Trump Watch: Day 187 Wrap-Up
Good evening, Trump watchers. Boy, oh boy…where do I even begin tonight?! It’s been another wacky Wednesday and there is a lot to cover.
Before I begin, a quick announcement. I will be traveling a lot over the next month and this will force the Trump Watch posting schedule to become a little bit interrupted at times. After tonight’s post, I will not be able to post again until next Wednesday. I should still be able to throw up some quick links to important stories, though, so please look for those on the Facebook page.
Without further ado…
— Trump announced today that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military. It is not clear, however, how he plans to enact this policy, as there are currently an estimated 15,000 transgender people in the military. Trump announced this discriminatory policy via Twitter, where he said, “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” The Pentagon announced that it would defer transgender military applicants until at least January 1, 2018. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/26/539470211/trump-says-transgender-people-cant-serve-in-military
— Meanwhile, many members of Congress — both Democrats and Republicans — have spoken out against Trump’s transgender military ban: http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/26/politics/congress-reaction-transgender-military-policy/index.html
— After Trump urged the Senate to move forward on healthcare (to repeal and replace Obamacare), John McCain rushed back to Washington, D.C. from his home in Arizona (just days after being diagnosed with brain cancer) and the Senate voted 50–50 to move forward with debate about the Republicans’ healthcare bills. Two Republican senators voted against moving forward — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — and Vice President Mike Pence had to cast the deciding vote. Obviously, he voted in favor and it moved forward. Thus far in the process, the Senate has voted on one of the Republicans’ healthcare plans (voting “no” in a 57–43 vote) and voted on a repeal with no replace option (“no” in a 55–45 vote). It’s not over yet, though. This link shows how each Senator voted on each occasion: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/us/politics/senate-votes-repeal-obamacare.html
— On Tuesday the House passed legislation to advance new financial sanctions against U.S. adversaries, including Russia. According to the Washington Post, it targets “key Russian officials in retaliation for that country’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and North Korea in response to those nations’ weapons programs”. The Trump administration has been resistant to this Congressional push to impose sanctions on Russia. Surprise, surprise. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-prepares-to-pass-sanctions-bill--and-set-up-veto-dilemma-for-trump/2017/07/25/ece80164-7138-11e7-8839-ec48ec4cae25_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-low_sanctions-1035am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.4e992347e0de
— Also on Tuesday, and a little bit lost in the other news of the past few days, the Trump administration moved forward with “its bid to undo an Obama administration rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to 4.2 million workers and said it was considering treating workers differently based on location and industry” according to Reuters. Workers’ rights groups have been extremely critical of the rule, which would increase the threshold for overtime-eligible employees from those who earn $23,660 per year to those who earn $47,000. Stay tuned. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-labor-overtime-idUSKBN1AA2DZ?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5977c09004d3016456ed8292&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook
— House Democrats attempted to obtain Treasury Department documents revealing any ties between Trump, his inner circle, and the Russian government, but their Republican counterparts blocked the effort. Democrat Representative Earl Perlmutter said of the matter, “Clearly we have something afoot in this country that leads right to the top. We need to make sure that this nation isn’t under the thumb of another nation because of financial leverage or whatever it might be.” http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-treasury-idUSKBN1AA2D7?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5977a46f04d3012655086aa6&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook
Those are the biggest stories for now. I’ll be back again in a week! Until then, please check the Facebook page for links.
