Moon of South Korea during his recent Asia trip. The White House has long been considering a decision to put North Korea back on the list. North Korea joins Iran, Sudan, and Syria on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Kellyanne Conway told Fox News on Monday that the White House could support Roy Moore, saying they "want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through." Moore is in the running for Alabama's Senate seat and has been accused of sexual misconduct with minors.
Why it matters: That's a departure from what Conway previously said — "there is no Senate seat worth more than a child." Other White House officials, including OMB Director Mick Mulvaney and Trump's Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short, hedged their bets on voicing full-out criticism of Moore this weekend. Conway also noted that Trump has no plans to campaign for Moore in Alabama.
Tax reform and the end of year spending deal will consume all of Washington's oxygen until the end of the year. But quietly, a potentially far more important, though far less sexy story is unfolding.
If Mitch McConnell's schedule goes to plan, the week after Thanksgiving the Senate Majority Leader will confirm his ninth federal judge. That would beat President Reagan's eight in his first year — the most in recent history. And it triples the three federal judges President Obama appointed in his first year in office.
Rob Goldstone, the music publicist who helped arrange the June, 2016 Trump Tower meeting between the Trump campaign and a Russian lawyer and lobbyist has broken his silence in an interview with Philip Sherwell in the Sunday Times of London.
Key takeaways: Goldstone, who says he was in the meeting at Trump Jr.'s request, says after beginning under the premise of dirt on Hillary Clinton, the meeting shifted focus to the Magnitsky Act. He describes Jared Kushner as "furious," and says Paul Manafort seemed to be paying little attention to what was being said.
Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, and Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs, both attempted on Sunday to explain President Trump's silence on the accusations of child sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct against GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore:
The top U.S. nuclear commander stirs an online ruckus by saying he'd resist a commander-in-chief's order for a nuclear strike if it were illegal.Why it matters: Needless to say, this isn't normal. The fact that this is even a topic of conversation reflects Trump anxiety among many former national-security officials, including some Republicans.The backdrop,via CNN: The "remarks come after a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this week on the President's authority to launch nuclear weapons — the first such ... hearing in more than 40 years."Speaking yesterday at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada, Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which oversees nukes and missile defense, said what would happen if he were ordered to launch a nuclear strike (CNN, AP, Reuters):
"I provide advice to the President ... He'll tell me what to do, and if it's illegal, guess what's going to happen? I'm gonna say, 'Mr. President, that's illegal.'"
"Guess what he's going to do? He's going to say, 'What would be legal?' And we'll come up with options of a mix of capabilities to respond to whatever the situation is, and that's the way it works. It's not that complicated."
"I think some people think we're stupid. We're not stupid people. We think about these things a lot. When you have this responsibility, how do you not think about it?"
"If you execute an unlawful order, you will go to jail. You could go to jail for the rest of your life."
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