This combination of pictures created on Aug 24, 2018 shows US Senator John McCain and US President Donald Trump. (Photo: AFP/Mandel Ngan, Brendan Smialowski) The two men never pretended to like each other. It was not just their clashing personalities or vastly dissimilar backgrounds. Their differences were fundamental, their values dramatically at odds, and their disagreements public and pointed. When Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in June 2015, suggesting that many Mexican immigrants were criminals and "rapists", McCain denounced him for using language that "fired up the crazies". Senator John McCain, seen shortly after his brain cancer was diagnosed in July 2017 AFP/JUSTIN SULLIVAN Trump's response: McCain was a "dummy" who had barely managed to graduate from the US Naval Academy. Never one to give in, Trump then attacked the former navy pilot over what might have seemed his least vulnerable point: the military career - including … [Read more...] about John McCain and Donald Trump: No love lost
Odds donald trump president
Europeans work to save Iran deal, and business, after Trump pulls out
Dismayed European allies sought on Wednesday to salvage the Iran nuclear deal and preserve their Iranian trade after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the landmark accord and ordered sanctions reimposed on Tehran. “The deal is not dead. There’s an American withdrawal from the deal but the deal is still there,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. But Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who helped engineer the 2015 deal to ease Iran’s economically crippling isolation, told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that Europe had only a “limited opportunity” to preserve the pact, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported. “(Europe)... must, as quickly as possible, clarify its position and specify and announce its intentions with regard to its obligations,” ISNA quoted Rouhani as telling Macron. Macron, who like other European leaders had lobbied Trump to keep the agreement that … [Read more...] about Europeans work to save Iran deal, and business, after Trump pulls out
Trump withdraws from Iran deal, defying allies
Trump poured scorn on the "disastrous" 2015 accord, describing it as an "embarrassment" to the United States that does nothing to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions. "I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal," Trump said in an address to the nation from the White House. Slapping aside more than a decade and a half of careful diplomacy by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and past US administrations,Trump called for a "new and lasting deal." That grand bargain, he said, would have to include not just deeper restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme, but on its ballistic missiles and support for militant groups across the Middle East. "We cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement," he claimed. "We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction and we will not allow a regime that chants ’Death to America’ to gain access to the most … [Read more...] about Trump withdraws from Iran deal, defying allies
Trump wants US troops to ’get out’ of Syria
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he wants American troops to "get out" of Syria, even as some of his top officials stressed the need to stay for the long term. Trump’s remarks follow comments last week when he vowed US forces would soon quit Syria, a position at odds with establishment doctrine that a premature pullout from the war-torn nation would have far-reaching negative consequences. "Our primary mission in terms of Syria was getting rid of ISIS," Trump said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. "We’ve almost completed that task. And we’ll be making a decision very quickly in coordination with others in the area as to what we’ll do." The president added: "I want to get out, I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation." But at the same time Trump was speaking at a news conference with Baltic leaders, the top commander for the war against IS signaled different views. General Joe Votel, … [Read more...] about Trump wants US troops to ’get out’ of Syria
Trump says DACA deal for young immigrants is off
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that there will be no deal to legalize the status of young adult immigrants called Dreamers and he said the U.S.-Mexico border is becoming more dangerous. After tweeting a “Happy Easter” message on Twitter, he said: “Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to properly do their job at the Border because of ridiculous liberal (Democrat) laws like Catch & Release. Getting more dangerous. “‘Caravans’ coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!” he wrote, adding a threat to kill the North American Free Trade Agreement which is being renegotiated with Mexico and Canada. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program created in 2012 under Democratic former President Barack Obama that Trump sought to rescind last autumn. Designed for people brought to the United States as children by parents who were undocumented immigrants, the program shielded them from … [Read more...] about Trump says DACA deal for young immigrants is off