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Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) “What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin’ on here?” – Man, the Campaign Update goes on vacation for 10 days, and you people let all hell break loose. Well, ok, all hell breaks loose pretty much all the time in our fake news media society these days, but the past week and 3 days seemed more active than usual. Just for fun, let’s do a quick review of the highlights that took place while yours truly and the little wifey were minding our own business on the high seas:...

Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said President Donald Trump’s values didn’t ”line up with most Americans.” Gillibrand said, “I think what happens in November is going to decide what our country looks like. I think this election is a referendum on President Trump. On the fact that he doesn’t represent most Americans. That his values don’t line up with most Americans. And so being heard in this election sets the stage for everything in the future.”

Donald Trump has a credibility problem, but so do the media. A case in point is the weekend story that White House counsel Don McGahn has cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller. Let’s try to navigate through this Beltway Hall of Mirrors. The thesis of the New York Times story is that Mr. McGahn cooperated in a way that could hurt Donald Trump in order to protect himself and because he doesn’t trust the President. This fits the media narrative that Mr. Trump is covering up his collusion with Russia and his obstruction of justice, and thus Mr. McGahn must...

The great engine of American capitalism is once again firing on all cylinders, as shown by the 4.1 percent annualized growth of America’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of this year. Most Americans (with the exception of Democrats in Congress) are celebrating the good economic news. There is quiet rejoicing in many European and Asian capitals as well, since their mostly sluggish economies will now be drawn along in America’s powerful wake. But there is one capital where the American economic renaissance is definitely not welcome news. Consternation reigns in China, where President Xi Jinping is nervously...

During Fox News Channel’s Sunday airing of “OBJECTified,” UFC President Dana White praised his friend Donald Trump as someone he will “never talk bad about.” White said way before Trump ever ran for office, the president gave his league its start when nobody else would give them a shot. “I’m never going to say anything bad about — ever. Ever, ever, ever. That guy gave us our start when nobody would talk to us,” said White. He added, “No arenas wanted us. [Trump] reached out and he’s always been a friend to me. The guy’s always been a friend to...

The White House counsel has figured out how to appear transparent without giving Mueller the information he needs. Has Don McGahn turned on Donald Trump? On Saturday, the New York Times published a lengthy story suggesting as much, hinting that the White House counsel may have reached the limits of his loyalty to the president. Reporters Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt detail McGahn’s assistance to Mueller’s Russia probe, including 30 hours of voluntary interviews with investigators. Trump, they write, allowed McGahn to speak to Mueller’s team, though the president may not have grasped the extent of his cooperation.

In a searing speech from the pulpit of a black church, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a Brooklyn congregation on Sunday that Donald Trump is a “slick salesman” who fooled many people in this country, but the Democrat said the Republican president hasn’t fooled New Yorkers. Cuomo spoke at Brooklyn’s First Baptist Church of Crown Heights after a week of criticism for saying America “was never that great” during a bill signing. New York Republicans have demanded he apologize, and Trump tweeted that Cuomo was having a “total meltdown.” The governor seemed to counter what many observers considered a...

Former CIA director John Brennan said Sunday that he was willing to pursue legal action against President Donald Trump after he revoked Brennan's security clearance earlier this week. "If my clearances and my reputation, as I'm being pulled through the mud now, if that's the price we're going to pay to prevent Donald Trump from doing this against other people, to me it's a small price to pay," Brennan said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "So I am going to do whatever I can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future, and if it means going to...

Trump speechwriter fired amid scrutiny of appearance with white nationalists

The ranks of forgotten Republicans are growing. Some were forced out, such as Tim Pawlenty, a former two-term Minnesota governor who lost this week's bid for a political comeback. Some, such as the retiring Republican Sen. Bob Corker, chose to leave on their own. Others still serve, but with a muted voice. Whether members of Congress, governors or state party leaders, they are struggling to fit into President Donald Trump's Republican Party. The expanding list of marginalized GOP leaders underscores how thoroughly Mr. Trump has dominated — and changed — the Republican Party in the nearly two years since he...

