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DALLAS — Donald Trump Jr. said he has had virtually no contact with his father since the real estate tycoon and reality star became president and ceded control of his business empire to his oldest sons.

"I basically have zero contact with him at this point," the younger Trump said in a speech at a GOP fundraiser in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday.

In January, Donald Trump Jr. and his younger brother Eric took the reins at the family's eponymous businesses, after their father resigned his position while maintaining his financial interest. At the time, government ethics officials said the president's move did not go far enough to address concerns about conflicts of interest.Trump Jr. — who played key roles in both the campaign and transition — admitted Saturday that he found it hard leaving politics behind, despite the pressures of his new business role.

On ‘S.N.L.,’ Donald Trump Botches His ‘Independence Day’ Moment

Sure, “Saturday Night Live” has offered ample criticism of President Trump and his young administration. But in its latest episode, the program expressed confidence that he’ll be in office until at least 2018, long enough to see America decimated by an alien invasion force from the planet Zorblatt 9.

After a palpable absence last week, Alec Baldwin returned to play Mr. Trump in the “S.N.L.” cold open, which imagined him in a future year, visiting a military base and trying to dispense words of inspiration while the United States battles with an extraterrestrial adversary. It was an opportunity for a rousing “Independence Day”-type speech. So how did he start?

Mr. Baldwin — who, outside of “S.N.L.,” has recently been hinting that he does not plan to play Mr. Trump in perpetuity — began by asking, “Who here loves Trump?”

Today in the Trump Administration

“Face the Nation”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont; and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, appear on “Face the Nation” with host John Dickerson Sunday.

Lawmakers demand evidence for Trump’s wiretap claim

The House intelligence committee is asking the Trump administration for evidence that the phones at Trump Tower were tapped during the campaign as its namesake has charged.

President Donald Trump asserted in a tweet last week: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” He continued the allegation against former President Barack Obama in other tweets but offered no evidence.

US Attorney Bharara fired in standoff with Trump

Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, tweeted Saturday that he was fired after refusing to resign as requested by President Donald Trump's administration.

"I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired," Bharara wrote on his verified Twitter account Saturday afternoon. "Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.""One hallmark of justice is absolute independence, and that was my touchstone every day that I served," Bharara later said in a statement.

Bharara's refusal to resign created a stunning public standoff Saturday, as 46 US attorneys across the country were asked to tender their resignations Friday afternoon.

The GOP Repeal Plan Sucks. But Is it Better Than Nothing?

March 11, 2017

First of all, the preferred free-market plan for health care policy should be no plan whatsoever. The idea that we need a federal top-down strategy to manage a huge chunk of the economy is at the very heart of the problem. We don't need a federal plan for health care. Yet Republicans have allowed liberals to frame the entire health insurance debate in these anti-market terms.

So the American Health Care Act, or AHCA, is obviously weak tea, falling far short of a promised free-market solution, much less a full "repeal" of Obamacare. It's a half-measure that endeavors to fix Obamacare with small doses of deregulation while failing to repeal its core. It's almost as if Republicans were trying to mollify their constituents and save Obamacare at the same time.

Landlord for Trump's daughter and son-in-law is a billionaire suing the U.S. government

March 10, 2017

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law are renting a house from a foreign billionaire who is fighting the U.S. government over a proposed mine in Minnesota.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are renting a $5.5 million house in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood from Andrónico Luksic. One of the Chilean billionaire’s companies is suing the federal government over lost mineral right leases for a proposed copper-nickel mine in northeastern Minnesota.

Luksic’s company, Twin Metals Minnesota, filed suit in September to force renewal of its leases. The lawsuit remains pending. Luksic bought the Kalorama property after the November presidential election.

Spicer attacks 'double standard' in response to WikiLeaks dump

Washington (CNN)White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Wednesday cast aside the playbook of cut-and-dry condemnations of national security leaks and instead framed his response along political lines.

After expressing concern about Wikileaks' release of documents allegedly revealing CIA surveillance techniques, Spicer quickly muddled his message.

