(Article by Andrew Follett from Dailycaller.com)

An anonymous EPA communications career employee told Pro-Publica that “more than a few friends were ‘coming to work in tears’ each morning as they grappled with balancing the practical need to keep their jobs with their concerns for the issues they work on.”

The Trump administration allegedly instructed the EPA to freeze all grants for projects, research on global warming, air quality monitoring and education, and instructed employees not to discuss the spending freeze outside the agency, according to reports earlier this week.

Trump also allegedly ordered the EPA to take down its global warming webpage, however, it is currently still up as of Thursday. The page contains some links to EPA’s data on carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as other greenhouse gas emissions and lists the effects the agency says global warming will have. The site doesn’t host much of the data, however, and only aggregates links to it.

The Trump White House global warming webpage was taken down seconds after President Donald Trump formally took office. The link for Obama’s old global warming webpage currently redirects to a Trump transition webpage.

Trump pledged during his campaign to get rid of the agency “in almost every form,” leaving only “little tidbits left.”

Trump nominated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has battled the EPA numerous times in court, to head the agency. A leaked memo from Trump’s transition team indicates that the administration plans $513 million in cuts to the “states and tribal assistance grants,” $193 million from eliminating agency global warming programs and another $109 million in savings through cutting “environment programs and management.”

Read more at: Dailycaller.com

(Article by Aaron Klein from Breitbart.com)

The executive order further suspended the entry of all refugees for 120 days, indefinitely blocks Syrian refugees from entering and lowers the ceiling to 50,000 for refugees allowed to enter the U.S. during Fiscal Year 2017 .

The New York Times first reported on the lawsuit:

At least one case quickly prompted a legal challenge as lawyers representing two Iraqi refugees held at Kennedy International Airport in New York filed a motion early Saturday seeking to have their clients released. They also filed a motion for class certification, in an effort to represent all refugees and other immigrants who they said were being unlawfully detained at ports of entry.

The suit was filed by lawyers from the International Refugee Assistance Project, the National Immigration Law Center, the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the International Refugee Assistance Project (formerly Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project) at the Urban Justice Center.

The ACLU is massively funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundations, including with a $50 million grant in 2014.

The National Immigration Law Center has received numerous Open Society grants earmarked for general support.

The Urban Justice Center is also the recipient of an Open Society grant.

Over the last decade, Soros has reportedly provided some $76 million for immigrant issues.

In 2014, the New York Times credited “immigrant rights groups” financed by Soros and a handful of other donors for influencing President Obama’s immigration policy.

The newspaper reported:

In August, Breitbart Jerusalem first reported hacked documents from Soros’s Open Society Institute boasted that the billionaire and his foundation helped to successfully press the Obama administration into increasing to 100,000 the total number of refugees taken in by the U.S. annually.

The documents revealed that the billionaire personally sent President Obama a letter on the issue of accepting refugees.

Read more at: Breitbart.com

Stay informed about the deceptive, subversive actions of George Soros at Soros.news.

(Article by AP from breitbart.com )

Acting Attorney General Sally Yates earlier Monday ordered Justice Department lawyers to stop defending the executive order, which temporarily suspends the U.S. refugee program and bars all immigration for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries for 90 days. By Monday night, she was out.

“The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States,” the White House press secretary’s office said in a statement.

Trump named Dana Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, to serve in Yates’ place until Sen. Jeff Sessions, his permanent pick for the position, is confirmed by the Senate.

The Yates decision came as Trump pressed into his second week in office defending his sweeping immigration ban. Protests persisted at major airports, and concern mounted from U.S. diplomats and members of his own party.

Trump denied that his order was to blame for weekend chaos at the nation’s airports, instead pointing to computer glitches, demonstrations and even the “fake tears” of Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

The president publicly shifted his focus, signing an executive action aimed at cutting regulations for small businesses and teasing his plans to unveil his Supreme Court pick Tuesday night.

But the immigration ban remained at the forefront of his first fortnight in the White House — and officials were pondering more actions moving forward.

According to a draft document obtained by The Associated Press, Trump is considering an executive order that would target some immigrants for deportation if they become dependent on government assistance.

The draft order calls for the identification and removal “as expeditiously as possible” of any foreigner who takes certain kinds of public welfare benefits. Such immigrants have been barred from the U.S. for the better part of a century and they can already be deported. The proposed order appears to signal a Trump administration effort to crack down on such welfare cases.

