Developments over the weekend concerning President Donald Trump, the continuing controversy around the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the search to replace him, and comments made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s on Sunday morning talk-shows:
Poll: Few in US Support Trump’s Firing of FBI Chief — A new public opinion poll shows more Americans than not are opposed to President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey last week.
Comey Dismissal Continues to Reverberate in Washington — A massive search is under way for a new FBI director, after Trump fired Comey last week, with the administration having interviewed at least eight candidates for the job over the weekend. Meanwhile, the president continued to make headlines and rankle lawmakers from both parties who criticized his actions last week in firing Comey.
Top US Envoy Tillerson Confident of His Relationship with Trump — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he is not worried about his standing with the president following Trump’s firing of FBI chief Comey. “I have a great relationship with the president,” Tillerson told NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday.
Tillerson: Trump Concerned About Moving Embassy to Jerusalem — Tillerson says Trump’s is concerned about how moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would affect the Mideast peace process.
Mnuchin Says G-7 Nations More Comfortable With New US Economic Approach — U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Saturday after meeting with officials from the world’s other G-7 industrialized democracies that he thought they were more at ease with Donald Trump’s economic policies. However, officials from Japan and other member European countries remained concerned about the economic shift in Washington, particularly after Mnuchin said the U.S. reserved the right to be protectionist if it thought trade was not free or fair.
Trump Tells Liberty University Graduates to ‘Embrace’ Outsider Status — President Trump has told graduates of Liberty University, the nation’s largest Christian college and located in Virginia, to “embrace” the label of an outsider. Trump paid tribute to the university’s president, one of his earliest political supporters, and criticized the Washington establishment as the keynote of his remarks at Liberty’s commencement ceremony Saturday.
Trump Says New FBI Director Could Be Named Next Week — Trump said Saturday that a new FBI director could be named in the next week. “We can make a fast decision,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Former Director James Comey was fired on Tuesday.
US Supreme Court Could Signal View on Trump Immigration Plans — Supreme Court decisions in a half-dozen cases dealing with immigration over the next two months could reveal how the justices might evaluate Trump administration actions on immigration, especially stepped up deportations. Some of those cases could be decided as early as Monday, when the court is meeting to issue opinions in cases that were argued over the past six months.
Pope Says Will be ‘Sincere’ with Trump at Vatican Meeting — Pope Francis said on Saturday he would be “sincere” with U.S. President Donald Trump over their sharp differences on subjects such as immigration and climate change when the two hold their first meeting at the Vatican later this month.
Broad Support for Trump Foreign Aid Nominee, With a Catch — Mark Green is a rare bird in Washington these days — a Trump nominee with broad bipartisan support. But there’s a catch to his potential posting as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The agency faces a starkly uncertain future, including potentially big budget cuts and the possibility of being folded entirely into a restructured State Department.
THE WEEK AHEAD: Trump plans to take his first trip abroad as the U.S. president. He leaves Washington Friday for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Jerusalem and Rome. He also plans to travel to Brussels for a May 24 NATO meeting and Sicily, Italy, for a meeting on May 26 of the leaders of the Group of 7 industrialized nations.
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