WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Thursday that China’s president, Xi Jinping, would be coming soon to the White House, fueling anticipation that the world’s two largest economies may be close to finishing a trade deal. Mr. Trump, in remarks to White House staff, parents and children gathered on the lawn for Take Your Children […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — North Korea billed the Trump administration $2 million for the medical care of Otto F. Warmbier, an imprisoned American student who had fallen into a coma, before agreeing to release him in 2017. A senior American diplomat negotiating for Mr. Warmbier’s freedom accepted the bill, and Mr. Warmbier was released. He died six […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans see the special counsel’s report — with its stark evidence that President Trump repeatedly impeded the investigation into Russian election interference — as a summons for collective inaction. Republicans in the upper chamber, who would serve as Mr. Trump’s jury if House Democrats were to impeach him, reacted to the report’s […]
Read More
In his first letter after receiving the Mueller report, Attorney General William Barr accurately quoted it as saying that “the investigation did not establish” that the Trump campaign “conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” But the opposite is also true: The Mueller report does establish that, in fact, members […]
Read More
The decision facing the House Democrats over whether to proceed with an impeachment of President Trump is both more difficult and more consequential than the discussion of it suggests. The arguments offered by House leaders, in particular Speaker Nancy Pelosi, against it are understandable, including that impeachment could invite a wrenching partisan fight; render the […]
Read More
Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, according to a new survey. And that’s just the start of it. Last year, Americans reported feeling stress, anger and worry at the highest levels in a decade, according to the survey, part of an annual Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people around the […]
Read More
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020, marshaling his experience and global stature in a bid to lead a party increasingly defined by a younger generation that might be skeptical of his age and ideological moderation. Mr. Biden, 76, is […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — President Trump is definitely building a wall — but it is between the White House and the House of Representatives. In the aftermath of Robert S. Mueller III’s report, the White House has quickly assumed a defiant, hard-line stance that it will not respect subpoenas and demands for information from various House committees […]
Read More
Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | RadioPublic | Stitcher This week on “The Argument,” what should Democrats do after the release of Robert Mueller’s (redacted) report? David Leonhardt thinks the report reveals a man unfit to serve as president, even if impeaching him […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration escalated its defiance of Congress on Wednesday, as the Justice Department refused to let an official testify on Capitol Hill and President Trump vowed to fight what he called a “ridiculous” subpoena ordering a former top aide to appear before lawmakers. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Mr. Trump told reporters […]
Read More
ALTOONA, Pa. — President Trump’s road to re-election runs through places like Altoona, with its deep working-class roots, conservative social values and nearly all-white population. But it is not a straight line. He won about 70 percent of the vote in Blair County, where Altoona is the largest city, in 2016, and that support was […]
Read More
This month, Saudi Arabia’s oil company, Aramco, revealed that it generated $111.1 billion in net income last year, making it the world’s most profitable company by far. So it is not particularly surprising that a scant six months after the murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by government goons stunned the world, businesses […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration escalated its defiance of Congress on Wednesday, as the Justice Department refused to let an official testify on Capitol Hill and President Trump vowed to fight what he called a “ridiculous” subpoena ordering a former top aide to appear before lawmakers. “We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Mr. Trump told reporters […]
Read More
MOSCOW — Two months after a failed summit meeting with President Trump, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, was set to meet on Thursday with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, as Mr. Kim tries to rally international support for an approach to sanctions relief and gradual nuclear disarmament that the Trump administration opposes. Mr. Kim’s […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — The day after the special counsel delivered his report to the Justice Department, President Trump was ecstatic. He claimed vindication. When he walked into the dining room of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to someone there, guests rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation. A month later, the president’s […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions had a tenuous hold on his job when President Trump called him at home in the middle of 2017. The president had already blamed him for recusing himself from investigations related to the 2016 election, sought his resignation and belittled him in private and on Twitter. Now, Mr. Trump […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — The day after the special counsel delivered his report to the Justice Department, President Trump was ecstatic. He claimed vindication. When he walked into the dining room of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to someone there, guests rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation. A month later, the president’s […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — As Speaker Nancy Pelosi urges caution on impeachment, rank-and-file House Democrats are agonizing over the prospect of ousting President Trump, caught between their sense of historic responsibilities and political considerations in the wake of the special counsel’s damning portrait of abuses. The Democrats — including more than 50 freshmen — are mindful that […]
Read More
WASHINGTON — In the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign, she tried to focus the White House on one of her highest priorities as homeland security secretary: preparing for new and different Russian forms of interference in the 2020 election. President Trump’s chief of staff told her not to bring it up in […]
Read More
William F. Weld is not likely to become our 46th president. But he was here in New Hampshire, no other Republicans were and that was something. “I think it’s important to at least call out the current incumbent of the White House on his simply amazing behavior, and for the pettiness, his vindictiveness and the […]
Read More