On October 2, The New York Times published its year and a half investigation of how Trump inherited his wealth from his father, and the 13 page story was reprinted in the Sunday print edition on October 7. It details how Fred Trump used numerous tax dodges to pass his wealth to his children while paying very little tax. It also proves that Trump has continuously lied about the fact that he inherited very little money from his father. Fred Trump started giving him millions when he was just a boy and it continued into the late 1990s. The story did not break through as a major scandal in part because it there are no direct legal implications on the president, and it was released the week of the Kavanaugh confirmation debate. However, it is an important historical record, and it will provide leads to other journalists or investigators about where to look for the next story about Trump’s finances.
At a ceremony at the White House Monday, before the other members of the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh sounded conciliatory: “With gratitude and no bitterness,” he would be “a force for stability and unity.” But Trump said “I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain you have been forced to endure… a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception.” He and other Republicans hope to use this issue to continue to motivate GOP voters for the election four weeks away.
Nikki Haley unexpectedly resigned on Tuesday. White House aids were unclear about why she chose to do it now, four weeks before the midterms. She claimed it was fatigue of six years as governor and 2 at the UN, and said she has no plans to run for president in 2020 but will instead be supporting Trump.
A UN report on climate change was released this week. It said that by 2040 the world will warm 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, and the consequences of that are more sever than previously known. Recommendations include steeper taxes on carbon than any nation is currently considering, and to stop burning coal. The Trump Administration ignored the report.
It is believed that a Saudi journalist living in Virginia, Jamal Khashoggi, was lured to his death in Turkey by the Saudi royal family. It is causing a rift between the Trump and Congress over the administration’s uncritical support for Saudi Arabia. Politico reports that the White House is hoping this “will blow over the same way other thorny dilemmas involving Saudi Arabia have in recent years.”
In Russia News:
Peter W. Smith, who was trying to purchase Clinton emails in 2016, and who died 10 days after talking about this to a reporter, is of increasing interest to the Muller team. Smith raised “at least” $100,000 in secret for the project.
The New York Times reports that Rick Gates worked with an Israeli company staffed by former intelligence operatives to create a social media strategy that would: 1) use “authentic looking fake online identities” to sway support against Cruz during the nomination fight; 2) use “clandestine means to build intelligence dossiers” on Clinton; 3) “to help Mr. Trump by using social media to help expose or amplify division among rival campaigns and factions… [such as] minority, suburban female and undecided voters in battleground states.” No work was done beyond the proposal, and this appears to be separate from the Russian influence campaign. It shows how these tools were viewed at least by the Trump campaign, as a natural outgrowth of traditional campaigning.
In Immigration News:
The Trump Administration, and Stephen Miller in particular, are pushing a way to still separate families at the border. They are looking into invalidating the Flores Decree which limits family detention to 20 days. Or applying “binary choice” where they detain a family for 20 days, then make the following offer to the parents: either stay in the shelter with your child for months or years until your court hearing, or give up your child to be placed with relatives or foster parents living in the US. August saw a large increase in families arriving at the border.
Here is Dara Lind on binary choice: “And it’s not clear where it would put the families who make either choice. Because the Trump administration doesn’t yet have the capacity to detain thousands of families for months or years, it’s not clear what it would do if most families chose detention. Meanwhile, HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement is currently looking after record numbers of unaccompanied children, partly due to the fact that some relatives eligible to sponsor their children are (justifiably) afraid they’ll risk deportation if they step forward. So if most parents chose separation, that agency would be overwhelmed.”
There is a growing danger that some of the children separated from their parents will be given up for adoption to their U.S. foster parents, according to this AP investigation.
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Trump’s Job Approval: 41.8%