Debate on US Strike against Syria

Nine civilians are among the 14 people killed in a U.S. missile bombardment, on a Syrian airbase. President Trump says it was a retaliation for a chemical attack despite providing no evidence.

Putin Slams ‘Trumped Up’ US Strike in Syria | April 8, 2017

Pamela Geller on Syria Strike: ‘What Is the Objective? Which Al-Qaeda Satellite Are We Partnering With?’

Read the Breitbart article here

Poll: Why Is Trump Really Bombing Syria?

Trump Fires Warning Shot in Battle Between Bannon and Kushner

THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — As he grappled on Thursday with his first major decision involving military action, a fed-up and frustrated President Trump turned to his two top aides and told them he had had enough of their incessant knife-fights in the media.

“Work this out,” Mr. Trump said, according to two people briefed on the exchange. The admonition was aimed at Stephen K. Bannon, the tempestuous chief strategist, and Reince Priebus, the mild-mannered chief of staff, over a series of dust-ups with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, and the top economic adviser, Gary D. Cohn.

But they may not be able to. » | Jeremy W. Peters and Maggie Haberman | Friday, April 7, 2017

Donald Trump 'Considering Sacking Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus' as Simmering West Wing Feud Engulfs White House

THE TELEGRAPH: Donald Trump is considering a major shake-up of his top team, with both Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus reportedly facing "reassignment" amid intense infighting at the White House.

The US president is said to be determined to end the simmering feud within the West Wing that pits Mr Bannon and his allies against Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump.

The relationship between the far-Right former media executive and the president's son-in-law has deteriorated to the point of "breakdown", sources say. » | Barney Henderson, New York | Saturday, April 8, 2017

Peace Advocates: If Trump Wanted To Help Syrians, He Would Lift Refugee Ban & Fund Humanitarian Aid

We continue our roundtable discussion on Syria after the United States carried out a missile attack on a Syrian airfield, saying it was a response to a chemical weapons attack that killed 86 people, including at least 30 children. Syria denies carrying out the attack. "Both these superpowers … do not give a damn about Syrian self-determination nor justice for Syrians," says Yazan al-Saadi, a Syrian-Canadian writer who joins us from Beirut. "We do want something that will be positive for the Syrian people," adds Medea Benjamin, cofounder of CodePink. "That means immediately lifting of the Trump ban on Syrian refugees coming to the United States, of funding of the $5 billion that the U.N. says is desperately needed to help the humanitarian crisis facing the Syrian refugees, and demand that the U.S. work with Russia to finally come to a ceasefire and work for a political solution." We are also joined by Alia Malek, journalist and former human rights lawyer, and Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

US Bombs Syria! The War Machine Hums On Under Trump!

Putin Believes US Attack On Syria Violates International Law - Kremlin

President Putin “regards the strikes as aggression against a sovereign nation,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, noting that the president believes the strikes were carried out “in violation of international law, and also under an invented pretext.”

Ivanka: 'Where I Disagree with My Father, He Knows It'

BBC: Ivanka Trump has given her first interview since being named as assistant to the president.

The US "first daughter" hasn't publicly disagreed with her father, but says that in private she expresses herself "with total candour". (+ BBC video) » | Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Trump Removes Stephen Bannon From National Security Council Post

THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — For the first 10 weeks of President Trump’s administration, no adviser loomed larger in the public imagination than Stephen K. Bannon, the raw and rumpled former chairman of Breitbart News who considers himself a “virulently anti-establishment” revolutionary out to destroy the “administrative state.”

But behind the scenes, White House officials said, the ideologist who enjoyed the president’s confidence became increasingly embattled as other advisers, including Mr. Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, complained about setbacks on health care and immigration. Lately, Mr. Bannon has been conspicuously absent from some meetings. And now he has lost his seat at the national security table. Read on and comment » | Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush | Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Related here and here

Editorial: Enabling Egypt’s President Sisi, an Enemy of Human Rights

THE NEW YORK TIMES: American presidents must sometimes deal with unsavory foreign leaders in pursuit of America’s national interest. But that doesn’t require inviting them to the White House and lavishing them with praise and promises of unconditional support.

Yet that’s what President Trump did on Monday in not just welcoming but celebrating one of the most authoritarian leaders in the Middle East, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, a man responsible for killing hundreds of Egyptians, jailing thousands of others and, in the process, running his country and its reputation into the ground. » | The Editorial Board | Tuesday, April 4, 2017

ISIS Message Calls Trump 'Foolish Idiot'

CNN: Islamist terror group ISIS has unleashed contempt on both the United States and President Donald Trump in a new audio message, calling the latter a "foolish idiot."

ISIS spokesman Abu Hasan al-Muhajir narrates the roughly 37-minute message, which was released Tuesday.

"You (America) are bankrupt and the signs of your demise are evident to every eye," Muhajir says. "There is no clearer sign of you being ruled by a foolish idiot who does not know what Levant or Iraq or Islam is, who continue(s) his hallucination to express his animosity and war against it (Islam)."

The message was distributed via social media by ISIS supporters. » | Jason Hanna and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN | Wednesday, April 5, 2017

President Trump Condemns Syrian Gas Attack But Shifts Blame To President Obama | Morning Joe | MSNBC

At least 83 people are dead, including 25 children, following a chemical attack in Syria. The panel discusses the scope of the attack and Donald Trump's response and criticism of Obama.

For Trump, a Focus on U.S. Interests and a Disdain for Moralizing

THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — As the world recoiled at the televised images of lifeless children in the latest atrocity in Syria’s savage civil war on Tuesday, the White House issued a statement expressing outrage just as any White House presumably would.

But where other presidents might have used the moment to call for the departure of Syria’s authoritarian leader, Bashar al-Assad, President Trump’s spokesman dismissed the notion as impractical because it would not happen. “We would look like, to some degree, rather silly not acknowledging the political realities that exist in Syria,” said the spokesman, Sean Spicer. » | Peter Baker | Tuesday, April 4, 2017

President Trump: A Dishonest Man? An American Embarrassment?

Texit? EU President Juncker Threatens to Promote Texas Independence as Trump Backs Brexit

Donald Trump has been warned by the head of the EU Commission to watch out for breakaway states in America. Jean-Claude Juncker claimed that if President Trump keeps on encouraging EU countries to leave the bloc, he should expect the same thing to happen in the US.

Bernie Sanders: President Donald Trump Broke Working People Promise | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Senator Bernie Sanders talks with Rachel Maddow about how the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act and other Donald Trump Republican agenda items will hurt working class Americans.

Germans React to US President Trump

Kellyanne Conway: Full Interview On New Day

Counselor to President Trump Kellyanne Conway sits down with CNN's Chris Cuomo to discuss the president's wiretapping allegations, executive orders and the GOP's health care plan.