USA Africa Dialogue Series - From tweet to international incident [Trump Fiascos]
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: TIME Politics<TIME@email.time.com> Date: 17 March 2017 at 16:27 Subject: From tweet to international incident To: toyin.adepoju@gmail.com
President Trump's boldest attempt yet at political misdirection quickly escalated into an international incident Thursday, as his White House Press Secretary repeated an unfounded accusation that a British spy service spied on Trump at the behest of former President Obama. As the administration scrambles to find justification for Trump's tweeted accusation against Obama, the White House ensnared its closest foreign ally in the political drama. The comments came hours after the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee jointly stated they had seen no evidence of surveillance of Trump Tower, as Trump had alleged. The British signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, issued a rare statement calling the claim repeated by Spicer "utterly ridiculous," as other U.K. officials registered their displeasure with the White House. Spicer and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster discussed the matter with British Ambassador to the U.S. Kim Darroch and British National Security Advisor Sir Mark Lyall, the White House said. The British press reported that they apologized to the British government for involving them in the flap—which has already cost Trump allies on Capitol Hill and now threatens its relationship with its closest international partners.
The White House and Capitol Hill whip operation on the GOP Obamacare replacement plan is entering a pivotal week, as House Republicans look to bring the bill up for a vote by the end of next week. It will be a key test for both Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, but it will be only the beginning of the arduous path, as the legislation faces deep skepticism in the Senate.
Trump follows Ryan on a dangerous budget path. Trump hosts Merkel at the White House after campaign criticism. And the White House defends its budget cuts.
"As to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward: We're not spending money on that anymore. We consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that." — Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, at the White House briefing on Thursday
"Meals on Wheels sounds great -- again, that's a state decision to fund that particular portion to. But to take the federal money and give it to the states and say, look, we want to give you money for programs that don't work -- I can't defend that anymore. We cannot defend that anymore." — Mulvaney to reporters on Thursday
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