May 18, 2018

Trump taps acting secretary Robert Wilkie to lead Veterans Affairs

Photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Images

President Trump announced Friday that he will be nominating Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to officially lead the agency.

Timing: The announcement comes nearly one month after Dr. Ronny Jackson announced he was withdrawing his nomination following allegations of alcohol abuse and overprescription of medication.

The curveball: Trump said Acting VA Sec. Wilkie did not know about his announcement and that he was sorry to ruin the surprise.

The VA's latest: The VA just awarded a $10 billion contract to Cerner to upgrade the VA's electronic health records system, Axios' Bob Herman reports.

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Scott Rosenberg

13 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Trump's big, empty beef with Twitter

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

President Trump finally acted on his now year-old threat to take action against social media platforms for alleged bias against conservatives. But so far, according to experts in both government and the industry, the threat looks mostly empty.

Driving the news: Trump escalated his war on Twitter Friday morning, tweeting repeatedly that the company needs to be regulated after it overnight added a warning label to a tweet of his calling for the military to start shooting looters, which violated Twitter’s rules against glorifying violence.

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Mike Allen, Ursula Perano

Updated 39 mins ago - Politics & Policy

In photos: Protests over George Floyd's death grip Minneapolis

The Third Police Precinct burns in Minneapolis on Thursday night. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Demonstrators demanding justice burned a Minneapolis police station and took control of the streets around it last night, heaving wood onto the flames, kicking down poles with surveillance cameras and torching surrounding stores.

What's happening: The crowd was protesting the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man whose life was snuffed out Tuesday by a white Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck for about eight minutes.

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Fadel Allassan

46 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Minneapolis mayor to Trump: “Weakness is pointing your finger” during a crisis

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey fired back at President Trump on Friday, after the president accused the mayor of weak leadership amid violence sparked by the killing of an unarmed black man by a white police officer.

Driving the news: Trump made his accusations in a pair of tweets early Friday, saying he would bring the national guard into Minneapolis if Frey couldn't “bring the City under control.”

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