Another draft order under consideration would make changes to several of the government’s foreign worker visa programs. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the draft orders.

Trump immigration order prompted predecessor Barack Obama to wade into politics for the first time since leaving office.

A spokesman for the former president said Monday that Obama “fundamentally disagrees” with discrimination that targets people based on their religion. Obama spokesman Kevin Lewis alluded to but did not specifically mention Trump’s order but added that Obama was “heartened” by the civil engagement being seen across the country.

Obama has said he will give Trump room to govern but will speak out if his successor violates basic U.S. values.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump’s order was “about the safety of America,” while the new president played down its impact, saying on Twitter that just 109 people were detained and held for questioning. White House officials have said that was during the first 24 hours after the ban.

But nearly 400 legal permanent residents were delayed upon their arrival back in the United States between the time the travel ban was signed and Sunday evening, according to a federal law enforcement official. All of those people were ultimately allowed back into the country.

The official said one other green card holder is now facing deportation after an extra background check done after the executive order was signed revealed a criminal conviction. Details of that person’s case were not immediately available.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly disclose details of the travel ban’s implementation.

Trump’s order, which also halts all refugee admissions for 120 days, does not address homegrown extremists already in America. And the list of countries it applies to — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — doesn’t include Saudi Arabia, where most of the Sept. 11 hijackers were from.

Growing numbers of Republican lawmakers expressed concerns about Trump’s action. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina said in a joint statement that “the manner in which these measures were crafted and implemented have greatly contributed to the confusion, anxiety and uncertainty of the last few days.”

Washington state’s attorney general said he would sue Trump, making Washington the first state to announce a legal action against the administration. Democrat Bob Ferguson was one of 16 state attorneys general who released a statement Sunday calling Trump’s action “un-American and unlawful.”

A number of U.S. diplomats also prepared a memo criticizing the order. In a “dissent cable” being drafted for State Department leadership, the diplomats said the ban runs counter to American values and will fuel anti-American sentiment around the world.

The cable originated in the State Department’s Consular Affairs bureau, which handles visas.

Unfazed, Spicer retorted that if “career bureaucrats” have a problem with the order, “they should either get with the program or they can go.”

The president also mocked Schumer, the New York Democrat who grew emotional as he called the ban “un-American.” Said Trump: “I’m going to ask him who was his acting coach.”

Trump blamed an airline glitch for much of the disorder at the nation’s international airports that dominated the weekend’s news. Though a Delta systems outage Sunday night led to departure delays and cancellations of at least 150 flights, the chaos started the day before as protesters packed some of the country’s major airports.

Read more at: breitbart.com

Approximately thirteen percent of the world’s Muslims, or 199.4 million out of up to 1.6 billion, live in those seven countries, according to a 2015 Pew Research Report, “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.”

(Article by Michael Patrick Leahy, republished from BreitBart.com)

So Trump’s reform policy only impacts one of every eight Muslims worldwide.

The Muslim population in each of these seven countries, estimated by Pew Research as of 2010, is: Iran (74 million), Sudan (33.6 million), Iraq (31.7 million), Yemen (24 million), Syria (20.4 million), Somalia (9.3 million), and Libya (6.4 million).

The 90-day temporary block on new visas does not apply to citizens of the six countries with the largest Muslim populations, as determined by Pew Research— Indonesia (209 million), India (176 million), Pakistan (167 million), Bangladesh (134 million), Nigeria (77 million), and Egypt (76 million).

It does apply citizens of Iran, the country with the seventh largest Muslim population (74 million).

But it does not apply to citizens of the other top ten Muslim population countries: Turkey (71 million), Algeria (35 million), and Morocco (32 million).

None of the seven countries on which a temporary visa ban has been placed were listed by name in Friday’s, executive order, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States.”

Instead, the order referenced previous laws and findings that designated three of these countries “state sponsors of terrorism” (Iran, Sudan, and Syria) and four of them (Iraq, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen) as “countries of concern” who are ineligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program, according to the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Improvement Act of 2015.

The 2015 bill was made law once it was signed by President Barack Obama.

Six of the seven countries to which the temporary visa issuance block applies were designated as “state sponsors of terrorism” or “countries of concern” by previous Democrat administrations. Only one — Iran in 1984 — was designated by a Republican administration.

Syria was first designated as a state sponsor of terrorism during the Jimmy Carter administration on December 29, 1979.

Iran was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism during the Ronald Reagan administration on January 19, 1984.

