http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/20/politics/donald-trump-golfing-presidency/
President Donald Trump has made visiting his Florida golf courses a near every-weekend habit in the first month of his administration, and his aides are trying to obscure whether Trump is actually golfing during the visits.
One possible reason: Trump was a frequent and vocal critic of President Barack Obama’s golf habit, regularly slamming the former president for playing golf with many pressing issues before the country. Trump even suggested during a 2016 event in Virginia, in a knock on Obama, that if elected he was “not going to have time to go play golf.”
“I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go play golf,” Trump said at the time.
Trump has visited his two golf courses near his Mar-a-Lago estate – Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach and Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter – six times in his first month in office.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/politics/donald-trump-russia.html?_r=0
For months, President Trump and his aides have insisted that they had no contact with Russian officials during the presidential campaign, a denial Mr. Trump repeated last week.
“I have nothing to do with Russia,” he told reporters on Thursday. “To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”
The denial stands at odds with statements by Russian officials, who have at least twice acknowledged contacts with aides to Mr. Trump before the election.
It is not uncommon for a presidential campaign to speak to foreign officials, which makes the dispute particularly unusual. At the same time, any contacts would have taken place during a period when American intelligence agencies believe the Russian government was trying to disrupt the election with a campaign of computer hacking.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-nominees-confirmation-cabinet-235157
Candidates for top jobs in President Donald Trump’s administration are getting spooked after Andrew Puzder’s nomination was scuttled and they fear the White House isn’t doing enough to protect them from grueling confirmations, according to several sources involved in the process.
The concerns are affecting not only some of the highest profile nominations, including agriculture secretary pick Sonny Perdue, but also candidates for ambassadorships, judicial positions and a range of other nominees. The chill that’s settled in even has some people considering bowing out of contention, meaning that Trump’s attempt to quickly fill out his government could drag out even further.
Some potential nominees are especially focused on the botched and slow-moving confirmation process of Puzder, the former labor secretary nominee, as a cautionary tale of what could go wrong if the administration isn’t closely engaged in nomination fights.
And just to be fair…
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/20/opinions/trumps-brilliant-choice-of-mcmaster-bergen/
President Donald Trump’s appointment of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to be his national security adviser is a brilliant decision.
McMaster, 54, is the smartest and most capable military officer of his generation, one who has not only led American victories on the battlefields of the 1991 Gulf War and of the Iraq War, but also holds a Ph.D. in history.
McMaster is, in short, both an accomplished doer and a deep thinker, a combination that should serve him well in the complex job of national security adviser.