He connected the latest WikiLeaks document dump to surveillance efforts under the Obama administration, days after President Donald Trump's leveled his unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama tapped the GOP candidate's phones during the 2016 campaign.

And then he took to arguing forcefully that there was a "double standard" when it comes to the level of outrage elicited by different leaks.'I love Wikileaks'

The White House has repeatedly argued that too much public and political attention has been devoted to the investigation into contacts between Trump campaign officials and suspected Russian operatives and not enough to the leaks of that confidential information.

"It's interesting how there's sort of a double standard with when the leaks occur, how much outrage there is," he said.

KOREA SUICIDE Donald Trump sends B-52 NUCLEAR BOMBERS to South Korea after North fires missiles at Japan and US warns of ‘overwhelming’ response

DONALD Trump is sending nuclear bombers to the Korean peninsula as tensions in the region reach breaking point.

North Korea and the US have been teetering on the brink of war for months after Kim Jong-un carried out a series of controversial missile launches.Earlier this week, trigger-happy Kim pushed his luck once more when he fired off four ballistic missiles into the seas near Japan.

Now US military chiefs are reportedly planning to fly in B-1 and B-52 bombers – built to carry nuclear bombs – to show America has had enough.South Korea and the US have also started their annual Foal Eagle military exercise sending a strong warning to North Korea over its actions.

Trump travel ban could prevent United States hosting World Cup

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has indicated Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban could prevent the United States from hosting the World Cup.

The US is favourite to win the right to host the 2026 World Cup, either on its own or in a cross-border bid alongside one or both of Mexico and Canada.But President Trump on Monday signed a new executive order banning immigration from six Muslim-majority countries, which could have implications for the nation’s ability to host football’s biggest tournament, as well as the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games which Los Angeles is bidding to stage.

Indian Immigration In The Time Of Donald Trump

What brought Indians to the United States, and what made Indian immigrants, as a whole, so successful once here?

That's the question Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur, and Nirvikar Singh set out to answer in their book, "The Other One Percent: Indians in America." They track the increase in Indian immigration to America, both after the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, and again during the (still-ongoing, in some ways) tech boom. They use data and research to show how the Indians who come to America are "triple selected" through India's socioeconomic hierarchy, highly competitive education system, and the U.S. immigration system. If the one percent of the U.S. population that is Indian has done particularly well, the authors argue, it is perhaps because selection factors were such that the Indian-born population is nine times more educated that the population of the United States.

The book was published shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump's election, and written before changes to the visa system and increased violence against Indians in America. So Foreign Policy spoke with Chakravorty and Singh to ask how they think the story of the other one percent will change in the time of Trump.

Donald Trump fact check: Almost every big claim he made in his speech to Congress was false

March 01, 2017

Donald Trump has completed his first ever speech to Congress as President. And almost every major claim made in it appeared to be false.

He appeared to wrongly claim that he was responsible for a vast reduction in the price of the F-35 jet, as well as falsely characterising a report into the problems of immigration.

The President's speech made contested claims about the value of immigration, his success in office, his plans for tax reform, and healthcare coverage.

When you fact-check Donald Trump's latest speech, you find that even the technically true parts aren't really true

March 01, 2017

The money that’s 'pouring in' from NATO, because of 'very strong and frank discussions' with Donald Trump the hard negotiator? Most of it had already been agreed by the 28 member states before his presidency, in response to global politics.

Total shock and surprise reigned this morning when we woke up to find that the Associated Press had fact-checked Donald Trump’s Joint Address to Congress and found that almost every big claim made in the speech was false.

His budget plan will offer “one of the largest increases in national defence spending in American history”, he claimed, while actually Congress has raised budgets by larger percentages than the one offered by him (10 per cent) three times in recent years (2002, 2003 and 2008.)

Donald Trump decides to skip White House Correspondents' Association dinner

United States President Donald Trump has said he will not attend the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, a high-profile event that draws celebrities, politicians and journalists.

