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Attorney General Jeff Sessions has brought sweeping change to the Department of Justice. In just two months as the nation’s top cop, Sessions has moved quickly to overhaul the policies and priorities set by the Obama administration.  He has...

Maybe itÂ’s because the complexity is difficult to distill; maybe itÂ’s because some just canÂ’t give President Trump any credit; or maybe itÂ’s because the scope is too challenging to comprehend against the constant belittlement meme du jour; regardless of reason, President Trump is fundamentally realigning international geo-political alliances and almost no-one is connecting the dots. President Trump obviously held a long-ball strategy with the Chinese; heÂ’s described the approach in his books and lived the approach in his business life: At the outset, position yourself at the furthest oppositional point when it costs you nothing; then leverage inward toward...

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised to roll back federal regulations. And at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in February, chief strategist Steve Bannon said that the goal of the administration was the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Trump has delivered on those pledges, signing over a dozen laws reversing Obama-era regulations, marking the most substantial legislative achievement of his first 100 days in office. Politico has downplayed Trump’s slew of repeal laws, describing them as “the only substantive bills Trump has signed so far.” And, in keeping with a media-wide effort to separate Trump from his...

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told dozens of Pennsylvania coal miners Thursday that the “regulatory assault” on their industry is over, and that the environment can be protected without hurting business. “We’re going to do it the American way, grow jobs and show the rest of the world how it’s done,” Pruitt said before going on a mine tour about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. “The regulatory assault is over,” he said, referring to tightened environmental and other regulatory standards on coal and other energy industries under former President Barack Obama. “We’re going to partner together with you.” Pruitt...

Trump signs bill targeting funding for abortion providers © Getty President Trump on Thursday signed a bill to nix an Obama-era rule that blocked states from defunding healthcare providers for political reasons. The bill, which Democrats say is really an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, passed the Senate last month after Vice President Pence had to cast a tie-breaking vote. Trump signed the measure behind closed doors in the Oval Office without media present. Republicans used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to roll back the regulation, which former President Obama signed during his final months in office. Obama's rule required...

Veterans will now have the opportunity to check wait times at the 1,700 Veterans Affairs facilities across the country. ... The new website is a must for the VA. The unforgivably long wait times at too many VA centers has plagued the agency and placed veterans in danger. At a Phoenix facility, veterans had to wait for care an average of 115 days. The VA is also taking concrete steps of draining the swamp of bad employees. Under current law, some clinics' hands are tied over VA employees who engage in nefarious behavior. For instance, an employee in Houston who...

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a joint press conference at the White House. Stoltenberg reminded Trump and the public that NATO allies have contributed to the defense of the Untied States, emphasizing that about 1,000 members of allied militaries have died fighting in Afghanistan. But he paired that conventional defense of NATO with a clear olive branch to Trump, who rattled international leaders during the 2016 presidential election by threatening to abandon allies who fail to contribute to the common defense. Such rhetoric has produced a $10 billion increase in defense spending. "We are . . . seeing the effect...

RUSH: The second big story is how the Democrats… Remember we talked about it yesterday. Democrats were gonna take that special election in Kansas. This guy Estes? He was going down. Ron Estes was going down. This is the Mike Pompeo seat. There’s a special election ’cause Trump sent Mike Pompeo to CIA and there’s a special election to replace. The media yesterday was all about, “See? Democrats are gonna win this seat proving that Trump is hated and despised and everybody wants him to go, and his agenda has been pronounced a failure!” Except Estes won. So they’re ignoring...

Republicans continued their electoral winning streak on Tuesday night in the first congressional election of the Trump administration. [Snip] Now that the election is over, Democrats are trying to figure out who is to blame for the loss, and Twitter exploded with finger pointing. Some believe that the Democratic national party abandoned the race, while others argue that if the national party got involved, it would have hurt Thompson. Former President Barack Obama's speechwriter Jon Favreau said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) shouldn't ignore races like the one in Kansas. [Snip] Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton suggested that people...

After warnings yesterday, and on the heels of a "very good call" with President Trump, China has escalated its threats to North Korea over its nuclear tests. In another Global Times op-ed, China warns "if the North makes another provocative move this month, the Chinese society will be willing to adopt severe restrictive measures that have never been seen before..." Yesterday's editorial in the military-focused Global Times tabloid, owned and operated by the Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper, said that North Korea’s nuclear activities must not jeopardize northeastern China, and that if the North impacts China with its illicit nuclear...

The money will be used to upgrade assembly technology at the Kentucky plant — the largest Toyota factory in the world. “This is more about job retention and setting up for the future,” Rick Hesterberg, a Toyota spokesman, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “We’ve got 8,200 people working here and we build over half a million vehicles. We’re a thirty year old plant, and we needed the upgrades. The new technology will allow us to be much more flexible to adapt to market forces in the future.”

Tillerson: China agrees on 'action' on North Korea as navy strike group sails Secretary of state: ‘President Xi understands the situation has intensified’ Syria missile strike described by North as ‘intolerable act of aggression’ Edward Helmore and agencies Sunday 9 April 2017 15.31 BST As the US navy deployed a strike group towards the western Pacific Ocean, to provide a presence near the Korean peninsula, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said China agrees with the Trump administration that “action has to be taken” regarding North Korea. Tillerson told CBS’s Face the Nation, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, that when...

President Trump basked in the glow Saturday of a week so successful that it even won praise from aides to former President ­Barack Obama. Trump had plenty of success to reflect upon as he donned a white polo shirt and red cap to enjoy five hours at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. He had had a successful two-day meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Senate voted Friday to approve his first Supreme Court nominee. And he had punished Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad for the cruel use of sarin gas against his own people by...

President Trump will swear in Neil Gorsuch as an associate Supreme Court justice early next week, the White House said Friday. Trump is at his West Palm Beach resort this weekend, and therefore cannot swear in Gorsuch in the next few days, according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer.

The Trump administration is developing an order to open new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling, reversing former President Barack Obama’s unilateral decision to lock up most of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, according to industry sources. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke told industry representatives the new drilling plan would be signed soon, according to Bloomberg. However, he gave few details on what the order could include. The Department of the Interior’s (DOI) new five-year offshore drilling plan could take years to develop and would replace the Obama administration’s five-year plan finalized in November. President Donald Trump promised...

The Senate has cast enough votes to confirm Neil Gorsuch, a 49-year-old federal judge who could help cement a conservative majority on the bench for decades, to the Supreme Court, according to a CNN count of the vote.

"I could not help but notice a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle high-fiving each other," Blumenthal said on the Senate floor. "That image stays with me as I stand here now. It saddens me." . . . "There is no cause for celebration in what happened in the Senate just hours ago," he said. "No one should sleep well tonight. No one should underestimate the magnitude of what happened here. Damage was done to our democracy."

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits recorded their biggest drop in nearly two years last week, pointing to a further tightening in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 234,000 for the week ended April 1, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The drop was the largest since the week ending April 25, 2015. The prior week's data was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported. Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a healthy labor market for 109 straight weeks. That is the longest stretch...

Senate Republicans deployed the so-called “nuclear option” Thursday afternoon in a bid to confirm Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, moving to overcome a Democratic filibuster just minutes earlier. The Senate initially voted 55-45 on a motion to end debate on Gorsuch, with four Democrats breaking ranks; it needed 60 to succeed. Known as a filibuster, this vote triggered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to go “nuclear.” This means he is trying to change Senate precedent so that the Senate can move to a final roll call with just a simple majority of 51 votes, as opposed to 60....