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Trump meets with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, but top community leaders skipped the event

Trump meets with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, but top community leaders skipped the event
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with owner Albert Abbas as he visits The Great Commoner restaurant on Nov. 1, 2024, in Dearborn, Michigan. (AP)
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Updated 02 November 2024
AP
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Trump meets with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, but top community leaders skipped the event

Trump meets with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, but top community leaders skipped the event
  • Metro Detroit is home to the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, with a large chunk of them living in Dearborn
  • The city is a Democratic bailiwick many supporters are upset with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war
  • But many community leaders say that while Harris has never earned their endorsement, they are still overwhelmingly opposed to Trump
Updated 02 November 2024
AP
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LANSING, Michigan: Donald Trump on Friday met with Arab Americans in Dearborn, Michigan — the nation’s largest Arab-majority city — as the Republican presidential nominee works to court the potentially decisive group despite his history of Islamophobic rhetoric and policy.
Trump was greeted with cheers and applause from a modest crowd at The Great Commoner restaurant in one of his campaign’s final attempts to garner support in the key battleground state.
Metro Detroit is home to the nation’s largest concentration of Arab Americans, with a large chunk of them living in Dearborn. The city — which Democrat Joe Biden won by a 3-to-1 margin in 2020 — has been roiled by political turmoil, with many upset with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Democrats worry that anger over the war will lead traditionally loyal voters to shift their votes to Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein — or skip the top of the ballot altogether. This could prove pivotal in Michigan, a state both parties see as a toss-up.
While the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has been working through surrogates to ease community tensions, Trump’s visit marked the first by either candidate, according to a local leader, Osama Siblani. Earlier this year, Harris met with the city’s Democratic mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, though their discussion took place outside Dearborn.
The meeting with Arab supporters Friday follows Trump’s rally in Michigan last week, when he brought local Muslims up onstage with him. Trump has also received endorsements from two Democratic mayors of Muslim-majority cities.
“It is time to prioritize our nation’s best interests and foster lasting peace for all,” Albert Abbas, an Arab American, said Friday while standing next to Trump. “This current administration has failed miserably in all aspects of humanity.”
He added, “We look to a Trump presidency with hope and envisioning a time where peace flourishes, particularly in Lebanon and Palestine.”
While many Democratic leaders in the Arab community have not endorsed Harris, they are still deeply negative toward Trump and say his endorsements don’t reflect a majority of the community. They remember his call for a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the country and his travel restrictions on visitors from Muslim-majority countries. And some point out that Trump has suggested he would give Israel even more leeway to attack its rivals in the region.
Top community leaders in Dearborn, including Hammoud, declined an invitation to meet with Trump while he was in town. Many community leaders say that while Harris has never earned their endorsement, they are still overwhelmingly opposed to Trump.
Siblani, a prominent figure in the community who has engaged with Democratic leaders about ongoing tensions, noted that many “do not trust” Trump because of his past policies and remarks. However, he emphasized the significance of Trump’s visit to Dearborn.
“Kamala should have done this months ago,” Siblani said.
Harris defended her record on the issue Friday, telling reporters that she’s “proud to have significant amount of support from the Arab American community,” while adding that she continues to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages.
Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and last month launched an invasion of Lebanon to suppress Hezbollah, the militia that has continuously launched rockets into Israeli territory. At least 43,000 people have died in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish in its death toll between combatants and civilians.
Abbas said Trump allies had reached out to him several weeks ago about hosting Trump in Dearborn. Before hosting Trump, Abbas said he wanted to see a statement from Trump that he said showed Trump “has the intentions of ending the war and helping us rebuild Lebanon and helping the displaced and the injured.”
That statement came Wednesday, when Trump posted on X that he wanted to “stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon.”
“I will preserve the equal partnership among all Lebanese communities,” Trump said on X. “Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbors, and that can only happen with peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Once Trump put out the statement, Abbas said he agreed to host the event.
 

