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WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, then-U.S. President Joe Biden took a firm stand in solidarity with Kyiv, forged a bulwark of European allies and set veteran advisers to the task of isolating Moscow economically and diplomatically. Washington's approach changed dramatically with Tuesday's initial meeting between U.S. and Russian negotiators. The officials met just a month after Donald Trump returned to the White House, with Ukraine and NATO partners sidelined by a relatively inexperienced team of Trump aides and Putin granted concessions even before the talks got...

They were going to launder money to international “democracy” NGOs and media outlet to attack President Trump. This is why they’re melting down big time.

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to “Make America Healthy Again” as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services — petitioned the government to stop use of all Covid-19 vaccines in the heart of the pandemic. Kennedy petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in May 2021, asking that the agency revoke authorization for Covid vaccines, The New York Times reported Friday. Kennedy has a long history of spreading vaccine conspiracy theories, and was a vocal opponent of preventative measures during the pandemic. In 2022, at a rally organized by his group Children’s Health Defense, he compared measures around Covid...

Here is an interesting concept. Let’s say he is sentenced but any punishment is set aside. But in reality he is a convicted felon. Now, as president of the united states and a convicted felon, how would he be able to proceed as a felon and not have access to the nuclear football since it is a weapon and be a violation of the law. I guarantee if he is convicted, the left will bring that concern to the front and say because of that, he is ineligible to be president.

Canadians woke up Tuesday to an uncertain future, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would resign and bring his near-decade in power to an end. Trudeau's announcement came just days into an election year and followed weeks of mounting pressure from within his own party to step down as he battled dire poll ratings partly driven by soaring inflation, rising immigration and his handling of President-elect Donald Trump. "If I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option” in Canada's next election, Trudeau, 53, told reporters in Ottawa. His decision has triggered an urgent search within...

CNN anchor Jim Acosta said Monday on “Newsroom” that the Republican Party should have “flat out rejected” President-elect Donald Trump. Partial transcript as follows: ACOSTA: Brad, is it time for Donald Trump to apologize for what took place four years ago? BRAD TODD: I wouldn’t expect Donald Trump would apologize, I think, nor do I expect Democrats to apologize for trying to undo his presidency by all legal and extralegal means after that. ACOSTA: Oh come on Brad! Come on! TODD: No– dude! Look at our own polling. Look at CNN’s own exit polling. Voters who said they voted on...

Joshua Steinman is a former military officer and Trump White House NSC official. Steinman is currently an entrepreneur and co-founder of Galvanick Co. During President Trump’s first term Joshua served from 2017-2021 on the National Security Council in the Trump White House. He as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Cyber. Joshua Steinman is pro-Trump. On Sunday, Steinman warned Trump supporters that mistakes are being made right now that, if they are not immediately remedied, will lead to ineffective governance in the second Trump Administration. Steinman described the National Security Council as a group of staff officers...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) claimed Friday on MSNBC’s “All In” that once in office, President Donald Trump will lock up Democrats and shut down media companies sometime in the spring. Murphy said, “We have to raise alarms on what is a really dangerous assault on democracy that has been underway since the election and will continue after the inauguration. It is just not hyperbole to suggest that we might be looking at Democrats being locked up, media companies being shut down by this new administration sometime in the spring.” He continued, “So listen, I’m all for rebuilding the Democratic Party....

To imagine the kind of future a hotter, dryer climate may bring, and the geopolitical challenges it will create, look no farther than two parts of the world that Donald Trump wants America to control: Greenland and the Panama Canal.The president-elect in recent days has insisted that both places are critical to United States national security. He’s called to reclaim control the Panama Canal from Panama and acquire Greenland from Denmark, both sovereign territories with their own governments.They have something else in common as well: Both are significantly affected by climate change in ways that present looming challenges to global...

In an 82-page court filing made public Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors say Donald Trump's "history of malicious conduct" is too serious for his hush-money case to be dismissed. The filing, signed by DA Alvin Bragg, also fights Trump's claim that he enjoys something called presidential-elect immunity — above and beyond the presidential immunity bestowed on him by the US Supreme Court in June. "There are no grounds for such relief now, prior to inauguration," Bragg wrote in opposing Trump's 11th-hour motion to dismiss, "because President-elect immunity does not exist." With just six weeks left before his January 20 inauguration — and...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly said that President-elect Donald Trump’s victory puts Americans in “a very, very dangerous world,” stressing that he plans to spend his final two years in the Senate pushing back against the growing Trump-fueled isolationism within the GOP. The 82-year-old Kentucky Republican, who last month stepped down from his role as the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, has a complicated record with the incoming president. While McConnell has worked to significantly move the country to the right — much of it under the first Trump administration — he is no fan of Trump and his...

