Speaking at the American Conservative Union’s CPAC conference widely described as a “Trumpfest,” complete with a golden idol of himself, the former president announced he would not launch a new political party out of his Republican faction and instead positioned himself as the party’s leader. He did not announce his candidacy for 2024 but he repeatedly claimed to have won the 2020 election and hinted at a second and third terms for himself.
By Milan Sime Martinic
The American Conservative Union is setting up to welcome the former president to speak at its convention this weekend by preparing a golden statue of Trump in Rocky Balboa stars-and-stripes shorts and business attire on top. Awed supporters are reportedly already lining up to take selfies with the idol.
By Milan Sime Martinic
The US president was locked out from posting new messages on his Facebook and Twitter accounts after an unruly group of supporters assembled outside the capitol building where Biden’s election win was being confirmed.
The lockdown on Twitter lasted 12 hours until the president removed tweets Twitter said violated its ‘civic integrity policy,’ but Zuckerburg said that Trump would be silenced on Facebook and Instagram for at least two more weeks until his presidential term was over. Facebook and Twitter are two of the main ways the president communicates with citizens and the world.
It is the first time social media platforms have chosen to limit the free speech of such an important figure.
Many news organizations covered the story using language such as ‘Trump Incites Rioters.’
Following Trumps ‘ban,’ there was renewed talk about treating social media platforms, where people share informative content, as publishers themselves, in part because their algorithms amplify things shared when those things are engaging. There was also talk about how the social media platforms that censored the president’s content did so as a response to content or events but without first drawing their ‘red line’ and saying which content is and isn’t allowed on their platforms.
Some of Trump’s staff resigned following the incident at the Capitol building, and there were also a lot of questions why the national guard wasn’t capable of handling the incident properly.
UPDATE January 8: Twitter permanently banned Trump’s account. Google removed Parler, an app like Twitter used by Trump supporters, from the Android app store to make it harder for people to download it, saying Google requires social media apps to have content moderation policies to remove posts that incite violence.
Fired FBI Director James Comey has delivered a prepared statement to Congress this week.
The statement described the six meetings Comey had with the president, some of which are considered quite unusual by analysts.
During one meeting with Trump, Comey testified, he shared with the president sensitive information of a salacious nature that had been gathered as part of the FBI’s Russia investigation. At another meeting Trump asked everyone to leave except Comey and then spoke about “letting Flynn go.”
Trump several times referred to “a cloud” being over the White House because of the Russia investigation, according to Comey, who also related that Trump told him “had not been involved with hookers in Russia,” among other references.
Trump’s attorney issued a statement that he felt vindicated because Comey had said Trump himself was not under investigation.
During his election campaign, he promised to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The White House commented that waiting to do such a move might help to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“The United States will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement,” said Trump this week.
Trump said he wants to negotiate for better terms, and that other countries are given an economic edge by the current accord. The U.S., he said, suffers lost jobs, lower wages, closed factories, and diminished economic production because of the agreement.
European countries said that the agreement could not be renegotiated, and China reaffirmed its commitment to the deal.
The U.S. entered the agreement under Obama, who decided to say yes to it without submitting it to the Senate for confirmation — analysts believe it wouldn’t have passed the Senate.
Trump continues to not use the term he frequently challenged others to use during his campaign, “radical Islamic terrorism,” when commenting this week on the attack on Christians in Egypt that killed 25 and wounded as many others.
Attacks on Christians by Muslims are common in Egypt and other Muslim-majority countries in the area.
Trump called those responsible for the attacks “evil organizations of terror with a thuggish ideology.”
The first Federal appeals court (in Richmond, VA) to rule on the revised travel ban upheld the decision of a lower court to block it.
The appellate judges said the policy “drips with religious intolerance.”
The Justice Department said it would appeal further.
The president met with other world leaders in Brussels this week — a meeting for an organization he last year called “obsolete” in the city he last year called a “hell hole.”
Analysts noted that world leaders seemed somewhat dismayed about Trump’s continued insistence they pay more money. Trump reminded them many nations owe large amounts for their defense.
Trump also met with the two leaders of the EU, another institution previously heavily criticized by Trump, and with France’s new leader Macron.
Although there haven’t been any big breaks in the story, the relationship between Trump, Trump staff, Flynn, and Comey continues to dominate U.S. news headlines this week.
Although during the campaign trail Trump used the term frequently, and criticized other politicians for never uttering it, he did not use the term or even make reference to “Islam” or “Muslim” while making his statement on the attack — now confirmed by police to have been perpetrated by a Muslim extremist. Instead, he said he would refer to the perpetrators as “losers.”
At the Arab and Muslim leaders summit this weekend, attended 50 dignitaries, mostly Sunnis, Trump gave a speech in which he talked about common enemies: Islamic terrorism and Iran.
Trump recently completed a $350m (over the next 10 years) arms deal with Saudi Arabia, the biggest in U.S. history.