Topics: Trump Returns Battlefield Lebanon War on Gaza Donald Trump

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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill
Updated 40 sec ago
AP
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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill
Updated 40 sec ago
AP
WASHINGTON: Billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy spent several hours Thursday swapping ideas with lawmakers about President-elect Donald Trump’sDOGE initiative to dismantle parts of the federal government.
Meeting behind closed doors at the Capitol, Musk told the mostly Republican lawmakers they would be keeping a “naughty and nice” list of those who join in the budget slashing proposals and those who don’t, according to lawmakers who attended.
“We’re going to see a lot of change around here in Washington,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, as Musk, with his young son on his shoulders, breezed by and into the private meeting.
Trump tapped the two business titans to head his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a nongovernmental task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations — all part of what he calls his “Save America” agenda for a second term in the White House.
Washington has seen this before, with ambitious efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government that historically have run into resistance when the public is confronted with cuts to trusted programs that millions of Americans depend on for jobs, health care, military security and everyday needs.
But this time Trump is staffing his administration with battle-tested architects of sweeping proposals, some outlined in Project 2025, to severely reduce and reshape the government. Musk and Ramaswamy have said they plan to work alongside the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, headed by Trump’s nominee Russ Vought, a mastermind of past cuts.
“DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. “We are prepared for the onslaught.”
Trump said Thursday that he would also name venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar” and lead the Presidential Council of Advisers for Science and Technology. Trump said in a social media post that Sacks would help “steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship.” Trump’s transition team didn’t say whether Sacks would be a government employee or a temporary government worker who would not be bound by the same ethics and disclosure rules.
Sacks visited Mar-a-Lago earlier Thursday, according to an investor who held an event at Trump’s Florida club. The longtime conservative was key to introducing Vice President-elect JD Vance to donors, helping him prove he could raise money. Sacks hosted a fundraiser for Trump and Vance at his San Francisco home.
Musk and Ramaswamy faced a first test as they sat on a auditorium stage in the Capitol basement, as House and Senate lawmakers, almost exclusively Republicans, lined up at the microphones to share ideas for ways to address the nation’s budget imbalances.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, brought up the Department of Education as a good place to cut. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin, said to look at office space and how little of it is being used. Others talked about the need for workers to return to their offices.
Afterward, Johnson declined to say if Medicare, Social Security or other popular programs were off limits for cuts, describing this first meeting as a “brainstorming” session with more to come.
“They said everything has to be looked at,” said Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., who joined with Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, in launching what they are calling the DOGE caucus in the House, with more than 50 Republicans and two Democratic members.
Musk and Ramaswamy appeared to be taking it all in, Musk at times even taking notes, lawmakers said — experiencing a day in the life of congressional leadership, as the meeting went on and on, with lawmakers lined up 20-deep for their chance to speak.
“It was just what I’d hoped for, where it was a question and answer session, so that members could come up, express their ideas, concerns, ask questions,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who will chair a House Oversight subcommittee in the new year on DOGE.
To be sure, it wasn’t the full Congress participating, as most Democrats did not join.
New York Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi said when he heard Musk mention that he was open to hearing from Democrats, he dashed over to join toward the end of the session.
“Let’s do some things to try and make government more efficient — without hurting people,” Suozzi said.
Musk and Ramaswamy left lawmakers with the impression they would be back for more, holding regular meetings and starting a podcast or some other way to share information with Americans to gauge public support — or opposition — to the proposals.
While neither Musk nor Ramaswamy have much public service experience, they bring track records in private business — Musk’s operations have vast government contracts — and enthusiasm for Trump’s agenda, having campaigned alongside him in the final stretch of the election.
The world’s richest man, Musk poured millions into a get-out-the-vote effort to help the former president return to the White House. He is known politically for having transformed the popular social media site formerly known as Twitter into X, a platform embraced by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” enthusiasts.
Despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is neither a department nor part of the government, which frees Musk and Ramaswamy from having to go through the typical ethics and background checks required for federal employment. They said they will not be paid for their work.
One good-government group has said that DOGE, as a presidential advisory panel, should be expected to adhere to traditional practices of transparency, equal representation and public input — as happened with similar advisory entities from the Reagan to the Obama administrations.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act “is designed expressly for situations like this,” wrote Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman, the co-chairs of Public Citizen, in a letter to the Trump transition team.
“If the government is going to turn to unelected and politically unaccountable persons to make recommendations as grand as $2 trillion in budget cuts, it must ensure those recommendations come from a balanced and transparent process not rigged to benefit insiders.”
The nation’s $6 trillion federal budget routinely runs a deficit, which this year ran $1.8 trillion, a historic high, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It has not been balanced since the Clinton administration more than two decades ago.
Republicans generally blame what they see as exorbitant spending for the deficit, while Democrats point to tax cuts enacted under Republican presidents Trump and George W. Bush as the major driver.
Receipts last year as a percentage of gross domestic product came in just below the average for the past 50 years, while outlays were equal to 23.4 percent of GDP, compared to the 50-year average of 21.1 percent.
Some of the biggest increases in spending last year occurred with politically popular programs that lawmakers will be reticent to touch. For example, spending on Social Security benefits went up 8 percent, Medicare outlays increased 9 percent, spending on defense went up 7 percent and spending on veterans health care rose 14 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, said the significance of the meeting was that it was even taking place, “that there’s honest dialogue between Congress and two, like, rock star administration guys.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he would like to see Musk testify before the House Armed Services Committee on the “bloated defense budget.”
“I’d like to see Elon recommend some cuts. Let’s have him testify,” Khanna said.

