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Trump ‘Ordered’ John Kelly to Grant Jared Kushner a Top-Secret Security Clearance: Report

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The New York Times reports President Donald Trump ordered his then-chief-of-staff John Kelly to grant Jared Kushner a security clearance, despite clear evidence Kushner’s application was of concern and over objections of intelligence officials and even the White House counsel.

Kushner, who serves as Senior Advisor to the President, is also the President’s son-in-law.

“Mr. Trump’s decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been ‘ordered’ to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance,” the Times reports.

Then-White House Counsel “had recommended that” Kushner “not be given a top-secret clearance.”

President Trump repeatedly has denied ever having anything to do with obtaining security clearances for members of his family, including Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who is the First Daughter and White House Advisor to the President.

The Times notes that only in “highly unusual cases” does the president weigh in to grant a topsecret security clearance.

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Trump Commerce Pick’s Firm to Pay Millions for Federal Law Violations

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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a top financial services firm led by President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to become Secretary of Commerce with violating federal law, according to multiple reports.

Cantor Fitzgerald, led by its CEO and chairman Howard Lutnick, was charged by the SEC with “violating laws related to disclosures by so-called blank-check companies before they raise money from the public,” CNBC reports. “The SEC said that Cantor agreed to settle the case by saying the firm would not violate the relevant securities laws again and pay a $6.75 million civil penalty.”

Lutnick, a “major Republican donor, who donated millions to Trump’s campaign,” according to NPR, also serves as the co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team. He was awarded that honor just two weeks after hosting a fundraiser for Trump at his home in the Hamptons that raised $15 million.

READ MORE: ‘Bad Idea’: Trump’s Plan to Cut Vaccines He Deems ‘Dangerous’ Met With Concern by Experts

“Among the roughly 130 people who dined under an air-conditioned tent were some of Donald Trump’s wealthiest supporters, including the billionaire hedge-fund financier Bill Ackman, who sat next to the former president, and Omeed Malik, the president of another fund, 1789 Capital,” The New York Times reported in August.

Lutnick, a cryptocurrency supporter, was described as “pugnacious” by The Financial Times this week in an article titled, “The criminal’s ‘go-to cryptocurrency’ has a new friend in the White House.”

“Howard Lutnick has defended the stablecoin company which has been used by gangs and US adversaries,” FT reported, sharing how he “regaled an audience of crypto devotees in Nashville with tales of his early days exploring the world of digital currencies.”

“’I met every criminal who’s now in prison,’ the 63-year-old joked, referring to his encounters with various youthful crypto executives now serving lengthy jail sentences for fraud.”

CNBC also reports the settlement is similar to one affecting became a Trump-related business.

READ MORE: ‘Did He Lie?’: Trump Questioning His Price-Lowering Promises Are Possible Sparks Anger

“Cantor’s settlement echoes an $18 million settlement another blank-check firm, Digital World Acquisition Corp., agreed to pay to the SEC in July 2023 after being charged with fraud for failing to disclose to investors that DWAC had extensive merger discussions with Trump’s then-private social media company, Trump Media. DWAC merged with Trump Media earlier this year.”

Before Election Day, Lutnick promoted the debunked conspiracy theory that vaccines cause autism, and suggested children who are vaccinated may not be “fine,” during a CNN interview (below). He also stated that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who some describe as an anti-vaxxer and has said there are no vaccines that are safe and effective—would not be Trump’s nominee to head Health and Human Services (HHS), a prediction that turned out to be wrong.

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Marxist’ Agenda: Hegseth Says Gay Troops ‘Erode Standards’ in ‘Social Engineering’ Push

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Bad Idea’: Trump’s Plan to Cut Vaccines He Deems ‘Dangerous’ Met With Concern by Experts

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Saying he will be the one to decide—in consultation with anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—which vaccines the federal government should cut, Donald Trump on Thursday again invoked the false and widely debunked conspiracy theory that links autism to the life-saving drugs. The President-elect’s remarks were met with concern and condemnation.

“When asked in an interview for TIME’s 2024 Person of the Year whether he would approve of an end to childhood vaccination programs, Trump said he would have a ‘big discussion’ with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” TIME magazine reported Thursday, noting Trump has nominated RFK Jr., an attorney who has no medical training or experience leading a massive organization, to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible,” Trump told TIME, which debunked his remarks in its reporting. “If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it.”

READ MORE: ‘Did He Lie?’: Trump Questioning His Price-Lowering Promises Are Possible Sparks Anger

Reuters also reported, “Trump says [he] could get rid of some vaccinations ‘if I think it’s dangerous.'”

“When asked if the discussion could result in his administration getting rid of some vaccinations, Trump said: ‘It could if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end.'”

Like RFK Jr., Trump has no medical training or background.

While “Trump did not explicitly say in the interview that vaccines cause autism,” which it classified as “a false claim that traces back to a retracted study from the 1990s,” TIME reports that when “pressed on the issue, Trump said his administration will complete ‘very serious testing,’ after which ‘we will know for sure what’s good and what’s not good.'”

