A controversial travel ban, a meeting with the President of Russia, a law suit by 18 states filed against his education secretary and being called a “whack job” by a former aide to Hillary Clinton is all in a week’s work for President Trump
1. Temporary travel ban comes into play
Last Thursday, a limited version of Trump’s controversial travel ban came into effect. It will remain in place until the Supreme Court can begin to review the case in October.
This version of the ban halts travel to the US for 90 days for nationals from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, all of which have been identified by the Trump administration as places of conflict. Interestingly, Iraq was included in the original ban in March but has not been included in this revision.
All refugees from any country in the world are also banned from entering the country for 120 days. As these time limits (90 days and 120 days) are likely to continue beyond the hearing dates in October, it is not expected that judges will be able to completely review the full impact of the ban.
2. We need to talk about Russia
According to a CNN report, the number of Russian spies entering the USA since the 2016 Presidential election has increased, mainly due to the lack of retaliation from the Trump Administration.
The report came on the same day that the two leaders, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Trump, met for the first time face-to-face at the G20 summit in Germany. Despite the subject of the alleged Russian hacking scandal being discussed at the meeting, exactly what was said is unclear.
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov made a claim that Trump has already “accepted” the fact that Russia did not intervene in the election but Lavrov’s US counterpart secretary of state Rex Tillerson said that Trump continuously pressed the Russian President on the matter.
However, the day before the two leaders met, Trump said in a press conference that “nobody really knows for sure” whether the Russians did intervene in the election, despite US intelligence agencies saying they are completely certain that the Russian administration is involved.
3. Betsy DeVos is at a loss
On Thursday, 18 US states and Washington DC filed lawsuits against Trump’s education secretary Betsy DeVos after it emerged that she was planning to suspend rules that make colleges and schools financially responsible for student loan fraud and protects students from being forced to resolve their complaints outside a court. The protections, which were initially put in place by the Obama administration, were set to be enacted on July 1.
Massachusetts’ attorney general Maura Healey, who is one of the 18 state attorney generals to be suing the education secretary, says that the delay and DeVos’ claim that she will rewrite the rules pits her illegally “against students and families”.
Secretary DeVos is siding with for-profit school executives and against students and families.
Today I filed suit. https://t.co/vEjXx2yGcX
— Maura Healey (@MassAGO) July 6, 2017
4. Podesta gets his claws out
Former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign, John Podesta, told Trump earlier this week to “get a grip” following the President’s claim that “everyone” at the G20 summit in Germany was talking about the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) email hack. The topic caused a lot of controversy during President Trump’s election campaign, who claimed in a tweet that Mr Podesta did not cooperate with authorities.
Everyone here is talking about why John Podesta refused to give the DNC server to the FBI and the CIA. Disgraceful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 7, 2017
However President Trump’s tweet appears to conflate the hacking of Mr Podesta’s personal email account during the election campaign with a cyberattack. Whether or not the President is aware that Mr Podesta was not involved in or in charge of the DNC during his time as Mrs Clinton’s campaign chairman is unclear.
While on holiday Mr Podesta posted a series of tweets calling out “whack job POTUS” Trump on his mistake and telling him to “get a grip”.
3/ Get a grip man, the Russians committed a crime when they stole my emails to help get you elected President.
— John Podesta (@johnpodesta) July 7, 2017