Sudan was designated as a state sponsor of terrorism during the Bill Clinton administration on August 12, 1993.

Syria and Iraq were labeled “countries of concern”  ineligible to participate in the Visa Waiver Program in the original Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Improvement Act of 2015 signed into law by President Obama in December 2015.

On Feb. 18, 2016, the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security added Libya, Somalia, and Yemen to that list:

The Department of Homeland Security today announced that it is continuing its implementation of the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015 with the addition of Libya, Somalia, and Yemen as three countries of concern, limiting Visa Waiver Program travel for certain individuals who have traveled to these countries.

Pursuant to the Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security had sixty days to determine whether additional countries or areas of concern should be subject to the travel or dual nationality restrictions under the Act. After careful consideration, and in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security has determined that Libya, Somalia, and Yemen be included as countries of concern, specifically for individuals who have traveled to these countries since March 1, 2011. At this time, the restriction on Visa Waiver Program travel will not apply to dual nationals of these three countries. DHS continues to consult with the Department of State and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to develop further criteria to determine whether other countries would be added to this list.

The executive order also temporarily banned refugees from all countries for 120 days.

Read more at: BreitBart.com

See more coverage of total news hoaxes from the left-wing media at HOAX.news.

And now, dozens of Republican lawmakers in the House want President Donald J. Trump to do what the Congress itself could not: Fire him.

As reported exclusively by the Washington Examiner, 50 members of the House Republican Study Committee, a group of the most conservative members of Congress, want the new president to terminate Koskinen’s employment at the IRS – and as soon as possible.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., is expected to make the request as chairman of the RSC, after quietly, but urgently, circulating a letter inside the GOP conference to garner support.

Though Trump has already nominated most of his Cabinet, he has remained silent thus far on the fate of the IRS and its embattled chief. But conservatives are gunning hard for Koskinen after the way he allowed his agency to be hyper-politicized by the previous administration. (RELATED: Find out just how the bureaucracy is targeting average Americans today at BigGovernment.news)

“You have the authority to remove Commissioner Koskinen,” Walker says in his letter to the president, adding that “we encourage you to dismiss him in the most expedient manner practicable.”

In October 2015, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, drew up articles of impeachment against Koskinen. Since that time, conservatives have said that the IRS chief is guilty of interfering with a congressional investigation and aiding/abetting the continued targeting of conservative non-profit organizations.

In his letter, Walker reintroduces the same issue to the 115^th Congress. He also heavily criticizes the IRS for “improperly targeting conservative groups,” and for failing to “demonstrate that officials have definitively ceased targeting conservative groups.” He is attempting to build on last year’s failed impeachment attempt that was launched by the House Freedom Caucus, the Washington Examiner reported.

“The consideration of the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in the House in late 2016 was a clear indication that Congress and the American people have no confidence in Commissioner Koskinen or his ability to discharge his duties,” Walker wrote.

But that was then; when the nation was hyper-focused on the presidential race, the House Freedom Caucus attempted to force House Speaker Paul Ryan to pursue impeachment, but as he struggled to keep the Republican majority together, he pleaded with conservatives to wait until after the election to focus on personnel changes at IRS.

Unwilling to wait, on Dec. 5, Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, introduced a privileged resolution on the House floor in an attempt to force an impeachment vote. It failed due to a lack of leadership support. (RELATED: Keep up with the latest on the Trump administration at WhiteHouse.news)

AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said the opposition to the effort had more to do with a scheduling conflict. “It would have triggered automatic consideration lasting into next year, filling up weeks of floor time and crippling our ability to hit the ground running on Trump administration confirmations and Obamacare repeal,” she said in a statement at the time.

But now, after a month of 2017, Republicans still have not voted on a measure to repeal Obamacare, and Koskinen still has his job. So Walker’s letter is the first to try to change that; if he’s not successful, Koskinen could stay on at the IRS until November 12, 2017.

For Chaffetz, the impeachment case was practically open-and-shut.

“When Congress asks you a question, you’re expected to give a truthful answer,” he said during opening remarks in making the case for Koskinen’s impeachment. “When Congress issues a subpoena, compliance is not optional. Imagine if a taxpayer failed to comply with an IRS summons or subpoena, what would they do to you?”