President Trump’s former personal lawyer is being investigated over more than $20 million in loans to taxi companies owned by him and his family — and could face charges within the next two weeks, according to a new report Sunday. Michael Cohen is also being probed over deals to buy the silence of women who claimed they had affairs with Trump, The New York Times reported. Federal authorities are in the final stage of their investigation and are weighing charges including bank and tax fraud and violations of campaign finance law, people familiar with the matter told the paper. Prosecutors...

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., joked about how somebody saving a drowning President Trump would be a "catastrophe" at the start of an event in Sunshine, Fla., on Sunday. In a video reported by the Daily Caller, Hastings said he first learned of the joke from Ari Silver, whose father is former Florida state legislator and rabbi Barry Silver. “Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?” Hastings said, retelling the joke. "A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and can’t swim,” Hastings said. A "catastrophe," he added, "is anybody saves his ass.'” Cheers...

The big difference in President Donald Trump's re-election campaign in 2020 could be the level of support he receives from the black community. And, the man most despised by the black community could become the most pro-black president of the modern era. A Rasmussen poll released last week indicates growing support for Trump among blacks. A big part of that is economics. For the first time ever, black unemployment has fallen below six percent. That means record numbers of black men, women, and youth are employed. Trump has created opportunities where for decades, the Democrats have offered only unfulfilled promises....

Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters said President Donald Trump’s supporters were “couch potato anarchists.” Peters said, “I left Fox because as a former military officer who took an oath to the Constitution, I could not be part of a channel that to me was assaulting the Constitution, the constitutional order, the rule of law. But that said, Fox isn’t immoral, it’s amoral. It was opportunistic. Trump was a gift to Fox and fFox in turn is a gift to Trump. As you observed earlier, it’s a closed loop and so people that only listen...

“I think that it would be handled very beautifully by me,” he said on “Howard Stern Show” in 2005p> Following reports that there are recordings of Donald Trump using racial slurs on “The Apprentice,” a 2005 radio interview with Howard Stern has resurfaced where Trump proposed setting “nine blacks against nine whites” on the show. “There was a concept thrown out by some person… nine blacks against nine whites,” Trump said on “The Howard Stern Show.” “And it would be nine blacks against nine whites, all highly educated, very smart, strong, beautiful people right?” he continued, asking Stern if he...

President Trump is expected to switch out commanders across the Middle East and Europe in the administration’s most dramatic change to the US military leadership so far, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that the personnel shifts will affect officers fighting in the Middle East, as well as those working to counter Russia, overseeing Guantanamo Bay and engaging in stealth operations around the world. Officials told the Journal that Army Lt. Gen. Richard Clarke is anticipated to be formally appointed to U.S. Special Operations Command....

The first inkling I got that a lot more blacks liked Trump than they dared let on was during a dinner table discussion with a relative a couple of days before the 2016 presidential election. He flatly said that he was voting for Trump. There was dead silence, shock, and then loud outbursts of “no” followed by non-stop pillorying of him. He stuck to his guns and said Trump appealed to him because he represented change and he thought he’d be good for small business and would cut taxes. It was a textbook Horatio Alger, laissez faire rationalization that would...

Minxin Pei With the imposition of 25% tariffs on $68 billion worth of their merchandise trade ($34 billion of exports each), the U.S. and China have fired the first salvos of their trade war. If one were to borrow a military analogy, the first round of the U.S.-China trade war is either a skirmish or a probing attack, as the amount of the two-way merchandise trade affected by the tariffs is about only 10% of the total U.S.-China trade. But everyone knows that the main battle will be joined soon. Besides the additional $32 billion merchandise trade targeted for punitive...

Celebrity Big Brother bosses before storming off set just two hours before the show was set to air ...A source close to the show said last night: ‘We have seen some meltdowns before but never anything on this scale. ...On Friday morning, Ms Daniels left Channel 5 furious once again when she booked herself to star on ITV’s Loose Women...However, after learning of her appearance, Channel 5’s lawyers contacted ITV staff to warn them they would be in breach of visa restrictions because they had sponsored her to work in the UK for them and nobody else...

Former CIA and National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden said Sunday that he'd be fine with having his security clearance revoked, as President Donald Trump threatened to do to him and other former intelligence officials who have been critical of the President. Hayden made the comment on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked about a recent op-ed from retired Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden. In his piece, McRaven issued a stunning rebuke of Trump's decision to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan, whom the former...