Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron have a history of trying to upstage each other on the world stage. When the pair met in Paris last year, they subjected each other to a half-a-minute long handshake, with both determined not to be the first to let go of each other’s hand. At the Nato summit, Macron […]
By Cockburn
A custody battle over the child of two former Trump campaign staffers is unfolding in a Miami-Dade Court — and now in public. According to the public docket, both parties have now requested mental health evaluations of the other. Jason Miller, Donald Trump’s former communications director, is seeking 50-50 custody, though he and the child’s mother […]
By Cockburn
Dr Sebastian Gorka, the much-maligned television personality, defence brain and former Trump official, is making moves again. At the moment, his recent career path seems remarkably similar to the one pursued by John Bolton, which eventually delivered the former U.N. ambassador back to power last month. Whether Gorka, who worked in the office of former […]
By Cockburn
President Donald Trump insists that there is no shortage of talent wanting to fill posts in his administration. But would a president who wasn’t desperate really be considering replacing former Veterans Affairs secretary Shulkin with Fox & Friends host Pete Hegseth, as several outlets report? Hegseth’s main qualification is that the president has seen him […]
By Cockburn
Stormy Daniels is giving an interview to CBS 60 Minutes tomorrow night. What will she say?
By Cockburn
Everyone wants to know what caused President Trump to dump national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Today’s papers are saying it was because McMaster, addressing the Munich Security Conference in February, said he had ‘incontrovertible’ evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump was quick to signal his disapproval. ‘General McMaster forgot to say that […]
By Cockburn
The age of Trump makes for strange bedfellows. This week retired Lt. Col. Ralph Peters suddenly finds himself a darling of the left. A man who called President Barack Obama ‘pussy’ and said of Islamic militants that we should ‘kill them, keep on killing them, until you kill the last one and then you kill […]
By Cockburn
Washington lobbyist and longtime Republican operative Wayne Berman is in the running to replace John Kelly as White House chief of staff, a source in contact with the president tells Cockburn. Berman is currently a senior lobbyist for private equity firm Blackstone Group. He was an advisor for both of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns […]
By Cockburn
Every day brings fresh reports of the imminent departure of H.R. McMaster. A Washington Post story on the subject elicited yesterday a classic non-denial denial from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, White House press secretary. It should be pointed out that reporting on potential firings often cools President Trump from actually following through (ask Rex Tillerson). But should McMaster actually […]
By Cockburn
David Clarke, former sheriff of Milwaukee County, seemed made for Trump-era celebrity politics. Black, bearded and Stetson-wearing, he made his name with fiery conservative rhetoric, earning himself hundreds of thousands of dollars from speaking tours which crossed the country. He spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2016, and is currently a spokesman for one […]
By Cockburn
Cockburn has learned that Lawrence Kudlow, the CNBC star, former Reagan official and financier, is a major candidate to replace Gary Cohn as Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, according to a source familiar with the matter. Other candidates include the man who forced Cohn’s departure: the tariff-loving Peter Navarro. Also in contention are Mick Mulvaney, […]
By Cockburn
Immigration hardliner Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State, was offered and then denied the position of Homeland Security Secretary, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Kansan was apparently blocked by Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham because the budding administration didn’t want to mount a bruising fight over it in the […]
By Cockburn
Working for Donald Trump, or having worked for him, takes its toll. Sam Nunberg, the former aide who President Trump once left at McDonalds because his burger was taking too long, has now embarked on a disastrous media tour. In a pair of rambling, bizarre interviews this afternoon, first with MSNBC’s Katy Tur and then […]
By Cockburn
A sneak peak from this week’s Spectator magazine, in which our seasoned High Life columnist Taki reveals the following: This week I’m going down to Zurich to hear a speech organised by Die Weltwoche — the Swiss version of The Spectator — and given by Steve Bannon. He asked to meet me afterwards and you […]
By Cockburn
