While accepting the presidential nomination on the final night of the Republican National Convention, President Donald Trump touted his work with the Black community.
However, Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, took issue with his assertions about being a unifying figure, particularly his claim that he has "done more in three years for the Black community than Joe Biden's done in 47 years."
"I don't think there's any doubt if you look at the polling of his standing with the Black community, that they appreciate that actually what he has done is to fuel the separation of the Black community from the rest of our country," she alleged.
Trump's divisiveness predates his days as president, Jarrett said. The now-president had been a major proponent of the "birther" conspiracy theory claiming, without evidence, that Barack Obama, the first Black president, had not been born in the United States. She also noted other alienating behavior such as questioning the Black Lives Matter movement, taking an aggressive stance toward protesters, and telling four Democratic congresswomen of color "to go back to where they came from."
"We are smarter than that. No one's going to fall for that false rhetoric," Jarrett said.
The former official added that the president's attacks on his opponent Joe Biden do not address the divisiveness and purported failures he has created in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
"The challenge, I think, that President Trump has is, is that he's now running on a record. He's not the outsider anymore," Jarrett said.
Jarrett has been outspoken on Twitter, criticizing the president for holding part of the GOP convention at the White House and having officials perform their duties as part of the political event. For instance, Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf presided over a naturalization ceremony on the second night of the convention.
"When you're in the White House, you are the president for all of America, not just those who supported you," she said, while also expressing dismay at the large audience visible during the convention. "And to see that crowd without masks, without social distancing, violating all of the rules of the road from their own scientific advisers, just added insult to injury."
The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner has stepped down from her role at the agency over Department of Government Efficiency requests.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum says her government is not ruling out filing a civil lawsuit against Google if it maintains its stance of calling the stretch of sea between northeastern Mexico and the southeastern United States the “Gulf of America.” Sheinbaum, in her morning press conference on Thursday, said the president’s decree to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico is restricted to the “continental shelf of the United States” because Mexico still controls much of the body of water. “We have sovereignty over our continental shelf,” she said.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
President Donald Trump is hitting foreign steel and aluminum with a 25% tax. If that sounds familiar, it’s because he did pretty much the same thing during
President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. to stop minting pennies. His surprise announcement comes after decades of unsuccessful efforts to phase out the 1-cent coin. Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel. Here's a look at some question surrounding Trump's order.
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Brian Bennett, Senior White House correspondent at TIME, discusses Musk's relationship to Donald Trump and how he has such access in the federal government.