See his opening remarks below:

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for Natural News and News Target, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

WashingtonExaminer.com

YouTube.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

During a recent interview discussing unfair treatment from the media, Conway spoke about the threats against she and her family. During live inauguration coverage, Martin Luther King Jr’s bust was falsely reported to have been removed from the White House. Conway criticized the inaccurate press pool report as an attempt to portray Donald Trump as a racist, and suggests the motives behind the false reporting could even be more atrocious. Conway didn’t name the reporter behind the fake news; as a way of protecting him from the same type of harassment she receives regularly.

“I don’t say his name publicly because I don’t want him to get attacked like I do. Because of what the press is doing now to me, I have secret service protection,” said Conway. “We have packages delivered to my house with white substances. That is a shame and yes I hold him to account for it.” Conway also explained that the press’ presumptive negativity causes damage, even when false reports are later corrected. Conway demanded the reporter apologize to Trump. “The darn bust was right there, I was next to it. It was being hidden by a guard. But why didn’t you ask us? Why didn’t you say, ‘Where’s the bust?”

Time reporter Zeke Miller is the person that Kellyanne Conway was referring to in her recent interview. Miller promptly corrected his report and apologized for the error. Miller put the false information out to the world which was tweeted and reported 3,000 times. The damage created by Miller’s reporting helps fuel the mainstream media’s agenda of prompting massive fallout for the President, who they love to inaccurately portray as racist. Miller has yet to apologize to Trump, although he did apologize to his press colleagues.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer accepted Miller’s apology via Twitter, but went on to highlight the incident during Mondays press conference. Spicer was equally frustrated with the media’s false reports. He sent out a tweet of his own reminding the media of the dangers associated with posting on Twitter prior to checking their facts.

On Tuesday afternoon, a Secret Service spokeswoman confirmed that Conway is under their protection. Conway cited the media’s Trump coverage as the reason behind the threats, she’s also the President’s most recognizable aide. Conway didn’t say whether other members of the Trump administration also received threatening mail. (RELATED: Find more Trump news at Trump.news)

Conway said there’s a good relationship between all top Trump advisers. Herself, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Reince Priebus are all working together as a cohesive unit.  “The senior team exhibits many of the characteristics President Trump has always valued: cohesion, collaboration, high energy, and high impact,” said Conway, who will focus on issues including health care and our veterans. Conway is expected to spend less time on television.

Conway also recently discussed Democrats “slow-walking” Trump’s cabinet picks. “We would prefer some of the Dems stop playing politics with our Cabinet nominees. We need a fully functioning government” Conway continues, “We have not been given the same deference that President Obama and even President George W. Bush had at this point in their early presidencies. President Obama had 7 on day one, that would have been last Friday. We had two. Now we have three” said Conway.

Sources:

NyPost.com

Politico.com

TheHill.com

Fortune.com

WesternJournalism.com

But it’s not a constitutional requirement, just a rule. And honestly, it was a rule adopted in a more politically civil time, when members of both major parties were far more willing to “reach across the aisle” for the common good, and to support the current president.

Bypassing or temporarily negating the rule is known as the “nuclear option,” and the last time it was done was just a few years ago when Democrats held the Senate majority and wanted to advance President Obama’s federal court nominees past Republican opposition. It was proof that the Democratic leadership in the Senate would go to any lengths to ensure Obama got his way.

Now, the Republican leaders in the Senate need to do the same thing to ensure that President Donald J. Trump’s nominees get past Democratic opposition; in this age of hyper political partisanship, there is no “reasoning” with the other side.

And in fact, as the Washington Examiner pointed out, Trump backs the nuclear option as a means of getting his nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court approved.

“Yes, I would,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity when asked if he would want Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to use the nuclear option. “We have obstructionists, these are people that don’t want, I think, what they did to [attorney general nominee] Jeff Sessions, who’s a great man and a wonderful man, and then they delayed it another week because they have a one week delay option. That’s not fair to a man.” (RELATED: See what the Trump administration is focusing on today at WhiteHouse.news)

While Trump would not disclose to Hannity his pick to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was a constitutional originalist, he did say that he has nearly finalized his choice.

“I have made my decision pretty much in my mind, yes,” Trump said. “That’s subject to change at the last moment, but I think this will be a great choice.”

But for some reason, McConnell doesn’t agree, and has said that he isn’t ready to use the nuclear option.

In a separate report, the Washington Examiner quoted McConnell as saying he has no plans at the moment of invoking the nuclear option, even though most observers see Democrats obstructing any and all of Trump’s potential Supreme Court picks, which should come from a list of conservative federal and state judges the new president released last summer, as a way of winning conservatives to his campaign.