Preview

His announcement came a day after the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) president Jeff Mason said they were "protesting strongly" against the White House's decision to exclude several major news outlets from an informal press briefing.

US scientists prepare to fight back against Trump's 'war on science'

The day was kind in Boston: no more blizzards or Siberian winds. In fact, the sun shone through.

A few hundred demonstrators were already in Copley Square when I arrived 20 minutes early. Hundreds more came by noon, some in white coats, many carrying signs saying "STAND UP FOR SCIENCE" and "WE DON'T WANT ALTERNATIVE FACTS".

All those I questioned said they had never been to such a rally before, and generally preferred to get on with their work, researching or teaching. Some were professors at MIT or Harvard.

One who addressed the crowd was the famed Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard.

Others insisted they were not science professionals, only concerned citizens who benefit every day from the results of good research.Boston is science central, with Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Boston University and scores of other institutions doing frontline investigations within a few miles of each other.

Donald Trump: Reince Priebus asked FBI to dispute Russia reports, White House official says

The official said Mr Priebus' request came as the White House sought to discredit a New York Times report about the contacts last week.

As of Saturday (local time), the FBI had not commented publicly on the report and there was no indication it planned to.

The New York Times reported that US agencies had intercepted phone calls last year between Russian intelligence officials and members of Mr Trump's 2016 campaign team.

Mr Priebus' discussion with FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe sparked outrage among some Democrats, who said the chief of staff was violating policies intended to limit communications between the law enforcement agency and the White House on pending investigations.

Donald Trump: Post-election euphoria in Russia begins to fade

Moscow is being forced to readjust its expectations of a closer relationship with the US just four months after Donald Trump was elected President.There had been celebrations in Russia at the thought of a White House that did not involve Hillary Clinton, with hopes it would end years of fractious diplomacy.

Donald Trump was given blanket coverage on state media and souvenir matryoshka dolls (at $AU45) and coffee mugs (slightly less at $10) imprinted with Mr Trump's face were snapped up by Russians and tourists.

But that heady excitement has now dissipated and the tone has changed in Russia.

Donald Trump continues attack on media calling them 'a great danger to our country'

Donald Trump followed up his attack on the media at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by branding it “a great danger to the country” on social media.

After a number of major news organisations including CNN, the BBC, the The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times were barred from a White House press briefing, the President took to Twitter to lambast the media again.

He said that “fake news media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth” and that news organisations like CNN and the “failing” New York Times had become a “joke” in a tweet.It comes just hours after White House Press Secretary prevented some outlets from attending an off camera press briefing.

Other more conservative outlets, such as Breitbart, OANN, Fox News and the Washington Times, were allowed into the “gaggle” – an informal briefing usually attended by one reporter from each organisation – as well as more mainstream outlets such as Reuters, Bloomberg and NBC News.

Donald Trump once again criticised by his favourite news network

A senior anchor with Donald Trump’s media ally Fox News has criticised the White House for its exclusive media briefings after several mainstream news organisations were barred from a Q&A session.

The decision to bar some outlets from off-camera ‘gaggle’ with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has been was criticised by politicians, commentators and the organisations themselves.

Although representatives from Fox News were allowed to attend, Bret Baier, a senior anchor with the broadcaster, joined in with the criticism.

Taking to Twitter, he posted: "Some at CNN & NYT stood w/FOX News when the Obama admin attacked us & tried 2 exclude us-a WH gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs.”

EU must counter Trump tariffs: Merkel ally

Europe should impose punitive tariffs on imports from the United States if President Donald Trump acts to shield US industries from foreign competitors, a senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a newspaper interview.

Trump has already formally withdrawn the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, distancing America from its Asian allies, and vowed to renegotiate the US free-trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

The tycoon-turned-president has also threatened German carmakers with a border tax of 35 per cent on vehicles imported into the US market, saying such a levy would help create more jobs on American soil.

Trump blasts purveyors of 'fake news'