On CNN This Morning, CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston warned that under Trump's proposed tariff increase on China, "when you go to Walmart, you're not going to get something for like $3.99. It's going to be $13.99." That's a 250% price increase! Trump has proposed increasing existing tariffs on Chinese goods by only 10%. So Mark, where's the additional 240% coming from? CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny agreed with Preston's absurd scaremongering: "Exactly." Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

To the journalists who have studied Donald Trump longest, the second transition looks a whole lot different from eight years ago. Donald Trump — unbridled and emboldened, his control of the Republican Party all but complete, canny about the mechanics of government in a way he was not eight years back when his first election was such a shock — is headed again to the White House. But how exactly might this tour differ from the last tumultuous term? To get a better sense of what is to come — in the Senate confirmation hearings for his controversial Cabinet picks,...

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) claimed Thursday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that President-elect Donald Trump did not win a mandate in the 2024 election. Wasserman Schultz said, “Donald Trump has the right to to appoint cabinet members that actually are going to take care of America and are qualified. If they are qualified even though I don’t agree with them on on much but it’s possible for us to work together. Wreaking havoc in the United States of America and jeopardizing our national security as Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz both would do, is and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to say...

On the night he won a second term, President-elect Donald J. Trump rejoiced in the moment. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he boasted. In the two weeks since, his campaign has repeatedly heralded his “landslide,” even to market Trump merchandise like the “Official Trump Victory Glass.”But by traditional numeric measures, Mr. Trump’s victory was neither unprecedented nor a landslide. In fact, he prevailed with one of the smallest margins of victory in the popular vote since the 19th century and generated little of the coattails of a true landslide.The disconnect goes beyond predictable Trumpian braggadocio. The...

Ellen DeGeneres is making a quick exit from the United States — seemingly for good. The 66-year-old talk show host, comedian and actress has moved to rural England, according to a new report in The Wrap. DeGeneres is taking up roots in the UK with her wife Portia de Rossi, 51, and they reportedly have no plans to return to the US. To underscore the apparent permanence of the move, the couple plan to put their Montecito mansion on the market. A person close to the former Ellen DeGeneres Show host claimed that she and de Rossi were primarily skipping...

Former officials fear Trump would force out DOJ and FBI officials who defy him and replace them with loyalists. Chaos, division and paralysis could ensue. Since he entered the 2024 race, Donald Trump has called for the criminal prosecution of at least 16 rival politicians and 15 law enforcement, military and intelligence officials — according to an NBC News review of his public comments — not to mention workers at two federal public health agencies, two tech billionaires, Google and as any lawyers, campaign donors and political operatives who engage in what the former president has called “unscrupulous behavior” in...

Donald Trump is facing an extreme sliding-doors scenario on Election Day. If he wins, he would have the power to single-handedly scuttle the federal criminal cases against him, be immune from prosecution while in office, and, thanks to the Supreme Court, have broad immunity from prosecution once — if — he leaves. If he loses, though, he will face criminal penalties that could leave him in command of a 70-square-foot prison cell for most of the rest of his life. “He will be facing serious legal jeopardy if he loses. He knows that,” says Bennett Gershman, a professor of constitutional...

Usually, I get political wisdom from Rahm Emanuel, not his brother Ari. But a quote from Ari, the Hollywood macher, to Puck’s Matthew Belloni about the gender chasm in 2024 caught my eye. “This election is gonna come down to probably 120,000 votes,” Ari said. “You probably have 60 percent of the male vote for Trump, and the female vote is 60-40 for Kamala. It’s a jump ball. We’re gonna find out who wants this more — men or women.” Are we back to the days of Mars versus Venus? Or did we never leave? It is the ultimate battle...

On a Friday in late September, Donald J. Trump took time off the campaign trail for a closed-door meeting at Mar-a-Lago with officials representing the vaping industry. The vaping emissaries talked about loosening regulations and told the former president he had “saved” the industry in the past. The group — including Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, and another 2016 campaign aide, Michael Rubino — showed him mock-ups of mailers they were sending out through Election Day. Mr. Trump asked for input on what he could say on social media about a complicated regulatory issue. Within hours, Mr. Trump...