In an interview with The Hill, McConnell said that Senate rules had already been established earlier in the year, and would not be changing. “Senate rules are a matter for the Senate and a lot of other people have opinions,” he said.

“We’ve already adopted the rules for this Congress at the beginning of the year,” he added. “Basically we didn’t adopt any because in the Senate rules are permanent, unlike the House which every two years adopts a new set of rules. We don’t.”

Of course, rules and procedures that are not constitutionally required are subject to change. And despite the filibuster’s long history, Reid had no problem invoking the nuclear option with his Democratic majority, as the Washington Post reported:

“Democrats used a rare parliamentary move to change the rules so that federal judicial nominees and executive-office appointments can advance to confirmation votes by a simple majority of senators, rather than the 60-vote supermajority that has been the standard for nearly four decades.”

At the time, Reid said the chamber “must evolve” beyond parliamentary roadblocks – politicalease for, “I am doing this so that my president can get his way.” (RELATED: Find out who is attacking your liberty today at Freedom.news)

Obama, of course, praised the move, and it further proved that when it comes to Democrats wanting to get their way, the ends justify the means.

The former president was right about one thing, though, when he complained to the media that Republicans used the filibuster as a “reckless and relentless tool” to block his nominees. He also talked about a “pattern of obstruction,” meaning, partisanship was getting in the way.

So be it. McConnell should do what the president and millions of Americans want, and use the Democrats’ own tactics against them.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for Natural News and News Target, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

WashingtonPost.com

WashingtonExaminer.com

Senate.gov

Being a successful businessman and not a politician his entire life, Trump looks at problems and problem-solving differently. He is pointed and blunt and honest when he speaks. He shuns political correctness and filters. He isn’t afraid of fallout for holding a different view. He’s used to getting results.

None of these qualities are much in evidence in Washington, either in the political or media establishments. Just the opposite, in fact. And that’s why the political class and media elite believed that they could use Trump’s blunt, outspoken, anti-PC direct style to take him out. It was a strategy that had worked with every previous seeker of the highest office in the land in modern history.

But it didn’t work with Trump. No matter what he said, what he did or what he proposed, the political/media order couldn’t put a dent in his campaign armor. What’s more, they couldn’t figure out why. (RELATED: What is the media lying about today in regards to the Trump administration? Read all about it at MediaFactWatch.com)

And they still can’t, judging by a headline on Friday in The Hill: “Surprise! Trump doing what he said he would.”

The tone of the article makes it clear that the establishment is stumped as to why Trump hasn’t allowed the office that he holds to temper and change him – code for: “Why hasn’t this guy started thinking and acting like we do yet?”

“In his first frantic week at the White House, Donald Trump is doing almost exactly what he promised to do during his campaign, stunning those who thought he’d adapt his style as president,” the article begins, somehow forgetting to put the title “president” before his name.

The article goes on to list some of the president’s initial actions: The order to build the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border; doubling down on promises to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement; temporarily suspending visas for people attempting to enter the U.S. from several regions, largely in the Middle East, that have become hotbeds for terrorism.

And, of course, The Hill mentions his tweeting, which hasn’t stopped (and isn’t going to), and his claim (“without any evidence”) that “massive voter fraud cost him a popular vote victory to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.”

They still don’t seem to understand that style is substance for this president, and that not only do appearances matter, but false appearances and narratives must be refuted and the record corrected. That is what seems to have stupefied the establishment the most, but it’s obvious that Trump’s style resonated with a majority of Americans outside the state of California.

That, and Trump’s unbreakable connection and bond to an America outside the beltway that the political and media elite do not understand and, what’s more, don’t want to get to know. That’s the genesis of Clinton’s now-famous “deplorables” remark and then-candidate Barack Obama’s “bitter clinger” observation during his first campaign.

What’s more, the establishment doesn’t seem to understand why Trump remains the way he is. One of the first questions he was asked by ABC News’ World News Tonight anchor, David Muir, last week in his first major network interview, was whether or not the election had “changed” him.

“I don’t want to change too much,” Trump responded. “I’ve had a wonderful life, wonderful success … I want to make this [presidency] a great success for the American people.” (RELATED: Keep up with President Trump as he restores our constitutional republic at Liberty.news)

But does he really mean that? seems to be the question Washington’s political and media elite keep asking him, when it ought to be patently clear by now that Trump is Trump is Trump, that he isn’t about to change who or what he is to placate anyone or to fit some stereotype of what past presidents have been and how they have governed. In fact, that’s how Trump won in the first place, by pledging not to be those presidents and govern like them.