Dr. Ashish Kumar Jha is a physician, the Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, and served as the Biden White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator. He characterized Trump’s remarks that he will speak with RFK Jr. and possibly cut some vaccines, as an “extraordinarily bad idea.”

“RFK jr doesn’t seem to understand the data on vaccines,” Dr. Jha wrote. “He should have no role in deciding which vaccines should be available, recommended.”

READ MORE: ‘Marxist’ Agenda: Hegseth Says Gay Troops ‘Erode Standards’ in ‘Social Engineering’ Push

Dr. Priya Pal of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Division of Infectious Diseases, commenting on Trump’s remarks, referenced creators of some of the most important vaccines in history: “Never could Pasteur, Salk, Jenner, Sabin have imagined people celebrating the return of childhood diseases that they and others worked so hard to prevent.”

Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., a Senior Advisor to Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, and the CEO and founder of Their Future, Our Vote. She responded to the news by snarking, “Congratulations preventable infectious diseases!”

Infectious disease physician Apu Akkad, an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine wrote: “Wow. This sounds hugely problematic. RFK has no business deciding which vaccines should and shouldn’t be used — most especially without first gathering further data.”

TIME also dove in to Trump’s allegation about the perceived rise in autism.

“It’s true that autism is diagnosed much more frequently now than in the past—but not because vaccines are causing the condition. Researchers have explored possible reasons for the uptick, including rising parental ages and environmental triggers. But much of the increase, research suggests, stems from changes to diagnostic criteria, widespread awareness of the condition, and improvements in screening. Detection jumps have been particularly steep among children of color, girls, and young adults, all of whom have historically been diagnosed less frequently.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stated he believes “There’s no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents

Image via Reuters

 

 

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‘Did He Lie?’: Trump Questioning His Price-Lowering Promises Are Possible Sparks Anger

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As a candidate, Donald Trump campaigned—and won—this year on the promise he would lower prices for Americans angry after the COVID pandemic’s inflation brought steep price increases, but now he’s backtracking, saying he’s not sure he will actually be able to fulfill those vows. Outrage at Trump, and the people who voted for him based on that pledge, was palpable on Thursday.

As recently as Sunday, MSNBC reports, Trump insisted, “We’re going to bring those prices way down.”

On Monday, Fox News reported: “Pointing to high grocery prices, Trump says, ‘I won an election based on that'”

But in his TIME magazine “Person of the Year” interview, Trump suggested he might not be able to lower prices as he promised to do. Appearing to remove himself from the equation, he declared: “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

Sam Stein of The Bulwark and MSNBC noted via social media, “’Prices will come down,’ Trump told voters during a speech last week laying out his vision for a return to the White House. ‘You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.'”

READ MORE: ‘Marxist’ Agenda: Hegseth Says Gay Troops ‘Erode Standards’ in ‘Social Engineering’ Push

The President-elect told TIME he would “like to bring them down” when asked, “If the prices of groceries don’t come down, will your presidency be a failure?” but insisted if prices do not drop he doesn’t think that will make his second term a failure.

On the campaign trail Trump repeatedly promised he would lower prices and inflation, as HuffPost reported Thursday:

“’We will end inflation and make America affordable again, and we’re going to get the prices down, we have to get them down,’ Trump said at a rally in September. ‘It’s too much. Groceries, cars, everything. We’re going to get the prices down.'”

“’We will cut your taxes and inflation, slash your prices, raise your wages and bring thousands of factories back to America,’ Trump said at a Georgia rally in October, reciting a line he used in speeches at several other events.”

“Trump also specifically promised to get gas prices down: ‘I will cut your energy prices in half within 12 months.'”

Stein’s post earlier Thursday morning quoting Trump saying “You know, it’s very hard” to bring prices down set of an explosion of anger at the incoming occupant of the White House.

READ MORE: Trump’s Guilfoyle Nomination Surfaces Allegations Old and New

“Trump has already folded on prices. He has no plans to make life more affordable for the majority of Americans,” declared Lindsay Owens, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Groundwork Collaborative.

“All of you idiots who voted for Trump over food prices should feel pretty stupid,” journalist Roland Martin remarked in response.

Politico White House reporter Adam Cancryn responded to Stein: “Trump in Asheville in August: ‘From the day I take the oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down, and make America affordable again’ ‘Prices will come down. You just watch. They’ll come down and they’ll come down fast. Not only with insurance, with everything.'”

The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake added: “Trump on Sept. 23: ‘Vote Trump, and your incomes will soar. Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down.'”

“Oh, Trump doesn’t have a plan to bring down costs for Americans? I’m shocked,” snarked Democratic U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal.

Tom Bonier, a veteran Democratic political strategist noted, “He’s likely right, which is why the Biden record of increasing wages while slowing inflation has put our country on the right track, but of course no one could admit that until Trump won by running against inflation.”

Ron Fournier, a business executive and former journalist asked, “Wait. He promised to bring them down. Did he …

… lie?”

READ MORE: ‘You Have to’: Trump Confirms Plan to Deport US Citizens With Undocumented Parents

Image via Reuters

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