White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say

White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say
Updated 58 min 1 sec ago
Reuters
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White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say

White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say
Updated 58 min 1 sec ago
Reuters

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden’s top aides are discussing whether preemptive pardons to current and former public officials who may be targeted by the incoming Trump administration should be considered, but Biden has not yet made a decision on the topic, sources said.
White House officials are debating whether the president should dole out such pardons to people who have not committed crimes and about the message that would send, the sources said.
Biden is aware of the discussions but has not participated in the wider conversation, one senior White House official said. Any decision would ultimately be Biden’s to make.
The conversations have picked up steam after Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, on Sunday, after previously saying he would not issue such a pardon. Trump’s pick for FBI Director, Kash Patel, who has vowed retribution against critics of the president-elect, has also alarmed senior White House and administration officials.
Among those being considered are former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of Trump; Anthony Fauci, who helped coordinate Biden’s COVID-19 response; California’s Senator-elect Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment effort against Trump; and retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the source said.
Top White House officials leading the process are White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and White House counsel Ed Siskel, the sources said.
A White House spokesperson declined comment.
“The question right now is whether people being considered for these pardons want them,” said one of the sources.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier this week to expect more pardons from Biden before the end of his term.
The US Constitution gives a president broad pardon powers but preemptive pardons for offenses that have not yet been charged are largely untested.
Politico was first to report the story. 

Topics: US Donald Trump White House

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Russia’s Lavrov signals readiness to use any means in Ukraine conflict

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Updated 06 December 2024
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Russia’s Lavrov signals readiness to use any means in Ukraine conflict

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Updated 06 December 2024
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview broadcast on Thursday, said the use of a hypersonic missile in the Ukraine war sought to make the West understand that Moscow was ready to use any means to ensure no “strategic defeat” would be inflicted on Moscow.
“The message is that you, I mean the US and the allies of the US, who also provide these long-range weapons to the Kyiv regime — they must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call a strategic defeat of Russia,” Lavrov told US journalist Tucker Carlson.
Lavrov also said it was a “very serious mistake” for anyone in the West to presume that Russia had no red lines or that they were “being moved again and again.”

US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report

US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
Updated 06 December 2024
AP
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US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report

US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
Updated 06 December 2024
AP

WASHINGTON: The House shut down Democrats’ efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty.
The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set.
While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare.
Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Illinois, who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims.
Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It’s unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers only have a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins.
It’s the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee’s five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers.
The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump’s announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Mississippi, the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump’s choice to head the Justice Department.
“I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said.
The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press.
Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges.
His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position

White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position
Updated 06 December 2024
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White House’s Sullivan, Zelensky aide discuss improving Ukraine’s war position

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Updated 06 December 2024
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White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, discussed on Thursday improving Kyiv’s position in its war with Russia and ensuring it enters any future negotiations from a position of strength, a White House spokesperson said.

 

Topics: US Ukraine

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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy bring Trump’s DOGE to Capitol Hill
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White House aides discuss preemptive pardons for Trump targets, sources say
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US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
US House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report

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