It may well be that the political and media establishment in Washington never understands (or completely accepts) Trump. But if he continues to deliver on the promises he made during his campaign (and, hopefully, the next), he will have moved America far down the road to greatness once again.

Just like he said he would.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for Natural News and News Target, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

TheHill.com

ABCNews.com

You almost don’t even have to keep track of exactly what he’s doing. Just listen for all the screaming (or heads exploding) on the Left, and you’ll know Trump is doing a great job for America.

That’s because the radical left is not just mentally ill, they’re all haters of America, haters of liberty and haters of truth in news. That’s why they push so much fake news while constantly attacking President Trump with malicious smears and “fabricated facts.”

Watch my commentary below to learn why the Left is going so insane over every single accomplishment of President Trump — the first president in a long time to actually attempt to do something positive for our country.

No teleprompters. No makeup. No special wardrobe. Just independent commentary that isn’t scripted… imagine… REAL news!

Well, we didn’t have to wait long.

On Saturday, Trump’s first full day in office, Time correspondent Zeke Miller tweeted out that the new president had removed the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., that President Obama brought into the Oval Office when he took over from President George W. Bush. Earlier, The Associated Press had reported that a bust of World War II British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had been returned to the Oval Office.

Miller’s tweet would seem to imply, then, that Trump had the MLK bust removed and Churchill’s bust reinstated (Because Trump’s a racist! See? We all knew it anyway; this just proves it!). (RELATED: See what else the media has lied about recently at MediaFactWatch.com)

Needless to say, this attempt at “gotcha” angered the president, who made a comment about the fake news report during a visit to the CIA later: “I would never do that, because I have great respect for Dr. Martin Luther King.”

As for the overall issue of busts in the Oval Office, this isn’t the first time it’s come up – and not the first time that reports have been wrong. For example, when Obama first took office, critics complained that he sent the bust of Churchill back to the British embassy, insinuating that it was an affront to the United States’ closest ally. In 2011, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a presidential contender for the GOP nomination in 2012 and again in 2016, suggested that Obama removed the bust because “he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.” It was a false claim that Obama grew up in Kenya, where his father was born and raised; Obama visited Kenya for the first time in his 20s.

In reality, the White House has had two busts of Churchill, and both of them were created by British sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein.

Then came the ugly, and incorrect, denial from the Obama White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer; he attempted to settle a charge by columnist Charles Krauthammer that the administration snubbed an ally by giving back a bust of one of Britain’s greatest 20^th century leaders.

“This is 100% false. The bust (is) still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room,” Pfeiffer wrote in a blog post. Only, that wasn’t the bust to which Krauthammer had referred. Shortly thereafter, in another blog post, Pfeiffer apologized to Krauthammer and explained.

You see, the bust that Pfeiffer was talking about has been in the White House since the 1960s – a gift from Britain to President Lyndon B. Johnson. The other one – the one that was actually in the Oval Office during Bush’s administration – was lent to his White House by Prime Minister Tony Blair at the outset of Bush’s presidency. What the Obama administration was doing in returning the bust to the British was proper etiquette and expected.

“On January 20, 2009 — Inauguration Day — all of the art lent specifically for President Bush’s Oval Office was removed by the curator’s office, as is common practice at the end of every presidency,” the updated Pfeiffer blog noted. “The original Churchill bust remained on display in the residence.” (RELATED: What has the media lied about today? Find out the latest at NewsFakes.com)

In 2012, the British Embassy in Washington informed Mediaite that what it possessed was the bust that was lent to Bush: “When that administration came to an end so did the loan; the bust now resides in the British Ambassador’s Residence in Washington, DC.”

In December 2015, Sir Peter Westmacott, who was ending his stint as the British ambassador to the U.S., told The Guardian that the Churchill bust in the Oval Office was only there on loan to the Bush administration.

“So, to be honest, we always expected that to leave the Oval office just like everything else that a president has tends to be changed,” he said.

Much earlier, in a January 2010 report by CBS News, White House Curator William Allman said the decision to turn the bust back over to the British was made before Obama ever came into the White House.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for Natural News and News Target, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources:

ABCNewsGo.com

WashingtonPost.com

ObamaWhiteHouse.Archives.gov