A central theme of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign had been bringing back jobs that had been outsourced to other countries. That point was something he emphasized last week with a deal that was to retain some jobs at Carrier, which manufactures air conditioners in Indiana, rather than having those jobs exported to Mexico.
Trump tweeted: "Any business that leaves our country for another country... fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the US... without retribution or consequence, is WRONG! There will be a tax on our soon-to-be-strong border of 35% for these companies...wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units etc., back across the border."
Trump, a vocal supporter of corn ethanol, will order EPA to allow year-round sales of gasoline with 15% ethanol content, an increase over the 10% blends that are sold at most gas stations around the nation. The sale of the blends, known as "E15," is currently prohibited during the summer months in several states because of Clean Air Act restrictions, and corn growers have long sought to expand sales of the higher concentrations.
Trump has previously called for increased sales of ethanol, which consumes about 40% of the US corn crop. He strongly backed the biofuel during the 2016 campaign, a stance that appealed to Midwestern farmers, but which the oil industry staunchly opposed.
"I mean, this guy's a bad dude, and don't underestimate him," Trump said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "Any young guy who can take over from his father with all those generals and everybody else that probably want the position, this is not somebody to be underestimated."
Trump maintained that China has control over North Korea and the US has control over China--thus "China should do that," he said. "China has control--absolute control--over North Korea. They don't say it, but they do," Trump explained. "And they should make that problem disappear. China is sucking us dry. They're taking our money. They're taking our jobs. We have rebuilt China with what they've taken out."
"They had that long early voting in Florida. It's so long, and so many things can go wrong when you have that long period of time, right?" Trump told the crowd in Baton Rouge. "That long, long, long period. Used to be you'd have a day, you vote. Now you're going forever. Weeks and weeks."
The president-elect, who continually suggested throughout his campaign that the election was rigged against him, added that he's curious about what occurs when early voting precincts are "locked": "I wonder what happens during the evenings when those places are 'locked,' right?" Trump said, using air quotes.
"The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare," Trump continued. "In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare. Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans win back the House."
Trump wrote online that the Republican proposal "will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America," and that "Republicans will always support Pre-Existing Conditions."
The president's comments come after his Justice Department endorsed a federal court ruling to eliminate ObamaCare in its entirety; Trump declared that the Republican Party "will soon be known as the party of health care."
Politico.com Fact-Check: Family reunification has been the basis for immigration since 1965. Under this law, if you marry that guy you met while working in Shanghai, you can bring him home. And his 2-year-old. And when you'd like his parents to help with child care, you can bring them in too, after a few years. If we had a family immigration system without limits, this structure could theoretically lead to the dreaded chain migration. That Chinese spouse can petition for his sister, and her family, and so on. But the immigration system's waiting lists make chain migration a theory that doesn't really happen in practice. This is because each link in the chain takes years to complete. \
In two instances when he spoke on the record, Trump veered from a general discussion of "success" to an evaluation of the president. In the first case he said Obama lacked the qualities of a winner and "has had so many losses and people don't even want to watch him on television." In the second he said the president was not psychologically tough. "It's all psychology. If Obama had that psychology, Russia's Vladimir Putin wouldn't be eating his lunch. He doesn't have that psychology and he never will because it's not in his DNA."
Considering his lifelong dance of mutual manipulation with the press, Trump's complaints are more than a little ironic. Few have profited more from the tide of celebrity news that has swamped the public discourse. His analysis is also entirely self-referential. When the writer Timothy O`Brien said Trump wasn't as wealthy as he claimed, Trump sued. He lost, but considering the costs incurred, O`Brien's publisher lost too.
Q: "So eighth grade on?"
A: "Yes."
Q: "Whose idea was this?"
A: "Well, I was very rebellious and my parents thought it would be a good idea. I was very rebellious."
Q: "How did it evidence itself?"
A: "I was a very rebellious kind of person. I don't like to talk about it, actually. But I was a very rebellious person and very set in my ways."
Q: "In eighth grade?"
A: "I loved to fight. I always loved to fight."
Q: "Physical fights?"
A: "All types of fights. Any kind of fight, I loved it, including physical, and I was always the best athlete. Something that nobody knew about me."
"I DID NOTHING WRONG," Trump said. "If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court."
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1993 that authority for impeachment trials resides in Congress and "nowhere else." The power of impeachment belongs to Congress and proceedings must be launched in the House, according to the U.S. Constitution. If representatives vote to impeach, the case is tried in the Senate.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said during his annual New Year's address that preparations for launching an intercontinental ballistic missile have "reached the final stage." The development came after the country claims it tested its first hydrogen bomb last year.
North Korea, which has been at odds with the United States since the start of the Korean War in 1950, first tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. A nuclear test was conducted last year on Jan. 6.
Trump said, "It was good to let Turkey attack the Kurds, longtime U.S. allies in the fight against ISIS, Trump said, because "sometimes you have to let them fight like two kids. Then you pull them apart."
Heading into the final day of the Republican Party's first national gathering since the Supreme Court's landmark decision, which has allowed more than a third of states to ban nearly all abortions, the issue has barely received a passing mention. Main-stage speakers have instead leaned into economic populism, and isolationism.
But most GOP delegates are fine with abortion not taking center stage, saying they have little interest in divisive social issues that could damage the nominee at a moment when Trump appears on a glidepath to victory. While Democrats and abortion-rights groups stage press conferences outside the convention and attempt to use GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance's past statements to bring abortion back into the political spotlight, the GOP is choosing not to engage.
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The above quotations are from Columns and news articles on Politico.com.
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